Friday, December 28

Today was the start of phase 2 of our holidays. I got up at 7:30, sat outside, hooked up the wireless keyboard, and started typing this. Then I began assembling Part 1 of the thesis. By 9:45 I had laid out a new outline in ten chapters and had almost completed writing a draft of the first chapter.

When Irma got up she pointed out that the white of my left eye was distinctly bloodshot. I looked in the mirror and she was right. It didn’t itch or hurt, my vision was not impaired and I didn’t have a headache, but my eye looked very odd.

After breakfast Anib appeared and fixed the remote for the fan in the girls’ room. Irma and I went on the roof to sunbathe until the sun disappeared. It looked like rain so Auo and Irma grabbed a passing tuk-tuk and went to Divine supermarket for vegetables.

Now we are on the beach. Irma wanted wifi, and Luke had suggested that Spoonbill, the “Japanes kitchen”, had the best that he had found on the beach. The wifi worked fine, but the “Japanes kitchen” seemed to be the same food as everywhere else with the single addition of teriaki pizza.

Spoonbill is at the lighthouse end of the beach, where the pillars and walls wear the remnants of outdated posters for bands and parties. We will walk back, stopping at Leo’s for a distinctly non-Japanese pizza to share, before climbing the hill home.

On the way we will meet Satu, who has lived here and in Bangalore for the past two years with her Keralan boyfriend and their children. She and Irma talked for ages.