The Festivities are OVER!

I got this photo of a perfect sunset last night just before heading out to dinner! It's pretty amazing to have such a clear shot from nearly 2,000 feet above sea level and with my little "point and shoot" camera.

The visibility has been fantastic. This neighbor island is 18 miles away. Wow, what a beautiful day it was.

Yesterday maked the end of the Holidays and it's back to work like crazy today. Trish, who works with us, has had family here on vacation and its been nice to spend some time with them. Her Great Aunt, Ms. Margarite is a local/native Saban and will turn 91 years old this year.

She had never been married and I love listening to her "stories of olde" about the island. She's an avid reader and Paul asked her what she likes to read. She replied "Romance novels, but not the naughty ones. What I didn't have in my youth I DON'T need now!"

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch AKA Shearwater Resort, I spent a good part of the week end unpacking boxes from the New Year's Eve delivery. Many boxes contained the beds BUT without headboards, footboards and some side rails so that installation project will have to wait until the next container arrives.

It's great to have supplies, furniture, sinks, lighting and other things arrive but when it comes in bits and pieces it can be a bit frustrating. I feel like we have 27 partial projects going on without any one of them coming to completion.

Hence the pre dawn enty of today's blog due to sleepless nights of concern.

Happy Monday from Saba.

Montserrat and the Wall Street Journal

Our little island neighbor, Montserrat has been acting up again and is belching its volcanic ash every few days. The downside to this is a thin layer of "dust" over everything but the upside is some pretty spectacular sunsets like this one last night just after sundown.

Some other good news is The Wall Street Journal just did an article on Saba in their LifeStyle section and is a great push for the Netherlands Antilles!!





Wallstreet Journal - Saba, Netherlands Antilles 2010

Click to read the article!!

Happy Sunday from Saba.

What a View!

Although the output of energy it takes to get this hotel finished is unbelievable, it does have its perks. Like the view. This is what I get to wake up to each morning and have my cup of coffee before the work day starts!! Sunrise overlooking the island of St. Eustatius with the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis beyond.

Today's plan is to get working on the grounds around the property and get the gardens cleaned up. 2 friends of ours, Chris and Jet are coming over to assist.

Yesterday, however, I had the dogs out in the upper terrace area and a native snake slithered past. Naturally I performed a perfect Ballet move through the air while making sure the neigbhors would think I was being murdered by all the screaming. The dogs just looked around like "What?, what's going on?" Idiots!

So I think I'll be moving boxes and "directing" the yard work instead.

Happy First Sunday of 2010 from Saba.

Happy New Year, 2010!

OK, so I have to admit I have been really, really lazy in "my duties" for the Decebmer blog and I apologize. Things have been, to say the least, a bit busy!

We have been working like dogs trying to get the new resort done so it can get opened! For those of you who don't know what's going on, Shearwater Resort (formerly Willard's of Saba) is the newest venture here on this little rock. We are renovating a small, boutique style hotel and hope to have it ready and open within the month.

Yesterday, being New Year's Eve we thought it would be a light day but the delivery trucks started arriving mid morning with stuff out of the container that just arrived and we worked for a good part of the day unloading, sorting and inventorying the orders.

The new banquets for the dining room arrived and look great!

Here is the "new" waiter station in the dining room that is now finished and ready the the drywall person to tape it, mud it and paint it.

Upstairs, we organzied the boxes full of bathroom fixtures, towel bars, T.P. holders and other necessary items for the guest rooms.

Here we have the new Eupopean platform beds that will hold the new style memory foam mattresses (just like Tempur-pedic)

And temporarily stored in the new gym area are the porcelian pedestal style sinks and faucets for all the bath areas.

One "finished" project was hanging the custom made shelf for my antique pond yacht which is now proudly on display. It hangs on a two story wall that it about 24 feet tall so although the boat stands at over 6 feet tall and 5 1/2 feet long, it looks diminuitive to say the least!

Needless to say that after all of this, I spent my New Year's Eve like this (photo above) from about 8:45pm until this morning.

I was actually so tired that I didn't even take a shower and this morning was suffering from a severe case of Eau de Body!!

Happy (freshly showered and NOT stinky) New Year, 2010 from Saba.

A Busy Day today!

Today was a busy day at Shearwater Resort! First I had to check on the hot tub to ensure the chemical balance was good and that it wasn't leaking any water. Next,

I jumped into some painting on the cottages and the main part of the building.

After that I had to check on the tennis court to find out why the net was losing its tension.

After that I had to sit down and take a break from all this hard work!!

Only a few more days until Christmas. Happy Holidays from Saba.

Winter Wallop 2009

So, I've been watching this Blizzard of 2009 approaching and slamming into our Nation's Capital with anticipated snowfalls expected of upwards of 2 feet!! And I have to say that I feel just a little bit jealous that I'm not there to enjoy all of it.

Then I see these pictures of the accumulation and the drifts of snow piling up and then I talk to my Mom and she said the drifts are pushing almost 3 feet.

Then I thought of my afternoon spent by the pool today (here) and realized that I'm really NOT all that jealous.

Stay warm, stay dry, stay cocktailed, stay Holiday Merry today and greetings from Saba.!.!.!.!.!

Paul's Birthday & King's Day - All in one!

December 15th was Paul's birthday but also happens to be King's Day here on Saba which is a National Holiday.

Paul's Birthday - King's Day - Same Day??? Well how about that?

He wanted to go diving which I think was a good thing. The last time Paul went scuba diving was the Friday before Easter and the last time I went was on my birthday, July 1st. Now that's just ridiculous given the fact one of the top ten reasons for moving to Saba was to dive!!

We had 2 really nice dives, the first one to about 110 feet and the second, more shallow one at around 65 feet. One of the great "finds" on the dives was this cute little Pink Frogfish.

He's a tough one to find since he stays nearly motionless and you could swim right by him and thinking it's nothing more than part of the coral.

Happy Wednesday from Saba. Off to St. Maarten tomorrow for a day's full of errands for the new venture.

Poinsettias

For me, living on a tropical island it is always hard to "get into" the Christmas spirit without the weather being cold but our Poinsettia in the yard has just bloomed so that is making me feel a little more Chrismas-y.

The "blooms" all of the sudden turned bright red and the bush looks great!

Only 13 more shopping days left until the big day. Merry Christmas from Saba.

The People of Walmart

OK, so everyone laughs about the people of Walmart! So I went on their website www.thepeopleofwalmart.com and found these "winners"

The first photo I saw was this one and I almost fell out of my chair. I swore that she spun her head around and was facing the wrong way when she wore this "frontless" blouse!!


The first runner up was this delightful woman who had cellulite so deep that you could eat your cereal out of the craters. My God!

All in all, the winners of the People of Walmart provided a happy chuckle from me today.

Happy Friday from Saba.....

Saba Day Triathlon

So bright and early this morning we woke up and participated in the Saba Triathlon which started in Wells Bay. Once we were offered the opportunity to be a part of it we insisted that our "booth" be at Wells Bay where the swimmers came out of the water.

Is was NOT a bad decission. My main goal was to make sure the athletes got their "hydration" once they got out of the the water. Someone asked us "Why didn't YOU participate in todays' event"??? Ummmn, If we can't be an athlete, at least we can be an athletic supporter !!!!

By the way, we called our booth the "jock straps"

The boys made it out of the water first and we made sure they were well hydrated before they got on their bikes for the next stage.

We had plenty of water and Elecrotyte Water (we were drinking Bloody Mary's, btw)

but we still cheered them on towards the finish!!

Once the bike ride was finished the poor schmucks had to run this trail to the finish of the race. MY GOD, why would anyone do this during a Sunday Champagne Brunch I HAVE NO IDEA!!

The first fellow finished the race in under 2 hours!!

AND Paul finished with his cigararette and Bloody Mary still in tact in before dark!! (NOT)

No, seriously we had a great time and enjoyed being a part of this great event.

Happy Sunday from Saba!