Later in the afternoon I pitched up at the Blue Nile Sailing Club. It was the first time I have seen it in the daylight since April and it looked lovely. The trees seemed to be leafier, the grass greener, the paintwork was bluer and there appeared to be new cushions on the chairs. In short it was an idyllic place to while away a sunny afternoon, which was just as well…

Earlier in the day Tom had had a call from his new head of department inviting us all to join him for a boat ride on the Nile. We arrived in good time and met our host, but there seemed to be some delay. He explained, we were waiting for his wife – who was baking a cake – she would come soon. We drank chilled Pepsis and watched a guy ambitiously waving from his water skis.

Eventually, the wife arrived and we assumed we could get going. But no, we continued to wait. Apparently no one had brought the boat key. We finally boarded 15 minutes before sunset and set-off only to realise that we were now without our host who had gone to pray.

We watched the last few minutes of the sun while slices of delicious cake, glasses of hot sweet tea and coffee were urgently distributed. Actually the cake was pretty good and the non-alcoholic sun-downers were an excellent accompaniment. It was, all in all, jolly fine.

We chugged up the Blue Nile; moving slowly and gently. The water in the afterglow was looking wonderfully still and silky. It was beautiful and restful. When the light had completely gone we turned round and returned downstream to the club. Hospitality continued as our host insisted on ordering double helpings of burgers, more soft drinks, "basta" (Greek-style pastries in syrup), and more sweet coffee.