Day 7 - Saturday December 15, 2001 - 4:02am

I’m regaining my sensuality

Same Day - 2:00pm

Good news, bad news. The rain has disappeared almost completely - apparently so has my car back home!

Spent most of the day writing and catching up and then decided to send e-mails to everyone. Well, everyone important, anyway. It was during my lengthy stint on the PC that I received a cryptic e-mail from a neighbour.

Strange thing is, he didn’t really ever come right out and say that my car had been vandalized, just that a car had been vandalized and I could find it at some motorcycle shop when I returned. He was very sheepish about the details saying only that a friend of his had ‘noticed’ that it had been vandalized and so between them they decided it would be best kept at this motorcycle shop in town until I get home. Anyway, the police apprehended the driver/friend, arrested him at gun-point (!) and impounded the car (!!).

My neighbour’s e-mail alluded to the fact that his so-called ‘friend’ was treated shabbily by the authorities when all he was trying to do was help the situation. Questions abound with no easy or immediate answers.

I called home to see if my neighbour had left messages for me - he hadn’t. However, there was a call from the police letting me know that indeed my car had been stolen and it would remain in police custody pending my return.

I’m on holiday - I’m on holiday - I’m on holiday… I’m sure there’ll be a chapter two to this story, but right now I’m on holiday. C’est la vie!

Same Day - 3:15pm

Run into John on my way to the “250” bar (which miraculously became the “300” bar overnight - increased government taxes apparently) and start drinking Fiji Beers - the first of many.

In due course his girlfriend Helen, a young couple from Manchester, Michael and Lindsay, and Tony and Janice, join us. We keep drinking and carrying on until about 8pm when we retire to the restaurant for some well-deserved non-liquid nourishment.

That doesn’t last long though and we are soon deep into our cups for the second time in the day.

It is here that I make a decision (during a moment of pristine drunken brilliance): I shall return to Musket Cove after my week’s stay at Castaway Island Resort.

I know that may sound crazy after my ‘treatise’ on how bad the food is, but the simple fact is that after my quick tour of Castaway yesterday, I find that I like Musket for it’s tranquility and close proximity to the fabulous, if not miscast food of Plantation Island Resort. So, in some strange confused way it really does make sense. Besides, it’s very much like my experiences in Mexico: you party in Ixtapa, but you stay in Zihuatanejo. only a short cab ride away. Best of both worlds, I believe they call it. The other small concern is the fact that if I wait too long to make up my mind about Christmas week all the good accommodation will be gone.

I’ll check into the viability of my decision tomorrow.

In the end, I trotted home in a stupor to be welcomed by a spinning bure - not a pretty site, let me tell you! Morning would be here soon and I’d made some arrangements with my new mates.

You can’t go to church with a hangover, so sleep it off I must.