Job description

The line that says: "and any other duties in keeping with the role." Today that meant registering/programming my boss's new mobile phone. At least he didn't lose this one on a canoeing trip, unlike his last one...

Once I made sure it was working I took a picture of myself with the camera phone and set it as his wallpaper, as a "reminder of your favourite employee."

Get happy, but don't OD

Perhaps ironically (I started back to work today), I followed the link to this game from Late Edition. You've got to play it, if only to see what happens if you have too much of a good thing.

Happy Pill

My candy is safe

After flying halfway round the world how on earth did KLM manage to lose my case full of candy and cereal at Amsterdam airport? We were there for five hours waiting for our connecting flight to Cardiff. Still at least it was delivered safely today, so I'm reunited with my Hot Tamales and Froot Loops. Hurrah.

Now it's just a case of waiting for the jet lag to hit me in time for a return to work tomorrow.

Mets 2 Phillies 5

When you're a visitor with a one off chance of seeing a top flight sporting occasion, you want something memorable. Like when we went to see Newcastle United and the Toon had three men sent off - two of them for fighting each other.

Going to see the Mets was one of the things I was most excited about before we went, but I desperately wanted it to be memorable, and it was, but for the wrong reasons.

On a freezing cold night at Shea Stadium we saw a Mets pitcher melt down in front of us. With two out in the third inning he inexplicably walked four players, effectively giving the opponents two runs. [NB - if a pitcher throws four pitches outside the strike zone the batter gets to walk to first base. The guy at first moves on to second and so on. So you can walk in a run if the bases are loaded and the better doesn't swing at the fourth wayward pitch.]

Then with the bases still loaded, the pitcher proceeded to hit the next batter with a pitch, automatically walking him to first, and with everyone moving up a base, scoring the Phillies a third.

It was one of those rare occasions that will probably get dragged up again and again, like the triple sending off, and we were there to see it. Unfortunately there was no way back for the Mets and by the end of the ninth we were so cold we just wanted the game to end.

Still it was great to go and see a game at Shea, especially as the stadium is going to be pulled down soon and the Mets will move to a brand new stadium next door.

Back to NYC

Pre-clearance at Hamilton airport (no band playing as you leave more's the pity) meant we hardly had to queue when we landed in the USA. That felt right somehow.

I'm not sure I'd ever up sticks and move, but I could imagine myself living in America. For one thing the Americans I've met over here seem much nicer than some of the ones I've met in the UK. I think it's a ploy - they export the obnoxious ones to put us off wanting to go!

"The White Whale! The White Whale!"

I finally plucked up the courage to go into the sea today, at a secluded beach called Jobson's Cove. Fortunately I have no photos to inflict upon the world, but let's just say it would take many hours of tanning and working out to turn my pasty torso into a buff beach hunk.

After I got too cold I sat on the beach and fed potato sticks to some remarkably tame sandpipers, much to Abby's chagrin as the posh birds she was keeping an eye out for were nowhere to be seen. But I was happy with my shoreline equivalent of pigeons.

Hell for the company

As the saying goes: Heaven for the weather, hell for the company. Well, we've got the company, but the weather decided to go a bit British today. In fairness it's been threatening all week. Monday was supposed to be a downpour, but instead it was mirror-calm and clear skies when we went out fishing. Then Tuesday was supposed to be awful, but it wasn't. Then Wednesday...

Eventually the negative forecast was right. And perhaps it's a good thing too, because it hasn't rained properly here for a month and the water tank is getting a little low. To cap it all I've developed a full-on runny nose, which I suspect I caught off lurgy Ab who's been struggling with a cold since we left NYC.

Even so we took a trip into Hamilton, where most places were closed it being Good Friday, and had lunch at the Hog Penny. I had a chicken bhuna to try and evict the sniffles and, combined with some cold medicine and a nap, now feel a good deal better, four hours later.

I remember back in the 80s when we went to Florida, we had loads of warm Florida rain and kept getting told how it was the "most rain they'd ever had". When we first arrived here we kept getting told how they "never" had overcast, cloudy days, like the ones we've had this past week or so.

Strolling to a win

With TV over here in Bermuda featuring a number of American channels I'm getting to watch some baseball too.

Last night the White Sox beat the Indians in the 9th inning when the batter got hit by a pitch earning an automatic walk to first base. As the bases were loaded, that meant everyone shunted up a base, including the guy at third who walked ito home plate, scored a run and so won the game. Talk about strolling to a win.

King of the Onions

Bermuda is famous for its 'Bermuda Onions', which are a bit like spring onions. So there are many onion themed things eg: Onion Jack's Trading Post; The Frog and Onion pub etc. At the botanical gardens they have some onion-shaped chairs which are a bit like thrones. So here's a picture of me as King of the Onions!

Birthday in Bermuda

Thanks for the birthday well wishes from my birthday well wishers (and ya boo! to you if you're not a well wisher...) How did I spend my 31st birthday? Well, I went out on the boat fishing and then we ate lunch in a sheltered lagoon before coming back home.

Me and a fish

it looked bigger than this in real life (and was kind of spiky too)

Cath caught a few more than me - this was one of her bountiful catch