first prize!

so we got a call the other day from the bank, saying we had won first prize in a raffle we had entered! imagine our delight. we went today to collect our prize, we had had some discussion about what it might be, i thought i had seen a toaster in there all wrapped up, alongside a casserole pot, but wasn't sure which would be ours. robert went to get it and came back with a blender all wrapped up in plastic with a large number 1 stapled to it, and some coloured bits of paper to make it look exciting. we have brought it with us to placencia.  we haven't tried it yet. robert had his photo taken in the bank when he picked it up, alongside a model from the bank. i think he found this pretty exciting but so far he hasn't made a big song and dance about it. we'll see if his picture makes it into the paper. the money from the raffle goes towards scotiabank's student scholarship fund, so that's nice.

there is a tropical storm on its way here, should be a category 1 hurricane by the time it reaches belize, which isn't too bad, winds of 70-90 miles per hour. probably quite hard to keep your umbrella up in those winds. it's currently down near nicaragua/honduras as i write this. we have no tv or internet at the house here in placencia so have gone to a nearby hotel to get online and watch tv. we should really have stayed in cayo which is much more hurricane proof but el jefe wanted to see his island so we came down here. hopefully all will be fine and we'll be back up north by the time it hits, due on saturday afternoon/evening.

i went cycling the other day and went up the hills on the way to the border 3 times. this wasn't fun, but it  made my legs a bit stronger, as i noticed the next time i went cycling i could go easier up the hills. i got a puncture on the ride earlier in the week, and fixed it with an inner tube of mick's, which the next day burst, and the one i fixed it with the valve broke, so i caved in and called our neighbours (as robert wasn't answering the phone) and they came to rescue me as they are very lovely. they baked us a banana bread too the other day, cathy makes THE best banana bread i've ever had. it has pineapple and nuts in too. that was on september 21st which is independence day in belize. from england. which interestingly enough was in 1981 the same year that sierra leone got independence from the uk. sierra leone also still has a british army presence just like belize. i wonder what happened in 1981 that made the uk get rid of its provinces. perhaps all that funny 80's music made the queen make some strong decisions concerning foreign policy.

we saw some really big bugs recently, i'll put photos on my next blog of them.

that's all from me from belize for today. bye from lucy pickles x

desert island discs

this little desert island is next door to our little bit bigger desert island. check out the water. just like you'd see in a swanky magazine, i never thought i'd be someone that appears in swanky magazines or has anything to do with swanky magazines. we had a swim here on our way back to the mainland, and saw the fleeting dolphins nearby.

today is belize national day - it is in memorial of the battle of st george's caye. i asked in the store if they did a reenactment of it. this would involve spanish and english and belizeans fighting each other with cannon balls and large galleons and bottles of rum tiddly pum pum. they don't. they just close the shops and banks and have parades and other such festive things. probably a few people will get killed in the city, but that's just a normal day.

last night there was loads of lightning swarming around - i was on my own as robert had gone to the city to do a load of manly things like pick up lumber and drive a trailer around (which came off in the middle of the road as some man hadn't connected it properly at the lumber shop - robert was mortified as the traffic all had to drive round him standing there trying to reattach truck to trailer). anyway the lightning and thunder just rumbled around for most of the night and never actually struck the house or turned into a storm.

i'm drinking a cup of hot milk as it helps you sleep. there is something in milk called melatonin which is also released by the brain while it sleeps, thus the connection between milk and sleeping. robert said hot milk makes him feel sick as it reminds him of when he was little and his uncle milked a cow straight into his mouth and it was all warm and gross. i don't like my milk anymore now actually either.

continental carrots and flying cows

hi everyone

so a few weeks ago i flew up to california, to sacramento, to be exact, to do some work with KT on the accounts. i had been getting in a real old mess with my accounting, primarily because i am not an accountant, nor do i wish to ever be one, so it's a combination of not being able to do it, and not wanting to do it. hmm interesting situation. anyway, we solved a lots of the problems and i felt a lot better after the 3 day trip. on the first flight from belize city to houston (which i pronounce who-ston, and robert tells me is hugh-ston), they brought round the snack. it was turkey or ham sandwich, i asked if there was a vegetarian option. she glared at me and in silence removed the sandwich from its little tray and passed me the tray complete with just a bag of ruffles and a sachet of mayonnaise. thank you, i said, frowning. the next snack from who-ston to sacramento was the same, but she was much smilier and more apologetic about my vegetarianism. i got a small bag of carrots and a sachet of mustard that time.

going through customs in america is so little fun. i think they try to make you really stressed out so that you will inadvertently blurt out that you are a terrorist when they ask you what the purpose of your visit is to their country. my customs man asked me what i was doing in belize for so long. i said oh just hanging out you know. right on, he said, i wish i could just hang out in belize. i thought you probably couldn't fit on the plane to get there you big fatty. but smiled and said yeah it's pretty nice. so how do you afford to do that? oh i saved up some money in the uk before i left, i answered breezily. right on he said. great fishing there. oh yeah it's amazing the fishing i said, thinking of that trip robert had videod for me with the fish having their eyeballs smashed out with a hammer and writhing around on the bottom of the boat. i didn't bother telling him about that. right on. so, lucy pickles, he said looking at my passport. yes that's me i said. ok. cute name. yeah, real cute. oh. thanks, i said. thinking this is weird first he's trying to catch me out now he's trying to flirt with me. they have really strange tactics those customs officers. well that was that, then you get herded along and screamed at by highly stressed and totally jobsworth airport workers, who tell you to take your laptop out of its bag and your shoes off and your belt off and your shoes don't go in a plastic box but your other things do. everyone asks why the heck that is, everywhere else you have to put your shoes in a box.they shout some shouty answers at you and roll their eyes. i drop my laptop on the floor in an apathetic protest against all the orders, and go as slowly as possible through the scanners to annoy them.

KT's daughter hayley had recently auditioned for american idol, she's into singing and playing the piano. i thought this was pretty cool. on the audition panel was russell brand, can you believe it. she didn't get through but he had said nice things about her singing. they had had to sit there all day waiting their turn, there were so many people there. KT's son kevin was also there, he is making the website for hatchet. he was planning on cycling to san diego the following week, which is pretty far but a really nice ride, down highway 1 like me and robert had driven last year in monty the motorhome. 

we went on a brief shopping trip to walmart to get some things (knickers being one of them, i don't need luxurious knickers - you get 6 for 4 dollars at walmart). we went to barnes and noble too, the bookshop, but didn't have much time to browse as we still had work to do. i got a book for my neighbour in cayo, called eat pray love. it's a film featuring julia roberts, out in the states i guess not in uk yet. i read the whole book on the way home, it's really good i loved it. she basically is going through a divorce and depression and goes away for a year to figure things out, and spends time in italy eating pizza, then india doing yoga and meditation, then bali doing other nice things. that makes it sound pretty vacuous which it really isn't, it's a real journey and interesting insight into a whole load of things. i also got 2 more graham greene books, the comedians which is set in haiti - the only novel i know of which is set in haiti, and our man in havana, which is of course set in cuba.

up in cayo we have been doing some really nice early morning flights in the ultralight, i like flying low over the cows and watching them look up dumbly at us as we whizz past. they are really cute, and i hope they know i'm their friend and don't eat them. robert got a cool new high definition camera and we got some cool video and pictures. in other news in cayo, our shower set on fire one night - it's one of those that has an electric heater attached to it as we don't have hot water, and it had just got all old and shady and the next thing there were these sparks flying out of the shower and flames. robert said i think we pour water on it. i said i don't think we do if it's an electrical fire, so we flapped at it with a towel which put it out without electrocuting us.

and here i am in placencia today, where it's the height of the low and slow season, so not much is happening of any note apart from lots of languishing around and sweating and melting. i am trying to write the business plan for the island, for the owner's next visit next week. i am not a business person so this is one big large hassle and stress. all i really want to do is cycle and do some yoga. i got some great new pedals for my bike the other day in cayo and had some really good rides. i rode the hummingbird on sunday on our way down south, then we jumped in a river and had a picnic. on that ride i was going down a hill, quite fast, and a bee flew right into my groin and stung me. i haven't ever been stung by a bee before, so i didn't mind as i now had an interesting first bee sting story. it hurt a little, and i had to get the sting-y bit out myself as it was still there. i still like bees. did you know the colour of honey depends on the type of flower used to make it?


we went to the island on monday which was pretty cool, the 3 cabins are finished out there now, and the restaurant is nearly done. the boat ride was really smooth and we saw a few dolphins at one point, but only fleetingly. they are still doing lots of construction out there (not the dolphins, the workers i mean), but a lot has been done since my last trip. i'll put some pictures up soon.

that's all my updates for now, i'm going home to eat some beans and eggs for breakfast now and try to figure out the payroll for friday which is payday. i have to make a special mention of sarah bullock and rod and nick and john who are cycling to italy, all the way to brindisi, they finish on saturday i believe, they will have done 3 weeks by then. totally amazing and cool, and all for macmillan cancer support - you can sponsor them on their website here: http://www.justgiving.com/rodnickjonsarahdotiptotoe

thanks and goodbye for now from extremely hot and languid belize. xx