STEVE always seemed to appear whenever one of life's minor disasters came my way. Thus, both curiosity and trepidation marked my acceptance of his dinner offer.
After a lovely and suspiciously uneventful meal, we returned to my flat for coffee . . . where we encountered a poisonous snake.
We thought it looked groggy until it darted under the settee, never to be seen again.
My first response was to pack my bags for an extended stay at The Peninsula.
Steve, however, noted the cost-ineffectiveness of such a move, and I graciously accepted his invitation to stay in his flat. I never left. - ANDREA MIA REED I LIVED in Africa once. Travels took me to an island on a lake in the Rift Valley. A girl was there who mended wounded Africans and animals: crested cranes hobbled in and out of her hut.
In the early mornings she swam across the lake, past crocodiles and hippos.