Issue Number 2 - September 2007

Blog Update – September 2007.

Welcome to our
September 2007 issue. As you will see, this one is a little smaller than the first effort. Mainly because it only covers the last month and we haven’t done all that much that is worth reporting. The previous stuff is at the bottom, or you can click on the heading just there >>>>>>> (yep, up on the right of the screen..."Archive").

Just checking out the boats...
















Tree hugger...




School
The kids are back at school now. Their school year starts in September and they have three terms. Sam is now in Grade 2 while Jake is in what they call UK (Upper Kindergarten).
Both seem to be happy at school and have lots of friends. They are the only Kiwi kids here. It doesn’t seem to bother them, although we have noticed that they often imitate American accents when they play at home. We’ll listen with interest to see if it becomes permanent.
The school (Cedar) had to purchase a NZ flag for their display. The school has about 40 flags that hang in the entrance way at school. One for each country represented.
Spanish is part of the curriculum so we’ll see how we go there. Michelle and Dave are going to attempt some Espanola as well. “Ole!” “Si!” “Muchas Gracias!” “Pajero!” “Hola!” Told ya. Pretty good aye mes Amigos!

Sam has also taken up a few after school activities – Brownies, Ballet and….. wait for it…. Rugby. So the week fills up pretty quick now! The kids in Jake’s class aren’t allowed to do the after school things just yet (apparently too young). Maybe next term. So he has to hang out with Dad instead.



Our first fish!!!






Work
Michelle continues to be busy at work and keeping cool in her almost overly air-conned office. They are awaiting the final touches being put on their new building (across the street). Once all is done, they’ll move in – supposedly in October. But we’ll see! Not a lot happens on time around here.
It’s a six story building (counting the ground floor as the 1st, that’s what they do here) and they have the 3rd and 4th I think. There were a couple of issues during the building phase – well after it actually. The developer had a permit for four floors but since he’d built four he decided to add another couple for good measure. Somehow Mr Permit-Issue guy found out and things got a little hairy. But it’s all sorted now. Mr P-I guy has a new car and things are just dandy. Just waiting on the internal bits and pieces. Michelle’s new office doesn’t have a view of the sea unfortunately but it does have a bit more room which will be good.

Dave has had a couple of ‘meetings’ with people around town regarding work but as yet nothing concrete has turned up. The search continues…
He did however write to the Immigration Department to seek permission to apply for work. Three and a half weeks later, he got a response. Try again after you’ve been here for six months. Why didn’t they just say that in the first place? Anyway, we’ll try again in November.




Rugby
Dave has joined the rugby club (http://www.bvirugby.com/ the site is a little out of date) and is busy training for a game against the Dominican Republic (at DR) in October. It used to be an annual tour, but hasn’t happened for a few years. BVI Rugby has just appointed a Rugby Development Officer from the UK. The local Government is chipping in, maybe the IRB also. This guy is a young prop from the UK who will become the Club’s Coach as well. I don’t think they’ve ever had one, so that should be positive. Anyway, training at the moment is Tuesdays (Fitness and skills) and Thursdays (Touch and Bomba’s…). It’s been a while since Dave did some of the physical stuff at rugby – but he’s not alone here! For the last few years, they have only played Touch twice a week. It’s a bit of a shock for some. One guy thought he was going to faint on the first night. Then he went home and downed three litres of Coke before spending the next three days very close to the potty. He must have done it hard! More to follow on the rugby and the “DR tour!” in the next issue.


Michelle also comes out most Thursdays for a run around. At first some of the blokes were a bit hesitant when passing to a 'woman' but most of them are over themselves now (as they realised that she probably knew more about the game than most of them and could play!). The kids pretty much entertain themselves on the sideline or thereabouts. Some locals played cricket next to us one night and the kids joined in with them. Fun for all!

World Cup
There is plenty of interest here in the world cup. Lots of Poms and South Africans (Saffers) here as well as most other nations. French, Canadian, Americans, and a few Aussies and Kiwis. There are now two main pubs that show the games. One is indoors – just like a real pub. The other is outdoors – Captain Mulligans (http://www.captainmulligansbvi.com/ ). Well, it has a roof but no walls. Nice and breezy beside the sea. See the website. That’s where we go, because the kids are easily entertained there while we can have a couple of OJs and watch the footy.
Dave will be watching the final from the Dominican Republic. They play there on the Friday night and then will watch the game live the next day. A NZ v Namibia final would be nice… Can’t see the Poms being there somehow…. But stranger things have happened. I watched the Tonga v Pomgolia game at the pub the other day. Funnily enough, the Tongans had a lot of vocal support from everyone in the pub who wasn’t a pom.



Just one of the bars here...
















End of the day at Josaiah's






















Nice wave Sam!














Beach
The BVI Surf Lifesaving Club has started up here. They are based at Josiah’s Bay (our nearest beach). The kids are a little small to join up properly but they went down and enjoyed a run around on opening day and have been back since. They even took part in the ‘Beach Flags' race which was something novel to them.


"Go!"





Jake gains more and more confidence on the Boogie board every time we go out. He can now catch waves on his own and has attempted kneeling and standing on the board. He wants a surfboard. The way he’s going, I think he’ll get one. Sam isn’t quite as adventurous as Jake but also enjoys catching the odd wave, so we’ll see how we go with these two. Dave is on the hunt for a second hand Malibu to get into the surfing as well. It seems like a great place to learn, so why not!







Our new kingdom!










Just another average beach in the BVI...








Customer Service
Just a wee example about the wonderful customer service that we sometimes enjoy here:

As you may be aware, we have finally got our telephone connected. It only took three months. What you may not know is that the line is crap – all fuzzy and very hard to hear anything. Dave rang up the C & W (local phone company) to report the fault:
Ring Ring!
“Hello, C & W. How can I help?” answers the operator.
“Hi, I’d like to report a…” Click. Line disconnects. Blood pressure rises slightly. He redials.
Ring Ring!
“Hello, C & W. How can I help?” answers the operator again.
“Hi, you just cut me off”
“Hello?”
“I said” I’m almost shouting now “You just cut me off!”
“Well if I can’t hear you I’m not going to strain my ears. If I can’t hear you it’s like I’m talking to a dead person.” explains the worlds most customer oriented toss pot operator on the island.
I think ‘Where the hell did this idiot come from?’ and ‘speaking of dead people, you’re lucky you aren’t within my reach right now’ but I bite my tongue and say “Well I am trying to report a fault which, incidentally, is a bad line.”
“Oh, you need to call faults about that”
“No kidding. Then how about you put me through.” Click…. Ring ring!
And we start all over again with a different person.
But in the end the phone line is a lot better and the internet goes so we can’t complain too much.



















The Water Saga
Disclaimer: In case we end up in court – be advised that the following paragraphs are all made up and are totally inaccurate. I was hallucinating due to severe dehydration and have no real recollection of any events whatsoever. So I made it all up. Everything. There, that should cover it.

You may recall that we had some water issues here at home. We were showering one morning when suddenly the water starts to splutter and then stops altogether. Hmmm, a check of the water pump revealed that the pump was working, but no water going through. Off it goes.

I should explain that our water is Tank water which is collected from the roof when it rains. We aren’t connected to the mains water supply. There are two tanks (called Cisterns here) under the house. I don’t know how much they hold but they are pretty deep so, quite a bit I’d imagine (the neighbor reckons it’s 60,000 gallons).

Upon inspection, one cistern is full, the other empty. What we are supposed to do is swap them over from time to time to keep each tank in use. Nobody told us about this, hence the lack of water. All we need to do is change the pump across to the full cistern. But, alas, that doesn’t work.

The next couple of days are spent either frolicking in the rain, swimming in the sea, showering at the gym or going smelly. Dave and the kids pretty much went smelly – apart from the odd rain dance and some quick washes with water we had stored for a hurricane outage.

So the landlady eventually brings in Dodgy Brother’s Plumbing Inc. to sort the situation out. Mr Dodgy turns up at our house and stares expectantly into the bush behind our house. We wonder what he’s doing. Maybe he’s a “Diviner” or something. Soon we hear something crashing through the bush and grunting. Maybe it’s a pig! This is where the apprentice comes in. He appears out of the bush dragging a massive length ¾ inch pvc pipe They ran a pipe from the mains at the top of the hill down through about 100m of dense bush and then connected this to a piece of hose which was fed through a hole on the wall which led to the empty cistern. Then the water is turned on and the tank starts to fill. Yay! We’re saved!! He tells us that the tank should take a couple of days to fill. No problems we say and watch him and his faithful sidekick Tonto drive off into the sunset.

On goes the washing machine, the dishwasher, the toilets get flushed (we had been using stored water for the toilets, so don’t panic) and Dave and the kids leap into the shower. Life is back to normal… sort of.

We come home later that evening to see torrents of water pouring out of the hole in the side of the house where the hose went in. “I guess it’s full then”. Dave turns the tap off and we retire for the night. The next morning the torrent has reduced to a trickle but there seems to be water coming from somewhere else. A closer inspection of the bank at the back of the property reveals a pile of rubble about the size of a small car with the remains of our water pipe poking out. Above it, water gushes out of the rest of the pipe. Hmmm, the pressure must have been a bit much when we turned the tap off and the pipe flew apart at the join at the top of the bank. All the water must have made the bank collapse. Not to worry, Dave located the main tap at the top of the hill and turned it off. No real damage done and the pipe is repairable. Another job to add to the list.

A few days later, Dave comes home to find a man from the Water & Sewerage Department. Hmmm, what’s he doing here? He has disconnected our hose and taken photo’s of all of Mr Dodgy’s good work.
“This is not right” he said. “Your water did not come through the meter. I have taken pictures and will report this to my boss.”
“Really?” said Dave putting on his Innocently-puzzled-new-to-the-island look. “But it doesn’t work anyway.”
“What do you mean?” replied Mr Water snoop.
Dave showed him the pile of rocks with pipes poking out. Obviously no wahtah was a comin’ from dere marn! Dave got a dubious look as the man disappeared in his truck back to report his tidings to the Evil Water Baron at Water & Sewerage HQ.
Dave warned the landlady of the visit and we now await further developments. Going by the speed things happen here, his report will be written by August 09 anyway. But you never know!!! The landlady didn’t seem too concerned. We suspect she is well-connected.
We’ll let you know if we hear any more.












The 'slip' with water pipe poking out the front and left.

Gardening
Dave bought a machete the other day. All the locals have them and he didn’t want to be left out. It’s used for mowing our grass. True! The grass here grows to be about a metre in height in very little time. We come out in the morning and have to search through the grass to locate the car. We generally tie ourselves together when we do this so no-one gets lost. The landlady is supposed to get a gardener in, but that hasn’t happened since we’ve been here. As we have no weedeater or anything Dave just uses the machete to keep the grass from taking over - a cross between Rambo and Dr Livingston. Does anyone have a Pith hat? (I said PITH hat.)
People generally mow their lawns with weedeaters here. There aren’t actually many proper lawns anyway so a mower would never do. The ground is too stony and uneven for that.
We have harvested a few coconuts from the trees on the property and Dave is attempting to turn them into goblets/cups. We’ll see how we go on that one. There is also a big Lime tree and some Mangoes so that’s all good – apart from the fact that the Mangoes are located down a very steep and as yet unchartered bank. Another job for Dave. He’s just waiting for the Mangoes to ripen a bit before starting the mango expedition.


Rats
Yes, there are rats on the island. Our neighbor warned us of rats in the house but we never saw any sign of them. We had traps and poison out so that may have deterred them.
The other night we had some friends around for a BBQ. We’d had the BBQ and were sitting around outside enjoying a few drinks (as you do) when something rustled in the Palm tree beside us. It was a rat. Quite a large rat. It was about the size of a small rabbit. He scuttled away somewhere in the garden and we carried on. A little later another rat ran across the concrete and disappeared into a drain pipe in the wall (away from the house). Dave got a rat trap from inside and placed it in front of the hole. Everyone scoffed and said the rat wouldn’t be dumb enough to get caught. A little while later….SNAP! We got one! Smaller than the first one – but it was a start. They haven’t come inside (yet) and haven’t really caused any problems but we’ll see if we can get rid of them anyway.
We’ll keep the scoreboard updated. Us: 1 – Rats: nil.

Crab (Yep, just the one.)
One day Dave and the kids were about to get into the car and head off to school when Sam noticed a shell wandering across the driveway. There was a crab in it. We weren’t sure whether he was on his way up the hill or down. Either way, he was a long way from the sea! It would be a fair hike from the beach up to our place for a crab – for anyone in fact. Apparently they travel down to the beach (or was it up from the beach?) once a year to participate in the annual crab love fest. Sam picked him up and got a little nip for her trouble.










Birthday Parties
Now that all the kids have returned from their holidays in Europe and the US there have been heaps of parties. Some weekends we’ve had two. This weekend, we have another two. It’s good to get to know some of the other families around and the kids always have a ball. There’s been “Beach Parties”, Dress up parties, parties at various playgrounds, a party at a beach resort and parties at people’s homes. One party we didn’t leave until about 9:30 pm (it started at 1pm I think). The kids were propped up in the lounge watching DVD’s while the big folk sat outside and sampled the beverages. Some places have their own pool as well. That’s always a bonus for
the kids as they don’t often get to swim in too many pools these days.





"Ooaarrrrrrr me hearties!!"













Miss R. Hood.






















Mattress
All of the furniture in the house is provided but the mattress in the main bedroom isn’t the best. We decided to upgrade. Only trouble was – no trailer, so we did what everyone else around here does – strapped the new one to the roof. Luckily it didn’t rain on the way home – but it was threatening.


"Gee that was a bouncy ride home!"







Some more websites that you may (or may not) find useful, informative or educational:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vi.html
Get the lowdown on the BVI as seen by the CIA.

http://www.angelinacat.com/BVILINKS.htm
Links to a number of BVI related sights. Quite useful.


Next month:
Don't miss our next exciting instalment where you can look forward to hearing about:

- The 'DR Tour'!
- World Cup reaction - the word on the BVI street.
- What happens when you have a minor ding in your car with a local.
- The rat count!
- and lots of other exciting and near-to-the-truth stories.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to post a comment (if you know how! The Fells do! Cheers!)

Catch ya next time!

Michelle, Dave, Sam and Jake.
:)

This is what we've been up to!

The trip so far…
(Apologies for the length of this and the time it took to get on line. Since May we have been awaiting the telephone and internet to be connected at home. This is not rare. And guess what? it happened yesterday!!! Now online, we’ll endeavour to keep it up to date with our latest news, adventures, stories etc.)


Wellington, Saturday 12 May 2007.
In our last minute rush to finally skip the country we took the last of our bits ‘n pieces to the storage place, dropped the car at Turners, finished packing the bags (all eight suitcases plus four carry-on pieces) and left for the airport in a van that had just been pranged. But we got there OK. Treena K arrived to farewell us (well, not really, she just happened to be at the airport with some other folk, but why ruin a good story?). After sitting around at the airport for an hour or two and then spending the last of our Kiwi cash on coffee and duty free chocolate, we jumped on the plane to Fiji. We’re on the way…finally! But… we left Jake’s booster seat at the airport. Woops!

Fiji

We arrived in Fiji in the early evening. Met by Tim who piled (most of) us into their car to head out to Sonasali Resort. Dave went in a taxi with all of our bags and the exact (predetermined) amount of cash required for the journey, lest he be ripped off. It was a little bit warmer in Fiji, funnily enough. And the rain came down! But not for too long. A quick boat trip to the resort, moved into our chalet and had a drink with Joanna and Tim. Aaaaahhhh….. that’s more like it!





As the photos show, the next three days were spent sitting around the pool and either eating, drinking or lazing in the pool before some more eating and drinking. Sam and Jake, Freddie and Beatrice went to Kids Club for a day or two and had lots of fun there. Meanwhile the bigger kids enjoyed some peace and quiet in and around the pool. The next day we said farewell to Joanna, Tim, Freddy and Beatrice who went back to their place in Suva. The kids had a great time together.

We decided to take the windsurfers out for a hoon. Both managed to get them going…. in one direction. Which wouldn’t have been too bad if that direction was anywhere near the beach. Michelle got hers going the best, hence the rescue boat that went (way, way, wayyy!!) out to get her. Dave had to swim and drag his windsurfer back… grumble, grumble… should have stayed at the pool.

LA

After four days of acclimatizing and gorging ourselves, it was time to head off to LA. A relatively incident free leg of the journey. Jake slept most of it. As we were only overnighting in LA, we didn’t do a lot there.

Up early the next day and back to LAX for our flight to Orlando, Florida. Uh Oh!!! “Tickets no good here, lah!” Delta wouldn’t accept our paper tickets (as they had been changed in NZ due to delays caused by visa processing etc) and required them to be reissued and Air NZ have to do that. So Michelle headed off to Terminal Two or wherever the Air NZ flights come and go from (we were in Five I think) to see Air NZ. No one home! They won’t be there until about 11am, if we’re lucky. Meanwhile Dave, Sam and Jake sat in the middle of the terminal with a mountain of bags getting plenty of frowns and sideways glances from the many travelers walking around us. To make things worse, in NZ we had been told that we could take two 32kg bags per person with us (we had a pile of stuff) but Delta would only allow 50lbs per bag. So, we had to unpack all of the suitcases and move bits around to meet the restriction. But we finally managed to get all eight bags in at under 50lbs. Lucky we didn’t fill them right up at home! Gee it was fun doing that in the middle of the terminal. Every time someone scowled at us for holding up the works I said “Gidday mate, it’s alright, we’re from Orstrarliah!”

Michelle makes another trip to the Air NZ counter, this time with Sam in tow. Dave and Jake guard the bags. OK, Jake slept and Dave people-watched for a couple of hours. Every time one of us needed the loo we had to leave our mountain of bags with some trusty looking bod while we raced off to do our business. Fortunately when we returned, our bags were still there.

At the other terminal, the Air NZ woman finally turns up. It’s all a bit too hard for her it seems. Michelle points out in no uncertain terms that if she doesn’t reissue the tickets, blood will be spilled. Finally the tickets are reissued after some to-ing and fro-ing from Miss Helpful in LA to someone with half a brain in NZ. But now all the flights are full and the only flight we can now get on departs at about 10pm, arriving in Orlando at 6:30am local time. So after all that, we will have spent about 14 hours in the Airport going nowhere fast. Yippee!! We are a little tired and hungry (and did I say grumpy?) after this and when this is pointed out to Air NZ, in their infinite generosity, they issue us with a $60 meal voucher which can ONLY be used in the departure lounge.
“No, you cannot have a day room, that’s too hard to arrange also, and I finish work soon.”
Gee, you guys are great…

We finally get the flights sorted and bimble off to the departure lounge. The food voucher can only be spent at one outlet. We had visions of clocking up a few drinks at one place and maybe a pizza at another, but that couldn’t happen. McDonalds it is then. The kids are happy about that. We decide to use the whole voucher and see what we can get for $60 at McDs. We asked the amigo at the counter to keep the sub-total running so we can see how we are going with the money. So, for our sixty bucks we get:

2 x Cheese Burger happy meals & fries (with Shrek Gingerbread Man toys)
1 x Chicken Selects meal
2 x Big Mac (large) combos
1 x Double ¼ pounder combo (with cheese)
2 x Strawberry shakes
3 x Strawberry sundaes
3 x fruit Salads
1 x large coke
1 x med diet coke
1 x large coffee
1 x medium coffee
2 x Shrek III Collectable glasses
1 x 4 pack of cookies

Grand Total: $60.18

After that we all felt decidedly crook. “That’ll teach those Air NZ b’stards” we belch as we stagger away to await our flight.

Orlando (& Disneyworld)
Finally we’re off to Orlando. After a quick dash from coast to coast we catch a Cab to our hotel arriving at about 8 am feeling decidedly weary. Some overly cheery timeshare sales rep jumps in our face and babbles on for ever about visiting some timeshare, all for free “And do you know what? We’ll even throw in a cooked breakfast…. just for $6!” Our reply was “Ah….., No.” and we staggered off with mountain of bags in tow. Sleep time. Far too knackered to go to Disneyworld, even though we have already paid for our tickets. Might have some discussions with the Flight Centre after this, since they did all the tickets etc. Anyway, we sleep until about lunchtime then catch a bus to Disneyworld just in time for the big parade led by Pluto.

The next thee days are spent at the various Disney theme parks (Disneyworld, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and two water parks). We thought we saw an eclipse on the first day but it was just a rather large bottom blocking the sun. Man there’s some fat people in the US! Heaps of them! And it’s easy to see why given the limited choices of food available (and the amount you could see being crammed down those wobbling gullets). But the whole place was pretty cool and the kids had a great time. Some of the rides were a little scary for them, but all good in the end. Also went to Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, two water theme parks. Some cool rides there too! Great fun for all!





Nearly there!

Time for the final leg(s) of the trip. Orlando to San Juan (Puerto Rico) then San Juan to Beef Island (Tortola, BVI). Fairly non-eventful trip to San Juan. A quick dash to the next terminal only to find that the Air Hostess on the previous flight had given us the wrong local time on arrival and we were, in fact, and hour earlier than what we thought. We grabbed some Duty free booze and a bite to eat while we waited for our flight. The flight is called so we head out and jump on the bus to the plane. The bus takes us out across the tarmac and parks beside the plane. “Hold on, something’s up!” We stay on the bus and it takes us back to the terminal. Apparently the power has gone off on Tortola so there’s no lights etc and the plane can’t land.
What? No burning oil drums or bonfires lining the runway to light the way? What sort of circus are we coming too?

We trundle back inside to await word that the island’s electrician has been found, dragged out of the pub to go and change the fuse or whatever it is he needed to do. An hour or so later we get the word. All fixed! We head back out to the plane. Our carry-on baggage isn’t carry-on anymore. We are told to leave it on the tarmac where it is placed in the boot of the plane or strapped to the wings. The plane is one of those twin engine jobs that seat two people down each side. Not tiny, but not that big either. We’re off! After about half an hour we are landing in the BVI (Well we think it’s the BVI. The lights are on anyway. It’ll do).

We're Here!!!(... or there...)

Off we get and lo and behold, our carry on (and duty free booze!) is sitting on the tarmac for us. Hurrah! No bus here though, and it’s pretty warm at 9 pm too! We walk over to the terminal with kids in tow for immigration and customs. While we wait in the non-air conditioned terminal in the queue we are able to watch a big black man flinging bags and suitcases from the trolley bus in the direction of the conveyer belt. He manages to get them to go a fair distance before they come out of their orbit and crash back to earth. We try to think if there is anything fragile in our bags. We don’t think so. If there was, there isn’t any more.

We end up being the last ones through. We are the only people in this group moving here to live. The rest are either returning residents or holiday makers. After some intense scrutiny, the officious immigration representative finally stamps our papers and almost cracks a smile before we head off to retrieve our bags which are strewn all around the baggage claim area. One has no handles left and the wheels are now broken also. Just as well we are here now! It’s had a rough trip. We can ditch it once empty. The customs dude just says “Hi!” and waves us through. He’s late for happy hour.

Shelby, Michelle’s boss is there to greet us. She has arranged a taxi to our accommodation and left some essentials etc there for us, which is nice. We travel up and down hills and around bends before arriving in a town-like place with street lights and everything. This is Road Town, our new home. The apartment is just through town and up what seems to be a nearly vertical driveway, but its dark at the time and we don’t see how steep it really is. It’s just that we feel like we are being forced so far back into our seats and our ears are popping.

The apartment is a fairly roomy two bedroom with great views of Road Town. On goes the Air-con. It’s warm here! After dragging our mountain of bags up the steps, we are feeling the heat. We have this place for a month, as well as a rental car. That should be plenty of time to sort things out.




We awake the next day to the tranquil sounds of this tropical paradise; roosters crowing and dogs barking. What a racket! And it’s only about 4:30am! Damn birds have no sense of time it seems. We are in for another month of this.

Shelby arrives and takes us to the car rental place in town and we get a Suzuki Grand Vitara (4 cylinder). Looks pretty good, but hello, it’s a left hand drive. Hmmmmm. They drive on the left here as well. That will take some getting used to. The car rental place issue us with temporary drivers licences and off we go touring.

Driving
I will take a moment to talk about driving here. It’s all very entertaining and if you are an impatient driver, you would not survive. The front passenger sits in the ‘suicide seat’ and grips the door handle and seat every time a car comes in the opposite direction. One (almost believable) reason for driving on the left in left-hand drive vehicles is that it allows the driver to judge how close they might be to the edge of the road (being quite hilly here).

Being the driver (and sitting on the left in a left hand drive environment), you initially tend to drift towards the middle of the road which has the effect of even whiter knuckles and sweat breaking out on your unsuspecting passenger. They also tend to remind you at three-second intervals to “Keep left”, “Watch out!” “Left!!” “Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!!”etc. It’s also easy to forget which side to get in. It can be embarrassing when its only you in the car and you open the passenger’s door to get in only to find the steering wheel on the other side. So, you casually check something in the glove box then stroll around to the other door while checking that all four wheels are still there hoping that no-one has spotted your faux pas. Clicking the wipers instead of the indicators is another habit that’s hard to get out of, but at least the windscreen is always clean!

On top of that the locals have no regard for their own safety when walking. They will step out in front of traffic without even thinking about looking for cars. When you get caught out and end up screeching to a halt just before you collect one, they turn and give you the most contemptuous look. It’s like “How dare you even attempt to drive that car along this road that I am walking across” or “So?”

There is a big roundabout in the middle of town. That is a classic. People just wander through the middle as if cars don’t exist (and it is very busy – car-wise). So you have to stop and wait while smiling nicely and muttering under your breath. Other cars also just stop midway around to drop off or pick up people. They even stop to chat to people who might be walking past. Never mind that there is a big line of traffic behind waiting for you to finish your chat with cousin Rufus about what you did on the weekend. Indicators are few and far between. No, that’s a lie. There are plenty of them; they just don’t get used much. You are expected to know when people are turning or stopping. If passing you, they will beep the horn just to let you know, which takes some getting used to also. They also beep to say “Hi”. Longer beeps tend to indicate some measure of impatience it seems.

(Side story) I heard about a bloke who was leaving the BVI after several years to go back to wherever he came from and he wanted to make a statement as a final act of his time here. He thought about the one thing that really annoyed him during his time - the traffic. So, on the day before he left he takes his car into town during 'rush hour', stops halfway around the roundabout, hops out of the car and opens the boot (you need to understand that by now about 40 or 50 cars are backed up in four directions trying to get through the roundabout). He then takes out an ironing board, and iron and a shirt and proceeds to iron his shirt while half of Tortola sit in their cars honking horns and getting a little annoyed. The newspapers turned up and took some pics and eventually the Police arrived and moved him on. He was a happy man. He'd got them back.

Stop signs. It appears that when at a stop sign, everyone else gives way to you… when they feel like it. The amount of times I’ve been honked at for not letting someone through who is sitting at a stop sign is unbelievable. I now ignore the signs and just drive like everyone else. Funnily enough, it does seem to work.

Parking. Pretty much anywhere you can fit. Don’t be surprised if you find a park and when you return to your car, someone has blocked you in so they can run a quick 45 minute errand or go to church or something. It’s just the way it is.

There is a set of traffic lights here in Road Town (yes, that’s one set of lights). And amazingly, people do seem to abide by them. Apparently it’s taken a couple of years for that to happen but it all appears OK just now. I’m not sure why they are where they are, it’s not as if it’s major intersection. Or maybe in a year or so it will be as they are attempting to build a sports complex just there (which is about two years behind schedule). Maybe it’s forward thinking on someone’s part.

There are plenty of hills here too. Most driveways/streets resemble something like Baldwin St in Dunedin (but with additional sharp turns and bumps in them). Four wheel drives are a must here, although there are plenty of cars around that seem to get there OK. We’ve just purchased a (used) car to get around, a Pajero. Seems to do the trick. Might have to get a second car too as we tend to clock up plenty of miles going from home to work to school to home to school to work to home etc every day.

Driver’s licence
Gee what a cool time! Dave decided to get a BVI Driver’s licence. On arrival here you can get a “Temorary licence” which lasts for three months. Most of the expats seem to just use these and renew them four times a year. Otherwise you have to sit a poorly written test based on a poorly written ‘Road Code’ booklet. You must get 55 out of 60 questions correct to pass. Monday morning: Score 49/60 – Fail. They don’t tell you which questions you got wrong, just that you must sit the test again on another day. They’re really helpful.

Tuesday morning: Score 52/60. an improvement but back to the drawing board.

Wednesday morning: Score 54/60. Gutted. Tried to argue the point on a couple of questions. Nope. Come back another day.

Thursday morning: Lo and behold! A Certificate of Completion is awarded. Complete with a Royal guard of honour, 21 Gun Salute and a Fly Past by the BVI Airforce. All a little over the top I thought. But hey, it’s not an easy test! But at least I now have an official BVI form of identification. I should add that the test does not in any way reflect the driving habits around here.

The temperature around here ranges from about 80 at night to 90 ish (late 20’s to early 30’s?) during the day, so it’s always pretty warm. The gauge on the car usually sits at around 33/34 most days. 27/28 first thing in the morning. I think I have worn a tee shirt twice now, just to look a little more ‘formal’. Usually it’s just shorts, jandals (flipflops/thongs) and a singlet. Michelle has an Air conned office so she can wear normal work clothes. Just cooks a little when scuttling from the office to the shops or the car etc. If you move slowly enough, you don’t break into a sweat every time you venture outside, but it doesn’t take much! We don’t often have tea or coffee these days. They’ve been replaced by water. Dave has the odd hot drink from his new $20 coffee maker.

Michelle, in an attempt to acclimatize or “acclimate” (pron: ak-lim-ate) as some Americans say (is that a world? A bit like A-loom-in-um maybe?) and also maintain some fitness, started walking home from work in the evenings to our apartment in town. The walk was always quite flat and pleasant in the breeze, but the last part of scaling the near-vertical driveway was always the killer! Now that we have moved over the hill there is a massive slope for her to scale (approx 3 miles up). She’s got about ¾ of the way up so far before the rescue Pajero arrives.

We spent the first week exploring the beaches on the island. Some awesome. Some OK. A couple are crap. But there is no shortage of places to go. All the tourists go to Cane Garden bay which is nice enough, but very tame and set up to fleece the unsuspecting American tourist with wads of cash. We tend to try and avoid the tourists who arrive in their thousands every time a cruise ship turns up (mainly because we are always mistaken for tourists due to our lighter complexions). The water is always nice. Not warm, but certainly not cold. Cool enough to make it worthwhile. And there is usually some snorkeling to be done in most places which is always fun.

The next few weeks here were spent waiting in queues at the Medical centre (to get our Medicals Forms checked) Immigration (visas), Labour dept (Michelle’s work permit), Social Security, Bank, Telephone Company, car registration and anywhere else we could find a queue. It was almost like being back in London where whenever someone stops on the street, a queue forms behind them. “Take a number!” is always the call. Even when wanting to get a blank application form for the telephone I had to wait for over 40 minutes. Lucky I spent 21 years in the Army learning to “Hurry Up and Wait!”

House hunting was next. There are some quite nice places here, as long as you are willing to pay for them. Some with pools, some without. All pretty much have tiled floors throughout (no carpets and very few with wooden flooring) and varying standards and quantities of furniture etc. Almost all have some challenging access routes. Can’t do much about that though.

We noticed that many of the houses here have that unfinished look i.e. with a flat concrete roof with reinforcing rods sticking out the top all over the place. When looking inside everything looks fine and there don’t appear to be leaks or anything. We have since learned that until a house is completely finished (i.e. roofed), the owner doesn’t have to pay tax or rates on it. These houses just stay that way forever.

School. The kids are in an international school called Cedar. Jake is in the Lower Kindergarten (Upper Kindergarten from September). Sam started in Primary Transition which is like pre primary. She lasted 3 days before they put her up into Grade One (where she should have been anyway). She’ll be in Grade Two in September (after the holidays). She fitted in there just fine and has made some new friends already. Although now it is Summer Holidays, all the expat kids seem to be heading off to the UK, USA or wherever they come from for the next six weeks or so. We’ll see who stays around and try and sort something out. Otherwise it’ll just be Dad and the kids until school starts back.

Life in general

Michelle’s work has also funded family membership to a local gym/sports club so we now have access to a proper well equipped gym with tennis and squash courts as well. And do you know what? It has a bar and restaurant as well…. So that’s all pretty good. You can go running on the treadmills in Aircon! Will still have to do some outdoors work as well to keep used to the climate.

Dave started rugby training too. It’s really a slightly more physical version of touch, but when played for about an hour in this heat without a break it really takes it out of you. Not too many locals get involved in the rugby. Mainly Poms, South Africans with a Hawaiian and a couple of Kiwis there to up the standard a bit. No ozzies that I know of but I’m sure there’s some skulking about (Ha ha! Lost again!!! The Bledisloe is ours!). The training ground is about a half hour drive but is also just around the corner from the (in)famous Bomba’s Shack (Google it or http://www.bombasurfsideshack.com/), so popping in for a beer after training is a nice way to end the day, although last week Dave staggered home a little after midnight. Quite a bit of re-hydration went on after training apparently. Networking and all that…

Our House
We have moved into a three bedroom house in a place called Cooten Bay ($2100 per month which isn’t too bad really). Not many people here seem to know where that is. Even the Roosters are few and far between so that’s a bonus! A very quiet place with northerly views directly out to Guana island and the channel between Tortola and Guana islands. There’s a patio area at back with big BBQ and some outdoor furniture. A real suntrap. Trouble is it gets too hot! Shouldn’t complain I guess! The Lime tree is laden, which is now a nice addition to most cold drinks – even Carib beer is served with a wedge of lime around here. That took some getting used to. I thought I was getting some ‘poofter’ drink the first time but it ain’t too bad really. I won’t complain if the lime isn’t there, but it’s OK if it is. Same as Coronas I guess. A couple of coconut trees live here as well and quite a few lizards that run all over the place. They eat the bugs so we can’t complain. You just get the odd surprise leaping out of a bag or from under a pillow or bed from time to time.

Again, the driveway has some hair-raising features, generally related to the gradient of the slopes. The road is in quite good condition (concrete, and hand-raked on the steep bits) compared to most, so that’s good. The driveway itself takes about 5 minutes to drive and has a few Mango trees along the way where we sometimes stop to pick up some of the fruit which the kids just love after school. Beds, fridge, oven, microwave, washer/drier, tables, chairs, lounge furniture etc all provided. We recently went on a shopping expedition to St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) to get some smaller appliances and other bits and pieces for the house. Managed to spend about a grand at K-mart on a range of things from carpets, DVD/VCR, Stereo through to cutlery and dish mops. More on that trip a bit later.





Beaches.
Our nearest beach is Josaiah’s Bay, about 10 minutes from here (we can see it from the house). It’s one of the so-called best surfing beaches here (in the winter) but seems pretty good generally. Winter is when the surf picks up here apparently. It would have to because it’s fairly average at the moment. Nice white sands and blue water. It also has a bar/restaurant on the beach which is a bonus. In fact I think almost all of the beaches have a bar fairly close. The one at Smuggler’s Cove has two – both powered by car batteries and right on the beach. They’ll mix you a cocktail, fix you some food and you hardly have to get off your chuff. But there are beaches everywhere – take your pick!

Weather.
There’s a lot of that here. All of it warm. Some of it wet. Some windy and some very loud. Our first night in this house graced us with the “worst electrical storm in 30 years!” Continuous cracks of lightning that sounded just above the house. Thunder that shook the house and torrential rain that was so loud we thought the roof would cave in. It was a bit like what you see on some horror movie. The kids were absolutely petrified. We all huddled into Sam’s room for the duration (two beds there). Finally got to sleep at about 4 am.

It generally rains here at night. Massive downpours that turn into floods on the roads within minutes. There’s no such thing as drizzle or a light shower. It’s either dry or hosing. And it is really loud, like getting shingle poured on your roof. After it just gets stickier. Our house has only rain water. In town they have a water supply; mostly rainwater or desalinated it seems.

These pics are taken from our lounge and show the rain on its way. When it rains... it RAINS!!!




Hurricanes
We had our first hurricane warning last week (Mid Aug). Hurricane Dean was on his way. But luckily he took a right and then a left and missed us. St Lucia wasn’t quite so lucky. Same with a few other places. We spent the days prior getting prepared (extra water, food, torches etc). Hopefully we’ll never need them, but best to be prepared.


Rum.
There is an abundance of the stuff here. Not so much the dark rum but more the light stuff with various added flavours e.g. Mango, Pineapple, Coconut, Banana etc etc. Also Mount Gay Rum is big here, as is Pussers (the original Navy Rum came from here apparently). Most people just add some ice or maybe some fruit juice, bitters etc to make a really nice fruity cocktail. At about seven bucks a litre I can see some long nights coming up! I now understand why every house I have seen has a blender sitting in the kitchen. Cocktail parties sound like the go – probably cheaper than beer or wine. And if anyone from the old "Baggies Bar" days in Papakura remembers the 151's that Robbie (the fat barman) used to give us? Well, for $5.65 you can buy a litre in the supermarket.

Booze & prices. The duty on alcohol is very low here. A litre of Black label will cost around $US25. Green and Blue label also readily available in supermarkets. Various Gins etc from about $7 or $8 to maybe $20. Beers generally around $1.10 - $1.50 per bottle (stubby). That includes Guinness, Stella, Grolsch, Heinies, Red Stripe, Caribe, Bud, Coors etc and wait for it…. Steinies at $1.19 a bottle! Woohoo! Maybe Speight’s is on it’s way… Even in bars a beer will generally cost between $2 and $3. Cocktails around $5 (and they are pretty good drinks too!). Wines range from about $5 a bottle (Chile, US, Spanish, Oz, South African) through to $20/$30 for decent (NZ, Oz, French) wines.

Bars.
Plenty of these about. Some are just a few sheets of corrugated iron and a fridge on the side of the road but all seem to have power and EftPos etc. There are plenty of Restaurants/bars etc so you could never go thirsty or hungry. There are plenty of ‘classier’ bars in town that get frequented by ex-pats and locals alike ‘til all hours.
Bomba’s Shack and The Last Resort hold New Moon parties. We’re yet to experience this as the kids will need a baby sitter but we hear that they can get pretty wild – all in good fun of course. Bomba’s make a special ‘Tea’ out of some local mushrooms that is served at the party. Sounds ominous. Although Dave has spent a couple of evenings there of late after rugby ‘training’.

Speaking of which, Dave was having an ale at Bomba’s the other night (23 Aug) when three big Land Cruisers with tinted windows screeched to a halt about 15 feet from where we stood. You need to imagine about 12 blokes standing around at about 10 o’clock on the side of the road (you get your beers through an opening on the side of the road, that’s why we were gathered there) at night with a few beers under their belts. (I’ll get a pic for you). Anyway, these things stop and about 10 or more camouflaged (and Armed) police jump out and race all over the place. They were apparently the Anti Drug Squad and resemble the Armed Offenders Squad in NZ. We’re surrounded! But they ran past us and into the inside part of Bomba’s. we continue to stand there and chat amongst ourselves casually while these guys do their thing. Presently a couple of local blokes are dragged out and, purely for our entertainment, searched and handcuffed while we look on. The ‘perps’ are bundled into the cars and they all speed off. “Who’s shout?” is the next thing we hear. The live show is over. Back to talking rubbish over a few beers.

Eating out often will start to cost you. But having said that the local food really is quite tasty. ‘Jerk’ Chicken or Mahi Mahi (fish) are pretty good. I have no idea what “Jerk” means but it’s pretty tasty. We got some takeaways from the local ‘pie cart’ one night. It’s an old caravan parked in the corner of a parking lot and there’s smoke billowing out of it continuously. The people inside doing the cooking have those paper air filter/mask things on and red eyes from all the smoke. They do BBQ Chicken, Steak, Ribs etc. But it tasted pretty scrummy and locals were eating there so we thought it must be OK! Michelle ate some Dolphin when she was in the Caymans. I think they just call it Dolphin but it’s not what you think. Flipper lives on…

Crime Rate. The crime rate here seems fairly low. This might have something to do with the fact that your name gets published in the papers if you get arrested. That’s before going to court etc. Also some of the sentences looked a little harsh too. I saw one the other day where a bloke got 15 years jail for a fairly minor sounding burglary. There was, however, a shooting here the other week. Some young guy got gunned to bits in his car as he sat in a car park one Friday night with a few of his mates. No arrests yet. The Forensic unit is on to it though! There you go ESR folk, maybe there’s a job here! Also a couple of armed bank holdups recently.
Stop Press: At the recent festival (see below) there were two fatal stabbings and there was also another armed hold up at one of the banks last week (with two people shot in the foot). So… still stuff happenin’

(Side story) I heard a story the other day from a bloke who has been here for over 20 years now (a pom. Hard case). Anyway, he’d been at a Rugby Club Wine Tasting day (all day – as you do) and was heading (weaving) home in his car with a bottle of wine resting between his legs as he drove. The cops pulled him over and he staggered out of the car, placing the wine on the ground as he did so. The cops had a look around inside his car and hardly seemed to notice that he was virtually legless and couldn’t speak. Happy with their inspection they say that he is free to go. A little stunned at this he hops back in the car and bunny hops off down the road a little before the cops start yelling and running after him. He stops the car while thinking that he’s been set up and they will really do him now. A cop runs up to his window and says “Hey, you forgot your wine!”


Other Kiwis. We have met a few other Kiwis living in the BVI and more keep popping up:
Heath from Gore
Mark (Oamaru/Auckland) and Rachel (Auckland)
Scotty (Napier)
Brett (Not sure)
Ricky (Wellington)
Aimee (Wellington
Nathan(Upper Hutt)
Adam (Morrinsville - from the top pub too!)
And some old guy who has been here forever and was last in NZ 18 years ago.


Heaps of the Poms here went to NZ on the Lions tour two years ago. It’s great to rub that in – they all blame the selections of too many old poms in the squad, which is probably accurate. A few got a bit peeved when they asked Jake who his favourite rugby player is - “Tana Umaga!” They must be O’Driscoll fans. A few are backing the Poms for the World Cup. Will be interesting times here indeed…


Trips.
We’ve mainly just stuck to Tortola to date with a few of trips offshore to some of the local islands (US VI and BVI).

The Cayman Islands
Michelle had a week in the Cayman’s in June. It was a work trip to meet some folk from the Cayman branch. She did get out a bit for a look around – went to “Hell and Back” and also snorkeled with and fed a bunch of stingray. Michelle can fill you in on that trip….

The Cayman office is in an ex motel complex, complete with swimming pool and tropical gardens – pretty nice! They have a couple of rooms they have kept as apartments & I was lucky enough to stay in one of them (only 1 bedrm though so no room for the kids!). It was pretty cool to just get up in the morning and walk along the corridor to walk & even better to be able to have a quick swim at any time you like (although there’s a few people with offices that look out onto the pool so wouldn’t want to be too self conscious!). I was situated on Seven Mile beach so took the opportunity to have a bit of a wander along the beach – I couldn’t believe my eyes – heaps of huge condos and very expensive looking hotels all the way along the beach – beach chairs for miles (including beach beds!) – quite the opposite of what you see here – it reminded me of a mini Florida. There was heaps more development going on too – heaps of money there.



The beach was lovely and, as the name suggests, very long (not quite seven miles though). It also had very good snorkeling – since I had to work 8.30-5.30ish I had to try this out first thing in the morning – very pleasant except for when there was a storm - I got out pretty quick when the thunder & lightening started – although probably not as quick as when I saw a barracuda and two reef sharks the day before!!

There were heaps of restaurants to chose from and very Americanised – had all the fast food places except McDonalds (due to a local restaurant owner having a business by the same name!).

I managed to borrow a car after a couple of days so spent as much time after work having a good look around – didn’t get to see the whole island but saw a fair bit of it. I went to Hell Rock – just a random area of lava rock that has been set up as a tourist destination – a shop with all the paraphernalia (I got a few Hell Rock café things) and a post office so you can send postcards from Hell! I took an empty suitcase thinking that surely they would have some better shopping there but was initially very disappointed. Although, I ended up finding a few supermarkets & a pharmacy that had heaps of stuff & ended up not having any trouble filling the gaps in my baggage!



My general feeling though was that it didn’t match up to the BVIs – I missed the amazing views of outer islands, the pretty greenery & hills (Cayman’s highest point is about 60 feet above sea level!), although I did enjoy the “normal” driving conditions (left hand drive on left hand roads & people weren’t madmen!), and the large choice of activities & restaurants.

The best thing I did was go on a trip to Stingray city (I managed to get a half day off!) – a boat takes you about 30mins out to a sand bar where heaps of stingrays hang about (waiting for the tourists to come & feed them) & you got off the boat into the waist deep water to swim with them – they were obviously used to it as they swam right against you, under your feet, over you etc. I was initially quite freaked out but eventually got used to the soft velvety skin brushing up against me – I even got brave & held one & gave it a kiss on the nose! After that you went to a couple of points on the coral reef for some snorkeling – it was pretty good too. Well worth doing!

The worst thing was not having anyone to enjoy it with – next time will have to take Dave & the kids; but also I couldn’t believe the time it took to get from the BVI to the Cayman Islands – a whole day! You can’t just fly straight there – you have to go through Miami, as well as passing through customs which is a real pain when only in transit (you can’t take your lunch or anything with you and they don’t feed you on the plane – go figure!) Miami airport is an absolute maze – just as well I had three hours there on my return trip or I might have missed my flight – I couldn’t find my terminal! Man was I pleased to be home at the end of that day!


Jost van Dyke. A quick ferry ride from West End across to JvD. Home of White Beach and the Soggy Dollar Bar as well as Foxy’s. We only popped over for a few hours this time. Next time we’ll spend some more time there to get a decent look around. White beach was nice. Lots of boats go there and anchor while having a drink at the Soggy Dollar Bar. They generally just jump off their boats and wade/swim ashore to get a drink, thus getting their money wet, hence the name of the bar. Snorkelling is supposedly good too, maybe next time.



St Thomas is in the US Virgin Islands. We went over Saturday morning (after the AB’s and Yachties lost) and came back Monday pm (it was a public holiday in BVI). There is a better range of shopping there, especially for household goods. It is a lot cheaper also. There is a massive K-mart there that we managed to spend a grand at. We had plenty of stuff to carry back! We stayed in a little Inn in French Town. It’s close to the Ferry Dock in town (at Charlotte Amalie) and also had a really nice pool which the kids just loved. The owners were really nice and relaxed and let us check out when we were ready. We’ll stay there again next time if we can. We happened across a very quaint looking McDonalds. As there is nothing like this in the BVI we indulged the kids and sampled some of their culinary delights, which just happened to taste remarkably similar to everywhere else in the world.
We visited Coral Reef. A sort of Sea aquarium place. We all got to feed some stingrays which was little weird. They are quite slimy and soft to touch. Also got to touch a shark, but only a little one. They also had turtles, all sorts of fish and heaps of Iguanas running around pestering the tourists. After that we went to the beach next door for a swim then caught one of the local buses back to town.
Found a Spanish restaurant for dinner (thanks to Wayne from the Olga inn). Also sampled some local rum as an aperitif (Pineapple flavoured). I think someone is hooked – and at $7 a bottle you can’t complain! It’s cheaper than the wine! Dave had a Virgin Island’s Summer Ale, which wasn’t too bad at all. So he had a couple more for good measure.




Magan Bay was the venue the next day. Because there were two big cruise ships in, there were tourists for Africa. The beach was nice enough but set up simply to suck money from tourists, and there were plenty of them. They even had a big fat lifeguard sitting on his stool blowing his whistle and pointing at errant tourists who were within inches of instant peril should they venture out past the marker buoys. The surf was probably close to three inches at best. I sometimes wonder about these people. Never mind, keeps him off the street. Otherwise it could have been a nice beach.




We came back to Tortola the next day (Monday) on the ‘slow’ ferry which must have been in a hurry because passed the ‘Fast’ ferry (twice) and almost passed the one that left half an hour earlier.


Virgin Gorda





A very nice place to visit here in the BVI. It’s about a half hour ferry ride from here. We stayed in a nice two bedroom place with a big deck looking back to the west. Had a big Mango tree outside, so the kids collected as many as they could. Kept us going for a whole week! Guavaberry Spring Bay Vacation Homes (or words to that effect) has it’s own beach and is right next to the famous (Baths – very cool!). The Baths are a collection of massive granite rocks (Big as and bigger than houses) all dumped on the beach. There are caves etc that you can explore. All very neat. Some cool pics there.





The beaches are pretty awesome here, as is the snorkeling. It was a nice break from the ‘hustle n bustle’ of Road Town. Another place we’d return to, and would also bring any visitors over here for a day or two.

A sunset from Virgin Gorda
















St John (US VI)
A very quick trip across from West End (Tortola). In fact it took longer to clear customs than it took for the ferry trip. We stayed in Concordia Eco Tents over the back end of the island. Sort of tent-like units built on the side of a hill. All very eco-friendly. Solar power, composting toilets, recycled water and the like. Was nice enough. “Almost’ camping. Crabs everywhere – lurking for food scraps, which you are encouraged to drop off the balcony to.




Bought some ‘supplies’ at the local supermarket. Light Rum $4.59 per bottle. Pina Colada Mix $5, a few beers and we were set! Had a rental car to get around, which was really necessary. Would cost a packet in taxis. Ate at “Skinny Legs Bar” one night. Pub that sells mainly burgers and hotdogs etc. Kids were happy. “All Meals Served With Chips.” Crisps or potato chips that is as they don’t have a deep fryer…


(Side story): On arrival at the Concordia Eco tents our fridge didn’t work so Dave went down to the office to get it sorted. Found a sign (“it’s a sign!!!!”) “Office closed – ring this number.” Said number is rang (or is that “Ringed”?).
“Hello” answers a tiny voice with an American accent.
“Hi, is that the duty manger?” Dave enquires.
“Excuuuuuuuse me?” says the tiny voice.
Hmmmmm… trying a different tack, “Is your Mum or Dad there please?”
“Whaaaaat?”
“Is…..Your….Maaarrrmmy… or… Daddy… there… please?” says Dave in his slowest voice.
“Huh? You wanna talk to my Marmy or Daddy?”
“Ah, yes please.”
“My folks haven’t lived here for over 15 years…”
Stunned silence from Dave as he looks for a cliff to hurl himself off of.
“Um… I’ll start again….” And at that moment ‘another’ Duty manager appears out of the darkness who explains to the original Duty Manager (Yep, the one who sounds like a three year old on the phone) that he’ll sort it out. Which he does.
But wait, there’s more! We wander down to Salt Pond Beach the next morning and spend some time there. A woman comes along after a while and sets up next to us. Jake decides to build a Volcano in the sand quite close to the woman. Dave comes along and is talking to Jake when the woman says, “Are you staying up at Concordia?”
“Why, yes we are. Is that where you are too?”
Ignoring Dave’s question she says, “Did you have trouble with your refrigerator last night? I picked your accent.”
Dave slumps to the ground in search for a rock to hide under. It really is a small world after all.

Anyway, we did some snorkeling around Salt Pond Bay. Wasn’t too bad. Michelle and Sam saw a Stingray as well as a Turtle feeding in some deep water. Dave saw some squid.

We spent the next few days swimming, walking and snorkeling all over the island. All very nice as the island is about 80% National Park. Saw some more stingray and a few fish we hadn’t seen before, also a Lobster hiding under a rock.



On the last day we went to Waterlemon Bay. It’s a bit of a trek but we were rewarded with some real big Starfish, some Stingray and a bunch of Turtles feeding in about 10 feet of water. There were about five or six of them just munching away at the sea grass on the sea bottom. One little one and the rest were all adults. They didn’t seem too concerned at our presence. They just glanced up at us and carried on eating. We chased a couple and managed to touch them but they were too fast to catch and grab a hold of for a ride. They were pretty cool critters! Must look at getting an underwater camera.
Mad dash back to town to return the car and get on the ferry. We learned that the ferry that dropped us off doesn’t stop to pick people up to go back to Tortola. We had to catch another ferry to St Thomas and get then a ferry from there back to Tortola. So much for our Tortola/St John return tickets. Got there in the end though. Went to refuel the car only to find that the Gas station had just been demolished. Made the ferry with little time to spare. After two ferry trips (one really windy) we were back on Tortola. Another nice weekend.


Marina Cay

Just a quick ferry ride from the airport is Marina Cay. It’s a tiny island with a Pussers’ store and restaurant and bar and a beach – and that’s about it. We just popped over for the day. The beach is very small (just like the island!) but there were enough sun beds and shade huts for all that were there. We ate lunch in the restaurant overlooking the beach. All very pleasant really. The snorkeling looked pretty average at first but after discovering several Conch (pron: “Conk”) and then a whole bunch of Stingray, things were looking up. Sam spotted a Conch on the sandy bottom so Dave went down to retrieve it. Conch’s have these things that live inside and resemble Crabs at first, but when you actually get them out, they are like massive mussels with one big claw (Dave had a conch stew at the festival which was quite tasty). Sam wanted to keep the shell so we bundled it up and took it home. We didn’t know how to get the Conch out of the shell so Dave boiled it for ages until it finally slid out. We didn’t eat it because it had been boiling for about an hour and looked pretty rubbery by this stage. But the shell looks good!
We spotted another really big Conch a little later. This one was inhabited by a Lobstery-looking thing. We watched it and played with it for a bit before deciding to leave him be. We also found some rather large Sea slugs and there were plenty of other fish to watch as well.

The kids found themselves a real Italian “Godfather” (Fabio!) to play with and they all had a ball splashing around in the water playing ‘monster’. His wife kept her distance and pretended she didn’t know him.
We headed back to Tortola on the ferry (they had to make two trips as it was busy) and another good day came to an end.







Sports Events

Running
Soon after we arrived Dave started running in the mornings. At first it was after dropping everyone at school and work around 9 am. The temp had usually reached the low thirties by this stage so 10 minutes out and 10 back was plenty. He eventually gave up on that and went out at about 6 am when the temp was a ‘cool’ 28 ish. He foolishly entered a local 5 km running race in the first week of arriving here. It was a nice course, apart from the hill just before the end (affectionately called ‘the beast’). Struggled home in about 25 plus mins and very short of breath.

After a few more weeks of intensive training Dave entered the Annual Olympic Day Run which is a 3.1 mile race around the town. It starts at 7 am so the temp is not too bad. There is also a bit of a breeze off the sea to keep things barely manageable. A better run this time, about 23 mins (13th place) and feeling heaps better. Even got a free T-shirt for the effort! Popped out to Mulligan’s (Pub) after that (about 9 am) to watch the All Blacks play South Africa in SA. A good day!

There’s a 10k series coming up later in the year with a half marathon after that. Hmmm…

Rev. O’Neal Youth Games
This is an annual event where all the kids in the BVI compete in a number of sports. It’s mostly between the local schools. Cedar (where the kids go) is an International School and I’m not sure why there weren’t officially represented in any events. Maybe they aren’t considered ‘local’ enough to matter (or not invited). Anyway, Dave bumped into a woman who runs learn-to-swim for the locals and mentioned that Sam should go and have a race in these local games. Along we go and meet the Swim Coach to see if Sam can enter. He puts her through her paces and declares her a good enough swimmer to enter. The race was supposed to be one length of a 30m pool (Sam had to do several lengths in the morning to impress the coach).

Anyway, just before race time, the mothers of the other kids in her grade only wanted their precious babies to race a width race. I thought that was a bit soft but didn’t have any choice but to go along with it.

Sam hops in the water for her race with about five other kids. They’re off! Some kids are thrashing for their lives as Sam methodically gets her stroke going and swims across the pool past all the other kids to secure first place. Nice work! A little later they decide to run another race (a rematch). Sam gets an even slower start this time but still drags them all in to gain another first (and the ice cream I promised if she raced a second time).

She attended the main prize giving on the Sunday to get presented her certificate by the Minister of Sport and Youth affairs. Well done Sam! Granddad will be happy about that!





















The BVI Corporate Touch Tournament (28 July 2007).

We’d had a couple of drinks the night before at Michelle’s boss’s place. The first of their going away parties. Half of the rugby club was there so plenty of beer was being consumed in preparation for the next day.

The next day was hot. We gathered at the ground a little before 3pm and managed to secure a tiny bit of shade for us and the kids. There were two fields running and we were first up. The first game was fairly chaotic. The ref hadn’t read the rules and the opposing teams had some differing interpretations. Throughout the day we had to put up with different rules for different fields. Some of their rules were a bit odd to us. Two-hand touches. Roll the ball for ALL restarts (including the start of the game). Dummy could run and score (but only on one field). Touch passes never called. Overstepping allowed (on one field). Subbing during stoppages only. If you were scored against you could race up to halfway and re-start even if the opposition wasn’t there yet.

In the end the first game was a draw and everyone was knackered. Water break. I’ve been in saunas and sweated less than that! We won the next game, lost one and won another. The sun was now behind the hill and the temp had plummeted to a cool 28 degrees. That made things a little bit more bearable. We had also made it into the semi’s where we beat a side that had been unbeaten all day. By this time we were hanging out for a beer as all the other teams who had been knocked out earlier were half cut by this stage and were waving beers around and laying about enjoying the festivities.
Just one more game!

The final was against a team made up of relatively handy players from the rugby club, under the guise of BMobile (local telecomms company that sponsors anything that moves). We were expected to get cleaned up and we only had injured reserves as well so were in for a torrid time. After a while we were (surprisingly) 2 – 1 up and looking good. The opposition were looking decidedly panicky by this stage (they hadn’t really been tested all day) and started to throw the ball all over the place in an attempt to break our defence. We had them camped on their own line for ages. They finally found a gap and broke out of their own half and cut us to bits (2 -2). Towards the end Dave took out one of their girls by bowling her over in an attempt to get to the guy with the ball (Oops! She’ll be Jake’s teacher next term!). Nothing broken but it was a spectacular hit! Anyway, they scored again (somewhat controversially in our view – she should have been penalized for obstruction) and it was game over (3 – 2). Pretty good effort by the team though. Out come the beers (and ciders)… finally.

During the after match celebrations the kids got adopted by several of the rugby club blokes who kept them running around all night chasing balls and throwing ice at everyone. They had a ball as well as a very late night. A good day all round.

The trophy we nearly got…








Emancipation Festiville August 2007 (Festival Week)

Every August there is the Summer Festival. There are festival events, parties, shows and parades that go on for hours (days even) at a time. It’s all about celebrating the abolition of slavery a few years back (2007 was the 200th anniversary).

At the local festival grounds (in the middle of town) staging is set up for the various shows, concerts and the like. If you aren’t into Reggae, Calypso, Gospel or Soca – you need to move away from town. Fortunately we live over the hill and can’t hear any of this. It generally starts at about 4 pm when they start their sound testing and all that stuff. The trouble is the testing doesn’t seem to stop which can be a bit of a pain if you work or live nearby. Michelle’s work is about 100m from the festival grounds and their office literally shakes with the noise. This is the only place in the world that has 15 eight foot high trillion watt speakers per capita. We saw (and heard) them all on the weekend!

Anyway, back to the story. Most concerts and things tend to start at around 9 pm (ish) finishing at around 3 or 4 am. So anyone within about a three or four km radius who isn’t deaf as a post better be ready. You can’t sleep through this it’s that loud. We experienced some of this during our first month here when we lived in town and were subjected to a few concerts, political rallies and gospel singings throughout the night. You either join in or leave town. We don’t need to however. I knew there was a good reason for us living over the other side of this massive hill.

They love their music here, and they love it loud. Anything within 100m is probably going to seriously damage your ear drums. Shaggy was the main attraction this year and drew a big crowd on the weekend. However he didn’t get on stage until 3 am – but by all accounts he was well worth the wait. We weren’t that keen.

The festival parade was on Monday (August 6). It was a long weekend with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all being public holidays (I told you it was tough here). The kid’s school entered a float and since we were one of the few ‘international’ families left in town over the summer holidays (the rest skedaddled back to Europe etc as soon as they could) - we agreed to help out.

Our theme was “Breaking the Chains through Education”. Sam went dressed as a A+ Student (complete with Grad Cap) and Jake was representing Sport at the school and went along with his Cricket bat, Mirrored sunnies and Cap dressed as Brian Lara (sans nugget). There were about nine or 10 kids on the float and they were about the only white kids in the whole parade. But they got a pretty good reception from the locals and everyone thought the kids looked pretty cool. Jake was almost signing autographs at one stage as a few local lads chanted “Lara! Lara! Lara!” and cracked up at themselves.




The float had flags on it from each of the countries represented by the kids (NZ, Oz, Poms, Holland, Jamaica, USA, Canada etc). Of course the NZ flag was strategically (and of course, innocently) placed well above the Aussie flag, which drew a few pointed comments from ‘those without the Bledisloe’. And do you think there was a lot of sympathy? Because this is a family show, I cannot re-state my ripostes here, but they went along the lines of “Nah, nah, nanah naahh!” and “Austruckin where?” and other witty grown-up stuff like that.

The parade was scheduled to start at 11 am with floats lining up at around 10. In typical island fashion we rocked up at about 12, only to find that we had to bimble around for another two and a half hours before it actually got moving. (Hmmm, still haven’t sussed this island time out yet). When finally underway we inched (we really did!) our way along the main drag through the masses to the Festival Grounds.

As well as floats, there were groups of marching girls dotted throughout the parade and each one had a live band on the back of a trailer just in front of them (complete with their quota of massive speakers etc). Each time the band played a song the marching group would halt and then kick into to their routine. These generally lasted around five to 10 minutes and were all static i.e. the parade stopped while they danced and bounced and tossed their batons etc. Then they might advance about 50m and do it all over again. Given that there were at least five bands on trailers (and also more marching girls/teams, whatever) that I saw, this could take a while. We eventually made in to the Festival Grounds (a total distance of about 1.5 km at best) in about two hours.

There were some interesting costumes on display. Some showing more than one might really want to see (and proud of it!). But everyone was having fun and that’s what it’s all about.




There were the usual dodgy looking rides (Ferris wheel, Dodgems etc) and games of chance etc for everyone to have a crack at. The kids were keen on one of those “Hit the Balloon with a blunt dart and win a massive prize” type games. OK, $5 for three darts. One for Sam, one for Jake and One for Dave to actually hit something so we don’t come away empty-handed.
Jake throws a dart so hard it almost sticks out the other side of the wall, and …. Pop goes a balloon! Dave raises an eyebrow in mild surprise.
Sam throws a wobbly one…. Pop! Sweat breaks out on Dave’s brow. No pressure.
Dave throws….. thud. He hangs his head and walks away while the kids collect their prizes.



After we had some food (and a beer!) and the kids had had their fun on the rides we headed off home (around 7 pm ish). As we left we saw that floats were still coming in the gate and the line behind them kept on coming. This isn’t your usual parade where you sit through the whole thing and see all the floats in about 40 minutes. Although there were a few who seemed prepared to stick it out (they had their own chairs etc). I drove through town this morning (the day after) at around 8:30 am and noticed one of the temporary bars set up along the main drag still had about a dozen clientele in various states. Some still on the beers, others looking a little worse for wear. Good effort though!

Carrot Bay Cultural Festival (Fri Aug 11th 2007)

On the Friday of festival week there was another big ‘happening’ at Carrot Bay (a bit further around the island). Michelle was working so Dave took the kids there for a couple of hours. We were told that they have some good old fashioned races and things for the kids so thought we’d have a look.

The usual brain rattling noise was coming out of a wall of speakers near the stage and there were a number of bars etc set up around the place. There were also a couple of Donkey Races going on. There were about four Donkeys that were being raced up the street with riders on their backs. The locals seemed to think it was a lot of fun – not sure if the donkeys agreed. Anyway, we found a bunch of kids hanging around a ‘tent’ and learned that they were registering kids for the races. Sam and Jake were keen so they entered in the “Lime & Spoon” race as well as the “Bucket” race. The lime is in lieu of “Egg”.

Sam got a very respectable 2nd in her Lime & Spoon race (if you dropped your lime, you had to go all the way back to the start – and she did!). Jake had a few technical issues with his race and when he returned to the start after dropping his lime, he waited for someone to say “Go!” (again). This didn’t happen and he eventually cottoned on and got moving again for a pretty good finish, but not enough for a placing. He certainly wasn’t last though!




Sam was up again next for the bucket race. You had to run and pick up an Almond, run back and place it in your bucket. After the 4th Almond you run back, pick up your bucket and race to the finish. Sam was very measured in her approach and was soon in the lead. She drops the 4th Almond in the bucket and heads off to the finish line (Oops! No bucket!). She returns for the bucket and still manages to get a second place.

Jake has been watching this and is raring to go (especially after the Mango Smoothie he’s just put away. He’s under starters orders…. “Go!” His legs go ninety to the dozen as his ‘Racing jandals’ struggle to gain traction. Splat! He’s face down in the dirt. Skinned knee and dust all over his face. Sadly, it’s not his day. Maybe next year… But big Sis comes to the rescue and gives him one of her medals. Big smiles and nods of approval come from the grandmas, mums and co. that are looking on and have witnessed the whole thing.

Jake limps off the track complete with blood stained knee and tear stained dusty face, proudly wearing ‘his’ medal and we head on home.

28 August 2007

Today we frolicked naked in the rain (Well, showered actually). The water pump is on the blink so there’s no water in the house. But luckily (?!) it was persisting down outside. Michelle was first but Dave wasn’t quick enough to get the camera out. Dave and kids thought they’d wait until the Plumber arrived for their shower. Hmmmm, some time later and Plumber still not here and it’s raining again. Dave’s turn. Standing under the overflowing spouting seemed to do the trick. A little refreshing but effective enough. Don’t worry, we don’t have any neighbors to offend, scare or invite over to join us in our rain worship ritual. Well, none close enough to observe our recently acquired naturalist tendencies! And the spouting never gets the chance to build up any gunk and leaves and stuff. They normally get a good flushing out every couple of days with the heavy rains.


Some random pics...




The kid's first fish! A wopper! Took three of us to lift it. Length: approx 10.5 cm. Weight: Not much.





The Governor of BVI at his daughter's birthday party. Sam and Jake had a ball.

























Other websites of interest:



http://bvitourism.com/

http://www.bombasurfsideshack.com/

http://www.bvirugby.com/