ANSWER TO BURNING QUESTION.....

I have received a few emails asking about the Web Cam link and how to use it- first off I should tell you that as we are on Atlantic time there may be a significant time difference (Example- it is pitch black here now at 6:00 pm so if you click on the webcam at night during this time of year, there is not much to see!)

Every email I have had so far on the webcam says "I don't see a thing- there must be something wrong!"
Actually there is nothing wrong, its just in ID10T error! and you just have to do a few things to activate it.

First you would click on the control icon across the top. Then go over to the left hand side and click on View size- I usually select 640x480 but choose whatever size works best for you. The arrows are to move around. The other drop down menu below that usually comes up as blank but if you select it there are a number of locations to select- IE: Airport, Gibbs Hill lighthouse etc. Pick one and VOILA- live shots of Bermuda!

Enjoy!

THANKSGIVING DAY..

Well today was American Thanksgiving and I had the day off. Its a funny day for a holiday but I'm not complaining as its always nice to sleep in and just let the day unfold. In Canada Thanksgiving is always on a Monday so we always had a long weekend and I think if we were in the states that they turn it into a four day weekend.

They do not observe Thanksgiving here in Bermuda but because I work for an American company we get today off as well as the fourth of July so it was a good day to go to town as everything was open,unlike official holidays when NOTHING is open. It was pretty quiet which was great- not too many tourists around this week- I think the cruise ship season is pretty much over and with all the exempt companies off today it was nice to walk around without tripping all over tons of people.

It was a day of giving thanks as WE BOUGHT A CAR!! Its a sign of how much our lives have changed that we are actually excited to be the PROUD owners of a 2006 KIA Picanto! (We would not have been caught dead in a car like this in Canada but the prices are obscene here and we actually bought this car at an estate sale for a very good price.) It only has 420 K on it so it has not even been broken in yet and we get it Friday so this weekened will see us exploring parts of the island we have not yet seen yet. The photo is off the net but the one we bought is "Diamond Blue" which is sort of a blue/grey color. When we first saw it I had doubts that there would be enough headroom but it is surprisingly roomy and as it is a Class A car, it is the cheapest to license- you pay an annual fee based on how long the car is- for this car, our annual license fee is 276.00- the bigger the car, the more it costs and some cars are over 1400 a year for PLATES- we are not talking insurance here! It has air, JVC stereo system and has airbags and ABS(you need that here as the roads get slick when it rains- I always thought it was just necessary for driving in snow and ice!) The estate sales are held here weekly by the Good Riddance Girl and so we also picked up some nice furniture. Just have to arrange for delivery of that and we are pretty much all set up with everything we need.( Emoo is great for stuff too and we have picked up a few things off that site too)

We have changed our minds regarding the golf course we are going to join- Initially we were going to join Belmont Hills but Riddells Bay has a more flexible arrangement for guest workers in that they offer a 3 year membership which if we end up staying longer than that we can covert to a full membership. None of the other clubs currently offer term memberships and as these are not equity memberships it makes more sense to go this route. One of the nice things too about Riddells is their affiliation with the Fairmont Southampton- We will have privileges at their course as well as full use of their beach club and discounts at the restaurants and spa.

Once the car is transferred, the rest of the furniture is delivered and the golf club membership is approved we are totally set!

HOME SWEET HOME

Well, we have been in our new home for a few weeks now and the first 10 days were a bit of a challenge as our stuff was sitting on the docks. Even though our landlady left us dishes,cutlery and linens, we had very limited cooking abilities as she left a very small frying pan so could only make one burger at a time kind of thing. We did not have any pots or pans so could not really use the oven or stove until our stuff arrived. We had some TV Dinners and microwaveable kraft dinner( surprisingly tasty!) November 9th the truck pulled up with all our goodies. It was like Christmas as we had not seen our stuff since July and were not even sure what we brought with us! I was so worried about my tea set being in pieces ( I inherited it from my mom and it is irreplaceable) so that was the first box I opened and BIG SIGH of relief- it was in perfect condition. Actually everything was, even the lightbulbs, all our artwork and my crystal animals are all OK.

Now that we have unpacked it all, we realize we need a few things like bookcases and some display cabinets or the like. We have lots of storage space but the one thing this place does not have is any shelving or counterspace although there is tons in the kitchen. (Like we need that!) My bathroom is tiny and there is no counterspace at all: just a pedestal sink, no medicine cabinet or anything and so its been fun doing my hair and makeup- no where to store the stuff and no where to put it while trying to get ready,although I must say it is nice to have my hair dryer back.

Gorhams(one of the hardware stores- sort of Bermuda's answer to Canadian Tire but on a smaller scale)has all kinds of storage solutions and I saw 2 things there last week that I may get- one is a vanity on a pole kind of thing- it has a place to store your hairdryer, a little round makeup table that wraps around the pole [it kind of reminds me of old fashioned floor lamp], a mirror and it stands about 6 feet high. The other thing is a storage unit that goes over the toilet and is about the same height with shelves to put towels etc. I had sold my vanity set because I didn't think we would have room for it here but we do have the room in the second bedroom which is going to end up being an office for the most part. Right now its just a place to put everything that needs to go on a shelf or in a display case! We had to throw out all our hangars that we brought as for the most part they were wire and you cannot use them here as they rust. Has to be plastic or wood and even plastic hangars cost an arm and a leg here! Basically a buck a piece for crappy ones and they go up quite a bit from there,especially the pant and skirt hangars. We also learned why every closet in the house has a light-I thought it was to see what was in there but they are not walk-ins so it seemed kind of silly. Apparently you are supposed to leave them on all the time as it helps keep down the mold and mildew. Today I learned how quickly things get mildewed or moldy (not sure which but my green suede jacket is now pinkish so tomorrow its time to go buy the closet heater- from normal to moldy in 10 days- I still cannot believe it. I never heard of closet heaters before but apparently we really need them.( Fortunately that particular jacket is machine washable suede but it remains to be seen if you can actually get that crap off!
Probably going to be very sorry I kept my suede and leather stuff as the rest of it is not machine washable.) Other things we have learned: You have to turn your dark stuff inside out so it doesn't fade because of the light being on all the time. We have a great book that is basically a survival guide for living here -Its called Tea With Tracey and its full of great information- Who knew you would have to put cork behind all your artwork so it doesn't get moldy? Or that you have to buy closet heaters (in addition to leaving the lights on) I never knew half the stuff we are using here even existed- Here its all about dehumidifying, in Calgary it was the opposite- trying to put enough moisture in the air. ( On the plus side I have not had to moisturize 2x a day to keep my skin nice, I don't moisturize at all anymore)

Then there are all the tips one must know to keep your home bug free- all the drains in the sinks and tub need to be kept closed or you get disgusting centipedes and the biggest F"ing spiders I have ever seen. My love affair with Bermuda went down a notch the day that I saw my first cockroach in the kitchen. After I finished freaking out, the can of Baygone came out and as I had no idea where the little bastard went, I sprayed everywhere. Apparently this stuff is toxic to bugs and people and is to be used sparingly (As my hairdress says- these guys can survive nuclear reactions but they cannot survive Baygone so it has to be pretty harmful.) We also hear that windex is a good bug killer and to get rid of ants we just put pennies down and they run like hell. Everything goes in the fridge and I mean everything. No food goes in the cupboards unless you want to have an infestation of something and every crumb is picked up or swept away the second it hits the ground. I am afraid to take out the garbage at night as we have a central place to put it and I have visions of bugs everywhere in the little garbage room, although I must admit that have never seen any in it during the day.

We still do not have a car and hopefully that will change very soon. Friends of ours have a car and so they are nice enough to come pick us up to go out to dinner and the like. I am sure if we had asked they would have driven us to town the day we got our ironging board but we took the bus in and cabbed it back. There is nothing quite so frustrating as going to the hardware store in town (Hamilton) and buying an ironing board, garbage cans and the like and then having to schlep it for blocks until you find a taxi to take it all home. Even grocery shopping is a pain in the ass- you only buy 2 bags worth of stuff at a time as it is a hilly walk back to our house. Last weekend was Rememberance Day so nothing was open on Saturday and nothing is ever open on Sundsays. I had Monday off in lieu so we went to the car dealership and it was closed then too- they observed Rememberance Day on both the actual day and the Monday so we will try again next weekend unless we find something on emoo before that. Today we actually decided that since we needed beer, wine and diet coke in addition to food, that we would do a big shop and take a cab home. We had about 8 bags for 300 bucks and there is no fresh fruit or vegetables to be found in that. I broke down and brought some fresh fruit recently and paid 5 bucks for a handful of grapes. I would not mind paying the high prices if the quality was decent but by the time the stuff gets here, gets through customs, off the docks and into the store its awful (moldy, mushy or both) We are now just buying canned or frozen fruit which I don't much care for but at least its fruit. Cannot seem to find fresh carrots here at all and usually get my veggies when we eat out.

We were off island this week in New York and we were actually supposed to be in Boston too but our flight was cancelled twice on Thursday night so there was no point going Friday as my meetings there were in the morning and I would have missed them. We had planned to come home on Sunday but came back last night instead as dealing with the wonderful staff at Delta was a nightmare- Surly, growly customer service agents who don't seem to know how to rebook a reservation ( Our flight back to Bermuda was on American Airlines and their service is far superior.)

This was one of those times I was glad that I was on company business as our room for the extra night in New York was $555.56 US. As the IROP was weather Delta didn't do anything for us and all the hotels near JFK were sold out. We ended up checking back into the same hotel we had checked out of earlier in the day (Same rate per night for the previous couple of days- I keep thinking of my WestJet days whenever I travel for business and wonder how much more could be added to the bottom line if we actually had to stay in reasonably priced accomodations.) While we never made it to Boston, our luggage is still there. When the flight was cancelled, we went to the baggage claim area and were told it would be 4 hours before the bags were off the plane due to all the other cancellations and that we could just come back in the morning and get them. Well we did and they were not there! Today we were expecting them on the 12:30 flight from Boston to Bermuda but they were not on it- apparently whoever did our claim file did not finish the file so the message to retrieve the bags never went though- maybe tomorrow... I sure hope they arrive as we did some shopping and all our new clothes and drugstore stuff is in those bags. ( I love Century 21!!!) I paid the duty on everything so hopefully we will see it all again someday.

We did mangage to have some fun in between work while we were in New York and went to see Spamalot. It was hilarious! I am NOT a Monty Python fan but I loved it. We had the most amazing meal in Little Italy at a place called Grotto Azurra. It was the best meal I have had in a long time- we both had the fixed price menu so we were not expecting the portions to be so big- For 19.00 you get to choose a pasta dish and an entree- I had baked ziti and a skirt steak (still not sure what cut that is- going to have to look that up but it was excellent) Hubby had spagetti and meatballs and chicken parmesana and we both had the BEST cannollis we have ever had. We recently had some in Bermuda and until we discovered this place in New York, those were the best but now the ones at Portofino rank in as number 2.
Also went to Stage Door Deli again as they have outstanding corned beef sandwiches. Had some nice business lunches too but cannot remember the names- lots of great restuarants in the financial district.

Thats it for this update- we are heading off to the beach for some rays. New York was grey and gloomy the whole time we were there so need to spend some time in the sun.