"Seasickness"

Well, it's obvious isn't it? I wake up, exhilarated from a truly brilliant night but feeling as though the world is ending, my head is caving in and my stomach has been transformed into a washing machine somebody has put bricks into by mistake.

I hobble out of bed and go to the kitchen to get water. I encounter Halia, the big soft comforting ginger cat on the way. He rubs himself sympathetically against my leg so I bring him back to bed with me.

After approximately a nano second it is time to get up. We are supposed to be having breakfast out at a Buddhist vegetarian buffet place in which you make a donation in aid of animal welfare, posting a parcel and then catching a ferry. The thought of the 3 hour trip across the sea to Penang makes my internal organs lurch and twist in apprehension. I feel like I can barely move.

"I don't think I can go on a ferry." I whisper to M.

He grins and gives me a hug.

"I didn't think you drank all that much." he says, making me love him all the more, "it's probably because we've hardly slept."

"Not 18 any more" is Gemmy's verdict.

There is a brief respite in which Gemmy waters the herb garden and I rejoin the lucky Halia who has not moved from the bed. He moves closer to me purring and we fall asleep together, causing M to take a picture of our (apparently) identical sleeping postures and facial expressions.

To cut a long story short I limp to breakfast with the others, feel horrible, eat one spoon of herbal soup, give up and am placed in the cat to languish quietly while M attempts to post our parcel. There is an enormous queue so he gives up and Gemmy takes us to the air conditioned Starbucks at the jetty to recover before the ship leaves. At this point, Gemmy has to go and work so I try to verbalise a goodbye which justifies how great he has been and how much fun we've had - and fail. He chuckles and gives me a hug.

Finally M and I make our way onto the ferry. And it's.. Um...well an unusually rough day. I sit in my seat, teeth gritted, trying to concentrate on Frozen, which is playing but so quietly I can't really hear what's going on. I cant follow it (I think someone can freeze everything they touch or something - and there's a reindeer involved somehow. And a snowman.) but attempting to is a good enough distraction from the waves outside, which don't scare me, but the rather extreme rolling motion they are causing is not helping my stomach to settle. Eventually there is what looks like the usual Disney ending - and shortly after that we thankfully dock.

I roll off the ship, into a taxi, through the doors of our hostel and collapse on our bed for a bit. When I have recovered enough to eat we go out and eat banana leaf rice, which is soothing - and then I fall asleep.

We can explore Penang tomorrow. And as for last night? Well I don't regret a minute of it, though would have drunk less at each stage if I'd known about the next one.

I sleep. Possibly I snore. 

As Gemmy says, "not 18 any more."