Sunday 31 January 2010

Tour De Island Pubs

We still seem to be sleeping so well since we have been here. At first I thought it must be a bit of catch up but we still seem to be catching up. I guess that some of it is because there is not much worth getting up for when it continues to bucket it down continuously day after day. Claire got up to make a cup of tea at about 8am, luckily just before the power cut other wise we would have had to get the “Billy” out. It was raining so hard we couldn’t even nip next door to see if they were around as you would be instantly drenched. It wasn’t much fun, we couldn’t have the TV or radio on, make toast or even have a light on as it was quite dark whilst the rain continued to hammer down hour after hour. It did mean that I could catch up on a bit of my OU course so all was not lost however. All I could make for breakfast was a banana sandwich but Claire seemed to like it and asked for it again the following morning when we did have power.

By about 12.30pm the power came back on and the rain eased a little. Everyone seemed to emerge from their cabins at this time to see what was going on. I had managed to write the previous blog on the remaining power from the laptop but couldn’t publish until the server was back up. Alan told me that the humidity was up to 90% at the moment; that means that 90% of the air is water vapour and if it increased by another 10% we would all drown. I thought I saw a fish swimming through the air but I may have had cabin fever.

Alan lent us his pickup so we could have a drive around the island at least. I think he feels a little responsible for the weather and is trying his best to make it better for us; he really is a great guy. It’s a very small island and you can drive everywhere in about 10 minutes. We found a pub in Horseshoe Bay called Marlin Bar but by now the wind had got up really strong and had created Cyclone conditions. There were trees and branches everywhere but it was nice and calm in the pub. There were very few others around; I guess that everyone was hiding in their homes. Anyway we decided to get back home and get a quick shower then find somewhere to eat as we were all starving.

The wind got even stronger but the rain had eased a little before we went out to Picnic Bay Hotel Bar and Grill for some long awaited food. Alan had driven there in his car to show us the way as we couldn’t find it earlier. All their places seem to be well hidden away; I don’t think they want any new business. This is where the ferry used to offload until about three years ago when it switched to Nelly Bay where we are staying. The food wasn’t bad and we were all stuffed except Barb who had left a little space for ice-cream as it seemed to help her abscess. Poor Barb had been sick earlier when the power was off and was taking anti-biotic’s so couldn’t drink. We headed back home for one nightcap outside our cabin before having another early night. Today we had managed to tour all the Islands pubs; both of them!

2 comments:

  1. HI Phil and Claire,

    Just arrived back in Sunny MK after a brilliant week in Wales & Scotland + today in York. Seriously, the sun has been shining brightly the last 2 days.
    We have just caught up reading your blog, which has given us a lot of laughs. Sorry to see the weather is not behaving. We do hope that the sun comes out soon for you.

    It seems that we have so far had perfect weather. Mostly overcast and cold, but thats what we expected. As I write this, your outdoor thermometer shows -2c, which is OK with us as it makes a nice change. We did not actually expect to see beautiful cloudless days, I think we are being spoilt. The Landrover has run faultlessly on our trip. Whatever problem you had before has been fixed.

    We'll send another message soon.
    G & D

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  2. Glad you’re having luck with the weather, ours has turned at last; the strong winds blew it all away. If you can see the sun you somehow feel good, whatever the temperature but its usually grey skies this time of year so you are honoured.

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