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Madagascar–continued

TUESDAY, 5/17/05: 6:49AM: [Typed from note-card 20]: 12:00:30AM turn on bathroom light to shit LOOSEST at 12:13 and take FOURTH and FIFTH Imodium. Bed at 12:18. 5:30 take SIXTH and SEVENTH Imodium, feel feverish after another runny shit. At 5:36 wipe myself, flush, then shit MORE (LOOSE, without real DIARRHEA or that awful brownish slime that smells so awful, but with that characteristic soft-yellow toilet-paper residue that's hard to finish wiping off). At 5:43 find and take EIGHTH and last Imodium: 6 in NINE HOURS. 5:50 start to look for Cipro, still feeling faintly feverish and thinking of Lyn's comment, "Oh, from the traveler's palm, you have mosquito larvae floating inside you," and take Cipro One at 5:55AM. Lie. 6:28 Ken's up. 6:39 finish packing my blue bag, leaving dop kit for A&K bag with Cipro, and start typing. Ken's out of the john and gives me first Lomotil at 6:45, saying I should take the second, which he also gives me, when I have my next shit, which I hope with all the junk in me won't be until the hotel TONIGHT. Pack an extra $100 and the remains of a roll of toilet paper just to ensure against future disasters today. Finish typing this at 6:57, encouraging Ken to FINISH packing so we can leave RIGHT after breakfast. Leave to breakfast at 6:59, first into big-rolled dining room. Find our table with three rolls and guava jam and someone comes out with coffee and hot chocolate, and only at 7:25 does Roland enter, saying he's been trying to get the car here earlier than the previously scheduled 8AM. I'm back immediately (avoiding any conversation with him) to clean my teeth and pack SHIRT which, along with my jacket, I probably would have forgotten in the closet had Ken not reminded me, and type this until 7:31, unfortunately feeling the need to shit AGAIN! 7:36 repack my blue bag with my spare-medicine pack AND my dop kit, blowing my nose AGAIN in the remains of the roll of toilet paper, which I'll keep in my A&K bag today, Ken not back from breakfast yet at 7:42AM. Oh, Ken cancelled AM tour to old royal tombs for more sleeping and shopping-for-woodcarving time. Roland takes bags at 7:48, into car at 7:57. Car goes at 7:59. #5 landscape at 8:43 of fog and terraces. #6 bridge at 9:18. 9:50 into Ambositra. #7-8 toilet signs to 9:55. LONG pee, blessedly NO urge to shit. #10-11 woodworking shop at 10:04, #12 workers at 11:08. CAMERA battery DIES at 10:10 and it takes me to 10:16 to change it, evidently successfully. #13-19 shopgoods and video. Leave FIRST shop at 10:50. Bank changes $80 on KEN'S passport for 147,206A by 11:14. #19 "locked in the bank" at 11:07. 10:54-11:14: 20 minutes to finish all the paperwork needed for the exchange. #21 building and kids, #22 car and bachelor buttons at 11:21. #24 shop at 11:44. Shop to 11:52 and to restaurant Le Grand Hotel Ambositra. Ken's tilapia traded for good cheeses, my vegetable soup with croutons and cheese good, as was his canelle (passion fruit) rhum arrangée, but not my pamplemousse rhum arrangée which tasted better added to my delicious small limonade. My honey crepes too much at the end, Roland had a big steak and fries, which Ken ate, too. Cute "Gregory" (New Yorker cartoonist)-type guy at next table I keep staring at. I eat lots and feel OK. Roland flushes TWICE and leaves TERRIBLE smell after being in the john a LONG time. Has he trouble, TOO? Leave at 1:30, driver dining there at a different table and leaving much earlier. Visit last marquetry shop to 1:38, as Ken says, "As you said, there's always something new," this time a plaque cut from the inside of a large tin can and painted. Car leaves at 1:40. #25 a picture of washing hanging out at last at 1:43. Huge zebu parade videoed at 2:20. #29 at 2:34 taken at a HUGE speed from the highway when I didn't have the heart to say "Stop" when he'd just laboriously passed two slower vehicles that he'd then have to pass again if he stopped. Same for #30 at 2:35. Then an enormous, strung-out parade of AT LEAST 100 people walking toward us, having been to the weekly market in the next village; then the village, still fairly busy; then a smaller parade, perhaps 50 or even fewer, of people walking in our direction away from the same market. #31 jammed bus at 2:53, even Ken saying that was a great shot, though I didn't notice the live geese that he said were part of the overhead cargo. #33-35 RICE terraces at 3:19. #36-37 "Road kiln" per Ken, at 4:11. Roll 14: #1 not yet taken. 4:45 Tsara Guest House is FULL, he says, and I don't trust him, nor does Ken, who goes in and ARGUES with the hotel staff, even asking for a suite, but there DOES SEEM to be nothing: it's not a ploy by Roland to get us into a cheaper hotel. Drive down the same road to Zomatel, a branch of which we're scheduled to stay in tomorrow night before finally getting to Relais de la Reine, and long talk about rooms, and they start giggling, and when I ask if I used the wrong word, Roland hastens to explain they'd never been asked for an extra key before. OH? Like when I asked, "What would be the first word in the mind of someone who sees us: White? Foreigner? Tourist? Son of a bitch?" "Oh, never son of a bitch, maybe just 'Oh, someone to spend some money, give a cadeau, a bonbon.'" I glanced at Ken and said, "Remember the conversation with Aya yesterday?" when he said Roland would ALWAYS answer in an affirmative, non-negative way, and Ken nodded in agreement. So we'll never know. Up to room 105 and find two windows overlooking the LOBBY, another a back alley, the bathroom looking out onto a street. All curtains not sun-opaque, so we'll be up early again. Start unpacking at 5PM, and Ken's in the bathroom when at 5:25 Roland calls to say he's cleared with the office that we can have dinner in the Tsara. GREAT! Meet at the car at 7. Down to the bar about 5:30, Ken with a good planters punch, I with a tasty daiquiri in a pinched flute-glass, and bartender brings peanuts and when Ken starts using the straw to clear his teeth, the bartender comes over with a small plate of three toothpicks. We thank, then sign bill, and of course leave no tip. Back up to room at 6:28, sort some things out, repacking mostly, and get down at 6:56 to meet car, which leaves at 7, Roland schmoozing, as Ken calls it, with everyone and anyone. To the lobby of the Tsara (more talk) and into the glass-enclosed terrace dining room with five or six other couples, and order good vegetarian soup, very tender zebu in wine sauce with sautéed potatoes and mixed vegetables of which the green beans are perfect, and he has a house punch and I have a kir, when they don't have the $16 French white wine we'd ordered, and a bottle of tonic for 800A, and I eat all the soup, three or four pieces of bread with butter, about half the zebu, a few potatoes, all the green beans, and that's about it, tasting and not liking Ken's cod. Kobu dessert is gritty and tastes of stale chocolate, which Ken says it doesn't contain, and I leave most of it, paying 10,500A for drinks as we leave and Roland schmoozes and we pass the same group of 13 we had dinner with at the Hotel Camelia last night, and get back at 9PM, having GOTTEN two keys, and find breakfast starts at 6:30 and we leave at 7:30. Start typing at 9:04 but suddenly feel I have to shit: do so with trepidation, but three small turds come out of almost normal texture and color and smell, and I feel GREAT. Back to typing at 9:11, Ken getting two extra pillows, and starts reading but flakes out at 9:35, and I ask for five more minutes. PLEASED AS HELL that I didn't have to take the second Lomotil (which Ken says costs about two cents each), and will take the second Cipro when his alarm rings at 6AM tomorrow to get us up. Earplugs will go in and clothes off and into bed by 9:58 after brushing teeth. Only EIGHT hours' sleep MAXIMUM possible. Forgot to record day-before-yesterday's complete Actualism session trying to avoid illness or diarrhea, and yesterday's attempts between shits to bathe myself in White Light to stop shitting.

WEDNESDAY, 5/18/05: Pee at 12:39AM, weird feeling of "others" around, like we're still part of a group of 9, or that some sort of group is about to intrude on us. 2:34-2:41 I shit and record dream at 2:44AM as I sit and shit, finishing at 2:46AM with a second Lomotil. Ken gets up at 3:45, and again at 5:40, when I ask him to leave light off, then look at watch and realize we'll both be getting up soon. About 5:55 the lobby light goes on, lighting up the window opposite our beds, and I jokingly ask Ken to shut that one off, too. As he clicks something at his night-table, the light DOES go off and we both laugh at the coincidence, and he says, "We're getting up anyway," and he'd clicked off his alarm, since as I type this between 5:58 and 6:03, his 6AM alarm does not go off. I ask him if I can take another Lomotil, if I have another loose movement, if I took one at 2:30AM, and he says I can. "Do you need one?" "I don't know yet." "Do you need the bathroom now?" "I'll let you know if I need it." He comes out at 6:04 and turns on the ghastly neon room-light, which I ask him to turn off, but he says, "If you want your pill, you'll have to let me get it." So it stays on and I complete this at 6:06 to check at what time I took Cipro One yesterday. I DID take it at 5:55AM, as I'd remembered, so now I take Cipro Two at 6:08AM. 6:19: shit loosely enough that I took Lomotil 2 at 6:12, washed my face, used my deodorant, listened to a chorus of back-up beeps from the trucks outside our bathroom window, remembered the dogs barking last night, and hearing all the sounds of people from upstairs, in adjoining rooms, in the adjoining hallways, and really glad we're not staying HERE anymore. Ken reluctantly gives me a third Lomotil for insurance, reminding me he does NOT have an unlimited quantity of them, and I say I CERTAINLY hope I won't NEED a third Lomotil today, but I'd rather have one as insurance than depend on asking him for one if I needed it. Ken goes through more about the tea estate, and I state, "I feel perfectly fine except for the shits." Turn this off at 6:23 to finish dressing for 6:30 breakfast. Leave for breakfast at 6:27, beat to the tables by a group of maybe 12 little old Japanese ladies. We're served at the table: hot chocolate goes OK, but when Ken asks for an omelet with cheese, there's much agitated discussion between the waitress and Roland, and finally he gets his cheese omelet. I have the nerve to ask for a ham omelet, and she laughs at me as the desk-clerk laughed when I asked for a second key. I'm just a barrel of fun. No ham. The omelet is quite good, Roland shares my butter as of course Ken does not, and at 7AM he says we should be at the car at 7:30, not, of course, saying a word about moving our larger bags from our room. I finish this at 7:05, stomach full, but thankfully not feeling like shitting. Because he's wearing a short-sleeved shirt, I'll put my short-sleeved shirt into the A&K bag in case I need it later. Close blue bag at 7:12, ready for hopeful pickup, Ken "will try the toilet again" ("Oh, it works," I reply), and I prepare to fill my A&K bag with this at 7:14. Forget pills at breakfast! Close A&K at 7:18. Our toilet-mat says "Executive Room." Down at 7:23, no one at car. Load trunk at 7:30, Roland down at 7:34, leave at 7:36. Roll 14: #1-2 zebu in town 8:02. #3 zebu portrait 8:04. #4 rice fields 8:33. #5 amphitheater, #6 vineyards, #7 smoke all at 8:39. #8 woman and poinsettia at 8:50. #9 wine bottling and corking at 9:07. I learn that peach flavor comes not from the fruit but from peach LEAVES! #11 zebu herds and hill beyond and zebu-sale town at 9:32. #12 silk embroidery 9:25. 9:36 I spend 20,000A on silk embroidery. #13 paper tree at 9:42. #17 bonia at 9:59. Buy three postcards for 1800A and sheet of Antaimoro paper in Ambalavao for 400A! Shops to 10:19. #21 moving at 10:25. To zebu market 10:30. To #26, and video, market to 10:42. Loads of market and surrounding scenery to #32 at 10:49. #33 flowers 10:54. 2000A at town GATE. #34-35 "Olgas" at 11:04. #36 bridge. #37 hill at 11:09. Roll 15: #8 foty on top of tree. #9 tariff sign at 11:45. #14 at 12:33. TO park entrance at 12:52. REMARKABLE road and views!! Lunch 12:58-1:12, museum 1:17. Highest peak, Imariuslanitra at 2,658 meters. Mountain chain Ampiadianombilahy. #15 chart, #16 real, #17 picture at 1:24. To car at 1:36, and video. Leave 1:41. #23 water at 1:45. #26 transcendent view at 2:29. #27 "ice" at 2:39. To Ambiolua 3:16. #28 solitary peaks (?) 3:20. #29 at 3:32. #30 other side at 3:26. #31 WEST side of hills. #32 mountain at 3:48. Land flattens. #33 relatively treeless at 4:31. Arrive Zamatel at 5:15. Room 9 at 5:28. Start shower 5:33-6. Finish cheese sandwich from lunch and go to bar at 6:08. Two coco punches. Ken breaks his flashlight and buys another in the tiny dark shop I didn't even enter. Back to bar at 6:50. Finish dinner 7:45, cheese omelet appetizer greasy but good, curry chicken tender with little meat, though I DO finally find the white meat, and Ken's chicken was tough. Also, Roland's steak is very tough, my yogurt is vanilla, store-bought, and OK, though Roland is served homemade yogurt. 8:26: fantastic, incredible day, stoned on the two punches and a large bottle of Gold. Ken DEMANDS windows be kept open, DOES agree to use earplugs. He INSISTS on walking in the bathroom in his bare feet and is SURPRISED to find the floor WET! With a curtainless shower? Breakfast served from 6-10AM, KEN wants to eat when HE gets up. So at least I have a place to TYPE after 6 [typing now in dim room-light at 6:40], since I CLEARLY can't do it HERE. WORRY about spending money---then Ken says, "Give it to Roland as tip"! YES!! He flushes and says, "If I didn't do that, the bathroom would be unusable!" And I smirk inwardly in my slippers. He gets into bed IMMEDIATELY, smugly leaving ME to turn off the lights, and he says something about his flashlight by his bed, and I say that with the light coming in all the windows he'll be able to SEE clearly in the middle of the night, but he perversely misheard and retorts, "I SAID I have my FLASHLIGHT," when my entire point was that he wouldn't NEED his flashlight, and indeed during the night I see him going without light TO the bathroom, using the flashlight only to show his way on the floor to his bed. Takes me a long time to get to sleep with the light streaming in, the hardness at the bottom of the thin swaybacked foam bed, and the skimpiness of the lumpy pillow, which feels like a bundle of pebbles when doubled over for a usable thickness.

THURSDAY, 5/19/05: Wake at 2AM and note the dream that I type into file 8. Get my roll of toilet paper (better than the almost Japanese rice-paper smoothness of the supplied paper) "in case," but only pee. Drink water. See tiny frog in corner. Wake about 5:40 and break my watchstrap AGAIN in another place! He gets up to pee and I start a long conversation about substituting the "long trip before plane ride back to Tana" on our last day in the south, and he finds we spend the last night IN Tulear, so there's no problem! That leads to my asking, "Do you really think you'll need to go back to sleep at 6:10 in the morning?" He smiles and humphs and says, "I KNEW you were leading there; YES, we can get up now and go to breakfast." He starts shaving and I start typing. Start dressing and go to breakfast at 6:42. Take Cipro Three 6:45AM. Good cheese omelet with apple juice and a big pitcher of hot chocolate, and ask the cute desk-boy if he has a stapler and he asks me for the watch so he can fix it, and borrow 1000A from Ken when the boy returns my watch perfectly, with an entrancing smile. Ken lingers over a bottle of sparkling Crystal water, admits to the guilt of telling Roland we might leave here at 10:30, but REFUSES to find his room number to tell him we are ready to leave early. I continue typing when we get back from breakfast at 7:30, and he takes his book and goes to the bar to READ. I pee and debate shitting but decide to continue typing to the end, which I do at 8:11, seeing what a shit would be like NOW. Same shit-smell wafts through window that I struck a match for last night that Ken thought referred to his PERSONAL smell, which I assured him I'd NEVER smelt and DIDN'T mean for him last night, and apologized for leaving him with that impression. Shit a bit to 8:20, and though it's still SAFFRON in color, the texture is solid enough and there are no accompanying fluids, so I decide NOT to take another Lomotil. Forgot AGAIN to take my morning pills to breakfast. Brush teeth to 8:32. Ken returns as I'm washing my face at 8:36 to say he encountered Roland, and we won't leave before 10AM ANYWAY because, "We'd just have to sit in the reception area of the Relais and watch people pass by." "That would be preferable," I observe, and he utters his usual "That's just the way it is." I'm amazed that file 5 has lasted so long, giving me hope that the remaining 9 days can be accommodated fully. #34-36 of the interior and exterior of Zamatel in Ihosy at 8:42. #37 bathroom at 8:50. Roll 16. Pack everything by 9AM and prepare to leave luggage in room (because, as Ken reminds me, the CAR will come around to pick up luggage). Pack this at 9:01. Start New Yorker 9:08; Roland comes at 9:39. Load and leave at 9:47. #1-2 view back from the road at 10:06. Long flat boring drive with few trees and fewer people and even fewer cars until driving down a dirt road to meet the guide, Charles, at 11:25-11:32, setting up two itineraries, seemingly both only mornings, letting me wonder what I'll do in the afternoons while Ken lazes. #3-4 hills at 11:40. #5 cliff colors at 11:45. #6 shadows on rocks at 11:46. #7 Queen's throne at 11:51. #8 Badami Temple semblance at 11:52. #9 Potola Palace at 11:54. 11:57 to reception of LUXURY place, to room 3 at 12:20. Lunch 12:30-1:30 of chicken and pineapple for me, not very good, eau gazeuse only to drink, their tuna canned; their shrimp good, my brochette of porc somewhat fatty but filling with vegetables, and Ken hates his pear tart's crust, while my cheese tray is VERY filling. #10 from hotel-room patio [6:54PM 5/19/05] at 1:32. GREAT walk from 1:35-2:33, when I wander out onto the back lawn, see the gap in the fence for the bridge over the stream, the path continuing to the base of the rocks, the sunny rocks providing a slope up which I easily get to the first cairn to look over more rocks, going first to the right to find no bridge over the river of grassy sand, but to the left is ANOTHER smaller cairn that shows a sand path across, and climb up another slope, turning at the cow's-head skull-rock, and get atop a marvelous rock on which I can sit and rotate to take pictures eventually to #24 (#16 has a white car, I find, at 1:58), sit from 2-2:17, enthralled by the shapes, colors, and silence of the amphitheater. Back to unpack at 2:33-2:47, filling a shelf above my computer. Jeremy goes after Roland, so I have to go after Ken in reception (where he thought Roland would meet us) to leave at 3PM. #25 COLORS at 3:08. Masinjoany (makeup plant) (pachypodium is miniature baobab with spines). #28 museum 3:38. #30 3:51. #32 burning primary forest 3:59. 4:12 end tape 56 in Ilakaka, Sapphire City, counter must be RESET, which explains why the counter ACCUMULATED the time used, rather than resetting to zero each time the camera was turned back on, ANOTHER unexpected advantage and improvement. #33 Tapia/Uapaca tree, ANCIENT, 4:22. #34 at 4:28 before sunset at Window Rock, where we drove after Ilakaka, intending to be first, but another group of three was there, to be joined eventually by over a dozen, with four or five guides who all circled around Roland, who held forth with his usual brio, and I tell Ken that he should ALSO have said that one of the group's complaints was that Roland spent almost as much time jabbering in Malagasy with his compatriots as he did directing and informing the group (as he talks more to Jeremy, sometimes even obviously comparing notes on what we're passing, than tells us what he knows). #35 at 4:41, on walk to Sunset Window. #36 Window at 4:42. #37 grasses at 4:45. Roll 17: #1 nose at 4:50. Video start of tape 57 to 5PM. #4 nose at 5:02. #10 as near sunset as judgeable at 5:14. Clouds obscured the real thing at the end, though for some moments what appeared to be a tiny bit of the sun dotted, then lined, the horizon, and then it proceeded to get darker, not very colorful except for a brief golden underlining of the lower cloud and some bright pink to the south of the sunset. #12 crowd at 5:17. Leave 5:27, I actually SAYING, "We want to lead with dust parade, not follow it," and Jeremy seemed to understand, because he started the motor while Roland was schmoozing with the other guides, and then surprised me by getting Charles into the car, too. Ken and I wondered how he GOT there. We drive to the hotel and Charles confronts us seriously to say that "My parents telephoned from Fianar, and I must go see them tomorrow, but I may be back tomorrow night to take you out the next day." We're astounded, but what can we say but, "We hope it's nothing serious." Later I suggest to Ken that he got a more lucrative job (or thought to myself that he didn't want to be slowed down by two old farts), but that he would get a substitute from his village, but when Ken asked his name, he seemed already to know it was Jacques. I smell something tilapia-y. We go to the bar about 5:47, still vaguely light, and I suggest we sit outside, and he has a Desirade (which finally satisfies his wish for a rhum orangée) and I a gin fizz served with a bottle of fizzy water and a pail of ice, which goes down VERY well, since I'd SAID I was thirsty. The waiter, one of whom appears to be VERY gay, comes down with a wooden tray of four zebu samosas, which Ken praises to the skies, and four pits of peanuts, which I enjoy with the rest of the fizzy water with ice, dropping one on the table and gallantly throwing it over the balcony railing to the grass below. They'd turned the lights on over us, which Ken insisted they had to do or we wouldn't be able to see, and a BIG bat (I think) flew past, something somewhat smaller flew down, and a grasshopper landed on Ken's crotch, and when he chased it with his hand it flew within 6 inches of his face and buzzed off while Ken Ugh-ed. Back to the room at 6:15, and I walked back outside to see where the apartments between the rock that I thought I saw would be, came to the tennis court, went WAY past it to another ROAD and a string of lights that appeared to go on forever. A young man (who later appeared below us in the restaurant) happened by and I asked in French if this was still the Relais, and he assured me it was, "Up to the..." and I didn't get the word, but it was probably "stable." Walk back to room, clued by our ajar patio doors, at 6:40 to take notes, then ask Ken to change seats and type until 7PM, when I wash my hands and face and get pills and get to dining room about 7:10 with, surprise!, Roland there already, brushing our apologies off, and we sit in the door, where my head protects the candle-flame from going out, and start with CROCODILE mousse, rather like a bologna, bland and not fatty and not distinctive, will order the soup next. Ken finds a great South African KWV Sauv Blanc for 24,000A that we BOTH like, and a bottle of fizzy water that Roland shares, hopefully repaying the bottle of HIS water we took for our room---KEN took for our room at my insistence because I already HAD our 3/4 empty bottle from earlier. Then my shrimp was MUCH too much, Ken eating my cauliflower, I eating a lot but hardly all, feeling good, and Ken's Nougat au Miel was wonderful to him and my profiteroles were good enough, but not enough to order twice. Roland greets ALL of the guides and MOST of the tourists, a group of 18 Germans passing outside for orientation, having just arrived, he said, and the SAME 14 (12 plus guide at Hotel Camelia and now driver at the same table here) on our level. Really very good meal, Roland schmoozing with the four-month trainee who poured our water and wine, and Ken signed for the check (in a box) after remembering that we had a full bottle of eau gazeuse (correct spelling, per Ken, do global check!) for lunch. Back at 8:27, pleasantly full, and I start typing, pausing to fill my water bottle for tomorrow and my pillbox for breakfast, while Ken continues to read to himself and me from the guidebook, and I finish at 9:12, relieved to be caught up and staying here for THREE nights. They put down the mosquito nets, both of which open toward the CENTER, and Ken moved his table between our beds, so I have to have my stuff INSIDE to have access to it. Brush teeth to 9:26 and have frequent computer shut-off problems; got to change batteries! To bed at 9:42, after at LAST finding batteries! WORRY that changing the batteries might ELIMINATE what's already in the machine, but it should certainly NOT work like that! When I GO to change the batteries, it appears one is in BACKWARD, which of course can't possibly be (just as I couldn't possibly forget that I asked Roland if he EVER worked with Jacques yesterday, as Ken said I did and I think I didn't, and just as I could never forget my jacket, though Roland handed me my jacket as I stood at the desk asking if possibly the mosquito curtains in our room couldn't be switched from the inside to the outside). Feel so hot on getting to bed that I debated asking Ken to change the position of the fan, but I finally get to sleep.

FRIDAY, 5/20/05: Wake at 12:20, 2:40, and at 4:05 with a dream. Up most of the time after, starting to fret about the trip back and determine to take my first diazepam, and unreasonably (as it turns out) worrying that taking the batteries out of the AlphaSmart would ERASE whatever had been recorded, reassuring myself at the same time that that couldn't possibly be true. Also think about buying a new stamp catalog after they complete their Korean collection-listing and transferring all the values into THAT, and more fussing about my archives, both printed and on video. Try a bit of Actualism, but it doesn't work. Up at 6:29 just before Ken's alarm and take a shower until 6:54, complaining about the narrow stream of the water, and Ken assures me he had no trouble at all with it. Is he becoming DELIBERATELY perverse, as he seemed to me at the breakfast table, quickly pointing out EVERY inconsistency and forgetting (even some that didn't seem to me to exist). These batteries surely have SOME life left. To breakfast at 7, asking Roland if we could eat outside. He says no, so we have our table at the door, but when we leave after chocolate and rolls and jam and honey and a fruit bowl, we see the gay couple having THEIR breakfast outside. Take first diazepam after taking Cipro Four at 6:30, or did I record that ALREADY. Didn't record before the small dots of what might be resin that fell from some tree or ceiling onto the surface of the AlphaSmart and still catches glints of light at the right angles. Ken takes his sunglasses for the first time, and applies sunscreen in the mirror, which I will do now at 7:47, meeting guide at the car at 8AM. Sunscreen to 7:53, and OF COURSE in those six minutes I was in the bathroom, the ONLY time since my shower, Ken found it necessary to request a toilet-try, even though I assured him a number of times that the toilet DOES work. He's taken TWO Lomotil TODAY so far! I finish this at 7:55AM. To car at 8AM. Leave for guide at 8:02. To office 8:15. #13 girl making play-village 8:20. Meet Jacques 8:23 and leave 8:24. Start 17 km at 8:27. #14 2 canyons at 8:50. #15 KESTREL on left tree 9:07. Arrive and leave car at 9:10. #16 SPOT camera-feature used on flowers 9:34. #17 PINK and green and yellow lichen 9:50. #19 people (red) below, peak above 10:12. #21 Ken and Jacques and Roland 10:16 at King's bath. #22-23 farthest into Canyon aux Singes 10:31. #24 King's pool at 10:22, with Ken #25 at 10:24. #26 me and peak (spot-focus/Ken) 10:32. Start BACK 10:33. Moth larva spotted! NO lemurs at all. Lots of people going both ways, talking. Jacques almost CONSTANTLY hand-in-hand with Ken. Into sun walking at 10:50, getting hot. #27 morning glory PLANT and hut (spot) 11AM. #28 foty 11:05. #29-30 zebu corral and peak 11:15. Into car 11:25. #32-33 iguana (?) 12:05, car ahead spotted it and stopped. #34-37 Ranohira market 12:20. Roll 18: #1 market 12:25. Sit while they talk, change film, they don't want to pay guide? No, Roland doesn't want to pay increase for guide from 1200A to 2000A. Ken gives him 5000A as his tip. Talk 12:15-12:36, Roland "will see" about guide for tomorrow. To hotel 12:42, directly in to order a gin and tonic (HE asked, eau gazeuse ou tonic?), absolutely lovely, then cheese quesadillas (chicken and cheese in crepes with corn and tomatoes on side as sauce), grilled chicken (not bad but too much) with GOOD frites, and fruit salad whose juice is greatly enhanced by vanilla ice cream. Lunch over 1:54, having SECOND gin and tonic. Watch and video what Ken verifies as hoopoes and a crested drongo with scissors-tail in tree and on ground, hoopoe crest going UP on landing. Two of them battling for pecking order. That to 2:24 and Ken comes for walk at 2:28, complaining constantly as I lead him to the observation point, to which he replies, "I'm not impressed," and turns back at 2:51. #2-3 amphitheater and Ken in sun at 2:48. #4 at 2:53. Long video at 3:15. #5 Machu Picchu 3:20. #6 pachypodium and aloe 3:23. #7 spiny pachypodium 3:25. #11 hived hole in cliff 3:42. #13-14 panorama of Relais 3:48, our cabin roof to left of middle bougainvillea. It's constantly sunny and hot and fly-buzzy, and I'm getting footsore and observe the road that skirts ALL of the bottoms of the rocks if I want to go out at sunset. Back at 4:02, feeling ready to shit. Ken opens door, I give him two minutes to finish in bathroom, and shit copiously, hard-but-soft but back to yellowish, but I still don't take Lomotil. Shower to 4:23, feeling wonderful. Ken writes more cards and goes to find if he should mail them here, or in Tulear, or in Tana. Fill pillbox and type this to 4:46, sitting on my bed in shorts, nothing more to do until dinner at 7, since these old batteries seem to be holding out to NOW! Search for and simply cannot FIND note sheets 16 and 20! WHY should they be MISSING and WHERE could they BE? Find unfinished cards, of which there are 6, and keep charging battery, which GAVE OUT earlier today, but charged up to 30 minutes in about 4 minutes, and has been on charge since before my shower. Type this at 5:15, about to write last three postcards. Ken sits outside and reads until it's too dark, and sunset passes completely unnoticed. Write 6 cards to 5:37 to Susie, Charles, Spartacus, John, Rita, and Carolyn. Up to reception at 5:43, where they don't sell stamps or collect postcards to mail because the service is so terrible. I need three more cards and six more sets of stamps. I suggest Trivial Pursuit, but after the daughter of the owner (or founder) pries out the mis-pushed pies from the unyielding pie-piece-holders, as if she's used to doing it, we find the set is in FRENCH, and doesn't even have DICE to start with, so we move to Scrabble, which Ken wins with his usual diligence, not allowing me to use qi, and I have another gin and tonic, he has a rhum arrangée with jejupe, and we finish precisely at 6:59, Roland waiting for us, and I order the KWV wine again even though Ken makes the ludicrous statement, "Well, with those Germans smoking, I just couldn't have wine." I roll my eyes and order it anyway, Roland has a glass at the start and finish, and Ken has at least three glasses, so it's gone. My creme de potiron is bland until I add a huge hunk of butter, which makes it much better, and my poulet aux cepes is much better than Ken's inedible fish, which Roland eats. We both have Tarte Aux Pok-Pok, a tomato-family gooseberry-looking, vaguely cherry-tasting local fruit, very good. Back (Ken taking the long way as usual, even though the back way is now LIT!) at 8:15 and I type this to 8:24 while Ken undresses COMPLETELY, but we can't possibly go to sleep now, since breakfast is at 8, departure at 9 for a lunch-included trek. I'm tired but will try to read for a bit now at 8:26, batteries still going strong! Finish my May 2 New Yorker and give it to Ken at 8:45 after he announced he was going to sleep at 8:40PM. Into the bathroom and close door and brush teeth and get to bed at 9:07PM, still keeping watch on bedpost.

SATURDAY, 5/21/05: 5:49AM: Wake at 12:30, 2:15, 4-something, fragments of dreams forgotten; 5:15, and doze maybe until 5:49, when I debate getting up to shit, and finally gather note cards and computer and sit and type without watch. Blow nose and it turns out to have BLOOD in it. Wipe and it's so clean I can't tell color of shit. Take last Cipro just to be rid of it, with NOT its required LOTS of water, surely after 6AM. Check watch at 6:05, muse until 6:10, then do an absolutely complete and exhaustive Actualism session until 7AM, when I can't stay in bed any longer, and Ken's been in bed for more than 10 hours, and I recall that the alternate name for malaria is "sleeping sickness," and conclude he must have caught it, despite Lariam, when he insisted on sleeping outside the mosquito netting in Nosy Be. Type this to 7:05 and DETERMINE to locate the missing two note-pages before breakfast at 8AM. Also, determine to get rid of MOST of my excessive ariary by paying the Relais de la Reine bill in cash, which, with three bottles of wine at 25,000A and at least 8 4000A drinks for 32,000A, must be at least 60,000A. I have 61,700A and $40 in my wallet, and 72,500A and $560 in my A&K bag, for totals of 134,200A and $600, and Ken apologizes for feeling bad because he has "constant diarrhea." Dress and type this at 7:16, feeling like shitting myself. Start searching for missing pages 16 and 20 when at 7:35AM Ken demands to go to breakfast to see how he will feel. Up for fruit cocktail, omelet aux fines herbes, which Roland says is only parsley, but Ken detects rosemary. He has scrambled eggs to which they added tomatoes, which he doesn't care for. We're about finished, Ken finishing my juice, when at 8:09 he announces he feels dizzy, sits for a bit, very pale, and lies down on the floor. Roland and I concerned, Roland asking if he wants a doctor, but finally he only wants a new bottle of water and a roll of toilet paper, which I get and he goes down to room himself, risking a fall, which is silly, but I get there and he's opened the door and lain down in bed. I pee and type this at 8:23 while Roland reserves Ken's lunch here and takes his box lunch off the order. FIND two missing pages: my set is now COMPLETE, as I crow to Ken at 8:35. Put everything in order and prepare to shit a last time, now at 8:37, before putting on sunscreen and joining Roland for 9AM walk. Have a COPIOUS mostly solid shit, of slightly yellowy-brown color, and decide to take Lomotil and my spare roll of toilet paper in case I get hit today. Put on sunscreen and watch and pack A&K bag and put computer on desk with Ken's permission, who may even end up taking a swim today, and leave for car at 8:55AM. Car leaves at 8:58. #15 entrance 9:01. Roland: "Even STRONG ones turn back where we did yesterday." What does Ken's book say about that? Stop at office 9:15. MUCH talk between Jeremy and Roland. Jacques is frowning, others willing? But not for Roland's price? Leave 9:17. 9:18 stop in town to try to get guide, Roland talking fast. Jeremy goes out. Roland volunteers nothing. He points out Bara woman's hairdo, tight cornrows ending in two balls on either side below the ears. He "chats" with street guy. Roland: "I can do it myself, but we must have local guide, too," after I ask, "Are we waiting for someone?" Another guy comes up to talk to Roland. Jeremy looks lost, too. Roland: "We're late, and they're more interested in money than in guiding." Ferdinand gets in back at 9:30. At 9:31 Ferdinand gets out "to buy some fruit for me to eat." Coincidentally in sight of office? They CLEARLY see us. At 9:33 Ferdinand runs to office. Jeremy drives to in front of office at 9:35. Ferdinand returns with a slip of paper. We continue down that same dirt road. #16 group washing at river 9:41. #17 Nazama Canyon and River at 9:47. #18 Nazama sign and we start in at 9:49. #19 sea of grass 9:50. #20 4 sisal flowers 10:02. #22 insect-parasite nest on mimosa 10:10. Hole: snake goes after ants, ants FEED it grass to make it grow fat, then EAT it! Never heard of snakivorous ants! #23 small falls 10:42. To Cascade des Nymphs 10:51, just over an hour for a marked 45-minute walk, not bad with stops for questions and looks and photos. #24-25 too-dark shots, much video to 10:58. Leave for Piscine Bleu at 11:02. #26 ants' nest (with social spiders!) one foot across with "spot" setting. #27 small falls/Roland 11:12. #28-29 small falls, two part. #30 Voakonga (always TWO) fruit split for latex for guinea fowl trap 11:22. Red-fronted brown lemur "ball" videoed at 12:02. #31 on way to Piscine Bleu at 12:10. AT Piscine Bleu 12:15. #32-33 falls into Piscine Noir 12:22. Video to 12:29. Lunch 12:32-1:04: orange juice 200 ml that I gulp and want more, sipping my private supply and Roland saying he supplemented HIS water with tap water. Thanks. HUGE chicken breast half to Ferdinand, who eats it to the bone, as he does the 1/3 rice-bowl I give him. I eat two tomatoes, two bananas, chocolate piece labeled Relais de la Reine (which I never saw before or after, but it was old and dry anyway), and orange. #35-37 lunch surroundings at 1:07. Roll 19: #1-2 falls, #3 people in back 1:17. #5-6 Piscine Noir at 1:20. #7 spider web 1:26. #8 ALSO web. #10 rocks. #11 deeps of Piscine Bleu, with flash 1:26. 1:27 start back. #13 spider web 1:37. #14 tristema 1:41. #15 fern 1:43. Video water beetle 2:04. #16-17 at START. #19 cascade 2:23. Ring-tailed lemur videos to 2:51. #22 Lila berries, NO leaves 2:54. #23 spider in seedy (filled with seeds) web 3:04. #24 two-pandanus panorama 3:09. Recall that Ferdinand was PERFECT in offering his hand when I needed it and taking it away when I knew I could do it myself, AND by pointing SO exactly to a bird or lemur that I could see it INSTANTLY. And he and Roland jabbered CONSTANTLY during the trek, AND he knew Roland for a long time. #24 screw pandanus 3:11. To car at 3:14. Borrow 1000A from Roland to give a total of 7000A to Ferdinand as a tip, since I'm sure Roland paid him as little as possible, and I SURE hope he didn't tell Roland how much I gave him or Roland would DEDUCT it from what he gave him. Ferdinand off at 3:30. All leave and back to car and leave town at 3:34. Back to hotel 3:52, Ken fine, to bar for 2 litchi rhum arrangées and two gin and tonics for me, JUST lovely. Our bill so far is 103,000A+, about what I thought. Ask for TV and "maybe ce soir" but I show it all on LCD screen for Ken and outside at 5:15 to watch last sun from hill and last row of hills behind hotel "going out." Cool wind now at 5:12, sun and last of gin and tonic gone as I watch from balcony. Truckload of hotel laborers going to home in town. Out to watch sunset and climb rocks in slippers, steep part in bare feet, and pinky and purply climax at 5:30, then wander far grounds to 5:50 and in to shower 6-6:22, delightful, and change shorts and socks, Ken snoring in bed. Type in bathroom 6:23-6:52, out to see him waking, and watchstrap breaks AGAIN. To dinner just before 7, first into only-set lower dining room, get three more staples for my watchband, but it breaks AGAIN at the end of dinner. Dinner 7-8:30, good potage St. Germain, poor duck with ginger, lots of fizzy water and get a secondary South African Sauvignon Blanc that Ken hates but still manages to drink half of, and a grande eau gazeuse that I drink most of. Cheerful last dinner here, back at 8:30 to fuss with stuff (new earplugs, cutting open both our mefloquines for tomorrow, Ken reading in chair, my recharging finished, Ken packing) and type from 8:50-9:08, Ken eager for bed: 7:30 breakfast, 8:30 departure, and let's hope his bowels hold. Bed at 9:32. QUICKLY to sleep.

SUNDAY, 5/22/05: 4:30AM: Wake after an erotic dream and hope it's at LEAST 4 or 5AM and it's RIGHT between. Think a bit and get up at 4:36AM to type dream. Tiny ants on bathroom floor the first sign of interior insects here since the tiny beetle headed toward my slipper last night then veered away, as I laughingly told Ken. Blow my nose (not bloody this time) and shit a few gratifyingly hard turds. But the yellowy-brown mucus is back on the wiping paper. Back to bed at 4:55. Doze, have another dream, try Actualism but get back to counting days (5-6), meals with Roland (6), flights (3), things to catch up with when I get back to NYC, and at 6:32 I just decide to get up, at the same time Ken's gotten out of bed, having slept well, too, feeling much better, thank goodness, so I put on a warm shirt, feel the tip of my right index finger slightly sore where I bent off the loose part yesterday, chewed off the remaining nail, then emery-boarded the rough edges until it was smooth, though still very much at the quick, and I think to get some antiseptic and bandage it now at 6:41 (looking at my totally ruined watch). Manage to pack by 7AM and turn on computer, which TOTALLY dies! Shit AGAIN and finish dressing at 7:10. At Ken's demand, I figure ROUGH bills and come out about 100,000A ahead BEFORE I pay Relais bill, by 7:20. Breakfast 7:25. Different fruit in cocktail, good onion omelet, Roland arrives 7:37 oozing apologies. I leave 7:50 to pay 141,800A bill to 8AM (having gotten 40,000A of it from Ken, so I could have SOME left for future use) and down to room to change shirts and pack water and pee and count 26,200A left to me. Ken has over 100,000A. We decide on 40,000A to Jeremy tonight, his last drive of us. At first a crow chases a kite, then the kite chases the crow! At 8:15: guy outside is WAITING for our bags at 8:20. Load truck 8:26, leave at 8:27. Colorful tomb at 9AM. (Roland: "Quick, so they don't see us and charge us for it.") Stop at Zombitse-Vohibasia at 9:38, closed on Sunday, but guy comes running up and opens small Bara Museum. #28 inaugurated 9/02 and museum behind. #29 aloe requested by Ken 9:42. #30 chameleon. 1997 sapphire discovery. Video 3 chameleons. Leave 10:13. #31-35 of tomb of Mahafaly chief at 10:38. Road is plain, then wooded, then up-and-down, partly burned, but I missed a GREAT photo of a BEAUTIFUL tree half-green and half-burned. #35 baobab 10:46. #37 chameleon kids at baobab to whom Roland says nothing should be paid. Roll 20: #1-2 cotton fields 11:02. #3 baobab and 4 crows 11:35. #4 milestone count from Tana 11:59. Arrive Hotel Capricorn 11:25, dingy reception with postcards at 1000A. Spend 8000A for Madagascar, Le Sud, unpack a bit, pee, and turn on A/C. Lunch at 12:47-1:55: hot vegetarian soup that's too much to finish, GOOD TENDER chicken Chinoise style, again not finished, with good fries, and get "banana nature" for dessert until they serve me two plain bananas, so I exchange it for Ken's delicious noisette ice cream, with which I continue to eat the delicious salted peanuts they put on the table. I leave to check that this is WORKING again, and type, when Ken returns to say he had to convince the barman that we'd pay the drink bill in the morning. Finish this at 2:15, having unpacked the A&K bag and hung up some clothes, having talked Roland into moving up the arboretum trip from 3PM to 2:30. Caught up, bright bedside light, and feeling content, Ken saying he's feeling better than he has in DAYS. GREAT!! Finish this at 2:17PM. Unpack more, put film away, out to Reception at 2:25. To car to have Jeremy say he'll be sleeping in Isola tonight and driving to Tana tomorrow. #5 deserted Hotel Capricorn 2:27. Roland shows up at 2:38, excusing again. Arrive Arboretum D'Antsokay 2:58. Italian couple with us, speaking in English, from Turin, and Prosper continues to 4:05, Ken tipping him 2000A and I buying three last [5:51PM, 5/22/05] postcards for 2400A, waiting a LONG time before getting 600A change. Dizzying detail about obscure plants, most endemic to Madagascar. #6 sign at 4:12, when we leave. #7-8 bricks and fisherfolk 4:16. #9 oxcart on fly from car on road 4:22. Video road to hotel and on way to "beach," where absolutely nothing was visible. Stop at Vassili's 4:40, get yogurt with honey while Ken gets it with recommended preserved fruit, Ken aghast at 20,000A price, but that's francs and he pays the 4000A gratefully, Roland saying we shouldn't tip owner. Roland takes two pints home, packed by Greek's local wife. Leave 5:14, down different streets, and to hotel at 5:23, saying goodbye to Jeremy, then giving him the agreed 40,000A tip, with which he seems pleased enough, wishing us a good continued trip and shaking hands. Roland says dinner's at 7. 5:31 write last 3 postcards to Shelley, Laird, and Edgardo to 5:40. Then start typing, going into bathroom as maid comes in to see if she can find electrician OR switch us to another room. Finish this at 6PM, worrying that the fresh, updated air-flight list has departure tomorrow at 9AM while Roland says we leave at 2:05! 6:03: Ken: "Oh, I checked desk, and flight tomorrow IS at 2PM." DAMN! 6:04: Ken: "We're changing rooms to next door!" DAMN!! But the A/C DOES work better, and we're switched by 6:14 and I write this to 6:16 and Ken demands to go for a drink. He has a Ti Punch that he says would have been better with ice cubes, which they've told us have been made with "eau du robinette," and I have a gin/tonic that's not quite as good as at the Relais. I decide to take a second diazepam today, so go back to the room to get it, and find that Roland has joined Ken, so we move to the dining table at 7PM, I starting with a good scrambled eggs under mushrooms, then a chicken scaloppine that is quite wonderful with frites, and a large THB with some of Ken's sparkling water, so I end up quite full even without the addition of the honey to the Pain Perdu. Find we have breakfast at 7, lunch at 11:30, and leave for the airport at 12:30, staying in a ROOM at the Hilton until 9:30PM or so. Long two days ahead. Finish this at 8:37, having lit the mosquito ring in our room because there were lots of mosquitoes in the dining room, and it would be more comfortable in our air conditioning, which it certainly is. Prepare to actually work some puzzles to pass time doing nothing this last full day in Madagascar. Ken says he's going to sleep at 9PM and goes to bed! I work puzzles until 9:18, brush teeth, take pills, finish this, and go to bed at 9:42, still stuffed from dinner.

MONDAY, 5/23/05: Wake at 4:28 with a dream I can't remember, then again at 5:38 with a remembered dream and go to sit in warmer bathroom and start typing dream at 5:42AM, exactly eight hours after I went to bed and rather quickly fell asleep. Finish typing dream at 5:52AM, having only pissed and still not shit. Finally finish an absolutely normal (at last) shit at 5:56 and prepare to climb under the covers again, wishing Ken would have simply shut off the overworking air conditioner. Glad these batteries are still working! I lie in bed, contentedly contemplating the remaining five days of the trip, diazepam obviously kicked in to help my tranquility. Ken gets up at 6:28 and shuts off the air conditioner and goes into the bathroom. I get up at 6:34 and unlock the door to step outside to find it essentially the same cool temperature as inside the room. Type this and start to get ready for breakfast at 7AM. Ken's out of the bathroom at 7:42 to say he knows nothing about the dangers of taking my footspray can in packed luggage, and suggests we'll have NO time on arrival at Tana but to get to room to change for dinner. Puzzle to 6:57, with found red pen in new room (along with a 50-ariary coin), and type this. Breakfast at 7, good pineapple juice, and omelet without onion or cheese, and a very dense roll. Roland arrives and schmoozes with the waitress, who gives us three glasses of orange juice when Ken asks for more, and back to room at 7:47 to find Ken has put the air conditioner back on. Out to courtyard to read Scientific American at 7:54. Read Sci Am to 8:34 and begin to lose concentration. Switch to NY Times puzzles. Do those, switching from shade to shade, some challenging and fun, until Ken reminds me that lunch is soon and I haven't packed yet at 11:10. But manage to pack and pee and wash my face by 11:23, still too early for lunch, ready for the first of THREE flights back to NYC in FIVE days. Lunch 11:35: Egg rolls, chicken and shrimp in white sauce, with coconut tart. Ken pays bill, I get key, to room at 12:29. Leave room at 12:35. Observe small auto-crash by front gate. Car goes at 12:38. To airport 12:52; schedule says plane arrives 1:40 and leaves at 2:05. Do puzzles while Ken chats with two married guys from Calgary, and plane arrives at 2:30 and we board at 2:44, at SAME forward-looking crazed discolored window I had going to Nosy Be, with same gay couple sitting across from me. Off at 2:55. #10 cemetery at 2:56. #11 mountains at 4:01, missing ANYTHING identifiable below, and then we hit high billowing clouds that are spectacles in their own right. #12 cloud canyon at 4:14. #13-14 near landing at 4:21. #16 Tana from distance at 4:26. To #19 on way to landing at 4:23. #20 Tana Airport at 4:30. To car at 4:38 while Roland gets the luggage and piles it into the back of the car. Leave airport at 4:45, nothing much different on the way, MISSING our final Madagascar sunset, and get to Hotel Colbert 5:20. Buy 6 sets of stamps for 6600A and get bags and laundry for 7300A by 5:33, leaving me with 1400A, of which I cash one 200A note for a 100A note and 2 50A pieces, for which the hotel has no smaller change. To room 406 at Hilton at 5:48. Stamp postcards and unpack to 6:10, but when Ken says he's wearing his road-gear to the restaurant, I decide to put my suit (which held up well enough) BACK into the bag and merely wear my SHOES. Ken goes downstairs to get a newspaper for Paris weather while I finish this at 6:22, having taken a night-light panorama of Tana from the front-facing fourth floor, to which Roland says we can return, and Ken having showered and put the air conditioner on VERY high. I decide to shower just to get it over with at 6:23. Shower to 6:45 when Ken returns, reporting that he has more than enough ariary for drinks tonight and even some to tip Roland with. Change to suit-pants (though Ken will NOT change out of his awful leatherette baggies) and my dress shoes for the occasion at 6:57. Finish packing a) overnight bag for plane, b) stuff for France, and c) dirty clothes by 7:13, and there's nothing left to do before 8PM but puzzles! Shop around the lobby, but they have no Herald-Tribune. Ken spends lots for vanilla sticks for Jay, cutting down on the amount he can spend for drinks and wine tonight because "I don't want to go into Roland's envelope to get out any more ariary!" Finish this at 7:50, having obeyed him by packing everything away except what I'm going to change FROM (suit pants, good shoes) when we get back from the restaurant. Still can't think what to do for the next ten minutes. Down a bit early and Roland's in and we leave at 7:58 for drive through dark Tana to Villa Vanille, this time entertained by a mediocre female singer accompanied by a pianist and drummer that only Roland applauds for and then an American couple with a guide across from us applauds an American song, and the large group of Japanese only laugh among themselves, and the solitary backpacker at the next table does CROSSWORDS at his pauses in courses. We start with a rhum for Ken and an OK Ti-punch for me, then a bottle of wine that's OK with egg drop soup with WHOLE egg rather than shreds, good; foie gras interlaced with spices, great; and aubergine fritters with a spicy dark sauce. Then one plate containing morue with a fabulous combava sauce, duck-leg with nice stewed veggies, and chicken in another great white sauce, a VERY good course. Desserts are a crepe with honey, nougat under chocolate sauce, and different profiteroles du soleil (with an orange ice). Just great food, very happy with Ken paying 52,200A drink bill, and back to Hilton at 9:55, change everything and luxuriate in the pleasure of an unstuffed duffel bag into which to throw everything that doesn't fit into the blue bag. Out of hotel at 10:07, quickly to airport at 10:35 (everyone obviously got there AHEAD of us!) and onto an absolutely ridiculous line at 10:38 snaking across the whole terminal for the sole flight-per-day from Tana to Paris, two carts pushing in right ahead of us while Ken quotes from the guidebook: "Malagash are gentle, kind, and non-pushy." At least at 11:10 the line moves quickly, but we're near end of it, despairing for aisle (or ANY!) seats. Onto "curve" of regular line at 11:30 and at 11:34 STOP puzzles to talk to cute North Carolina boy who keeps calling me "sir" and hopes we fly back to the US on the same plane. We DO get window seats, and I later recall, in writing on the schedule, that I DID reserve these seats with Air France! Then to fill out a debarkation form at 11:56, pause to lend pen to cute NC boy.

TUESDAY, 5/24/05: Passports stamped at 12:03AM. Through x-ray (with computer and all), and at 12:13 I dash downstairs to pee, ignoring call "Monsieur!" from woman who wants a tip. Board near end of line at 12:23, picking up TWO 5/23 Herald-Tribunes by mistake, one not being accepted by steward as I enter plane, but one accepted gratefully by a nearby English-speaking boarder. Lovely window seat comfortably behind wing. Take night pills and two Ambien, Vicks nose, and Captain announces we'll be flying over Nairobi, Sicily, Genoa, and Geneva for 10 hours 40 minutes. "Nice morning," he concludes. Moving at 12:48, off at 12:53, one of the benefits of being the ONLY plane out. Clouds obscure everything, no moon, no lights below, so I put in earplugs and put on handed-out eyeshade and try to sleep at 1:07. No good. Take orange juice but refuse snack at 1:07 and water at 1:54 and wake at 3:53, amazed to have slept maybe two whole hours. Guy next to me zonks out completely the whole time. Start watching oranging eastern sky at 5:02, maybe having dozed a bit more, and there's a 5:30 sunrise, cloudy, keeping shade up sheltered by pillow though steward tells me to close shade. At 7:12 it's desert-clear, sunny, with nothing to see except the north coast of Africa, barely occupied with towns and shipping. Start Hide and Seek at 7:22 but decide I'd seen Matthew Broderick "in fun" starting a thermonuclear war with a paranoid computer. Start Ocean's 12 at 8:25, with a confusing plot and surprise appearances by Cherry Jones and Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts "imitating" Julia Roberts! Note that Africa was mostly cloudy or dark before. Then saw lots of western Sicily, thanks to neighbor's map, since turning back to my map stupidly LOSES MY PLACE in movie I'd been watching, putting me in "next cycle," an hour of which I'd already watched. SILLY system. Start The Incredibles at 10:15, as it turns out I hadn't seen ANY of the beginning the last time around, and get served breakfast just as we fly across GREAT Alps, snow-covered and clear except for jet-exhaust streaks, wrong-angled sun, and impossibility of reaching camera with tray down. WONDERFUL view over Zermatt, clear of snow, and what may have been Lake Annency after MANY lower snow-peaked clouds and countryside, and then pilot announces Burgundy and Beaune and vineyards below. #21 DeGaulle airport at landing at 11:34. LONG STAND to get off plane with INCREDIBLE, CONSTANT baby SCREAMING, seemingly for his mother, from whom a priest-like inexpressive older man may have been abducting him and his two older, better-behaved, siblings, without showing the LEAST bit of concern for his "Oooh-AAAAH" on lower and higher tones which went on for a half-hour before landing, and his crying, whimpering, and sobbing that lasted until we had the blessed relief of getting off the plane. Passport checked at 12 and get my bag at 12:11, greeting Gail and Meredith VERY briefly as they passed, Ken having talked to them on the plane, and to long taxi-stand line at 12:25 and into taxi at 12:31, at which point I change watch to Paris time of 11:31. To Hotel Volney at 12:22, mainly by jammed Péripherique, then around block because he came at it the wrong way, and Ken paid 48€ for it, paying more because they charged him for three bags in the trunk to my one. To room 25 for note from Paul saying he won't join us at the restaurant tonight and will call later. Call Jean-Jacques, who rather reluctantly agrees to receive us at 6. To Chez Georges, called Jorge on the slip inside, for a very good lunch of vegetable soup, chicken Milanese, and rich chocolate dessert on the 20F fixed menu, while Ken orders a la carte, and we each have two glasses of wine, he Pouilly-Fuissé, I Sancerre, for 6€ each. Dine at window watching passersby in bizarre-colored ties, mostly suits, tourists, and junkily-attired others until 3PM. Exhausted search for things to see. Leave for sexy-guy gallery 3:36, great old porn and new drawings a bit pricey at 1000€, but great sexy guys better than Tom of Finland facially. Bruce and Herrero, with names, sometimes BOTH names, included, with many familiar faces and cocks. Brad Davis in Querelle featured, as well as a vaguely homoerotic John Barrymore poster. Cordial older woman and sexy guy (son?) permissive even though it's the day BEFORE the opening. Leave 4:30, warm and sticky out, and back through new streets and an arcade in which I find a book on Indian sculpture for 16€ I can't resist now that my duffel bag offers infinite expansion space. #23 Cartier on street-construction 4:54. Shit at 5:01. Leave for JJ's at 5:07, onto Metro 5:24 and to JJ's at 5:55, he ready and well-spoken, but with bumps and baldnesses on his head, and even more lack of balance, which prevents him even from going to the opera unless he's held up on both sides, but DOES go walking and grocery-shopping every day. Ken takes last three photos of me with him, probably. Leave 7:05. To hotel 7:37. Down to dinner at Moï Vietnamese for good egg rolls, decent mixed chicken and beef and vegetables with hard noodles, too full for dessert, but with bottle of Muscadet du Sevre et Maine (!) for which I Visa 54.9€. Dinner to 9, throw stuff off bed and get exhausted into bed at 9:35.

WEDNESDAY, 5/25/05: Wake once at 5:30 to pee and shit, sleeping until 7:14, over NINE-AND-A-HALF hours, and feel almost normal. Type dream 7:14-7:23 and shit again to 7:28, and find that the BRIGHT light I thought was Ken's flashlight left burning was the TV light! Lie in bed to 7:51 with PLEASANT thinking, Actualism doesn't go, and I partially dress and go to bathroom to type. Ken gets call from Paul at 8AM, saying he IS joining us tonight, and MAY stop by hotel beforehand, but there are problems at work. At 8:13 the computer goes OFF again, and when I take batteries out I find that the PLUS-sign LARGE on the back is CONTRADICTED by the plus-minus signs on the small battery pattern INSIDE, and when I turn this over to CHECK it and bounce the edge, it goes off AGAIN, but comes right back on. What a MYSTERY. Hope it lasts these last THREE days! 8:38 wash face and dress for breakfast from 8:42-9:14, croissant, butter and jam, good hot chocolate with sugar for me and coffee with sweetener for Ken, and guy at next table laughs at something we say and he rides up in the elevator with me to hit 6. Tell Ken we had fabulous sex after I come up early because I say I have so much to reorganize, but first I have to catch up on my typing, but he's ready at 9:35, so I just throw everything off the bed onto the closet shelves and leave at 9:54 with a short-sleeved shirt in what the paper says will be over 20° Centigrade but is almost perfectly cool and dry in the morning when we go out. #27 Place Vendome and bronze Roman column (Latin inscription only) 10:03. Onto Louvre line 10:25, having walked Rue St. Honore. #28 line and gilded charioteer on arch 10:28. Get TICKETS by 10:40. Enter France Romane 10:46. Senmurv: "Chien-oiseau ou Dragon-paon" (different from bird Simurgh), inspired basilisk. Olifants (horns) used to announce hours in Holy Week, when BELLS were forbidden. Ass-harpist and goat-flutist XI Century. Ivoire de morse, turns out to be WALRUS. From Morgan and Metropolitan's collections, lots of familiar names: Conque, Moissac, Citeau, Cluny, others. Paul SAID he would buy me the book I'd intended to buy but didn't. In 636 St. Denis is consecrated by Christ (as a leper) HIMSELF, and Sts. Peter and Paul. To 12:46 FAST. Book is 39€. Pee and wipe ass to 12:53. To Cafe Richelieu line at 12:56. #29 map of Richelieu quarter of museum. #30 Louvre and pyramid 1:12. Talk with woman from Manchester while we have my ham and cheese and green salad and 50 cl of Heineken beer. Leave lunch 1:48 for Apartments Napoleon III. LOST at 2PM. To center 2:08. To #37. 2:14 Black nude is Mars, XVIII Century copy of Roman original. Roll 21: #1 Botticelli eyes 2:17. Ken and I part at 3:16 to meet at information desk at 6. #8 Regent 140.6 carats, Sancy 55.23 as #9 to 3:34, everyone taking flash though the sign forbids it. Go through ceramics, Egyptian, all first floor to 4:20 to #15, to Levant #16 UNDER Levant 4:32. Neolithic, 4000 years ago. #18 man of hippo ivory from Safedi (Negev) from 5000BC. OLDEST item in museum, from Ain Ghazal, 9000 years old, on display in Berlin and Bonn, so I took a photo of a photo #19 4:45. Then Nineveh, Nimrod, Assyria, Mari. CODE OF HAMMURABI has 3500 lines of text, 282 legal articles: "If---then" #20 5:03. #21 Gudea, Prince of Lagash 2120BC. #23 victory stele of Naram-Sin, King of Akkad, 2250BC 5:09. Sumer #25 Jarmo BEFORE ceramics invented in 7500BC at 4:20, OLDER than 9000 years! Islam (from MET "Closed for refurbishment" but VERY little from Met) to 5:28. To Sully entrance for Medieval Louvre---mostly closed, under construction, or not done yet, to 5:49. #26 map and model of OLD Louvre at 5:51. #27 entry 5:54. Meet Ken at booth early and escalate up and walk different way back, finally convincing him that Place de l'Opera and Avenue Some-name is actually CLOSER than our old way, taking #27 Ken's subway at 6:03. Back to hotel 6:24, to get message that Paul IS coming to the restaurant and will meet us there at 8. Cut Ken's shampoo open for his BATH, and start typing at 6:34, but phone rings and it's PAUL DOWNSTAIRS at 6:46! He comes up, Ken dresses, I wash face and hands after a small lumpy shit, and put on long-sleeved shirt that Ken HATES, and then put on SHORT-sleeved shirt that he ALSO hates, while wearing his leather pants and SNEAKERS! Leave 7:35 after telling Paul as much as we can about Madagascar for his future trip, then for lack of anything to talk about we leave at 7:35 and walk a guided roundabout way to restaurant at 7:55 to find he made a reservation for LAST night, but thank goodness they take us, Christophe coming in after us and he's a muscular blond DOLL of a cop with VERY flirty eyes until he smokes and I say I can't marry him, and though he laughs, he's measurably cooler toward me through the evening. They share the Aux Lyonnais Sabodet (junk sausage) and asparagus, Ken's oeuf cocotte aux morilles et ecrivisses, and my pot de la cuisiniere lyonnaise, which is rillette gone bad on top and turned green. All great with white wine for us and red wine for them, then Christophe has Tranche de boeuf BLEU that is OK, Paul has Caillette de Chabeuil that is one large meatball of pork and other meats, Ken has the best: Quenelles et ecrivisses with a WONDERFUL sauce he lets me have a lot of, and I have a monstrous two pieces of gigot d'agneau with pommes boulangeres with lots of garlic, good, which I share endlessly with everyone else, drinking LOTS of water and explaining my pills. They share a gratin de rhubarbe et framboises, Ken's Soufflé Williamine with pear sorbet is tasty and very light, which he also shares, and I have the vacherin, not that great, with meringue on top, with LOTS of water, and Paul pays for it ALL! We thank him, I with GREAT surprise. Christophe shakes hands goodbye and will join us again at Taillevent tomorrow! "In uniform?" "I've never seen him in uniform," confesses Paul, refusing to say how they met six or seven years ago. Christophe loves New York, but hasn't been back in 20 years. He can stay at my place ANY time, which Paul proposes to do in December, since we're going away the beginning of August, when he's likely to be there August 3-5. Leave restaurant 10:18, other way back to hotel where Paul found a parking space for his little convertible Pluriel right out front, and we're up to undress and I start typing at 10:38. Ken tries to decide what to do tomorrow, wanting to go to Giverny, which I've been to, and doesn't remember the name of the artist's museum free with Louvre entry-ticket. He says he wants to go to sleep, but I say I'm still full, and he says VERY acidly, "You said you wanted to go to bed early, you said we left at 10:18 and it's past 11:18, so don't give me a hard time." I reply by shutting off my light IMMEDIATELY and moving into the bathroom to finish this at 11:25, still having to brush teeth. PANIC when I can't find earplugs, but they're in my jeans pocket, thank goodness. Brush teeth 11:29-11:45 and shut door between rooms and try to shit and finally do a bit, and put morning pills in box and go in to turn down bedding and get to bed at 12:01AM

THURSDAY, 5/26/05: To sleep almost immediately, wake at 6:55 with a small dream, and shit and pee. Ken wakes me at 8:30, but I'm still tired though he says, "Well, you slept over 8 hours," to which I respond, "I'm still making up for the two hours the night before on the plane," and he seems unimpressed. I'm down to pick up about ten tour books to see what to do today at 8:50, and we go to breakfast 9:05-9:33, at which time I come up to take my pills, pee, and type this to 9:39, having decided on the Museum of Eroticism, a quick lunch, and then the Poussin, Watteau, Chardin, David exhibit at the Grand Palais. Ken insists we buy another carnet of Metro tickets, since we need to Metro to restaurant and each needs at least three for his daily activities. My stuff still a total mess as I finish this at 9:42, computer missing about every other letter! Leave 9:52 to Erotic Museum 10:20. 5€ with discount ticket. #27 Mexico mask 10:37. #32 Renald, twin brother's head and genial [sic] organs, reduced by Jivaro females. First floor and basement to 11:15, to #31. Funny, SICK, PERVERSE, old, new, OUTRAGEOUS, crude, sexy. Eating baby. Woman eating cheese to attract a rat to her cunt. Mary giving birth to feet nailed to a cross. Cock used as opium needle. "Compassionate Conservatism": George Bush sucks off a Black being electrocuted. Euthanasia by children sitting on parent's head, affectionately! Couple amazed by Virgin and Child appearing on erection. Floors 5-3 mainly one artist per floor. To 11:45 MOSTLY hetero videos to 12:24. #33 Indian gay males at 12:29. To #37 by 12:41. Roll 22: #1-4 sex stuff to 1PM. Museum there 7 years. QUICK Metros and changes. AROUND and JAMMED, but cool. Deruet "Rape of the Sabine Women" INCREDIBLE. GORGEOUS Pigart. 2:27 to restaurant, 10.8€ for quiche and salad and Grenache rosé to 2:53. THROUGH with second part, some INCREDIBLE things with MARVELOUS details, by 3:36, and 3:50 go to movies, Fragonard "Le Verrou," Chardin "La Raie," David "Rape of the Sabines," and "Tristes Tropiques" for 46 minutes, with 1935 archival film of Brazil by Claude Levi-Strauss, updated to 1991. Leave 4:52 and walk back along Champs Elysée, through the Ritz, and along streets I barely recognize until I come to Capuchins and get to Volney with great relief, getting to room at 6:10 to take a shower (which doesn't attach to top as it's supposed to, so I'm glad I'm taking only one shower here) until 6:34, and start typing at 6:39, convincing Ken that I'll pay for the taxi rather than having to walk to the rather-far station, transfer, and walk rather-far from the second station to the restaurant in a suit and tie on a QUITE hot and humid day. He bugs me about getting dressed when his watch says 7:05 and mine only says 7:02, that we have to call a taxi from the hotel. Glad to be up-to-date, STILL insisting not having to go to file 8. I decide to agree to take the subway, since I have only 20€ left and want even more, if possible, for my next trip-cache, so we leave at 7:30, cooler than before, go to the Opera stop, transfer through a LONG walk that still doesn't bother me, and get out at a strange quadrant of the Arc de Triomphe, but we finally find Rue du Lamennais and there's the big sign for Taillevent, and at LEAST 8 people bid us good evening as we file through various halls and rooms to get to Paul and Christophe, already arrived, and M. Vrinant greets Ken and the rest of us, and though we're given menus, we have something completely different, starting with an amuse bouche of cauliflower-fish mix, then a substitute of one of their specialties, a boudin of fish and meat that was rather like Chanterelle's white sausage, and the first wine was an obviously expensive Puligny-Montrachet that everyone exclaimed about: it was good, but not QUITE worth the 180€ apiece, since we had TWO of them, so the two bottles equaled the two menus of 360€ each. We continued with mousserons étuvés (small mushrooms that Ken questioned LAST night in his fish dish, and then the Saint Pierre in basilic, with which we had the SECOND bottle of white wine, then had the foie gras poele avec Banyuls instead of the pigeon, but they STILL charged us the 180€ each menu. Then the ossau iraty was the cheese with cherry preserves, then oeufs en neige with crauants au chocolat (with gold, yet), and EACH had a plate of 6-7 mignardises, of which I had many of Ken's, as I had the last of BOTH his red and his white wine---oh, forgot the STARTER drink of 1/4 of 76 = 18€ champagne, framboise, and another odd fruit---and the final bill (with Christophe going outside twice to smoke and Ken going to the john once) came to 1286€, Paul paying for Christophe and himself, and Ken paying for me and him, and we get ushered out as they all go to the john and I ask about the Lalique cock on their table, and they say one of the silver circles is Force and the other Serenity. Loud American crowd next to us, Chinese and Japanese and lots of Americans, and of course it looks quite different from what it did 20 years ago, and we did NOT go upstairs, though they assured us they still had those rooms. To the Metro, saying lots of goodbyes and making sure that Christophe knows that Paul has our addresses and phone numbers, though Paul thinks he probably won't be in NYC before 2-3 days in December. Subways run rather slow, with a younger crowd, and we get back to hotel at 12:02.

FRIDAY, 5/27/05: Undress to cool off, doubling up on hangers as Ken CLEARS the closet of his stuff despite saying we don't have to leave until 10AM tomorrow for our 1:15PM flight, he paying for the taxi with his excess euros, while I have exactly 20€ left. Type away after washing face while Ken packs, chatting nicely, and I get up-to-date at 12:33, Ken setting alarm for 8:30, which I hope won't be needed. VERY pleasantly tired and calm about being HOME TOMORROW at this time! Bed at 12:46AM. Wake at 6:46AM and again at 8:23 to record dream, finishing to date, waiting for file 8 (LAST FILE!) to fill, leaving me only notes to add at home, at 8:31AM. Finish wiping myself from a tiny shit when Ken demands entrance at 8:33 before I can wash my face and hands. Start dressing and packing at 8:36. Take melatonin #1 8:50AM FRIDAY (forgot to start yesterday), pack to breakfast 9:14-9:38. HOT and HUMID in breakfast room. Pay bill of 324.11E at 9:42. 9:51 forgot HOUSEKEYS! Thankfully in a bag right on top. Pee and leave room at 9:59. Call for taxi 10:01. OUTSIDE to wait for taxi 10:17. Taxi comes at 10:19: WHICH Air France? 11:12 we get to airport and I go inside to find we go to Terminal 2C. To line 6 at 11:24. Long, sweaty, multipurpose line at 11:39. Three empty desks (of 9) at 12:01. FINALLY check in 12:24, getting 38A (sunny left) rather than 27L (shady right, but closer to wing). On LONG line for gate C82 at 12:26. Through passports 12:34. Through x-ray WITHOUT shoes 12:36. Buy Guignolet for 10€ at 12:43. Pee to 12:47. Give ticket and go DOWNSTAIRS to BUS at 12:53. Bus arrives 12:58, fills. Bus 1:02-1:08, WAY out, to seat with French May National Geographic and glass of water at 1:13 (plane due to leave at 1:15). 1:28 finish National Geographic and give it to Ken. Start 5/21-22 Herald Tribune. Announces 7:10 flight. Take off at 2:39. #5 Charles De Gaulle airport 2:44. #6-7 PARIS in far distance and smog at 2:46 and 2:47. #8 town to west with isle in river 2:49 (Thoiry?). #9 French coast 3:06. #10 St. Helier 3:08. Three little islands south of Ireland. Decent lunch to 4:03 (gin/tonic and red wine and beef and salad and tart and water). Seatmates from near Milan, visiting NYC first time with Lonely Planet, which I look through. Have Poire William at 4:26 and finish hard Sunday Tribune puzzle. Start May 24 Tribune and finish that and puzzle at 5:25. 4:06 to go. 5:31 put on video and close eyes---try to nap, but maybe only for minutes. Shit a bit at 6:17, 193 minutes to go. Read Scientific American special issue to 8:14, getting hungry. 8:39 eat dinner, thinking final bit was cake that turned into a cheese sandwich. Fly over Connecticut 9:33, must be in HOLDING pattern at 9:38. Block Island passed twice. #13 Stony Point (?) 9:48. #14 vineyards 9:50. #15 Fire Island (?) 9:53. #16 landscape 10:05. #17 plane shadow at 10:09, Land 10:09, MOST twisted landing EVER. Long ride and off plane at 10:32. Pee 10:38, quick through passports and customs with Ken paying $3 for a cart. Into taxi 11PM, home at 12:10AM Paris time. Wash face and hands, pee, weigh luggage to 12:28, duffel bag weighing 36# and A&K bag at 14# for 50# total, not changing watch then because it was already Saturday on it, so changed it at 7:28AM the next morning. Read I'm Not Bobby that someone left for me and transcribe 8 phone messages to 6:35PM. Talk to Carolyn to 6:55 to talk about her puzzlement about subways going the wrong way at the Jay Street station. She's coming Tuesday for slides. Leave word with Fred: YOUR Helen King called to apologize for not phoning for not seeing slides at my place? Make bed to 7. Watch SUNSET in bathrobe on balcony to 7:18, SEEING sun, and it RAINS. Start j/o 7:25-8:21, feeling good, then watch Drama Desk awards (Doubt and Spamalot winning) to 10PM. Take 3 g melatonin and get into bed at 10:10PM.

SATURDAY, 5/28/05: Wake at 2:36AM and 3:55AM to pee, then back up at 4 to shit. Actualism to 4:40 but can't get back to sleep, so j/o 4:41-5:34, watch Twilight Zone to 6. Look at last Ireland roll of slides. 6:15 start transfer of files to WordPerfect to 7:02, batteries holding up well, and did New York Times doublecrostic from May 1 Times. Type these final notes 7:10-7:35, and everything WOULD have fit JUST PRECISELY onto the last bit of file 8, had I chosen to do it the hard way, backspacing every other letter. Now to put up the shades and have my first breakfast here. Tried Rite Aid Rx line for third time for no answer. Phone messages: 1) Fred: Bon voyage; 2) Helen King: sorry; 3) junk; 4) Carolyn: puzzle about Jay Street subway stop; 5) nothing; 6) Jenny at Spr-V for index; 7) Katherine from Watson-Guptill for index; 8) Dr. DiCosta appointment confirm for June 1. Finish this by 7:40AM. Start puzzles but my eyes keep CLOSING, so about 8:30AM I just FALL into bed and nap to 10AM. Called, successfully at last, to fill prescriptions, but find that I have to pick up colonoscopy stuff and take in ANOTHER prescription, having to go to Chin on Tuesday to renew my gemfibrozil, which gives out Monday night, and start colonoscopy regimen. Go through ALL the mail 10:10-11:14 for FIRST sort. Call John 11:15-11:25, and he noticed nothing wrong with my plants! Talk to Spartacus 11:25-12:10, then have lunch 12:22-1, finishing Times puzzle 2 by 1:16. Ken phones and convinces me to meet him for brunch at Sapa, 43 W. 24th St., tomorrow at noon, Put more stuff away, find that I returned with $500.50 and 22.7€, so I spent $499 and 28.8€, and go to Rite Aid at 3PM for Proscar and colonoscopy stuff. More puzzles until I'm starved for dinner at 6PM, having microwaved pretty-bad maple-syrup sausages and green beans and applesauce. More puzzles, working on 5/15 Sunday Times puzzles to FINISH them FIRST. TIRED, but start j/o at 8:45 and channel-surf afterwards until I finish Dinocroc at 11 and get to bed at 11:10PM, almost back to normal.

SUNDAY, 5/29/05: Up at 6:55AM, out about 7:30 for TODAY'S Times, continue with puzzles, watch Ebert and Roeper before leaving for Sapa brunch at 12 with Ken, and we're so impressed by good salmon and lemon-pancakes and his Harikiri and my Bloody Mary and cheap prices, we reserve for tasting-menu dinner at 7:30. Back to finish ALL Times puzzles and read THREE Sunday Times to 5:10, when I decide to go to the gym before dinner. But Clark Street closes at 6, so they suggest I walk over to Metrotech and I decide I might as well, being admitted though the receptionist says I come up "No admittance" but she lets me in for the holiday. I enjoy seeing the modernistic new place, a dynamite body who tells me there IS no scale here, the Stairmaster is a BIT different, but I manage a half-hour before taking a luxurious shower (cock still edematous from three jerk-offs) and get home at 7 to call Ken that I might be late, which I'm not, getting there before him for a Botanical, not so great, and his sweeter cocktail better, and the tasting is just SUPER for the price, even getting generous pours after we complain about the skimpy ones, enjoying the Riesling substituted because "they have no sake." Out about 10:10 and wearily channel-surf to let some of the food digest and get to bed at 11:13PM, a tiny bit later each evening.

MONDAY, 5/30/05: Wake briefly at 6:22, up at 7:28 to pee, content with 8-hour sleep and feeling almost normal! Catch up on all MAGAZINES by 9:30: New Yorker cartoons, New York puzzles, card-removing from those and Scientific American, and have latest breakfast yet at 10, having to distribute pills for the next two weeks, a pain, since I have NO gemfibrozil to put in until tomorrow! Finish reading the LAST of the Sunday Times by noon, taking out all but the last issue, which I leave on the stack, and then resend file 8 and edit all the material together and add new stuff to NOW at 1:10PM. Decide to leave final proofreading and printing pages for later: priority now: phoning people and getting tomorrow's slide show together! Phone Sherryl 1:13-1:45, Mildred LW at 1:46 (she calls Tuesday), Charles 1:47-2:05, Fred LW 2:06, Shelley LW 2:07, Vicki LW 2:10 (she calls back later), Steve LW 2:11 (he calls back later and comes tomorrow to slides), Bill Peterson 2:12-2:15, Anita LW 2:17, Susie LW 2:18. Have lunch, do Friday's puzzle, skim Stripsearch that Arnold said was sexy and I thought a bore, talk to Arnold about Wednesday, and he'll leave with me (he has shopping to do near Nostrand Avenue!). Find that Australia-New Zealand slides are a MESS to 4PM. Call Susie 4:45-4:55, Vicki calls 5:25-5:40. Dinner 7:30-8 while watching TV. Pay bills and go through mail to 11PM, calling Arnold to find that window-cut deadline has been EXTENDED, and go downstairs to see I'd READ the memo without understanding how it applied to me. Bed at 11:27, but up to check how much chicken broth I have for liquid-diet day tomorrow and bed at 11:45. Start Actualism, but thinking so much I take two Ambien at 11:58 and sleep.

TUESDAY, 5/31/05: Wake 5:44, up at 6:32 to shit to 6:45. Read Natural History, to take to Charles, which I don't, to 7:10. Unpack papers into stacks to 7:40, stacks on TABLE to 8, having left FOUR phone messages (2 indexes, DiCosta, and Heather). Call Cleartel at 8:30 and it's OK. DiCosta and Heather reply to 9:07. Chicken broth and apple juice for breakfast and dress to do LOTS of things: take ballet ticket to Spartacus, since I won't be able to NOT shit all night tonight, Express Mail 21 slide-rolls and 5 checks, deposit checks, get gemfibrozil prescription from Chin (which confuses Rite Aid, who orders me TWO, and Rite Aid later calls to say I can't get BOTH, DUH!), get huge bottle of colonoscopy solution, buy groceries and back 11:30 to have more soup and watch tacky two-hour fictionalized Extraterrestrial, on National Geographic yet! To successful slides, about 20 there, to 3:50, saying no one can come over even though I cleared off dining table and cleaned up dropped plant leaves FOR them, and get a call cancelling colonoscopy until June 10! Call Spartacus for ballet ticket, no answer; call Bob Lambiase, who says he may be guiding at Hotel Wellington, but when I phoned them, they don't see him there: he left about 3:40. Have good pastrami sandwich for lunch! Start FreeCell just to pass time waiting for Spartacus to call back, but his cell phone was off while he was in some movie. Finally call Mildred about 8:30 and tell about trip, then more FreeCell and filet mignon dinner about 10PM, staying up by reading New Yorker to wait to talk to Arnold and Charles about mediocre ballet I missed and get to bed at 11:48.

WEDNESDAY, 6/1/05: Wake at 5:44 and 6:55 (and 7:66?) and up at 7:40 and organize things and catch up with this to 8:45AM. Have breakfast, watch a bit of TV, phone Fotocare, re-phone Katherine Happ, re-phone Shelley, go through TV Guides, call Audience Extras and pay with Visa, then decide to clear Juno at 10:35AM. 75 messages (with mess) to 11:40. Talk to Shelley. Proof through page 14 by 1:35, then lunch. Get gemfibrozil prescription, take laundry out, go to gym, make ELEVEN sets of Restaurant Week and other reservations, talking to Spartacus, Mildred, and Charles. Then to Tan Dun, TV, and popcorn, bed 11:35PM.

THURSDAY, 6/2/05: Up 7:25 to type dream, watch Search for Ultimate Survivor for 2 hours, have breakfast, finish New York puzzle, start proofing at 10:35AM.

DREAM PAGES

TUESDAY, 5/3/05: Wake at 3:46 and dream that I'm watching TV and Carolyn's voice comes over, and I watch a new series in which she's cast as a rough-talking, hard-nosed daughter (as she is) in a family situation comedy, but think that she's not coming across sympathetically enough to become a success. Get out of bed with some difficulty and type this while peeing.

WEDNESDAY, 5/4/05: 4:51AM: I'm traveling in a South American country like Colombia, and I have to find a john. I go into the main square and see a men's room, but on entering it's a skeleton of a men's room: doors broken off, stalls broken and sharded onto the dusty floor, no bit of water anywhere and no sign that anyone has used it in years. Go to another place, where the floor seems covered in shit, and wander around but can find no usable toilet. At another place I find a troupe of actors in line waiting for makeup, and I ask someone who seems to know English if I can find a toilet to use, but he acts in such desperation, as if his doing me this favor could cost him his job, that I don't pursue it. Find an elegant hotel lobby where bizarre acts are going on in small spotlights before microphones, and old gray-haired over-made-up crones occupy tables alone, and still I can't find what I want. Wake and find myself in bed and decide to go to the john to type out the dream to 4:55AM.

THURSDAY, 5/5/05: 5:31AM: Wake with the bed sheets VERY wet for some reason, and can finally shit as I couldn't when I woke before at 1:31AM. Not only is the little frog back hopping around in the john, but a somewhat larger cockroach scuttles around and climbs a wall where I can keep an eye on it, and an ant walks by without being preyed upon by either. Type the more recent dream, having forgotten the first, rather innocuous, one: I'm at what looks like a combination MAN party and Tsi-Dun at someone's apartment, and a clothed young man alone in one room doesn't appeal to me, but there's some naked action in a bedroom, which looks more appealing, but they all seem to know each other, and none are terribly attractive, so I move to the next room, which seems more mixed: couples dancing to some loud music, an Italianate man really jiving it up for a younger woman's impression, and lots of people coming in and out the door, one of whom is a very young-looking and clean-shaven and well-groomed Art Ostrin, but I'm not attracted to him and he doesn't seem to notice me (or notices me and chooses to ignore me) and I let him pass by without saying anything. Someone else I recognize, but figure I've more or less had my time here, and even though I've been here less than an hour, I prepare to leave, getting my jacket and trying to find my way to some exit that I can recognize, and then wake up.

FRIDAY, 5/6/05: wake at 3:40, no dream, then at 5:23 with a incredible sex-dream of a bunch of humpy guys all trying to have sex, and I get a couple of stiff cocks in my mouth and suck and suck, and though they seem hard and ready to cum, they never do, never really seem interested in me, just stay hard and thrust and I suck and suck, not even precum, but hard veins and muscly flesh and tight balls and not really any concept of a nice body or ass. I think I might cum just by myself, but don't, and after trying with three or four guys, simply wake with a hard-on and let it go down and type this to 5:29AM with a very wet bathroom floor and then pee.

MONDAY, 5/9/05: 6:17AM: Vague prior dream of being attracted to someone who wasn't attracted to me, and a following dream of trying to catch the #1 bus or train, but climbing another set of stairs took us to the "attic" of the station, just inverted v-shaped wooden rafters, and heard a train come in on another level, which we missed. Other details forgotten, not much in the line of dreaming in this first 10 days of the trip, already rather looking forward to its ending.

TUESDAY, 5/10/05: 5:42AM: I'm working in a small company with a fairly small number of employees and customers, but am training a young woman (somewhat like Allesandra, now that I think about it) how to handle filing: telling her to make a list of jobs so that they can be sorted according to customer so that some questions that must be asked about 1) current activities, 2) new jobs possible, 3) old jobs whose files can be discarded, can be asked by the salesman for that client all at once. She's rather simple, and I find to my surprise that folders OTHER than clients' are in the file, for instance personal files from someone across the desk from me, and other things like advertisements that shouldn't be there at all. At the end, bizarrely, she's sitting on the left and I on the right with a coworker in the middle DRIVING us in some kind of vehicle like a Land Rover on a foreign tour.

FRIDAY, 5/13/05: 5:58AM: 1) I'm reading a book, comfortable on some conveyance on a trip, and a pesky Indian salesman comes to my left armrest to try to sell me a CD that he INSISTS I want to buy. I try to turn him away but he continues to refuse, so I bite down hard on his smooth brown forearm. He complains to his accompanying wife, but refuses to move away. I let him go and he CONTINUES to importune me, so I bite him AGAIN. 2) I'm sailing in the bottom of a huge ship, moving from room to room, each occupied by a particular class of traveler, one a large room filled with empty tables on which are being displayed new and used books for sale, including a large new Atlas alone on one table, a set of literature books with the same bindings on another, and beginning stacks of classics, pulps, paperbacks and hard covers on other tables. To a forward cabin occupied solely by a snobby woman who looks disdainfully at me as if I have no right at all to be in her room. Then feel a curious rotary movement of the huge ship, and look out to find we've been attached to some kind of enormous chain or hawser and are being towed along a semicircle of brick docking---I can see the sloping brick beneath the water, which I assume is congruent with the bottom of the ship, and then am at the exit gate, where passengers present their tickets, like airplane passes, to a purser, who gives them similar passes to the city, which they'll return in exchange for their tickets for the next destination.

SATURDAY, 5/14/05: 5:53AM: 1) Manhattan roads that I know only from previous dreams pass by as I walk, ride, or are taken on a tour of Cromwell Road, Southeast Avenue, and other names that I think are somehow located in the extreme southwest corner of Manhattan, enclaves of the very rich that are closed to usual traffic, like that gated community to the west of Coney Island or Breezy Point that you have to have a name and a phone call to get through to. I see rows of residences of similar brick design, with small yards and tasteful trees, and I think it would be a nice area to take tourists to see if only I could remember exactly how to get back here. End up getting into a taxi with two other people, without being asked where I want to go, and somehow four OTHER people seem to be in the taxi with us, but they finally all get out at a corner of East Second Avenue, which I think should be somewhere near the projects of the lower WEST side (the illogic of dreams!) and when everyone's gone, I ask the driver to take me to 101 Clark Street, but he affirms he doesn't go into Brooklyn, and I protest, "You're very near the Park Row entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, and I'm right off the first exit, and there are always people waiting there for a ride back to Manhattan," but I barely get out half that information before I wake and finish it in the half-doze that follows a dream that I want to complete with some degree of "success" or "accomplishment." 2) Waiting in hospital for a test that's vaguely sexual, possibly referred by Dr. Chin to some other HIP center, and I've been back a few days, almost know the doctor, and think that I should be first in line today, but others gather before the door ahead of me, and for some reason (maybe I have to go to the john), I leave the waiting area, but come to a hallway that I don't recognize, go into a familiar cul-de-sac, and return to my usual entrance to find a new chain, with a placard reading "Use 23rd Street Entrance" placed across it, and I look to see that I'm 22nd Street, so it should be easy to find new entrance, but as in a normal frustration-dream I'm in a corridor that seems to be on the wrong floor and can't find a stairway or elevator to take me where I want to go, and wake in a state of frustration to check my watch at about 5:05AM and figure to get more sleep before taking my AlphaSmart into the john to type, finishing this at 6:08AM and returning to my notes from yesterday in file 4, hoping I haven't QUITE filled half my computer-space on this first day of the second half of the trip.

SUNDAY, 5/15/05: 5:15AM: 1) Dream about 3:30 I took no notes on and forgot. 2) Current dream: I'm negotiating with the owner of a derelict building in lower Manhattan, of which I own half, and can't decide what to do: sell it or develop it, and somehow an alien object lands on the cater-corner street and we unwrap a metal container labeled YORA and it contains some kind of scientific equipment that a neighboring alien says must be set up in our very building across the street. Somehow the co-owner of the building and I sense a great financial opportunity. Finish this at 5:18AM.

MONDAY: 5/16/05: 6:05AM: I'm working in a kind of commune and we're planning to put on some kind of show that involves a dance number that the director is trying to spruce up by having people of the same size, or the same age, lined up doing the same steps at the same time or in canon, but without transition I'm getting ready to work in a field and think I can get recognized as a character by my striped cloth badge on my cloth shirt with the stripes of slightly contrasting color but running in the same direction. Then I see that my red plaid sash sort of matches my red pants, so I create such a colorful picture I hope someone notices me and casts me in a more prominent part in our production.

WEDNESDAY, 5/18/05: 2:34AM: I've just finished some major TV project and find that I'm going to be on national TV in a half-hour, from 5:30-6PM, to introduce a new building on the University of Akron campus, the Jeb (not Charles, his distraught wife assures me so that I write it down as maybe point 3 on a 5-6 point cheat-sheet for myself) Schwab Recreation Center. I quickly realize no one knows anything about what to do, and instruct the cameramen to pan up one side, circle around the glass and brick top, and come down the other side and then do a panorama of the audience. The audience had actually PAID for their seats, and I intermittently got the news we were down to the last 12, and then the last 1, ticket, and I felt good about that. I was taken somewhere else and someone ELSE made the introduction, then the camera came to me to continue and I cued the cameramen to their pan and scan, and everyone oohed and aahed over that imaginative touch, and everything went well until I had to get another name from my cheat-sheet and couldn't FIND it in a stack of papers, and I cut away to pre-recorded choral music and managed to get to questions (which I cut off because the first announcer asshole had STARTED with them, not knowing what else to do) as the production manager stood nearby counting down the final seconds of the program and I managed a final "Goodbye from the Jeb Schwab Memorial Center in Akron, Ohio" just as the last second ran out, and everyone ran up to congratulate me on my fine job. Some other dream forgotten from 1:33AM. End typing at 2:41AM.

THURSDAY, 5/19/05: 2AM: Movie on South American ranch in which are three men, with three levels of hope (the first confident, sure of getting a yes, the second with a proper amount of uncertainty and preparatory buildup and ground-laying, the third ignoring all preliminaries, expecting a no, kneeling and bowing his head and closing his eyes, asking with no expectation of yes, but I wake before he gets his answer). 4:08AM: 1) I'm biting on someone's elbow who is VERY supercilious to me and my shirt: "Is that by Hathaway? Was it made in 1942?" And have no idea why they're so snobbish. 2) Working IBM-like, trying to finish two jobs, one nuclear and one for accounting, and take STAIRS down, realizing it only leads to 29th floor, which is part of a department store, below. 3) In room with sexy guy, I put my hand on his trousers under his knee and he looks at me strangely, then I see him at a bar with a woman: poor move. 4) I'm in a tall building with a sexy guy in a storm, and it begins to spin and fall and we both SCREAM! Remember at last to record a fragment I had a few days ago: someone like Roland is addressing me, saying, "You're just like a WIFE to him," about Ken and me, and it has some justification: he calls most of the shots, does the planning, and usually has the final word, but I accept all that.

SUNDAY, 5/22/05: 4:38AM: I'm looking for a place to shower, soaping myself up on one floor, knowing that everyone rides the elevator wet and soapy, so I'm OK. In the shower room three guys are playing with each other while an onlooker is under his own shower with a hard-on, staring intently at the action across from him while bent over, hands on knees, directing a thin stream of water from in front of him DIRECTLY onto his gaping meatus, obviously trying to cum from the tickly sting of the water on his cockhead, swiveling his hips to accentuate the eroticism, and I love watching him, the action he's watching, and wake aroused (though not quite hard, though I get harder sitting on the john typing this), wondering how hard it would be to set up my shower into a thin stream (even thinner than the one at the Relais de la Reine) to try this myself. Looking forward to Friday night and my first orgasm in over a month! 2) 6:28AM: I'm playing in a kid's playroom, first with a kind of TV set with a large manipulatable crystal that controls the picture, but can get only the basic program, which I watch a bit of, but when I try to get something else, it starts the same program over again, and I hand the crystal to a little girl who's interested in watching anything that goes on. Then I'm attracted to a spinning-ball game in a toy stadium, which I seem to understand from a distance: spin the spectators into their seats, but when I begin to play with it, it has only one moveable object, and I lose interest in it.

MONDAY, 5/23/05: 5:44AM: I'm having some kind of field trip to Boston, where we're staying in a vacant mansion that belonged to Ruby Roosevelt, the daughter of FDR (who just died), and we look from empty room to empty room and try to think how beautiful it looked when it was furnished and in use. Then without transition (or maybe THAT was the dream from 4:28 that I couldn't remember before) I'm riding on a train with the group back to NYC, and have to go to the toilet, which seems to be a canvas seat right in the middle of a subway-like row of facing seats. Ask the last of three people who seem to be waiting for it, and he verifies that this is, indeed, the waiting line for the toilet. Without transition I'm ON the toilet, Sherryl to my left, when some old man staggers through and almost falls in the aisle, and we all agree he certainly isn't a member of OUR group, so someone goes for a conductor to show him out of our car. I try to relax to shit, but with the movement of the train, the seeming solidity of the canvas seat (though there may be a SMALL slit to let the shit fall through), and the self-consciousness of sitting in public with Sherryl and other passengers in plain sight, I find it impossible, though I fart a few times as if to indicate to my neighbors that I really DO have to use it and have a good reason to remain until I finish. Wake with a faint urge to shit and go into the bathroom to finish this at 5:52AM.

WEDNESDAY, 5/25/05: 7:14AM: Incredibly detailed dream of a fantasy sex-park in which hundreds of sexy guys of all ethnicities (based on sex-photos yesterday, no doubt) cavorted on a beach, in rooms, in miniature scenes (I gingerly stepped over model towns and gardens and fields, sometimes having to step in front of herds of horse-size elephants or grazing cows or zebus, trying to get back to find my clothes, remembering taking my pants off at a particular set of cliff-rocks, and leaving my undershirt under a chair and my shirt somewhere else). And everywhere sex: a row of three smiling Filipino boys simultaneously lowering their shorts and a stubby fat cock, a skinny pale cock, and a "normal" one all beginning to get erections at the hint of a command. There were waves washing up on false beaches, tables of food that could be had for a whim, and lots of people from various ships all enjoying this sex tour, at the end of which I knew I had to retrieve all my clothing and it became somewhat of a typical frustration dream because I thought I remembered where I left each item, but the route became more complicated, with rooms and ledges and waterfalls and hallways shifting positions either in reality or in my memory, and not being able to find everything, some having gotten wet, and always the sex-play around, people sucking cocks at random as in the drawings in the gallery, clumped masses of naked bodies, men and boys getting dressed and undressed, some coming on to me until they saw how old I was, and hundreds of more details and incidents that I now forget, all in an atmosphere of warm, sunlit Hawaiian or other tropical island lushness and color that could all have been indoors in some fantasyland of gay sex and freedom and beauty. Type this to 7:23.

THURSDAY, 5/26/05: 6:55AM: I'm sitting across from a rather bizarrely beautiful woman dressed in black, showing one tit, and she says she's actually a man, lifting her skirt to show a complete male apparatus. Though she's not appealing, I still wake vaguely aroused. Record this late at 9:36AM.

FRIDAY, 5/27/05: 8:23AM: Woke at 6:46AM with a dream I thought to record, but I clearly dozed off again right after: I'm with a large group of foreign people, who all seem to belong to the same family, and they have lots of pets. I'm sitting slouched in a chair in my shorts, and one of their little dogs perches right where my huge erection may have been positioned. I stare at it for a few seconds (I guess this could have been influenced by all the cocks at the Museum of Eroticism yesterday), and I say, "Why are you sitting THERE?" (though feeling rather proud of it), and chase the dog off. Other episodes of joking with people, maybe even eating, have been forgotten now as I finish the LAST DREAM OF THE TRIP at 8:29AM, waiting for Ken's alarm to ring as I sit and pee on the john.

SUNDAY, 5/29/05: 4:24AM: I'm visiting Japan, and go to an elaborate baths on the outskirts of a city, and I don't know how to practice the rituals they're doing, and don't have any way of asking anyone, since it really isn't for tourists and no one seems to know any English, or even be at all interested in my plight. I take my clothes off, but can't figure how to get into a kind of hammock in which one subjects oneself to various kinds of heat treatments, or applications of mud or sand. Then I find a few friends that I came with, but one of them, rather like Paul MacLean, really doesn't want to leave, making SURE I REALLY want to leave, and soon it appears there's about to be some kind of ceremony, production, or festival that starts with an elaborate parade of costumed people, coming around one corner of a hallway that we have to pass down in order to leave, and it seems a great violation of custom to interrupt their patterns just to leave. There were other cryptic actions, though I interacted with no one but my three friends, two of whom seemed equally to have had enough of whatever this place offered, and our bill was comprised of a few items that came out to less than 1500 yen, which I thought was still less than a dollar, so quite inconsequential, though the Paul-like character seemed angry at the amount he had been billed, which was even slightly less than my bill; but even when it was pointed out that it was less than a dollar, he still seemed annoyed, and I guessed it was because he really didn't want to leave, though he, in the dream, really couldn't afford to pay too much, or maybe even didn't have that amount with him. There may have been some small episode in leaving the building that I've now forgotten, and many details from the beginning of the dream have now been left out because I forgot them: the dream may have been in two connected parts separated by a few minutes when I woke and wanted to record the details, but paused long enough to fall back to sleep, but in the same dream. I somewhat doggedly keep typing to see if I come to the end of THIS file, which would have meant that I filled up the ENTIRE machine for this particular trip, even though I already transferred all the data to the computer and will have to resend all this file and then edit out what came before and what came after, which will be easy enough to do, and I decide to stop typing and pee now at 4:40AM, hoping to be able to get back to sleep to more normalize my jet-lag weariness I felt most of yesterday. 6:17AM: Even WORSE. A big group of us is traveling by bus, and are let out in a small town for lunch. We're to go down a street, around a corner to a restaurant, where I have to pee. Try one place that looks like it looks into a mirror over a pool, but it turns out to be an open window, so I can't piss there! To another room, pee over a lot of old machinery, but can't find my way back. Can't find the way I came in, and as I run down one way after another, I KNOW it's not a dream: of COURSE Ken will tell the bus driver to wait for me, but HOW can I find the bus now that it's getting dark and ALL guideposts I'd found are not to be found again. Should I go to the center of town and wait for the bus to find me there? Step down on a goat's head because people won't get out of the way to let me down a narrow stairway that has partially collapsed, but no one even seems to pay attention to me, and there's no one to ask where to go, and I'm running faster, frustration building up to a desperation to get back to the bus, and I have NO hope of doing it, when I wake up with a GREAT, almost drugged, feeling of relief. One of the WORST in a long time, since I was so CONVINCED that it wasn't a dream and I HAD to get back to the bus or would be HOPELESSLY without ANY recourse in the WORLD. Finish typing at 6:26, absolutely amazed that these two haven't taken up the LESS THAN a PAGE that I had left, and that the batteries haven't given out YET, and I have to pee again. Forgot detail of a man with his shorts below his cock, his erection clothed only in a sort of a red tube of cloth, and I was amazed that no one thought he was obscene, even though he seemed to be in charge of a marching group of children behind him. Many other details, vivid when I woke, have now escaped me, and I type doggedly on, hoping for the signal that this file is filled and I can stop without still wondering how much space I have left: I guess it must be all the line-spaces between the dreams that will account for the fact that this file will SURELY be over the almost-full six pages of all the OTHER files, or is this just another frustration dream in which I'm condemned to type forever until I wake up with the familiar feeling that I DON'T have to find something, or go somewhere, or finish something that I increasingly think I don't have a chance in the world to FINISH, and as I try for the comma the file IS full at 6:32AM---FIRST TIME ALL FILLED??

SUMMARY PAGE
SAT,4/30/05: Lunch at Brooklyn Beer Garden. Fly JFK to Charles de Gaulle.
SUN,5/1/05: Fly Charles de Gaulle to Madagascar 10:55AM-9:53PM.Dinner on plane.
MON,5/2/05: La Fougere breakfast at Hotel Colbert; Tana tour; lunch at La Taverna at Colbert; Tsimbzaza Park Zoo; La Taverna dinner; bed at 9PM.
TUE,5/3/05: Fly Tana-Maroantsetra 8:59-11:32AM (stop at Toamasina), Relais du Masoala lunch, boat to Andrifotra Private Reserve; night walk; dinner at Relais.
WED,5/4/05: Boat to Nosy Mangabe (in rain); sit at oceanside; dinner at Relais.
THU,5/5/05: Fly Maroantsetra-Tamatave 2:20-3:09; Parc Ivoloina Zoo; Hotel Sharon dinner.
FRI,5/6/05: Oceanside; bus to Perinet, Vakona Forest Lodge lunch and dinner. Lemur Island. Get lost at Crocodile Farm, maybe La Mandraka Nature Farm. Night walk again.
SAT,5/7/05: Museum, rain and forest-climb; Minsinjo shop; Orchidée Gardens.
SUN,5/8/05: Bus to Tana Airport; jet to Fort Dauphin 12:02-1:02PM; Hotel Dauphin lunch, long bus to Berenty Reserve, dinner at Gite d'Etape. Alison Joly visits.
MON,5/9/05: 2 walks with Moolah; sisal masher; museum; dinner at Gite d'Etape.
TUE,5/10/05: Drive to Hotel Dauphin lunch; prop-fly to Tana 1:08-2:50. Dinner at wonderful Villa Vanille with 3 appetizers, 3 main courses, 3 desserts, wine.
WED,5/11/05: Prop-fly to Diego Suarez 1:28-3:18PM; bus to Montagne d'Ambre waterfall; wonderful hilltop Nature Lodge dinner; skim Mittelmeier's Hotspots.
THU,5/12/05: Bus N6 to Ankarana Park; hike Tsingys and cave; picnic lunch; air-conditioned car to Ankify and dine at Hotel Baobab with lots of drinks.
FRI,5/13/05: Boat to Nosy Be; visit ylang-ylang plantation; Hellville Market; "sacred tree" visit; lunch lobsters at Chez Ernest Langoustine House; float in shallow ocean; very hot, poor dinner at Nosy Be Hotel, sometimes lightless.
SAT,5/14/05: Boat to Nosy Kombu (Isle of Lemurs); snorkel nicely; picnic lunch; no lights, no water but good lobster dinner at Nosy Be Hotel; finally light and water.
SUN,5/15/05: Hellville stop; pirogue to Lokobe for Jean-Robert-led tour in hill and forest, boas; jet to Tana 5:20-6:16PM, dark; good dine at Colbert La Fougere.
MON,5/16/05: Ken and I leave group with Roland and Jeremy to see aluminum forge and lunch at Au Rendez-Vous des Pecheurs in Ambatolampy, visit Musée de la Nature for 14,000A, Antsirabe Hotel Camelia in large old home for dinner.
TUE,5/17/05: Cancel Betafo tombs; lunch at Le Grand Hotel Ambositra; drive all day to Fianarantsoa to find Tsara full; dine there; stay at lobby-window Zamatel.
WED,5/18/05: Wine-factory stop; silk embroidery stop; Antaimoro paper stop in Ambalavao; zebu market; long road to Andringitra National Park and mountains and sandwich lunch before driving to Ihosy for Zamatel, worst place yet!
THU,5/19/05: Drive Horombe plateau, Ranohira guide-stop; Relais De La Reine GREAT! Good lunch and dinner there, afternoon walk by myself; Ilakaka stop; Sunset Window.
FRI,5/20/05: Jacques guides to King's bath in Canyon aux Singes; good dinner.
SAT,5/21/05: Ken sick; with Ferdinand to Nazama Canyon and lemur campground, and to Piscine Bleu and Piscine Noir. Picnic lunch. Last dinner at Relais De La Reine.
SUN,5/22/05: Tomb stop; Zombitse-Vohibasia Bara Museum; Hotel Capricorn lunch in Tulear; tour Arboretum D'Antsokay; Vassili's for yogurt, good dinner at Hotel Capricorn.
MON,5/23/05: Lunch at Hotel Capricorn; prop-fly to Tana 2:55-4:23; day room at Hilton Hotel; dinner at Villa Vanille with awful singer, to airport 10:35PM.
TUE,5/24/05: Fly Tana-De Gaulle 12:53-11:34AM, watching Ocean's 12 and The Incredibles in boredom; taxi to Hotel Volney, lunch in Chez Georges, visit porn museum, see Jean-Jacques at his place 5:55-7:05; dine at Moï Vietnamese.
WED,5/25/05: Louvre all day: France Romane, Mona Lisa, lunch in Cafe Richelieu and part company for my Levant, Apartments Napoleon III, Salon Apollon, Nineveh and Nimrod and Assyria, Akkad, Jarmo, and Sumer and Mari, and Medieval Louvre. Nice walk back. Dine at Aux Lyonnais (Ducasse) with Christophe and Paul PAYS!
THU,5/26/05: Museum of Eroticism; Grand Palais for Poussin, Watteau, Chardin, and David, lunch there, movies, third Taillevent dinner (disappointing) at 1286€!!
FRI,5/27/05: Fly De Gaulle-JFK 2:39-10:09PM (4:09PM locally); home at 6:10PM, watch Drama Desk awards and j/o, getting into bed at 10:10PM, starting off well.
SAT,5/28/05: Type notes, sort mail, phone lots, stuff away, Rite Aid prescriptions.

SUN,5/29/05: Sapa brunch and dinner, do Times puzzles and read papers, gym#1.