Peri peri chicken for the soul

Anna & John at the Chinese restaurant that's not the dodgy one.

On Wednesday it rained. And we figured out that we'd done pretty much everything that is worth doing in Suva. This combination was not encouraging for either me or Anna. Thursday morning it was still raining and Alex (bless him) came up with idea of going to the Fiji Museum in town. This was met by a narrow range of enthusiasm, from lukewarm to none. Then he remembered that there is a Nando's in town. Suddenly it felt like Christmas! For those of you that don't know it, Nando's is a chain of restaurants that serves grilled chicken and is populated mostly by teenagers. A good deal of Bythell pocket money has been pumped into Nando's in Newcastle over the years.

And what do you know? Nando's is even more delicious in Suva (if you ask me). And while we were tucking into our medium spiced peri peri chicken the sun came out and we decided that rather than go to the museum, we'd go to the market to buy our lovely housekeeper, Mela, a Fijian broom and then go swimming at the USP pool. Our hearts were gladdened by a combination of spicy poultry and sunshine.

Friday morning Anna had to sit English and maths exams at her new school. Poor thing, I thought it was just to make sure that she could speak English and that she could add and subtract, but it was more serious than that and she hasn't been to school for almost three months so she's forgotten everything that she ever learned. Nearly. She goes back next week for her interview to decide when to start and what classes to take. The head of the senior school wanted to engage me in helping to make decisions about Anna's education, but I declined. I wouldn't want to butt in and ruin it now.