Saturday, May 17

On Thursday we intended to walk to the beach but it rained and so we didn’t. Yesterday evening I interviewed with John Phillips and Belinda Kidd for next week’ podcast. Today we will go to the beach!

We start the day by going to the field to see if Shanti wants to piss or shit. Piss: yes. Shit: no. She makes it very clear by stopping, turning round and trotting back to the house, probably with the thought of breakfast in her head.

Because of the tick fever she has had, and her need to look and feel fit for intercontinental travel in ten days time, she has a concentrated medical routine. She takes these tablets and two slugs of tonic every day. She must take the tablet on the left before food, and the rest of the tablets after food.

We have found that if I chop the tablets in half and bury them in little pats of butter she takes them happily. It has become a routine and she has stopped bothering to try to spit them out.

At 16:00 it will start drizzling and I will weigh up the pros and cons of staying in and staying dry, versus going out and getting wet. Just like that it stops raining and we grab our stuff and go before we need to change our minds again.

Olya and Chowari meet us at Leo. Shanti and I have dal fry and naan. Olya and I share a beer. Chowari tries to attack Shanti’s ears. We all walk home just as it gets dark, until Olya and Chowari turn right up the steep hill and we continue on flat ground.