We have joined up with Skype so if you join up too, we can talk on the "phone" for free. All you need is a headset/microphone/webcam (or so the bank IT guy tells us).
Our user name is Matt.Sharyn.Hunt (because Matt still thinks he's the boss).
Let us know if you sign up too. Otherwise we have to pay 2.1 cents a minute to talk to you.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
A Night Out
Had to write a post today about our fabulous night out last night.
The occasion was Fashionista, with entertainment from the Island Divas, over the road at Trade Winds hotel.
The opening act (only 45 minutes late) was the Divas, a group of 12 fafafines dressed in their skimpiest day dresses. The most beautiful, weirdest group of individuals I've ever seen. Great taste in shoes though, even if they were size 12 minimum.
In complete contrast, the demure, shy Samoan girls and guys modelling the latest in church wear, pule tasis (the matching outfits) and day wear were much more refined. We are just going to have to get our selves a set of matching outfits. The guys all wear their shirts completely oversized, so they made Matt's work shirt look miniscule in comparison.
The models were superb as everytime they came out, the heavens opened, but they still kept smiling and posing as they were getting absolutely drenched.
A highlight was the commentary by the MCs: an older diva who still looked as if she'd give the younger ones a run for their money and who instructed the the sound guy to "Always leave my microphone on, honey" and a local radio announcer. His description of every outfit was along the lines of "and here's Sele looking beautiful in a purplish top matching beautifully a purplish skirt, with a flower pattern going from right to left, no left to right, which highlights the middle section of the skirt" and so on!
In between the models, we were entertained by a guitar trio of palagi who started with a 14th century tune, then descended to self-penned blues: "Come and have some kava kava and loosen up your lava lava". What are the chances of these guys finding each other on a rock in the middle of the Pacific? And then there was the glamourous Miss Bianca Del Terra (or something like that) who lip synched and gyrated to some obscure Hindi/Chinese tune. Truly.
The divas came back a couple of times, for the sports wear and the evening dress (but thankfully no swim wear). The sports wear was best, as they all dressed up in a different sports uniform-fafa style. So the volleyballer stripped off normal shorts for the teeny-weeny variety, and the basketballer wore high heels, and the tennis player did very unusual things with a racquet. But boy could they move. Three of them worked the splits into their routine although they did have some trouble getting back up again, the very large karate fafa could do back flips, and the boxer's high kicks were impressive.
The event was raising money for the American Samoa National Olympic Committee, and a table ticket got you wine and nibbles. The wine was the most revolting thing I've ever tasted, since the days of Blue Nun and Wohnseidler. Nasty, nasty sweet Californian drivel. And the nibbles were cold, deep fried pork, chicken, fish, meatballs and wontons. Luckily the beer was cold and it kept coming, sometimes two rounds at a time when the boys got confused.
Our lovely "housegirl", Mele, was babysitting, and it was bliss to be able to walk home afterwards to a tidy house (she'd emptied the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen, folded the washing). We ignored the savage dog attacks outside the hotel this week that had seen an American tourist get 12 stitches. I'm sure all the dogs were in bed by then.
So, our first experience of a night out Samoan style! While I think if you've seen one fafa show, you've seen them all, it was definitely a great night, and if you happen to be visiting when there's a show on, prepare to be entertained.
Miss Sharyna
The occasion was Fashionista, with entertainment from the Island Divas, over the road at Trade Winds hotel.
The opening act (only 45 minutes late) was the Divas, a group of 12 fafafines dressed in their skimpiest day dresses. The most beautiful, weirdest group of individuals I've ever seen. Great taste in shoes though, even if they were size 12 minimum.
In complete contrast, the demure, shy Samoan girls and guys modelling the latest in church wear, pule tasis (the matching outfits) and day wear were much more refined. We are just going to have to get our selves a set of matching outfits. The guys all wear their shirts completely oversized, so they made Matt's work shirt look miniscule in comparison.
The models were superb as everytime they came out, the heavens opened, but they still kept smiling and posing as they were getting absolutely drenched.
A highlight was the commentary by the MCs: an older diva who still looked as if she'd give the younger ones a run for their money and who instructed the the sound guy to "Always leave my microphone on, honey" and a local radio announcer. His description of every outfit was along the lines of "and here's Sele looking beautiful in a purplish top matching beautifully a purplish skirt, with a flower pattern going from right to left, no left to right, which highlights the middle section of the skirt" and so on!
In between the models, we were entertained by a guitar trio of palagi who started with a 14th century tune, then descended to self-penned blues: "Come and have some kava kava and loosen up your lava lava". What are the chances of these guys finding each other on a rock in the middle of the Pacific? And then there was the glamourous Miss Bianca Del Terra (or something like that) who lip synched and gyrated to some obscure Hindi/Chinese tune. Truly.
The divas came back a couple of times, for the sports wear and the evening dress (but thankfully no swim wear). The sports wear was best, as they all dressed up in a different sports uniform-fafa style. So the volleyballer stripped off normal shorts for the teeny-weeny variety, and the basketballer wore high heels, and the tennis player did very unusual things with a racquet. But boy could they move. Three of them worked the splits into their routine although they did have some trouble getting back up again, the very large karate fafa could do back flips, and the boxer's high kicks were impressive.
The event was raising money for the American Samoa National Olympic Committee, and a table ticket got you wine and nibbles. The wine was the most revolting thing I've ever tasted, since the days of Blue Nun and Wohnseidler. Nasty, nasty sweet Californian drivel. And the nibbles were cold, deep fried pork, chicken, fish, meatballs and wontons. Luckily the beer was cold and it kept coming, sometimes two rounds at a time when the boys got confused.
Our lovely "housegirl", Mele, was babysitting, and it was bliss to be able to walk home afterwards to a tidy house (she'd emptied the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen, folded the washing). We ignored the savage dog attacks outside the hotel this week that had seen an American tourist get 12 stitches. I'm sure all the dogs were in bed by then.
So, our first experience of a night out Samoan style! While I think if you've seen one fafa show, you've seen them all, it was definitely a great night, and if you happen to be visiting when there's a show on, prepare to be entertained.
Miss Sharyna
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Tsunami that Wasn't
I eagerly logged on this afternoon to check all the emails of concern I thought would be flooding in (ha ha) from you all. Where's the concern, people? Weren't you worried we may be lying under metres of water?
It was a dramatic start to the day. Jane rang about 8.15 to ask if I'd been listening to the radio. No, I'd only just emerged (Taine had been up for hours) and was just about to eat breakfast. There's a tsunami warning out, it's going to strike at 8.23, we'll pick you up in 5 minutes. (Jane, Jason, Noah and Tahlia)
OK, 5 minutes to throw together a survival pack, including togs (I thought we may end up in a pool), water (good one), passports (just how far was this wave going to take us?). Sure enough, 5 minutes later, we're heading for the hills, literally. We went up, and up, and up and ended up on top of one of the mountains, where you could actually see Samoa out the other side of the island. Beautiful view - all you visitors will be taken up there.
On the way, we passed school buses offloading kids and lots of people standing around, and cars of palagi driving really fast upwards. At this stage, I called Matt and he was very unimpressed by the whole palaver. I'm sure you can all imagine his underwhelmedness. He thought his building would be safe if a tsunami hits. Not sure why.
Anyway, we sat enjoying the view for half an hour, watching more and more cars/vans/rubbish trucks speed up the hill. One car pulled up in front of us, and we could see their cat peering back at us very suspiciously from the dashboard. There were two ships out to see which were going round in circles, so they obviously didn't want to come into the harbour just in case. All this time, the radio was going between tsunami warnings, the upcoming Cash Cube draw, requests, birthday calls, which schools were closing ... The highlight was listening to the 9 oclock news and they didnt' mention it!
So an hour after we left, we decided to go back and get a coffee. There were still masses of cars on the road (good for an evacuation plan - we know which roads will be blocked) and we did feel a bit silly heading in the opposite direction from everyone else again. Luckily McDs was still open so we had breakfast and coffee finally. I did have visions of climbing the playland in a hurry when the wave came, and I could see the irony of being caught with a coffee in my hand. Matt rang to say the warning had been called off.
To recover, we all went for a swim for an hour or so, the kids played on the computer, Taine got a blood nose and all is well again! The lessons learnt have been have a survival kit ready at all times, listen to the radio, and don't worry about what everyone else is doing. There are times when Island Time is negotiable!
apart from that, spring break is going. I've been sick all week, just generally feeling grotty, which has made for some long days. Mah Jong by the pool on Monday was great, Taine had a swimming assessment on Tuesday and will start classes as soon as there's a vacancy, breakfast yesterday and MJ again tomorrow.
Our stuff is still sitting in a container at Pago Pago. There were some issues over payment (nothing to do with else, Melbourne's problem) and the contact for releasing the paperwork has been mysteriously out of the office everytime I call.
We have a weevil problem with some dry goods. Did you know boiling them doesn't kill them? You should have seem them come crawling out of the lasagne sheets. I went looking for some rice to replace the contaminated bag, and did you think I could find a bag that was under 10lb? I will keep looking. Poor Matt came home to no dinner on Tuesday because I was feeling so crappy, then no dinner last night because of the rice situation so I'm feeling bad that I only have one job to do each day and I can't even get that right! Obviously stirfry to use up the bok choy wasn't meant to be. never mind, I think we will be eating a lot of boy choy over the next 3 years.
Enjoy the weekend everyone.
S
It was a dramatic start to the day. Jane rang about 8.15 to ask if I'd been listening to the radio. No, I'd only just emerged (Taine had been up for hours) and was just about to eat breakfast. There's a tsunami warning out, it's going to strike at 8.23, we'll pick you up in 5 minutes. (Jane, Jason, Noah and Tahlia)
OK, 5 minutes to throw together a survival pack, including togs (I thought we may end up in a pool), water (good one), passports (just how far was this wave going to take us?). Sure enough, 5 minutes later, we're heading for the hills, literally. We went up, and up, and up and ended up on top of one of the mountains, where you could actually see Samoa out the other side of the island. Beautiful view - all you visitors will be taken up there.
On the way, we passed school buses offloading kids and lots of people standing around, and cars of palagi driving really fast upwards. At this stage, I called Matt and he was very unimpressed by the whole palaver. I'm sure you can all imagine his underwhelmedness. He thought his building would be safe if a tsunami hits. Not sure why.
Anyway, we sat enjoying the view for half an hour, watching more and more cars/vans/rubbish trucks speed up the hill. One car pulled up in front of us, and we could see their cat peering back at us very suspiciously from the dashboard. There were two ships out to see which were going round in circles, so they obviously didn't want to come into the harbour just in case. All this time, the radio was going between tsunami warnings, the upcoming Cash Cube draw, requests, birthday calls, which schools were closing ... The highlight was listening to the 9 oclock news and they didnt' mention it!
So an hour after we left, we decided to go back and get a coffee. There were still masses of cars on the road (good for an evacuation plan - we know which roads will be blocked) and we did feel a bit silly heading in the opposite direction from everyone else again. Luckily McDs was still open so we had breakfast and coffee finally. I did have visions of climbing the playland in a hurry when the wave came, and I could see the irony of being caught with a coffee in my hand. Matt rang to say the warning had been called off.
To recover, we all went for a swim for an hour or so, the kids played on the computer, Taine got a blood nose and all is well again! The lessons learnt have been have a survival kit ready at all times, listen to the radio, and don't worry about what everyone else is doing. There are times when Island Time is negotiable!
apart from that, spring break is going. I've been sick all week, just generally feeling grotty, which has made for some long days. Mah Jong by the pool on Monday was great, Taine had a swimming assessment on Tuesday and will start classes as soon as there's a vacancy, breakfast yesterday and MJ again tomorrow.
Our stuff is still sitting in a container at Pago Pago. There were some issues over payment (nothing to do with else, Melbourne's problem) and the contact for releasing the paperwork has been mysteriously out of the office everytime I call.
We have a weevil problem with some dry goods. Did you know boiling them doesn't kill them? You should have seem them come crawling out of the lasagne sheets. I went looking for some rice to replace the contaminated bag, and did you think I could find a bag that was under 10lb? I will keep looking. Poor Matt came home to no dinner on Tuesday because I was feeling so crappy, then no dinner last night because of the rice situation so I'm feeling bad that I only have one job to do each day and I can't even get that right! Obviously stirfry to use up the bok choy wasn't meant to be. never mind, I think we will be eating a lot of boy choy over the next 3 years.
Enjoy the weekend everyone.
S
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The award goes to ...
Well, it's almost been a month, and it's time to do Sharyn's pick of the bunch.
Most relief: Meeting with Taine's teacher today and getting a report that says he's doing really well, reading well above his age and settling in with all the other kids. She also commented (very, very loudly - she's from Texas) on how he was a role model for the other kids for sitting properly and listening carefully. No, never seen that child before.
Feeling stupid 1: But she commented on his maths that he hadn't come across some of the concepts like AB patterns and sorting. What's an AB pattern we both asked? (Blue, red, blue red as opposed to ABB blue, red, red and ABC blue, red, yellow, blue, red ...) Would explain why Taine spends hours (well, it seems like it when you're supervising) colouring/coloring squares on his maths worksheets. They're even doing graphs!
Best adrenalin rush: driving the mighty 8 seater Nissan Pathfinder through huge puddles that come up to the doors, on the wrong side of the road, bouncing over potholes. It's not really even the wrong side of the road, as if there's a puddle or a pothole (90% ofthe road) you just drive round it, even it that takes you to the other side. The other cars just wait. The trick is to not splash the beautifully dressed locals walking to church at the same time. There's a reason the speed limit is only 25mph here.
It's starting to feel like home 1: buying the desk and chair for Sharyn's Scrapbooking Studio and working out where I'm going to put all my bits and pieces. It's going upstairs in the spare bedroom, so that the GUEST SUITE is left free. Did I mention the GUEST SUITE has its own bathroom and walk-in wardrobe? And air-con and a fan? And a deck?
Fraudster of the month: Moving my book, Sudoku and coffee from room to room to avoid getting in the way of the housekeeper. Twice a week, no less. Last week, she ironed everything in our wardrobes.
Some things never change 1: I've started going to yoga, and I reckon I have a quarter of the flexibility of the other 2 in the class. It sure aint graceful when I go into Downward Dog.
Feeling stupid 2: having to be shown how to fill out a cheque/check by the nice lady at Cost U Less. They have an extra line!!! How was I supposed to know what to put on it?
Feeling stupid 3: asking in 3 different shops for hair bobbles, or even hair ties and getting shown to completely different products each time. What else do you call them?
It's starting to feel like home 2: I didn't come last at Mah Jong on Monday. I even could add up my own score.
Crisis of the month /Feeling stupid 4: Thinking, no knowing, there was something moving in the car, while I was in it. I burst into tears at the school, so another nice Kiwi mum searched under the seat for me. It must have scampered away while I had the door open. She even pretended that a frog could possibly have clambered up from the tyres/tires while Matt was at soccer.
Decision of the month: it is pointless to plan a menu for the week then go and get the ingredients, like all the domestic goddess books say to do. Here, you have to go to the first shop, look at their produce, look at their meat, end up in front of the frozen corn dogs, go the second shop, and so on (I think that's an ABC pattern). I was getting very frustrated and depressed not being able to do proper meals, but now I'll just have to go shopping every day. Matt did a beautiful chili squid at the weekend, so it is possible.
Party of the month / Odd bureaucracy: there's only been one, but Taine had a great time. One of his class mates' 6 birthday at McDonalds. In line with school policy, and yes, this is actually in the information we got, everyone in the class was invited to the party. You can invite all the boys, all the girls or the whole class if you give out the invitations at school. If you want to be choosy, you need to email or phone instead.
Feeling stupid 5: I felt this in sympathy. I'd noticed that the petrol gauge in the car didn't seem to be moving, but I had to go into Pago to fill it. Matt took the car to transport the visitors with the ANZ Head guy last week (I think I wrote he'd been cleaning it last time). And of course, it conked out a mile down the road, with the HR Head and a couple of others in the car. Matt tried to call people on his phone, no one answered, but luckily someone from the branc driving down the road saw him. See there are advantages to everyone knowing who you are! Matt was rather annoyed.
Fraudster of the month 2: Matt was in the paper twice on one day last week. "Matthew" was seen holding a gift given to the big guy, in his lovely staff floral shirt, and then was in the sports pages dribbling the ball during a soccer game. I think he was dribbling, but his arms were at funny angles and he had his cheeks puffed out. We're going to go watch him tomorrow. They play 3 times a week, but the season only goes for a month. That seems to be typical.
Some things never change 2: so many channels, nothing to watch. There are endless marathons of Top Chef, Real Housewives, Extreme Home Makeover and Wife Swap. Will and Grace and Frasier are on for an hour every night. I miss the Living Channel! There's no guide to what's on, and the programmes are 2 weeks and 3 hours out. The Oscars just happened three days ago and the 9oclock movies start at 6. They're advertising for programmes coming up on 3 March. We do get One News every night (at 7), the odd Super 14 game if anyone on island has paid for it and some Australian news channel. Some news is current, and some is old.
OK, normal stuff now. We're still thinking about what to do for the long, long summer holiday. Taine's birthday is the first day of the break (big hint for grandparents), and if there are going to be parties in June we may come back to NZ then for a bit. If you're planning on coming over to stay in the GUEST SUITE, then let us know and we'll roll out the red carpet!
Hope everyone's good. We are.
Most relief: Meeting with Taine's teacher today and getting a report that says he's doing really well, reading well above his age and settling in with all the other kids. She also commented (very, very loudly - she's from Texas) on how he was a role model for the other kids for sitting properly and listening carefully. No, never seen that child before.
Feeling stupid 1: But she commented on his maths that he hadn't come across some of the concepts like AB patterns and sorting. What's an AB pattern we both asked? (Blue, red, blue red as opposed to ABB blue, red, red and ABC blue, red, yellow, blue, red ...) Would explain why Taine spends hours (well, it seems like it when you're supervising) colouring/coloring squares on his maths worksheets. They're even doing graphs!
Best adrenalin rush: driving the mighty 8 seater Nissan Pathfinder through huge puddles that come up to the doors, on the wrong side of the road, bouncing over potholes. It's not really even the wrong side of the road, as if there's a puddle or a pothole (90% ofthe road) you just drive round it, even it that takes you to the other side. The other cars just wait. The trick is to not splash the beautifully dressed locals walking to church at the same time. There's a reason the speed limit is only 25mph here.
It's starting to feel like home 1: buying the desk and chair for Sharyn's Scrapbooking Studio and working out where I'm going to put all my bits and pieces. It's going upstairs in the spare bedroom, so that the GUEST SUITE is left free. Did I mention the GUEST SUITE has its own bathroom and walk-in wardrobe? And air-con and a fan? And a deck?
Fraudster of the month: Moving my book, Sudoku and coffee from room to room to avoid getting in the way of the housekeeper. Twice a week, no less. Last week, she ironed everything in our wardrobes.
Some things never change 1: I've started going to yoga, and I reckon I have a quarter of the flexibility of the other 2 in the class. It sure aint graceful when I go into Downward Dog.
Feeling stupid 2: having to be shown how to fill out a cheque/check by the nice lady at Cost U Less. They have an extra line!!! How was I supposed to know what to put on it?
Feeling stupid 3: asking in 3 different shops for hair bobbles, or even hair ties and getting shown to completely different products each time. What else do you call them?
It's starting to feel like home 2: I didn't come last at Mah Jong on Monday. I even could add up my own score.
Crisis of the month /Feeling stupid 4: Thinking, no knowing, there was something moving in the car, while I was in it. I burst into tears at the school, so another nice Kiwi mum searched under the seat for me. It must have scampered away while I had the door open. She even pretended that a frog could possibly have clambered up from the tyres/tires while Matt was at soccer.
Decision of the month: it is pointless to plan a menu for the week then go and get the ingredients, like all the domestic goddess books say to do. Here, you have to go to the first shop, look at their produce, look at their meat, end up in front of the frozen corn dogs, go the second shop, and so on (I think that's an ABC pattern). I was getting very frustrated and depressed not being able to do proper meals, but now I'll just have to go shopping every day. Matt did a beautiful chili squid at the weekend, so it is possible.
Party of the month / Odd bureaucracy: there's only been one, but Taine had a great time. One of his class mates' 6 birthday at McDonalds. In line with school policy, and yes, this is actually in the information we got, everyone in the class was invited to the party. You can invite all the boys, all the girls or the whole class if you give out the invitations at school. If you want to be choosy, you need to email or phone instead.
Feeling stupid 5: I felt this in sympathy. I'd noticed that the petrol gauge in the car didn't seem to be moving, but I had to go into Pago to fill it. Matt took the car to transport the visitors with the ANZ Head guy last week (I think I wrote he'd been cleaning it last time). And of course, it conked out a mile down the road, with the HR Head and a couple of others in the car. Matt tried to call people on his phone, no one answered, but luckily someone from the branc driving down the road saw him. See there are advantages to everyone knowing who you are! Matt was rather annoyed.
Fraudster of the month 2: Matt was in the paper twice on one day last week. "Matthew" was seen holding a gift given to the big guy, in his lovely staff floral shirt, and then was in the sports pages dribbling the ball during a soccer game. I think he was dribbling, but his arms were at funny angles and he had his cheeks puffed out. We're going to go watch him tomorrow. They play 3 times a week, but the season only goes for a month. That seems to be typical.
Some things never change 2: so many channels, nothing to watch. There are endless marathons of Top Chef, Real Housewives, Extreme Home Makeover and Wife Swap. Will and Grace and Frasier are on for an hour every night. I miss the Living Channel! There's no guide to what's on, and the programmes are 2 weeks and 3 hours out. The Oscars just happened three days ago and the 9oclock movies start at 6. They're advertising for programmes coming up on 3 March. We do get One News every night (at 7), the odd Super 14 game if anyone on island has paid for it and some Australian news channel. Some news is current, and some is old.
OK, normal stuff now. We're still thinking about what to do for the long, long summer holiday. Taine's birthday is the first day of the break (big hint for grandparents), and if there are going to be parties in June we may come back to NZ then for a bit. If you're planning on coming over to stay in the GUEST SUITE, then let us know and we'll roll out the red carpet!
Hope everyone's good. We are.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
How come your son's so white?
Yep, I actually got asked that, followed by Why do you have pink cheeks? What do you say to that?
At the time, I was lounging in the lagoon at Tisa's Barefoot Beach, the beach ex-pats go on Sundays. It's your beautiful tropical beach, with the best pina coladas in town. As I said to Matt, there's not too many places in NZ you can be sipping your cocktail on the sand, while the kids play in half a metre of water. Taine got adopted by Tisa's grandchildren and then we met some others there, including our neighbour two doors down and his wife, who'd only been on island for two days. It was nice to meet someone more shell-shocked than us!
On Saturday another Kiwi had brought his two kids (7 & 5) round for a swim and a play, so it's feeling like we're starting to get to know people. We've just got to keep making the effort to invite people round and take up any invitations on offer!
Last time I wrote, we were off to a function for the Asia-Pacific boss of ANZ. Well, he got diverted to Fiji on bank business, and he missed a great party. There was singing and dancing and awards and fabulous food. Of course, we got dragged up to dance, but luckily not to sing. Taine wasn't very brave, and burst into tears when anyone came near him. But once the food came out, there was no stopping him. He tried taro, baked papaya, fish in coconut cream (cooked in the umu in a half coconut shell. Absolutely delicious) and even some seaweed that neither of his parents would touch.
The rest of the week went by as usual: mah jong, breakfast, groceries and the library. Our internet's working properly, so I regularly check nzherald and listen to The Rock. The local radio station here has a playlist of about 20 songs, so you hear Taylor Swift, Britney, Christina, Pink and Beyonce 5 times a day.
Taine still seems to be going well at school. He has a lot of colouring in for homework and the maths seems pretty basic. He gets a report at the end of next week before spring break, so we'll see if my interpretations are in line with his teacher's!
Matt's working long hours, leaving at 7 and getting in after 7 most days. Today he was up cleaning the car before going to the airport to be part of the welcoming committee/driver for the Big Boss of ANZ who's here for six hours, to speak at the community college and meet with prominent local business people. Matt looked very smart in his tropical uniform shirt, which is about four sizes too big. He wouldn't let me take a photo this morning, but he has to wear it again on Friday, so I'll have the shot that so many of you were asking for!
This morning after dropping Taine at school, I went to the walking track. It's about 500 m (3 to a mile) but instead of your typical oval, it has extra curves and detours and a hill, and is the surface of a BMX track. It's also right next to Tafuna High School, so I watched the teenagers moseying in, in their own sweet time, chatting to their friends, playing basketball, and I felt right at home! 40 minutes of walking was enough to make me feel like I'd done enough for the day. It was bliss to then come home to find Mele our housekeeper already hard at work on our washing. I am very spoilt!
So now it's off to McDonalds for my morning coffee and I feel justified in trying the Cinnamon melts too. Then groceries and I've got The Other Boleyn Girl to watch on DVD. I've just finished the book and really enjoyed it (by Phillipa Gregory - she is obsessed with incest) so we'll see what the film is like. The food shopping is getting more manageable, although I went to about 5 shops trying to find something like a Maggi Beef Goulash packet. No luck, so it was a particularly revolting casserole last night.
I managed to not bring anyone's email addresses with me, so if you could please drop me an email at mshunt@clear.net.nz, I'll be able to contact you personally. That goes for family too please.
Love to all,
Sharyn
At the time, I was lounging in the lagoon at Tisa's Barefoot Beach, the beach ex-pats go on Sundays. It's your beautiful tropical beach, with the best pina coladas in town. As I said to Matt, there's not too many places in NZ you can be sipping your cocktail on the sand, while the kids play in half a metre of water. Taine got adopted by Tisa's grandchildren and then we met some others there, including our neighbour two doors down and his wife, who'd only been on island for two days. It was nice to meet someone more shell-shocked than us!
On Saturday another Kiwi had brought his two kids (7 & 5) round for a swim and a play, so it's feeling like we're starting to get to know people. We've just got to keep making the effort to invite people round and take up any invitations on offer!
Last time I wrote, we were off to a function for the Asia-Pacific boss of ANZ. Well, he got diverted to Fiji on bank business, and he missed a great party. There was singing and dancing and awards and fabulous food. Of course, we got dragged up to dance, but luckily not to sing. Taine wasn't very brave, and burst into tears when anyone came near him. But once the food came out, there was no stopping him. He tried taro, baked papaya, fish in coconut cream (cooked in the umu in a half coconut shell. Absolutely delicious) and even some seaweed that neither of his parents would touch.
The rest of the week went by as usual: mah jong, breakfast, groceries and the library. Our internet's working properly, so I regularly check nzherald and listen to The Rock. The local radio station here has a playlist of about 20 songs, so you hear Taylor Swift, Britney, Christina, Pink and Beyonce 5 times a day.
Taine still seems to be going well at school. He has a lot of colouring in for homework and the maths seems pretty basic. He gets a report at the end of next week before spring break, so we'll see if my interpretations are in line with his teacher's!
Matt's working long hours, leaving at 7 and getting in after 7 most days. Today he was up cleaning the car before going to the airport to be part of the welcoming committee/driver for the Big Boss of ANZ who's here for six hours, to speak at the community college and meet with prominent local business people. Matt looked very smart in his tropical uniform shirt, which is about four sizes too big. He wouldn't let me take a photo this morning, but he has to wear it again on Friday, so I'll have the shot that so many of you were asking for!
This morning after dropping Taine at school, I went to the walking track. It's about 500 m (3 to a mile) but instead of your typical oval, it has extra curves and detours and a hill, and is the surface of a BMX track. It's also right next to Tafuna High School, so I watched the teenagers moseying in, in their own sweet time, chatting to their friends, playing basketball, and I felt right at home! 40 minutes of walking was enough to make me feel like I'd done enough for the day. It was bliss to then come home to find Mele our housekeeper already hard at work on our washing. I am very spoilt!
So now it's off to McDonalds for my morning coffee and I feel justified in trying the Cinnamon melts too. Then groceries and I've got The Other Boleyn Girl to watch on DVD. I've just finished the book and really enjoyed it (by Phillipa Gregory - she is obsessed with incest) so we'll see what the film is like. The food shopping is getting more manageable, although I went to about 5 shops trying to find something like a Maggi Beef Goulash packet. No luck, so it was a particularly revolting casserole last night.
I managed to not bring anyone's email addresses with me, so if you could please drop me an email at mshunt@clear.net.nz, I'll be able to contact you personally. That goes for family too please.
Love to all,
Sharyn
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