Hello Motha, Hello Fatha, Greetings from camp...

The skies are starting to be clearer - although they always are here! We had a great morning this morning acheiving utilitie turn-on Bahamas style by queueing up in various lines and paying lots of people. We should be all straight on Thursday (including a broadband connection) - but as we in the Bahamas, we aren't counting on it. We slept great last night listening the ocean outside our living room, apart from the slow leak from our air mattress so that Mark and I woke on the tile floor this morning. Emily loved her "Princess and the Pea" sleeping bag pile with her mattress on the top and slept like her usual log. We both took a bath in the ocean this morning sitting on our back steps with a bar of soap. Emmy thought it was great and asked if we could still do it even when the water is turned on.

We are now back at the Cricket Club having lunch and trying to find a rental car. More updates from the Cricket Club WiFi tomorrow.

We're Here!

We have arrived at Water's Edge. We are thrilled with the house and Emily said she was so excited when she saw our patio that she couldn't even think. There are a few hiccups though. The electricity is not on and neither is the water. Oh dear! We are dealing with it and are facing our adventure as the Three Muskeeters (Mark says 5 don't forget Colonel and Ow). Right now we are at The Cricket Club. Emmy is eating Lasagna and Mark is having a Steak and Kidney Pie - we are overlooking the ocean... Heaven! Tomorrow we tackle the utilities Bahaman style. Tonight Emmy has decided we sleep under the stars! Here are a few pics from today.


Emily with Colonel who is very relaxed - Ow... not so much.

Emmy on Grandad's fishing rock.

There are no days left to life at Water's Edge. More tomorrow.

Hi and Bye from Virginia

This will be our last post from the US of A. We are feeling excited and anxious. We have pages and pages of lists but are still wondering what we have forgotten. I guess we will find out when we get there.

We may be incommunicado for a while as we get ourselves established and set up. Luckily we discovered that one of our favourite haunts, The Cricket Club, has WiFi access, so as long as we can get wheels (be it rental car, scooter or bus) we should be back on line relatively quickly. Email, as always, is the best way to reach us. This is the Cabrelli's in VA... over and out.

There is 1 day to life at Water's Edge.

Going to the Mattresses

More obscure titles from Mark.

We have two boxes packed with sleeping bags, air mattresses and sheets - ready for our camping adventure. It is getting close and we are getting too excited to be stressed, which is a relief. I am busy trying to clear up last minute business issues and Mark is running around on errands like a madman. He got to play a final game of indoor footie last night - unfortunately they lost. Emmy comes home tomorrow and we will be in the final stretch. Drinks at Ann's house from 4-7pm and then home to pack, sleep and then fly. Tonight we celebrate with Grant and Miranda with dinner at L'Auberge Chez Francois (what a treat!)

It would be lovely for everyone to pause for a moment and send a nice thought to Deb. Her beloved Charlie (her 14 year-old cat, friend and companion) has just been diagnosed very suddenly with lung cancer. He is a wonderful cat with tons of cuddly personality, beautiful big eyes and a voice he isn't shy about using. Our thoughts are with her.




There are two days until life at Water's Edge.

I've been to the Mountaintop. And I've looked over.

I don't know why Mark is on a Martin Luther King kick - but he is in charge of all titles so I won't question him.

We had a fabulous Christmas at the Dowler house. It was great to spend time with everyone and it was so good to spend time with the kids. Pictures are forthcoming but I can't find the digital camera cord so it may not be soon, as it could be in the container :-)

Emily loved all of her gifts, both from Santa and others and jumped on a plane yesterday morning to get more gifts from Gaga (who she says spoils her the most). It was her first time flying alone and she did wonderfully. The whole process was very simple and speedy. She was quite miffed that she wasn't allowed to board on her own and had to board ahead of time, "I can walk on myself!" she said. She thinks that they must have thought she was younger than 9 as they kept reminding her to do silly things that she already knew, like buckle her seatbelt.

Mark and I took a trip to the warehouse yesterday where all of our stuff has been unloaded. They are really taking care of things. Apparently the whole thing was very badly packed and they had to re-pack and wrap almost the entire shipment. They also prepared a full physical inventory (which is something the first company did not do) which we will need to clear customs both in the States and in the Bahamas. It looks like even if our shipment had gone with the first company we may have had problems with customs anyway(?). She did tell us that our shipment could be a little while longer (maximum 8 weeks... eek! Although we think it will be a lot less) so we are preparing to camp out in Water's Edge. Apparently the freight forwarder they were going to use decided last week that they were no longer going to ship to Nassau. What is wrong with this industry?!!?! Since they have our car we are thinking of purchasing some scooters (which we were going to buy anyway) as soon as we get there so that we have transportation until our stuff arrives.

I think Mark picked the above title because even though this whole experience has been extremely stressful we must remember how fortunate we are to be able to do this move at all. Things could be a lot worse in our lives and we should be thankful for everything that we do have. My biggest concern is Emily and she thinks this is the greatest adventure in the world. We would do well to relax and take her perspective.

My friend Tony in California sent out this wonderful New Year's advice which Mark thought belonged on the blog as it was good advice to share with you all:

"Being the Christmas Season, thought I would pass onsome Holiday cheer. I am sending this on to you because it definitely works and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. The key to feeling good:"The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished."So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's IrishCream, a bottle of Kalhua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now. Please pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace."

There are 3 days until life at Water's Edge.

Happy Christmas and Bah Humbug!