Never-ending Party??!

Hello all,

About a month ago, myself and some friends went to a music festival in Stone Town. It was an awesome evening. We started off by having real pizza and sushi whilst watching Ireland unfortunately just lose to France in the rugby, before taking a minibus to the Old Fort. The Old Fort is unsurprisingly an Old Fort and a perfect setting for a night of music. Surrounded by the stone walls, sitting on the grass, with stars shining up above and fantastic performances from groups out of Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. Singing and dancing, the vibe was, can I say, harmonious and electric?

There is nothing like Africans and music. It was Etiennes birthday the other day, and his entire kitchen staff came up to the bar singing and playing a variety of instruments like whisks, spoons, pots and pans! Anyway, I digress. The last couple of groups played hip hop which was perfect for me! One of the songs included breaks from at least 6 different tracks I remember from uni, such as "whoop, whoop, that's the sound of the police", so naturally I went mental! Found my own patch in the grass and danced until I dropped ; ) Has to be one of the best nights I've had in Zanzibar.

Talking of birthdays, it was mine not so long ago. Yes, yes, nearly all of you forgot - I shan't mention any names in particular - Martin, Tom, Jonathan (my brother..) Now, I've been fast acquiring a small phobia of birthdays as mine have a tendency to be a big let down. Last year was great because I was by myself in Zimbabwe, so no-one to let me down as no-one knew!

This years was actually rather cool. We had a brai and party at the guesthouse. It was to celebrate a number of things - my birthday, St Paddy's day (we have two Irish girls now living with us) and as a farewell to Brett. Brett was.. is a very good friend, like a brother and a dive buddy/slave - I taught him his divemaster ; ) We totally hit it off when I first came to Zanzibar, and him leaving is like a huge hole in my life. During the evening Bru (who's a bit like Dad here) gave a speech about me and about Brett. Then we both gave one two. I think I got a bit carried away ; ) Brett and I were both presented with t-shirts that everyone had signed and had a race to down a small bottle of sparkling wine (he won easily!) It was a lovely evening and just about everyone I care about in Zanzibar was there. Once the food had settled a little (steak!), it was time for dancing.

There's been a lot of dancing recently. And birthday's. We've had 6 or something already and another one tomorrow. I think all of us need some time to recover from the never-ending parties!

But it's not all party, party, party. There is diving too. I've always been a strong advocate of the look, don't touch rule, but spending time with Brett who is a bushman, loves animals and has a tendency to touch so he can learn more, I've started doing it a little more - generally when I'm on fun dives with friends, because you don't want guests to start copying you. Had a fantastic dive the other day with two 6-gill sharks, less than 1m long which were hanging around for ages and ages, so myself, Petey and another guy started trying to catch them by hand... ! You think you've just got him by the tail and then a quick flick and off he goes. It's so difficult to read them, but a brilliant challenge!

Brett's last day here, we went to Chumbe Island to go diving. It's a marine park and the island is protected, eco-friendly lodge. Wow, I loved it there. The diving was cool, but the island was better. Lush and green, incredibly relaxing with nothing but the sound of the rain (occasionally that's nice when it's hot all the time!), the sea, the wind and lots of birds and basically no people. Beautiful. The day before I'd had a mini mid-life crisis. Felt like all I was doing was working for free, my clothes all have holes, fed up of having to think whether I really want something before I buy it and am 32 with nothing to show for it. Then we went to Chumbe, this island paradise that most people will never even visit something close to and yes, my clothes do mostly have holes in, budgeting is first-nature, I am ridiculously underpaid (sometimes free!), but I have this amazing life, full of amazing people and it's what I want. I guess everyone has to have doubts sometime! All about balance.

I would like to create a slightly higher income though than the average McDonalds worker and have decided to beomce a professional gambler. A restaurant has opened up next to Cholos (the main bar), well, it's basically part of Cholos but it has presented us with a slightly different place to hang out. Recently they've started poker nights - Texas Holden or Hold Em or actually I don't know what the game really is! Anyway, the first night I bet on every hand and lost 5,000 shillings ($4) in half an hour. Since then, I've done quite well which obviously I've just jinxed so am bound to lose loads now! Only fair to give something back : ) I do like card gambling. When I was living in Flores, Indonesia we went through a spate of gambling every night - again only with small money. Great fun. Ok, I'm not seriously going to become a gambler. I do however want to write. Ironic that my book (the one I started a couple of years ago) is about following your dreams and here I am dragging my feet on one of my big ones! I must finish it. Maybe if I say it long enough, I will.

The other irony in my life is that I've met someone pretty cool, he's called Alex and he's making it rather difficult for me to leave in 2 weeks time. He's also probably reading this so that is all I shall say for now ; ) What will be, will be.

Hope everything is cool in your lives!
Lots of love
kx