Maurice is offended. He tells me that he was not "out drinking last night" and most certainly doesn't have a hangover. In fact things are rather worse - he has what he described as "Delhi belly" and I chose to ask no more.
Yesterday was a day of maintenance for G-KIRK. M found that oiled plugs were the cause of her problems necessitating his precautionary landing in the jungle. He reports that he worked all day on running repairs and changed the plugs, carried out an oil change and worked on the airframe. He described G-KIRK as a "tired old girl" and, in his fragile state of health, sounded a rather tired old boy himself. M did not really enjoy today's flying. He flew for 9 hours down the Malayan coast and, instead of enjoying the wonderful scenery, simply pointed G-KIRK south and gritted his teeth.
He felt well enough for a little fun at one stage when he flew over the jungle at 20mph and throttled back and briefly cut the engine to yell to loggers "Hi - I'm on my way to Australia!" They laughed and waved. I can confirm that M fairly regularly uses this method of communication (ie switching off the engine and yelling) with people on the ground - especially with farmers in order to ask permission to land in a field.
On to Jakarta tomorrow. M reports that he just wants to curl up and die...
KK (M's wife)