Transit Lounge

I feel like I'm stuck in a Transit Lounge. You know, its amazing to be in another country and you can see it beckoning to you from outside the windows, but you are stuck there waiting for hours on end, restless and itching to get going. You are sick of the food, you've read the magazines, you'd just love to get out there, stretch your legs, meet some "Foreigners" taste some exotic food…anything …The problem here in Rurutu is the dreadful weather - heavy rain all day and the squally winds spiraling down mean theres no chance of going ashore yet.. At times I couldn't see land, so heavy was the rain, and a wide brown stain has fanned out from where the little creek runs into the middle of the bay, as the flood of rain washes lots of debris and numerous branches and a couple of small logs out to sea. Forecast for tomorrow is easing wind and the end of the rain which started last night. I had managed by then to get most of the essential things pretty close to dry as the wind is warm even though we didn't see much sun yesterday. Today there has been none so I have been confined to my room like a naughty boy. Ive done my "Rounds" and fitted some reinforced plastic hose over the snubber rope as chafe protection., cleaned and rearranged everything in the Galley ( Kitchen) and I found something! (It was the old jar but only ¼ used!)

Ive also written a few emails, watched a few slide shows of My Photos - eg of my travels last year - practiced my 4 Ukelele chords , and listened to the local Radio station. I heard the first News Report for nearly a month but unfortunately being in French I didn't understand a word of it, except that at one point they mentioned Nicholas Sarkozy! I also recognized the word "Nadal" and guessed they would be mentioning it because some French tennis player beat him - but that seems unlikely on the basis of his form a month ago when I last new anything current! Strange to have no idea about what's happening in the world. Same with the announcements and talk, French or the local Polynesian language which sounds so like NZ Maori - but there's lots of nice Polynesian style music - yes Ukelele features lots, and occasional songs in English - Ive heard BeeGees, Tom Jones, an early Police number, some Reggae and a groovy Rap number, Cher plus quite a lot of that sort of music that comes on after a plane touches down - just to stick with that Airport metaphor - sort of light instrumental tedium ( that would be the French stuff ) The other thing that's quite fun is whenever I see something moving on shore I take a photo on maximum zoom then zoom in on the image on the LCD screen on the camera and its amazing what detail you can see - a vague figure on the beach turned out to be a fat Rurutuan man with no shirt on, carrying a bucket. And wearing a watch ( and no I couldn't read the time - its NASA that can do that from their Spy Satellites), Later when I snapped him again, he had his shirt and a yellow cap on.. Hey ! They'll be watching me too for sure, and talking about me in the Store, wondering who this visitor is camped on their boundary fence.

And hey again, good news - as I have been writing this the sun shone briefly through a gap in the clouds close to the western horizon - sunsets in about an hour - and then looking up I saw clear sky, and a half moon! Theres still low heavy cloud clinging to the island but perhaps we are seeing the end of this ghastly long miserable easterly onslaught and return of some decent weather. So far its been most untropical. Things always get better I've been told. Au Revoir!

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