Birthday Stuff

So we had an excellent weekend for my birthday.  It started Friday night at the bamboo bar, with a "White Party" hosted by Jaffar, who came as an angel.  Everyone wore white, but I was tempted just to go in short shorts, to show off my white legs to the locals.  Jaffar of course won first prize being dressed in a full white robe, and angel wings.

Saturday was a busy day at work, but I had Sunday off.  We got everyone together and went golfing on Nusatupe, the airport Island.  However it did not start off well, I took my first shot and watched half the club go flying!  It broke in half, and I still had the handle in my grip.  The ball did go much further then the club so that was at least reassuring.  I guess salty air even effects your golf clubs.  You can see a photo of me swinging after the club had broken.  We finished our beer, and our round of golf and loaded up on a boat to go to Fatboys for lunch.  I had some delcious crayfish, and a few G and T's to bring out the british side.

Monday was another full day at work, teaching two different classes.  I got a conference call from my parents and bro and sis, and was nice to talk with everyone.  I finished my dives and I got home to a clean house where Jaffar and Erin my housemate were cooking a nice Island Curry for dinner.  Erin popped open a bottle of champagne as I relaxed after a long day.  Danny and kerrie and a few others came over for dinner, where we even had some chocolate cake.  It is sad that I can count, that was the third piece of chocolate cake I have had this year.  But thats what you get living in paradise.

Thank You to all that sent their wishes, I truly felt loved and cared about.

Luke

Global Economic Crisis

It seems like everybody in the world is concerned with this "Global Economic Crisis" and "Global Warming" stuff.  So I figured I would let you all know how I feel it has affected me.  Well I have decided to stay another year here in Gizo.  Even though it seems the news makes the world look horrible, there is still food on my plate, a beer or two in the fridge, and friendly people everywhere.  Now I think we should all take a moment and think about how good we really have it.  I have attached a few photos I took yesterday to show you what a year here has done to appearances, and just a funny shot of kids taking over one of our boats.

While I do live in a "developing nation" (third world is not politically correct), people everywhere are smiling, eating, and living life.  A local friend told me this about Solomon Islanders "If you are hungry, you are lazy" because food is all around them, they have plenty of places for garden, and lots of ocean to fish in.  So as people tell me not to come home, it is chaos, the job market sucks, blah blah blah, I am happy here.  I do miss all of you all at home, and would love to be home for a week to see everyone, however that is quite costly, so it does look like that will have to wait until next year.  I miss you all, but am happy, and enjoying myself, I hope the best for everyone at home, and that our leaders all make wise decisions in these harder times. 


Luke

Crazy Days

Bad weather has been the story the last few weeks.  It is sunny parts of the day, and crap the rest.  It may be the warm S. Pacific but when your soaking wet all day, you get very very cold, especially when you are not used to it.  I have actually had to start wearing a wet suit.  Yesterday bringing the boat through the pouring rain was miserable but a testament to the skills on the water the Solomon People have.  John got us back safely and in time for tea.  I have put up a photo I took Sunday on the boat, notice the driver getting soaked by spray, and our other staff hiding behind a fin to keep the spray out of his face.

On another crazy note with rats, I found some about an hour ago in the dive shop.  I was putting away gear and heard the sound of baby rats.  I went and got Nemo and Brownie, who were playing with a tennis ball.

On a side note:  A guest Emma who was very sweet brought the ball for the dogs.  They had never had one, and it took them a few days to figure it out, but now Brownie can even dribble it catching it in her mouth and dropping it again. 

Now back to the rats, the dog were actually able to sniff out the rats!  They were living in the back of the fridge, and had captivated at this point the attention of me, Nemo, and Brownie.  As I started to move the fridge out one ran, it scared me and the dogs and we all ran out of the room tripping over each other.  Quite a sight for the staff to see the dogs and me running scared of a rat!  I think cats are much better rat catchers then us.  Little Ghost the cat at my house gets an award for being the best rat catcher.

Cheers to all, and thanks to Emma for the ball.

Luke

Found My Glasses

So I have had some concern about my Glasses, well it turns out the staff at Fatboys found them!  So I now as the people say here "Have 4 Eyes"  I am thankful to everything not being blurry again, and not having to worry about replacing them in a place with no eye doctor.

New Giant Rat

This rat was found Papa New Guinea, the country and islands only about 50 KM from me. So this is why I have such vicious cats.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/07/giant.rat.papua/index.html

Full Moon Party

The full moon party this weekend was a great success!  I feel pretty proud at getting to help with it, only because it was fun, and successful.  I would guess about 80 - 100 people attended, which is pretty good around here.  Everyone from town local and expat made their way by and enjoyed the music and the djs, Alec and Tingo, that were great personalities behind the party.

The local/only phone company donated some phone cards for prizes, and we got some drink giveaways and made a treasure hunt.  For this we hid empty wine bottles in the sea around the restaurant (which built over the sea).  This got everyone in their bikinis and boardies swimming around.  This was much appreciated since four good looking English medical students came by.  I got to practice some first aide when one stepped on a sea urchin, I actually knew something a doctor did not!  The party went till about six in the morning with few fights. 

The only punch up ended with the manager and security chasing the guy out.  The problem was the whole bar tried to follow to see the fight finish.  The restaurant ends and has a 100M walkway to the island where bungalows are located.  I ended up being the one on the jetty stopping 30 guys charging through.  I was able to yell fast enough in pidgin to stop them all.  I found it funny that one small white guy stopped 30 large locals in their tracks.

Around 6am everyone got loaded into boats to head back to Gizo.  I have to give a hand to Dougy, one of my staff for what he did here.  He was on a boat that was overloaded so I told him to move to an empty one then help put people on it from the full one.  Dougy stood up in the small boat walked past everyone stepped gracefully to another boat about 1.5 M away, all in rocky seas, and sat down perfectly.  Honestly it was incredible, he did not even spill his beer.  Unfortunatly not everyone else fared so well and lots fell in!

Just so you know if your reading this, the party was fun, safe, and all the guests and locals had a good time.  The only casualty of the evening was I lost my glasses, and don't have a spare, but I'll live with it for now.  So thanks to Dave and Chelsey from Fatboys, and everyone that came, it was a lot of fun, and is still being talked about.

Cheers, Luke

Evil Cat

Here is a good picture of the little devil that owns my house.  Hope you all enjoy.

Party Weekend

Well it is not too often that I get a whole weekend off.  Today was a dreary and rainy day making the roads muddy, the air cold, and cabin fever worse!  Tonight at the hotel is Island night, so yet again I get the lava lava out and make some head gear from bannana leafs, it seems I am getting rather good at that.  Then tomorrow night is a full moon party at fatboys resort, with dancing and snorkeling raffle contest.  I'll let you know how it goes, and hopefully have a few photos.