a hard day's night

Last night was a final farewell dinner for a friend who flew out to Australia today. She's another volunteer, and has been here for almost 2 years. First bottle of wine is a screwtop - easy. But the second has a cork, which is a little more challenging, for we are in a house without a bottle opener. Neighbours are all out, so it is a knife and pliers job.

But that isn't the hard part. At 11, tired and tipsy, it is time to go home. One person is dropping three of us off. We scramble into the car, sit, wait, and wait. Nothing happens, there's not a sound as the keys are turned. The battery's dead. I only live 5mins walk away but it's not safe enough to walk, so we all scramble out of the car again and go back inside; what had been a dinner party is now a sleepover.

And i'm getting to the hard part. See, in the picture, those tiles? That's the floor. There aren't enough beds, so this is what I get to sleep on (ok, so there is a thin matt covering the tiles, but they remain hard). And for some reason the hostess has given away all her blankets, so I get a sheet to ward off the cold. It is a long night, a very long night, as I carefully roll from one position to another, trying not to notice that the floor is making my very bones ache, trying not to register the thumping bass from the nightclub up the road.

Of course it's hilarious to the person leaving. What a lark! What a way to end a stint in PNG. For me it's not so funny. Today I am full of sneezes. A night not to be repeated.