Monday, March 17, 2008

Jollies and Gin Trollies!





I am getting a little too good at this hiatus thing! This could be in part due to being uber busy at the moment and not having so much time on the 'puter to blog the banal, or it could be due to the fact that I am losing my leetle grey cells again.......as it appears there is a small bun in the oven sucking them dry!

We have just returned from an ........interesting.......trip to The Bahamas. I say this as we were on a mission there to renew our visas, the choice of destination wasn't a choice for a holiday per se, merely the better of other choices outside the US for one week that spoke English, wasn't five hours ahead and wasn't 35 below! and after all, who can complain about being forced to the warmth of the Carribean for a week?

As I have said before, holidays are for the mad, the childless and the desperate. Queues, lost luggage, delays, missed flights, living things sharing the same bed at night (and this is after Mr Beehive and all small Beehives), cancelled trips AND mislaid visas, not much more one could pack into a week really!

Nassau, we felt, was a little "Marbella-ish" - but perhaps that is just our hidden snob popping its nose out or a sign we are heading towards the wrong side of 40 rather than the right side of 14!

It was riddled with cruise ship visitors and many, many spring break teens all delightfully drunk and loud, supping yards of beer from containers designed to match their own overbaked skin (I am sure I was never like this, nor will my children ever be....off to pop my head back in the sand!). Puke stains decorated the corners in strategic places and even the sellers in the straw market looked pissed off and too tired to barter! For the "other-end" of the market, there was Paradise Island where one could mingle with the likes of TomKat and Oprah, spend a night at The Atlantis Hotel in the $250,000 per night suite overlooking the cruise ships, drink Marguaritas on the locals' floating gin palaces or ride in helicopters to shop for extortionately priced diamonds and other bling.

But moans aside (which, were they to happen singularly, we would have just laughed at, but altogether does appear somewhat of a conspiracy!!) it was semi relaxing, very warm and pretty enough. The boys and I managed to feed sting rays and see a wild sea turtle (that was the highlight of my trip. I have seen one before, in Sri Lanka, it rode alongside our boat for a short while, but it never ceases to fascinate me when I see wildlife in its true habitat, particularly rarer creatures such as turtles!). Mr Beehive, however, saw more of the inside of the American Embassy than he would care to remember.


New Providence has some glorious parts, the outer islands and the sea itself, the coral reefs (a diver's paradise!) and some secluded beaches here and there, but there is a need to seek the rose amongst the thorns . We won't be returning in a huge hurry.

1 comment:

siobhan said...

Glad you're back. Run that bit about the bun in the oven by me again. The way you just slipped such a monmentus bit of news in like that makes me wonder if I've got it wrong. Many congratulations!!