On Thursday we left for a long-weekend in Benin, at the same hotel as last time: La Casa del Papa. The night before we went to a surprise leaving party for Carl, a colleague of mine, and his wife Oddbjørg, so we didn't manage to packand leave before 12:30.

The journey was going well right up to the passport control at the Benin border where we met a particularly corrupt official. Normally they try to extort some money with one excuse or another. This guy was very open about it: "You want to come to my country. I have the power to stop you. Therefore, you must give me a present." He was adamant that this was entirely normal and acceptable. In retrospect, I should just have just paid him but instead I argued and asked him why he would not let us through when all our papers were in order. He didn't like that, but grudgingly stamped our passports. "Great!" I thought. WRONG!

"What about your vehicle?" he asked. Then I made my second mistake: identifying my driver. "These papers are false!" he exclaimed when he was given the papers. "We have to check these back at the office in town and won't be finished before the following day." We had to wait for an hour before the driver eventually managed to buy his way out of trouble and tip all the people who "helped us". The papers were fine, of course.

When we arrived at the hotel, the staff all remembered us and we had a nice swim and dinner before crashing out early.

The next day, we were almost the only ones at the hotel and it was great to have some time all together and for the kids to run around. Daniel is getting steadily better at swimming - he spent at least half his waking hours in the pool.

In the afternoon, the hotel started to fill up a bit. Amongst the guest were the wives of 2 Danish and a South African couple from Maersk who we know from Lagos. The South Africans have a boy, Conner, in Daniel's class and a girl who is a year and a half older than Mathilde. Daniel had a great time, but Erik felt a bit left out.

On Saturday morning the men arrived. In the afternoon I managed to drag myself from the poolside for a game of Tennis. Erik and Daniel were ball boys (we paid them in ice cream). Afterwards Erik, Daniel and I went out in a canoe on the lagoon which they really enjoyed.

That night, Maersk were celebrating and we were invited to lobsters and champagne. The lobster thermidor was really good, but I wouldn't want to meet a live one - they're huge and spikey.

The following day Inger-Lise packed while I took Mathilde and the boys out in the canoe again and our friends went off on 4 Quad bikes. Unfortunately the daughter of one of ther Danish couples broke her arm on their trip - they are dangerous machines.

On Sunday we really did not want to leave, but by 1:30 pm we could delay no longer. We took a different route along the coast on the way back, but it was extremely bumpy. Poor Mathilde had just fallen asleep when we started along it, of course. The border was uneventful this time. However, as we were entering the outskirts of Lagos, Mathilde was car sick (literally), poor thing. The driver and I had to clean the seat and change her at the side of the road (in none too clean conditions) with a crowd of nosey onlookers. Not an experience I care to repeat!

So that was our weekend... if only Benin was closer!

Jeremy