Chapter 9

Sunday morning ARRRRGGGHH, I overslept! It was gone ten o'clock by the time I woke up– the day was practically over with! All my plans of getting to MacCavity's the second they opened this morning were down the drain. Forget about heading to the newsagent's, the only thing I was heading for was a nervous breakdown!

I was so broken from yesterday that I had slept through Dev's deafening snoring and my phone alarm. It was the SQUAWKING seagull that woke me in the end. I should have been grateful but the thought of a KILLER BEAST on our windowsill was scaring me witless. I had to get rid of it. Reluctantly I opened the window and poked at it with a teaspoon. It was the only thing that resembled a weapon close to hand.

How To defend yourself from a killer seagull Poke at it with a teaspoon Woefully inadequate d/ Threaten it with a shovel The gull swiped it and chucked it onto the street below, narrowly missing a postwoman on her bike. Imagine the CATASTROPHE if it had landed in her spokes! Then it spotted the packet of shortbread on the sideboard and tried to barge its way in, and I am not EXAGGERATING when I

say it had the wingspan of a Boeing 747! I had to wrestle the window shut without losing my fingers and throughout the whole traumatic ordeal, Dev slept like a baby. It is all right for some! I couldn't believe I had just woken up and already wished I was back in bed. I dreaded what the rest of the day had in store. Dev was in such a deep sleep that I had to resort to slapping him on the cheeks. 'What d'you do that for?' he grumbled. 'IT WAS EITHER THAT OR A BOOT UP THE BUTTOCKS,' I replied. After washing and dressing in record time, we went downstairs (my trousers were still damp so I had to wear Dev's cargo pants

again). Agung and Oli had just finished breakfast. 'Why didn't you wake us?' I said to Oli. 'You didn't tell me to,' he said. EXCELLENT. 'Why didn't you save us any brekkie then?' I asked. Agung answered with a hearty BURP. Cor, the things I do for these people and this is what I get in return! Oli must have felt unusually guilty, as he sprinted up to his room and returned with two of his bribery Easter eggs for our breakfast.

I chomped on a bit and nearly gagged. I checked the best before date on the box and discovered they were off. No wonder Oli was so keen to offload them onto us, plus it served us right for scrimping at the NINETY-NINE PENCE SHOP! Anyway, we didn't need breakfast, we needed one more voucher. It was our last day in Sudmouth, the amusement park closed at five and we were due to get the six o'clock bus home. Timings were tight, but we could do it! I rounded everyone up, we made our way to MacCavity's and hoped for the best. When we got there the shopkeeper was arranging coral reef snow globes on the shelf.