Suffering from the previous evening's revelry

When I woke up this morning I remembered precisely why I am no longer a party animal. Last night was Llewellyn's last night before returning home to Jo'burg so we went out for dinner and then drinks. We took a dinky taxi to the restaurant called Ku Da Ta which wasn’t too far from the hotel. Llewellyn had been there before but could not remember the name of the place. Initially he told the taxi driver that we wanted to go to Zanzibar restaurant and the driver was so desperate to have the fare that he said he knew it and off we went. At least we headed in the right direction but there is no restaurant called Zanzibar. After driving around the back streets for a little while we just happened to pass the restaurant and Llewellyn recognized it. So despite having the wrong name completely, we did end up where we wanted to be.

Ku Da Ta is a small French style restaurant and seems to be quite popular with the tourists. It was full when we arrived so we sat at the bar and had a couple of beers while we waited for a table. Once we were seated at the table we were presented with an aperitif of goat’s cheese mouse on a fine slice of carrot, very tasty indeed and a nice touch. I had a steak for dinner with mashed potato and a small salad - also a very tasty dish. The meat was cooked to perfection and just melted in my mouth. The crowning glory was, however, the dessert. I had a quartet of chocolate treats: fondant, mousse, cake and a patty type thing. It was all divine! When we asked for the bill we were offered a rum shot on the house which of course we accepted but I was unable to finish mine because it was so strong. That's island rum for you :-) It reminded me of another party a few years back in Mauritius where the rum was ridiculously potent and in plentiful supply.

From the restaurant we walked to a nearby nightclub which Llewellyn had called Monsoon. The barman at the restaurant had provided us with a guide to get to the place and I was really surprised we got there since it turned out that the place was called Manson by Marco. Names are definitely not Llewellyn’s strong point but at least this time he was close enough that the barman and the guide simply thought he had mispronounced the name. I felt really nervous walking down the dark alleys which had shady looking characters hanging about in the shadows but we made it to the club without any incidents.

The club was relatively quiet when we arrived but soon started to fill up. We spent the evening chatting to a bunch of Americans and a young British guy from Hong Kong. It was fun up to a point but then around 1am the mood in the place seemed to change and we got bumped and pushed around by too many drunken people and we called it quits. We returned to the hotel and had a night cap at the bar before heading up to our (separate) rooms. I had thought that I should drink some water before going to sleep but I was asleep before I could carry out that plan and of course woke up feeling like death warmed up. I did not drink nearly as much as I would have a few years ago but I think the lack of practise is what floored me. These days I only have one or two drinks and don't spend entire evenings soaking up beer.

Anyway I dragged my sorry butt out of bed and moved through the wet concrete to the shower and just managed to get downstairs in time for the 9am start of the workshop. Of course I was the only one there! The first participant arrived at 9:20. We had just got going when the Internet clutched out and everything came to a grinding halt. The hotel said that they knew of the problem and had called out the technician but it took so long that eventually I got everyone working on the offline document so that we didn't waste too much time. It does mean that the information will have to be entered online later but at least is is captured somewhere.

Eventually the Internet came back on and work carried on very well. I am really impressed with these people - the 8 that are left. They have just gotten on with the work and we have finished all the fisheries. Tantely, the national contact, is also great. He comes forward with really good ideas of how to do things which is what I like. An example is that tomorrow we will review all the fisheries and he has already drawn up a list of the fisheries with the person responsible for each and decided that the people who completed the profiles have to present them to the group. This is what I normally have to ask people to do so it is refreshing that he is the one making the suggestion. He has also given me a commitment that they will ensure that all information that has been omitted because the information is not available right now will be added as soon as possible so that the profiles are as accurate as possible. I really like the fact that they understand that the fisheries information is public and for their own credibility they need to have everything as complete and as correct as possible.

To end, here is the promised photo showing the type of cars that are used as taxis in Tana.

And with that, take care everyone! I will be having an early night tonight :-)