Lessons learnt

Its another hot day here and we are very grateful for a new (second hand) fridge and freezer provided by our landlord as the other one didn't work. This is great as we can now have cold drinks to refresh us in the day and of course keeping food fresh. Power can be a bit of a problem last weekend there wasn't any and then sometimes there is only a bit or too much. This can mess up all the electrical items that are plugged in as we found out with our internet router which we bought in England used for one week and then it burnt out in one of these so called 'brown outs'. This however is not the end of the story, the following morning we plugged it in and with some help from above it works as good as new!

Random camel at side of the road

We have also quickly learnt that where you buy your petrol is very important, the price is the same, the provider is the same, but the fuel is not! Unfortunately we took this advice too lightly and after being turned away from a recommended petrol station, (because there was no power to work the pumps!), we decided to get some from the one around the corner which had a generator. This seemed fine as we drove on our day out to the other side of the island, however on our way back the problems began with the engine stalling and periods of unresponsive accelerator. It was getting dark so we decided to continue like this all the wayt back taking more than twice as long stopping at the side of the road every couple of minutes with all the locals standing around and staring. Some petrol stations mix kerosine in with the petrol whilst other places don't have water tight tanks and in rainy times you get water mixed with the fuel. A lesson well learnt.

We are trying to get into the festive spirit but it is a bit difficult as it is not celebrated here and there is a severe lack of misty cold days. We managed to find this small tree and are listening to Christmas music. Paula managed to find one shop which was playing Cliff Richard though. We are looking forward to it though as we are planning maybe a BBQ on the beach and a roast in the evening! (Paula has been looking for recipes online to make stuffing, bread sauce and mince meat.)

Paula is really getting into the culture, her friend persuaded her to get traditional henna which the local women have especially for celebrations. It doesn't look so crazy on the locals as their skin is not so white! He she is with her friend learning how to make chapati (like a bread pancake) - very nice. You can see some of the henna on Paula's hands and arms.

You may have noticed that I have put a clock on this page showing the local time here. This is not only quite a cool thing which took me ages to work out how to do it but is also so people know what time it is here. (This should be particularly useful for a certain guy in Glasgow who likes to phone at 2am!)