Trout pout

Maputo tower block scene. It’s been a while since one has graced the pages of my blip. This was as my colleague James and I loitered on the walkway of an old tenement, looking for the office of ‘a Sociedade de Mel’ (the Honey Society). We are close to getting some investment funding for the honey idea in Niassa and need to ask questions about exportation and organic certification. A lady called Sara was helpful. She didn’t speak a word of English and James is based in the UK and doesn’t speak Portuguese. Therefore I had to do some impromptu translation and discussion of the ‘phytosanitary conditions for honey production’ in Portuguese, which was fairly challenging.

In the evening I had a piece of the octopus that James ordered at dinner and my lips began to throb and feel like they were doing a Leslie Ash. Is this a standard reaction to octopus that fellow blippers have experienced?

I’ve subsequently researched and established that shellfish includes two main groups: crustaceans (crabs etc.) and molluscs (squid, limpets, clams and the guilty party, octopus). I hadn’t realised shellfish encompasses the slimier of seafood. Whaddyaknow.