The Calm After The Storm

The Holiday Season was crazy busy but now that Santa has come and gone things have calmed down a little in the Cabrelli household. As a surprise for Emily and Sundie we presented them with a gift of a quick 3 day cruise to Florida starting the day after Christmas! They were thrilled and we were all excited as Emily was the only one who had experienced a cruise before. We were also excited to find out a couple of days previously that Emily's BFF Serena was going to be on the return leg of cruise (quite by coincidence).

Here are some photos of our visits and the cruise to catch up from the last 2 months!

The girls on our patio...



Our first Christmas dinner (on Thanksgiving)...



The Fam at The One and Only...



Mum and Tina gettin' down to that crazy Junkanoo beat!



Sundie arrives! Having dinner in the front garden (too windy for the patio that day)...



On the cruise in port in Nassau...



Two "step-up" pals walking the Riverwalk in Fort Lauderdale (I snuck up on them for this one - they were swinging their arms and everything)



BFFs...



BFFs...

Tis the Season

I have approximately 36 minutes before people get to work and the Emily Rose phones start to ring off the hook. Not that I'm complaining!

We have a had a lovely past few weeks with visits from both Lisa's Mum and Dad and Cousin Tina. Busy... but very fun. We will post photos of the shenanigans when we have some more time. Mark's Mum arrives on Tuesday for an extended Christmas stay so we are very much looking forward to her arrival. Amongst all of the visitors Lisa is dealing with a crazy and successful Holiday Season but enjoying the hard work this time because at the end of her long days she gets to be with family. The first Holiday Season with Mark and Emily in 3 years!

Lisa had a tough week last week with a major blog mishap. Her technical guy didn't back up a database and the blog (over two years worth of posts and rankings) was lost. Mark knows how to cheer her up though and snuck off with Tina and Emily to bring home the very first Cabrelli Family Bahamian Christmas Tree. We had a lovely evening of trimming the tree - here are Mark and Emily adding the angel (Mark half dressed for his football game :-)).



It is wacky time here at our house and Emily's school had a very appropriate uniform release day today... Wacky Day! Here is Emily completely wackified... yes she went to school like this!

Just For Fun

The skill, beauty and coordination of Emily and Mark doing their synchronized swimming routine...

Island Fever

The common misconception about living in a tropical place is that life is a constant vacation. It's not. We are by no means insinuating that we don't have an amazing life - we do and are extremely thankful for it - but we are definitely not on vacation. Now that Mark has officially started his job and Lisa is gearing up for the Holiday season work is becoming pretty all encompassing. It doesn't help that Emily is gone one or two evenings during the week so it is very easy to just keep going... and going. Even on the weekends the lap-top is not far from reach.

Last week Lisa had a sudden bout of island fever. An unexplainable and overwhelming need to get "off the rock". Spirit airlines to the rescue!!! A quick half hour flight and Mark and Lisa were standing at the Avis counter arguing with the clerk on why we should have to pay the taxes on rewards vouchers :-) We spent an evening in Miami and then trekked on down to Key West. The wind streaming in through the car windows and the CD player blasting - oh what joy to be able to drive more than 35 miles per hour and more than a 20 mile distance.

After an initial bad experience with lack of promised wireless access (a must for Lisa) and a permanent pile of the last guest's smelly dinner dishes piled outside our room - we were kindly upgraded from our teeny patio single (paid with points no less) to an ocean-front suite overlooking Sunset Island. Score!! We ended up staying a 2nd night - de-stressing and unwinding. We sipped a bottle of wine on our patio and Lisa ate a pound of "peel and eat" shrimp from Conch Republic as we watched the famous Key West sunset. Gorgeous.



We did manage to get in a bit of shopping (we arrived armed with "requests" from our Nassau friends) and found Emily a jar of her beloved Nutella. Unfortunately we were trying not to check luggage ($25 a bag!) and the airport security guy removed it from Lisa's bag after the x-ray... straight in to his pile of requisitioned "goodies". She was not happy (Emily that is - not Lisa).

Now the island fever is cured and we are happy to be home. Stay tuned for news and hopefully video of Emily's Survival Unit at school and the exciting school pool raft races.

Sunrise

Yes - this is the sun rising. We got up early this morning to let Emily say goodbye to the puppies before school. All 3 have been adopted and will go off to their new homes tomorrow morning (Emily won't see them as she will be at her Dad's). We have a few fun videos to post from the weekend but we think this sunrise deserves a post of it's own.

No We Are Not Keeping Them

I know you are doubting us right now because we are obviously madly in love - but they are all up for adoption and nearly ready. Know anyone?

Emily and Lieutenant



Mark holding The Princess



All of them growing up...

Fish Are Jumping

Lisa-Marie here - I know there is probably a quick and easy way using my Mac to edit this video and only keep the end part where you can actually see the fish jumping and don't have to experience all of the dizzying zooming that I was doing - but I am not friends with my Mac yet and am not spending time with him (at least I am assuming it's a him - he's stubborn and willful like a few other men that I know), so therefore you will have to get sea sick as you wait for the good bit.

The fish and seagull video was filmed at the request of Mark only so he could say to my Dad - "the fish are jumping in to the seagulls mouths but you still can't catch one!", to which Dad replied something that is unprintable on the blog but included the frequently uttered words "...only a bloody Scotsman".

But there's more... yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day here. The ocean was as still as a lake for most of the morning. Tricia came to pick up Ali from her sleep-over around 11:00am and casually threw out a challenge we could not refuse. It was such a beautiful day why didn't we row our little dinghy down to their house? It's not far and the ocean is so calm today. Emily spent the trip diving off the side of the boat to get in some good snorkeling and then taking a little nap when she got bored. Mark and I alternated rowing but it was mostly Mark since I am so obviously an unfit under-exercised weakling. We arrived at John and Tricia's house (barely) after and hour and 40 minutes of rowing - Mark has blisters on his hands - only a few seconds before an amazing storm hit during which you couldn't see more than 4 feet in front of you out on the ocean. Can anyone say... lost at sea? I have attached the route we took and advise no one try this at home!

Scots Omen

In the midst of the finale of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, it was very appropriate that The Bahamas should host their own 7-a-side World Cup last Sunday. For his sins, and we can't really fathom how it happened, Mark was in charge of putting together a Scotland team for the event. Mark eventually managed to cobble together 4 true Scots and then had to rely on Bahamians with Scots last names (not a difficult thing given the Scots propensity to "land" in all corners of the world). So there were 9 countries represented in total and split into 2 groups then play-offs. Here's the setting: the sun was baking down all day and kick-off was at noon, all the younger teams were out limbering up well ahead of time, the Scots team appeared from the shade right at kick-off decked in their navy blue and looking like they would rather still be in bed having their fried breakfast. You would think this would end in typical fashion with the Scots as usual leaving early with several players failing drug tests - but no, not this time.

In a ground breaking start, the Scottish team beat Brazil (the first game) then went 3 games undefeated and advanced from the group stage for the first time in World Cup history. Unfortunatly the gallant Scots succumbed to very able (and young!!) Bahamas team (the eventual winners) in the semi finals. Anyway, here is a picture of the Bravehearts before collapsing from heat exposure and retiring for a (several) well deserved beer. (Pic to follow)

Now if that story is not inspiration to thump Holland at Hampden on Wednesday then I'll eat my Dutch cap.

Puppy Feeding Time

This video is for Maggie as per Michelle's request. They are eating us out of house and home - well OK that would if we regularly stocked goat's milk. They are probably twice the size they were when they first arrived.

The Bizarro World of Nassau

Just when you think that you are exiting The Bahamas "twilight zone" - Rod Sterling appears from nowhere to haul you back in. There is story in today's paper that you may have trouble believing. The amazing thing is not that it is true but that the press deemed it newsworthy enough to stick on their front page. It really sums up The Bahamas - its inefficiencies, the bureaucracy and the laissez-faire attitude. We sometimes think that the sun and sea air combine to gnarl the brain.

The story goes under the heading: "Prisoner never escaped, police now confirm". You probably get the drift already. Anyway what happened was that a dangerous criminal was taken downtown from the notorious Fox Hill prison with a bunch of other prisoners to his court hearing. No slight matter - the guy is "up" for armed robbery and possession of dangerous drugs! While in custody in town he "escaped" by apparently "walking out of lockup" and vanishing into thin air. Bahamian PC plod immediately sprung into action issuing an "all points bulletin" and carrying out an island wide manhunt. This went on for 48 hours. Well, I guess just as the police were about to chalk up another unsolved mystery it appears that the "escaped" prisoner was identified in his cell in jail! How come I hear you ask - was it some kind of David Copperfield illusion or Caribbean voodoo.......I'm afraid not.

What happened was that the prisoner felt it was time to break his custodial monotony and give the police a wrong name at round up at court. The cops accepted this, threw him back on the bus to jail (even though his "new" name wasn't on the roster) and started looking for the "fugitive". A day later, after "conducting an intensive inquiry on an individual who was in custody who fit the description" of the criminal (I couldn't make this up) the police made the connection. And all was well again in Nassau.

The coup de grace at the end of the article states that in addition to armed robbery, the prisoner "will also be charged with deceit of a public officer." Obviously not a difficult thing to do!

Our Foster Children

As many of you know Emily is active in an organization here in The Bahamas called "Proud Paw". "Proud Paw" focuses on the spaying and neutering of dogs - educating dog owners and children as well as collecting strays. Yesterday we received an emergency email. A dog owner had gone to the Humane Society and dropped off 3 newborn puppies that he didn't want anymore. The Humane Society did not have the resources or staff for tiny newborns and every 4 hour bottle feedings. They are now with us until they can eat solid food (that is unless Ow continues to be so freaked out he can't eat in which case our old grumpy cat comes first and they will have to go).

Here they are #1 - a boy (we call him hungry boy, Emily calls him rooter), #2 - a boy (no name yet, he's the unfortunate middle child) and #3 - the little girl runt ( Lisa calls her Princess).

Emmy's Home!!

We were thrilled to pick up Emily at the airport this morning! She is glad to be home and we are gladder she's home. After she unpacked in to her new clean room - Mark and Lisa spent 5 hours cleaning and organizing yesterday - she was in her bathing suit immediately and straight in to the pool. After a quick swim she was eager to try out Granddad's boat. The ocean was a bit rough so Lisa passed due to the strong possibility of sea sickness. Emmy and Mark had a grand time. Emily thought it was a ride!

Here she goes:

The Unacceptable Face of Football

There are just so many things wrong with this picture......general graffiti, spoiling the unspoilt Bahamas, ugly signage. But most of all the content. For those who don't know, this is the sign of Mark's favorite loves, his wife of course and....Dundee Football Club (DFC!). Now it is bad enough in itself that Mark would feel the irresistible urge to dob paint on the side of his property to profess his undying passion for his home team....but this ain't no Barcelona, Inter Milan or Manchester United. In fact, this isn't even currently a Scottish Premier team - at least not til next year!!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Lisa's Mum and Dad are visiting and they brought us a boat!!! We are really loving it. Here are some pictures, including a view of Mark's DFC graffiti on our wall. Lisa is going to make him paint over it...

The Grandchildren

Lisa-Marie's Mum and Dad arrived today for a week long visit after having Emily visit them in PA for two weeks. Now Emily is off to Kansas City and Syracuse with her Dad before they both head back here in August because her Dad will be teaching at her school next year. We are thrilled to get her back a little early.

While she was in PA my sister took the opportunity of getting all 6 grand-children in a photo. We got the opportunity of another look at Emily's glamourous new haircut :-)

The children are (from left) Tommy, Maggie, Emily and Jack with the newest member's (my brother Alan and Sister-in-law Diane's twins) Olivia and Katie on Emily's lap.

For My Nan

This post is from Lisa-Marie and is dedicated to our most loyal blog reader... my Nan. Nan sent me an email two days ago and I still have not replied. Not because I don't love her dearly (which I do), but only because I was waiting to do a post instead because I was waiting for this photo of Emily.

Emily "left the island" a week ago today and I have been missing her like crazy. Before she left we talked about her trying to visit a salon and getting her "Locks of Love" donation while she was visiting her Nanny (my Mum). For anyone reading who doesn't know "Locks of Love" is an organization that collects hair donations and creates natural hair wigs for children who have cancer. Emily has been growing her hair for over two years in order to have the required donation length of 12 inches. Well she did it today. And Granddad sent me a picture. And as if I wasn't missing her enough already she went and got a really grown-up haircut on me and now I am in tears.

Summer is definitely here!!

After weeks and weeks of rain and wind, disappointed visitors and depressed looking tourists, it would seem that summer has finally arrived in The Bahamas. The end of Emily's school year was a rush of class trips, piano recitals and parties (there are always parties!) and Emily has now left Mark and Lisa but arrived safe and sound for two weeks with Nanny and Granddad before she is off with her Dad until August.



Here is Emily at her end of the year "Piano Fun Day"... not bad for a kid who has only been playing 8 months!! Don't worry it shifts to the right way up after the first minute:



























Em had a lovely end of year class party - here's a pic:












The day of Emily's departure was Lisa's Book Club Meeting - not wanting to leave Mark all alone in the lonesome house she brought him along. How lucky that the meeting was at Sheila's house - which just happens to be a sail boat that they live on year round. We went for a sunset cruise with dinner and cocktails... lovely!






Here's Mark being a sailor:

Some of the Book Club Gals (Lisa with a funny chin, Kelly, Sue and Julie):

Sheila watching the sail go up:

Cruising in to the sunset!

Perseverance and the Bahamas Electricity Company

Things move infuriatingly slowly here in Nassau. By "things" I mean
everything; from getting any utility service provided, to contracting a paint
job, to purchasing groceries. I don't think it is necessarily intentional,
(although there is that superiority "I work here as the office dictator and
you'll wait till I'm ready" attitude and since everything is paper driven so
"you'll have to wait until I carbon copy in triplicate and then shove the 2
spare copies in the bin" response), but it can be blood vessel explodingly
annoying, especially if you are a foreigner and don't know what you're
doing. So here's the watchword for The Bahamas - go with the flow!!!
Everyone else does and, indeed, has to - there is no other choice. Time in
most societies is something to be measured, qualified and used. Here it is
an open-ended continuum and a thing of very little consequence. As such it
has no value and if the sun keeps coming up every morning then things are
okay. So, it is in this context that I relate our experience
with the Bahamas Electricity Company (BEC).

When we moved into our house in December 2006 we had no power and the
service had been "cut off at the pole." The tortuous story of getting
"light" has already been documented (see xxx). One of the requirements for
service was to give BEC a deposit. This is normally the equivalent of 2
months average costs but in our case, as the previous owner had raked up
horrendous bills and never paid, BEC asked us, the new owners, to deposit
the princely sum of $4000. Yes, four thousand dollars - for electricity
service even though the payment history had absolutely nothing to do with
us. Anyway in the spirit of laissez-faire and to get some power we had to
fork over the cash. In most cases I'm sure that this suits BEC just fine;
they get a decent dollop of money and then charge for ongoing
service.......forever.

But they didn't contend with Mark.

For those who know him, Mark is dogged if nothing else. Unfortunately this
usually involves more frivolous things like insisting he pay the road tolls
with pennies as they are "coin of the realm," to the complete disinterest of
the toll person. Well, he decided to get stuck into BEC. This involved
phone calls, writing letters, trips to various BEC offices....everything
short of getting the home address of Customer Service and giving them a
"little visit." He had phone calls that mysteriously disappeared, he had a
stream of cordial correspondence with a variety of BEC employees that would
fill War & Peace and he hung out at BEC offices occasionally just to harass
those he deemed were hoarding his money. Now you would think that BEC would
take out some sort of injuncture to keep Mark away or simply cut us off for
spite but they didn't. They couldn't, as a Government agency they had to
adhere to process and procedure no matter how illogical that may be....and
Mark knew this. And so it went on, until finally after 1 year, 4 months, 2 weeks
and 3 days Mark received a call to say that a check was waiting for him and
could he pick it up. That was a joyous day, at least for Mark. He went to
BEC HQ signed in triplicate, had it counter signed by 4 different people and
it was entered in to the "big ledger book" once and for all, then he had his
check!

We often wonder if they love, hate, fear, ridicule or admire Mark at BEC or
whether there are effigies of him next to the stapler in the offices. We
guess we'll never really know. One thing I do know is that they are $4000
(plus interest) lighter after the experience.

A Spot of Business

If you are wondering why we have been so silent for so long it's for a few reasons.

We had a ton of visitors - all in a row
It has been raining non-stop so we haven't been able to go outside much
We have been too busy with business

Please visit the following to see our hard work:

American Girl Home Party
Home Party for American Girl Doll
Home Party Business

Contrasts

The weather continues to tease us. A few days of bright sunshine and summer vibes and the rain, rain and more rain. Today it did both. Mark and Lisa went to sit outside for their lunch and spent an hour sitting under a brilliant blue sky, with a green blue ocean all the way to the Horizon. Not all was well though throughout the island of New Providence. As we sat and looked over to the islands very close by we watched a dark storm come towards us; blue sky, clear water, heart-jumping rumbles of thunder and forked lightening. Such a beautiful way to spend a lunch hour.

Pavey but no Pavey

Well we're finally back on the repair trail at Waters Edge. Colin (last name Pavey) has just left us but not before some technical advice on what needed to be done re. cesspool; he's good at that..... So the latest to be done is the covering for the drains and the pavey stones.

Emily's Top Authors

Emily came to me yesterday and handed me a list, "for my reference", she said. Here it is - her top favorite authors in descending order... for your reference.

• Erin Hunter
• JK Rowling
• Enid Blyton
• Sharon Creech
• Terry Pratchett
• Roald Dahl
• Andrew Clements
• Jerry Spinelli
• C.S. Lewis
• Cathy Cassidy
• Emma Thompson
• Cornelia Funk
• e.l. Konigsburg

Thanks Colin!

As you can probably guess we have a lot of visitors. The best part about having folks visit, especially if it their first time in The Bahamas, is that you get to see your home and environment through fresh eyes. You notice things you perhaps hadn't thought about before and you are reminded of the beauty and uniqueness of this country. It really helps when the visitor is such a great photographer. Colin from Aberdeen spent the past week and a half with us and took some great photos which we asked very nicely if we could borrow and post. We could never take photos like these. There were lots and lots of them but we have just selected a few favourites... enjoy. Thanks for visiting Colin - we had a great time!

Surfing Cabbage Beach

Emily and Serena enjoyed the day today at Cabbage Beach.

Hermy

We are all back from our various Spring Break adventures. Emily went off to Virginia to visit with Tom and then went up to PA to visit Nanny and Grandad and then had a hotel weekend in Philadelphia to visit with Gaga and Papa. Lisa and Mark arrived in PA and picked up a Hertz truck to pack up the business and move it on down to Kentucky. After a successful business move and a wonderful dinner with their new shippers they went on a brief road trip through Tennessee. More to come on that trip since we have photos. The whole Cabrelli family had a very restful break.

We have now fallen back in to our comfortable routine of Monday night football, The Wee Free Men and weekend mornings reading in bed. Unfortunately we have not been able to enjoy our back patio over the last few weeks as the wind has just been too strong and it impossible to sit out there without getting drenched by waves bursting over the sea wall. Lisa hasn't even been able to vacuum the pool.

Anyway - the subject of this post may possibly be spelled wrong. We will have to confirm with Emily when she gets home from school but... the story of Hermy.

We have been having some serious problems with the concrete paving stones out on our front patio. They had all been pushed up and were loose and uneven. Last week we had some workers in (including our favorite handyman Chris) to remove the stone tiles and re-pave the patio. Chris soon found out what the problem was - some very large and very active hermit crabs were making their homes in the ground underneath our patio and actually pushing up the stones as they tunneled. Chris collected them all in a pot which you can see below. We decided to release them all in the cushy grass by the palm tree in the back garden and let Emily keep the smallest two. Emily created a temporary home which Chris assured us they would not be able to escape from - well they escaped in to Emily's bedroom while she slept. No problem, we located them cuddling with her stuffed animals the next day and back in to the container they went for Mark to watch over while Emily was at school. Mark didn't do such a great job. The big one escaped again (from underneath a lid of a pile of newspapers and Mark's big sneaker). Only Hermy remains - named as such after the Harry Potter hero Hermione and shortened to Hermy for "hermit crab".

Emily and I are off on a shopping trip tonight to look for a glass tank to keep her in.

Our Second of Fame

You may recall way back when last May that Mark and Lisa got their big greak in to The Bahamas movie scene when they took a few days to be "extras" on the set of the Clive Owen and Julia Roberts movie, "Duplicity". Well the movie was released last week and we weren't too surprised when Mark's Mum called to tell us that she had been to see the film and we weren't in it.

We waited until some of the movie scenes were posted on the web knowing that we knew exactly where to look. There are a few flashes of our clothing and hair throughout the scene, but we get a real fraction of a second of fame with a full view of us along with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in the same frame.

See below - there is Clive Owen's white suit on the left, a blurry Julia entering the scene on the right, and that gorgeous couple standing at Clive's elbow in themiddle of the frame. Man we were good!