Pearl of the Indian Ocean

Remembering how much I got bitten last year - and, hence, how useless my repellent spray was - I asked the pharmacist if she could recommend anything else.

Vitamin B strong, she said. When taken, this magical substance emits an odour from your skin pores. Fortunately, it is not detectable to human senses, but mosquitoes CAN smell it and positively hate the stuff.

Sounded good, I thought, until she said that the recommended dose was 3 tablets a day. That added up to two hundred and seventy three tablets for the thirteen weeks - on top of the one hundred and four anti-malarials that I MUST take.

No, thank you, Ms. Pharmacist.

A google search online yielded an alternative, though. It turns out that marmite, that wonderful yeast spread, contains vitamin B in bucketloads. As well as consuming it when abroad, you can also prime your body for two weeks prior to departure. Accordingly, I am now on a strict breakfast diet of marmite on toast.

Luckily, I love marmite.