jBlog

Took Easy Jet back to England and my brother picked us up and we finally saw my mum’s new place in Kenilworth - just down the road from my brother.  Very nice, bright and airy - has a new kitchen and has been painted throughout.  We stayed a couple of days with plans to rent a car and visit my cousin, Joan in Wales.  Had a good run through and Joan took some time off work to take us up to the Big Pit, which is where the Industrial Revolution started. We took a tour and learnt all about the coal mining days.  The people that take you around are the original coal miners and obviously enjoy their jobs and are a tremendous fund of information.  We just spent the night with Joan and her husband Alan, of course laughing about the good old days and realizing just how long it had been since we had seen each other and looking at pictures which stirred lots of memories and some great stories.  Next day we headed out to the Gower Peninsula.  Stopped at a couple of places on the way - it was quite cool and blustery especially once we got to the end of the Peninsular - no wonder it is a kite and wind surfers delight!  We stayed at the Worm’s Head hotel which was probably one of the few places open and it included a restaurant and bar that was open so no need to travel any further.  At Joan’s suggestion the next day we headed towards St. Fagan’s National History Museum and took a look around.  It is a place where, on the property, there is the original castle and some farm buildings but they are taking original buildings i.e. homes, bakery, cock fighting ring, from another area taking them apart, numbering and putting them back together - it was fascinating.  It was a great sunny day and had only planned to stop for an hour but realized it is a place you can easily spend the day and bring a picnic - gorgeous.   After leaving there we accidentally missed the turnoff and went through Cardiff which added on about a half an hour to the drive home but got home safe and sound.  Made arrangements to visit Maggi and Pat in Guildford.  Drove there instead of taking the train and dropped the car off.  Had a super visit and friend Rosie and her husband Ralph managed to make it down for the day and the boys barbequed - in the rain!!  Headed out on the train early Monday morning and went to London.  Found our hotel and then went walking around London -

Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, Buckingham Palace, where they were having a changing of the guard, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge and then a trip on the London Eye - great clear day for a view over London.  Mum had bought us tickets for Mamma Mia that night and it was an excellent show.  Next day we headed to our hotel at Heathrow that my nephew, Matthew, had organized for us.  Matthew, his girlfriend Andrea, Simon, girlfriend Emma and Philip all showed up that night for dinner.  It was fabulous to see them all and we managed to catch up on most of their comings and goings.  Off to Canada!

Hurricane Ike ended up turning and was only a tropical storm in the Bahamas.  Our trip to Canada changed dramatically as we were only going to spend a few days in Toronto and visit friends and head off to England.  So off to Perth we went and stayed with our friends and only spent one night in Toronto with our friends Paul and Noemie and Bob managed to come out and see us and have a drink. The beginning of our trip was to spend some time in Switzerland with my mum, brother and his wife.  Luckily the weather was good and only a sprinkle of rain so we managed to get in a lot of walks and a cable car ride.

Steve, mum and I took the train to Geneva and spent the night there while my brother and his wife headed back to England.  We wandered around Geneva and again the weather was great so it was extremely pleasant.  We stayed at the Sagitta Hotel which was excellent for the price and we both had our own rooms but was not really necessary as we ended up having two completely separate bedrooms but with only one bathroom but would easily have sufficed for one night. It also had a small kitchen so we ended up having a great lunch and buying some snacks for dinner and putting our feet up in our room.  Breakfast was included, which was also very good, and a transportation pass which we used to get to the airport.  All in all an excellent deal.

We did end up moving down the road to a two bed two bath place which was  a little quieter but a bit of a sweat box - not enough windows to get a good breeze through and there were no screen doors.  We painted the downstairs a cool yellow and fixed up the back yard a bit.  In September Hurricane Ike was heading straight for us and we decided that we should maybe leave the island before it arrived in case the airport was shut down for a few days.  We had our trip to England and Switzerland already planned so did not want to miss that!  We ended up leaving a week early and permanently as things were very slow at Stuart Cove and we decided to move on.  So we sold our great truck and flat screen TV and headed to Canada.

I realized that I didn’t fit in any photos of our apartment so I’ll fit some here, we might actually be moving at the end of the month into a 2 bed 2 bath house just down the street for a lot less money, but we have to talk to the owner, so we will keep you posted.

So March 1st was the magic date of starting back to work. In the meantime we unpacked and cleaned the apartment to make it feel more like home. Not many of the same staff that were working here last summer so got to know a lot of new staff. We both did a lot of teaching to start with and familiarize ourselves to all the dive sites again. We also managed to get Liz, a friend of ours from Turks and Caicos, a job at Stuart’s. She arrived and started work right away and stayed at the staff house which is walking distance to the dive shop. Shortly after starting work my mum came to visit from England. It is a direct flight on British Airways from Heathrow to here. Managed to get the afternoon off and meet her at the airport. She stayed with us for three weeks and the dive shop was quite busy so we only managed to get our regular days off and spend time together. She enjoyed spending the evenings with us and took lots of walks on the beach and around the area of Coral Harbor. I was spending one morning a week at the Wyndham, Crystal Palace where we promote doing resort dives and do the skills in the pool prior to them booking dives with Stuart Coves. I took mum with me to hang out by the pool and have a wander around the place. It is a huge place with a casino and hundreds of chairs all lined up by the pool and on the beach - a place where we would not want to stay! After mum left we had our friends Paul and Noemie come to visit. Steve did Noemie’s Advanced Course and Paul went along to be Divemaster. Unfortunately it was a bit rough and Noemie did not get her sea legs until the end of doing her dives but she stuck with it and is now an Advanced diver with thoughts of doing her Emergency First Response and Rescue in the summer. After that our other friends Bob and Nicole had won a trip through work to the all inclusive Breezes. They were only there for four nights but managed to get a snorkel/dive trip in one morning and we met them for lunch and went out to Compass Point. We had also gone there with Paul and Noemie as it is one of the few restaurants that looks out over the water so you get the “holiday” feeling. It was great seeing them with the added bonus of them bringing goods that we need! So for everyone out there let us know if you are coming to the Bahamas and if you are planning on diving. We also had the pleasure of taking Eric, a quadraplegic, on the shark feeding dive. He said it was the coolist thing he had ever done - what would you expect with 45 sharks swimming around from 5ft to 10ft in length! Then I had a great couple from California Suzanna & Bart to do their check out dives, they were very well trained which made my job so much easier, it was a nice birthday present. The next day Jean & I went to Graycliff, a beautiful old manor / hotel and one

of the nicest restaurants on the island for lunch, which was excellent, we were there for 3 hours! Well it’s back to work we’ll be in touch soon.

You know you’re on a small island when you go to check in and they call you by first name! It was a small plane and so only a few of us waiting at the airport. The plane was a little delayed coming in so we ended up flying through a beautiful sunset. We flew on Tahiti Nui overnight to Los Angeles and business class was definitely worth it. We had seats that laid out into beds practically so we had a very comfortable night with some sleep and the meal was very enjoyable. Arrived at Los Angeles and had some time to wait for our flight to Toronto so went to the lounge and I ended up watching a movie while Steve worked on the computer. The Air Canada business class flight was not as comfortable with basically just larger seats with the screen in the back of the seat so that the seats did not recline very far. Service was good and it was only a short 3 hour flight. Arrived in Toronto and no hassle through customs and our taxi was waiting for us to take us to Bob’s place. There was no snow and it was quite a pleasant night but it just seemed forever to get to his place. Finally arrived and Bob had just arrived home from work. Stayed up and chatted for a bit but we were all tired so off to bed. Bob took the day off to drive us around and organize Steve’s drivers licence and do some shopping. Of course it snowed all day but was relatively warm. Managed to get most things we needed and Paul, Noemie, Abbey and her boyfriend arrived for dinner. Had great fun catching up on everything and Paul had the new IPod Touch (16gb) which he proceeded to show Steve and now we have to buy one!! After dinner the four of them decided that Karaoke was the order of the evening while Steve and I decided to try and get some sleep. We were up early and the rest slowly arose and moved around tenderly. Paul and Noemie left in the morning and Bob took us out to get a few more things but we took pity on him and brought him home early for a restful afternoon and an early night. We got up early to get to the airport and Bob got up briefly to give us a hug and kiss goodbye. Small delay while they deiced the plane and we arrived in Bahamas and picked up our rental car and started to look around for a place to stay. Popped into the dive shop and someone suggested a place called “A Stone’s Throw Away”. We checked it out and it was very nice and quaint not much more expensive than Orange Hill. We managed to get a hold of the person that we rented from at Royall Beach Estates which is next to the dive shop. The place was available and we moved in there for a few nights and ended up finding a place in Coral Harbor a two bedroom, one bath with a screened in balcony. Moved in and decided to take a flight to Turks and Caicos to get some of stuff out of our locker. Friends of ours had accommodation available and we negotiated painting some doors for a couple of new houses they were building in exchange for free rent!! Managed to get everything done we wanted to and brought some personal things back with us with no hassle. Settled in to our rented apartment and looked for a car/truck to buy. Found a very clean Ford Explorer for the price we wanted to pay and negotiated and managed to buy, licence, and insure it all in one day.

On Sunday on our first dive there was a large turtle that came up to Steve and headed right for him. It was a great moment as he veered off and his front flipper just touched his arm to say hello. We realised later that it was a resident and was regularly fed goodies from the reef. Second dive was much the same with lots of sharks, sharks, sharks and an elephant fish that was quite aggressive and decided to bite Steve on the ear! Came back and had a snack at the hotel and then went for dinner. Picked up on time as usual and only three of us on the first dive. Upon descending a turtle came up behind Steve and we soon realised that it was the one from the day before. The DM searched for black sponges and handed the other diver fed him. After a couple of minutes the DM handed me the same thing and I fed the turtle who willingly enjoyed a scratch and a little play time. Steve got some good photos and we carried on with the dive. Two other divers from another boat were busy taking pictures and we went over to see what they were involved in and it was two large green moray eels beside each other. They continued to take pictures and one of them came quite far out of their residence. Once Steve got down there to take a picture the smaller one disappeared. Such a shame as none of us had seen two eels like that together. We came back to the boat and Stephane played with the bait at the bottom and 7 lemon sharks turned up hoping for the prize. He eventually let it go and the little fish got a taste of it before one lucky shark took off with it. Visibility today was not that good but increased the number of small fish around. Came back to the shop and the second dive was just Steve and I. We apparently were going to to different site but they realized afterwards that we had been there before. Steve and I recognized it after descending as it was the same little anemone with baby nemos. At the end of the dive Stephane made it so Steve could get some up close and personal shots of the lemon sharks. It was getting on for 1.30 but got reception to call Colotier to see if they were open and we were going to take the bikes down but they do a pick up and were here in a couple of minutes. Took some time to decide what to eat as most everything was in french but the very friendly waitress explained everything and Steve ended up having venison with foie gras which was amazingly tender and I had Seafood gratin which was piping hot so I could take my time and savor every bite. Had cappacino and expresso to finish off a very enjoyable lunch. Driven back to enjoy the sunny weather on our deck while sorting out e.mails for a place to live in the Bahamas. Our last dives the dive shop wanted to take us to a better site so we headed out to the Rose Garden. Unfortunately quite deep and we didn’t want to stay deep to long as we were flying the next day. Very nice site, very alive, and it got its name because all the reef looks like open roses - the similar reef was called Cabbage Patch in Fiji. Second dive was around 60 feet and called Rotul and again a place we hadn’t been before. Nothing spectacular but a very pleasant way to end our diving holiday. The next day we decided to rent a vehicle and see some of the island and drove up to the lookout point. Like Bora Bora there is basically just one road around and we managed to get all the way around and looked for a quaint place to have lunch but not much around and we ended up at the Sofitel overlooking the beach and watched the ferry boats going back and forth to Papeete. We went back to our room and enjoyed our last afternoon by our pool.