Now that I have a better Internet connection, I hope I can put some photos with this text. This is our little bure, which is lovely
Thank goodness we seem to have solved the food problem. Paul enjoyed his dinner last night at the a la carte restaurant, and his lunch today. We still have the breakfast problem, but today there was marmalade, so things are looking up. Actually, we have been intrigued by the things other people photograph. Today at breakfast time Paul noticed a girl photographing her plate of breakfast! Mind you, I imagine scrambled eggs and baked beans are quite exotic for some people.
Today started very hot indeed. At 10.15 I went to a sulu-tying demonstration. A sulu is what the Fijians call what we refer to as a sarong. The lady was wonderful, showing me several new ways of tying mine and scorning it because it was Australian and not long enough. She also scorned the little piece of coconut shell I had bought to help me tie it. I am tempted to buy a bigger Fijian one just so as to have an alternative, but I can't imagine I will be going to many hot places where I will need one. Paul says he doesn't enjoy this sort of holiday at all, and only wants to go to cold places in future. I must admit to being bored by spending a long time on the beach, but don't mind a few days of it.
After the sulu tying, there was supposed to be aqua aerobics, so I went to the pool. But I quickly realised it would be far too hot to jump about. The pool at 11 am had no shade, the sun was amazingly hot and the area round the pool was baking. Only a few people were there, huddled under the small number of sun umbrellas, and the two adults and three children in the pool were all in tee shirts because of the hot sun and the glare. I scuttled back to the air-conditioning in our bure. Paul had decided it was too hot to sail a catamaran, in fact far too hot to be outside at all, and he spent the morning in air-conditioned comfort.
By lunch time it was even hotter, and the restaurant isn't air-conditioned, so we sat on the shady verandah overlooking the beach. This is the restaurant, but in the evening.
A very bold bird came to lunch on the verandah, but we concluded he didn't want to share our lunch, he wanted to let us know that the verandah belonged to him. He sang and shouted at us from the backs of chairs and ran about on the floor. I didn't get a very good picture of him at lunch, I'm afraid, this is the kind of bird and they are everywhere.
After lunch, I though a visit to the pool would be nice, but, being English, thought I has better wait until my lunch had been digested. Around 2.30, the amazing heat broke with a torrent of water. It just fell out of the sky like a river.
The paths quickly filled up with water, until the puddles were over the ankles of anybody brave enough to run through the rain. After about an hour of it, some people were either too cold or wet to remain where they were, and several people ran and waded past our bure, all completely soaked to the skin. The poor lady who cleans the bures couldn't get to them with her cleaning equipment and had to wait until the rain had gone off, so she was very late.
Around 4 in the afternoon it finally stopped and the sun came out, so I waded down the paths outside and went off to the pool. There are two pools, a circular pool,
and an infinity one which is adults only. The infinity one is really beautiful,
surrounded by palm trees, with a little roofed section at one side and a jacuzzi at the other,
and the infinity edge overlooking the beach so it almost looks as if you could swim away into the deep blue and aquamarine bay and towards the distant islands.
The water was beautifully cool and I floated in the shade as far as possible, and chatted to people by the pool. About 5, Paul considered it was finally cool enough for him to be outside, and he joined me in the infinity pool. After a little while, as we floated quietly and admired the lovely surroundings, he asked me if I thought there might be some sort of religious meeting going on near the other pool. We could hear a man shouting in rather stirring accents, and occasionally members of his audience joining in. We couldn't make out any words though, so we weren't really sure what was going on. As we left, we saw groups of people hunched over tables near the bar. Then I realised what it was. Every day, at 5 pm, there is Bingo!
Later tonight, there is a traditional Fijian Meke evening, which I take to be singing and dancing, so I'll go to that. I hope to get some pictures, which I'll post when I get a better connection. Actually,it seems I am fortunate to have any connection at all - the Mana Resort Wireless connection has apparently failed completely, so only phone connections are working. Paul and I may be the only people with connectivity.
If it isn't too hot tomorrow, I'd quite like to borrow a mask and try snorkelling. You can snorkel in a few feet of water just off the south beach, and it seems silly to come all this way and not try it. The south beach itself is really beautiful, it seems to stretch from one side of the island to the other, and the water really is crystal clear.
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