Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads! May your family let you watch golf in peace. Quiet week in St. Maarten. Our movie event last week went well with the exception of our favorite shawarma place being closed. We think they are closed for the off season here but sadness was felt by all! As for the movie, Jurassic Park number whatever it is…..here’s the plot…..people think they can control nature, dinosaurs eat people. It was entertaining but you can wait for the Netflix release. It does get a little Hollywood preachy at the end which made us laugh. “We must all live together in harmony.” Nope. Big dinosaurs eat little dinosaurs, then big dinosaurs eat people, then big dinosaurs run out of food and die. Sorry to tell Hollywood that even they can’t control nature no matter how much they preach at me….unless it’s with special effects!
Good news for the week is that our dinghy motor has been running all week. Fingers crossed that the last fix was the last fix needed for awhile. We have been running our usual errands and have not needed towing once so that was a great improvement. Our big puzzle of the week has been studying the large fishing charter boat that is berthed next to us. The boat goes out on charter about twice a week. They leave around 8am and return at 5pm. While most fishing boats would leave in the early AM hours, in St. Maarten, boats are basically held hostage by the drawbridges. They only open a few times a day and if you miss that window, you aren’t going anywhere. The Simpson Bay bridge is the most reliable but only has 3 ins and 4 outs daily starting at 8:30am. The Causeway Bridge is usually not working and the repair guy lives in the Netherlands so he has to be flown in for repairs. The French side also has a bridge but like most things and people French, it hardly works. In all the time we have been here, yesterday was the first day we saw the fishing charter actually bring back a fish. One fish. We are hoping ‘catch and release’ is the explanation rather than ‘really bad fishermen’ but I can’t ask them because I have not figured out a polite way to ask if they just really suck at fishing! I’ll keep you posted because at some point, curiosity is going to get the better of me and I’m going to have to ask. We found an apartment for August while Galt is out of the water! I am sure you are saying, “Oh good! One of the realtors finally showed up to do her job.” That answer would be a resounding, “No.” The realtor sent Bill the name and phone number of the guy who owns the apartment. Then, the guy, Damien, had to come pick us up to show us the apartment himself. Now, Damien has to pay the realtor 10% commission even though he did all the work! Our hour long trip to see the apartment quickly turned into a half day event. Damien had several companies including apartment rentals, a construction company and a tour company. He had some errands to run so we were given an unplanned tour that ended with drinks at a bar/restaurant called Sexy Beef. What a great name! We have been busy this week finally buying airline tickets to get to Europe. After a year of planning, it was very exciting to get the reality started! Getting from an island to Europe takes quite a few flights but we did well getting it done in only two flights. St. Maarten to Fort Lauderdale and then direct to Oslo. Oslo? Yes, we added Oslo because there is a new airline, Norse Atlantic, that started flying out of Ft. Lauderdale this week with all flight connections in Oslo. The airline offered grand opening specials that allowed us to get to Oslo for one third the price of a flight into London. So, we figured we may as well see Oslo on the way to England. For the price difference in tickets, we have covered the costs for three days in Oslo, connecting tickets to London and even some of the hotel costs in London! I’ve been staring at London hotels online all week waiting for the prices to magically drop but so far, not so good. Even Airbnb costs are nuts! I’m about ready to call the Queen to find out about getting a room in Buckingham Palace for the London stay. If I’m going to have to spend this much on a room, it better be in a castle! A short blog this week but during hurricane season in the middle of the hurricane belt we will definitely take an uneventful week over the alternative! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the official first day of summer!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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