Ibthisam & Kai

Said goodbye at lunchtime to Martin and Angela after a very enjoyable evening last night, and then tried to settle back down to my new working week. A bit late to do much, but then, being self-employed is never about fixed working days and hours anyway.

So engrossed was I, getting back into the zone that I missed this Steam Traction Engine come rolling past the front of the house. For goodness sake, you could hear and feel it about 2 minutes before seeing it, but I still failed to move quickly enough and get outside to blip it properly. Clearly a sign of a tiring weekend and not being fully up to speed yet.

This distraction was quickly interupted by another, with a Skype video call from Malé in the Maldives, from my sweet step-daughter Ibthi (short for Ibthisam) and cheeky step-grandson Kai. MrsB loves to get these calls, but sadly Ibthi's internet access is not that fast so the definition is a bit poor. This low speed is not a country-wide thing (like say Sri Lanka, which has dire internet throughout) but is more a reflection on its relatively high cost in Maldives for most of it's people. So this is my blip of the day, and whilst it is not the most picturesque and technically perfect as possible, it is the one that means most to me and MrsB. By the way, every time I approached with the camera, Kai spotted me on the Skype webcam and ducked out of view. Just like his maama (grandma) in that respect.

Other than tourism-related and the odd eco travel programme, Maldives is not in the international news as much these days following the Presidential coup and controversial ousting of ex President Nasheed by Mohammed Waheed Hassan on 7th February, but violence and human rights offences continue to this day. In the meantime, the world awaits early democratic elections as has been demanded by the international community - and debated recently in the House of Commons.

Malé is certainly not the pristine and innocent place that I first lived and worked in between 1986 and 1988.