14 February 2010 - Sickness strikes Valentine's Day

Our second week in Antigua was much less fun than our first. We continued with Spanish lessons and my vocabulary and ability to communicate certainly improved although after two weeks, conversations with my teacher Ana are beginning to become a little strained. There are only a finite number of conversations that you can have with a limited number of words and a grasp of only the present tense. An explanation of the London congestion charging scheme was something of a tour de force on my behalf, but then, with a sudden burst of over confidence, I over-reached myself with an attempted explanation of the British Freedom of Information Act (ambitious, particularly as I don't have a particularly thorough understanding of it myself). Cue lots of blank looks and shoulder shrugs before an awkward silence and then a swift return to learning verb endings. Lessons are still interesting though and I continue to enjoy the challenge.

As part of school on Wednesday we took an impromptu trip to a small local snake and reptile house. They had an excellent variety of creatures which our guide helpfully ranked for us in terms of deadliness. At the end of the tour we had the chance to hold some of the animals - I held a large tarantula (see picture) and Lisa got her hands on a bright red snake. However the most affecting part of the visit for all involved was the sight of a fluffy bunny rabbit hopping around happily in a glass case whilst above him slept two enormous boa constrictors. The rabbit, we learned, was to be dinner for the snakes when they got around to crushing him to death. Didn't go down well with the girls...

The reason for the less pleasant edge to the week reared its ugly head on Thursday. On coming home from a local bar (where I promise I'd only had three beers) I was struck down with flu like symptoms and endured a horrible sleep free night. The next day I was forced to miss school whilst I recovered in bed. My condition had picked up enough by Friday for me to return to lessons, but by then Lisa had fallen sick and was unable to come along. Friday also saw my visit to a local doctor in order to try to resolve a blocked ear that has been driving me increasingly bonkers - his repeated attempts to blast warm water into my ear with equipment that he described as 'dinosaur' (presumably meaning old rather than highly dangerous) were unsuccessful - I will return for a second attempt next week and will hopefully recover my powers of hearing then.

As the weekend dawned Lisa and I were hopeful that we would recover our health enough to enjoy some R&R and a nice Valentine's Day dinner. Unfortunately we just couldn't shake the remenants of the illness and so spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday convalescing in our room. Our romantic dinner was reduced to a tentative hamburger in a desperate attempt to find some familiar food that would be gentle on our stomachs. We then returned to our room to watch a film on our laptop only to discover two hours in that the last ten minutes had for some reason been cut off leaving our heroes stranded in space and sorely lacking a conclusion to their adventures. So it was that we took to our bed early to shake the last effects of our illness. Who says romance is dead?

Here's hoping our third and final week in Antigua sees our health and spirits pick up.

P.S. Should mention that Valentine's day wasn't without some joy: Lisa bought me a year long subscription to Newcastle United TV meaning that I can now watch all the goals and highlights as the Toon attempt to regain their Premier League status. This was a truly selfless act by Lisa as now not only do I monopolise the computer when we have internet access, but she is forced to smile pleaseantly as I spin the computer round to show her Andy Carroll shambling into the penalty area to prod a ball past a hapless Coventry City goalkeeper. Romance dead? Never.