A second winter in the sun

When we first moved here there were lots of fun (and mouldy!) observations I could share with you all back home.  We were learning about life in Bermuda and the blog was a great way to keep you all in touch with our progress.  What’s there to say a year on?  Nothing new you’d think…but Toby and I have started noticing a difference second time round!

Last year we arrived to get the very tail end of the summer, were settling in over the quick ‘autumn’ that we get and in no time at all were experiencing the Bermudian winter.  Now of course ‘winter’ is around 20 degrees C and quite different to home, but work with me on this!

A year on an we’re amazed how cold we feel zipping round on the scooter, particularly on the way to work and at night.  We are seriously wrapped up in jumpers, coats, scarfs and gloves.  I asked Toby, “Did we not go out on the scooter last year, because I really don’t remember this cold!”  We’ve obviously acclimatised…

And then there’s Christmas.  Last year, lights and decorations start going up from Thanksgiving onward.  It was just odd!  We’re on a sub-tropical island, regularly on the beach, not quite adapted to the heat and really not feeling very Christmasey.  We did our best and surprised ourselves with the fun we had, but dare I say it was ‘fun-fun’ rather than ‘Christmas-fun’.  This year is different though.  This isn’t an island paradise that we’re still exploring and getting to know.  This isn’t somewhere we’re trying to establish ourselves.  It’s ‘home’ now!  And I’m pleased to say now we’re properly settled into the island, it’s possible to feel Christmasey in the run-up to Christmas.  So much fun!

Last night we headed to St George for the National Trust organised ‘Christmas Walkaround’ with Naomi and Jon.  St George was lit up with Christmas lights (and bizarrely a lot of trees had jumpers!) ;

Old National Trust owned homes that throughout the year are rented out to live in are opened up for us to look around;

And the kind owners often offer eggnog, mulled wine or sherry as we explore the most adorable houses ever.  Dare I say part of the appeal was the very ‘old British’ feel, but it was so lovely!  We’re actually frustrated to not have managed a more organised route to see more houses.  I can see we’ll be moving back to a country cottage in the UK rather than a modern city apartment based on the ‘oooo’s and ahhhh’s’!!

For all we feel Christmasey, everyone still feel’s it’s not quite authentic unless you’re cold though.  We are all creatures of habit after all!

Christmas in Paradise isn’t too bad!

Well, it’s a bit different, but lovely!  While there’s still mince pies and Bailey’s left, we’re pretty much through Christmas in Bermuda and it was surprisingly Christmasey despite the sun, sea and sand!

On Christmas Eve Toby was out in the morning playing golf.  There’s a whole comical story about actually getting everyone there but I don’t think it will work with my writing skills alone – just think drama, exasperated face, torential rain and lost keys found in shoes…. 🙂  Anyway, I’m pleased to say despite starting late, the 5 of them arrived safely, the weather cleared up and fun was had by all!

I left them to it until it got interesting….

Toby and Steve stuck to a typical Christmas drink and enjoyed a few Guinesses…I on the other hand adapted to my surroundings and had a few cheeky cocktails! 🙂

Christmas Day was a little strange waking up on our own and with family miles away.  We tried to stick to traditions as much as possible but you were missed Cravens, Crawfords, Dixons and Nana Betty!!!  It was still good and a Skype call back home kept us in touch with family.  We then headed off down the beach and missing home got a little harder!!!

We got down to the beach before Karen and Jamie who we were meeting so we went for a walk along the shore to soak up the atmosphere.  These guys know what they’re doing!  There was definitely over a thousand people there, complete with a DJ!  Families were set up with towels, cool boxes, games and there were a fair few people in the sea.  Walking along we met a few people we knew and entertained ourselves taking pictures of the fun…

Chelle is an elf…

Chelle is a Christmas Tree…

Toby is smug…

Chelle get’s down with the ‘west side’ crew…

Thankfully Karen and Jamie joined us so we stopped embarrassing ourselves…  Yet more champagne was drunk and then we headed off to the hotel on the beach for lunch.  This was a brilliant idea from Karen – $55 and as it was a buffet Toby managed 5 full plates for that!!!  The food was delicious, staff charming and atmosphere great.  Really happy and very full!  I think I personally got 7 mini deserts on my plate!

We headed back full and a little sunburnt to watch Home Alone 2 – is that not the perfect day?!

All that smugness is well and truely countered with our Boxing Day rain-a-thon!  All day…!  Thankfully we had the Crawford-games-via-Skype to look forward to and then we hit the TV box sets! 🙂

It’s now the 27th, and although Toby’s colleagues (at the place he’s contracting at) are back at work, he’s not.  The suns out and we’re off for a walk to start burning of the Bermudian Christmas excesses!

Merry Christmas to you all back home.  We miss you lots. xxxx

 

Fighting ants with coffee – strange but true!!

This is a great time of year for insects…as in, there aren’t many!  Even so after we’d noticed a reduction in ant numbers between October when we arrived and now, every now and then we’d have a little surge and we were keen to stop everyone one in their tracks so they make a home elsewhere.  Probably fighting a loosing battle, but still….we’ll continue!

Now, the can of Raid is half finished already with Toby’s ‘shot across the bows’ techniques.  I’m not a fan of chemicals anyway (apart from hair dye…) but my minor bout of the flu left me quite ‘chesty’ so it spurned me on to find an alternative quickly.  A search on the internet suggested coffee grounds work well; the nitrogen burns the ants legs so they don’t cross it – perfect for marking out our territory, Chelle-style!  I’d just bought some coffee and filter papers for our coffee maker…this could work well!

Looking for further info, it turns out coffee is good for a whole lot more besides…

– Enriching soil with nitrogen (we prob don’t drink enough for this – maybe a job for Starbucks!)

– Mix with orange peel and sprinkle on your soil to keep the kittys away (I’m a cat lover, so again, not one for us!)

– Add shine and condition your hair with a coffee grounds massage (Who’d have thought?!  Apparently not one for blonds as it can stain…)

– Use in fridges and freezers to absorb smells or tie some up in the foot of an old pair of tights to hang in the wardrobe.  Can also be rubbed onto hands after cutting garlic/onions/smelly stuff (A natural deodoriser – brilliant!)

I’m not sure we drink enough coffee for all these uses…now I have a new problem!  I’ll let you know how we get on and whether we get out methods sorted for the summer onslaught!

 

We’re otherwise doing well, Toby claiming ‘Pong Champion 2011’ status last night (as in table tennis…ping pong…pong)!  A big reason to celebrate, I can see Jamie will be coming back hard next year…

We have our Christmas plans all set, with Boxing Day golf, and drinks and nibbles at a friends house tonight added to the schedule.  Lovely.

This week I started my volunteering at the SPCA animal shelter.  At the moment I’m responsible for cleaning the cat playroom and then of course socialising the cats!  I do this constantly though, I’m definately the crazy lady I thought I was.  The conversations I have with them all are surprising!  I had a friend ‘Boots’ who followed me round the whole time on Weds so I was looking forward to hanging out with him today.  The good/bad news I arrived to this morning is that he’s got a new home to go to!  Great news really but I’ll miss him!  Luckily little ‘Roxy’ who’d been feeling under the weather having been recently spayed when I met her the first time was much happier and took to being my side-kick instead.  What do I sound like?!  Another example of how freakishly small this island is…my friend Emma from badminton also volunteers at the SPCA.  Neither of us had mentioned it to each other, but she spied me in the sign in book so now we know!

Scooter update.  Toby got home from work the day I bought it and gave it a run around our car park.  All is good.  The next day I jump on and it wouldn’t start!  Unbelievable.  My new friend Howard picked it up, gave it a clean out with the carburettor needing particular attention and the reason for it not starting.  I picked it up, started perfectly, went for run out and it ran like a dream…for a while…  With no warning it’s suddenly got very noisy!  No idea why, but it doesn’t sound healthy.  It will definitely be needing a check up in the New Year.  Shame, I thought I’d done a ‘buy-a-scooter-boy-job’ well on my own!  Ah well, it’s still pink!

Christmas tree up!

We’re getting more Christmasey by the second over here on our tropical island!

On Saturday we headed to the local house/garden/DIY type place to get our Christmas tree and some decorations.  As I mentioned, no car for us, but I’d planned different transport…

Toby was rewarded by being able to watch the football and at half time we set to the decorating…

As this is our first Christmas as a married couple I wanted to start a few traditions.  Unfortunately it’s most likely that we’ll donate our decorations to a worthy cause when we leave as it doesn’t make sense to fly than home.  I suggested we pick one bauble that is special and will come home with us as a reminder of our first Christmas as Mr and Mrs and also our first Christmas in Bermuda.  I chose a little Robin, but because it doesn’t have legs Toby insists on calling it the ‘Christmas Seal’…take a look and see what you think!

Toby on the other hand, chose ‘Sniper Bear’.  Not quite the tradition I was expecting!

In the evening we headed down to the Christmas Boat Parade.  Locals dress their boats up with lights of their choice and slowly tour round Hamilton Harbour.  There were lots of Santas and sea creatures along with palm trees, moving parts and even a fully working jet engine!  We saw at least two sets of brave rowers doing the rather long route round with just a strip of lights along the top of their boat – I hope the others could see them!!  I didn’t take any pictures myself so stole this one from their website!

It was then onto Toby’s work Christmas Do.  Drinks, a meal, some more drinks!  We did a secret Santa complete with games to see who got what which was great fun.  Finding a gift was initially challenging though – the budget was $30-40 which I though was a lot considering anyone could get the gift so we couldn’t plan ‘the perfect personal gift’….which must surely be possible at that price!  The Quality Street display brought me back to reality!

Budget blown on a tin of Quality Street?!  We shopped round and I’m pleased with what we got.  Everyone had done well they were all lovely gifts.  Toby works with some great people.

We were almost double booked with the Christmas Party for the company Toby’s contracting at having a party on the same day, thankfully that’s been postponed and something for us still to look forward to!

Getting ready for Christmas

There’s been some silence in the blog world from me…but I’m back!  I’m afraid my planes, trains and automobiles trip back to the UK obviously whisked me past some poor ill person whose germs I then returned with.  😦  Having spent a week barely out of bed/off the sofa with not quite the flu, but certainly all the symptoms, I’m finally getting back on my feet.  Just in time for Christmas!

So, there’s quite a bit to update on, I’ll do it chronologically…

First off, the trip back to the UK.  I started laughing to myself about how used to flying out of Heathrow I’d got.  I’d decided to take the bus to the airport since my time isn’t the issue it once was!  While the buses are held in high regard, I’ve also heard stories of the buses regularly going on strike with no warning.  I’ve not used them much so planned in lots of time.  I also needed to get some cash out, buy bus tokens, buy a book get some food…and of course speak to immigration if I was given the chance!  So I left myself plenty of time but it all ran ridiculously smoothly and I arrived with a little over 2 hours to go before the flight.  This is the scene I met with…

Yup, that’s right.  I was the first one there!  Better still, as I walked around the motion detectors were turning the lights on for me!  Finding the departure board was the reminder I needed why this was the case….

Yup, there were just two flights departing on that day….in fact they’d added the next days flights to fill the board!  I had a chat with the lady who ran the book store.  Apparently this is to be expected in the winter months but she reassured me there’d be queues in the summer!  I settled myself down with a panini and a coffee and set about some people watching – brilliant, it was like meeting in a UK village square – everyone knew each other!  I need to get to know a few more people – I felt odd not letting out a shriek of joy every few minutes having seen someone else I knew!

It was a long trip back to Manchester via London but I got there safely and without complication.  I’m clearly getting better at this travel thing…  It was lovely to see Mum and Dad and then the next day I jumped on a different train to Darlington.  My Kindle had arrive so I’d loaded it up with a few books.  I was expecting to find it convenient but I wasn’t expecting to love it!  It’s brilliant!  I scratched it yesterday and genuinely felt a pain in my heart!

And so to Kerry and Steve’s wedding and Ted’s Christening.  What a wonderfully magical weekend.  It went like a dream and Kerry had done an amazing job with all the little finishing touches and brought together a great celebration.  Perfect.

 

Back at Crawford HQ, Toby was having a lovely time!  All my worries about how much I was needed were confirmed!  Toby was out drinking with journalist friend Steve and off to a dinner party with colleague Jamie.  How lovely!  He’d certainly kept himself busy.

Unfortunately the next week was a bit of a white wash.  I could hardly do a thing so Toby focused on a software project of his.  Bad week!

It’s starting to come together again though…

This week Toby started training for 11-a-side football.  The skills training he loves but the game on the full size pitch afterwards is a bit of a stretch when he’s put on the wing against a teenager!!!  He likes to wind me up as I’m older than him but now he’s feeling old himself.  He’s feeling good for it even if he is suffering from DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) – he loves an acronym.

I’ve made some progress on the work front.  Third stage interview for a US job based from home, a company I met for lunch are considering how they might be able to use my skills and I have half a days freelance work for contacts in the UK.  I’m not counting my chickens though, I’m off to the animal sanctuary on Weds to help clean out and play with the cats!

Yesterday I sat and passed my motorcycle theory test and will be sitting the practical on Friday.  I’m not 100% sure why I’m sharing this because it’s not something I can now hide if I fail!  So I’ll also use this chance to share another story with you…a girl went to sit her test and was asked to do a certain maneuver.  She didn’t understand what was being asked of her so asked it to be explained.  The teachers amoung my friends and family will of course appreciate she obviously needs it explaining in a different way, we all learn and understand differently.  Unfortunately for her it meant she failed!

And so to Christmas.  Is it possible to feel Christmasey on a tropical island in 20 degree heat?  Absolutely!  I have to say the build up in the UK that starts in October means you have no choice but to know what’s going on.  Here there are some decorations and lights up in Hamilton, but it hadn’t really hit me before I left, but two weeks on and back into town for the first time yesterday I was excited!  Our family have sent us some money to buy ourselves something so I got all our Christmas shopping done and even through Toby knows what he’s getting I decided it would have to be wrapped.  It will just be the two of us and I’ll know exactly what everything is and he’ll have a good idea…but who cares, it’s Christmas!!!!!

Today we’re off to get our tree.  I scoped out where to go yesterday and the smell of the trees was lovely (I’m still a fan of real trees rather than artificial!).  Without a car though, Toby will have to carry it home!  Pictures to follow!!!

On Christmas Day we have a Skype call home planned before heading down to Elbow beach with a bottle of bubbly and then we’re booked into the hotel there for Christmas lunch with Karen and Jamie.  I’ve checked the menu and it looks delicious!!