Wow,
I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I have written anything. I guess you can tell that life has been a bit busy around here...
It's officially summer here in Mauritius and that means it's officially warm. Celebrating Christmas and New Years in shorts and flip flops is definately not what I am used to. It isn't all bad, but it will definatley take some getting used to. Baking holidays goodies just isn't as much fun when your kitchen is about 82 degrees (28 C) before you start.
The holidays here are a bit funny. Christmas decorations do go up, but usually only about a week before Christmas. This year I noticed more festive behavior than last, so hopefully they are getting the hang of it and every year will be better.
New Years tends to be the big event here. At midnight fireworks go off everywhere and for a long time. Good luck trying to sleep. Unless of course, you are my husband. I honestly don't know how he sleeps through that. The other crazy thing is that in Mauritius, the law requires you to be paid a 13th month at the end of the year. So essentially, in December, you get paid doule what you usually get. Interesting idea... The problem is that people go out and spend his money and for some reason the grocery stores don't understand that demand goes up, so if you go to the store on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th of January, you will likely not find much. No bread, no eggs... the produce is all icky and growing mold. You get the picture. And yes, I mean this literally.
Other than that life has just been cruising along. We are making good progress on our house and I think that by the end of the week, they will likely be ready to cast the slab for the first floor. It's amazing to see how quickly they move... Shown here are some pictures of the ground floor with walls up to where the windows begin. I can't wait to have it done!
A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
I'll try to be more consistent this year. :-)
