Mondays don’t suck

Finally. I got to go to Camp Bay beach for the ex-pats, Monday’s Don’t Suck fun day. I spent too many years of my life dreading the inevitable; MONDAY morning, back to work. I didn’t hate my job, not in the least and I adored the people I’ve met in all my jobs, they are my bestest friends ever. It was still WORK. I had to get dressed, wear a bra and decent shoes. I had to comb my hair and put on mascara. The preparation for work was as bad if not worse than the actual work.

I don’t do that anymore. My mornings are mine. I do what I damn well please and it is so nice. I get up and feed Emmy, then myself. I read the news (what I want to read) peruse FB, check my email. I make a cup of tea, visit with the doggies then clean up the kitchen for the day.Sometimes I don’t get dressed at all, just keep my sleeping clothes on all day, unless someone comes here, then I have to get dressed. Usually someone is here, never fails. That’s ok, really it is.

Monday Bob and Rosalie swung by and allowed me to follow them on my inaugural drive alone in the new car out to Camp Bay. The car has not been driven very much and it is a 30 min. dusty rutted drive out there. The car and I survived with no complications. No biggie. I’m good to go there alone or with friends from now on.

The ex-pats party on a nice beach on the far east end of the island that is deserted on Mondays. There is NOTHING there. It’s shortly before one of my favorite restaurants, La Sirena. Everyone brings a dish to share and a sandwich or something to grill for themselves. They play games, swim, float, sun bathe, nap and just do what ever it is they want. There may be some alcohol involved. These folks are absolute concrete proof that MONDAYS DON’T SUCK. They even have a flag stating that so doubters, take a hike. It is what it is. You work your ass off  all your life for a reason and this is it. I feel sorry for the people who don’t take the leap. Quit your job and enjoy your life. You don’t get a do-over. I am so glad I did, I could never go back.

We arrived at the beach around noon and soon after that we were water bound. I think we were bobbing, floating and riding the waves for a good 45 minutes. There were some awesome long floaty waves, perfect for the raft to just glide over. It was pretty flipping fabulous. The water and the company were perfect! I’m not sure what time we ate but there was a lot of food. After being in the water, drinking vodka, sitting in the sun and eating, I was ready for a nap. I laid down on my chair, having switched to water as my beverage and I had to keep forcing myself to stay awake. I soon decided I better get moving and drive my burned out ass home. It was 3:45, I had a 30 minute drive and then had a party to go to at 5 PM. Needless to say, we were running late. I think we made it to Parrot Tree around 5:30. There were so many people at the party and we saw so few of them. We didn’t stay too long, I was bone tired. Our short drive home from Parrot Tree in the dark seemed like it took weeks. My headlights suck. The one low doesn’t work and they are aimed all wrong. Just horrible. I’m so happy we were close to home when we discovered this! I talked to Pascual and he already thought they may be an issue and is replacing them next week. Other than that the car is perfecto. I’m madly in love!

Bill has been working on the night stands for the past few weeks, they are almost  done.

 

Rambo painted again yesterday using SUR paint, which we are not happy with either. We still haven’t found paint we like as well as the Royal from Ace who has NO PAINT. I’m telling all of you, be very grateful that when you go to get good paint you can actually GET it. Here, not so much. It’s a chore.  We’re going to grab a gallon @ Pinturas Victor on Saturday before we pick Chuck and Nancy up at the airport. Maybe that will cover better.

 

Lola is still a urine machine. I’m ready to take her back to the shop where I got her. I know she can go all day long with no accidents on the porch because she has done it many times. The whole day I’m thinking she has been peeing where they are supposed to pee. However, she proves me wrong time and again. SHE SAVES HER URINE. And then she pees all over the porch in 7 different places in a short period of time. Spiteful little bitch. It’s a good thing she’s cute.

Yesterday Bill called me downstairs because the Army or Cleaner ants were here. They are big black ants that come in the thousands and go through your home cleaning it of all the bugs. Well, there weren’t thousands, maybe a few hundred and they never came inside. They checked out the foundation, climbed up a concrete pillar then went out back, crawled around the fence and up onto the rubber tree. I wonder if they have a leader and if so does the leader make the decision on whether to go inside or not?

Yesterday afternoon my friend Nidia (Because We Care) messaged me to see if I wanted to ride along to a school very near our house to deliver some chairs. I said yes so she and Abraham swung by to pick me up. The school was literally in the valley below our house. When I say school, I mean, lean to. It was a dirt floored area with a tin roof and no walls. It is a kindergarten class, one of the many overlooked by the government. The teacher volunteers, she is not paid. They have no books, no blackboard, no tablets, pencils, crayons or scissors. They have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. NOTHING! They were thrilled to receive chairs that have a desk top attached. Thank you to Linda Edwards who so wonderfully volunteered to buy them for the school! What a fabulous thing she did for these sweet kids. They each helped carry the chairs over to their “classroom.”

Today I went to pay our property taxes in Oak Ridge at the municipal building. Once they found our parcel # they realized they didn’t have the dimensions of our house. WTH? They figured the square footage over a year ago (after we realized our architect had never purchased the building permit and we had to get one) but somehow lost that info. They said the taxes were $446.00. I said, WHAT?? He said that they didn’t have the sq. ft of the house so they were charging me that. I asked how they could charge me if they didn’t know how big my house was. He said to do it right they would need to come measure again. Well, alrighty then, let’s go measure, but I still wanted to know where the info was from when Aaron measured 14 months ago. They got Aaron and between 3 of them couldn’t find any info on the size of our house, so off they were to re-measure the house again. They should have the amount due next week. REALLY?? So, I couldn’t pay my taxes.

Jeanie and Roger invited us out to their house for dinner tonight but we have such shitful headlights on my car that we can’t drive that far at night until they are fixed. So, Roger and Jeanie are bringing everything here and cooking dinner. Should be a fun evening.

Tomorrow we are getting paint and picking our friends up at the airport, hopefully they make it in this week. On the way home we’ll swing by Barefoot Key so Nancy can get some snorkel gear. Sunday is the Radical Catamaran that we are all going on again, really looking forward to it.

I’ll end this post with some photos of the Urine Queen and the boys.

I’m off to make a salad for dinner. Hasta la vista!