So where did I leave you my fine readers, oh thats right - long ago in mango bay. well, its 4 days later and i am roughly about 2 hours away from where I was in my last post - what can I say, we work on Fiji time here!
So Thursday brought about another early start, with more rain than anticipated but generally a nice beginning to what was going to be another lovely, wet day. we were on our way to Uprising resort, somewhere that according to good old lonely planet was the best place to go shark diving (something i was very much looking forward to doing!) along with being apparently somewhat more comfortable than other places - and with the exception of a quick stop off so that some of the group could take a waterfall trek (meh, water's water and trek means climbing so no thanks) we had arrived by late morning :)
What a place. I mean really, what a place. apart from the slight fact that it was raining, a lot, and after we had taken advantage of the breakfast buffet on advice from our driver, we were delightfully told we then had to pay (dont worry, we're backpackers! we dont pay for s***!) it really was a beautiful little place. after about an hour waiting for our rooms to be ready, and numerous games of pool, i found out that me, dave, gemma, christine and morgan were all in separate accommodation, a posh little house of our own in fact! With a kitchen, own bathroom and even a living room area!I felt a bit bad for everyone who was just in the bunks! but then again us 5 were staying for 4 days as opposed to the one night like the rest of the group so fair do's really...
The day went on, or should i say rained on, and we had a massive 'family' lunch with everyone followed by a coconut show which involved various people dressing up in what can only be described as traditional coconut dress - highly amusing from my point of normal attired view! Then of course there was the pool tournament... now i should mention that I am quite obnoxious when I play pool, especially when i beat boys like dave on that last wondrous shot potting the black. However, Rachel is also obnoxious at pool, and us teamed together brought about not only an awesome winning streak but also an atrociously arrogant and yes im going to say it again obnoxious stream of A team quotes - 'I love it when a plan comes together!' - you see what can appear as lucky shots that were in no way planned are in fact carefully thought out plans of attack created in the minds of such amazing people like me and Rachel...it IS all part of the plan, i assure you :P
The evening, which was going to be my last evening with Chris, Rachel and Joe (much sadness) since they were heading off in the morning with Gerry, involved basically a bottle of bounty rum and an impressive rant about dog tags and sweat bands! - If there is one man who knows how to rant it is sure as hell Chris Dale! I had forgotten up until then that this wasn't a month long trip like Kiwi, that i was only guaranteed their company for a few days and although dave and some others were staying, i probably wouldn't see the others again, at least for a while. Still, it was great to see them and spend time with them in the sun for once!
The next morning over breakfast I said my goodbyes, or at least tried to since Chris was still hilariously drunk, and settled in for a few days of sunbathing in the slowly emerging sun :) our little group of 5 hung out for most of the day, learning about the Fijian tradition of wearing flowers in your hair (very important - right side = taken, left side = single, and, as was kindly pointed out by the ever subtle Dave, wearing your flower in the middle just means you're confused!) and running around searching for my missing laundry which had apparently been switched with some random man's who was living a few doors down! (he had MUCH nicer stuff than me by the way!) The evening involved dinner, a bottle of wine, some cards and nice freshly caught food :) so definitely not too shabby.
Saturday was much the same, not that I'm complaining, but yes there was unexplainable rain, there was glorious lobster for dinner and there were countless examples of Fiji Time at it's best. Have I mentioned Fiji Time before? Well it's like normal time except in Fiji, which means actually it runs 10 times slower than normal time and everyone just does stuff when they feel like it - which leads to people being generally much happier because no one expects anything to be done in the first place. I'm going to try and implement Fiji Time when I get back to the UK, I think it might work, at least it would be a good excuse for technicians and delivery people who don't turn up when they should! A couple of new pieces of information from today however:
1. Dave has tiny ankles
2. Dave uses women's flowery scented heel cream
3. Even in the rain I can get sunburnt. A lot. I think I'm a medical marvel.
We did also take a walk down to the local market when the sun finally came out in an attempt to find some new flip flops and a nice sarong or two but unfortunately the town had succumb to Fiji Time and by 1pm the early morning market still wasn't open. Oh well.
SO that leads me to today. Sunday 4th July, or as the screaming partying group of Americans on the other side of the pool call it - Independence Day. Oh yes, the perfect way to celebrate America's Independence Day is apparently to travel to Fiji on the other side of the world and confuse a resort full of Fijians with funny flag banners with a lot of stars on them. I guess the old firework display and BBQ is so last decade - best to leave the country completely.
As if the impromptu freedom BBQ wasn't enough, it's actually been sunny today! Yes that's right, sun AND free charred lumps of well something, but they were free! And since I'm a girl I was allowed to go up for seconds! I didn't even want them to be honest but I felt that since Dave wasn't allowed more steak and really wanted it, it was my job no, my duty, to go and get some, push it around the plate a bit, and then leave it. Its power gone mad I tell you!
Although the bad side of it being sunny, I got burnt AGAIN today - like really burnt, think Joan of Arc without the religious crap. Well kids I can tell you now, heat stroke plus wine makes you do very silly things indeed, in my case, about an hour ago I was convinced that flashing my shirt open as I left the restaurant would somehow stop my skin from sizzling. Seemed like a really good idea at the time, and I definitely gave some guy a bit of a shock (in all fairness he shouldn't have been lurking by the pool in the dark...) but it still hasn't cured my sunburn. Strike 1 for dumbass ideas.
That's about it for now, the evening will last about as long as the bottle of wine sitting by my side and then its bye bye Uprising Resort in the morning and hello bus full of new people to hang with...
xxx