La souris est morte, vive la souris

Many hours were spent last week cleaning mouse corps off the bottom of the kitchen drawer underneath which it had started to putrefy. And once the bleach had settled and the kitchen was spotless I foolishly thought it was over ...it wasn’t.

Now angry, bitter and vengeful teeth are once again chewing their way through in an attempt to find the trail of the ancestors. Lisette says the man can’t come this week because it’s Mothers’ Day (All week??) but that he’ll be back soon to brick up the gap. But honestly, if they can get through glass and steel I can’t see how brick will stop these mighty beasts. I think the man needs to build me a fallout shelter and then put the house inside it. And then we might be safe.

Nelta invited us to a karaoke evening last night which was good fun. Everyone had to take a number out of an envelope when they arrived, and these numbers were then pulled out of a hat so no one could get out of singing. The theme for the evening, printed on the t-shirts of the hosts was ‘O.P.P.C’ (‘On ne peut pas critiquer’ – i.e. ‘We’re all rubbish so let’s not make fun of each other.’) And I was glad to find out that the standard of karaoke in Martinique is almost identical to that of the UK. The only difference really is that people don’t drink so much here so the words are more comprehensible, even when they’re not in English. I was quite nervous before I had to go up but I got some cheers and whistles after my ‘Killing me Softly’. However I was totally upstaged by J’s impressive rendition of ‘I’m a Barbie Girl’ which went down a storm, especially the parts where he inserted his favourite (and only) creole phrase, ‘Ba mwe sa’ (‘Give me that’), eg. ‘Come on Barbie, ba mwe sa, oh oh oh oh...’

J’s taking advantage of the hot weather here and has turned the kitchen into a brewery for ginger beer and mead. I only hope they taste better than last year’s attempt which had a lovely lemony yeast vomit flavour – he forgot the sugar. Other recent projects include a solar powered oven (the first attempt didn’t work but we’re still trying) and living off the land. It must be the fruity season now because there’s a mango tree on Dead Cat Alley shedding fruit left right and centre, the prunes de Cythère have gone yellow and are starting to drop off, and we were introduced (thanks Nick) to a delicious plum-like fruit the other day too. I don’t know what it was called but the ripest, brightest red ones tasted a little bit like bubble gum, and the slightly less ripe ones had an interesting tartness which was most refreshing.

We also bought a telescopic fishing rod and have been out a couple of times trying to catch dinner. So far J has caught an enormous (at least 2 inches long) shiny anonymous fish and I have caught some seaweed. Not bad for beginners but I think we need a bit more practice.

Oh yes... our flights are booked. We're coming back via Saint Lucia. Leaving here on June 30th by boat, staying there for ten days and then flying directly to the UK arriving July 11th. Can't wait!

Not a lot to report

It’s a bank holiday (again!). I had some plaits in which I took out the other day and found I had lovely straight red lines of sunburn on my scalp which is now peeling like snake skin. I brushed my hair this morning and it was like a scene from The Singing Detective.

I’m feeling a bit poor after having just shelled out 100 euros for two new tyres and about 130 for visits to the doctor and medicine. She reckons I’ve got some kind of parasite, probably from drinking the tap water. Yay. I am officially riddled with worms as well as peeling like a freak. I had a nice time on the beach today though. I kept my head covered at all times.

There’s not much to tell this week. Not a lot going on. I’ve been watching Jerry Springer – life's a bit dull at the moment. That mouse is still trying to get in though. He obviously thinks my house is a place of huge excitement. He’s going to be disappointed unless of course he likes watching crazy American chat shows.

We drove down to Anses D'Arlet last night hoping to go to a restaurant which has a massive beach barbecue and live music. But by the time we arrived (about 8.30pm) they'd run out of food. Also the music sounded a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest on maximum volume so we just went to Trois Islets for steak frites instead. It was a long way to go just for dinner but we managed to talk Rosy and Georgie into joining us so all was not lost and a pleasant evening was had.

Not much else has happened... Oh but I did go to Mangofil with a few other assistants the other day. It's an exciting high wire adventure playground with arial slides and great heights - and support harnesses and safety clips of course. It was a good day out. I'm hoping to go back again once my bank balance has retrouven its equilibrium (and once I've decided which language I'm trying to speak - I'm seeing downhill motion in both at the moment. I hope this problem règles itself bientôt!)

Walking on water

Yesterday we feasted. There was a cake sale at school in the morning and then J and I went to check out the “Semaine Gastronomique” at Sainte Marie. I got a free sample from a man in a chef’s outfit (an ample sample I might add) of chicken with champignons noirs and white wine, I had a snowball (crushed ice with grenadine syrup poured all over it) and we bought some accras aux légumes and aux crevettes and a bottle of cherry punch.

There’s a strange almost-islet at Sainte Marie which is connected to the mainland by a narrow, partially flooded isthmus where two set of waves break against each other when the tide is high. Yesterday people were walking across it, collecting shellfish and going for a walk on the islet, so we thought we’d join in on the fun. As we started paddling across I held up my skirt to stop it getting wet – but I soon gave up trying with that when the waves started slopping against each other with more force and I got completely soaked. I think next time I go for a walk in the sea I’ll wear a swimming costume. We also both got very sunburnt as, foolishly, we had come out without sun cream on thinking we would be wandering under a covered market all morning. It was a fun adventure though.

The university project is coming along nicely. I’ve written 5300 words (although most of that is inane foreign waffle) and I just need to write a conclusion now. I’m hoping this conclusion will be so profound as to stun the examiner into forgetting everything they read over the last 5000 words and give me an amazing mark. I’ll let you know how that plan works out...