Christmastime in Bermuda

So this is Christmas, and what have I done? It's certainly kind of strange being somewhere that is warm, when I associate this time of year with the cold and snow (I do kind of like that there are Christmas lights around the palm trees in town). It's harder to get in the spirit, but there are lots of festivities which certainly helps.

The month started off with the Pantomime put on by BMDS. The show went for 2 weeks at city hall and was 100% sold-out. I helped paint the set, and worked 2 nights backstage on wardrobe. My job was to put the tree costume on someone a few times – very important work!

Our work Christmas party was a full day thing. We were told to expect not to work all day and not to show up until 10. About 11 we started things off by playing board games and drinking mamosas (champagne and OJ). This was followed by a late lunch at Harry's and then heading back to the office to do the secret santa gift exchange. After all this, some of us thought it would be a great idea to head to the bar downstairs for 'one' more. Famous last words.

I'll be going back to Canada on the 24th, but there are quite a few people I know staying here. Flights over this time fill-up fast and can cost quite a bit more. I'll enjoy being with family over the holidays, but I have to admit that it would be fun to stay. Apparently in the morning, everyone goes down to Elbow Beach wearing Santa hats and drinks champagne.

Maybe next year I'll do Christmas on the beach.

American Thanksgiving

As we have a large kitchen, our American friend Monbill wanted to host (and cook) a Thanksgiving dinner for a few friends at our place. I thought this was a great idea – especially since he said he was going to cook a Turducken. For those who have never heard of this, a turducken is a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken.

The facebook invite went out, and before we knew it, 35 guests had confirmed. This wasn't including all the people who weren't on facebook. A few days before, we thought there might be as many as 50 people. I admit, I started to panic a bit... 50 people coming to our house FOR DINNER!!! My roommate and I made a trip to the bulk store one lunch to get lots of paper plates, and plastic cups and cutlery as we weren't about to do dishes. We also delegated various people to bring chairs and obviously more food.

Monbill arrived at 9:30 on the big day to start cooking. He obviously had it all under control by the amount of food he'd brought. And once people had arrived and the food was all laid out, I could see that nobody would go hungry. Aside from the Turkducken, there was another turkey, ham, fish, lasagna, 2 kinds of stuffing, rataouille, 2 green been dishes, mashed potato, scalloped potato, salad, Boston fish chowder and pumpkin soup (and that's all I can remember). Then there was desert with homemade key lime pie, papaya cheesecake, chocolate cake, pumpkin squares (made by yours truly), brownies and ice cream. Everything was delicious! The amount of leftovers is insane. I froze some of it, and made 3 kinds of soup last Sunday.

Dinner was followed by performances on Rockband on the Xbox (I was happy because I got my karaoke fix). Our neighbours also came that night, and as rock music isn't their thing, I think they were quite entertained with this game. Once most people had left, those of us still there turned off the game and turned up the tunes.

For more photos, visit the album on Facebook.

"It's Bermuda"

OK, I'm going to vent a little bit...

Things tend to work a little differently here. I think that because of the lack of competition, customer service is severely lacking. You can't expect anything to go smoothly, and expressing frustration about it will only make it worse. The only thing you can do is shrug your shoulders and say, "It's Bermuda".

This is all stemming from the fact that for the last few months, I have not received most of my bills in the mail. However, I'm still responsible for them. So I call the company for the amount.

For about 4 months, I have not received a cell phone bill. I was happy to find out that I could get the bill sent via email. Great. Except that I haven't received that either. Then there's the cable TV bill. Last month I phoned for the amount, paid it, then received the bill a week after the due date. I saw that they'd added a $15 sports channel that we hadn't asked for. When I called to ask for a credit for this, I was told that all disputes were piled up and given to the manager to decide at the end of the month. Huh?! I sent an email to see if I could speed up the process, but haven't had a reply. So it's now the end of the month, and no bill and no phone call from the manager. Guess I'll have to go there in person at lunch and try and get some answers.

Also, try getting a cab when you call either of the dispatch centres. Actually, I should say that you will some of the time, but it's completely hit or miss. If you really have to get somewhere by a specific time, it doesn't matter how early you call in advance. They may show, or they may not. After waiting for 30 mins outside on the street one night with my parents, I thought I should call back and check the status. I was informed that no one had taken the job yet. I asked if she had any idea if someone would, and was told, "I couldn't tell you that, ma'am." I guess there's really no point in calling then. Most of us have learned to carry around an individual cab driver's business card, and call them when you really need one.

You have no outlet, no voice. They just don't care. That's the most frustrating part.

Pumpkins and Parties

I'd heard that Halloween was a big thing here, so in preparation I brought an old costume back when I was home this summer. Good thing I listened, as this advice was correct. It seems that almost everyone got right into the festivities.

Pumpkins

The Wednesday before, my roommates and I had a couple of people over to carve some jack-o-lanterns. I think that this tradition isn't Bermudian though as I had to go to the more up-market grocery store to buy the pumpkins – shipped all the way from Philadelphia or something, and costing $15 each! Once carved, they stayed indoors until the Friday evening because we had visions of cockroaches and ants devouring them. When I was putting them on the front step, all lit up, my next door neighbour came over to check them out. I think he was fascinated with them.

The Big Night

Seeing as there's always a gang of kids running around our street, we figured that there'd be trick-or-treaters, so prepared ourselves with a bowl of candy. We were right... and then found out that lots of kids are driven to our neighbourhood because it's safe or something – or is it because we are a few houses down from the mental hospital?

There were several parties to choose from. Unfortunately, all groups of my friends were going to different ones. Some were going to a bar called Docksiders on Front street. Normally I find this place a little "scary" because the clientel is rough, but I guess scary is what you are going for on this night, so it's a popular destination each year.

The biggest event was called "Fright Night". It's held at Fort Hamilton, and you go down the creepy, narrow steps into a haunted house where actors jump out at and scare you. After that, the adults head on to a large outdoor party with a dj and booze tents. One of my roommates went and said that it was so dark that you couldn't really see anyone, and that it took at least 40 minutes to get a drink.

Good thing we attended the third option...

The Windsong 3rd annual Halloween party. This was a large house party hosted by a co-worker of my other roommate. These guys went all out and had rented a canopy, snow cone machine and A BOUNCY CASTLE! I did try it out, but soon realized that rum and jumping around didn't feel like such a good idea. Moments after I got out, we were treated to a WWF wrestling match between Elvis (white sequined jumpsuit era) and Jesus. Don't remember who won though, I think it was fairly evenly matched.

It was a great party. But as good parties go, I stayed way too late, got a bit carried away and totally regretted the next day. I guess moderation is the lesson to be learned!

Fish Kitchen Nightmares

After all this talk of swimming with fish, it was only a matter of time before I had to cook one. And boy, did I ever get up close and personal.

Monday night, a friend called and asked me if I wanted a couple of fish that his friend had caught. Not being one to turn down free food, and always up for a cooking challenge, I accepted. Now there were two large fish staring at me when I opened the fridge. I couldn't tell you what they were. My friend said they were "Hein". But with his thick Bermudian accent, I'm still not sure if I have that right. I did a google search with all possible spellings, and nothing came up. But he said that they were his favourite, so I figured they must be good.

My instructions were to marinate the fish when I got up the next morning, and then just stick it in the oven in the evening. I was still quite unclear exactly what to do. Luckily, they'd been gutted and cleaned, so the dirty work had been taken care of. However, when I came to marinate my chosen fish, I ran into a little difficulty. We didn't have a pan big enough to hold the whole fish. I thought that if I removed the head and tail, it would fit. Cutting off the tail wasn't a problem. Cutting off the head was.

We have 2 big, sharp knives (or so I thought). Strategically holding the body, I began with one of these knives. What I didn't think of was the thick spine attaching the body to the head. It felt a little too macabre for my liking. I figured that I wouldn't end up being successful, so "cut" my losses (no pun intended), threw the butchered fish into a plastic bag with the marinade and left it in the fridge for the afternoon. For the rest of the day I tried to invite friends to come and help me eat this mammoth sea creature – OK, I exaggerate a little.

(In mid-sentence of typing this, there was a knock on our front door. I was handed... you guessed it... another fish from another friend. Our freezer over-floweth with fish. haha)

Anyways, back to yesterday's story.

I tried to research how best to cook this thing. From what I could tell, my best bet was to wrap the fish in tin foil and bake it. I guessed approximately at how long etc. One friend did come over, thank goodness. Although I had to put it back in the oven a few times, when it was finally done, it was quite tasty.

Shopping Observations

Tonight my roommate and another guy have organized a party at a restaurant in Flats village. I thought perhaps a new outfit was in order, so to Reid Street in Hamilton was where I headed.

Actually, first stop was a warehouse sale across from work where everything is $5 or $10. It was my second visit, but I thought I might see another gem now that the first picking-over has happened. I was correct!

Next stop was the main shopping strip. What I noticed was all the fall clothes in the stores. Yes, it is now October, but it is still 29 degrees here. I guess a tiny spec on the map like Bermuda is not going to effect what a clothing company sends out. So we'll have to overlook the fur lined boots and heavy sweaters until we can actually wear them.

By the way, I did find something to wear tonight.

Extracurricular Activities

Although there are lots of opportunities for a good party here in Bermuda, I've tried to get involved with activities that don't require the drinking of "beverages".

Last April I signed up for intermediate tennis lessons with the continuing education program. It was excellent value for 8 weeks, and I got to meet quite a few people. Once that ended, beach volleyball started right up. Spending an evening with friends on a beach while getting some exercise was a pretty fun. It was a league night where they set up nets all along Horseshoe Bay and you moved up or down nets depending on your results from the previous week. Above is a panorama of all the nets.

However, my extra-curricular activities have involved some culture too. I joined the BMDS (the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society) a few months ago. It was mostly for the social aspect, as they have a bar that feels like a club-house — in that it's very relaxed, and you don't feel you have to go with anyone. In August, I decided that it was time to get involved with one of the plays, and so showed up to a production meeting. I was appointed as Assistant Stage Manager, or "ASM" (I didn't know what that was either), and was later told that I'd also be head of props. Suddenly I realized that I had my work cut out for me.

The play itself was called "Present Laughter" by Noel Coward, and we had a professional director over from England called Jane McCulloch. For a synopsis, check out the link, but to describe it in a nutshell, it's a comedy about a stage actor in the 1930's. My description doesn't really do it justice.

I attended all the rehearsals for a couple of weeks leading up to the opening. This included every day as well as weekends. I had a lot of work to do getting my head around every prop coming on and off stage, and where they needed to be. Also, I had to understand what I'd need to keep in supply (they went through a lot of whiskey – or apple juice – and cigarettes), and I made lots of lists of things to do each night so that others could follow.

Once the dress rehearsals started, I was to sit backstage and also take on the ASM role with a headset on. There was a new list of things that I needed to learn for this. However, once things got going, most of the work was over, and we settled into a routine. Setting up the props, getting all the actors to take their places, following the script, helping out where needed, and then finally cleaning up and resetting all the props for the next show.

The play went for 2 weeks and we were all there for every night (except I had 3 nights off while my guest was here). I learned so much and got to learn from some great people. However, I think my next role will be something a little lighter on the work load. After all, I've got to save some time for the beach.

Swimming with the fish... again

A couple of weeks ago I had my first friend from home come and visit. We had a great time and some very memorable moments.

Friday I took the day off work and we went up to Tobacco Bay to do some snorkeling. As we swam into an alcove (only word I can think of), I noticed thousands of these little fish coming with us. They are tiny minnow type fish, only smaller and they reflect different colours in the sun. By the time we'd swam all the way in, we were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of them. I'm not even exaggerating. We just kind of hovered over them in awe. There were so many, you could not see through them. If only I had a water proof camera (we all know what happens to me, cameras and water).

We went from swimming with fish to eating them, as our next stop was to the Black Horse Tavern in St. David's which specializes in local fish dishes. We both had Wahoo fish with peas and rice (very traditional).

But the best day was definitely Saturday because 3 of us rented a boat for the first time. The rental company's website assured me that you didn't have to have any experience driving one before, and that they'd provide us with maps and everything we needed (including a cooler filled with ice, of course). Although we'd had quite the late night, or rather 'early morning' from Friday night happy hour, we managed to drag our asses to the dock in time for our brief driving instructions.

Each of us had a turn during the day, and on my first go I had to get across the open water towards a large bridge. Unfortunately I realized at one point that I was headed straight for what looked like a sailing lesson. The boats looked like they were going in a big circle, and I tried to see if I should go to the left or right of them. However each way didn't look like a good idea. So the solution? Go right through the middle of them!

We anchored a few times at the 'sights' indicated on the rather poor map. One of these stops was at a ship wreck that sticks right out of the water called "The Vixen". I put the snorkel gear on to investigate. As expected, I saw a lot of fish as under the water, the wreck was covered in coral.

When I returned to the boat, I saw the other 2 girls throwing bread into the water and then watching these big fish swarm the area. I had a very bright idea that it would be fun for them to throw the bread around me and then take my picture with the fish. Unfortunately I got a little spooked because although you could see the fish from the boat, I couldn't from where I was, and so was not sure if/when I'd feel them against my legs. The following pictures are the result of this photo op.

Final stop was paradise lakes where I was trying to co-ordinate a raft-up with a couple of other friends on boats. Although it was brief, it was a nice way to end the day before getting the boat back to the boat on time and in one piece.






For more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155527&l=4150e&id=658425205

Magical Mystery Tour

Last Sunday I found myself with a free afternoon. The weather was absolutely baking, so I figured that the best place to be was in or beside the water. I texted a couple of friends to see if they wanted to go snorkeling or something. However, something better came out of that.

Turns out that they were going on a "Magical Mystery Tour", and I was invited. What is this you ask? Well, there's around 48 public beaches (I think I have that right) here, and most people know of just a handful of them. So this group of people have decided that every few weeks one or two people will pick a lesser known spot and organize a day there. Everyone interested in coming will meet at a common place, where they will get a clue of where to go.

I showed up at the meeting place at 1 and turned out I was the first one there - always eager! The organizers were just finishing up some things, so I was enlisted to help cut up the clues. Once the others started arriving, we were given our first clue which turned out to be John Smith's Bay. When we got there, we had to solve another clue which was Coney Island – who knew we had one of them!. However, this still wasn't the final destination. I think everyone was starting to get a bit over-heated, but luckily this was the last clue we had to solve.

About 20 of us descended on Turtle Beach in St. David's, which is on the south-east end of Bermuda, and just past the more known Clearwater Beach. It's where the US military used to have a base and was then closed to the public. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing frisbee. What a great way to spend a hot day.

Near the end, the organizers announced that they had some prizes to give out. Although they had no way to measure people's successes, they decided to wing it and make up some winners. So, imagine my surprise when I was awarded first place because I'd shown up early and helped!

As the winner, it is now my duty to plan the next Mystery Tour. I have a couple of places in mind, but I'll have to give it some thought.

Friday Happy Hour

Each Friday, scores of people descend upon the bars of Hamilton for happy hour. During the summer months, The Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel hosts its own on its grounds beside the water. They sell drink tickets a la beer tent style, and you can trade them in for your beverage of choice. It's quite pleasant being beside the water, but I have to admit, the heat can be a bit much.

The Lemon Tree café beside Par-La-Ville park hosts another summer happy hour for the season. This can be a nice alternative to the blasting heat of the Princess, and is also open later. 

One thing I find funny about a Friday night out here is that no one stays in one place for very long. It usually turns into a bar hop to at least 3 or more establishments. For example, last Friday was the Princess, Lemon Tree,  then Pickled Onion to dance to the band that plays cover songs accompanied by an iPod (I'm ashamed to admit that they're pretty good). At this point my roommate and I decided that this was enough, but everyone else headed off to Café Cairo (a bit of a crowded meat-market in my opinion) and probably ended up at The Beach – reserved for that special time of the night when you're not going for class or atmosphere anymore.

These photos were taken at the Hamilton Princess

Cake Wrecks

Check out my new favourite blog called "Cake Wrecks". The link is on the right.

Road Rash

I was on my way home last Friday evening, riding behind a friend. We were on Point Finger road, and I got the to the part where there is a 90 degree bend in the road. I slowed down, but it unfortunately wasn't quite enough. This put me too close to the edge of the road so I clipped a low wall and the bike and I fell. I don't remember the fine details because it happened so fast. However, before I knew it, I was on the road and the bike was on my foot.

My friend saw it and stopped, as did a few other people. They lifted the bike up and had me sit in the road while they made sure I was OK. My foot and elbow were quite scraped up (this is known as road rash), and my foot was swelling. I think someone called an ambulance, but as it happens, I was sitting almost right beside the hospital. One of the men who stopped gave me a ride to ER.

The wait time was not too bad, and I was called to wait on the other side for a doctor. To make a long story short, nothing was broken, I was given some painkillers and then the nurse cleaned and dressed it, then I took a cab home.

Next day, my roommate and I took her scooter back to where my bike had been left to see it's condition. Aside from some bad scratches and a cracked foot plate, it's fine. I'm at least still able to ride it (although I'm taking things much slower now).

The worst of it all is my foot which hurts like crazy. It's insane! Sunday was the worst of it, couldn't walk on it, so we watched movies - back-to-back, all day. I finally gave in and took the prescribed pain killers – I'd read they were really addictive and so was avoiding taking them (after all the hype, I really don't know why they would be as they don't do anything that exciting except keep me from sleeping).

All the Bermudians have been telling me that if I could bare it, the best thing to do is to put the wounds in the salt water to dry them out. Tonight I went to a place away from the sandy beaches and took their advice. Yes, it hurt, but I figured no pain, no gain. I saw some fish while I was there and really hoped that they wouldn't nibble.

Here's a picture showing my toe and one of the fish (top right). I also took one of the rest of the foot but don't know if I should really post it.

Big (ish) Bertha

Initially, they warned that Bertha was a category 3 hurricane likely to hit Bermuda. We tracked it's progress on www.sharkoil.bm, and tried to be somewhat prepared. We bought some jugs of water, non-perishable food, a manual can opener and some candles. As it approached, it was downgraded to a tropical storm and was supposed to just pass by 40 miles off-shore last Saturday. Which got pushed to Sunday night and then Monday afternoon.

Even last Wednesday, the waves on the south shore beaches were quite large and signs were posted warning to not enter the water. By Sunday, the sun was still shining – it was hard to imagine that a big storm was on it's way. However, judging by the force of the surf, it was definitely approaching. I thought I'd go and check it out for myself. Brought a book and decided that reading on the beach while watching the waves might be a nice way to spend an hour.

However, I guess I was sitting too close to the water, because before I knew it, I was hit by a big wave. I scrambled to gather all my belongings floating in the water while drenched and covered head-to-toe in sand. The book will never be the same and the cell phone was destroyed. Good thing I was wearing a swim suit under my clothes because I needed to wring everything out and get some of the sand off before getting on my bike and cutting the afternoon short.

A guy not too far from me was also victim to this wave. We exchanged a bit of small talk laughing at our situation. Then I got the impression that he was a little bit "off" shall we say? As I made my excuse to exit, he said "oh, I was going to ask if you wanted to go for a swim". Ummmm, not sure if he'd noticed the dangerous surf!?

So Monday arrives. Raining and cloudy. By about 3:30, the tropical storm part had officially started. By 5pm it was still full-force, and there was no way I was going to ride my scooter home. There were huge wind gusts at 75 mph, some flooding and branches all over the roads. Power had gone out at my house, so my roommate, her guest and I amused ourselves by playing cards, eating our non-perishable foods that consisted of nachos, pop-tarts and really bad beef jerky. Canned food was out because the $2 can opener that I bought broke before it served any purpose. Just before both laptop's batteries had run out watching movies, the power came back on at 10pm.

I took the above picture from the balcony at work just before I left at 5:30. It doesn't capture the extent of the wind and rain that I'd hoped.

Canada Day Party

In true Bermuda style, we celebrated Canada Day on the beach. The group "Canadians In Bermuda" organized a party where $10 got you a membership, 3 drinks and a burger/hotdog. Not bad. Hundreds of Canadians (and those who just wanted to join in the festivities) piled on a rather small beach and ate, drank and swam while serenaded by every Canadian hit ever made. When I arrived, Alannah Myles was playing, and of course we heard "If I had a Million Dollars", some Brian Adams and let's not forget Nickel Back and Amanda Marshall. Lord help us.

However, music aside, it was a great party! Every square inch was covered by beach towels and umbrellas. The water was quite rough that day which made swimming fun. But, me trying to be cool with my sunglasses on and a drink in hand didn't quite work when a wave had a better idea and send me flying. 

Little People

Nothing to do with Bermuda, but I wanted to share this blog link. It's a photo project where miniature people are placed in London and taken with a macro lens in various scenes.

http://little-people.blogspot.com

Swimming with the fish

Today I saw how helpful Bermudians are. I was going to pick up my company's latest employee from the guest house so that we could go snorkelling. Trouble is, this place is extremely hard to find. I circled the area a couple of times before pulling into a car dealership to ask for directions. The guy I asked offered to help me find it by having me follow him on his bike. Then later in the day, on my way home, I decided to pull off the road and check out the map to plan my route. Right away, a couple walked over and asked where I was trying to get to. They said that they worried when they saw someone looking at a map alone at night. As they were going part of the way, they also offered to let me follow them to the main road.

As I mentioned, me and the new girl headed to the south shore to check out the snorkelling. First stop was Church Bay which is known for it. We'd only just got into the water when we looked below the surface and immediately saw amazing looking fish. There were parrot fish, sergeant majors, some large purple-blue ones, and angel fish, to name a few. Words can't even describe how stunning this underwater scene was. Just take my word for it, it really was amazing.

Floating with your back to the sun for hours = a very red back. Sun screen or no sun screen.

Johnny loves me!

Every morning, rain or shine, Johnny Barnes stands by one of the round-a-bouts that leads into town and greets everyone who drives by. He usually waves, blows kisses and yells "I love you". He's been doing this for years, and has become a local celebrity. They've even erected a statue of him near where he stands.

This morning I took a slightly different route to work than normal, so that I passed him. I was in the lane closest to him and because of the heavy traffic, I was sat there for a little bit. During this time he was shouting that he loved me over and over. At first I said "have a nice day", but he kept shouting it. So as I drove away, I yelled, "I love you too!"

Day on/in the water

Today was a great day spent on boats in the water around the island. A bunch of us piled into a couple of boats - myself, my roommate Kim, her guest Christina, the 2 girls who live upstairs, Sean Palmer, his friend Jo, Boun, and the owners of the boats, Kevin and JC.

After tearing around for a bit, we made it to 'Paradise Lakes' which is an area in-between islands just outside Hamilton harbour, and a popular area for boaters to spend the day. Here, we suntanned, had some drinks and swam.

Eventually, we went for a bit of a spin. Meanwhile some random guy came by on a jetski and gave 3 of us each a ride around. I was third and it was my first time on one. I was warned to hold on tight, so I put my fingers in the loops on his life jacket so that I wasn't going anywhere. It was a lot of fun.

After a few hours of being on the water, drinking and eating chips, we headed to Dockyards for some real food. Knowing the manager got us some free shots of limoncello and a few 'Al Pacino' lines because we thought he resembled him.

Back on the boats, we met up with some other friends on their boats and tied the 4 together in what is called a "raft-up". The next couple of hours were spent jumping from boat to boat and floating in the water on noodles. Boun spotted a Sea cucumber on the bottom and had Kevin dive down to get it for him. It turns out not to be a plant, but an animal that is like a big, bumpy slug-like thing about a foot long by about 4" thick. He said you could eat them ?? Hmmm, didn't look very appetizing to me.

Once it was time to head back to Hamilton, we put on the tunes, and sang and danced all the way. But, when we got there, Kevin wanted to know if any of us were interested in accompanying him to St. George to dock the boat, and then he'd give us a ride back to our bikes. I figured, what the hell, I didn't have anywhere important to be, so Sean and Jo and I stayed on board.

Good choice, because we blasted the tunes again and got to see the most amazing sunset. We got a few pictures before the camera batteries ran out.

Just as we pulled into the harbour, the song playing was "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley. I thought to myself, "what a great end to a great day". But the story was not over.

The 4 of us climbed into the small plastic boat that was to take us to shore. Sean and I were sitting in the front, Kevin rowed and Jo sat beside him. Each time he rowed, water came over the front which was concerning us. Finally, a big gush came over the front, and next thing we were all in the water. Good thing we were fairly close to shore, and the water was warm.

We swam and pulled the boat to shore, and got out completely soaked through, but laughing.

One thing we all agreed on was that this would make for a great story.

To see more photos, check out this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125153&l=22ad0&id=658425205

Bermuda Day

Last Monday was a long weekend in honour of Bermuda Day. It's officially the start of summer for Bermudians. It's the first day that they go in the water. Also, they have a big parade where everyone gets dressed up, and watch majorettes, marching bands and gombey dancers along with brightly coloured floats. (Gombey is a traditional Bermudian dance where mostly male dancers dressed in brightly coloured costumes dance to drums). http://www.bermuda4u.com/Essential/video-gombey.html

Days before the parade, rectangles marked with tape started appearing along the sidewalks in town. The tape was to save a prime spot to watch the parade and the people would mark the family name on it. I asked my landlord's family, and people do honour it! Someone else also told me that they tried to make putting tape down illegal, so then people started spray painting. I didn't see any of that though.

Actually, I didn't see the parade either. I had other plans to spend the afternoon at a friend's place which is by the water. We spent the day drinking cosmopolitans, and enjoying the sun. Another Bermuda tradition is to go in the water this weekend (since Bermudians will not go in before this date). The day ended up with everyone on the balcony singing and dancing as the sun went down.

Enjoy the photos...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119294&l=ce175&id=658425205

Rising Damp

OK, one more slightly negative thing we're learning about in our house-hold and then I promise I'll get to stories of sun and sand.

Mold is something I've read about and been warned about, and didn't quite believe until I saw for myself. My friend who used to live here would talk of it being so humid that even your sheets sometimes felt damp. I couldn't imagine that. The last apartment I lived in constantly smelled musty, and my towels never dried unless I draped them over the hot water heater. One day I looked at a wooden cabinet and saw that the whole front was covered in green mold!

I thought that living in a new place, we'd be spared. But after a particularly humid week, I noticed it all over the bathroom door and the shoes hanging in my closet. I guess we need to stay on top of that.

Pictures soon, I really hope (but not of green mold). We are having an extremely hard time trying to get our internet working at home.

Denial, it's not just a river in Egypt.

It's starting to happen. The thing I was warned about, that until now, I was in complete denial about. Cockroaches. Big ones.

I've been told it's better to see the big ones over the small ones. They come in from outside, and are not a sign of "infestation" (I hate that word!). Being a warmer climate here, they are everywhere, and it's just a fact of life.

Sunday night, there were 3 sightings, and one murder. It's the theory that two of them (the one that died) were actually the same one, but really, who knows. The first was seen running out from under the dryer. At least the laundry room is sort of separate from the rest of the apartment. We think it came in around the dryer vent which hasn't been sealed yet. The other 2(1) were seen in my roommate's bathroom and then closet at 2 in the morning. Thank goodness for the can of Raid on hand. She said she didn't sleep much after that.

As I didn't see any of them, can I be stay in denial? Please?

(no pictures because we still don't have internet at home. And really, I'm sure you don't want a picture of this).

Finally... almost there.

By the time I get home, we should finally have internet and cable. Aside from a few days where I discovered I had the internet at my temporary apartment, I haven't been connected since I got here, and I haven't watched TV since mid-March. I can't wait! Of course, we don't have a TV yet, but that'll happen soon.

Although we've been slowly accumulating furniture, it's mostly been for our bedrooms. The rest of the place is very empty and echoey. The only chair in the apartment is a chair that goes with a little desk that I bought. We've agreed to buy the contents of someone's place who is leaving in June. They've said we can have most things sooner (hopefully Saturday), but we are still waiting to hear. Until then we are using plastic cutlery, cups and bowls. Very ghetto.

There's so much that we need - from doormats to coat hangers. And for some reason, there seems to be a shortage of hangers in the stores. Weird. I've bought out the department store, and I'm waiting for them to get another shipment in.

Moved.

Still waiting to get internet at home –hopefully, it should be a matter of days. In the meantime, here's a good Bermuda shot of a famous ship called the Spirit of Bermuda, but I thought the houses with their bright colours and white roofs are very typical of what it looks like here.

I've moved into the new place. As they've literally just finished construction, there's a few things that we are discovering that need to be fixed. The washing machine is unbalanced and so hops around the laundry room when being used. The kitchen tap has the wrong pressure or something, and comes out as a trickle, and until yesterday, we didn't have the use of our oven/stove because the wrong cable was sent with it. Whatever though – it's an awesome apartment, and it's huge. I can't wait until we have furniture!

TAC's

I've lived elsewhere in the world before, and have done my share of traveling. Everywhere I've been, Canadians have an excellent reputation. However, I've learned something new since moving here. We are known as "T A C's, and that stands for "Tight Ass Canadians". For whatever reason, everyone (including locals and expats) think we're cheap. I strongly disagree. I prefer to think of it as frugal.

When I ask for an explanation, I'm always given the same example. When dining in a restaurant with others, it's custom here to split the bill evenly between everyone—no matter what you had. The people telling their story always seem to have once had a Canadian at the table who says, "But I only had a salad".

This, to me, seems to be more of a cultural thing rather then a "being cheap" thing. When dining in groups in Canada, we usually scan the bill and see what we had, then throw that amount into the table (adding tax and tip). In Bermuda, like I said, you just divide the bill up. You don't sweat it if you only had a salad, because you know that next time you may have had the steak, and it will even out. So in the case of the Canadian who whined about contributing an even portion, I think they are just not picking up on the custom here. They're not necessarily cheap.

But as the saying goes, "When in Rome...". You've got to be perceptive on how things are done in the country you're in. You've got to suck it up and go with the flow.



This photo was taken at the beginning of April. Our team had just won the quiz night, so we are holding our prizes of cash and shots.

Ta-da

So here is the photo of my scooter. I'm definitely getting more and more used to it as the days go on. I just have to remember to take it easy and concentrate. I think that I've pretty much gotten used to driving on the left – although I still repeat it to myself whenever I'm making a turn.

Lately there have been an unusually high number of accidents on the roads here. So much so, that the powers that be decided that a marketing campaign with some shock value would scare people into driving safe. I'll describe my encounter with it. I was riding back into town yesterday around 6:30pm. As I was going up the island's only dual carriage way, I saw a scooter lying on the grass in the middle of the lanes, and noticed that it was fairly mangled. Then I noticed a man sprawled out on the grass beside it and covered in blood. I wondered if I should stop, but had a van behind me. What also confused me was that no one was reacting to this scene. Had the accident just happened? Had someone already called 911? Why didn't I hear any sirens? In the end I concluded that someone must have called, and they probably didn't need me clogging up their lines.

The first thing I heard when I woke up this morning was how it was all staged to promote safe driving. What I didn't see was the sign that read, "I was texting while riding". They'd planted several of these scenes around, and one even caused a 4 car accident because of a 'rubber-necker' The whole thing reminds me of the "Saftey in the work-place" ads in Canada.

Anyways, on another note, I officially got the bike transferred to my name today.

Hunt Gone Right, Hunt Gone Wrong

Apartment Hunt gone right...

Here's some photos of my new place. It's a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment that they've just finished building. I'll be moving in with a friend of a friend from Toronto, and a guy that she knows and works with. The layout's pretty good as it's nicely separated, so we won't be on top of each other. Also, there's tons of closet/storage space - even though none of us have that much stuff. Looking forward to moving in!

Scavenger Hunt gone wrong...

Saturday night my co-worker and his friend organized a scavenger hunt around the island. We were split into teams - 4 or 5 per car – and had to follow clues to the next destination, the final one being the bar. Our team was doing well and were in the lead (not my doing, of course as I had no idea about most of the places) and we got to Elbow beach, grabbed the clue, solved it and headed to the next one. What we didn't realize was that at Elbow beach, we'd taken the clue from another scavenger hunt and were now on the wrong trail. After racking our brains on this next clue, we eventually called the organizers. They had no idea what we were reading out to them. That's when we realized what had happened. So we back tracked to Elbow beach and saw the right clue waiting for us, made a couple of more stops before giving up and joining the others at The Beach (the bar).

I kind of wished we'd won the other people's hunt. Imagine if we'd showed up at their final destination?!

Things are starting to fall into place. On Saturday, I became the proud owner of my first motorized vehicle – a scooter. I bought it from a friend of a friend who has left the island. It's 5 years old, and 150cc's. So now I have to get it insured and then get my scooter driving license. Getting your license also means that I have to get a note from a doctor... even though I just had to get one from a Canadian doctor for my work visa. Geez! No photo of the bike as of yet, maybe I'll post one in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow I sign a lease on an apartment. I'm moving in with 2 people who are also from Toronto and new here. On Friday I went to see it and think it will be really good. It's brand new (still being built), quite large, and a good layout so that 3 people won't be on top of each other. There's even a bar area! Rent is reasonable for Bermuda. It's more then double what I was paying in Toronto, but that's just how it is here. Oh, and it's fully air conditioned! 

As I was out Wednesday to Friday evenings, I had a fairly quiet weekend with lots of 'me' time. Mostly, I rode around on the rental scooter and headed to the beach a couple of times to try and catch some sun (with lots of sun screen, of course).

Good evening and good night.

As things become more 'everyday', it seems less and less newsworthy. That's why I haven't been doing many blog entries - or "blur" entries as my mom said today.

So I thought hard and realized that there are things to write about, and those things would be all the little, cultural things that I've been learning since I arrived.

One of the biggest things is how friendly and polite the people are. I've had to re-condition myself to actually make eye-contact with people, and actually say hello - or rather, "Good morning/afternoon". They know you're a foreigner if you just use "hello". Just a few days after I arrived, I was in a park and some boys raced past me on my bike. In my head, the warning flags went off to be cautious as I would back home. However, one of them took the effort to call out "Good evening" . How polite! Even the most unsuspecting person will make eye contact and greet you, so I've had to get passed some of my Canadian ways in that sense.

Maybe I'll save the rest for other days.

Here's a couple of photos.
One is of the first cruise ship of the year to arrive. I took the photo from right by my office.
The second (you may have already seen on flickr) is a photo I took walking home from work one night.

Don't Get Burnt

It's been quite the weekend. On Good Friday in Bermuda, they have a kite festival. Thousands of people go to the beach, Horseshoe Bay to fly kites, or watch other people fly kites. I went on my rented scooter with some friends, along with the kites we'd purchased.

I haven't flown a kite since I was about 12, but I still managed to get it going for a while. However, the warning on the package to wear gloves was a good one. The string slid though my hands and burned me. The first time, I let go, and the kite went flying down the beach.

So I thought I'd give it another try. Apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson the first time and let go AGAIN. At this point, I figured it was time to call it a day with the kite. We spent another couple of hours watching other kites and chatting.

Speaking of burns... the string burn was not the worse burn I got that day. None of us put any sun screen on. 4 hours of standing in the sun = one crazy red face and lobster arms. When I woke up the next morning, I was shocked at the scary reflection in the mirror – bright red face with white eyes where my sunglasses had been.

However, it didn't stop me with my plans for the day. I made a pit-stop in town to get some SPF 45 and some soothing relief for the pain, and then headed out to the far east of the island. I did a self-guided walking tour of the historic town called St. Georges, but made sure to keep applying lots of sunscreen.

I'll be posting more photos to my flickr account soon. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairen)

Bikes & Hikes

Still continuing to settle in slowly. I moved to the apartment that I'll be in for the next few weeks. It's in a small condo building where the regular tenant has left the island for a few months. It's quite nice except that it smells musty from having been shut up for a couple of weeks (apparently that's normal because of the high-humidity), and there's no cable TV or internet. Let me tell you, I've been watching a lot of movies. I discovered this girl's DVD collection and last night had my first experience watching a movie that had been filmed at the theatre. At the beginning you could even see someone's head! I felt like I was doing something bad... but soon got over it!

Saturday, fueled by the fact that there was no coffee maker at the apartment, I walked into town to have a look at the shops, get a coffee and a cell-phone – hey, I have priorities. Both missions were successful, and I even saw a friend of a friend who is selling their scooter for a good deal. I took it for a test drive, leaving him in the parking lot, and managed to get lost just going down one street. He must have thought I was running off with it. Anyways, I've got first dibs on it and I think I'm going to go for it.

I got dropped off at the bike rental place and got one for a couple of days so that I could get a bit of practice. I just have to keep repeating to myself that I need to drive on the left! So far so good. Since I had the bike, I picked up some groceries, and then headed out to Spanish Point, as it's not too far from where I'm staying. Sunday morning I took another quick excursion to another park nearby before my work-mate was due to pick me up.

We had lunch and then met some of her friends to do the annual Palm Sunday hike. There were lots of people who all came out to explore a part of the island through areas you can't normally walk through – we were in Smith's parish (I think). It was very hilly and took about 2 hours, so I definitely got some exercise.

First day of work

Had my first day of work today. All was pretty straight forward. Got thrown into real work almost right away. Still trying to figure out the ropes. Guess that will take some time, but all-in-all it was good.

Anyways, took some photos this morning of where I'm staying - although I'll be moving tomorrow to a temporary apartment.

Went to a quiz night with a friend of Melinda's and some of her friends after work. Turns out, the bar was almost right underneath where I'm working. We won and the prize money paid for our bill. Bonus!


The front entrance.














Inside










View from the back