We found something cheap in Bermuda!

Another update in quick succession, am I back on form…or just in rehab?! The latter I think.

In the last post I mentioned our golf lessons. The boys were keen to check out their new skills so booked a round at the Southampton Princess. It’s a gorgeous course overlooking the sea and with most holes only par 3, it’s a good course to ‘practice your short game’ (or if you can’t hit it that far! :-)) I’m still practicing walking so wasn’t involved. Anton from work did want to get involved though and having apparently only ever picked up a club once, and that was for ‘crime prevention’ (?!), Toby and I thought a quick trip to the driving range was in order. As it turns out, Anton was quite the natural and after getting through a bag of balls he had quite a consistent swing. Impressed! Next challenge was a bag. The boys had enough clubs to share round but everyone needed a bag to get on the course. Hiring, as you’d expect in Bermuda, is expensive. Jon recommended we check out ‘The Barn’. ‘The Barn’ is somewhere I’d heard about early on in our Bermuda Days, but I had never made it. It’s a second hand store with the proceeds going to the hospital. Finding it was a bit of a mission, but once there, we were greeted with about 10 bags and 7 sets of clubs. The things people leave behind when they leave the island! Anton got kitted out and as I’m’ hoping to join them soon too, I got one too. Guess how much….

On the basis a loaf of bread can be $6, a bag of grapes $12 and I have paid $20 for a large block of Cathedral City Cheddar cheese I’m sure you’ll be surprised to hear I paid $10! The barn will be getting a more thorough rummage through soon!

The boys set off, had a few beers, some fun and enjoyed their first round of the season. No pictures I’m afraid.

I meanwhile stayed at home looking after my knee. I’m now two weeks post operation and just like after a bad illness, every day I’m delighted with how much better I feel. Day 1 I was dosed with medication and so relieved I’d got through it all I was running on adrenaline and very happy. Exercises for days 1 and 2 were wiggling my toes! Day 3 the compression bandage came off and I had to try and bend and straighten my leg. Knee was pretty swollen and this felt very wrong. For some reason I hid my head under a cover when I did this! Day 4 I was hobbling more effectively with my cane and by day 5 the cane was gone and I was practicing standing on one leg (the bad one!). The following week I progressed to walking on my toes, on my heals and balancing on a balance-board-thing (to start with holding on to something and then without to ‘some’ success!). By day 12 I was doing gentle lunges but confused why ‘pin steps’ (heel-toe-heel-toe walking) was too much for me. It fascinates me how the body heals and what’s possible with medicine. Gosh, anyone would thing I’d had a cutting edge operation the way I go on rather than a standard churn-em-out type! 🙂 Either way, the rehab process has activated my mind and got rid of the bored-because-I-can’t-play-sport mentality…if I can see progress I’m happy! Today I mastered pin-steps! 🙂
This afternoon I went for a walk to get the knee moving. Walking now feels quite comfortable on the flat but I’ve got a slight limp. I don’t need it – it offers nothing! My knee isn’t quite strong enough to comfortably manage walking downhill, but on the flat, no excuse! Hence the reason I was walking along the Railway Trail doing high knee steps to try and remind my brain no limping is required….I’m not sure what anyone would have thought if they saw me…not that I care!
While out I had another rather strange objective. February has been a very stormy month and the winds have been howling round our little cottage on the hill. As I was setting out to north shore for my walk I thought I’d get some good pictures as it can look quite menacing. Unfortunately the wind died down and it didn’t look bad at all.

Sometimes this view is just filled with white capped waves and there’s sea spray in the air, well back from the road. I struggled to believe it for a bit, but sometimes you can see what looks like large white ships near the horizon. It’s actually the waves breaking on the northern reef! How glad I am we have that reef! Anyway, my weird mission to show our stormy February was a fail.
I then got distracted and saw a pretty flower.

Unfortunately while moving some dead grass to get a better picture I got a whiff of something that told me I was taking a shot of a dogs latrine. Charming.

At least the flowers in our front garden put on a good show for me when I got back. Spring is in the air and you’ll stop hearing me complain about the cold and the wind soon! 🙂

Country life

We’ve now been in the new cottage for 3 months.  When we were looking round, the landlady was keen to stress we would be ‘living in the country’ compared to our old apartment on the edge on Hamilton.  The bugs would surely come and find us and were we ready?!  We’d had our fair share of ant and cockroach encounters so felt we were ready….it’s definitely different though!

(Toby didn’t want me to share these stories because he thought it would make us sound like we’re dirty.  He’s in bed though….! :-))

The cottage hadn’t been lived in for a while so despite the thorough clean the landlady gave the place, despite the fact it is well maintained so doesn’t have lots of cracks and hiding places….there were things hiding out and waiting for us, delighted that humans had moved in and would be bringing some new food!  We soon got acquainted with the two lizards who lived in the cottage.  One in the den and one behind the sofa.  I remember well playing ‘catch the lizard’ when living in Florida but in light of the warning there were ants and cockroaches aplenty out here, and they’re favorite snack food for a lizard, we were happy to let them stay.  I actually got rather attached!

In the first couple of weeks we’d find we’d come home to disturb a cockroach ‘hanging out’ in the cottage.  And they were big ones too.  I’m afraid to say they all quickly met a ‘Raid-related-death’.  They’re far too quick to be shepherded out!  And then there were the ants, if you spotted one, it was always worth focusing on the area as there’s often a trail to be found!  I feel a little guilty at this, but they too met a ‘Raid-related-death’. 😦

After feeling like we were only scratching the surface, it was time to be proactive and we invested in some cockroach and ant bait food.  The back very cheerfully explained the roaches would eat the food and then ‘crawl away to die’.  How charming.  Normally an animal lover, I’m afraid it didn’t stop me.

We then found we’d be coming home to dead/dying cockroaches which we’d show some mercy to and kill off with a spray of Raid.  Very quickly, we seemed to get on top of it and we no-longer had visitors.  I guess this is a Raid endorsement!  One day though, we came home find a cockroach that must have died early in the day and the ants had descended enmasse and were tearing it apart to take back to the nest.  There were wings and legs and antennas everywhere.  I’m glad to say Toby does his man duties and deals with it!  Unfortunately this happened in the den where a lizard lived so we had to catch him and put him out so he didn’t get gassed – one pet lizard down. 😦

The second lizard must have moved into the den after this and unfortunately that’s where Kirsten stayed when she visited.  While we’re happy to have them defending us from bug invasions, I don’t fancy them in bedrooms so he had to go too.  We’re being defended by chemicals alone now!  That said, I haven’t seen a cockroach for a long time and ants come in ones.  We have control!

I thought the other creepy-crawly we regularly came across was the millipede but having looked them up in our Bermuda Wildlife Book (thanks Ninjo!), I can now identify them as Church Worms.  I have to say, I’m surprised evolution hasn’t resolved this pest for us.  They seem EXCELLENT at dying.  It’s very rare to see these alive, their only nuisance is that they need sweeping up!

The other thing we’ve got fascinated by is water!  Gosh, what has our life come to?!  In the old place we were living in a building with 3 apartments housing a total of 9 people.  It seemed a lot of people considering the size of roof we had and the amount of rain water it could collect.  Unfortunately we ran out of water several times and needed to get the water truck out to top us up.  Here, we’re masters of our own destiny!  I think we’re reasonably water conscious and as we have access to the tank, we can check how we’re getting on, and so far so go.  After a downpour last night the water level rose ‘past the step’ which is what we’ve been aiming for for a while – we were delighted!  Tank is very full and we might just treat ourselves to a bath!

Aside from the rain, we’re also making good use of the wind.  Our cottage has a flat roof which is why (I believe!) we don’t have ceiling fans.  As you know from my ‘humidity obsession’, we need to keep the air moving and try to bring dry air in to stop mould growing.  We have the system worked out for the cottage.  It probably made easier because we live on a hill.  Still, it feels like success!

So, I’m pleased to report we’ve made the adjustment to countryside living very well 🙂

Now I’ve prattled on about all the mundane things, time for some general updates.

Toby’s loving football at the moment.  Other sports have died off a bit as the sprint to the end of the season hits us.  Winning the league is ‘in their own hands’ as I’ve heard numerous times so it’s getting very serious.  I joke, but I love it!  All very exciting.

We’ve had some golf lessons the last few weeks so are expecting to be pros this summer.  For me, I can’t wait to enjoy a walk – there’s really not many options for a long walk here so it’s going to be great.

I had an operation on my knee this week.  After injuring it playing netball in October I patiently waited to see if it would heal itself, but unfortunately it didn’t.  So I finally got in on Monday and it all went brilliantly.  The staff at the hospital were wonderful and even with my weak ways when it comes to all things needle/blood/guts related I felt fine.  It was like I had 10 ‘mums’ with me!  The nurses were absolute sweethearts and from what I can tell the surgeon and anesthetist were pretty sharp to!  Turns out I had a torn meniscus and have a lax cruciate ligament.  Rehab now and the most simple of exercises – the first being bending and straightening my leg and I’ve now progressed to standing on one leg!  Hopefully back to sport in 6 weeks – can’t wait.

Last night we went to Liz’s (second!) leaving do.  Sad times.  Liz is a great friend and someone we’ve spent a lot of time with while we’ve been out here.  To a new expat she IS Bermuda!  Having been here 7 years she can help with most questions and has a canny way of making everything work out.  Happy hours/quiz nights/volleyball/boat trips/etc won’t be the same!  It’s sad how we all come and go but to be expected at the same time.  She has the most amazing job in London to go to so we can only be happy for her.  Last night we agreed a good Sunday feed was in order before she goes.  Food, alcohol, food, alcohol….our life!

We’ll miss you Liz!