here i am...

We managed to get to sunny Madeira after a tortuous journey.  The queue to check in just seemed to go on forever and we didn´t have any time to do our last minute shopping.  Then, to top it all, the flight was delayed because some fool didn´t turn up, and they had to unload their bags.  Oh, and I saw water dripping from the casing of the TV monitor, which couldn´t have been a good thing. 

Madeira is lovely, of course.  The house is magnificent.  Built in the 1930´s, it´s huge and just filled with period touches.  Bakelite switches, shiny wooden floors, poor plumbing and a strange smell.  It also has a beautiful, huge, veranda.  It is fantastic and I want it.

The only problem is that the house is quite hard to find and it is in a street with an impossibly foreign name.  We had to write it down on a piece of paper to show taxi drivers, and even then they always have to go away and consult their colleagues.  We have to get a taxi home every night because the house is at the top of a very long, steep, hill.  In fact everything in Madeira is at the end of a long, steep, hill.  That´s probably why I always lose weight when I come here.

Mr Rock Cake is going to join us tomorrow.  I´m not sure he has been tempted by the relaxing atmosphere or the chance that he might be able to go diving.  We went out on the sea yesterday to see dolphins.  I was a little bit sceptical about our chances, after all the ocean is a big place.  We must have seen hundreds of the things, all swooping and hollering like teenage hooligans around our boat.  They are truly graceful creatures, and there is nothing cuter than watching the little babies keeping pace with their parents as they leap out of the water.  One of the boats mates put paid to the myth that dolphins are friendly creatures with an affinity for human beings.  I was so glad that I wasn´t the stupid person who asked the question about how well they get on with people.  The boy sneered, "only in the movies."  he reminded us that dolphins are wild animals and not particularly friendly, especially if they have babies.  There went my fantasies of communing with dolphins.

We´ve had a little bit of illness in our group.  Ms Ginger Cake managed to get sick the day before we left and has only just got over it.  Now Ms Victoria Sponge is sick.  The poor thing took to her bed yesterday afternoon and no one has seen her since (of course we have looked in on her). 

When I left the house about 30 minutes ago, they were all still in bed.  I took the opportunity to ged to escape the hurly burly of group living to spend a little time by myself here in this cute little internet cafe that I´ve found as I wandered around.  I´m sitting here smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee while listening to Iron & Wine on my iPod.  It´s bliss.  I ´forgot´to take my mobile phone with me, so no one knows where I am.  I suppose I am going to have to make contact with them soon, although I probably could quite easily spend the day by myself.  We´re all getting on really well and I´m enjoying the company, but I am beginning to get movie withdrawal symptoms and I just want to go to the cinema by myself.  Oh, I suppose I might take Mrs McMuffin with me.

I better get going.  I can hear the sunshine and food calling to me.

PS: I know I´ve said this before, but I just love my Mac.  I decided to put a link to the house that we are staying in.  I syncronised my bookmarks on this PC here in Madeira with my bookmarks on my machine at home in the UK and took the link from there.  Now, that is fantastic!