Maelstrom

My dreams last night were an unrelenting swirl of making accommodation bookings, planning movements and undertaking logistics. The impact of limbo rumbles on, in dream form.

After I woke up I was on my phone and autocorrect amended ‘would’, which I’d typed with one letter incorrect, for the commonly used word ‘epiglottis’.

After this maelstrom of a start, I knew the day was going to be a wild ride. It turned out to be a fairly successful one on the work front, peppered with non-sensical responses to simple issues I raised with our IT team.

During the day we made progress on a proposal that will help push forward on our marine conservation work in Mozambique, and there were useful discussions about biodiversity monitoring and potential revenues down the line from carbon finance. The greatest success of the day came towards the end when the law firm with whom I’m working in Maputo informed me we have received a temporary 3-month NGO licence. This doesn’t help me massively with my ongoing work permit wranglings, but is still a significant milestone.

Lunchtime was a spicy sausage roll and coffee on the beach. The café on the prom had set out outdoor tables, which was an interesting choice on a wet December afternoon, but I went with it.

In the evening we maintained our fish and chips habit. The jury is still out for Michelle due to doubts over the crispness of the chips, but I believe we’ve found Seaton’s finest fish and chip establishment. The woman who takes orders is an absolute joy and uses exclamations such as ‘sugar lumps’ when interacting with customers. The weather was pretty appalling this evening but we frequented her shop and then walked with our food to the harbour at the eastern end of Seaton. It became a race to devour from our chip boxes before they filled with rain. However wet we were, the walk was certainly invigorating. Calling at the shop on the way back, I was so drenched that a shelf stacker stopped and stared.