The Quest

It's a simple one. I want to be tan when we go back to the US in 14 days (fourteen days!), so some serious pool and beach time is in order. I know it is meant to be avoided, but man I love sitting in the sun! Doused up in SPF 30, of course, but loving every hot, humid minute.

Today the heat hit Maputo, suddenly and accompanied by unforgiving wind, as it seems to happen every year in September. Yesterday it was warm, but clear and with full blue skies, still chilly at night. Today, something shifted. I could feel it at 6am when the cats woke me up. It was hot, suffocatingly so. Gray, hazy skies. On the weather report they said it was 35C.

I had pilates this evening with the trainer. Since we've sold most of our furniture already - portable fan included - I suffered quite a bit in the heat. Sweat glistened off my feet and dripped down my face minutes into the first stretch. Vodka tonics post-workout really were the only remedy imaginable.

Tomorrow we are off for a bit of a beach holiday. Rico and I, together with a couple we've become quite close friends with in the last two months or so. I find it so frustrating that you seem to meet the best people in the final moments leading up to a transcontinental move. Still, meeting late is better than not meeting at all, for sure.

We are heading to Bilene, a lagoon of brackish water a couple hours to the north in Gaza Province. Rico and I may have to haul our laptops along to do a bit of work in the downtime between sunning and braai, but still - it's a vacation.

Back on Friday, hopefully several steps closer to completing my tan-a-licious goal.