Wednesday 20th February

I awoke to the others in the dorm waking and getting ready, they were not noisy but their movement was enough to stir me. I had a very restless night, mainly due to the bites on my legs as they woke me up three times is a fair bit of pain and I just wanted to tear my legs off! It was also ridiculously hot, even with the fan on, although when I woke up I realised the fan wasn't really positioned to our side of the room (this would be rectified for the next nights sleep). It was only 7.40am yet I was the only one left now in the dorm. I got dressed and tried to put cream on my legs. I went out to have breakfast and to my surprise the hostel was very quite, obviously there were more people than I originally thought here for studies.
I had a bowl of cereal and a slice of bread and peanut butter (for some reason the toaster wasn't working). There was news on the TV and it was nice to be able to catch up properly with what was going on in the world. Once I washed up my breakfast stuff I had a few hours to go before Hayden was due to arrive! I decided I would write the address on the postcards I wrote to the grandparents after Kilimanjaro (I thought better late than never and I should at least send them from this continent). I also tried to plan Australia a little more, as I was hoping to have some replies that afternoon concerning tickets and so I looked at how long to spend at different places and tried to figure out where family friends were. I also tried to plan a bugey, but without the flights and bus prices it was difficult, and made me more worries I would run out of money. I didn't actually plan to much, just wrote down what I've had in my head for the past couple of weeks and nothing new. It wasn't long before it was 10am and Hayden would be leaving camp. I assumed he would be able to find the hostel easily as it was simple, but we had agreed to meet outside the museum. So around quarter past I headed out to try and meet him. I sat on the steps waiting and a few sellers tried to sell me things, they were a lot more persistent out here once you said no, but I managed to get them to leave me be. I waited, assuming he should be there any moment, as time ticked on I wondered if I had missed him or if there was a delay, as he should at least be at the museum now if the driver dropped him off at the market. I then saw Kate, Josh and Raymond head toward me. They had been dropped off my the shuttle (they were walking up into town) and were visiting the museum, they said Hayden was dropped off and should be at the hostel by now. So as they disappeared into the museum in headed back to the hostel and found Hayden lying on the sun bed. He had already checked in and paid, his luggage was in storage whilst the room was getting prepared. He was in the dorm, although I couldn't see what they had to prepare. I explained I went out to wait for him and he apologies for the mistake and he had forgotten about the meeting at the museum. We sat and chatted for a few mins and he asked what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to go to a pharmacist for bite cream and the post office to post my cards. Hayden wanted to see the market and he mentioned the museum (I didn't want to go that day as I would leave it for a day I was by myself), I think he quite wanted to go but when I later said it was 25kawta he seemed put off. We headed out into the heat and into town. As we hunted out for a pharmacist, we passed the post office and I brought 2 stamps for 5kawta, I posted them although I still wasn't 100% sure they would actually arrive. We then found the pharmacist and I got some cream, it was only 10kwata which I thought was good, as I was expecting to pay a lot more. I couldn't wait too much longer and put some on almost straight away.
We then walked up to the market, it's was a typical curio market with lots of small shop sections selling pretty much the same thing. Each owner tried to talk to us, telling us we were the cheapest and looking was for free. You feel bad ignoring people, but otherwise you'd be there for ever talking and knowing they want is us to buy something. Neither of us wanted anything in particular, so it was easy to walk past shops simple looking from a distance. It is amazing how so many of the same shop can exist in the same short section on street! Once we hit the end, it was nearing 12noon, so we decided to head back, pick up some meat for dinner and have lunch. We went to the Spar on the way back and brought some sausages, then also some butter beans, sweetcorn (both tinned) and some tinned tomorrow, onion and pepper Mexican mix (this sounded better than the tomato tin). I also brought a chicken mayo baguette from the deli as it looked nice and fresh, plus I didn't want to make anything, as I wasn't feeling great. The pain in my chest seemed much worst today and was very painful just swallowing in general and felt generally tight, it was starting to worry me. Also, if i cooked eggs I would feel obliged to cook Hayden some and i didn't want to waste food I actually had. We got back to the hostel and sat down to eat. Hayden had made some sandwiches from breakfast at the camp, a jam and an egg sandwich, so I need not worry. Eating was very painful for me but I ate it all. After this Hayden said about having a nap so we went to the 'Chill out Zone'. I didn't feel overly tired but I did feel drained, I assumed from the heat and a poor nights sleeps. I managed to get a decent nap in, although I woke up several times due to the heat just sweating. After a while I became restless and wanted to go to the Italian for wifi, half of me wanted to talk to people as I hadn't been able to for a while and then part of me wanted to see of there were any responses to travels emails that might enable me to plan my trip a bit better, but alas Hayden was still fast asleep! I managed to drift off again and after a bit of waiting he woke up. It was around 3pm and we headed to the wifi. Hayden too wanted to check messages and emails. We got there and had some ice-cream. It was such a hot day and when I woke up from my nap I had he thought of ice-cream in my head, I had a vanilla and chocolate chip scoop, it was so nice and refreshing. So to messages and email. I send the ones I had drafted, read replied, replied to travels emails as the companies said they were able to help me and I also replied to some messages. Finally, I messages Paul and Dee about visiting them in Perth, as it wouldn't be long before I was there. Paul relied on Facebook straight away saying it was fine, which made me feel better about arriving in Australia. I also looked at the cost of Greyhound bus passes and the options open to me. We were there for over 2 hours and I had managed to do all I wanted. Whilst both busy on our phones we had various conversations about the group, the trip, feeling home sick and general things. It was nice to be able to talk to someone about how I felt about travelling and a few worries.
When I mentioned being worried about pennies in Australia, Hayden offered a bed in Melbourne if need, this offer meant a lot.
We decided to leave the hostel and go cook some dinner. Once back at the hostel Hayden got his bag out of storage and was given the bed directly above mine. I grabbed a quick shower and washed some clothes for the next day whilst Hayden made a start on dinner. As I was finishing the power had gone off, Hayden came into the dorm as he thought I was still in the shower and thought it was funny the power had gone out, but alas I was done. The power soon came back on. Hayden also gave me his insect repellant spray, as he saw how red my bites were and said he wouldn't need it in Europe, it was very generous and saved me buying some more spray for the time being (he initially offered when I looked for some in the supermarket). I also sprayed my bag liner to deter the little b*****s. I came to the kitchen to find he had already made friends with the 2 Swedish people I had met. When I got there Hayden had got the pasta out and ready to cook, only to find he had put the pasta in the water before putting it into boil, the girls and I all laughed and made comments about boys and cooking. We drained the pasta and went to put water on to boil, but the same as last night the power went off again, so the 4 of us (the Swedish girls too) sat and chatted. We mainly talked about their research and studies. It was too painfully long before the power was back on and a rush to the kitchen. It was now gone 8pm, so most people would be wanting to cook due to the power cut. We put our water onto boil and I cut the sausages up (I thought they would cook quicker if the power was to cut out again), and Hayden opened the tins. There was a miss-communication with the beans as Hayden tipped them into the uncooked pasta, again we all laughed as I picked them out and back in the tin. I felt like be water took ages to boil even with a lid on. When another hob was free we started cooking the sausages. After what seemed an age the pasta was on and we tipped all three tins in with the meat to warm it through so we were good to go when the pasta was cooked. There was a little on the large amount of pasta cooked and we could only have eaten just over half of it. The meal tasted fine, a standard pasta with tinned sauce and the meat tasted ok too. The only problem was the sauce was slightly hot in flavour and you knew it, although progress was slow I ate my dinner. My chest still felt funny so I ate very slowly.

I had also decided to text my parents to ask them to ask the doctors of how I felt could be linked to my malaria pills. Since mid-morning and feeling quite rough I was getting worried and thought about seeking medical advise, I didn't feel I'll just more discomfort and I didn't want it to linger on. After lunch when it was very bad I asked the lady behind the tour desk at the hostel if it could be something I picked up, she said it wasn't really anything from Malawi, the only things she said (although not medical) was malaria but said to drink lots of water to rule out dehydration. It still played on my mind, although talking to Hayden at the Italian about when he was ill and he thought it could be the malaria pills that made him ill, I wondered if I could be the same. I read the leaflet when I got some about he side effects but his did not help with any answers, so decided the next stop would be the parents, as I was clueless about seeking medic help out here.

The Swedish girls joined us once their pasta was cooked and we chatted about work, travels etc. I went to wash-up and had my last pack of milk biscuits as pudding, I wasn't overly hungry but wanted something sweet. Hayden joined to help wash-up. The hostel had the Champions League football on, Inter Malian vs. Barcelona. We all started watching it and moved to a better seat to watch it. Even with my nap at lunch I was shattered and was falling asleep whilst watching it. I want to get to half time but I gave in with 5mins to go and headed to sleep. I put some more cream on to help the bites through the night and snuggled down for the night. I had moved the fan slightly so it spread its air more evenly at night. I got to sleep straight away, but waking when Hayden went to bed, as he happened to be on the bunk on top.