I haven't finished posting the pics from our trip up to Nacula, I will post more soon... I just thought I'd post the Shakespeare ones while I was working with them... So this is a bonus post for the wag who quipped that I don't update my blog daily, but quarterly! you know who you are :D
S24: It sounds like something from a message board doesn't it? Like DH (darling husband), LOL (laugh our loud), imho (I never worked out if that's in my honest opinion, or in my humble opinion), and roflmao... But as we found out S24 is all about the bard. The official blurb goes...
"Shakespeare 24 (S24) is an exciting worldwide Shakespeare performance event. It began in Fiji and ended 24 hours later in Hawaii. 65 youth groups from 35 countries staged 30 and 45 minute adaptations of Shakespeare's plays at 7pm, local time on 23rd April to celebrate Shakespeare’s 444th birthday.
Young people from around the world participated in this 24-hour performance event celebrating their youth, culture and creativity - and Shakespeare."
Our guys did an adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". A bit of a classic with themes which are ageless, as a recent post on Woulda Coulda Shoulda demonstrates! T was fascinated with the show, and thought the name "Bottom" was hilarious...
It was really cool. Ashley and his team did amazing hair and makeup, and the show was under the big bure (a big open building with a grass thatched roof) basically with just one main wacky rotating spotlight. AK sweated her makeup off three times (ok I know sweated is not really a verb, but I live in a country where "off" is a verb as in "can you Off the light?" so I'm going to let the mucky grammar go...). Then she said "I'm Hot" (it was hot, and very humid too). I said "I don't want to hear you say that with this much makeup on again for at least 10 years!" and the other mums agreed... I only got a few photos because I had to catch a boat (a few, like about 140. I can't imagine how I survived in the film days when we had rolls of 36); the light was really wacky on the stage, so I just turned the flash off and let the light tell the story. I quite like the silhouettes...
Nehi Lysander! (what? they spoke Hindi back then? ooooooh I see, it's "Nay Lysander")
OK sa Oti (yes speakers of te reo Maori, oti IS the same word in Fijian). That is the last time I try to upload that many photos without using a slideshow or similar! My apologies to those of you with slower connections...
{Photo by Me, postprocessing by Erica Murphy, using photomatix; and why? its all part of the journey...}
Our first news is that we have been away on a girls trip. Its has been school holidays here, and we decided that even if our husbands couldn't get away, there was nothing to stop us going on a trip. We decided the Yasawas, further north and west of here would be the destination, and Lisa phoned around. Luckily she's a great organiser, and she sorted for us (6 of us, four with our children) to take over the dorm and a bure at The Oarsman's Bay Lodge. But first we had to get there.
The most accepted way to travel to the Yasawas, unless you have the wherewithal to fly everywhere by float plane or helicopter is South Sea Island Cruises/Awesome Adventures Yasawa Flyer. The rest of our group boarded at Denarau, but we hopped on an hour later at Beachcomber. This meant that we only four hours to go to our destination. Four hours travelling with 9 young children (5 for the Denarau girls)? Yes we were right to be concerned... We were heading for Nacula Island- right at the top as you can see on this map (which I have borrowed from here)
Well our concerns came to nothing, as we had a brilliant trip, as fun an experience as the destination itself, which led one of the ladies to muse (possibly over a beer) that "the journey is as important as the destination"! Usually we see the large yellow Yasawa flyer going past where we live, but for this trip the Tiger IV, a near similar boat, was doing the run up to the Yasawa's. We hopped on and settled in with the rest of our mob, who had a great posi down in the airconditioned cabin. Handy access to space for the kids, games and the food bar which provided us yummy noodles, sandwiches, cake and of course the necessities: coffee (and coming home:beer). The kids played played, babies slept, backpackers hung out (and some people sat in the airconditioned exclusivity of the Captains Lounge...). Raef and Michelle- thank you so much for the game of Blokus! It's awesome!
Fiji sometimes has a reputation of being er... less than efficient. But not this boat. I meant to snap some photos of the wonderful personalities crewing the Tiger IV. But on this run it is busy and they are super efficient. As you approach each island stop you id your bag then wait back out of the way. Then lots and lots of little boats approach from the little resorts and villages all around the place. Its amazing! The guys who deal with the boats and baggage and passengers are nothing short of machines, as are the staff inside processing tickets (so many different types and passes) and destinations. In the Yasawas there are lots and lots of smaller relaxed backpacker style resorts, and a few really posh ones. So its common to tour around from small resort to small resort, infact there's even a pass to do that- the "Bula Pass". Here's one resorts transfer boat- ours wasn't that packed...and then Shiv waving bye to Regis as he hops off at Botaira, and the Wanna Taki, another accomodation option up there...
and here are the transfer boats at the stop closer to Nacula... Incidently Fiji is a small place. As we hopped back on the boat to go home (4 hours travel away) we bumped in Jonathan and family (about 8 hours travel from home, assuming they didn't fly)... small world...
While I haven't got any other photos of the staff that day (as I said, very busy and efficient) I did collar Akosita who was working on board that day on an earlier occasion to help me photograph an end of couch pose I was supposed to do for a course which I won't recommend to you. Because it wasn't all that good, though of course it wasn't all bad either...
Instead one course I will recommend is Brenda Tharp's "Creating Visual Impact" on Better Photo. This is a really really great course and I recommend it to anyone wanting to take better photos (as the name of the site implies)... Though you will need to be able to shoot in manual and have a bit of an idea first of course. One of the many excellent points she made was that the eye can see and analyse 11 stops of light (that's my wording ,not hers). And the camera obviously can't! The dark bits we can see get too dark, the light bits get too bright. That's where the first photo in todays post comes in- the other journey I have been making with some online friends (ina private forum) who are amazing photographers is exploring methods of "high dynamic range" where basically you take multiple exposures of the same picture and combine to try and keep detail in both the light bits and the dark bits. We found a whole lot of references, which I won't bore you with here, and started working on various photos... Of course I was too stingy to buy photomatix, despite the discount code which is part of this very interesting post on Flying Panther. Another post on "Backing Winds"
(he's a storm chaser! how cool is that!) assured me I could do some HDR in PSCS3, so I set about trying to learn that. I wasn't really succesful...
then one of the comments in his blog, amongst the argument for and against highly saturated photomatix images, had yet another method:-
" Unfortunately for me, most of my objects move during my long exposures, so the automatic HDR conversion doesn't work. I usually resort to the older stacking method (works in 8 or 16 bit):
1. brightest exposure goes to the bottom, darkest on top
2. copy the rgb brightness (luma) from the layer below and use it as the current layer mask
3. blur it slightly (to taste)
4. repeat with all remaining layers (all but the lowest layer have masks now)
5. manually fix the masks for objects that were moving or don't need HDR treatment
6. put an adjustment layer on top of the stack (levels or curves, as you like) to get the contrast back
7. adjust layer opacities to taste"
and apparently the result is a nice rich 16 bit image with no artifacts.
Sound tricky? yes I thought so too, but that didn't stop me giving it a go. So after lots of playing and experimenting the general vote was that Erica's HDR images using photomatix were the most exciting (and possibly easier to do too), despite the naysayers who write photomatix images off as too saturated etc. But the journey of working through all the different methods and experimenting sure did teach us a lot about photoshop and our images! So like the boat trip the journey was easily as important as the destination...
Here's one last image which has had a bit of help from photomatix, and a few of the other methods tried on it too... This is as we cross by the Blue Lagoon (yes the real one) to head around to the other side of Nacula from the big boat to our destination... Lisa has asked me to come up with 12 good photos from our visit to Oarsmans. But so far I have only narrowed it down to 140... No doubt I will post some soon, but don't hold your breath... till then, bye (sota tale)!
Is it really that long since the last post? Shame! I guess we have been busy... Firstly GB has been flat out with his job, and it looks like construction will start soon on a big gorgeous new pool out here on the island! yay! But the yay only comes from the aesthetic part of me which objects to the shape and form of the old one, and looks forward to one that will shape itself around the shade of the large tavola trees and with an infinity edge blend seamlessly into the beauty of the ocean beyond... (gosh I must be tired. I just spelt ocean "otion". well it sort of works...)... Because in reality the best place to swim here, hands down is out in the sea. It's closer to the pool than any bure for a start. And its fabulous...
I was surprised to discover my sis Jane never learnt to snorkel? [ok I know the question mark doesn't technically go there either, but you know I like how it works] I mean I did, and she's only 4 years younger than me. I suspect that the problem was that I had most likely lost or broken all the snorkelling gear by the time she was old enough to give it a go. I do remember being devastated at Mill Dam one time (near Oamaru- my fave swimming hole when I was little) (or was it Trotter's Gorge- another favourite spot?) when I dropped a snorkel out of my mouth and it sank into the water weed never to be seen again...
nb: I couldn't remember the name of Trotter's Gorge, I keep thinking "porky?" and then thought maybe Hutton's (a brand of ham and bacon in NZ). But I knew it was somewhere near Palmerston and look! the magic of google, there it is... I wonder what it's like these days (30 years later)...and er yes... that place really is called "Shag Point" and yep, that other place really is called "Shag Valley"...;)
Anyway we used to snorkel in the sea too, usually down further south in the incomparable Catlins.. For any sensible person alarm bells should now be ringing. The first two places mentioned were below the 45th parallel (ie further south than Oregon is North) and the Catlins further south (read "cold") again... So basically when you snokelled down there not only did you not see much except water weed or kelp (a giant seaweed)- a highlight might be seeing a Kina (sea urchin) -but also you were prone to terrible ice cream style headaches somedays from dipping your head for prolonged amounts of time in 10-13C water (50F). Brrrrr! Bracing! When I first visited Beachcomber in 1992 after a work conference at the Sheraton in Denarau I thought it was just heaven on earth and the most amazing place ever! Granted I was young and very impressed with features like a bar with beer on tap and a sand floor... but it took a day before I could be tempted to snorkel. "Ah snorkelling" I said "its not THAT exciting". But it was hot enough that I went in the water and WOW! there were all these fish! not plain coloured fish that you just saw scarpering away from a distance as you admired the kina you had found, no these fish were all sorts of brilliant colours and flocked around you and even the coral was all sorts of amazing colours... I was hypnotised and drifted out there for ages or rather until the locals decided to drive their glass bottom boat fast around and around us to give us a fright. As they do...
Oddly enough Rhys, who is younger than Jane did learn to snorkel- maybe with friends? But he had the same southern psychological snorkelling problem as me and in his 10 days over here only went out on his second to last day near Honeymoon Island while we were island hopping. His head shot out of the water in surprise and then he had the gall to say "you didn't tell me..." I tried Bro, I tried... Of course that was the moment the underwater point and shoot abruptly ran out of battery.
When we took J out for her first snorkel she had no preconceived ideas, and the water was nice and warm at least (about 29C). But as you may remember from that post in the dim dark past we had had storms and flooding on the mainland just the day before, so it was a bit murky, and yep there were a few sea lice as well. But it was good for a first go, we popped the gear on her and off she went. And despite the gloom this is what we saw...
So the conditions weren't great, we just went off the beach, but it was still a lot of fun, and some of the fish were very friendly and curious. After a while we decided to swim together back to the beach. Gran and I got back to the beach and congratulated ourselves on our gentle exercise. The waves (a slight swell) rolled us around a bit (sort of like beached whales, lots of jokes about watching out for people pouring buckets of water on us and trying to push us back into the tide...) -yeah/no I have a photo and I'm not going to post it... But then we saw Jane. As she came towards us she went into a slight turn, which continued until she was still kicking away thinking she was heading into shore- but she wasn't. Infact she was out by the buoys where we moor the boats! Gran was concerned and suggested I should swim out and stop her before she reached Australia. But I felt that any moment if we watched we would see her poke her head up, see she had gone the wrong way, be very surprised, and we would laugh. And that's what happened. It took her a while to get back in as the turning problem continued. One leg must be a bit stronger than the other?
Then once she finally got in she said "snorkelling can be really hard work if you're not careful"!
We headed to a kokoda making demonstration to relax. Kokoda (Kodonda) is a truly delicious fish dish. I won't try and describe it as it's much easier to just direct you instead to Wendy's recipe. It was made with fresh coconut milk. Yummy!
and by the next day the water was clear. How clear?
this clear... (mum the super kayaking snorkelling gran)
So I'll finish now before I make reading about snorkelling hard work too... that's if I haven't already! For something lighter (even though its NSFW as Wilson says (not suitable for work -or people sensitive about "bad" language- Bah you'll be fine)), and the funniest blog post I have read in a long time (Lisa and I are planning to memorise it) see this. Language is a wonderful thing. As Dame Whina Cooper said it is not a wall to separate us, it is a blanket that can keep us all warm. Or something like that, though I'm not sure that sort of post is what she had in mind it still rings true. Every kid I know here seems to know the words "sa kana oti?" and "sa bera!" regardless of their first language from a frequently shown instant noodles ad here. But Wilson's post is far more useful. And surprisingly T already knew a lot of them. He said they're the words the boat captains use when the engines stop... And after you've read that hit the tag "engrish". That's just so typical... hehehe. We have a sign here that says "keep door close"... (I am itching to take a photo of a bride hugging it- true fiji wedding photography)...
PS... a note on "sea lice". They're not actually lice. They're little teeny tiny broken pieces of hydroid (such as fire coral), that's why we tend to get a little after rough stormy weather. But we don't get much at all, luckily. And only once in nearly 2 1/2 years have I come across it bad enough that I've had to get out! Cold tea works quite well. Actually I reckon cold tea externally and hot tea internally is the best!
{Alita and Epeli help a guest find her dessert in the dark...}
Last night was of course "earth hour" an initiative by the WWF and to quote them..."A global event created to symbolize that each one of us, working together, can make a positive impact on climate change"
Treasure Island is committed to ecologically sustainable tourism, including protecting the environment and ensuring fair and equitable returns to the local landowners (who also own half the business- a very unusual situation for a commercial 3 1/2- 4 star resort in Fiji). Last year all of the hot water cylinders on the island were changed to gas on demand units- saving 182 tonnes of emissions each year... We also run our tractors on a locally produced coco-diesel, which not only has considerably lower emissions than the high sulphur diesel locally available, but also makes the tractor smell nice- as one guest said like cakes baking! So as far as possible within the bounds of safety there was no question we were going to participate in some way in earth hour...
At 8pm in the middle of dinner the lights went out... I thought it might be good practice to go and try and capture the feel of earth hour without using any flash...
The band was unplugged too, but a large and enthusiastic singing group took its place...
It was cosy in the bar in the lamp light... and it was Emosi's last night working with Fou as he is off to Bounty to work with team Saukuru...
and Mojee (Moses) just wanted to play ghosts...
Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, except one table who didn't speak english and I don't think really understood it wasn't a power cut, but never mind... its all about making a symbolic display, and at least there was some truly lovely singing!
Now I must get onto those snorkelling photos...
{...coming home the other night. I used a frame overlay from FlickR's ttv pool -it has a bit of a storm light look to it doesn't it? But it wasn't, indeed we've had some pretty solid sunshine...}
I felt bad recently when I read this in the NZ Herald:
Late-winter storms sock parts of US and CanadaA late-season winter storm slammed into the Ohio Valley on Saturday, forcing flight delays and cancellations at airports before heading out toward the eastern Great Lakes and the Northeast.
Canada also was being hit with a winter blast that snarled air traffic and wreaked havoc on the roads.
Snow totals from Ohio to western New York could exceed 15 to 20 inches by Sunday, the National Weather Service said. Ahead of the snow, freezing rain, ice and sleet fell from eastern Kentucky into New York state.
Ice and heavy, blowing snow closed Cleveland Hopkins International Airport around 11:45 a.m. EST, the Federal Aviation Administration said. It was not expected to reopen until Sunday morning.
The storm extends a brutal season for much of the central United States, where people have faced some of the heaviest snowfall and mix of wintry conditions in years.
Chicago was hit on Saturday by lake-effect snows whipped up over Lake Michigan, and was shivering in the coldest late-season temperatures in five years.
The city has had its snowiest winter since 1978-1979, overrunning its snow removal budget and leaving streets strewn with thousands of potholes.
A storm that hit eastern and central Canada was expected to leave parts of the country buried under more than 16 inches of snow over the weekend.
Many flights to and from Toronto, Canada's most populous city, have been canceled or delayed, according to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. But the city's Pearson International Airport remained open.
Air traffic also was reported affected in Montreal and the capital, Ottawa.
Weather advisories were in effect across Atlantic Canada, from rain and wind warnings in Nova Scotia to snow and freezing-rain warnings in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The storm has resulted in so many car crashes that police in Ontario were no longer attending crash sites. Instead, they were asking those involved in a collision to get a tow and report to a designated center, local media said.
I mean it seems to have been an almost endless winter for my online buddies over there, and I feel I should send some sunshine... I mean while we have been doing this...
Heidi's daughter has been doing this...
and she's been out photographing this...
I took the camera out for a swim the other day... here's Mum back on the shore reading a book...
Carole has also been out and about in Ontario. And it looks like this...
Laureen is further west and says its a little warmer now... Still here's one of her kids playing outside:
and here we are playing outside with the kids...
OK actually if I'm to be honest I'm posting these diverse pictures because in reality I love winters. Why else would I have travelled in such a way as to have consecutive winters (ie winter in NZ immediately followed by winter in USA/or Canada) not once, but twice! I love these snow shots, and I'd love to get out and take some too. BUT! its been such a long hard relentless winter over there. So I'm sending some sunshine to all my wonderful friends in the northern hemisphere -finishing with the other nights sunset (we were still coming home, so this is from the boat as we pulled up)...
The second one of course shows rugby practice. Please remember that while many of todays photos are not mine, they are still subject to copyright. Don't copy these photos please, without asking the photographer first. The award for the young lady who experienced the best of both worlds goes of course to Stace Chomlack from Whistler. If you view her blog at the moment you'll see both big beautiful pregnant tummies in the snow, but further down the page you'll see her shots from Fiji...
Other interesting reading I saw recently from the Online Photographer about the digital fashion for colours... All I can say in my defence is that I wear polarised sunnies! So it really does look like that to me... Coming next is Jane's snorkelling experience. I didn't think it would be fair on her really to post two posts in a row with her in the spotlight (but I can tell you its funny)!
No, we haven't got so callous that we race into town to watch misfortune... on the sunday night my mum and sister (alias Granny and Ape, ok lets just call her Jane) flew into Nadi to visit us, and we stayed the night in town so we could meet them at the airport. We stayed at the Nadi Bay Hotel (of course- we like to stay there or the Mercure as they don't break the bank AND they have great food which is not a given even at flash resorts). True to form we had a great meal at the Nadi Bay. But it was raining and raining and raining. We took comfort in the fact that its generally much drier out on the island. The next morning the plan was to let the travelers sleep in while I dropped the kids to school. Then we would sightsee until the boat at 4.30pm...
So they were not expecting the call just before 8am. Quick! get packed, we're going to town, its flooding...(so why are we going there?) Infact the school was closed as high tide was 0930 and it was still raining. If we were going to see Nadi the best thing to do was to get into town, assess the water level, park in the appropriate place, then do a bit of shopping and sightseeing while everything was still open. As it turned out the river didn't come into town as in this other time if it had of course I would've been all prepared with the car parked safely over the bridge and the rellies all in good shoes for walking in water. But the banks seem to be a different shape this year, and the village doesn't flood as much, which is good, very good. We headed to Bulaccino of course, the best spot to have brek, assess the situation, and watch local school kids walking past as the schools were closed early one by one...
So what do you buy as a souvenir if you have studied traditional cultural women's clothing as part of your university degree? A Salwar Kameez of course! Jane tried on maybe 100? no I am just kidding, but Gran and I did have to find seats before she was finished- luckily the one she did buy was gorgeous so we all voted it well worthwhile.
Then as a contrast to the fine cafe style of Bulaccino we had another local experience for lunch- dining at MH (which is a supermarket)! OK they do good basic curries, chowmein, chicken, fish and chips. Infact some of the best fish and chips I have had anywhere. And cheap as chips too! I didn't get much in the way of comments from the rellies there. Hopefully because they were too full and happy, and not (the possible alternative) too shocked to speak... Then to finish the day we hopped on the boat, still raining (I am assuring them there will be lots of sunshine and I have just arranged this to help them acclimatise), a huge swell and we bounce our way out to the island (Veniana throws up on the sink just off Bounty). Welcome to our paradise (tee hee)...
(visit from the rellies to be continued...Jane learns to snorkel and meets the local sea lice and mosquitoes)
Last night I had a raucous phone call from some blokes in a bar in Sydney (? well somewhere in Australia, I didn't ask for details). When was I updating my blog? Well it was too hard to explain on a patchy cell phone connection (quite fun actually, people often assume you've hung up on them when the call suddenly disconnects) that actually I did write a whole bloggy post about how it was really hot with tales of odd pharmaceutical encounters and boat mishaps and I was just thinking maybe I should edit it a bit before posting, maybe it had gone a bit too far when... bam! or more like click! the internet dropped out, I didn't realise and pressed preview and the whole lot was gone... so anyway Dom this is for you (that's right, not calls from fans, but from returnees...)! A preview of the release shots...
Just a sneak peek, there are lots more of course, but I have promised Laureen a whole post on the turtles, so I better get round to that soon, and remember hassling and nagging me is quite allowable!
To be frank I was a little too disillusioned to start another post again straight away, even if the lost one was a bit of a rubbish post. Basically it went on about how it was such a hot day for once I didn't mind sitting at the bank in a queue watching queue jumpers for 45 minutes- the air con is so good there I just took a good book and mellowed out. Lunch was another great moment as they had air con and....The Sunday Star Times (!!!) which a patron had bought back from NZ. It's so much better in the real thing than online, I have to say (even if that may not be very ecologically responsible... and crikey think of the carbon that thing emitted flying all the way from NZ). I had a really good giggle at the interview with Trinny and Susannah "Bold as Bras" (sic), I mean how often do you read comments like
""Your tits are f--ked," declared Trinny." and...
"They said I was a dusky beauty, with a proportioned hourglass figure, guaranteeing I would write only nice things about them." (I would too)!
I also got to practice several of my key phrases in Fijian that day- "kata kata na ndraki" (its hot today) and "kerea mada e dua na tavai wai LEVU" (I would like a LARGE bottle of water), on a truly hot day like that the streets are quiet, the people lie low, and there's time to flumox people with my terrible english accented vosa vakaviti...
Coming home that hot day the kids pretty much had the boat to themselves until Bounty Island where we picked up some staff. So they could sit on the front, or in T's case take shirts off (and read the girls magazine which seems to be shocking him).
But the hot day struck again. Or maybe it was me? I have only hopped on boats a couple of times in the last week. Because I am slack. And I like it out here on the island... But if I get on a boat lately it breaks down, and I don't want people to think the boats break down all the time, because that's simply not true! The other morning I dropped the kids off at school (they missed the bus- that wasn't a breakdown, just good old island slackosity) and went racing back to the marina to go back to the island feeling really bad that the boat may be waiting for me. It wasn't. My coffee was waiting for me (vinadu riki Suli!!), but the boat had a flat battery and wouldn't start. Oh it was just like student days again. Borrowing battery chargers (thanks guys you know who you are) and pulling batteries out of other vehicles (mine) to hook up with the jumper leads (mine again) for an extra kick... Of course being modern days now my car stereo is demanding its security code and the hot hot day I drove around singing along to the gentle hum of the airconditioning... And the boat on the hot day? Well the boat started fine but the heat was too much for it too. Just off home the boat overheated. We cruised home with assistance in the quiet evening breeze. Quite nice really...
There are so many more photos to post, and of course my sis and mum have been here and we have some lovely coral shots from that. But is it fair to put so much pressure on myself in this heat!!?
(deliberate mispellings in this post to avoid search engines...) Have I discovered possibly Fiji's most efficient g0vernment department? Well maybe. Last monday I hopped in the car and noticed the registration had expired. "That's odd" I thought "usually it gets done with the service?". Well whether it was because the car hadn't been left there long enough to do the reg too, or whether it was because they didn't have the insurance papers I don't know, but it not only hadn't been done, but I didn't know where the papers were, and a frustrating afternoon at the Lautoka office and running around in the heat failed to establish whether the car was insured and the papers were filed somewhere by hubby or staff, or if it wasn't insured at all. So I can't go and register it without the papers...
So on Friday I leave the island again to go to town- of course we don't drive out here, its too small. Our car stays parked on the mainland ( and by this time the insurance papers had been located and were at the office). Hubby suggested instead of facing the hell hole that can be the LT4 (yes that 4 has been substituted for an A to avoid search engines- L4nd Tr4nsport 4uthority!) to drop it to Neil at the office one day for him to do. I suggested I should then take Hubby's company car in, and when he comes in later he could take the car straight into the office. He said don't worry you'll be fine.
A lesser woman may have blamed her hubby and punished him extensively for the subsequent experience. But not me, I am too nice... (!!family please stop laughing now!!)...
So I have put the kids on the school bus so I can nip straight down to Denerau for combat class. I am in shorts and exercise t-shirt but luckily have a sulu (sarong) on too, because just by the airport I am caught in a giant LT4 checkpoint! I am told to get out of my car as it is now IMPOUNDED and will be towed away... I phone Graeme. He says it sounds a bit extreme (and he will fax the insurance papers to their office!), I point out that it is meant to be a punishment! So I sit amongst the illegal vans (I will explain those later!) and the broken down early 70's datsuns and toyotas and wait. The LT4 lads are furiously writing tickets for the little pile of driver licenses in front of them. One guy is protesting that he has all his companies stock and $700 in takings in his van and isn't allowed to take it out or leave it... The school bus goes past and the kids yell to our kids "hey your mum's been speeding" (they said they were very embarrassed. I said think of how embarrassed they would have been if they'd been in the car and I'd had to flag down the bus and put them on it after the car was impounded... Lucky they got on the bus at the marina)...!
By now there are more than a few vehicles in the sting and it is decided they don't need to tow mine. "Actually" I say "I should probably stop at the money machine". They nod in agreement, not only is Fiji a cash society, but unbeknown to me its actually going to cost me 5 different and for the most part hefty fees to get my vehicle back, which explains why half the cars in the impound lot have tall grass growing around them...
So the next step is to put us in convoy with the tow trucks and the LT4 ute with the flashing lights with LT4 men in the passenger seats incase we try to do a runner... at this point I ponder how to safely drive slumped so low that no one will recognise me as I go past... But then a lucky break- I am allowed to just drive off while they wait another 10+ minutes to finish up, go to the $$ machine, and meet them at the LT4 office! yay!
(So this is why I am avoiding the search engines- not because of scathing political comments that may get me deported, but because the guys were so NICE to me! I'm afraid I may get them in trouble.. The search engines are an insidious thing. I mean while I'm flattered and delighted that other people read and even sometimes enjoy my blog, I do wonder at some of the search categories that access it (nothing rude though, touch wood). Yesterday according to my stats people read my blog googling images of "anke hairy girl" and "scary underwater pic", and yep you guessed it, both ended up being referred to the underwater photo of my hairy pre-wax legs. Though I actually thought "scary underwater pic" was quite apt as a tag... but I digress).
So I head down to Namaka and get some cash out. I realise I may be trapped at the LT4 for some time so like an escaped crim I sneak into MH and treat myself to the Australian Marie Claire (always a good read) as well. I drive down to the LT4 office and am sitting on the benches when the convey arrives... flashing lights, tow truck and drivers with LT4 men next to them in their fluro safety jackets... I am exceptionally relieved to have escaped that!
The insurance papers have been faxed thru, so now I just have pay the fine, the towing fee (in my case a "driving surcharge"!), the inspection fee, the impound fee and if the car passes the inspection another fee to get the sticker to put on the windscreen (or something like that!). Each one of these steps necessitates sitting in a row of chairs (about 20) moving around step by step until you get to the window. The canny get other people to sit there for them (or just send other people altogther like hmmm we usually do when we get the mechanics to do it with the grease and oil change service!!). The LT4 is an anomaly as far as Fiji g0vernment departments go- instead of shutters and louvre windows, fading paint and (like the p0lice) battered old vehicles there's a slick glass building and flash late model utility vehicles... But only 2 windows open out of 8-10 so there's a long wait as they line you up to hand over your $$$... again and again... (as I said very efficient. very efficient at taking your $$ off you)...
Anyway I'm sitting in the line for my first payment (fine and impound fee, testing fee) when I am taken aside again. I will need a stamp from the insurance company to prove the fax is not forged. So I drive back down to Namaka to get the stamp! I need to go to the toilet now and there aren't any. So I go to a cafe and get a flat white to go to. I mean I have to buy something to use their toilet eh? Then after that refreshing little coffee break (I slug back the coffee on the drive back to the LT4) it's back to the queue.
I get my car tested which consists of driving it round the block and admiring the V6 (not many of these cars in Fiji are a V6 infact to our knowlege only 2, and ours was the first. It took Mesake all day to register it the first time as they had to create a whole new category in the Hyundai Tuscan section. Poor guy. Lucky it was him and not us or it may have taken 2-3 days!!).
Then I must queue again to get the sticker. The line is now up to 25. So I'm approaching the front of the queue and Nat, a friend who also was trying to fix her registration (see I am effective as a horrible warning even if I can't set a good example) comes out from testing area. She looks at the line in disgust, mutters something about coming back another time and bails...
So finally I am finished, have a shiny new purple sticker, a major hole in my wallet and am free to go. It has taken 4 1/2 hours. So to celebrate I take one last shot of my car in the impound lot. I am shouting "look mean! look meaner!!!" to the security guard. He is trying not to laugh...
The odd thing was the grass really was that colour, if you look at the car and the uniform you can see I haven't been leaning on the saturation. It must have been the time of day and the recent rain...
note the van by our car... In Fiji vans which are not registered for public transfer operate illegally and pick up passengers running in and out of town. They are really cheap, eg 50c from the airport to town (a 20 minute trip). Friends of ours who are Maori were standing outside the airport hotels last year looking for a (legit) taxi. Suddenly a van screeched to a halt in front of them (of course from a distance they looked Fijian). "Town?" asked the driver "Well yes" Auroa replied "We were looking for a taxi". "Ah!" said the driver "we are the illegal van services! 50 cents!" (I kid you not, this is what Auroa and her aunty told us, and I believe it too... t.i.f...). They looked inside the van and Fijian and Indo Fijian people were smiling back at them and nodding, so they hopped in! They loved it so much they spent all the rest of their holiday using vans for transport and perfected the little hand wave you use to pull them over... actually we have other friends who can remain un-named as they live here who also use these vans. As the vans were pulled off the road at the checkpoint that morning the passengers were simply hopping out and piling into taxis and buses...
Finally as this post has been a little "all about me" I'm going to add my favourite find of this week. And eventually a button on the side bar to boot. I was reading about image theft on flickr and discovered the blog of Rebekka Gudliefsdottir. She is Icelandic so there are a lot of missing symbols above the letters in that name as I have typed it.... sorry. Her blog gave me a rare feeling. It was SO good I actually didn't want to share it! I wanted to keep it to myself while I studied and absorbed it... Her blog is here and there is also an interesting TV piece about her which is here and well worth a look for an overview of her portfolio. And of course she's on flickr where it all began...
Although it is maybe insensitive to post her photos here after the image theft incident please know that I am in no way claiming these as mine!!! The following are two of my favourites of Rebekka's to encourage you to go on over and have a look (I feel bad about my initial instinct to keep her from you...). This first one I love as some of her multi images where she stars several times remind me of the assignment Tony Bridge (in sidebar) set where we had to do a pano of our "life" with us in it 4-5 times. Of course I am only in it twice, but the current banner of this blog is the result. And the other one? Like most of her landscape it is just stunningly beautiful. And she can draw too...
Thanks for looking! My Mum and Sister are here at the moment. I don't know if this will make me post more as they are providing some hilarious material, or less as they keep me busy? We'll see...
PS here's another related photo. Its a roadside fish stall and if you look closely you can see the speed trap by the tree. But I like the hands of the guy, it looks like he's saying "and the one that got away was THIS big...". I don't know if that is what he was saying, apart from the fact he's probably speaking Hindi we were across the road in the car at the time waiting for someone. The stuff behind them is sugar cane on a cane train...
Once upon a time some handsome business men met some smart funny attractive (business) women. They married them and had babies, not always in that order. Then they moved to Fiji where the smart funny attractive women were banned by the government from working. They were forced to learn how to lunch...
This is Chrissy's birthday and the venue is Tu's Place in Martintar, Nadi; where they do a mean soup, and a fantastic 3 in 1 salad amongst other great feeds on the menu. Its not always fun being home from school as you can see. And you can tell its a special occasion as some of us have even put watches on!! I promised Chrissy I would post this at the time. Finally got round to it!!
and here's lunch... yum!!!
