Over the last few months, many of you will know, we have been insanely busy with visitors. This has been wonderful and a real blessing as it has meant we have seen both sets of parents as well as some friends, all of whom have taken time to come and visit us on our island. Although it has been over a year since we were last in the UK and therefore a year since we saw our parents and friends, it was like the year just melted away and we were able to continue where we left off.
Now, we are back in our home country for a VERY brief visit due to Rich being best man for Mike and Mel's wedding (don't ask me why he keeps on being asked - his track record isn't exactly what you would look for when on the look out for a best man...), and in many ways it feels like we were never away. Granted there are many things that we have forgotton how to do (using a debit card in a shop to buy something, wearing socks) and many things that are HUGELY different here (cars have brake lights that work and don't emit huge clouds of black smoke, you can drink water straight from the tap, it is SO cold here!!!) but we still just about remember how to be English and are really enjoying the change in climate!
It is really lovely to be back, even for such a short time, and we are looking forward to catching up with many family and friends. Please forgive us if we are unable to see you during this short visit. We are only back for two weeks and simply don't have the time to see everyone we would like to.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Stubborn as an ass!
Returning to our car recently we found this donkey standing very close by it. We assumed that at some point the animal would move, maybe when we started the engine or maybe when Rich did a multi point turn narrowly (and I mean narrowly - those of you who know Rich's driving will understand me!) missing the donkey's nose, but no. It merely blinked and watched us drive away.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
A new look
Since I took on the writing of our blog, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I decided to change how it looked. I have checked with Rich and he has given his approval (if I had gone for a pink colour scheme I'm not sure that approval would have been so forthcoming!!) so here it is. Hope you like it. Feel free to leave your comments on this radical change (or any other post for that matter! It is good to hear your responses to what I post).
Well and truly spoiled!
On Thursday morning, we waved goodbye to my parents who had come to visit us and have a bit of a break on our beautiful island. It was WONDERFUL to see them after nearly a year of being away and they spoiled us rotten with lovely meals out and day trips that we otherwise would no way be able to afford! Here are some selcted highlights from the two weeks that we were able to spend with them...
Their first day on the island we whisked them away from the airport and did a whirlwind tour of town. Having flown through the night they were both pretty exhausted but we kept them going until about 8ish in the evening when they very gratefully collapsed into bed! Because it was Ramadan when they arrived there were very few places in town open for drinks and meals during the day. However, just as they were about to collapse with exhaustion, we found a hotel where we could have a much needed drink while looking out over the beautiful Indian Ocean!
After a hectic first day on the island, we allowed them a small amount of time to rest and relax at a local hotel with a lovely swimming pool. Here they are looking a bit more rested and like they're on holiday!!
At Prison Island, one of the few things to do here, visiting some tortoises that were a gift from the Seychelles many years ago. Apparently this guy was 16 years old (or something like that...)
Another great day trip - harassing dolphins! This picture was taken at sunrise one morning as we were on our way to find the dolphins in order to throw ourselves out of the boat in an attempt to swim with them.
One of Rich's highlights - the hotel mum and dad stayed in had a water sports centre and they had these little catamarans which my dad and Rich took out a couple of times. They were great fun to sail around in and I think even I could manage one (with some instruction beforehand) - there was only one rope to worry about!
We took the opportunity to go on our first spice tour after 10 months of living on spice island. For some reason they made silly hats and crowns out of coconut leaves that we then had to wear for the rest of the tour...
Rich didn't approve of this...
On our last day together, we went on a day trip to a sandbank which was about 5 miles or so from the island. We had the sandbank entirely to ourselves and went snorkelling in the reef surrounding it. The boat driver set up a table and chairs and sun shade for us and left fruit platters, cake, sandwiches and soda for lunch. He then took the boat and left us there to have lunch and to enjoy ourselves until the tide came in and the sandbank was swallowed by the sea again. This picture was taken after Dad and Rich had returned to the boat leaving Mum and I abandoned on what was left of the sandbank. You can see that we were very concerned about our fate!
On the way home from the sandbank, Mum asked the driver of the boat to stop and then promptly threw herself off the top of the boat. We were all quite astonished, not least because the boat hadn't quite stopped moving when she did it and she had a bit of a swim back to the boat. Rich and I then joined her and we all took great delight in jumping in just next to where Dad was sitting :)
Their first day on the island we whisked them away from the airport and did a whirlwind tour of town. Having flown through the night they were both pretty exhausted but we kept them going until about 8ish in the evening when they very gratefully collapsed into bed! Because it was Ramadan when they arrived there were very few places in town open for drinks and meals during the day. However, just as they were about to collapse with exhaustion, we found a hotel where we could have a much needed drink while looking out over the beautiful Indian Ocean!
After a hectic first day on the island, we allowed them a small amount of time to rest and relax at a local hotel with a lovely swimming pool. Here they are looking a bit more rested and like they're on holiday!! At Prison Island, one of the few things to do here, visiting some tortoises that were a gift from the Seychelles many years ago. Apparently this guy was 16 years old (or something like that...)
Another great day trip - harassing dolphins! This picture was taken at sunrise one morning as we were on our way to find the dolphins in order to throw ourselves out of the boat in an attempt to swim with them.
One of Rich's highlights - the hotel mum and dad stayed in had a water sports centre and they had these little catamarans which my dad and Rich took out a couple of times. They were great fun to sail around in and I think even I could manage one (with some instruction beforehand) - there was only one rope to worry about!
We took the opportunity to go on our first spice tour after 10 months of living on spice island. For some reason they made silly hats and crowns out of coconut leaves that we then had to wear for the rest of the tour...
Rich didn't approve of this...
On our last day together, we went on a day trip to a sandbank which was about 5 miles or so from the island. We had the sandbank entirely to ourselves and went snorkelling in the reef surrounding it. The boat driver set up a table and chairs and sun shade for us and left fruit platters, cake, sandwiches and soda for lunch. He then took the boat and left us there to have lunch and to enjoy ourselves until the tide came in and the sandbank was swallowed by the sea again. This picture was taken after Dad and Rich had returned to the boat leaving Mum and I abandoned on what was left of the sandbank. You can see that we were very concerned about our fate! On the way home from the sandbank, Mum asked the driver of the boat to stop and then promptly threw herself off the top of the boat. We were all quite astonished, not least because the boat hadn't quite stopped moving when she did it and she had a bit of a swim back to the boat. Rich and I then joined her and we all took great delight in jumping in just next to where Dad was sitting :)Thursday, September 24, 2009
In his element.
These photo's are of Rich messing around with a skim board about a week or so ago. Amazing how much enjoyment can be had with an oval shaped piece of ply wood!
A new car for Mr and Mrs O cont'd...
I blogged a couple of months ago about going through the experience of getting a car on our island. I had intended to put up some photo's then, but Rich told me to wait until he had taken some nice pictures of the car (preferably on a white, sandy beach with palm trees in the background). I have now given up waiting for these pictures and have decided to just go ahead and put the pictures up that we do have, so here they are.
This is our car! Considering how nice and shiny it is, we got a really good price on it. It took us over two weeks of going to at least one cash point a day (often it was more like four cash points as they often run out of money, the biggest denomination being equivalent to £5) and withdrawing the maximum amount our bank would allow. We also had to borrow from our team mates in order to get the money together in time.
Impressive eh?! This is in fact only about 2/3 of the money we actually needed to pay for our car. We even took it in a paper bag to make the payment - shady!
This is our car! Considering how nice and shiny it is, we got a really good price on it. It took us over two weeks of going to at least one cash point a day (often it was more like four cash points as they often run out of money, the biggest denomination being equivalent to £5) and withdrawing the maximum amount our bank would allow. We also had to borrow from our team mates in order to get the money together in time.
Impressive eh?! This is in fact only about 2/3 of the money we actually needed to pay for our car. We even took it in a paper bag to make the payment - shady!Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Politcally Correct?
Political correctness is a concept that has yet to land on these shores. Coming from a country where PC-ness is highly valued (or at least expected) we are times shocked or amused by instances of political incorrectness that we come across, or more usually are the recipients of.
It is very rarely that we are able to leave the house without local children and sometimes men (it seems the women are above this sort of behaviour) calling out ‘mzungu!’ Now the literal translation for this word is ‘one who walks around in circles’ and apparently the expression was coined when Westerners first arrived in East Africa. Ask someone now what it means and you will hear that it means a white person or westerner. The thing that I am surprised by is that the children and young men in our neighbourhood are quite accustomed to seeing us and other ‘wazungu’ (plural form) on a regular basis, so I find it odd that they still feel the need to call us this particularly as we do in fact have names that they could call us by.
This daily surprise (sometimes mild irritation – I do have a name!) I experience was eclipsed by a recent experience in a photo shop. Rich needed to get some passport photo’s to update his UK driver’s licence, so we headed to the photo shop in town. Now here there is no photo machine. A lady sticks a camera in your face and takes a photo which she then edits to change the background colour and re-orientate the picture so that you are not diagonally across the picture. The pictures are then printed out, cut up and put in a little envelope for you to take away upon payment. When I turned up to collect the photo’s I was immediately given an envelope although I hadn’t been asked to give a name. Why? Because someone had written ‘mzungu’ across the top of the envelope and that obviously must be me!
This insistence of referring to us and our team mates as ‘wazungu’ often leads to confusion. As many of you know, our internet is tediously slow when it works and sometimes it just gives up all together. There have been occasions when we or one of our team mates has had reason to call our ISP in order to get an engineer to come and see just how bad our connection is. Now, back home our name would be taken and written down in order to ensure that the engineer goes to the correct address. Not so here. Although we may give a name, they seem to choose not to take any notice of it and instead sent the engineer to the mzungu’s house in Chukwani (the, sort of, area we live in). This leads to engineers turning up at Jason and Roxanne’s house and refusing to understand that their internet is actually fine and they don’t need an engineer while ours is up the creek and we would actually quite like some help please! Oh for some order and organisation!! This all just goes to show that it IS important to use people’s names and that political correctness can be useful in its own way!!
It is very rarely that we are able to leave the house without local children and sometimes men (it seems the women are above this sort of behaviour) calling out ‘mzungu!’ Now the literal translation for this word is ‘one who walks around in circles’ and apparently the expression was coined when Westerners first arrived in East Africa. Ask someone now what it means and you will hear that it means a white person or westerner. The thing that I am surprised by is that the children and young men in our neighbourhood are quite accustomed to seeing us and other ‘wazungu’ (plural form) on a regular basis, so I find it odd that they still feel the need to call us this particularly as we do in fact have names that they could call us by.
This daily surprise (sometimes mild irritation – I do have a name!) I experience was eclipsed by a recent experience in a photo shop. Rich needed to get some passport photo’s to update his UK driver’s licence, so we headed to the photo shop in town. Now here there is no photo machine. A lady sticks a camera in your face and takes a photo which she then edits to change the background colour and re-orientate the picture so that you are not diagonally across the picture. The pictures are then printed out, cut up and put in a little envelope for you to take away upon payment. When I turned up to collect the photo’s I was immediately given an envelope although I hadn’t been asked to give a name. Why? Because someone had written ‘mzungu’ across the top of the envelope and that obviously must be me!
This insistence of referring to us and our team mates as ‘wazungu’ often leads to confusion. As many of you know, our internet is tediously slow when it works and sometimes it just gives up all together. There have been occasions when we or one of our team mates has had reason to call our ISP in order to get an engineer to come and see just how bad our connection is. Now, back home our name would be taken and written down in order to ensure that the engineer goes to the correct address. Not so here. Although we may give a name, they seem to choose not to take any notice of it and instead sent the engineer to the mzungu’s house in Chukwani (the, sort of, area we live in). This leads to engineers turning up at Jason and Roxanne’s house and refusing to understand that their internet is actually fine and they don’t need an engineer while ours is up the creek and we would actually quite like some help please! Oh for some order and organisation!! This all just goes to show that it IS important to use people’s names and that political correctness can be useful in its own way!!
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