Apartment Block

The top left apartment in this block is mine!

 

Josiah'sBay

This is the beach straight below my apartment.  It is a surfing beach, hence the waves, not recommended for swimming.  There is a place where you can have a refreshment and rent a surfboard though.  Great little beach.

 

Watch out for the pelicans, they are not bothered that you are in the water, if there is a fish nearby they will dive right next to you!

 

Un susto....

In the island, the rubbish bins are skips that placed on the side of the road. So when you have rubbish to throw you stop next to one of them and throw you rubbish into them….not as bad as it sounds….

Bueno, this morning I had already accumulated a couple of plastic bags of the stuff and so I decided to to throw them. Put them in the car and drove to the office until I came across the first of these skips. Got out of the car and tossed the plastic bags into the skip……..

…..there are also a lot of chickens running wild on the island, they also wake you up in the mornings…….

… conque when the plastic bags land in the skip salieron dos chicken volando and screaming towards me…. As I was not expecting this noise and movement, me lleve un susto that woke me up, for sure.

Trials and tribulations

Ok, managed to get my passport back from immigration.  It only took about an hour with some long forms to complete with details of my schooling since I was four etc.  This is part of the process and hence why I cant complain.  Got my stamp on my passport which now makes me a resident of the BVI which should mean I don't have to stand in-line behind all the tourists at the airport or port when I get back in!

 

Have had my ups and downs with the telecoms providers.  Signed up of the wireless data card for use on the laptop.  At $99 per month plus $250 for the card it is a bit on the steep side so you would expect at least 512Kb connection... no way.  Most I am getting is 200Kbs on download and close to zero on the upload.  Fortunately I managed to get this on a 15 day trial so I should be able to take it back once I get my landline sorted out.

 

The landline is another thing.  Went to Cable and Wireless to apply for a landline and ADSL at the flat.  Looks like the process takes up to 15 days! We shall have to wait and see what happens.

Apartment's view

Not trying to make anyone jealous (yes I am really!) but here is the view from the apartment in the morning....

 

Brilliant

What a great day.  It is surprising how the little things make a difference in a day.

 

It started off this morning as I drove from the hotel to work.  It seems petty but the fact that I found my way quickly and only taking the wrong turn once was quite an accomplishment.  I really felt like I belonged in the crowd of commuters, it was a good feeling.

 

Then there was work when I put in a full day's session to really earn my keep today.

 

Then my apartment came through and what an apartment it is..... see pics.  Sorry they were taken at night but it gets dark here at 6:00pm so it was difficult to get them done in sunlight.  I'll redo them over the weekend but for now this is what you get!  The apartment is spanking new with me as is its first tenant.  Air con in both bedrooms, fully fitted kitchen and even its own laundry room.  Ensuite bathroom in my bedroom, cable TV and spectacular views across the bay and a beach at the bottom of the hill... look who's boasting today!

 

So much have I liked the apartment that I've stayed in tonight.  The lady who fixed things for me even prepared for me a welcome basket with some fresh fruit, wine, crackers and the like.. so I am here watching CSI Las Vegas, drinking a glass or two of Australian wine, snacking on crisps (sorry they call them chips here) and some crackers and writing this e-mail before I get to unpack my suitcases.

 

Also paid a visit to the local supermarket which is about 5 mins away and I was so surprised by the quality and variety of goods on sale.  This is a little supermarket by any standard yet all the produce is up to date, there is a great variety and you can find almost everything that you after from the best UK and US brands so it is no different to shopping back home except it is [a] cheaper, [b] served with a smile and [c] no queues!  Managed to ratchet up $200 worth of shopping as I needed to get a lot of the basics for the flat but worth every penny.  Loaded up the 4X4 and drove home in the dark and managed to find the flat in no time.  The Police and Fire stations are also just minutes down the road from the apartment....

 

Met the landlords who are great people... turns out she works at the FSC as well, a couple of desks down from me.  As the flat is so new they still need to check a couple of things (like the gas on the oven) so it should be finished tomorrow.. but who cares.

 

The flat is about 10-15 minutes away from work depending on the gridlock and I get a choice of two routes to get there by- mountain or coast.  The decisions that I am going to have to make every morning and evening :)  Mountain takes its toll on the car engine, it does struggle to get up the steep hill (not to mention the brakes) and the coast road is the busier of the two routes... decisions, decisions :)

 

OK guys, if you had second thoughts about coming over, don't...... I have a great apartment where you can stay.

 

See you soon.

It's cold in the BVI!

Could not believe this. 

Driving to work this morning, chillin' as one does, caught in the gridlock (all 10 mins of it) with the radio on this advert comes on stating that it is uncharacteristically cold for this time of year in the Caribbean and goes of to try and sell listeners heaters.  For Pete's sake, it is 8:30am and it is already 25C with an expected 30C for the rest of the day and close to 85% humidity and this guy wants to sell you heaters for your home!

Now that I have my car was looking forward to trying out some of the beaches this weekend… the people at the office tell me that this is not a good time for being on the beach as there are high tides and strong currents at present which mean that all beaches have red flags.  This is a regular occurrence at this time of the year and to avoid people being dragged out to sea, bathing is effectively stopped until it all settles down… they tell me it only lasts a couple of weeks and that things should also start to warm up soon… here we go again with the heat.  At this rate I am going to have to get myself a portable Air Con unit to carry with me as I already find it difficult enough to cope with the heat when I am not indoors.

Had my first experience of grid-lock yesterday which is also a regular complaint in the office….. leaving the office I was exposed to all 10 minutes of it.  I told them they are whimps here and they should experience being stuck in our frontier queue or airport traffic back in Gibraltar before they complain about the traffic situation in the BVI.  What is also great is how polite everyone is, even drving in the gridlock, people let you in, wave, smile… so refreshing:)

Only annoying thing so far.. Coffee.  Made to US specs, i.e. very weak.  Have not found a strong expresso anywhere in town.  All I've found so far is filter coffee… not good… will keep looking…..