- Bailey’s birthday rolled around on the 10th. He was very excited to have parcels arriving for him and of course the birthday cake at school again. This time we had a moko (ghecko) cake, with the moko perched on top of the cake with vines around the base. He had a lovely day and appreciated being the centre of attention - and all his presents!!! Thanks very much! (from Bailey)
- Mothers day was also on the 10th though through some screw up Michael had to go to work for a while in the morning. I hope all the mums had a good day.
- Correspondence school is finally coming together. Bailey now has two days each week at home with me at 'Mummy School', while our 'nanny/nana' Tav looks after Jamie and Sienna at her house. J&S love it, because Tav feeds them icecream, takes them to the beach and for rides on her motor scooter! As I dropped them off today, Jamie disappeared out the back of their place chasing a piglet so Tav had to ask her son to chase after him! In addition to this, Jamie spends one afternoon a week at Collette's house with her daughter Marie (Marie is one day older than Jamie), where he does 'Collette School'. As Collette is a teacher, she has them well organised with writing and spelling books. It can't be long before Jamie is reading on his own.
- We are in a much better routine because of this, with the kids playing with Marie and David (9) at their house on Monday, and David and Marie coming to our house on Friday. Tennis for Bailey is Tuesday -Thursday, plus a swim afterwards if it is hot.
- One Friday we stayed in the resort so we could take the kids to the Island show. It was quite late for them, but as we visited everyone getting ready Sienna announced that she wanted to dance. So the mama’s dressed her up and she performed in the show! Little Irene held her hand and told her where to go and when to dance and Sienna copied along. It was gorgeous – we were so proud! The second time she went on she had her thumb in the whole time as it was 9pm!
- May has been a crazy month for travel agent famils - at least 3 per week, with as many hosted meals. I have been doing 2 each week with Michael (otherwise I'd never see him)! Sometimes Poppy and Stephen join us as Stephen is the Sales and Marketing manager for Island Hopper Vacations. This helps to spread the load, and Poppy and I can whine to each other the following day about how dreary some of them are and about how much our husbands work!
- So one night when we had a group of agents in for dinner I left Tav at home with the kids and scarpered down to the resort for a quiet Pina Collada on the beach before I put on my work face. As I sat in my favourite spot - the sunset seat - I watched a lightening storm start over the southern part of the lagoon. It was amazing with flashes every 5-10 seconds. This continued for half an hour without any thunder and the skys got darker and darker. A lot of the guests were taking photos trying to catch a lighting bolt on film - a difficult prospect! Before I went into dinner I rang Tav to warn that the storm was creeping closer. An hour into dinner the heavens openned in some of the heaviest rain we have seen. The lower decks of the restaurant had to be evacuated up to the main floor so everyone was crammed together - mostly in good spirits. We were due to have the Fire Show on the beach that night, but Ipo and the boys did very well and performed 3 shows in the Port Chochere. That was after they had helped to sweep the flood waters out of the lobby! The inevitable 'average' thunder came along and I rang Tav - the kids were fine all in bed together. It was a funny funny night - you got to laugh really.
- The following morning I heard that Poppy's whole vege garden had been washed down the hill! I picked up the phone to call her only to find that the phone was dead. Cell phone too. I turned the computer on and there was no internet...then turned to the modem which showed no lights at all - a lightening strike took out the cell phone mast, our house phone line and our modem too. Thankfully the computer is on a wireless connection! It took Telecom Cook Islands 11 DAYS to get things working again and we flew our new modem up from NZ. TCI ARE USELESS HOPELESS PATHETIC and wouldn't know anything about customer service if a STONE FISH DELIVERED THE MESSAGE!!! Every day I went in there - "How are the repairs going" to be told "there are a lot". Breathe................ The computer came up with a boot error the day after that but I managed to repair windows just before I reformatted the lot of it!
- This place is hard on electronics actually. Our good toaster doesn't stay down anymore, we have replaced the DVD player and only the top half of the toasted sandwich maker heats up now. Both the old and new camera's are kaput....I don't quite know how we have managed all that....
- NB: Michael has a new strategy for getting out of dancing during the Island Night shows - he drums!!!
- My birthday (and Mrs Perry's) came along on the 29th. Thanks for the parcels everyone. The reading material in particular was much appreciated. Michael arranged for the maintenance guys at the resort to cut down the legs on a plastic chair so I can use it at the beach and it works very well. I was well spoiled on the day with Michael taking the day off and Poppy going to a huge amount of trouble to arrange for a trip on the lagoon to Maina and Honeymoon Islands in their boat Tiny Bubbles. This included hiring a skipper (as Stephen was in Rarotonga for Golden Oldies rugby), driving the boat down off the mountain on her own and putting a ribbon around the capstan! The 6 of us and the skipper went off for the day, had a lovely picnic with champagne and other yummies and spent the whole day lording it up on beautiful, mosquito free Maina. We tolerated the occasional visitor, but they were left in no doubt that we ruled the island!!! The kids spent at least 4 hours in the water, with both boys snorkeling without water wings now. It was a really special day.
- We have an exciting week next week with Mum and Dad coming for a visit. We are looking forward to seeing them so much. The kids are busting, and we are looking forward to a few games of 500!
- We have had an issue with a parcel that has gone missing in the post. We suspect that the main problem was that the parcel was sent in a Crocs box rather than a plain package, which made it a tempting target. It contained shoes for Michael and medicine for me, which ended up causing a major problem when I ran out and went through 3 weeks of withdrawal and pain until I obtained a new supply from Rarotonga. It was quite unpleasant for the whole house - enough said! We have another, more secure way of getting my medicine up here for next time, so lets hope that goes much smoother.
- And from the bizzare island stuff file....PR sent out their new wedding package with a special section for "Renewal of Vowels".......it didn't go past our desk, I can assure you of that!
PS - We broke open the winter suitcase this morning - the kids had long pants and hoodies on as it was only 20 degrees! We must be getting soft!
