Mozzy's, Cozzy's and Bare Butts.

There were many manoeuvers in the dark in Correlejo last week. Meg bagged the bed she fancied most which turned out to be the squeekiest. After a departure time of 1am in Fort William to get to Fuerteventura, Spook fell asleep very quickly the next night and didn't hear Meg humphing the mattress to a new spot on the non-squeeky floor - right in his flight path to the toilet at 3am! So there was a bit of sqealing and swearing before things settled down, after he'd tripped over her in the dark, and nearly pee'd himself. 3 nights of suffering what had turned out to be a raw deal, saw her move into my bed, so I had to share the living room with Finn and chose a nice wee space next to the open patio door to catch the breeze. At some point in the middle of the night, someone wrenched open the front door scaring the beejeesus out of me. It turned out not to be an intruder, but Finn, heading off into the night. I yelled out to him and he reappeared very quickly, said "oh, sorry" and hopped back into bed. I was awoken again to find him bumping into the bottom of my mattress, trying to get out the patio door. He had no idea why he was trying to do that. I think too much free Pepsi on the all inclusive tab had taken it's toll on his ability to sleep without sleep-walking. Either that, or there was some beautiful teenager down at the bar that had taken his fancy.

The next night, Spook had the pleasure of the wee breeze in the living room, but Finn's capacity for sleep-walking was severly hampered by too much tossing and turning and he woke to find his feet tied in knots by the bedsheets. He had to get his dad to untangle him. Meanwhile, Meg was chatting away in her sleep, in my ear.

We finally got Finn to take up position on the mattress on the floor and somehow, all fell into place - except for one tiny wee mosquito (the only one on the island) buzzing around his head, which he assumed was carrying malaria and as he was pushing his mattress accross the room to avoid certain death, his sister thought he was trying to escape the room again and yelled at him to "GET THOSE SHOES OFF!". He got such a fright, he didn't know which was more scary - mozzy or Meg.

There was much nudity on the beach and it was fun to watch Finn running around trying to avoid bare boobs, change direction, find himself running towards a fully nude male striding confidently accross the sand, and swerve to get back safely to us, in our well covered bodies. Obvioulsy we had to protect ourselves from sunburn, but truly, the most embarrassing sight on the beach was us, trying to get in and out of our cozzy's, with towels wrapped strategically around private bits, squealing when the towel dropped a bit and some butt cheek was exposed. So very British.

A wee glimpse of Fuerteventura.

I will add a few words when I have more time.

A Life in the day of a 24hr Marshall.

Well - that's what I will call it when I tell it proper. Meanwhile, rest assured, it may not involve riding round and round the forest in long hours of darkness, but it does involve a certain amount of endurance. There was an early role reversal when I was gathering wood and sawing it up, when the competitors who found me still doing it on their 3rd lap, started to encourage me with shouts of "well done!" I found myself glowing in their praise until I remembered that I was meant to be encouraging THEM.

Thankfully my fellow campers turned up and took over along with a string of supportive visitors. Ted (spaniel)'s mistress brought a collection of Muriel Gray essays to spice up my stay in the forest and to make up for not getting my Sunday Herald. I haven't quite got them read Siobhan, but I will.

It was a very glorious weekend of weather, but as you can see from the photos, the sun shone all around our spot, but never on us. There was a cold wind blowin around us the whole time and it was a shock to come back to Nevis Range the next day to find summer temperatures. But we were warmed by our brazier and a non-stop selection of music from Bruce Springstein to Hooked on Classics. A wee dram or two of whiskly helped some of us to relax. We all managed a sleep through some of the night despite the noise, and everyone only woke up when I turned off the music and the generator, some time after sun rise (rising everywhere else in the forest obviously, but not on us.)

We are all really tired now (esp. Finn who spent the day out on the hills around Pitlochry today looking for a stag. He was amazed at how you searched a hillside the way you might search through your drawers, going over the same bits again and again, but covering bigger distances.)

We have to get up in under 2hrs to catch the plane to Fuerteventura where we will play bingo and take part in quizzes and talent shows and play water polo............photos will be taken.