Saturday, April 23, 2011

Saturday, April 23, 2011:

Got up this morning to kids splashing and jumping in the pool at 7am.  Fun for them…not so fun for me! 

Today Falo will finish my hair and I will get my special shampoo and conditioner.  I just can’t wait to get my hair washed! I’ve had to flat iron the kinks out for the last couple days. Nothing like the smell of heated dirty hair! Gag!  What we do for beauty! (not that it really works…but we try like hell!).  So at 11:30, we head to Xperts. Gawd it felt so good to have it washed, and Falo does the head massage too (not as good as Bobbie though).  Of course it turned out wonderful…and I look FABULOUS DAHLING! =)  Just ask Falo!

Oh…and I took a picture of the cute airplane kiddie seat.  Isn’t it cute!

**

Immediately after, we headed to the beach.  Since we were on this side of the island, we went through Marigot and Grand Case. Got some pictures for ya!

**

Rock walls…I think when the world had one great continent (Pangea) Sint Maarten must have broken off from Ireland! Just like in Ireland, the land is full of rocks, and they make fences and such with them!

This is going into Marigot - on the back side.

This is coming up to the roundabout between Agreement and Red Gate. This is probably one of the first ones I remember here.  It has a beautiful statue in the center!

This is the view coming down towards Grand Case.  the land on the horizon is the island of Anguilla.

 This road starts all the wonderful and yummy restaurants in Grand Case.  You can't go in this way (see the sign) so you drive around to the other end.  There is not enough time to visit all the wonderful restaurants.

 Rock quarry in the mountains!

 This the smaller salt pond and Le Galion beach beyond.

 This is Orient Beach from the hill!

The beach was awesome, and very hot.  Not a big breeze so we didn’t waste any time getting in the water.  The water is definitely warm today, by at least 10 degrees! Perfect! (Judy…just right for us!).  I also notice that there are lots of other people in the water today, and staying in.  Normally when the water is cooler, not too many people get in unless they are really, really hot.  No wonder people choose to come here during this time of year. It’s why we started coming at the end of March instead of January/February.  Plus it’s not so crowded either. 

We met some new people at the beach (Judith, Lori & Skip), but we weren’t there very long and it was time to leave.

We stopped at the store (tomorrow is Easter and Monday is Easter Monday, so everything is supposed to be closed again), came home and had leftovers for dinner.  It’s a quiet night in the neighborhood. Since it’s Easter, one of my all time favorite movies is on TV… “The Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston as Moses!  I love it when Ann Baxter (Nefertiri) says to him: Mooooosessss  Mooooosessss Moooosessss! Aaaaaahahahaha!!! I love it! The overacting is hysterical and the color and effects were astounding for way back then! I should get that on DVD! 

Friday, April 22, 2011: Good Friday – Major Holiday

Friday, April 22, 2011:  Good Friday – Major Holiday

Today is Good Friday.  Happy Good Friday everyone!  On Sint Maarten it’s a major holiday.  Everything is closed.

The skies are thick with haze.  It’s relatively clear, but there is no wind, so it’s gonna be a scorcher. The sea breeze is what keeps the temps reasonable down here in the Caribbean! And without it, it’s brutal! 

Don’t know about the beach today.  We were getting ready, but Gerald’s concerned that it’s going to be too hot and more importantly he isn’t feeling well, so we may just stay at the apartment. Plus…I can’t wash my hair…and I feel absolutely GROSS!  Especially since I was at the beach yesterday and was sweating and got sand in it already! Ew. So I’ll just put some chicken in the crock-pot and be done with dinner already.

I hear home is getting lots of rain. Try to stay dry up there…and be sure to keep your windows rolled up when you are driving! =)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

 Thursday, April 21, 2011:

Woke up this morning and had some kinks in my hair. Ahhh! Disaster!  So the first thing I did was plug in my flat iron!  Whew! That was close…but I ironed it out and it still looks F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S.! One day down…2 to go…before I can wash it again!  I’m going back to the salon on Saturday to have Falo finish it.  I’ll try to take a picture of the little kiddy’s plane seat (and maybe Falo and Euyp), but I don’t want to embarrass myself.  Not like that ever stopped me before though!   

I think we will head to the beach today, since we have missed 2 days in a row running around. That will make my hair dirtier…but I want to sit at the beach today!  There are 4 ships in port today per the paper, so it should be pretty busy out there!

Well, back from the beach.  It was a great day.  Hot and not much wind, and not much happened.

We saw a fish jump right into the hands of the fish man today! Even he was surprised it happened! Just about every day, he walks up and down the beach about chest deep in the water and feeds fish with stale bread crumbs. The fish just flock to him; it looks like piranha attacking him!! He calls to them, talks to them and he doesn't particularly like anyone else to feed them either! Today, one fish just jumped right out of the water and into his hand!  He was so happy and laughing! It was funny to watch him!

Watched a bunch of clouds develop over the hills again, but they never got to us.  I would have had to run for cover because I can’t get my hair we yet! So I was keeping my eye out for them to start heading our way. They constantly changed and would get real big and puffy, then dissipate and then puff up again.  Eventually they made a monster rain wall towards Anguilla, and looked like it would eventually come our way, but we left before it got too close to us. 

Guess we will eat leftover ribs tonight. I’ll try to update the blog and see if I can get on and get my stuff posted.  This is getting stupid that I’m having such trouble with certain sites.  I keep hitting refresh and the modem button, but it’s driving me crazy!

I finally got through and posted 1 day…then got kicked off again! After a few hundred refreshes and on/off’s on the modem, and I'm back in again! Whatever! As long as I can get something posted!

Tomorrow is Good Friday and it’s a major holiday here, so all the stores will be closed.  It will definitely a beach day I’m sure! 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011: Hair day!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011: Hair day!

Got up and got ready to go get my hair done.  My appointment is at 10am!  Gerald wants to be there before the bridge goes up at 9:30 because he doesn’t want to get caught in the bridge traffic.  We head out and there is hardly any traffic this morning. Only 1 cruise ship is in port today, so that may account for some of it, but there also may not have been any boat traffic going in and out of the lagoon either.  Either way, I’m glad! We get to Xperts (the salon) just in time and Falo is there waiting for me.   It’s not a big salon at all, but they have made good use of the space.  I only saw 4 stations.  One for the owner, Eyup, one for Falo and another one that I saw a girl using.  I didn’t catch her name, but it looked like she was doing a color for Eyup while he cut some girl’s hair (did a FABULOUS job too!), so I don’t know if she was apprenticing or just helping him out.  He was also cleaning and dusting shelves, which makes me think she may be apprenticing, but for sure she didn’t appear to be a senior stylist.

We went in and asked Falo how long he thought it would be, since Gerald didn’t want to sit there the whole time (and I didn’t want him too either!).  Falo said it would only be about an hour and a half! It took me 3 hours when I had this done the first time! Oh gawd…that’s not a good sign!  But here I am…so Gerald left, I put my purse down and they escort me to the European style wash basins in the back of the salon. In the back part was a larger, more spacious station that I would assume Eyup would use, but he was using one of the front ones.  Although, there was a guy installing the most fabulous chandelier over the station, so maybe he was just temporarily displaced! I also saw the cutest thing too! It was one of those little carnival ride airplanes on a pedestal! They used it to put little kids in when they get haircuts! IT WAS SO CUTE! Eyup said they use that otherwise the children cry and this keeps them busy! What a wonderful idea! I’ve never seen one! But you know if I had a salon or cut hair…I would! Shoot - I don’t do that and I want one!

Falo proceeded to wash my hair and we went back up front to his station.  While he was combing my hair, I mentioned that I needed to color my hair and probably should have done that first, and Falo said it would be better if it did it now before the keratin treatment, so we immediately changed course and we decided to color first.  He foiled my hair with such precision, it was kind of funny! You could see the concentration on his face and he did work fast.  Each foil was meticulously placed, folded and crimped! And if he didn’t like it…he would redo it!  And when I say foil…I mean aluminum foil…like you would find in your kitchen.  Not like the thin pre-cut sheets you normally see.  It was really thick and there was a roll of foil in the window! I guess the girl was cutting foil sheets before she started the color for Eyup.  And then Falo asked me to fold the top ends, which I happily did!  Wonder if the store foil is cheaper!? Oh well…whatever works!

My highlights finished, we proceeded to do the keratin treatment, which is not difficult really, but very time consuming.  Every stand needs to be dried and flat ironed…even the wispy new hair around the face, which is very curly on me! Gerald of course showed up before I was done, so we sent him off again and he went to the car rental place to have them check the squeaks and wiper blades.  After a while he came back with a different car!  And in not too much longer, I was done, and of course I, ok…my hair, looked FABULOUS! =)  He did do a good job…now I have to endure 3 days of not shampooing my hair! ACK! 

By this time it was about 1pm.  We needed to go back to Rent-4-Less to close out the billing cycle for the month, so we did that.  Then we headed to Good Cards (the island’s only place to buy greeting cards that I am aware of!) to get a birthday card for Erica (she turns 9 in May).  We were going to go next door to mail it at the post office, but I discovered I didn’t have the address, so we couldn’t.   We were starting to get hungry and thought we would go to the Carousel for ice cream but we were planning on visiting Janet at Pasanggrahan and that would ruin our lunch, so we passed on the ice cream (I know…sit down!) and just headed down town.  Not much traffic, they didn’t shut the street down so we drove all the way down and parked at Pasanggrahan. We went in and visited with Janet, ordered a drink and lunch. It was delicious as usual! 

** I took some pictures of Pasanggrahan and the boardwalk!

 

We came back to the apartment; I put one of my silk scarves on the pillow and took a nap.  And that was pretty much it for the day.  We ate salad for dinner, listened to the cat whaling down below and I took a picture of the moon shining on the water.  Isn't it cool!  

Then I went to bed, listening to the rain hit the roof! Zzzzzzzzzzz

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Tuesday, April 19, 2011:

We have decided to forego the beach today to run around the island a little and take pictures so you can see where we are.  (about time huh?)  The sacrifices I’m willing to make for friends and family! =)

Drove down the street in the neighborhood here looking at places and found a house that had a whole row of penned chickens and roosters in the side yard, facing us…no wonder I hear them crowing so loudly!  We basically just drove a few blocks around the neighborhood here.  Nothing much to see.  The prison is on the hill behind us! We didn’t drive up that hill I can tell you that!

I managed to get a few pictures today …even with Mario Andretti driving…it wasn’t easy though.

**Here are some of the local restaurants.  Just pull up a van, maybe build around it and open a restaurant!

 Yes...this is an airplane!

Here is a nasty rain cloud that developed over the island and dumped on us! 

Oh…as you can see from some of these pictures, it was raining.  Ok it was pouring down for a bit.  So let me tell you a funny, classic “In the Life of Tina”…story:  So we are driving through Phillipsburg and I’ve got my window down right, cause I’m half hanging out frantically trying to take pictures as we are flying by the places I want to take pictures of.  Gerald slowed down to turn left, but I wanted to go straight because I wanted to take pictures of the many little interesting local restaurants on this particular road.  But when Gerald did that, the vehicle behind us decided he was not even going to slow down and went around us on the right. Unfortunately there was a huge mass of water standing in the road from the deluge we just got. Get the picture? That’s right.  Approximately 75% of the puddle splashed up and ended in the car.  On me, Gerald, the camera, my purse.  Lovely. The other 25% went on the other side of the vehicle…probably hitting the people that were trying to get in their cars.  That was a “Funniest Videos” moment if there ever was one.  Wish I had a video camera going! You would have enjoyed it.  

So…here are some of the pictures taken through the window…I wasn’t eating mud puddle water again…

This is the only stop light that I know of on the island.  

It's just outside of Phillipsburg. It causes traffic jams! 

The Great "Cost-U-Less"!

 KFC/Pizza Hut!

 One of the many local restaurants we passed. 

 The Big ACE Home Center - we get lots of stuff there!

 A salon

 The great Kooyman - next to Ace! 

 ...pretty colors huh!?

 Road side foliage! 

 Tropicana Casino!

 The island's only theatre.

 I was trying to get a shot of the rainbow that was in the Lagoon, but Gerald was going too fast...but I did manage to get a shot of one of the "Adult Entertainment" facilities! =)

 ...getting ready to drive around the end of the runway.

 This is the lagoon.

 From here you can see the other side of the Lagoon, which is the French side.

 Here's the airport! It's the new building!

 This is the grocery store we used to do a lot of shopping at!

 This is the Maho area with resorts, stores and a big casino - all within walking distance!

 Casino Royale! 

 Cheri's Cafe - Great food - lots of fun!

 Hard to see, but there is a medical clinic...next to an adult entertainment establishment...ironic!?

 The great golf pro shop is back there...

 These are some of the abandoned (except for the criminals) buildings scattered throughout the golf course and behind Mullet Bay Beach. Yuck! And creepy!

 These are the various holes in the "prestigious" course I talked about earlier. Can you tell the difference between the fare ways and the greens?

 

 Atlantis Casino - lots of great restaurants here! The medical university is behind it.

 This is one of the big lottery offices! 

 This is a not so big lottery office! 

 This is where Gerald got his haircut! 

**

We drove over to Simpson Bay so that I could make a hair appointment. (I wasn't going to where he got his done!)  I haven’t colored my hair since January, and it has stayed pretty straight since I got the Keratin treatment in October.  So since my cousin Machelle or Bobbie refuse to come down here to do my hair…I am forced to find someone a little closer. So I found a place called Xperts Hair Salon.  There was an ad in the paper and they do the Keratin treatments there so I figured why not.  I need conditioner anyway.  How bad could it be? Luckily hair grows back. (right?)  So, we headed over and I stopped in and made an appointment for tomorrow morning…with Falo. This is going to be fun! 

After our drive, we decided to pick up dinner.  On recommendation of Patty, we stopped at a place called Mark’s which is by the big Grande Marche’ at the Bush Road roundabout just before you get to Phillipsburg.  We ordered some ribs to go and brought them home.  They have an all you can eat ribs dinner for $14.99, but we just got two regular orders for $12 each with some sides.  They were absolutely delicious. Tender and flavorful! And plenty left over for another night’s dinner!  I will definitely go back there again!

There has been a female cat running around the complex.  She is obviously looking for a “boyfriend” (if you know what I mean!).  Not a long term relationship mind you.  Male cats just cause trouble and they generally aren’t good mousers anyway.  But she is hanging out under our window whaling…and I do mean whaling…for the last few nights.  Have you ever heard a female cat looking for a boyfriend? It’s annoying, strange and sometimes sounds like a baby screaming.  It scared the crud out of us this morning! I’m thinking of signing her up on Match.com or something just to get her away from our window!

So, between the dogs relentlessly barking tonight and the cat whaling … I’m gonna go bzerk! I just want to scream out the door: WOULD YA SHUT UP ALREADY!?!  Maybe it’s the full moon.

Well, just resting after I stuffed myself with ribs, rice and peas.  Guess I better get some sleep so I can be well rested for my hair adventure tomorrow! Wish me luck!