Our Canine Roommate

Last September, one of my roommates ended up having to leave Bermuda. Luckily, our friend Ashley was able to move in. With her, came a French Bulldog named Zoe.

I've never lived with a dog before, but she's a good dog – for the most part. Generally, she's pretty calm, and hardly ever barks. She also makes a great vacuum cleaner in the kitchen, as she's always there if you drop something.

What may be her downfall is catching toads. I took her out for a quick walk one night. When we approached the driveway, I saw that she had a massive toad between her jaws. She was doing her best to flatten this thing. But try as I may, I could not get her to drop it. Eventually I picked her up, and that caused her to lose her grip. When Ashley got home and I told her about it, she asked if Zoe was foaming at the mouth. Apparently, toads are quite poisonous to dogs. Luckily, this time she wasn't affected.

After yoga last Monday, I found out that she'd caught another one. Once back in the house, Zoe was walking in circles and then her legs started giving out. When she had a seizure, she was rushed to the emergency vet.

She's fine now, and on medication. However, whenever I walk her I can tell she's hunting for more toads. Silly dog.

January Weekend

My weekend was good – it was quite cold here though. I actually had to use the heat last night. The houses get so cold because there's no central heating with concrete walls, tiled floors, and no double glazed windows.

Went to a restaurant called Beau Rivage for someone's birthday on Friday evening. It was great, but a big splurge. My starter was the daily foie gras and was absolutely amazing. I ordered the lamb for a main, and wasn't too struck with it, mainly because it was over cooked. Still, I'd go back there again because the other mains looked good.

Saturday I met a friend in town for lunch and ran some errands in the afternoon. Then in the evening we had some friends over for a 'make-your-own-pizza' dinner. This is a great idea for a small party. You provide all the ingredients such as pre-cooked small pizza bases and sauce, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, olives, meats and any thing you can think of and have the oven pre-heated. Put multiple pizzas on cookie sheets, and they're ready in 10 minutes. We followed this with a game of Cranium. If you got the question wrong, your team had to do a shot of coffee flavoured Patron (yum) – an added touch to make it more fun. My roommates got the brunt of that.

Yesterday we went to watch my roommate's boyfriend play rugby. Unfortunately, it was cut short when he injured his shoulder in a tackle and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. He was home by the evening, as I went over there for supper when his roommate cooked dinner for a bunch of us. A group of us have been doing an 'ethnic food night' each Sunday. Each person takes a turn to make a dish from where they're from. Although the ethnic element has kind of faded, and now it's just dinner.

Happy 400th Bday Bda

2009 marks the 400th year that Bermuda was settled. In 1609, a boat called the Sea Venture was sent from England to send help for a troubled settlement in Virginia. But the ship was wrecked on Bermuda's reefs. The people stayed in Bermuda for months while they repaired the ship. Once that was done, they continued onto Virginia, but 2 people stayed back as it was decided that Bermuda could be settled by the English. That's the story in an extremely condensed version. The island was spotted maybe 100 years before that by a Spanish sailor called Juan de Bermudez. Sailors used it as a landmark for navigation, but avoided getting close because of the dangerous reefs surrounding it. For a more accurate and complete history, visit the Bermuda 2009 website.

To kick off a year full of celebrations, a street party was held on Hamilton's Front Street. We headed down there, but eventually opted to celebrate in our own style and go for a drink.

In the second picture above, my friend is pointing to the lights on the palm trees (as mentioned in my previous blog).