25th February, approx. 0900hours
Arrived in the port of Aden after a relatively relaxed journey down through the Red Sea, and embarked to the hustle and bustle of another Arabian port city. I must say that I'm still adjusting to all this heat, and I'm glad that the Indian Queen wasn't an exceptionally fast ship so that the temperature rise wasn't too abrupt. This is still winter but it's still so dashed hot that I had to bribe Corporal Fleming to doing a spot of fanning during the middle of the day, and to fill some of my water sacks with ice he purloined from the ship's bar when he could.
Now we're on dry land, with an emphasis on the dry, there's no respite unless you're able to drape yourself over a chair in a local bar. Corporal Fleming has again been mightily resourceful in surveying the best routes to and from our headquarters and the Embassy and any other buildings we're required to visit during the heat of the day. Our esteemed commander seems bent on punishing us all with rampant heatstroke to gain very little. My trusted batman has found many a useful 'refreshment' stop along the way.
I am particularly enamoured of a small cafe bar here wherein there is a most charming Oriental lady who dances those exotic dances well remembered from the Arabian tales of The Thousand And One Nights and other stories from this region. She has entranced me for some hours at a time already, and we've only just arrived. Her movements set my frenzied into flight as if it were being taken for a ride on a magical flying carpet through a wondrous city. If it were not for the fact that I know that I'm in a wondrous city in an exotic land I would think myself mad. Corporal Fleming fortunately brings me back to earth and to sanity by telling me that we have to return to headquarters to complete our tasks however, which is my saving grace.
