It took two days but the fucking mosquitoes have found out that I’m here. The word appears to have spread quickly, because this morning we all woke up to the evidence of a debauched insect blood-sucking orgy. Well, I did anyway. I’m sure I even saw the mother ship hovering by the front door last night, probably bringing in reinforcements from the entire length of the Algarve. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the bastards had advertised the event on Facebook, because by the morning I looked like I was entering the early stages of bubonic plague, especially around my ankles and torso. The Romanian side of the family escaped almost unscathed but poor Little Muckette seems to have inherited her daddy’s sweet blood. As most of her body is hidden away at night in her sleeping bag, the mosquitoes feasted on her face, and we counted thirteen bites on her cheeks, ears and forehead. Overnight, her complexion has changed from fresh faced baby to acne riddled teenager, but the bites don’t appear to be itchy or causing her any distress, so the way I see it is that’s thirteen less bites for me. Handy suggested that we could rent her out as an ‘insect sponge’- “She gets bit so you don’t have to”. For once I think Handy’s right. I’ve racked my brains but can’t see any flaws in the plan at all, so will start spreading word of mouth here and printing out some flyers. That’ll be our alcohol bill for the holiday paid for, as well as an industrial sized tub of DEET for me. Sorted.
We met up with Luis and Carolina today, the friends we made while here two years ago. It was really good to see them both again and a pleasure to bring them some gifts from England and invite them over to our place for a barbeque later this week. They made us feel so welcome last time, and even invited us into their home for dinner. And of course it was Luis, who was the resident DJ at The Palace nightclub, who kindly allowed me to play a couple of sets there, along with Aldy, the club manager, who was very generous with us, but cut a slightly tragic figure with his fantastic stories and colourful yet somehow lost persona. We’ve enquired after him since arriving here, but Luis could only say that he’s still around, but to his knowledge not working at the moment. I’ve a nasty feeling that we won’t see him while we’re here, but I hope we do as he’s a lovely guy who we had a good laugh with last time, and who got Mrs Muck so drunk that the last day of her holiday was spent in bed, vomiting. Good times.
Luis told me that he’s playing out this weekend, both tonight and Saturday, and these days plays lounge music and soulful deep house. He also works at a beachfront bar on the other side of Lagos five days a week, serving drinks, and booked a table for us all on Sunday afternoon, when there is a band playing live Portuguese and Brazilian music.
I have brought a small case of CDs with me again, in the faint hope of blagging a set somewhere like last time. But in truth, I don’t hold out much hope, firstly because The Palace was firmly shut and covered in dust when we passed it today (Luis said it hasn’t been open since the summer we were here, two years ago) and also that these days I’m playing trance again, and Lagos is very much a bar scene, whereas I’ve always really been a club DJ. However, last time we were here we met Ana, a curly haired raver with a fantastic purple ohm tattoo on her back, who managed a bar in town and was heavily into psy-trance, and who told me about parties going off deep in the Portuguese countryside. Luis said she’s now working at another bar in town, so I may pass by to drop in a couple of my latest CDs. Like last time, you just never know!
In the meantime, we have seen posters advertising a big trance night next Saturday at a new club on the outskirts of the town. To be honest, we’ve been exhausted since arriving here, but in a good way, and despite being totally wasted by 9pm every night so far, I’m hoping that by next week we will have acclimatised and will be able to stay awake long enough to check it out. Yeah I know- it’s more like Barry Island here than the Algarve, but I intend to change that. As long as I can stay awake that is…