hello
i have a new blog for my next adventure which starts next tuesday:
www.tibetanpickle.blogspot.com
it is rather orange.
thank you and goodnight, this is the official end of this blog. xx
Thursday 11 November 2010
Monday 8 November 2010
and now for something completely different...
if you didn't know already, which would be understandable as i haven't published the news publicly on this blog - i have left belize and am back in england. i am going to dharamsala next tuesday in north west india, to teach english to tibetan refugees for 2 months. i'm fairly excited about this, as this is where the dalai lama lives in exile. i will obviously be writing a blog all about this: the address is www.tibetanpickle.blogspot.com (i wanted the address indianpickle, but it was already taken -it's a cookery blog about indian dishes).
they told me the place is fairly remote, in the foothills of the himalayas i guess - my room will have a view of the mountains apparently, and if i get sick of the monotonous food they cook in the school it is possible to get a hamburger from the nearby town, and also a capuccino. i thought this was a nice touch. you can read a lot more about the project on this link if you so desire - if you don't then that's fine, you can read about it on my blog instead, as it happens:
http://www.workingabroad.com/page/218/tibetan-teaching-programme.htm
this announcement about having left might sound rather sudden, but in fact i have been wanting to leave for a while, and for various reasons. but i didn't want the blog to become negative so i didn't mention it there. robert will stay and carry on with the resort on the island, and hopefully one day i'll go and see it as a finished and successful resort, complete with ultralights on floats whizzing around and the futuristic hovercraft transferring lots of happy guests, and no hurricanes.
the other day, whilst still in belize, we flew in the little ultralight to a mile high (5280 feet to be imperialist, or is that metric who knows? why can't they just have one way of measuring things). anyway that was pretty cool. it was in fact pretty cold, but we had our extremely cool (as in trendy), warm flightsuits on, as you'll see in a picture if i get round to posting it. robert flew to 10,000 feet the other day, which is around 2 miles. he has flown to 20,000 feet before, with oxygen, in his hang glider. we flew low over some cows on the way down, as that is one of my favourite things to do whilst flying.
so far on returning to england, i have had quite bad jet, and culture lag, making me very overwhelmed at a week in london (i'm now in yorkshire but still adapting back to the modernization - it is, despite what you southerners might think, quite modern up here too you know). there are 300,000 people in the whole of belize and when i came back last time from belize it had been via mexico and new york, so i had acclimatised to crowds of people again. this time it was like how an alien from a very quiet and hot planet would feel if he/she landed in london in winter, ie quite weird. i managed to avoid rush hour on the depths of the tube, just got buses, or the shallow tube lines, which i can cope much easier with. i noted how dull and choppy and grey and uninviting the thames looked, compared to the turquoise tropical water off the belizean coast. i ate some smoked salmon and had a few lattes and marvelled at how easy it is to get any item you could possibly want here, and how most of the world doesn't have access to this luxurious consumerist lifestyle, and really is it that good for people anyway - no i don't think so, and many a more intelligent essay has been written on that subject than my wafflings here.
i went to a bonfire for bonfire night up here in yorkshire, in hebden bridge, i was accustomed to crowds by then otherwise that would have been a bit of a trial. the fireworks were a bit weedy we thought, and you couldn't get any warmth from the huge fire, as there was a health and safety fence keeping you at least 10 metres away. this would never happen in central america, you can walk right up a live volcano and stick your face in the flowing lava if you so desire over there, and no one cares two hoots.
thank you for reading my blog for the last 6 months and hope you enjoy the next one which should start some time next week. over and out, look out for some pictures on the next and last post. xx
they told me the place is fairly remote, in the foothills of the himalayas i guess - my room will have a view of the mountains apparently, and if i get sick of the monotonous food they cook in the school it is possible to get a hamburger from the nearby town, and also a capuccino. i thought this was a nice touch. you can read a lot more about the project on this link if you so desire - if you don't then that's fine, you can read about it on my blog instead, as it happens:
http://www.workingabroad.com/page/218/tibetan-teaching-programme.htm
this announcement about having left might sound rather sudden, but in fact i have been wanting to leave for a while, and for various reasons. but i didn't want the blog to become negative so i didn't mention it there. robert will stay and carry on with the resort on the island, and hopefully one day i'll go and see it as a finished and successful resort, complete with ultralights on floats whizzing around and the futuristic hovercraft transferring lots of happy guests, and no hurricanes.
the other day, whilst still in belize, we flew in the little ultralight to a mile high (5280 feet to be imperialist, or is that metric who knows? why can't they just have one way of measuring things). anyway that was pretty cool. it was in fact pretty cold, but we had our extremely cool (as in trendy), warm flightsuits on, as you'll see in a picture if i get round to posting it. robert flew to 10,000 feet the other day, which is around 2 miles. he has flown to 20,000 feet before, with oxygen, in his hang glider. we flew low over some cows on the way down, as that is one of my favourite things to do whilst flying.
so far on returning to england, i have had quite bad jet, and culture lag, making me very overwhelmed at a week in london (i'm now in yorkshire but still adapting back to the modernization - it is, despite what you southerners might think, quite modern up here too you know). there are 300,000 people in the whole of belize and when i came back last time from belize it had been via mexico and new york, so i had acclimatised to crowds of people again. this time it was like how an alien from a very quiet and hot planet would feel if he/she landed in london in winter, ie quite weird. i managed to avoid rush hour on the depths of the tube, just got buses, or the shallow tube lines, which i can cope much easier with. i noted how dull and choppy and grey and uninviting the thames looked, compared to the turquoise tropical water off the belizean coast. i ate some smoked salmon and had a few lattes and marvelled at how easy it is to get any item you could possibly want here, and how most of the world doesn't have access to this luxurious consumerist lifestyle, and really is it that good for people anyway - no i don't think so, and many a more intelligent essay has been written on that subject than my wafflings here.
i went to a bonfire for bonfire night up here in yorkshire, in hebden bridge, i was accustomed to crowds by then otherwise that would have been a bit of a trial. the fireworks were a bit weedy we thought, and you couldn't get any warmth from the huge fire, as there was a health and safety fence keeping you at least 10 metres away. this would never happen in central america, you can walk right up a live volcano and stick your face in the flowing lava if you so desire over there, and no one cares two hoots.
thank you for reading my blog for the last 6 months and hope you enjoy the next one which should start some time next week. over and out, look out for some pictures on the next and last post. xx
Monday 25 October 2010
gone with the wind
well folks, hurricane richard has been and gone last night. it hit the belizean coast around 5pm or so and was 90mph winds, when it got to us in cayo it was probably 60mph, which isn't hurricane strength anymore. actually to our surprise we slept through most of it. it was very windy and swirly around 1-2.30am, and we heard a few cracks as branches got blown off trees in the garden. then it went very silent and calm around 3am, robert said we must be in the eye of it now - this kind of freaked me out thinking we were surrounded by it. so we were expecting it to kick in again maybe an hour later, but it never did - so either we are still in it and it is a really gigantic eye, or it was just the edge we got and the eye didn't pass over us here. i think it is the latter. power has only just come back on, around 24 hours after going off at 8pm last night, so i haven't known what's happening today in terms of where the storm is now etc. having no power makes one much more creative, i played my guitar earlier outside (have to make the most of the daylight hours when there's no electric lights), and did some tidying up and a few code word puzzles (like a crossword but with no clues, just numbers instead). i just had dinner at len and cathy's next door, and the power went off again during cooking, but came back on fairly soon, so we still go to eat our pasta. my head torch came in really useful for this minor crisis.
in the middle of the stormy night i had remembered i'd left a sock hanging on the washing line. pah, that'll be long gone robert said. but lo and behold, the sock remained this morning. perhaps due to its smallness (it was a small ankle sock with little cartoon dogs on it), the wind had just gone around it instead of pinging it off the line - i bet a bath towel wouldn't have lasted. i believe some of the wooden shack type houses in the city got blown down, but apparently there weren't any deaths, which is good. the island didn't suffer any damage apparently, as the storm hit central belize and missed the north and south bits which is where the island is (in the south). the national storm evacuation organisation here that decides when to evacuate the islands and open the hurricane shelters, is called nemo - i guess this stands for national emergency something something. i think it's funny that nemo is latin for nobody - i guess this isn't a widely known fact otherwise more people would find it funny too. from the island they called the coastguard to see if they would help with getting the (lots of) workers off the island, and the coastguard said no, you've got enough time, do it yourself. nice. thanks coastguard. we had to call them before with a minor emergency a few months ago, but it was saturday night and they were obviously out partying as nobody answered the phone...
here is a list of animals we have had in the house recently:
a tarantula - twice - the same one, we're pretty sure. the first time he was in the bathroom, the next time he was in the kitchen. we figured out where he was getting in and blocked it up with some kitchen paper.
a frog - he was in robert's shoe, a shoe that hadn't been worn for a while. he tried to shoo him out of the house, but gave up pretty quickly and told me that the frog was in the house somewhere as he couldn't get him out. i found him today, the frog, by the shoes and shooed him outside with the broom. this is the main purpose of having a broom in belize, to shoo things out of the house with. this frog is pretty docile and slow so it took a while to steer him in the right direction.
a bat - in our bedroom of all places. i have heard noises in the roof and in the walls here, and we sent francisco (the guy that mows our lawn for us) up into the roof space with his machete. from the amount of noise i'd heard up there, i was expecting him to report back that a pack of wild dogs were living there. he reported back that he had found one bat. francisco speaks only spanish, bat in spanish is murcielago, a pretty cool word. i was amazed that it was just one bat making all that noise. the other night i had just got up to go to the bathroom and when i came back in i saw something drop from somewhere onto my pillow. i yelped and grabbed robert (formerly asleep), and said help help. i didn't know what it was, until it flapped around the room a bit, then flapped out and we never saw him again. seriously i don't know where he is and i have looked around the house, and there are only 4 rooms and there aren't exactly any hiding places. mystery bat.
some dogs - luz next door has 3 dogs - the newest one is negra from the island, we brought her up here in the back of the truck as she had been eating the wildlife on the island and had been banished. she's really sweet, and always tries to get in the house, but we don't really want the dogs in the house. i let her poke her nose in for a bit and look around, and i always feel bad for squashing her nose in the door to get her out. the other 2 dogs are called chica - little girl, and chicita - very little girl. they are still getting used to negra being around and sometimes fight. we are trying to teach negra not to run after us when we leave in the truck because one of these days she will end up squashed on the road if she doesn't learn.
it reminds me of the old lady who lives in the shoe with all those animals around. there are obviously others that don't really need a special mention, like tiny ants, and medium ants, and flying ants, and spindly spiders, and those weird wormy centipede things. nice.
i bought some chocolate pop tarts as a treat the other day, from belize city. i had 2 for breakfast and felt sick. i think 1 is my limit. this morning we had got up at 530 to go check the storm damage, and there was no power so no way to toast my pop tarts so i went without. robert had secured the hangar with steel wires to make the walls less blow away able. we were expecting at least a ton of flooding in there from the rain, but nothing actually happened at all. this was good news as there is a lot of stuff in there.
things i have learnt recently, mainly from watching a david attenborough show - i think it was planet earth, this is a pretty amazing show -
a whale eats 1 tonne of krill per day (krill is plankton basically)
krill is the most abundant species by weight, on the planet - good job too as those whales need to eat a lot of them
the himalayas were created when india crashed into tibet, they are still growing (this i can't quite believe, but sir attenborough wouldn't get a fact like that wrong)
some questions i still have:
why do pandas have black eyes?
why do whales have white on the underside of their fins?
how old is david attenborough these days?
and now i am watching an interview with george clooney on tv, talking about world democracy quite convincingly. i tried to watch seinfeld earlier, but the channel information list was wrong, and seinfeld wasn't on even though it said it was - this was pretty upsetting for me. we watched half of the jane austen book club on sunday, until the satellite signal went down due to the storm coming, this was also upsetting, but not too much. you have to get used to these upsets when living in belize, they are pretty constant. and now i have just heard the funny noises in the wall again - they are always worse when robert isn't here - he is on the island for a few days this week.
that's all for now, adios x
in the middle of the stormy night i had remembered i'd left a sock hanging on the washing line. pah, that'll be long gone robert said. but lo and behold, the sock remained this morning. perhaps due to its smallness (it was a small ankle sock with little cartoon dogs on it), the wind had just gone around it instead of pinging it off the line - i bet a bath towel wouldn't have lasted. i believe some of the wooden shack type houses in the city got blown down, but apparently there weren't any deaths, which is good. the island didn't suffer any damage apparently, as the storm hit central belize and missed the north and south bits which is where the island is (in the south). the national storm evacuation organisation here that decides when to evacuate the islands and open the hurricane shelters, is called nemo - i guess this stands for national emergency something something. i think it's funny that nemo is latin for nobody - i guess this isn't a widely known fact otherwise more people would find it funny too. from the island they called the coastguard to see if they would help with getting the (lots of) workers off the island, and the coastguard said no, you've got enough time, do it yourself. nice. thanks coastguard. we had to call them before with a minor emergency a few months ago, but it was saturday night and they were obviously out partying as nobody answered the phone...
here is a list of animals we have had in the house recently:
a tarantula - twice - the same one, we're pretty sure. the first time he was in the bathroom, the next time he was in the kitchen. we figured out where he was getting in and blocked it up with some kitchen paper.
a frog - he was in robert's shoe, a shoe that hadn't been worn for a while. he tried to shoo him out of the house, but gave up pretty quickly and told me that the frog was in the house somewhere as he couldn't get him out. i found him today, the frog, by the shoes and shooed him outside with the broom. this is the main purpose of having a broom in belize, to shoo things out of the house with. this frog is pretty docile and slow so it took a while to steer him in the right direction.
a bat - in our bedroom of all places. i have heard noises in the roof and in the walls here, and we sent francisco (the guy that mows our lawn for us) up into the roof space with his machete. from the amount of noise i'd heard up there, i was expecting him to report back that a pack of wild dogs were living there. he reported back that he had found one bat. francisco speaks only spanish, bat in spanish is murcielago, a pretty cool word. i was amazed that it was just one bat making all that noise. the other night i had just got up to go to the bathroom and when i came back in i saw something drop from somewhere onto my pillow. i yelped and grabbed robert (formerly asleep), and said help help. i didn't know what it was, until it flapped around the room a bit, then flapped out and we never saw him again. seriously i don't know where he is and i have looked around the house, and there are only 4 rooms and there aren't exactly any hiding places. mystery bat.
some dogs - luz next door has 3 dogs - the newest one is negra from the island, we brought her up here in the back of the truck as she had been eating the wildlife on the island and had been banished. she's really sweet, and always tries to get in the house, but we don't really want the dogs in the house. i let her poke her nose in for a bit and look around, and i always feel bad for squashing her nose in the door to get her out. the other 2 dogs are called chica - little girl, and chicita - very little girl. they are still getting used to negra being around and sometimes fight. we are trying to teach negra not to run after us when we leave in the truck because one of these days she will end up squashed on the road if she doesn't learn.
it reminds me of the old lady who lives in the shoe with all those animals around. there are obviously others that don't really need a special mention, like tiny ants, and medium ants, and flying ants, and spindly spiders, and those weird wormy centipede things. nice.
i bought some chocolate pop tarts as a treat the other day, from belize city. i had 2 for breakfast and felt sick. i think 1 is my limit. this morning we had got up at 530 to go check the storm damage, and there was no power so no way to toast my pop tarts so i went without. robert had secured the hangar with steel wires to make the walls less blow away able. we were expecting at least a ton of flooding in there from the rain, but nothing actually happened at all. this was good news as there is a lot of stuff in there.
things i have learnt recently, mainly from watching a david attenborough show - i think it was planet earth, this is a pretty amazing show -
a whale eats 1 tonne of krill per day (krill is plankton basically)
krill is the most abundant species by weight, on the planet - good job too as those whales need to eat a lot of them
the himalayas were created when india crashed into tibet, they are still growing (this i can't quite believe, but sir attenborough wouldn't get a fact like that wrong)
some questions i still have:
why do pandas have black eyes?
why do whales have white on the underside of their fins?
how old is david attenborough these days?
and now i am watching an interview with george clooney on tv, talking about world democracy quite convincingly. i tried to watch seinfeld earlier, but the channel information list was wrong, and seinfeld wasn't on even though it said it was - this was pretty upsetting for me. we watched half of the jane austen book club on sunday, until the satellite signal went down due to the storm coming, this was also upsetting, but not too much. you have to get used to these upsets when living in belize, they are pretty constant. and now i have just heard the funny noises in the wall again - they are always worse when robert isn't here - he is on the island for a few days this week.
that's all for now, adios x
Tuesday 12 October 2010
flying flying and more flying, and a tarantula
here's biggles ready to go flying!
a bird's eye view of some local cows with palm tree in foreground.
dam it. the latest in the 3 dams near us, this is the vaca dam. pretty mucky water, i think it's the time of year.
there goes mick over the green green fields of cayo.
me and mick flying into the sunset, followed by robert and belinda with the camera.
kim and biggles.
me and kim and the truck outside our house in cayo.
mick me and biggles and the 2 planes.
me and mick before takeoff.
the hills and clouds and sky and a bit of the windshield.
.our wing and mick off in his plane in the distance
and again.
that's us to the left of the tree.
and last but not least, mr hairy tarantula and robert's hand in an attempt to show some perspective
cookies and spiders
for some strange reason my computer has gone all european, it keeps automatically redirecting google.com to google france all in french, and the yahoo page goes into german. i thought this might be some internet hacking by some angry non english speaking person who wants the international language of communication to be something other than english. but i think that was just my conspiracy theory paranoia getting the better of me. perhaps it's just a setting on the computer but je ne peux pas le figurer out....
so last monday me and robert were down in placencia - he was headed to the island for the week, and we were doing some banking at belize bank before he went. there was a girl outside the bank, with braids in her hair and lots of homemade bracelets on. she was at the pay phone and had the phone in one hand and a piece of paper in the other, about to call somebody. it was my friend kim, and she was about to call me to say she was here! quel coincidence. i knew she was in the region, and was heading that way from livingston, guatemala, but i hadn't heard from her since my last email. she has been cycling from panama for the last 8 months, she started on a macmillan charity bike ride which went from panama to nicaragua, through costa rica, and from then on had been on her own. (we met on the mexico bike ride in march 2009). she is very cool, has been doing art projects with children along the way including 3 months painting a huge mural on a hostel wall in salvador. she is very chilled out and always smiling, which is pretty essential when you're doing such a huge ride on your own. she's met loads of nice people along the way and not had any trouble being a single female cyclist, and i think it's so inspiring that she's done all this on her own. kim, i salute you.
we hung out for the day in placencia and robert headed to the island to check on the work out there and supervise it. tuesday i took the bus back to cayo, with friends belinda (the yoga teacher) and jude (her husband) - they were headed to guatemela to look at tikal before heading back to canada. belinda was looking forward to eating sushi and other such things that don't exist in belize. kim set off on her bike towards dangriga, and from then to cayo to see us again. i hung out in cayo at the house there, did some cycling, spent most of my time at the lovely neighbours - len and cathy from canada. they are staying in belize for another 6 months, then maybe heading to uruguay. cathy makes the best cookies i have ever tasted anywhere in the world, i'm going to get the recipe from her. my baking tends not to be too successful, apart from that amazing loaf of brown bread i once made - remember helie? (helie was pretty upset as she was teaching me how to make bread and my loaf rose more than hers even though i'd been complaining the whole time what a procedure it was and couldn't we just go buy a loaf instead - i said it was beginner's luck - maybe it was reverse psychology and the bread wanted to prove me wrong by being amazing).
kim turned up again on the friday morning having cycled up the hummingbird and stayed with some interesting people along the way. friday i cycled to belmopan to meet robert who was headed back to cayo from the island. he got there before me, but fair enough he was in a car. it took me 1hr 45 mins, not too bad, it's 26 miles more or less. a little hilly but nothing serious. i had to stop to give my poor feet a break after an hour or so, they get really sore due to all their silly problems. i'm hoping this will sort out in the next 6 months and stop being a problem altogether then.
we have had a tarantula in the house on 2 occasions recently. the first time he was sitting right by the toilet on the wall in the bathroom. we yelped a bit, and then robert put him a box and took him outside. we showed him to len and cathy first. tarantulas are pretty docile, they don't tend to run around really fast like little spiders do. for this reason i don't mind them too much. they really aren't aggressive, and will only bite you if they're really provoked apparently. i wouldn't want one in my house generally, but all in all i think they're cool. we found a really huge cricket type bug at the hangar which was pretty crazy too, he had bright red wings underneath when he flapped them, and long spindly legs. kind of like those praying mantis things.
in other news - we have eaten a lot of pancakes with orange and sugar; the climate has changed and got much cooler and less humid - this really really helps - we sleep with a blanket on now and no fan on; i have read a book called always a game - by a guy who made his living from gambling, and who len and cathy met through a house swap holiday thing, it's a really interesting book. i am now reading our man in havana by graham greene, and might carry on with it now with a pancake. we had an amazing ultralight flight yesterday morning. will post some pics on the next blog.
over and out x
so last monday me and robert were down in placencia - he was headed to the island for the week, and we were doing some banking at belize bank before he went. there was a girl outside the bank, with braids in her hair and lots of homemade bracelets on. she was at the pay phone and had the phone in one hand and a piece of paper in the other, about to call somebody. it was my friend kim, and she was about to call me to say she was here! quel coincidence. i knew she was in the region, and was heading that way from livingston, guatemala, but i hadn't heard from her since my last email. she has been cycling from panama for the last 8 months, she started on a macmillan charity bike ride which went from panama to nicaragua, through costa rica, and from then on had been on her own. (we met on the mexico bike ride in march 2009). she is very cool, has been doing art projects with children along the way including 3 months painting a huge mural on a hostel wall in salvador. she is very chilled out and always smiling, which is pretty essential when you're doing such a huge ride on your own. she's met loads of nice people along the way and not had any trouble being a single female cyclist, and i think it's so inspiring that she's done all this on her own. kim, i salute you.
we hung out for the day in placencia and robert headed to the island to check on the work out there and supervise it. tuesday i took the bus back to cayo, with friends belinda (the yoga teacher) and jude (her husband) - they were headed to guatemela to look at tikal before heading back to canada. belinda was looking forward to eating sushi and other such things that don't exist in belize. kim set off on her bike towards dangriga, and from then to cayo to see us again. i hung out in cayo at the house there, did some cycling, spent most of my time at the lovely neighbours - len and cathy from canada. they are staying in belize for another 6 months, then maybe heading to uruguay. cathy makes the best cookies i have ever tasted anywhere in the world, i'm going to get the recipe from her. my baking tends not to be too successful, apart from that amazing loaf of brown bread i once made - remember helie? (helie was pretty upset as she was teaching me how to make bread and my loaf rose more than hers even though i'd been complaining the whole time what a procedure it was and couldn't we just go buy a loaf instead - i said it was beginner's luck - maybe it was reverse psychology and the bread wanted to prove me wrong by being amazing).
kim turned up again on the friday morning having cycled up the hummingbird and stayed with some interesting people along the way. friday i cycled to belmopan to meet robert who was headed back to cayo from the island. he got there before me, but fair enough he was in a car. it took me 1hr 45 mins, not too bad, it's 26 miles more or less. a little hilly but nothing serious. i had to stop to give my poor feet a break after an hour or so, they get really sore due to all their silly problems. i'm hoping this will sort out in the next 6 months and stop being a problem altogether then.
we have had a tarantula in the house on 2 occasions recently. the first time he was sitting right by the toilet on the wall in the bathroom. we yelped a bit, and then robert put him a box and took him outside. we showed him to len and cathy first. tarantulas are pretty docile, they don't tend to run around really fast like little spiders do. for this reason i don't mind them too much. they really aren't aggressive, and will only bite you if they're really provoked apparently. i wouldn't want one in my house generally, but all in all i think they're cool. we found a really huge cricket type bug at the hangar which was pretty crazy too, he had bright red wings underneath when he flapped them, and long spindly legs. kind of like those praying mantis things.
in other news - we have eaten a lot of pancakes with orange and sugar; the climate has changed and got much cooler and less humid - this really really helps - we sleep with a blanket on now and no fan on; i have read a book called always a game - by a guy who made his living from gambling, and who len and cathy met through a house swap holiday thing, it's a really interesting book. i am now reading our man in havana by graham greene, and might carry on with it now with a pancake. we had an amazing ultralight flight yesterday morning. will post some pics on the next blog.
over and out x
Thursday 23 September 2010
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
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
Thursday 9 September 2010
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.
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