HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: I’m in paradise
BUMMER OF THE DAY: I’m in paradise and it’s raining
WORD OF THE DAY: Paradise and rain (not right. Right?)
Good morning from Barbados, in the Caribbean-West Indies and as I pulled the curtains open this morning I was greeted with birds sitting on my balcony trying to get out of the driving RAIN! WHAT. RAIN I hear you scream! I have just flown 36 hours to get rain? Well if it’s any consolation the purpose of coming to Barbados, besides filling in a week before I headed to the States, was just some R&R time. Time to sleep in, make my own meals if I want do (yeah low, but likely) eat what I want, when I want and just sloth around. If I could get a cracking tan in the process then that would also be great so I can show that off when I see people again in a week’s time. Rain is just dampening the second half of the plan, so I am okay with this.
It also gave me the opportunity to unpack. Yep, crack open my backpack, hang up some of the ‘non backpacking’ clothes (4 dresses and a jacket) that I have carried with me half way around the world to be able to wear this week and feel half human again. These clothes will get some more airtime for the next 6 weeks. Maybe I will be able to let go of those 2 holey shirts I spoke about to make room for another dress or something in the US. I haven’t had a wardrobe change since November last year. That’s 6 months of the same 2 pairs of shorts, 2 skirts and around 6 t-shirts on a cycle basis. This is from a clothes horse from way back, so I am quite proud of that achievement but time for a clothes swap that is for sure!!
It really did rain all day. It’s not cold its still 27C but its still rain. Sometimes it was quite heavy and other times just a light mist. I have a balcony room that overlooks the pool and I can see the ocean and all the sun chairs from my third floor room. It is funny to see that even the overcast of the skies and the rain doesn’t put people off from sitting under the umbrellas with such crappy weather. I guess if there are here for a week, they are going to make the most of their time come hell or bad weather. There are also a lot of sunburned bodies walking around the resort. A lot of pale English skin turned a bright lobster red! Poor suckers with their pasty white skin.
I used the afternoon to finally start my Ethiopian blog. Just getting the set up and the gathering of information, you know getting the leg work done. I think I am going to make a great ambassador for my new country. I am still not 100% convinced on the name that I have set it up under, but I looked into the settings and I can make a name change without having to reset the whole site. There is a lot of work initially going into setting up the blog. It’s not difficult but time consuming so I figured while I have the internet and the time here I may as well make a start, because once I’m home I will be busy and may not get it set up to where I wanted it to be. I’m quite happy with what I have done today though and can’t wait to start writing posts for it. I’ll let you all know the new address when I have finally settled on a name.
I walked to the corner shop later in the afternoon before it closed at 6pm. It wasn’t a supermarket by any means but they had the basics and it also looked like the general hangout of the staff from the hotel to have a brewski, whether they had knocked off for the day or they were taking a break, they were all standing around have a chinwag with a beer in the hand. I bought 4 packets of 2 minute noodles, a tin of tuna, a tin of corn, a block of cheese, 2 packets of chips, onions, a 700ml bottle of Mt Gay Rum, a bottle of coke, a carton of passionfruit juice and some Jatz (for the cheese of course). The USD is widely accepted for payments on the island, even though they do also have their own currency. It is an easy conversion 2 to the 1, so it is easy to just divide everything by 2.
Dinner was an easy slap up meal of chicken 2 minute noodles mixed with corn, onion and tuna. I haven’t seen a proper (well kitchenette) in a long time let alone used one. Actually, not including the cooking duties of the truck, this was a whole new world that I will have to be re-introduced to again when I finish my trip. Okay so cooking 2 minutes noodles doesn’t really constitute as ‘cooking’. But I had to boil water, in a POT and zap some diced onion in the microwave, so technically there was some form of cooking involved and it felt great to not have a restaurant cooked meal. Once again not including Gray’s cooked meals on the truck, as they were awesome and in my books home cooked; I have eaten out, restaurant meals, fast food meals for 407 days. 2 minute noodles are just what the food doctor ordered and I have to say they were delicious, simple but delicious.
I got a wonderful surprise in the evening with a phone call from Zeme. This was totally out of the blue and totally made my rainy day full of sunshine. I know how hard it is to make a phone call to Ethiopia let alone get an international one out, so it makes it that much more appreciated. He was off to the Australian Consulate tomorrow, so fingers crossed that he has everything he needs for the application. I guess this is something I need to get used to, applying for visa’s before we travel, which is fine, but just a process-especially if it the damn stupid Brazil Consulate. Good-luck baby, I miss you so so much.
So not the ideal day in paradise, but I am in paradise and not in some stuffy office or anywhere where people don’t want to be, so I will take a rainy day in paradise day, well over any day, so I’m not going to complain.
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