The funny before safari

At 0500 in the morning, while everyone is still trying to find coffee and wondering why on earth they agreed to get up this early, the small details can stand out.

Sometimes it is the things you don't expect to remember that stay with you.

This was one of those mornings.

We were in the main lodge area. We were all looking for coffee. It was 0500 in the morning. With me were Sue-Ann and her husband Bob, and their twin teen boys. The boys were bubbly, slightly overweight and enamored by the idea of anything containing copious amounts of sugar. Coke, ice cream, and the chef’s chocolate fondant. This morning they stumbled in, half asleep, bleary-eyed, hair looking like the blunt end of an angry poodle. Jo and Alex stumbled over to the table and grabbed two muffins. Each.

Sue-ann and her husband were discussing something, and Bob casually referred to the boys as “these two idiots”.

Sue corrected him. “Bob, you can’t say that, they’re your sons! They are not idiots!”

Jo and Alex did not even look up from their muffins, nor did they really stop chewing, but in perfect synchronization and timing, they both simultaneously said, “Yes, we are.”