Pretty much got the tucker sorted now and probably down to only overeating by two times ……maybe 2.5?? ‘Cos I feel good after the muesli fruit & yoghurt, but I keep on trucking to get through the omelette, beans & bacon, then we may or may not have a light snack in the afternoon and we’ve pretty much given up on the evening buffets. (last night we just shared a pizza …and fries ….and washed it down with a Fiji Gold.
Yesterday was a real blobby day and I finished my book, but there was some excitement in the morning. After my brisk walk around the resort and 10 minutes on the Cross-Trainer, I took to the water for my daily kayak workout. I headed straight out into the bay, (as you do) and next thing the man taking the snorklers, or whatever out, yells at me! (bloody cheek of the man to yell at me …like he didn’t know who I was!) I turn towards the boat and as I approach he starts telling me off, …so I just say, “What, I can’t hear.” Then he repeats himself telling me to stay inside the island, to which I reply, “I can’t catch any swells in there!” and he says, “Too bad, get in there!” Bloody cheek of the man …I’m thinking, “You’re not the boss of me”. Or things to that effect…. So I swing around the island and into ‘the gap’ where there’s always little waves and chop etc, and I play for a bit in there. Today I decided, (once again), he’s not the boss of me and no-one has actually bothered to tell me the rules, so I’m good. Usual format, brisk walk around the resort, few minutes in the cross trainer…and today I shall complete my quest ….which was set on the first day …and that was to go out around the island and back in through the gap. …I just needed to modify he plan!! So I lit our from the launch point and scooted along the beach, lulling them into a false sense of security and soon I was out of earshot and heading through a gap in the broken pier on into the next bay, which is also a river outlet, perhaps estuary if you will. I zipped up outside the pier, then just for show, came back into the lagoon at the broken section at the outer end, where a couple of other kayakers had ‘parked-up’ on the beach of the 2nd island. So I drifted in a bit, then towards the beach, until I was out of sight behind a wee point, then I was off!! Out the gap, around the island and coming back into the bay on the swells. Now I hadn’t finished though because the original plan was to come in through the gap, so I just made my way back there, paddled (ever so innocently) out through there, turned on a dime and came back in on the swells. Job Done!! Now he definitely wasn’t the boss of me any more, so I just paddled around and behaved myself! Buggered if I know what today has in store??!!
0 Comments
*Sigh* …. I must be getting used to Fiji-Time, which is a bit scary ….but this morning (at breakfast of course), ….let me start from the start.
Chilled last night just reading a faffing around, then some inconsiderate personage wakes me this morning at 0630 and did it in such a way as if it was normal to wrenched from ones slumber as soon as the sparrow farts! Bugger me! Oh well, I arise and join her for a walk ….then 12 minutes on a cross-trainer ….then a kayak session. I grab a paddle, don my life jacket, launch from the beach, then it occurred to me that I didn’t have my pretty shocking-pink spectacle stays on! What was I thinking. Well the answer was that I wasn’t. Oh well, I’d just have to be careful. It was quite pleasant, with the usual stiff-breeze out beyond the wee island, so that’s where I headed. Before we leave the resort, it’s my plan to paddle around the island and come back in to the lagoon via a narrow channel, but thus far, the tides have been against me and it’s been a bit rough through the cutting …you know, the usual life or death stuff that us geriatrics thrive on. Anyway, on this occasion, the tide was full enough but I couldn’t afford to come off and lose my specs so I needed to exercise some restraint ….and of course I washed my hair last night so I didn’t want to get that wet!! So here I was, cutting out through the tide on a close haul, but that was causing drips from the upwind side paddle to wet my hair, so I adjusted my bearing to point into the eye of the storm, and the swells and was soon coming off the peaks and dipping the bow into the next mountainous swell (they were about 50cm high ….ok ….maybe 30cm). I fixed that with a little lean aft to weigh the stern and that worked a treat to keep the nose up and prevent the nasty surf from splashing on my specs and hair. Next thing, I hear a siren, or something and think, ‘shit, I hope that not for me?’ and as I was making progress like a torpedo, I figured I’d ventured out far enough so I turned across the swells for a bit, then turned back toward the beach to see if I could maybe catch a swell. Well, before you know it (maybe three or four ‘Jack Robinsons’) I had slipped off the back of one, then latched onto a swell and I was rocketing toward the shore, adjusting my cadence to stay with it, giving a little right check to ease and move across it before finally slipping off the back after about 100mtrs …..or maybe 50mtrs …..OK, 20mtrs but it couldn’t have been less than that!! Almost too much excitement for one day anyway! After that I had a wee paddle around the rest of the lagoon, Ann had finished at the gym, we went back to the room and got cleaned up for brekkie. By this time it was about 0830, so we were early’ish ….and there was no queue for the eggs!! As per usual, we headed straight for the muesli, but there were no bowls, so we ask the lady. About three or four minutes later, (still no bowls) Ann suggest we go for the eggs while there’s no queue …and I just looked at her!! We’ve been sharing a bed for over 20 years (although we don’t eat breakfast together that often) but she should know that a person with a few OCD tendencies like myself just couldn’t possibly consider having the main before the entre or the soup, or in this case, the muesli with the yoghurt, peaches (yes peaches again) and the pawpaw. Well another minute or so passes and a man brings bowls …..all two of them! Alright for us but pity about the rest of the poor sods! We savour the experience and Ann heads for the eggs while I fetch the coffee and tea …that’s after a discussion though, whereby she askes what I’d like. “Cheese omelet” I replied, to which she queries, but there’s this and that and that, so I relent and say, “OK, egg and tomatoe”, then go a fetch the drinks. I get back and look around for Ann …..oh dear …..the queue for eggs is about 10 mtrs long!!! All I can say about that is that it was worth the wait and I coped OK with three coffees….again. I did get ‘that look’ form Ann but! So, the point of all this saga is that, I guess I must be winding down, chilling out and getting into the Fiji groove. C’est la vie and all that crap. Not quite sure how I’ll amuse myself for the rest of the day, but no doubt it will include another adventure out onto the water when the tide comes back in and all other manner of excitement! 24 hours and I’m already sick of this place….
It was only 30° yesterday and even cooler today The Indian buffet for dinner last night was too big and I couldn’t make much of a dent. Same at breakfast …I could only eat the muesli with yoghurt, pears & pawpaw, then barely half of the other stuff, settling for beans on toast, bacon, sausage and an omelette, then finishing with marmalade on toast with a coffee. I had tried to work up an appetite by going for a 25 minute walk around the resort, then a 20 minute kayak and 10 minutes on a cross trainer …but I think that only helped work off dinner! We hired a car for the afternoon and tomorrow morning to check out resorts in the area for Mu’s wedding next year. The plan there was to head back to Shangri-La (the wedding venue) then see what alternative accommodations are like as the Shangri-La is quite expensive. On the way there though, the plan changed to just check-out the venue, then look at the Outrigger. The Shangri-La is huge, utilising about half of the 200 acres it is set on (Naviti is a reasonable size and only 21 acres). It has a large conference centre and the marquee that can be used as an inclement weather alternative can cater for up to 800 guests …like I said, it’s huge and pretty damned tidy ….just a pity about the price. We were able to have a good chat and look around with the wedding-planner man and that was all good. We had tried to get into the Outrigger for this trip, but there were no vacancies and that’s pretty damned big and about 20 minutes up the road compared to the 40plus minutes to naviti. So that was that, we returned to the resort, had snack, had a read, went for a latish dinner, which was a seafood buffet, but it didn’t look that appealing or have tht many options that I’d be into ….plus not being very hungry from the snack, I just had a burger and Ann had tomato soup. Finished off the day reading ….It’ll be tough but I will survive! Day 2 The tedium continues, but this morning I had a plan!! I ate too much yesterday so this morning I decided to drop the toast & marmalade and the sausage. Scoffed the muesli but with yoghurt, peaches and pawpaw, then slipped the toast in prior to going for eggs. (a change in strategy here as there's a wait for eggs to be cooked and the other stuff cooled yesterday so I had a fix). Bread did it's first run through the machine, but I hate raw toast, so in it goes for the second of three runs and at that point I happen to notice the length of the egg queue!! (Thinks Oh FFS). I put raw toast in for third run. Then continue a scan of the dining area (sort of like scanning the road ahead, as a good biker does) and notice a cute wee boy licking a spoon ....nah...it was a damned big ladle stuffed stuffed down his gob!! ....and then he put it back in the peach bowl!! (Double FFS) (I knew it was the peach bowl because he started scoffing them by hand as he headed back to his table). I go back to the table to scoff the toast (with marmalade) and second coffee as I come up with a new plan. By this time Ann had finished her muesli etc and was heading for eggs, offered to get some for me and I was all, ‘nah she’ll be right, I’ll just give it a miss and have the other stuff (also thinking there was no way I needed eggs!) So off she goes and I’m sitting there thinking she’ll be getting scrambled eggs …that’s good because I don’t need or want a full omelette ….or maybe I should go for a cheese omelette?? ….nah, scrambled will be good. Then as she gets to about forth in the queue, I go up and make the toast ….then she gives me my full omelette!! Bugger, I think, Oh well, can’t waste it so I get the bacon and beans and a third coffee!! Came out of that a little fuller than I should have been and we head for the car to go for a wee drive towards Suva, but Ann suggests, “Why don’t we go all the way?” so that’s what we did! I was thinking it’s only about 80 Km, so should only take about an hour or so …yeah right. Max Speed Limit all over Fiji is 80kph, the roads are narrowish and potholed. The drivers drive at 80kph and brake for most / many of the corners. They don’t have yellow or double-yellow lines as in NZ, they just stick with white paint ….but mostly it’s a double-white. The towns / villages can be 60 or 50 kph ….but most tend to have a proliferation of humps (definitely at each end but often a few in the middle as well) and any faster than 20kph could do damage to the undercarriage. I mean, I say humps, but one gets the impression that they were cast using a forty gallon drum cut in half! ….and more on the potholes! Sometimes they been fixed and the road surface is a little rough, other times they are just potholes, but every now and then, you can’t see the bottom!!! I mean, you see a pothole up ahead, you swing one way or other to avoid it, then you find yourself heading for a series of ever-enlargening, bloody great gaping holes and wishing the car was a rubber-tracked vehicle! ….and back to the drivers! I mentioned they are brakers, but they are also tailgaters, double-yellow (or white in this case) passers and generally totally spatially-unaware. ie. They sit in the right lane on passing lanes ….and don’t pass; they pull out, take off, then slow down; even if they don’t want to pass, they still tail-gate to prevent others from passing ….and there aren’t slow bays or much room for trucks to[J1] make room ….but I suspect they wouldn’t anyway and it’s nothing to have a truck with a queue of twenty odd vehicles following …at 50-60 kph in 80 zones!!! So we went for a drive to Suva ....and I won't be doing that again!! We got back, went for a swim in the pool …..ok, we hopped in the pool and chilled out, then later Ann went to the gym while I went kayaking for 45 minutes and tonight went to the Chinese Restaurant rather than overindulge in the lovo evening meal …..and I’ll finish the night with a read. (Mark Twains – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ....since I saw the Bing Crosby movie as a kid and don't recall much of it) |
about
This blog is pretty much just about motorcycling ...but every now and then I might rant or dribble on about other things. Categories
All
Archives
August 2021
|
Proudly powered by Weebly