As I suspected there was no easily accessible internet connection at the hotel. But I kept up the blog off-line whilst I was away...
Thursday 20th December
Between us we had set 5 alarms, all timed to go off at 1 minute intervals from 3am. As it was the unholy cacophony wasn’t necessary – we both woke on the first alarm and were up seconds later and into the morning routine…cases and us were down the stairs and waiting for the taxi at 3:45. He was prompt and disgustingly cheerful! Can people not automatically tell that talking to me when I’m still asleep isn’t going to do them any good? He was cracking jokes all the way to Dulles! Stephen was manfully doing his best to do witty banter for the both of us…and on the whole, succeeding! Because it was the middle of the night, traffic was light and there were no police cars in sight. The driver took full advantage of both and had us at the airport in 30 minutes – very speedy – and just as well! We checked when we arrived, and were told that we couldn’t use the banks of self-service check-in desks as our onward flight was international. We had to wait in the International queue…and it was a queue! Only 3 desks open and people negotiating to buy the airline. Well, I can’t imagine why it would take 20 minutes to check each couple in otherwise! We were getting really panicked by the stage…we had been waiting for an hour and had barely moved – and there was only an hour until the flight was due to take off at 6:15. Thankfully by this time the check-in staff were beginning to get a shimmy on and push people through. We were finally at the front of the queue!! Then they tell us one of the cases is 5lbs overweight – so we’re frantically pulling stuff out of the case and stuffing it into the suit carrier…finally we were able to take the luggage to the drop point and gave up hope of it ever making the flight in time! There was a mountain of luggage to be sorted through by the two guys on luggage duty. Still, no time to worry about that…we ran for the security line, groaning as we saw the size of it! Four channels of solidly packed people in a Disney-style back and forwards line which must have stretched for about 200 miles…We were being smiled upon however. We were motioned past the horrendous queue, to a marginally smaller one which was forming from the other end…only 2 lines of less densely packed people and it was moving!! In the line we were stripping off jackets and belts, watches…anything which would slow us up going through! After the 5 mile run across the airport to the gate (we would have given Roger Bannister a run for him money!) we made it to the gate about 3 seconds before they begin boarding!
We slept most of the flight, as did most of the other passengers, and got into Atlanta. We had enough time to grab a Starbucks and a muffin and then hightail it to the gate (which was, of course, the furthest away!) in time for boarding. Delta airline food is interesting! It had said there was a meal service – we got a snack box of crackers, some kind of flavoured plastic cheese spread and an oreo cookie! We got a great view of Cape Canaveral and the inter coastal in Florida on our way down. Landing in St Lucia was fun too! We did a fly-over of the Pitons! I was reading a magazine and happened to look up just in time up to see Gros Piton looming into view in the window!! Normally you don’t see much as you land, but normally we’re in a 747 which probably has to take a different path. This was pretty spectacular!!
Immigration was not much fun! We were one of the first few to deplane, so we were into the immigration hall pretty quickly. We picked the shortest queue, and then proceeded to wait for ages whilst they processed this group which didn’t get any smaller! Here’s a tip: If you want to jump to the front of the queue find someone who is the same ethnic background as you who is at the front of the queue, walk confidently to the front, pretend to know them (say Hi and hope they don’t look too confused!) and walk up to the immigration official when they’re done like you’re one big happy family. This happened twice!! I was getting to the “I don’t care if its not PC, I’m going to point out the line starts way back there, and suggest they join it” stage. I told you that getting up at 3am doesn’t agree with me!!
The hotel is everything that we remembered! We checked in, and mentioned that we’d been here before (I’d also taken the precaution of e-mailed them last week saying we were looking forward to coming back). They said “here’s your room key, if you don’t like it come back and let us know” which we took to be some sort of hotel code! The room we got was lovely, but not as lovely as the one we had been in before, so Stephen went down to chat them up and see if we couldn’t pay for an upgrade (at an advantageous rate of course!). He came back with drinks and said they would call us…. About 10 minutes later a porter turned up grinning from ear to ear and said he was here to take our bags to our new room (at no cost to us). Which was the room we had stayed in last time!! They had obviously gone back through their records and found out which room we had been in – it was like coming home!
We had a quick shower and changed out of the jumpers of Washington, and into the linens of the Caribbean before heading down to dinner. Angie was still there in the restaurant! Stephen spotted her from across the room, so after a “long lost” reunion we were ushered to the best table, overlooking the beach and near to the entertainment and beach BBQ. Its amazing how many of the staff remember us and how many faces/names we remember! (as I frequently forget what I am called it was something of a miracle!!).
Friday 21st
Damn and blast frikkin’ Blackberries! We had both made sure they were switched off before we crawled into bed exhausted last night. But they switch themselves on again when an alarm is due to go off. At 4am (3am DC time) I was out of bed, trying to find my glasses, then find the light switch without knocking over my glass of water/breaking my toes on the furniture, then focus on the safe keypad enough to get it open. I switched my blackberry off, locked the safe and crawled back into bed. 5 minutes later Stephen’s alarm went off, and I was once again trying to get the safe open to get the blackberry out….aaarrgghhhhhh!
Feeling less than refreshed we staggered out of be at about 8:30 and down for breakfast. Then we staggered off to the pool…which was deserted! Heaven! No towels on the beds! No-one else in sight! I spent most of the day reading, soaking up the sunshine, having a dip in the pool. What utter bliss!! Stephen was more adventurous! He took a Hobie Cat out sailing and by all accounts was lucky to make it back to shore!!! The sea has been a bit choppy on some days…he was busy tightening the sail and adjusting the rudder (and other sailing expressions!) and failed to spot the enormous wave until quite late on! He managed to adjust course so he was sailing into it, but it was apparently like a scene from The Perfect Storm! He appeared back at the pool totally drenched!!
We arrived back in the room to discover a bottle of champagne, flower arrangement, a Rendezvous beach bag and a polo shirt as a thank you for coming back to the hotel. How lovely! We’re just happy to be here!
Saturday 22nd
More sunbathing in Paradise! We took the afternoon off from the pool and headed off to Point Seraphine to do some Duty Free shopping. Its where the cruise ships dock, and there are some nice little shops there – including some nice jewellers. As we hadn’t bought each other Christmas presents we each chose something nice! There were 3 ships docked..the baby ship, the mummy ship and the daddy of all ships! This thing was like a floating city!! It was the first time we had been down there when ships were in and it was odd not having the place to ourselves!
Stephen enjoyed the 2 for $3 beers they were selling in the little beer hut. He thought this was a very civilised way to conduct a shopping trip!
Sunday 23rd
More sailing and sunbathing. Eating and drinking. Oh, and reading! That’s been it – the total of our activities! There has been an influx of people into the hotel. Lots of men of advancing years in Speedo’s. I say no more!!!
Monday 24th
It was the Ring Toss competition today. I am always keen to dispatch Stephen off to the man creche for a while whilst I read my book and enjoy the sunshine, so I was surprised when one of the activity coordinators came to drag me off my lounger! Apparently Stephen needed a partner for Ring Toss… It was good fun! I was totally rubbish in the first round! I hit the peg with every ring, but not one went over. My second round was better – apart from the first throw which caused Deano to leap back in alarm! As some wag commented, I was obviously aiming for the wrong pole!!
We were sitting at the bar sipping a little pre-dinner aperitif when the bar staff decided that they should have the Christmas tree lit. They called over Deano from Activities to help out, who called for Gaston, who went off to get an extension cord. There was about 10 minutes of (in)activity and heated discussion, the lights went on briefly, then out again, and then everyone left (apart from one of the bar staff). Stephen turned to me and said “why did they switch out the lights?”. I gave him an odd look and said “Well it seems that the lights are US, the extension is US, but the only available socket is UK 3-pin. They could plug them in here, but it meant that the blender was unplugged so they’ve sent for maintenance”. “And you could understand all that?”. “Yes”. He gave me a very strange look - “They were speaking French”. St Lucia swapped hands between France and the UK 14 times, and the locals speak Creole and English. I’m not sure what they were talking amongst themselves then, but I had no problem understanding it! I don’t speak French, so I guess I was tuning the accent better than Stephen…or someone has inserted a Babelfish into my ear!
It was the Managers cocktail party tonight as well. It’s really nice to speak to some of the back room staff you don’t normally see – their Operations Manager was lovely, and we swapped some tales about how interesting that job can be! I was quick to tell her how much we were enjoying ourselves as usually as Ops, you only get to hear about the complaints!
It seems Santa has come early as there were two gift-wrapped towels waiting for us when we got back to the room.
Tuesday 25th
Christmas Day has arrived! It’s a bit strange having Christmas in the heat, but we’re adapting fast! We walked down to breakfast wearing our Santa hats, expecting to see a few people similarly attired and we were the only guests wearing them! It’s a good way to break the ice though! We walked to our table like Mr & Mrs Claus with people wishing us Merry Christmas…and usually saying “I wish we had brought ours”! I guess its not something you usually think about packing when you go on hols…bikini, sun lotion, Santa hat….
After our Bucks Fizz breakfast we wandered along to the pool for another hard day in the sunshine. There was a Tubing competition in the morning, and Stephen was duly dispatched to sign up for an hour in the Man-creche! There was no way I was signing up for something that sounded like a high speed, warm, salt-water enema!! I did agree to go take photos though, so I was slightly alarmed when they announced this was something that you needed a partner for! Thankfully they had found Stephen a temporary wife, so we got chatting to her and her hubby – a really nice couple from Toronto. He was keeping everyone in stitches! The basic idea of the competition is that you get into you inner tube, are given a plastic cup of red liquid to hold, then are towed round the course at high speed by the speed boat. The couple with the most liquid left at the end wins. It was quite rough sea today – lots of swell – so no-one was coming back with much left!
There was a beach BBQ for lunch, complete with a steel band playing Christmas songs. Then the big event of the day…Santa arrived with presents for everyone! And believe me, you have never seen Santa arrive like this before! Swap Rudolph, Donner, Blitzen and Co for a speed boat, and a sleigh for skis then you have it! Santa turned out to be a rather superb water skier - he could ski with no hands! I suppose making all the presents at the North Pole, then making his list and checking it twice doesn’t take up all of the year. He obviously spends the other months enjoying water sports (I imagine global warming means that he doesn’t need to travel as far these days….)
The pool was surrounded by dozing bodies this afternoon! I think the lunch, the booze, the excitement was too much for people. I only regained consciousness because Stephen woke me up to ask me to make up a funny name for his cocktail in the mixology competition!! He came in 4th out of about 12 (very respectable) but was slightly peeved when the winning cocktail was announced and he discovered it was a Dirty Banana… the idea of the game was to invent your own cocktail, the bar staff makes it up, everyone in the group tastes it, scores it out of 10, then the highest score wins. If I had been in the tasting group I might have realised that it was a Dirty Banana as I consumed about 4 million of them when we were at the Sandals down the road! Ok, so it’s maybe not an Internationally known cocktail, but they certainly didn’t invent it! They could at least have had the brains to call it something else!
After spending a LONG time drying my hair straight (I forgot to take my straighteners – d’oh!) there was no way I was wearing the Santa hat and risking hat hair! As it was my hair was curly after about 30 minutes so I shouldn’t have worried and just gone for it! We had a stream of people coming up to us and asking where the hats were…
It was the first of the staff shows tonight. The biggest laugh was reserved for Lenny the grumpy faced breakfast chef…who appeared to sing (in falsetto) “Don’t Cry for me Argentina” dressed in a dress, full slap and blonde wig! It was hilarious to see the dawning realisation on peoples faces that the grumpy looking bloke (his face lights up when he smiles) who serves you fruit in the mornings, is standing on stage in drag…
Wednesday 26th
Boxing Day. Or Sunburn Day as it was known this year!! I was certainly a bit pink, as was Stephen, and we were not alone!! The pool was quiet when we passed it, and a lot of people at breakfast were saying that they were a bit singed! I bet it was because everyone fell asleep after lunch yesterday! Anyway, we spent the day lounging on our verandah, reading books and snoozing…
The staff had put together a new show “The Lion King”. It was really rather excellent! They obviously do it on a tight budget in terms of costumes, and apparently find the time by doing rehearsals from midnight until 3am. It was very professional! Gaston was throwing the receptionist into lots of lifts. As we know from Strictly, lifts are difficult to do, but maybe the fact that he’s strong and she must have weighed all of 4 stones made it easier! Anyway, the got a well-deserved standing ovation!
Thursday 27th
We were taken on the annual Christmas sunset catamaran cruise this evening. A convoy of minibuses took practically everyone staying at the hotel down to the marina. The sea has been pretty choppy for the past couple of days, and there was a lot of motion. I had forgotten that I don’t really have sea legs, so no rum punch for me! I wouldn’t have coped with further impairment to my wibbly legs!! We motored up to Rodney Bay and back down to Castries. En route we watched the sun setting behind one of the 5 cruise ships leaving St Lucia behind them…
Then it was back to the hotel for a beach BBQ and limbo competition. Stephen declined to enter this, as he feared that he wouldn’t be able to get his belly under the bar! Tamara (one of the activities staff) joined us for dinner so I was able to ask her how she managed to do the balancing thing on the limbo poles…at one of the staff shows she stood on 2 large bamboo poles whilst Deano and Gaston lifted them waist high and moved them…back and forwards (like she was running) and then out to each side. At one point she was standing on one pole which I thought was part of the show, but turned out to be a moment of high panic as she tried to get her balance!
Friday 28th
There were a couple of showers today. Nothing to cause us too much worry - it was a light sprinkling by St Lucian tropical downpour standards!! Stephen had a fun time when he took out the Hobie Cat in the afternoon. He came back to the pool absolutely dripping wet which I duly commented on. “I capsized”. Once I had established he was okay, and had stopped laughing I managed to get the story…He was trying to turn into the wind, when the rudder broke! It left him floundering in big swell and it was only a matter of seconds before the whole thing tipped up and tipped him into the Caribbean!
There is a motorboat on standby for just these situations, so within a few seconds Stephen was relived to hear the throb of the engine. However, it was right in the middle of “Water Mania” when this was going on, so the water sports guys had to wait for John and Steve to finish their bum massage/salt water enema (ie their round of the tubing competition!) before they could unhook the tubes and come and rescue him. Stephen was well wrapped up in his life jacket so was perfectly happy. They hauled him on board belly and all and even managed to retrieve his cap. Sadly his sunglasses were gone. Hopefully some short-sighted fish will make use of them!
We met up with Steve, John and their respective wives (Anne and Lorraine) after dinner, and ended up in the Piano bar until 2am. We were the only people in their apart from a newly arrived couple (from DC!) who came over for a chat, but departed fairly quickly….they were contending with accents from Scotland, Yorkshire and Southern Ireland and I think deciphering that lot was pretty challenging!!
We got caught in a tropical downpour on the way back to the room. Within about 5 seconds we were totally soaked! Just as well it was 2am and no-one was about…white linen becomes very transparent when exposed to water, and its too classy a resort to have a Miss Wet T-Shirt competition!!
Saturday 29th
It's raining! Obviously the tropical downpour of last night is continuing. I suppose it makes it easier to leave. It certainly makes deciding how to spend the morning easier! Breakfast, then back to the room for packing. We were in a taxi for the long drive to the airport by about 12:15. It was a slow drive as the weather was so bad. The roads are a LOT better than on our first visit to the Island 3 years ago, but there are still stretches which are full of potholes carefully positioned to throw any reckless and unsuspecting driver off the road and into the 3ft ditch or over the precipice! Our driver took the sensible option in these places and drove up the other side of the road!!!
We discovered that the plane was late when we checked in. Only 30 minutes late at that point. Not so bad. It quickly turned into an hour. Not so good! We didn't have a great deal of turnover time in Atlanta in which to clear immigration an customs and change terminals. I think everyone on the plane was in the same position, so there was a lot of sprinting when we deplaned in Atlanta! Stephen was joking with one of the flight crew and they said "a 9:50 flight - oh, you'll have time for dinner!" Thankfully there were loads of immigrtion stations open, and we had a really nice officer process us immediately. Turns out he was a Nixon (Stephens middle name) too! Once we had collected our bags, cleared customs and handed our bags back in for the next flight we had a chance to check a departure board. Our flight to Dulles was delayed until 10:40. We really did have time for dinner! Well a slice of pizza anyway!!
We got home, very tired at about 1:40 this morning...
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