Lionfish

This weekend was full of fun. The surface temperature of the water is still 86 degrees and it still has been in the high 80's during the day. Perfect weather for some good boating. We went out on a friends boat this weekend and we were able to water ski. I finally got up this time after about 7 attempts previously. I had water skied when I was younger, but there is something about trying it again in adulthood. It is so fun skiing in the ocean as the water is so warm and clear!

We also went to a Lionfish Tournament at Dockyard on Sunday. Lionfish are extremely poisonous if you are punctured by their fins on their back or tail. The photo above was a previously caught fish that had been frozen. The man dissecting the fish said that since the fish was frozen, if he were to be punctured by the fin it would less intense then a bee sting. Accroding to a Royal Gazette article published on August 12th, 2009, "Lionfish are a growing menace in Bermuda. The invasive species has already decimated fish populations across the Caribbean. Indigenous to the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, they are expanding rapidly in the Atlantic. In the Bahamas they first appeared in 2002 but are now the most dominant fish in the waters of Nassau." While we did not go out to spear, hook, or net these fish, it was still fun to see what the 50+ boats that went out in search of this creature brought back. We were told that a similar tournament held last month in the Bahamas produced over 1,000 captured lionfish. The issue is so severe there that Bermuda is taking precautions now to prevent the fish from taking over the reefs in Bermuda. They are beautiful fish and we have heard they are quite tasty. They were frying the fish up, but so somehow missed out on the tasting.

Until next time...

We're Back...

We are back from our trip to the states. We had a great time eating at Dairy Queen, driving on Super Highways, and shopping at a real shopping mall! We had a wonderful visit with my family and I even got to see some high school/college friends. While we enjoyed our visit, we also watched the weather channel to make sure that Bermuda was safe and sound. From what I have heard, the storm was minor. When we got home, all of our outdoor furniture was inside the house. We spent some time putting the patio back together, but everything was in one piece. We also had a trail of ants about a half inch think coming from our wall socket to our kitchen cupboard. They were snacking on a bag of potato chips that was left open over the weekend. All of our friends here have complained about the ants, and we have been so lucky to not have an ant problem in our house. All of that changed over the weekend. I spent about an hour killing and cleaning up the ants in our kitchen. About 15 minutes after the first clean-up, the ants were back in full force. We had to spray pesticide outside and even inside our house. I have thoroughly cleaned up the counters since and we have not had ants in two days. I have heard that August is the worst month for ant issues. I can handle a few ants, cockroaches are a whole different story.

We are back in paradise, but haven't been up to much since our arrival back. I will update you again soon.

Until next time...

Bill

I must preface that I am safely in Minneapolis as Hurricane Bill approaches Bermuda. We have had this trip to Minnesota planned and it just happened to fall upon our first hurricane while living in Bermuda. While Bill is currently a category 4, it is not projected to directly hit Bermuda. It will pass close enough that high winds and surf will affect the island. Our house sitters are currently at our house and have been given the instructions on securing our things. While we don't have shutters (which many houses do), we were told to put masking tap in X patterns on the glass to prevent shattering. Our house sitters may fly out on Friday as lack of power/Internet/cell phone service could be debilitating to someone not familiar with the island.

I must also say that we left the island with a looming hurricane to arrive in Newark, New Jersey to be told that our flight into Minneapolis was four hours delayed due to tornado's touching downs in the city. Today was a day that we couldn't get away from natural disasters.

I will write again once we find out about the damage and impact on Bermuda.

Until next time...

Our car

I have been waiting for weeks to write this post as I wanted to post a picture of us in our new car with Limerick happily in the back, but we have yet to acquire our car. Since I was on vacation in North Carolina last week and will be going to Minnesota on Wednesday, I thought I better blog now to keep my readership up :) Obtaining a car in Bermuda is not easy. The logistics of driving, buying, and passing a drivers tests all lead to stress. Let me tell you our story!

After 5 full months of only driving a scooter, I was ready for a car. Ryan agreed at about the same time that an opportunity fell in our lap. Cars in Bermuda are EXPENSIVE. What in Bermuda isn't expensive, but cars are at a premium. I know it has something to do with importing cars overseas, but I think that the dealers must not make as many cars with the steering wheel on the right hand side, and that may relate to elevated costs. Not sure, but a new Honda Fit in Bermuda costs $30,000. I could buy the same car in the USA for under $15,000. So we knew that used was the way to go! People sell used cars, scooter, chairs, rugs, anything you can imagine on a site called Emoo. While it is a great site to get quality used goods, things go fast. There are many things that you cannot even buy in Bermuda that are found on this site, but if you want an item you have to call within minutes and set up an appointment within an hour to see the item. The people that lived in our house before we moved here said that their car sold in 2 hours! So we knew if we were to look at emoo and find a good car, we would have to put a deposit on it immediately without researching the price, quality of the car, or its condition. Ryan's boss was selling his Daihatsu Terios which is a 2001 model. It is a little SUV with 4 wheel drive and a cassette player. Both very important in Bermuda. I have recently purchased some quality cassette tapes and we can't wait to pop our car into all wheel drive during the next Bermuda snow storm! Since his boss was selling the car, we were asked first if we wanted the car before they posted it on emoo. We were excited that we didn't have to deal with making a snap decision on a car. The planned exchange should happen on Monday. While the car is not cute, and as Ryan says, "I would never be caught dead driving this car in the US," we are thrilled we got a good deal and can't wait to take Limerick for rides and go to the grocery store for a full load of food!

Now onto getting our drivers license. Even though I have a US drivers license, I had to take another driving test in Bermuda. While I feel this is a good idea because the roads are narrow here and the whole driving on the left can be confusing, that hassle to get your license is amazing. If you have a car already or if you can borrow a car from someone else, then you can sign up online to take your driving test. If you sign up online, you usually have to wait 4-5 weeks to get in. So the alternative is to pay a driving instructor to teach you how to drive and then he/she signs you up for your driving test which usually happens within 2-3 days of your lessons. So you are basically bribing the driving instructors with $50 a lesson to get you a quick exam. So Ryan and I each took one lesson and were both encouraged to take another. Once we got our test date, we took another lesson the night before the exam so that it was fresh in our mind. We were then able to take the lesson on the driving instructors car. The most difficult part was the parallel parking. I have never lived in a city where I needed to perfect my parking skills, so I am terrible. Really truly bad! The spot for the driving exam is so small and I know that if I was in the city, I would never pick the same sized spot! I was really nervous for my exam which is crazy because I have been driving for 11 years, but still I really wanted to pass because I knew if I failed I would be paying the instructor another $50 for lesson number 3. We both ended up passing, and now we are legal to drive both scooters and an automatic car in Bermuda. Crazy thing is if I ever get a manual car, there is another test for that! So now when guests come we can pick them up at the airport! We are excited for this next chapter in our lives. Ahh how the little things make you so happy.

Until next time...

PS the picture posted is not our car, but the same model. I will take pictures when we get the car next week. Our car is not that shiny and it is all silver.

Cup Match 2009

This weekend was Cup Match in Bermuda. Cup Match is a holiday full of cricket matches, but also means that the whole island gets Thursday and Friday off of work to enjoy the beaches, ocean, family and friends. We loved our first Cup Match. Thursday we went to Horseshoe Bay to check out the party scene. There were hundreds of people on the beach enjoying the DJ, the warm sun, and lots of cocktails. We also went snorkeling on Thursday and laid low at home. On Friday we were invited on a friends boat to head out to St. Georges for the cricket match. It cost $15 a person to get into the game and there was a huge crowd of people. People buy plots in the stadium to build what they call their camp. Huge scaffolding is built so that people can bring chairs and sit up high to watch the game. The scaffolding looked solid, but also scary as so many people were standing in these camps. It was so hot at the game that we focused on eating lunch, having some drinks, and playing a few rounds of crown and anchor before heading back out to the boat. Unfortunately, I didn't watch much of the game and still have no idea how you play cricket. Crown and anchor on the other hand was a crazy game. Gambling in Bermuda is usually not allowed. There are no casinos on the island, but during the two days of Cup Match people lose thousands of dollars betting on this dice game. The minimum bid is $5 and with all of the craziness you lose your money before you even see that the dice are rolled. They keep people at these tables by placing coolers of beer underneath the tables. If you are playing at the table, you can drink all of the free beer you want. Individual families provide the crown and anchor tables. These families buy in and get to place their table at the Cup Match for a fee of $10,000. So you know that over the course of the two days, these families are making tons of money to compensate for the buy in and then to make more money on top of that!

On Saturday, we were roped into a sandcastle building contest at Horseshoe Bay. There were about 30 plots and all types of people were making sandcastles, alligators, mermaids, and for us a Happy Birthday Bermuda cake. There were even 4 professional sandcastle builders entered into the contest, one of which had the plot next ours. Let's just say, his creation made our final product look quite sad! We made a 5 tier Birthday cake for Bermuda's 400th year celebration. We spent 5 hours building and in the end didn't win a prize. I have posted other pictures of our weekend and the sandcastle building contest on my slide show. The professionals are truly amazing!

Until next time...