Around The World In 80 Waves

I haven’t posted much in the last few days because I really haven’t done a great deal. After three months of constant movement on the road I was really shattered when I arrived in Guatemala City, so have been allowing myself a few days off and enjoying the very comfortable surroundings here at the Ambassador’s Residence

Living here is quite the opposite of any surf trip I have ever been on.

Carmen the lovely housekeeper has done all my laundry for me, and wants me to let her know when I will have more for her.

I am served lunch on gold plated crockery embossed with the crest you see on the front of your passport, and wouldn’t dream of offending the staff by doing the washing up.

Security is an obvious concern here so apart from the razor wire and CCTV surrounding the premises, there are also armed guards on all of the entrances who are doing an excellent job of looking after the Little Green Surf Machine for me.

On arrival I was given the earthquake evacuation procedures for the premises due to it being in such a seismically active zone. To elaborate further on this there are several volcanies surrounding the city, one of which erupted two days ago, and there was a major quake here at the end of last year which killed hundreds of people.

However other than a few meals at the shopping centre across the road I havent seen many of the sights or indeed moved far from here.

I spent a whole day trying to balance out my truckers sun tan. Constantly lying on my front and turning to try and keep my right hand side in the sun. I got a bit scorched but did even the colour across myself nicely.

I had found a lovely spot for this in the grounds under the flag pole proudly bearing the British diplomatic flag. I was stretched out in my shorts out of sight until a group from the embassy who were here on a training day stumbled across me. I was quite pleased to be described as Mr January, but I am not sure as to which publication they were referring to!

The whole environment is a bit alien to me, and I dont quite know how to feel about it. However I have been invited by Her Majesty to make myself comfortable here, so as a loyal subject I will do what I can for the next week to comply.

If it helps I can assure you that your hard earned tax pounds are being very well spent. Keep up the good work back in Blighty!