The time difference means we have been having plenty of late nights/early mornings watching the happenings in Beijing. Unfortunately the biais is very much in favour of the French team...even more unfortunately they are winning far more medals than the British! You should have seen Bertie leap and whoop for joy when Alain Bernard one the swimming - it even woke his poor dad! Now we are on to the athletics, we will be lucky to see Bertie at all...
BTW it always astonishes me the events they have at these Games. My latest funniest sport is Greco-Roman fighting! That must keep Malc very happy! Bertie is happy too, as two french brothers got gold and bronze in it!
Friday, 15 August 2008
A Lovely Lunch
We lunch at Bertie's sister's on Wednesday and were treated to a meal fit for a king...Starter - boudin blanc (like black pudding but the blood free version preferred by the protestant Christians here), salad, potato accras
Next - rice and pois kaan (like small kidney beans?); madere, bread fruit, steamed plantain and banane figue in their skins, so yummy
Next - cockerel in a very nice sauce
Next - whole fish (you can see her cooking the 20 kilos of them in the above photo) By this time you can imagine we were getting a bit full but we were instructed that we could only take a full fish, no halves!
Dessert - mango, water melon, pineapple, melon skewers
Next - sorbet des iles - we had corossol, cerise de pays, guava
All washed down with a ti punch (I had a homemade passion fruit one which was so strong it took me the entire 3 hour meal to drink! and plenty of local juice and water
I have put in italics all the ones I don't know in English and my dictionary is still in shipping. Let me know if you find the translations!
Caribbean Girl
Wednesday saw LissaLou transformed into a true Island girl by her Tatie.
Plenty of patience was required as plait after plait was formed
Coming on nicely
Et voilà! Nearly an hour later...
We hardly recognised her! She should be a lot cooler now and has received lots of compliments for her new look from the family.
No chance of CassCass sitting still that long so she will have to remain a wild child!
Plenty of patience was required as plait after plait was formed
Coming on nicely
Et voilà! Nearly an hour later...
We hardly recognised her! She should be a lot cooler now and has received lots of compliments for her new look from the family.
No chance of CassCass sitting still that long so she will have to remain a wild child!
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Transport En Commun
Given our lack of car, on Tuesday we decided to go off to Pointe à Pitre by bus. This used to be a terrifying prospect, but they have been making improvements to the system so it was quite enjoyable.
Buses here (no trains in our country, sniff!) are coaches and often belong to an individual or family. They follow their own rules and timetables, don't run after about 7pm and are quite unique. In true French style, they also have a tendency to strike - often for months on end! Hence the excessive number of cars on the tiny island.
With the old style, you board either the front or back door, then pay the driver on getting off. The new ones who have been officially registered take payment at the front only (90 cents rather than a euro!) They even give a receipt; we mused over whether ticket inspectors haev arrived in Gudeloupe! The old depend on open windows for air com, the new are full of mod cons such as air con and seat belts.
All coaches have one thing in common though - music blaring out loudly! Tough if you don't like it! Previously, they had pull up seats that meant there was no aisle, a nightmare to get out of if you were unfortunate enough to be in the middle of the bus. Happily for us with three kids and buggy in tow, the aisle has now returned! I still don't think I could do the journey alone though. Buggy friendly buses have not reached the island!
Here is a picture I found on the web of one (We were too busy juggling baby, bag, buggy to take one!)
On the way, Bertie told me that the driver was one who, in his prime and when Bertie was at lycée, a good 15 years ago, all the girls fancied and waited just to take his bus! There is a front seat and a soft middle bit you can sit on if you know the driver and fancy a chat, and apparently this was the goal of his female classmates!
Our mission was to get new flip flops for the girls so we went to rue Frébault. I am not exaggerating when I tell you there were 20, possibly more shoe shops in that one street! It is very long and busy, just think a narrower version of Oxford Street. Many shops have MCs who stand at the door with a mike trying to entice you in!
Letting the girls loose in the shoe shop was like all their Christmasses come at once! Shoe after shoe went on their little feet, each showed off to us and duly admired before the next came on. I can see that being a good place to go on a wet day! The ones we bought were very tame compared to the ones tried!!
We tried to sort out a bank account but unfortunately Bertie's French bank - Crédit Lyonnais - is astonishingly the only one who doesn't have a branch or even partner in Guadeloupe! Then we popped to the market and bought a delicious but heavy water melon, before getting the bus back. The bus station is also new and very organised, with a different lane and sign for each destination. Though you do have to wait a while for it to actually leave. We then got dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the road back home. Definite improvements, but getting the bus is still a somewhat hazardous affair!
Buses here (no trains in our country, sniff!) are coaches and often belong to an individual or family. They follow their own rules and timetables, don't run after about 7pm and are quite unique. In true French style, they also have a tendency to strike - often for months on end! Hence the excessive number of cars on the tiny island.
With the old style, you board either the front or back door, then pay the driver on getting off. The new ones who have been officially registered take payment at the front only (90 cents rather than a euro!) They even give a receipt; we mused over whether ticket inspectors haev arrived in Gudeloupe! The old depend on open windows for air com, the new are full of mod cons such as air con and seat belts.
All coaches have one thing in common though - music blaring out loudly! Tough if you don't like it! Previously, they had pull up seats that meant there was no aisle, a nightmare to get out of if you were unfortunate enough to be in the middle of the bus. Happily for us with three kids and buggy in tow, the aisle has now returned! I still don't think I could do the journey alone though. Buggy friendly buses have not reached the island!
Here is a picture I found on the web of one (We were too busy juggling baby, bag, buggy to take one!)
On the way, Bertie told me that the driver was one who, in his prime and when Bertie was at lycée, a good 15 years ago, all the girls fancied and waited just to take his bus! There is a front seat and a soft middle bit you can sit on if you know the driver and fancy a chat, and apparently this was the goal of his female classmates!Our mission was to get new flip flops for the girls so we went to rue Frébault. I am not exaggerating when I tell you there were 20, possibly more shoe shops in that one street! It is very long and busy, just think a narrower version of Oxford Street. Many shops have MCs who stand at the door with a mike trying to entice you in!
Letting the girls loose in the shoe shop was like all their Christmasses come at once! Shoe after shoe went on their little feet, each showed off to us and duly admired before the next came on. I can see that being a good place to go on a wet day! The ones we bought were very tame compared to the ones tried!!
We tried to sort out a bank account but unfortunately Bertie's French bank - Crédit Lyonnais - is astonishingly the only one who doesn't have a branch or even partner in Guadeloupe! Then we popped to the market and bought a delicious but heavy water melon, before getting the bus back. The bus station is also new and very organised, with a different lane and sign for each destination. Though you do have to wait a while for it to actually leave. We then got dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the road back home. Definite improvements, but getting the bus is still a somewhat hazardous affair!
Portraits
I found the portrait button accidentally on my camera so took advantage of it to take these from our trip to the park with the nephew and nieces over from Paris for the summer.
LissaLou took this lovely one of me!
I have just been looking at the gorgeous photos on Sister Evs' blog - beautiful country very well displayed through her lense. Oh for such a talent...!
LissaLou took this lovely one of me!
I have just been looking at the gorgeous photos on Sister Evs' blog - beautiful country very well displayed through her lense. Oh for such a talent...! Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Our Town
The best time to head down to the playpark is between 5 and 6pm, when the heat of the day is psasing and it hasn't yet turned dark. Our local park is in the square in the town centre (read, a few important buildings and a few shops. That is it.) Here are some shots fom there last Sunday.
The play park is in two parts - this is the baby bit
But of course the girls prefer the big kid bit! No swings sadly - just a scary roundabout that they love and a fireman's pole LissaLou keeps throwing herself off - ouch!
Here is our Mairie
with its Annexe (note the obligtory French flags!)
And the War Memorial
I didn't snap the constant presence of motor bikes and scooters zooming around the place. they also speed along our road and have done something to their exhausts to make them 100 times noisier! Funnily enough, the parks are often empty, or else have mixed couples there with their kids. We can only imagine these are the visitors from France, as locals don't appear to visit them very much for some reason!
Down By Our Seaside
On Monday late afternoon we walked along the bit of the coast a few minutes from our house to the new port that has been built; people go diving and swimming there but it was too deep for us so we just dipped our feet in. 
Look who we saw on the way! 
This boat crashed in autumn 1989 with Hurricane Hugo, which devastated the island and the mangrove along the coast. Not quite sure why they haven't got round to moving it yet!
Our bit of the coast - the sea looks pretty grimy here
Keeping four excited under 6s from falling in was no mean feat!
A lot of effort was put into getting some smiles from Baby JoJo!
Ooer, hold on tight!
Very refreshing to dip our toes into
One more adventurous nephew belly flopped in several times 
Can you see the splash?!
LissaLou spent her time winding up her cousin and nearly got thrown in for her trouble!
Sun setting +mosquitoes out = time to head home!
Here are the cousins on the way - with the ever present Dora of course!
Look who we saw on the way! This boat crashed in autumn 1989 with Hurricane Hugo, which devastated the island and the mangrove along the coast. Not quite sure why they haven't got round to moving it yet!
Our bit of the coast - the sea looks pretty grimy here
Keeping four excited under 6s from falling in was no mean feat!
A lot of effort was put into getting some smiles from Baby JoJo!
Ooer, hold on tight!
Very refreshing to dip our toes into
One more adventurous nephew belly flopped in several times Can you see the splash?!
LissaLou spent her time winding up her cousin and nearly got thrown in for her trouble!Sun setting +mosquitoes out = time to head home!
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