A day in paradise

A friend of Carline's ended up stay here at the villa with her little boy. So we woke up this morning with confusion with her partner trying to pick her up but as he is not on the list of the people staying at the villa he is not allowed onto the estate. So after a phone call or two he is allowed in to pick them up and leave straight away. So now that they have gone everyone is awake.

I try to jump on and catch up with the blog but as the connect is quite bad during the day that didn't happen. After a while Michael and Carline rock up after leaving the hotel. So Gloria, Terry, Michael and Carline have scrambled eggs for breakfast. We soon realise that after having alot of visitors to the villa over the last two days we have no more food. So we have a liquid breakfast of coffee, tea and juice until we can go out and buy more food.

After eating their breakfast Uncle Michael and Carline started to open their presents and they were very lucky. Now I don't know gave what presents so you'll have to ask Michael and Carline. Along with getting these gifts they also go some good ol' cold hard cash.

This morning Gloria and Terry were due to take the bus back to Kingston which is about 2-3 hours from Mammee Bay or Ocho Rios. However the original rental car was returned to us this morning and the other was being returned to Kingston so the driver said she would take them back to Kingston which was lovely so they could make the trip in comfort.

Uncle Michael asks us would we pick up Carline's friend who has flown Barcelona, Spain to be at her wedding who is also travelling to Kingston to visit her family. So at 12 Aunty Donna and Carline go down to Mystic Mountain Lodge and pick up Tracey. So when they return we have a bit of chat. Dad goes off to have a shower and when he comes out Aunty Donna, Dad and I jump in the car and head off to town.

We first go to the Scotibank so Aunty Donna can change some of her US money into local Jamaican dollars and then we head into Seow's Supercenter to get food. When we get in there we start to discuss what we need. This young man comes up and starts chatting with us. We can't seem to shake him so we just let him follow us.

He helps us find what we need and to navigate the store and the people. So with a trolley loaded full of goodies we head to the checkout where this young gentleman places a beer with our shopping we let him after he has helped us. So everything is put through and we have paid this gentleman along with the shopping attendant helps us with the bags to the car. We load all the bags into the car and then a hand comes across our face.This friendly young gentleman is now demanding something in return other than his beer so we give him some cash and Aunty Donna tips the shopping attendant. That ladies and gentleman is what you call a hustle.

Now street people seeing that we give them money flock to us so we get into the car and drive away. We finally arrive home and bring the bags inside. We unload them and put away the groceries. Then we realise that our stomach's are sing the tune of hunger. Realising we missed dinner Dad and Aunty Donna proceed to make everyone sandwiches. Everyone is having corned beef, cheese and tomato sandwiches except me, so I have a banana sandwich. Once we have eaten our lunch we begin to discuss the events of the last couple of days which in turn ends up becoming several different conversations.

In the end someone mentions beach so we all stop for a moment and agree to go to the beach except Dad who stays at the villa. The rest of us get into our swimmers and slap on some sunscreen or I do anyway. Jump in the car and set out for the estate's private beach. We get to the gate and the gate attendant informs us that we need a blue pass. We tell him that we are staying at the Villa Caribbean Dawn and that we were unaware that we need a pass. He lets us in, but tells us we need the pass in future.

So we drive down onto the beach and are awe struck by the beauty of it and how clear the water is. After spending roughly an hour in the water we decide to get out and slowly head to the car along the way pick up some Almond Fruit that fell from the tree. For people that don't know the famous nut that we all know is a seed of a fruit.

So we get home and start to have showers to get rid of the sticks saltiness off of us. We then all sit down at the one table and do different things. Nan is reading her book, Dad and Aunty Donna are doing puzzles and sudoku, Uncle Michael and Carline are discussing things on the iPAD and I yes you guessed it tried to get the blog finished and up to date. All that during loads of washing. Uncle Michael, Dad and I sit at the table for a good couple of hours while the others go and watch TV and Nan goes off to tend to the washing. After some time Uncle Michael and Dad decide we should have some dinner but no-one is overly hungry so we just have some fruit. Dad cuts half the watermelon, a mango, heaps of crackers and in the end Almond Fruit.

With the Almond fruit you eat the flesh including the smooth skin and then break the shell to get to the delicious almond. I wanted this nut so bad I went out to the courtyard picked up a hand sized rock and went all out on it. It didn't take me long to break through the shell well I should say squash the shell and that includes the nut. BUGGA!!!!

So since dinner I have been sitting on my posterior doing these blogs and cursing under my breath when the pictures take too long to load. So now it is the wee hours of the morning and I have finally finished I am going to bed. I hope you enjoy and see you tomorrow for another tale of a far away land.