Yes, having palm trees is not always just fun .. sometimes it is work … collecting the fallen coconuts or in this case, taking care of old leaves.
Misha and Nietzsche spending some time surprisingly close together under the car
That’a the big thing going on here right now and actually turned today into a holiday … From what I keep reading, he is often described as the father of modern Fiji and he died peacefully recently at the age of 84 and since then there were a lot of people wearing black (and things kinda like straw mat skirts) and today is the day of official celebration / mourning.
The whole thing has already caused a lot of commotion and partying .. and really bad for us is that traffic has been rerouted …. they closed a piece of Victoria Parade … and now all the traffic goes through Domain Road … passing our bedroom …
I also found it quite remarkable that the government is budgeting around 1.5 mil FJD (=800K USD) for the funural … as if the money could not be used on more neccesary means … but then again … as they say .. he was obviously very important to Fiji’s development … one newspaper article says the amount spent is ‘peanuts’ compared to his achievements for Fiji.
Which reminds me. Fijitimes.com is finally up and running .. and while is still has some gaps .. what I see I really like … clear, no BS navigation … if they continue like that .. i will link them on the left side
Always fun to run into new food options. Ritsu found out that the Holiday Inn has a buffet lunch. At 19.50 FJD it is a bit on the expensive side and the location is a bit off the downtown business area .. so i guess it caters mainly to tourists. Food is not spectacular, but good in quality … they have an appetizer buffet, salads, cold cuts (in fact the first ‘fresh’ roast beef I have ever seen in Fiji) and then several choices for the main dish (or try a little of everything) .. roast chicken, pork curry, several veggies …
Yes, I am aware that this blog (and our lives) are very food centered 
Yep .. every once in a while this crap happens … this one was actually scheduled and (allegedly) posted in the newspaper yesterday … when I called FEA they said so .. and they said power will be back by 1 PM .. and it returned right on time
I saw people with FEA garb cutting trees and branches around the neighborhood .. so that may have been the reason …
Here a fresh picture from our most recent weekend trip … watch that tummy
As promised earlier .. I am posting this picture as a comparison to last weeks nice view of Suva bay at surise .. at that time it was high tide and all the boats were floating … now this one was taken in the evening and the water levels have obviously changed
And this is the old high tide pic
We have not been since January .. so … it was time to come back, even if it was just a one nighter. Good thing about one nighters: No need to worry about a house or cat sitter … they can survive one night without us.
So, on Saturday, our new trusted cab driver Bobby showed up in time, nice drive to Nakelo, hopping on the boat and soon we were in our Bure #9. And we were glad to find that we had a new hammock.
VIDEOCLIP
They also had done major upgrades to the Bar Bure since we were here last … look at this before and after shot
The bar used to be one unthatched roof. Now they added 5 separate roofs around it and they also opened up the beach part .. instead of 2 hinged doors, it is now a big double sliding door, which makes the place feel bigger and way more open.
Shortly after we had a delicious lunch:
-smoked fish / cabbage fry patty
-Salad with HUGE chunks of grilled mackerel and pine nuts (which are quite expensive around here)
-Banana fritters with ice and caramel sauce
And after a bit of walking around to digest … loooong nap … the wind on the side of the island where our Bure is creates just such a lovely soundscape … made us sleep like babies I woke up a bit before Ritsu and walked around. While walking alone, I had my near-death experience … I had a coconut falling down just 3 ft away from me! .. and Verne, the owner even saw that … he came right away, we both were wondering which tree it came from .. as they have most trees tagged for picking the ripe nuts before they can fall and cause lawsuits. Surely that was interesting.
After that we joined the crowd at the bar (quite a bunch of people, and since some time last year, we got to meet Verne, the owner again. Very nice fella, we told him about the baby and its relation to toberua .. and he immediately denied to have had anything to do with it . We were served some delicious fish & chips as a little bar appetizer and there was a lot of chatting and mingling … sure one of the most crowded weekends I have seen there.
Since no one came around with a menu, we knew it had to be BBQ night. A fun group entertainment element was a sudden rain which prompted everyone to run out and save the tables, chairs and cushions. Gladly the new bar bure roof covering offered enough space to still eat there and the BBQ plans proceeded as planned. The one new thing (and caused by the rain) was the setup of communal 6 seater tables, which was kinda nice … as it happened, we just got to talk to 2 other couples, Cameron and Sabna from San Francisco and Jinnie (or Genie? forgive my spelling if you ever read this:) and Micheal, who we met on their last trip to Toberua (so they started thinking we live there). And when it was time, we just grabbed the table closest to the food. The appetizer buffet was pretty much the usual, all kinds of fijian seafood mixes, all cooked in lolo and some really nice prawns and some crab, which was a bit hard to eat. BBQ was again a great chunk of beef, some pork, fish, chicken drumsticks and sausage.
One of the main and most fun topics that night was airline security .. and sure enough everyone had some scary story to contribute … was a great evening. We left a bit early while the party was still going on, but way later than usual due to the rain delay and the ongoing fun discussions we had … one story in particular I want to find out details about … the only time that a 4 engine jetplane lost all 4 engines thanks to a dust cloud from a volcano erupting in Japan. Allegedly this plane is the only case of ever losing all 4 engines .. and it dropped from 30K ft to 10K ft before they were able to restart the engines … let’s see if i can find a link to it … (I found THIS, which comes close enough, not the only case though, and the volcano was in Indonesia … )
We slept well and long and only the occasional falling coconut woke us up … be we woke up by the drum roll for breakfast. I was not very hungry .. so I just had some juice, Ritsu had the cheese and mushroom omelette … I went straight back to bed for some more dozing of .. later some time in the pool, Ritsu got a massage .. and the exciting thing of the day: the lunch menu …
-Springroll with blue swimmer crab mean and sun dried tomatoes
-Seafood salad with guacamole (including at least half a lobster tail)
-minted fruit salad with icecream
the other choices as main were some sandwich and a chicken/sweetcorn bake thingie which Ritsu had. During that the 2 resident parrots where all over the place bagging for food … I have some cute video .. which I will put up later …
more time for napping, then packing, then get the boat and we had Bobby waiting for us. Around 5 PM we were back and the cats were waiting for us.
On the way to Toberua Island Resort we stopped at an MH supermarket to stock up on some weekend supplies … and I came across this:
Maybe some free reading would improve spelling?
This picture makes me ponder 2 things:
The different attitude in different countries about “free reading” .. in the US, Barnes & Nobles builds in a Star Bucks, close to the magazine section, and you can pick up mags, read then and drink your coffee … they just make money of the few magazines you eventually end up buying … but it seems to work … In Europe, AU, NZ and here you see everywhere that “no free reading sign” … also most mags are wrapped in plastic foil … this my also prevent molding … while I unstand the economical side … is preventing information flow ever doing any good ???
Which brings me to point 2 … this is just the same as the internet connection … keep people off of information = keep them dumb …
beautiful day. not too hot, not too humid. smooching with the cat
meeting Ritsu to check out local baby shopping opportunities (interesting / laughable), going to Ikkyu for some pretty decent Sashimi. They also do some great shave icecream dish with green tea flavor and red beans on top.
Later on happy hour at holiday inn with Vikash and James … one jug at traps … and back home …
It’s the small things in life and the smallest of surprises that can brighten a day (just like that below sunrise) …
Today I found the probably last thing I would have ever expected to find in a supermarket in Fiji … and being a nothern european coastal person, it sure warmed my heart … Not only has MH stocked up on some interesting new cheeses … but I saw a whole assortment of fish-in-jars things … like squid rings in oil (which is silly, as we have tons of squid and oil here already and the 20$ pricetag is outragous), baby octopus … even something that got as close to my favorite japanese sushi topping ‘Ikura’ (salmon roe) as possible … “Lumpfish Roe” … some kind of tiny fish eggs of which I know they usually just taste a bit fishy and very salty … great on toast with cream cheese though.
Ok .. but the one thing that really caught my eye were a couple of jars of Rollmops … this is basically pickled herring … and it came all the way from Estonia … this is about as opposite as you can get … its 15000 km away .. here see for yourself:
And the quality was actually pretty good … well .. not much one can do wrong when pickling stuff .. but for those who have access to fresh herring, here is a recipe on how to pickle your own.
I fear I am going out now and buy all remaining jars I can find in Suva.
After sampling a bit … for dinner I prepared them on potato croquettes with a bit of salad on the side and some mayo … what a burst of flavor.
Last night I slept exceptionally well … one reason may be that we kicked out Nietzsche (male cat, we usually try to keep him in, as he fights at night) since he was being loud again … so, we did not care if he would come back with scars.
We woke up early and decided to go for a walk along the seawall, right around the time when the sun rises, which gives the below picture this great golden hue.
Yep, this is how they park their boats here … should see it at low tide (will try to snap a pic) the boats are on ground then.
it’s either that, our our daughter has a mini elephant between her legs.
I saw it myself, one second the ultrasound looked again like a bad weather forecast and then the picture turned into a baby-butt and a little dingle dangle in the middle …
Now we have to start the name-game … we always had a pretty cool name ready for a girl … but for a boy? The criteria are: It has to go with the last name (Nacken), not be too long (none of those 4 syllible japanese names), fairly international, easy for english, german and japanese speaking people to pronounce (Peter is already taken .. and Ken sounds too much like Ken & Barbie) …
We have some ideas .. but suggestions are always welcome, just use the comment link
Today we went to see if we can find out the gender of our kid and we did …
Determined that we want to tell close family first, I did not fall for any of our friend’s Jon’s trick questions, but he came up with a great idea … he instantly organized a small party. He called some other friends of ours and then we were all set at his house and he ordered pizza (or picked it up? I am still not sure if any pizza place here delivers … maybe only if you order really a LOT)
So, he and Kozue plus kids, Rob and Hillary with 8 months old Lara and Bill and Vero with 3 month old son Ben. Total baby shock-o-rama plus pizza. Was a lot of fun. We spent hours going for baby names … and we still have not settled on that …
… but we are not telling just yet:)
We are waiting until we have informed close family first and then we will announce it here. But the Dr. visit was interesting this time, as our usual Dr. was on travel and a chinese-fijian lady Dr. filled in. She was a very different type … and when she did the ultrasound she casually spoke about the baby’s gender and then she realized that we did not know yet … and then asked “Oh, maybe you did not want to know?” (nice catch, what if we had said “Yes, we wanted to be surprised!!!”)
Anyways .. official announcment coming in a few days.
We were busy traveling in Japan and then I was off to Kiribati (another small island country in the Pacific) on business. While I was in Kiribati, our baby started to move quite a lot, especially at night when I’m lying on the bed, and we played a kick game! I was surprised to even see my tummy moving… Our next doctor’s appointment is the day after tomorrow (Wednesday 21st) and I cannot wait to see our little one by ultrasound again!
Last year was a lot of reporting about the movie shot of “Anaconda 2” … which since then has undergone several name changes ..Anaconda 2: the black orchid, Anacondas (rip-off of ‘aliens’), Venom .. and now the trailer is hitting the net and it is now called “anacondas: hunt for the blood orchid”. The trailer looks like ‘more of the same, maybe a bit better CGI this time’ …
Around sunset time I checked on the cats, and was amazed how everythig was in a purple hue. When I looked at the clouds it was obvious that it must have come from the sunset.
The below photo is minimally photoshopped to show better what it really looked like.
I received a nice phonecall from Rob, who I had not seen in a long time (we have all been traveling. They said they are going to the Malthouse and if I wanted to join. Great timing … I was not hungry, but a nice chit chat, fresh beer and a chance to play with daughter Lara were all great fun.
I got a friendly phonecall from old work pal James and he suggested after work drinks at Holiday Inn’s happy hour … He and Vikash were already there and we did a lot of catching up .. like wondering where Wayne is, making fun of Jonathan (just checking if he actually reads this blog or just looks at the pics) and chat about the old times when I came to Fiji.
I was not aware that the second part of the plan was going to ‘Traps’ … but heck … I have not been there in a long time and it was a fun idea … Traps is the only hang out place I have really been to (well, ok … O
Reilly’s is another one ..) and I keep hearing that it is the only place I should even consider … seems that many places are very much divided by ethnic groups … e.g. a place called “Dragon” or so (with a big sign saying ‘no chewing gum allowed’) seems to be the main hang out for the chinese kids …
Anyways … we did the old Taki game (one jug of beer, one glass, going round and round … ) and I just can’t get that right . i usually overfill .. and I get impatient if someone keeps holding on to the glass too long. So just for fun I ordered a beer seperatly … a Corona … saw it in the fridge and felt like one … wow .. 10FJD for one beer … then again .. that’s like 6USD … and this is what you pay in New York .. and that beer sure travelled a long way …
I was actually polite enough for a change to ask our 2 nice bartenders if I could take their picture.
In the backroom was something going on .. this is the main dancing area … but early on (it was still like 7 PM) there is nothing happening .. so . the new idea is … you can get in for 10$ and drink all you can (I think after the door guy saw me he quickly said something like 3 jugs (pitchers) max) … I am just about double the body mass compared to the mainly indo-fijian guys … they know that I can take more
The sad thing about that great offer is that it only attracts guys .. so .. you have a big room, loud music and lonely guys sitting there drinking their beer …. We stayed at the front bar.
This ‘all you can drink offer’ was over at some point in time and we headed for the dance floor … though no one of us really danced. But the guys made fun of me that I was commenting on a girl kinda dancing standing with her friends at their table and they said I would get beaten up if I talked to that girl … I never do these kind of things … but I felt challenged (and I am well aware that my sweet wife is going to read this later, raise an eyebrow and will laugh along with me) .. so I walked over … complimented the girl on her dancing … told her that my friends told me that one of the 3 guys is going to beat me now .. everybody had a big laugh … turns out one of the guys was working for Telecom and we had a good talk involving many names of people we know …
That was shortly before I felt tired, hungry and was ready to leave … here some pics
I think my next step was a mistake … I was on serious sushi withdrawl and I stopped by Daikoku just for some take out Sushi (I am not even sure if they are prepared for take out) … again, snapper was out .. so I took 4 pieces of tuna and 2 shrimp .. went home … and what a let down … no flavor in the tuna …the ebi totally dry … where the heck do they get their rice from ???? and even the soy sauce seemed to be of the lowest quality … and wasabi was hardly in there … this is what you get for being desperate …
Anyway … I got home safe, watched some TV (friend Fred had sent me some more US TV shows … yippieh) … and then it was time for bed ….
this new bed we got not too long ago is just WAY too big for one person … it must look pretty funny since I am sleeping at the edge of ‘my side’ .. there is space for Ritsu times 3
Thus my mood is not getting any better here. I have no idea what the problem is, but I have been promised that yechnicians will show up at 8:30 AM … what is really weird is that I can hear a clicking sound in the ISDN modem everytime someone tries to call here …. Ritsu must be trying and is getting worried, as it appears I won’t pick up the phone. The cellphone reception inside the house is crap too, to make calls I actually have to go outside.
Let’s hope the rain will not get as bad as last week. Check out the picture comparison:
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