Tuesday, September 7

I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of thunder and heavy rain. I lay awake listening for what seemed like hours until I suddenly realised that I had woken again from a rapidly dissipating dream.

The alarm wakes me at 6:20 to the continuing sound of rain, and we leave the house at 7:00 to discover that the rain has suddenly stopped. We walk to Padhua and order a Bolt. While we wait the couple who run the coffee shop at the junction arrive to open up. They give us a wave and a cheery Bom Dios as they pass.

The Bolt arrives in three minutes and gets us to the airport in less than thirty. The rain starts again as we arrive.

Half the airport has reopened while the other half remains closed. Enough has reopened, though, to enable us to keep ourselves happily occupied until boarding time.

As we take off and start to rise above the clouds I take a series of photographs, most of them very dull. I decide to count this one as merely slightly dull.