5th November

Goa so far is treating me well; I'm just not treating myself so well! I've managed to slice my thumb open chopping tomatoes and I think I may have just broken my toe.....but we'll get to that.

I've had a busy few days; we spent yesterday morning in Mapusa buying supplies and (live) chickens - a new cockerel (Nero) and two new hens (Clucky and Twiggy) for Tor and Mo's new and improved HUGE chicken coop. Honestly the thing is massive, I'd happily sleep in it if it wasn't full of chickens. They seem happy there too, which isn't hard to believe considering they were tied together by their legs in pairs when we bought them from the floor of the market - I'm still not quite used to how poultry is dealt with in India - but since we 'rescued' Nero, Clucky and Twiggy I can feel good about that at least. An afternoon dip in Tor's rather large paddling pool (brought all the way from England don't you know) and a huge batch of Goan sausage cous cous later (cooked by moi) we retired to bed, exhausted after the day's activities. Today was a much lazier day - we met Nev and Ash at Baba Rhum for lunch (awesome cafe/bakery/hang out in Arpora run by a French couple) and then me and the boys headed to Baga beach for the afternoon. Being able to finally step on hot sand and go in the sea after three weeks in India really was heaven - I forget how much I love swimming in the sea and by the time we arrived at 3pm, it was warmer than a bath. I'm so glad that Nev and Ash got to do it too - it was their last day in Goa before they head back to England in the morning so an afternoon at the beach was a treat for them after three weeks of solid travelling around India. We were entertaining our friend's four year old daughter Jody for a while too - Nev made the mistake of lifting her right out of the sea when a big wave came which resulted in him having to repeat this for every wave for the next twenty minutes (getting increasingly tired) whilst Ash and I just looked on laughing. Once back on the beach, when Nev was unable to even string a sentence together from breathlessness we really saw the funny side. He's made a friend for life in Jody but he was knackered as a result!

We lay on the beach until we were plunged into total darkness - the sun set and we completely missed it - suddenly we were on the beach drinking in swimwear in the dark which feels rather odd believe me. We decided to get dressed and walk down the stretch of the beach to Calangute which is such a lovely walk at that time of night and got ourselves some dinner at Souza Lobo (a Goan restaurant that's been here since the 1930s) before we said our goodbyes and I disappeared off on a motorbike to meet my mum. They're setting off at 4:30am for the airport to fly to Delhi and then home - safe flight boys!

To be honest, at this point I felt that my evening was drawing to a close. It was half ten and calling in on mum at Bubbles Bar seemed a good idea - just popping in on the way home. Four hours later I am home but am still in shock at the evening's events. I met some lovely people who invited me to all kinds of things, including a Goan wedding - totally awesome and I'm so excited to go, I've never been to a traditional Goan wedding before! Gazelle (who invited me) even offered to pick me up for us to go together - I swear these things just don't happen in England! It was whilst chatting to these lovely people that I realised that I'd possibly broken my toe - this actually happened earlier in the night when I stubbed three of my toes on a rock climbing up Calangute steps - it hurt like hell at the time but doesn't it always when you stub your toes? It was only later at Bubbles bar that I realised my toes were swollen to twice their normal size, were purple in colour and I couldn't move them. Fingers crossed they're just battered and bruised and after a sleep and some ice I'll be fine and dandy but at this moment I don't think I'll be so lucky :-( Whilst discussing the "toe situation" a very strange thing happened. I had my toe violated. YES VIOLATED. I've been known to exaggerate on occasion but I swear to use the word violate would almost be an understatement in this situation. Bubbles bar was emptying - mum had gone home, dad had arrived and the decision was made that I'd crash at his place for the night rather than attempting to find Tor's new place on my own in the dark. A Goan guy in the bar overheard me talking about my toe (broken status pending), came over and asked if he could see it, saying he'd be able to tell me if it was broken or not. He stroked it, pressed it (which seriously hurt so I tried to get my foot back - was more than a bit freaked out at this point) and then he bent down AND PUT MY TOE IN HIS MOUTH. Honestly, I cannot even express how much even writing that down makes me want to throw up all over the floor. Dad looked on in horror, I shrieked and he let me go, saying only that by morning it would be fixed. It all happened so quickly I didn't know whether to punch him or have him arrested. Violated doesn't even cover it, and even worse (well probably not worse), my dad's friend Paul found it so hilarious that he said he'd remember it every time we met in future - fantastic - I'm the girl that got her broken toe sucked by a drunk weirdo against her will for the rest of my stay in Goa, god I hope a nickname doesn't materialise out of this!! The only saving grace of the evening post toe abusing was getting a free ride home - one of the problems with Bubbles Bar's late opening hours is that when you finally want to go home at 2:30am there isn't a taxi in sight to take you. The very possibly broken toe rendered walking back to dads place an impossibility so I tried my luck at just shouting at a passing car asking if he was a taxi. Much to my shock and delight, he said he wasn't but he'd happily drive us wherever we wanted to go. This is what I love about India - a broken toed girl hobbles into the street and a random driver passing through agrees to drive her (and her dad!) home out of the kindness of his heart. Rohit was a star, a total god send in this situation as hopping home would have taken a really long time!!

I haven't been drinking tonight - I'm still very much recovering from our last night In Delhi - which I'm regretting now as it means I'll wake up tomorrow and remember completely the entire latter half of my evening. Meeting new people and making lovely plans? Fantastic. Having my toe abused after I've already damaged myself considerably? Completely unbelievable, totally terrible and definitely something I'd rather forget!

10th November

Whenever anyone stays at my dad's house, a lie in is never an option. Despite us getting to bed at going on 3am, he's up and about at 8am on the dot and doesn't give a hoot that you're fast asleep on the sofa. I was woken this morning by classical music blaring out of his speakers on the terrace - before he even said good morning, how's the toe or even hello he said, "Beck! Wake up! Quiz question, what are we listening to?" To which I replied (half asleep) that it was Vivaldi's Four Seasons Spring and could he shut up and let me go back to sleep. Thankfully I was right and he said "well done, I'm very proud" and tottered off to make coffee. (Apparently all that classical music we had drilled into us as children left its mark!) By the time we reached Autumn I was up, the toe was even more purple but fingers crossed it's just horrendously bruised and not actually snapped.

The next few days have all blurred together (as is the way in Goa) with drinks and lovely meals (including two rather English evenings at my dad's - cottage pie one night and fillet steak toad in the hole with horseradish on another) but we have had some Indian food in and amongst - Tor and I basically had food forced down us when we drove past my mum's house. Tor introduced me to mum's landlady and she absolutely insisted we come in for some puri bhargi - luckily I tried it and loved it but she kept bringing more and more, Tor eventually had to insist that we couldn't eat anymore to get her to stop! I've also been driving in India as mum has a car out here which was a new and terrifying experience. I've been driving a car in England for seven years now and (despite the opinions of certain friends of mine) I consider myself to be a pretty good driver. In India however, my seven years of experience have been rendered irrelevant. Luckily they drive on the same side of the road in India so I'm not dealing with steering wheels on the left hand side or anything but aside from that, the rules are there are no rules. Speed limits, signalling, overtaking procedures, parking, you name it, they ignore what we'd consider to be proper driving and do whatever they like. And only having Tor (a non driver) in the car didn't exactly help - she forgets that I don't know my way around the area where she lives now so I'm relying completely on her to point me in the right direction. I swear after an hour of driving around running errands I was bright red, shaking and ready to never drive again. I should point out that driving in Goa is a dream to what I imagine driving in Delhi would be like but it was terrifying none the less. I'm definitely going to try again but I'm going to have to man up first and learn to be a more assertive bully-esque driver because that's definitely a requirement here!

I've also been enjoying Tor and Mo's new house - the last few days have been a bit manic getting everything ready for Laura's arrival on 10th November (Tor's best mate - she's out in Goa for 3 months) but aside from the decorating and cleaning and refilling of giant paddling pools it's been so lovely just sitting on their terrace having some drinks and spending some time with Tor, Mohamed and the babies. Some of you probably already know that the daddy chichuahua of our bunch, Max, sadly died a few weeks ago so it's strange seeing the other three without him but Ruby, Dolly and Dylan have settled right into their new home and consider the huge garden to be their own private jungle for exploring. They've got two cats now as well, Little Cat and Toulouse, so with them, the dogs, the chickens and all the frogs, giant caterpillars and the odd monkey they've got quite a little nature reserve going on here! Laura and I have got our own bedrooms so we've got some space to call our own but it really does feel like a little commune here - I'm really going to enjoy the next couple of months here. We're having a day of relaxation sunbathing and reading on the lawn today with an occassional dip in the pool and then a night on the town tonight to give Laura a proper welcome to Goa. With only two days left of being 24 before I turn a quarter of a century old on Saturday I intend to enjoy myself, it should be a good night!!