While I was away in Borneo, my husband was away attending a meeting in Cairo – in fact we went out to the airport together.

Internet reception was lousy at the rainforest lodge, so it wasn’t really until I came back that I realised he had been gone for five days and there was no email from him or any other form of communication –  to anyone. In fact, his email account hadn’t been opened, and usually he does keep in touch. So I started to get a little uneasy. I chatted to my daughter on Skype and she said she’d try telephoning his hotel in Cairo. While she was doing that, I continued the conversation with her partner, P.

The conversation went like this:

P: You’ve lost your husband!
Me: Yep. Saw pygmy elephants though. And orang utan. Had a fabulous time – luxury accommodation in the middle of nowhere, my own jacuzzi on the verandah…

As it turns out, husband was fine, but internet connection was beyond paying for in the hotel and he was never free to look elsewhere.

But here’s what daughter posted on Twitter later:

 When P. said ‘You lost your husband!’ my mum’s reply was ‘Yes, but I saw some pygmy elephants in the rainforest.’ My family is nuts!