Quiet few days

It's been a quiet few days really. I have spent my days lazing around and cleaning. On Monday I really went for it and scrubbed the cooker, swept the floor etc. These last couple of days has been more bits and bobs. I don't want to do everything otherwise I'll have nothing to do. I have considered walking to the supermarket but it's about a mile away in scorching 30 degree heat. Not to mention i'd have to walk along the road which has no pavements and dodgy Brunian driving. I'm sure I'd survive but I'd rather not take the risk.

Monday was the night of a thousand fries. We went to get dinner and it turned into a comedy sketch. I ordered a pizza but really wanted a chocolate milkshake so was looking around to see if anywhere sold them. It was then I discovered the KFC. We waited for my pizza which came after about what felt like an hour. To cut a long story short, the cheesy wedges from KFC had mayo on them so Vicki ordered some normal fries but had to wait forever for them. I went to Jollibee, which is a fast food chain in Brunei, to get a milkshake. Vickis fries took so long I ended up walking back down to KFC. My milkshake was well, different. With every mouthful I'd get a squidgy blob which I can only describe as looking like those bath pearls but it felt like chewing on frogspawn or something. I mentioned to Vicki that Jollibee had cheesy chips so guess what? Yes, we stood for another eternity waiting for yet more chips which incidentally were bright orange and smelt like old socks. Eventually we got home at which point I discovered my pizza wasn't a small chilli and pepperoni but in fact a large margarita.

It doesn't sound entertaining but it was a comedy of errors.

Tuesday was uneventful. My arm decided to swell up and go hot and red where I get bitten. It was that bad I took an antihistamine. It's calmed down a lot now but if I lean on it it feels like a bruise. To be honest one bite from an hour in the jungle after forgetting to put bug spray on is not bad going.

Wednesday was amusing. Basically myself, Vicki and one of her friends went to a fabric shop. They suggested trying another fabric shop but couldn't explain where it was. So what do you do? Yep that's right, drive in the general direction with an intermittent mobile phone gps tracker without having a clue where you're going. It was quite funny. I certainly had no idea but it's a bit concerning when the two people you're with haven't got a clue and they live there. By some random miracle we actually found the place and what must be the most advanced technology in Brunei, a drive through cash machine. I felt a little uncomfortable in the area we were. I don't know if it was because we'd never been there before or because it felt like a local place for local people. Anyway we found the fabric shop and everyone was happy. Apparently £1.75 per metre for material is good?

Afterwards we went back to the other fabric shop. Well I stayed in the car and tried to learn a bit of Malay. I've learnt a few sentences but I'm too shy to use them. Silly really. When they'd finished we went to have sushi. I was slightly apprehensive after the last time I was here because I was quite poorly following my first visit. I was ok this time. I did my usual trick of ordering far too much so it's in the fridge awaiting my afternoon graze. I don't think any of this was meant to happen but by random coincidence it did and I'm glad because it was highly amusing.

We literally got home and had to go out again because we had been invited to someone's house. It was nice seeing the familiar faces from my last visit. I said to Vicki on our way over that I feel more comfortable this time because I kind of know people. I'm not meeting a whole bunch of people for the first time, which was a little overwhelming if I'm honest. I have met a couple of new people but I can cope with that. We didn't stay long but it was still enjoyable sitting round chatting. Although it got to about 10pm and I hit my tiredness wall. I've become such a lightweight but at least I'm sleeping without the aid of benzo's now. God knows what it'll be like when I get home but that's weeks away so I don't even want to think about it.

There was a fantastic storm last night as well. I'd forgotten how impressive the lightning is. Sheet lightning that turns night into day and the most amazing fork lightning that stretches across the sky. Oh yea, I saw my first gecko of this visit on the balcony and named it Tarquin. I've said it a million times and I'll say it again, I'd rather have geckos in my house than bloody spiders!