My Old Man's a Dustman

---

Woke at about 7, after a shocking night's sleep because;

a) the bed is a good 3 inches too short for me; and
b) the girl in my dorm with me had to be up at 4 to get her bus.

Was invited to eat some horrible oatmeal by Jane, a sextagenarian staying at the hostel who then tried to hijack my whole day by telling me what I should be doing with my time. However, her nefarious plans were in vain, because I had stupidly agreed the night before to help my new found friends go round the neighbourhood picking up litter as part of their efforts to improve the local environment.

In honesty, I only agreed to help because I was promised a free breakfast (which was much nicer than Jane's oatmeal) but then I figured actually spending time with people who live somewhere is a better way of getting to know a place than visiting museums and the like.

So I grabbed my bin liner and a rubber glove and we set off for an hour's walk in the glorious sunshine picking up dog ends and condom wrappers. After we'd finally filled up about 4 bags full of rubbish, we went to the weekly farmer's market where I was made to eat something horrible (for the second time that day) and we lounged about on the grass in the sunshine. Not bad for December.

At around 1, I left everyone to it and took a walk into town, down Market Street and past all the crappy tourist shops, then back up to the South Carolina aquarium. As aquariums go, it was pretty impressive, especially the massive Ocean tank in the centre with thousands of fish in, including several sharks. It was a bit like the start of Jaws 3, except the sharks weren't made of balsa wood.

Once I'd had enough fishy fun, I took a walk back to the hostel, which is where I am now, typing this. So that's about it for this entry I guess. TTFN!

---