Back to School... sort of...

Well Emily has been back in school exactly two days. She really likes her new teacher and we are getting back in to the routine. Although she was placed in a different class to most of her friends she is as unflappable as ever and is making the most of it. Lisa worries more than she does.

Mark thinks it's terrible that Emily is only back in school for six weeks before she has a term break of one week, but now she may get a break even earlier. Lovely but angry Hanna, who is now officially a tropical storm, will probably be a hurricane by the time she reaches us on Tuesday night - which means a "Bahamian snow day" for Emily.

We are only on the edge of the projected path but if you check out this weather website it says that the wind will be about 57mph. The winds are at about 14mph today and the coconuts are flying off of our trees.

Add to that - we just discovered that our hurricane shutters don't, in reality, screw in to the wall. They look very pretty but aren't exactly functional (sounds like a lot of our house). Looks like we know what we are doing over the next few days.

Time Off!

After a summer of pretty much constant work, Lisa and Mark decided to take the last few days of summer off to hang out with Emily before she went back to school.

We have been spending hours in the pool, watching movies together (thanks to Michael and Cindi's extensive DVD library), playing Nancy Drew on Emily's new laptop (thanks Grandad!) and just generally relaxing.

Yesterday we went out to Cable Beach and spent the day at the Cable Beach Resorts. We swam in their wide variety of pools, went down the water slides a bazillion times, hung out in the hot tubs, swam in the ocean, had a drink at the swim up bar (which Emily thought was the coolest) and made a fabulous sand castle. The camera was accidentally left in the car so no photos - sorry Nan!

Emily has been having fun with her China presents. Tons of new outfits for Marisol and Sophie, a flying saucer thingy (too hard to explain but destined to get lost in the ocean - we had to drive to a parking lot to do it properly because this thing goes SO high) and today her new dragon-fly kite. This is the kite that Lisa bought on the Bund in Shanghai. The sales lady quoted her a price of $15 and then chased after Lisa on her roller-blades for about 10 minutes before she got down to a realistic price for bits of tissue paper and toothpicks.

School starts tomorrow so we will be back to normal. Try telling that to night-owl Emmy!

Here she is with her kite...

Emmy's Home!

And obviously Ow is particularly glad! She had a little bit of a bumpy ride flying through Tropical Storm Fay and it may her feel a little queasy but apart from that she was home in one piece. She went straight up to her room and changed in to her bathing suit and was straight in to the pool. We swam, unpacked (thanks for all the goodies Mum and Dad!) and then Mark took us all for ice-cream which we took the end of the island and ate overlooking the ocean. We are glad she is home.

Family Stuff

Our thoughts are in Scotland this weekend with the rest of the Cabrelli clan. We are sad we couldn't be there at the gathering to celebrate the life of Mark's Aunt Jean (Sundie's big sister). Jean was 91 years old. Mark has spent the day on the phone reminiscing about good memories of Jean.

Emily comes home tomorrow so we can't wait to have her home at last. She had a great week with Nanny and Grandad and the rest of the family in PA. Here she is with her cousins, Maggie, Jack and Tommy.

Alfred's Story

I was staring at the palm tree on our back patio yesterday contemplating Emily's assurances that Mark would be able to "knock the bird's nest out of the tree... he can jump really high," when I realized that this tree didn't have a name yet. Already he has become such a big part of our lives. We get the pleasure of the sound of the wind through his leaves. We get the taste of coconuts from his fruits. We enjoy the sights of a bird family building, birthing, growing up and flying away. How could he not have a name?

It made me think of Alfred.


I first met Alfred when I met Mark. At the time Mark lived in a 100 year-old farm house in Virginia and Alfred lived on the property - but had definitely been there for over one hundred years. Alfred was a maple tree and he was very, very tall. At least 200 feet high. I named Alfred immediately after my Grandfather. He had the exact same personality as my Grandad had... quiet, kind, strong.


I told Mark's stories of Alfred's unrequited love of the pretty, young and supple tree leaning over his house some 30 feet away from Alfred's reaching branches. Alfred could never quite touch her. Mark boosted me up to his lower branches so I could climb him. We hung Emily from his branches and let her swing. We picnicked in his shade. And on one hot summer night slept on a blanket on the lawn under his protection. Alfred was a very lovely tree.


Early one morning I got a distressed call from Mark. A hurricane had hit Virginia the night before. Mark had not slept well so he couldn't believe, and was very upset, that he had never heard Alfred fall. He had broken right at his base and toppled to the ground.


We decided that Alfred deserved more than a bunch of unfeeling brutes barging in with a huge truck and a chipper, so off we went to buy a chain saw. We would lay Alfred to rest all by ourselves. And amazingly Alfred kept on giving.

Mark and I spent many happy hours bundling and wrapping kindling and stacking logs. Some of my favorite memories of Mark and Emily's developing relationship are from when they used to tramp down nightly to Alfred to sit on his fallen trunk and watch the sun set (with me smiling quietly at the bedroom window.) We made Emily a horse and a cool, secret fort in his fallen branches.

When Mark sold his property we knew that the buyers would be knocking down the farm house to build a 10,000 square foot Mcmansion. We also knew that what was left of Alfred would go to. Over many, many trips we stacked Alfred in to my station wagon and drove him to our new home. Our whole first year of living together as a family was warmed every night by the glow of Alfred burning in the fireplace.

I am so sad that I can't find any pictures of Alfred in his full majestic glory. But here he is during the bittersweet summer that we lost him. Thanks Alfred!

Sea Grape Thieves!

Apparently we have become a Bahamas destination. Along with the aquarium in Atlantis and Cabbage Beach we have become a Bahamas "must-visit"... at least that's what it seems like. We were warned but we didn't believe folks until now. Every day we here scuffling and rustling outside our front fence that suddenly stops when we approach. Yesterday we were lured outside by the very loud noise of a huge truck running it's engines sitting right in front of our garden gate. When we went to investigate the truck driver, who had been leaning far out of his window over our fence, quickly ducked back in and drove away. The day before we heard a lady park in our driveway and start calling, "hello?", "hello?" we went to investigate only to find her rustling around outside our front gate.


What does it all mean? Apparently we have the sweetest sea grape tree on the island - and it hangs over our front fence in to the roadway. It is laden with the fruit. It can barely hold it's branches up. We are now feeding the entire Bahamian sea grape lovin' population.


They would be so disappointed if they could only see over our fence. We haven't picked any of them and the patio is covered. Oh the waste! I mean they are good but how many sea grapes can you possibly eat?







BTW - What a rainbow yesterday! All this rain is bringing us so many goodies!

There are no retards!

We don't normally use this blog to post "soapbox" rhetoric but have decided to do so on this occasion to highlight the crass insensitivity and shallow existence of Hollywood's activities. It is bad enough that the States, and increasing many Western countries, are overwhelmingly dominated by the goings on of Angelina and Brad or the latest American Idol to the apparent complete ignorance of real life. But to start to poke fun and use maliciousness towards others as a way of supposed entertainment (but really to justify box office) is going just too far.

I'm referring to the latest Ben Stiller movie Tropic Thunder and specifically to the viral promotion website of a fake movie called Simple Jack; a supposed drama in which Stiller’s character plays a mentally challenged child. Although complaints about the fake movie’s tagline “Once Upon a Time… There Was a Retard” forced Dreamworks to pull the site off the internet, much damage has already been done and there is still reference to the character in the main movie.

The use of derogatory words to portray people with intellectual disabilities and worse to poke fun at them is disgraceful and Stiller, Dreamworks, etc. should be ashamed of themselves. We are not particularly standing up for rights for the intellectually challenged, but more the way Hollywood chooses to abuse the rights of all minorities in pursuit of the box office "holy grail." These media outlets are especially influential throughout today's social stratas and they need to be careful how they use and abuse that influence.

Anyway there are many other similar abuses out there but this one was brought to our attention by Melody at Slurping Life (the Mother of 3 challenged boys) and so we thought, in a small way, we would give our support. So if we ever see a kid with a tee shirt on with "go full retard" on it - then "there will be blood!"

Rain, Rain Don't Go Away

After the very relaxing and re-invigorating adventure with Crazy Johnny last Sunday, we came to the conclusion that relaxation was a necessary and advisable activity. There has been a lot of working going on around here and not much else. Lisa dictated on Saturday morning that there would be minimal hours in front of the computer permitted (OK maybe a few each day) and that the rest of the weekend would be spent doing relaxing activities. Activities like, reading a book (Lisa) and cleaning out the attic crawl space (Mark). We have differing opinions on relaxation I guess.

Yesterday Lisa spent a relaxing few hours sitting on the top step of the pool reading her book... and then this happened.





And it rained and rained and rained. And lighteninged (I know that's not a word but it sounded right). And thundered so loud and for so long that Ow went to hide under the bed.

Believe or not this was all ok. We had been waiting for rain for two reasons.

Not sure if you remember us mentioning it but our last quarterly water bill was $1,300. We were confused by this as we have a giant 20,000 fresh-water reclamation tank under the house that is supposed to take advantage of our fast and frequent downpours by collecting all that luscious fresh rain from our gutters. Well - upon closer examination Mark discovered that our gutters weren't capturing much of anything except falling coconuts. They had been installed incorrectly. A curtain of rain simply poured out between the gutter and the house. Mark had spent a few sweat-soaked days last week fixing (at least he hoped he was fixing) the gutters. All we needed was rain to test it out.... Eureka! You should have seen and heard the gush of water pouring in to that tank from all four inlets. It was like Niagara! There's nothing like free water.



The second reason we were waiting for rain is because when it rains in the Bahamas, the power goes out. Not, may go out, it goes out. Every time. BTC did not let us down so we had a chance to check our non-functioning generator. It didn't come on last time the power went out so we assumed we were out of gas. Well we filled it with gas - but it didn't come on this time either. Come Monday phone calls will be made.

One out of two ain't bad.


12 Days until Emily gets home!!

ABC - Awesome Beijing China!

Awesome is such an over used and miss used word especially in the States where every exciting event seems to be "awesome". Well yesterday's Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing fully justified the term. It was incredibly awesome!

In our day when computer graphics have taken hold of Hollywood and most other presentation techniques it was even more amazing to see the Chinese use manpower and ingenuity to achieve even more inspiring spectacles. And then the finale was just breathtaking - flying a man around the "Bird's Nest" to land perched by the foot of the torch to ignite the spirit of Olympia - brilliant.

Now if only they could fix that pollution.

China Record Olympic Record....Must Do Better

It is very appropriate that on the opening day of the Olympics in China that we should make a comment on pollution.

Part of our great anticipation about going to visit China was the magnitude and natural beauty of the country. Well perhaps it was the season that we arrived or the particular cities that we visited, but we did not see the sky (blue or otherwise) from the moment we arrived at Guangzhou until we reached Shanghai 8 days later. Its true; the sky seemed laden with a weight of clouds of tiny particles of dirt. A pall constantly hovered about a couple of thousand feet above our heads. This was caused in local opinion by dust blown in from the country. This was caused in world opinion by grossly negligent pollution.

This is a very real, evident and urgent problem. It is effecting millions of Chinese directly and world opinion indirectly - although it seems the Chinese Government care little about either. Unfortunately the evidence of polluters is everywhere. Power plants that dot the landscape spew effluents into the air, pipes by the rivers have a constant flow of sludge into the waters and traffic in the cities is mind-blowing. We just read that China has now overtaken the US as the world's #1 overall polluter per capita - and that's quite an achievement. From morning till dusk the sky was a murky grey with visibility extending no more than 500 feet around you. A clear example was when we had to cross the "Long River" north of Shanghai by ferry. The river was only about a quarter of a mile wide but in the middle we could not see either shore: only the mud brown soup that was the famous Yangtze.




Now don't get us wrong, we had one of the most fabulous, enlightening and pleasant experiences ever in our trip to China. The Chinese people, the diverse cultures, the marvelous foods and the ancient history were a mind bogglingly delight. But this pollution blight has received much press ahead of the Olympics and rightly so. If China is to take over the position of world leader then this is an area it must improve.

On a lighter note, we did finally see some clearing in the sky when we arrived in Shanghai making all the difference; it brightened everything from our demur to the fabulous architecture. At last we had the city image we had read about - check out the famous Bund waterfront.

Crazy Johnny's Bahamas

So we had mentioned Crazy Johnny's bar in an earlier post - but we were going to wait until we had gone back to the bar with a camera to take photos before we posted our review. Well - something happened to change that, so we stole photos from his Facebook account so that we could move ahead with our review today.

Crazy Johnny's is billed as a Rock n' Roll Club. It is very close to a restuarant that we really enjoy called "The Poop Deck" so we actually drive past it all the time. It is on the second floor of a building that overlooks the harbour and the boat basin - which as it turns out is where Johnny worked as a mechanic all of his life until last year when he opened Crazy Johnny's. It has a huge balcony out front with about 45 seats which has a great view.

As we said, we drive past it all the time and Mark always suggests that we go in for a drink. Lisa always hesitates because it always looked a bit rough. Like a Spring Breaker hang-out. But on Friday night we passed it again and this time we decided to brave it. What a great place! It was obviously an old Bahamian home that has been converted, but what remains is a cavernous room with a huge wood-beam ceiling. Johnny has built a sound system that most rock venues would envy. He has a screen the size of a movie theatre at the front of the room and plays videos and recordings of live rock concerts throughout the night. On the weekends he has live music and during the week Johnny himself will frequently jump on stage to sing a number or play some drums. And Johnny rocks. Tammy, if you are reading - this is your kind of place!


It was quiet when we went in (early rock hours of 8pm) so we ended up having a long chat with Johnny who invited Lisa to sing on his incredible sound system. Lisa sang some U2 and Johnny and his girlfriend Mary (who, it turns out, is a teacher at Emily's school and a very cool lady) came straight over and asked Lisa to sing with Johnny's band some weekends at the club.

If you are in the Bahamas, you MUST go to Crazy Johnny's. They apparently have burger's to die for so Emily will visit too (it's a restaurant and bar so kids are allowed).


So I know you have two burning questions:


Why is it called Crazy Johnny's? Because Johnny is crazy - see photos below.


Why did we have to tell you about it now? Because yesterday Johnny and Mary called and invited us out on their boat to head over to their house on Rose Island which is an island about 15-20 minutes away by boat - see photos below. We had an amazing and relaxing day. Like a mini-vacation.

Johnny singing with is band.

Swinging from the rafters.

Blowing fire!

Heading in to Rose Island to park the boat. You can see the beachfront cabana. The house is up on the hill.

Parking the boat. We remembered this water from when we visited Rose Island a few years ago. Crystal clear and so blue.

The beach!

The view from the cabana to where the boat was parked.

The view from the 2nd floor of Johhny's house to his swimming hole - that's his dock (it's on the opposite side of the island to the beach.)

Mark took this photo from the 2nd floor balcony.

Johnny and Mary relaxing in the cabana.

Confessions

OK Lisa here - and I have confession to make. There is a reason you haven't seen any more China blogs. All of the photos are on Mark's laptop which is what we took with us to China. This means I have to blog from his laptop - which means I have to sit over where his laptop is which is not air-conditioned and is lacking in any kind of fan. Mark has a heat problem. His problem is that he likes it. Lots of it. This is pretty convenient if you live in the Bahamas, but not so convenient when you live with a wife who has a normal internal thermometer. It is hot here and Mark hates air-conditioning. We need people to visit us which is the only time we get to turn it on. Except for at night when even a camel would be unable to sleep. A camel? Not such a great analogy but it's all I got.

We have had a full weekend. Dinner on Friday night (just the two of us) at The Green Parrot, followed by the amazing discovery of Crazy Johnny's. There will be more on Crazy Johnny's after we return with camera in hand. You just can't do it justice without one. A very late night last night during a social meeting of The Scottish Bahamian Society. This was less fun for me being the only "non-Scot" there and the only one drinking club soda.

Another confession to make...

After having all of these good intentions about learning Italian with my friend Sara I have not even completed a single lesson from the Rosetta Stone. In fact Sara spent the last lesson giving me a manicure and pedicure instead. Please note the barely used Italian/American dictionary in hand and teeny, tiny dolce exhausted from running around exploring.