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.
:)