A very, very funny hangover day.

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4/4/09 = A lazy day with Fijian dancing

Wasn’t a good night’s sleep, but never is after drinking! Poor Deb was sick all night and I rolled over feeling not too hot! Why do we drink? Definitely couldn’t face breakfast…especially not a Mana style breakfast…so rolled over to try the sleep cures all problems trick. Re-opened eyes at 10am. Still feeling positively dodgy, but not sick…yeh! Deb on other hand = really not good. Had been sick all night and in some v.unfortunate places…her poor handbag took the brunt of it…oops. She definitely wasn’t going anywhere, but me belly so empty, had no choice but to move. Crawled out of bed, scraped clothes on and dragged myself off to main hall to see how everyone else was doing. Nearly everybody was already up and they all felt fine (apart from poor Orla who was also still badly in bed). How do people do it?...how do they drink all night, get really drunk and then skip around like Mary Poppins the next day? Is it practice or genetics? Mum…did I get any good genes!?!

Sat on beach with Allan, Kirst and Alabama chatting about night before. All found it v.funny. Could feel what was happening though, it was one of those days where I was going to feel progressively worse as time went on. Oh no! Needed to do something…quick! Went in water to try and wash away badness, didn’t quite work so decided to go out for a snorkel to take my mind off it. Headed out with Alabama, who turned to me when we were already half way out and asked “So…I’ve never snorkeled before…what do we do?” That pretty much set the scene for our snorkeling; was one of the funniest experiences have ever had in the water. Had to stop every 5mins because his mask kept filling with water and spent the whole time both laughing at his efforts. Did manage to eventually get out onto the reef, which was absolutely amazing. Fiji = one of best reefs ever snorkeled on; amazing coral. Beautiful and fish were amazing too…so many different varieties of everything. Had a really good snorkel around it - stopping intermittently for mask adjustment and laughing - and got to the point where reef stopped and formed a ledge with a sheer drop down to v.v.v.v deep sea. Even that looked amazing. Snorkelled all around it all, then spotted some other people a lot further out, saying it was even better out there. Couldn’t believe Alabama wanted to go for it…I didn’t even think we would make it this far without drowning. Water was so deep…a lot deeper than I felt comfortable and with all stopping and laughing/half choking, thought it best we save that trip for later. Headed back into shore and even that wasn’t a quick job!

By time got back, was nearly time for lunch, which my belly was really grateful for. Water didn’t exactly have healing power I had hoped for. Allan was as bad as me because he had missed breakfast too. Sat at table at bang on midday and to my utter disappointment, food didn’t come out and were no signs of it either. Oh no! Minutes passed and sickliness crept in. Had to sit with head on table and eyes closed, somewhere between life and death…no white light though. Did my usual of laughing uncontrollably about absolutely nothing…am always over-giddy after drinking…probably still a little drunk. Forever later, food came out and all got excited. None of us expected what came out before us. Sandwiches…good . Got plate and prepared to stock up. Hold on a minute…what’s that I see inside the sandwiches…can’t be…is that tinned spaghetti? Oh my days. There it was. Piles and piles of sandwiches all filled up with tinned spaghetti. Spaghetti sandwiches…you’ve got to be joking! If I hadn’t been in such shock, I would have been instantly sick, right there. Moved right passed that plate…there must be something else? Sandwich plate number 2. You’ve got to be good. Took a look. No…it’s not possible…it’s really not. Maybe I was a little delusional after all drink. Baked bean sandwiches. Cold baked beans in between 2 slices of bread…they wouldn’t. They would. I was absolutely starving, but there was absolutely no way…NO WAY…I could eat that. Oh no. Kept moving on with my little empty plate. Is that tuna I see…it is…it is tuna. Practically ran to that plate and filled mine up before everyone else noticed too. Just as funny as sandwiches was looking at everyone’s faces as they moved around table. Such joy and excitement as they first joined table, which then moved to confusion…shock…and swiftly to disgust, so that by the end, we all wore the same expression of horror/illness. I was feeling quite happy with my little tuna plate by this point and couldn’t believe my luck when spotted egg sandwiches too. Get in. Got a few of them on the plate, some pineapple (pineapple came out at every meal) and pottered back to table to inspect everyone else choice.

We all laughed. What else can you do when presented with food like that. Couldn’t believe it, but everyone else was actually trying it. They were much braver than me. Was the funniest thing ever to watch though. Watched as Rich took a few nibbles from his spaghetti sandwich, then put it down in defeat. Watched as Yurgon tried to eat one and then looked as if he was actually going to be sick. “I ate dog…chicken heads…everything in China…but I’ve never eaten anything as bad as this. I just can’t eat it”. So funny. I watched Allan, who unbelievably ate it all and said in between mouthfuls “It’s not that bad…it’s really alright”. He was definitely still drunk! Missed Kirsty, but the funniest person of all to watch was Alabama. He sat across table from me, putting the same sandwich into his mouth over and over again, pausing to chew the tiniest bit he had dared to put in his bite and then putting his head down to hide his look of sickness. We both burst out laughing every time he did, but he continued to do it for each of the spaghetti and bean sandwiches he had picked up. He didn’t want to be defeated, but watching his battle was one of the funniest memories I have from my whole trip. And me…well I chewed happily on my tuna sandwiches, they weren’t exactly as good as my Mums, but they definitely weren’t cold baked beans. Felt better with every bite I took. We all laughed and joked our way through that meal. Traditional Fijian cuisine ay! Deb was lucky to have missed it…it definitely wouldn’t have helped her sickness.

After our…eventful lunch, went to crash on beach, all quite tired. Spent rest of afternoon chatting, snorkeling and snoozing; a nice, relaxing afternoon. Went to check on Deb at 3ish - she still hadn’t come out of room - but she was still unwell and couldn’t face food. Such a role-reversal, all other times on trip that had been me. Went back to beach again, chatted to Kirsty and Alabama and Orla finally surfaced. Us girls went off to play some volleyball; could do with the exercise. Well, that was a laugh. Had forgotten how bad I was at it…it’s not exactly the national sport of England, like it was for some of the people playing. Missed nearly every ball that came to me and when I did hit it, it either hit someone on my team or went quicker to floor than it would have done if I’d just left it. Didn’t feel bad though, lots of other girls were just same. Fijians thought it was highly funny and thought it appropriate to make me team captain…the irony was not lost on me.

As soon as the game ended - my team lost obviously - went back to beach. Deb was awake now and looked much better. Lazed and talked for an hour, then it was time for dinner. Not looking forward to it, we were all nervous. The only person excited was Debs and that was only because she was so hungry. Sat at table and watched in anticipation as trays came out…no sandwiches 😊 Went up to table to check out the new culinary delights. Plates of meat/bone dishes. Avoid them. 2 plates of something that looked like seaweed. Maybe try it. Sausages…definitely load up on them…sausages can’t have bone…right? A plate of bread. Got to get that quickly. Round, sliced vegetables have never seen before, apparently some kind of root vegetable. Should probably try that. Verdict; sausages o.k., sweet bread =best option, seaweed = gross, root veg = worst thing ever tasted in life…even worse than brussel sprouts; totally dry and crumbly…no way it could have contained any goodness anyway. Ate what I could (not the awful vegetable, if it even was a vegetable ) and washed it all down with orange juice. If it wasn’t for that orange juice….

Chatted as a big group for a few hours and played cards. I chatted with girls mostly and guys played rubbish game = Bullshit. I can never play it because am absolutely rubbish at lying. Night moved on and tonight’s entertainment = Fijian Dancing. Was mostly done by the guys (and Freddie) and was actually quite good; although they never smiled…they never smile. It was always so painfully obvious in their eyes that they had done it so many times before…it was just another day to them. They did do a lot of different dances though, to a lot of different music. Could appreciate that it was really hard work for them. They even did the Hakka. Freddie was really good. It all ended with some fire dancing, which was really good, although being in front row made me nervous. They often got way too close and heat of fire made me sweat nearly as much as panic. They were all good, but watching Torro and Daniel San get up and try it at end was one of best moments. Daniel San was so funny, so determined and over the top. Bless him. He was awkwardly funny. We all chatted for a while after that, then headed to bed before midnight, absolutely shattered. Another good day on Mana 😊

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