Diving Monday + Cupcakes

Tomorrow, William turns 5 but we held his party yesterday (Sunday)  at UP's, the local Cine/Bowling/Food Court complex - which took 8 years to build, bankrupted the developer, who is now in court for fraud as the former owner of Western Union - from which he apparently used funds to build UP's....

It's all reads a bit like a Peter Mayle story -swop Caribbean for South of France, but I, for one am very grateful for his selfless community sacrifices and the kiddies 'Jimmy Jungles' play area - saviour of parents. The party was fabulous, enjoyed by William's entire class of exceptionally noisy 5 year olds and their parents - most of whom were all looking & feeling a bit fragile after a very good grown-up party the night before.  Being new to the island, and not (yet) invited - I of course was being Uber Mummy, icing cupcakes on a Saturday night, and hence was feeling Red Bull energetic on a Sunday, which is unusual really.

William and his self-declared future wife, Asia (another Saffa)

Anyway, today I'm clapped  - clearly the price for perfection but also after 8 hours of diving and being on a very choppy boat, but we did finally qualify today - and what complete fun it was. Up until now we had pretty much had private lessons, and very quiet and sedate dives in calm waters. Today was completely different. We had a boat-load of Other People, all Americans down for Thanksgiving holidays ( I found out today, to my horror, that the school CLOSES for 2 days for Thanksgiving. Most of the kids are either British or Other, and only a very small minority is American - but over 60% of the teachers are American - being an International School with the IB Programme. Damn).

But back to diving: We've also had high winds, rain and an actual cold front (a relative term) so today was really horrible weather, but this did not dampen the spirits of our dive boat and the 12 people on it.  

We had 2 DM's - a very mad Italian and an insane Brit -  who were so rackety and up for fun, that I did wonder for a minute or two. But good old PADI achtungness, never lets you down and we had excellent dives, in fairly trying conditions (panicky newbies, lost fins, broken masks, crappy O rings - and then finally -  lost toursists). We saw three sharks - the first one as I put my face into the water on getting in and still had my snorkel on and a subsequent 3 after that. It went downhill from there. When we got to the bottom (40 ft) even the DM's had to admit it was one of the biggest nursery sharks they had seen - wallowing about 10 metres in front of us, eyeing us out with their horrible little eyes. Anyway after Tyler had buddy-signed that it was probably not a good idea for me to dig holes with my nails into his arm (blood...) I calmed down a bit and remembered to breathe again. I'm now so over sharks...

A feature of here is 'Rendevous' (ie collected and dropped off from our yacht or boat). So, when it came time to drop off some of our very fun guests from Pittsburgh - they couldn't remember the name of their boat (this after several Red Stripes). So to cut a long story short, we drove (is this the right word?) around looking for their charter, which took a looooonnnng time, but provided a fascinating, albeit wet & windswept guided tour of Peter & Norman island inlets, moorings and sounds.

We finally got back at 4pm (usually back by lunch-time)  and then had to go racing off to pick up the kids from school (only an hour late). Thank heavens for after-care and a small community who "know the Dawsons always dive on a Monday" so knew we hadn't abadoned the children (tempting as this often seems).

I'm also starting to plan quite vigourously - my 10 day trip 'off-island' to London & Joburg. I can't even begin to tell you the logisitics necessary for this. Needless to say, yet another vast cast is necessary - mainly from the Phillipines, but also a few new friends and some solid back-up from a good team in the office. It all feels a little bit too soon, although I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone again. I feel like I've only just left - in fact there must even be a few people who never knew I had even left in the first place.

I leave Friday 26th - am in London on Saturday for Xmas shopping, get into Joburg on Sunday morning & am back in London again, the following Sunday. Return to the West Indies on Wednesday 8th Dec with my Mother, who is spending a month with us over Christmas.

If I feel tired now, how do you think I'll be by Friday?  When you all see me back in Joburg or London, looking so laid-back - it's actually going to pure sleep deprivation and an overdose of cupcake baking.