Lazy like a Sunday morning

I haven't stepped foot outside today. It's not very often that it rains for the entire day in Maui. But from early this morning, while I lay in bed listening to the downpour, and trying to keep my eyes closed for just a little bit longer - all the way till a rather soggy sundown...it hasn't let up for a minute.

So I stood inside and looked at my slippas gathering water and thought about how this is good training for England.

Owing to my unplanned exodus from my house yesterday, and subsequently missing out on our usual Saturday video date, Pete and I made up for it today with a shorter (but still lovely) Sunday date. He was wearing his Christmas jumper, and drinking cider and making me miss being there so much. Sigh...... hurry up countdown!

We got to talking about his recent knowledge discovery of the leprosy colony on the island of Moloka'i. He was without a doubt as shocked as I was when I first discovered that such a thing is actually still in existence. I mean, lepers were in the Bible for cripes sake! They aren't something we should be running across in our current society! Nonetheless, an I-used-to-have-leprosy-but-now-I'm-healed (but still deformed) colony exists on the island right across the bay from me.  I told him I would do some research into it because lord knows his Dad is going to want to know all the details once he gets a whiff of this. But I can promise you one thing, we won't be taking a cruise over to that island during our honeymoon!

We're still discussing our options for the reception venue. Right now we are considering both the West Glebe Pavilion and Beanfield Community Center. No, they aren't grand and opulent - but hey - neither is our budget.  It's so frustrating living on the other side of the world and relying on a man to gather all of the information. But so far he's doing a decent job of it. I gave him some minor guidelines:

* No low ceilings. I don't want to feel like I'm in the windowless basement of some church.
* There has to be a bar and a kitchen available since we'll be doing a lot of our own food prep.
* We need to be able to hang lanterns from the ceiling and have candles on the tables. Make no mistake....there will be no balloons present at our wedding reception. Not one. This will be neither a child's birthday party nor a retro eighties party. And as such, there will be no crappy balloon arch in site. Full stop.

Other than that, I'm not picky.

Today is the last day of February. Tomorrow I'll be turning the calendar page and looking at the exact month that brings my Fiance to me! Could life get any better!  Joy, joy, joy!

We thought you would be so much....bigger.

Today I was woken up at 4:30am. I was less than thrilled, but when your phone rings at such an ungodly hour, you answer it. Usually with a bit of trepidation. I'm sure it's natural to immediately think..."who died".  I know I did.

But it was only Danielle. And she was only telling me about the impending doom about to be wrought on our little island courtesy of the Pacific tsunami baring down on us. In 7 hours.

Seriously. Seven hours. God knows why she had to wake me up that early to prepare.

In fairness, the tsunami sirens did go off at 6:00, so I would have been up early anyway. And it was nice that I had some extra time to prepare before the evacuation took place. But it certainly does make one think. You always hear --- "if your house was on fire and you only had time to grab one thing, what would it be?"  It was almost sureal to be in that situation this morning. I had a good look around me. Nothing seemed all that pressing right off. I knew I would be leaving my house with my laptop in one hand and my passport in the other. But what else was really necessary to live? In the end I grabbed a suitcase and started filling it with stuff. A couple framed photos of me and Pete. My camera. My birth certificate. Pete's soon to be wedding ring. A couple of photo albums. My makeup. (ha!) Grudgingly I slid my work laptop in there as well.  I did give some thought as to extra clothes to wear just in case water was going to wipe out my house, and I packed my toothbrush as well. Wouldn't want to be all nasty and smelly if I ended up having to live with friends for a few days.

After waiting an hour in line to fill up my car with gas (and if you know me, you'll know that my car pretty much resides at an empty tank...I detest fuel pumping!), it was a short drive up the hill to my friends house for a relaxing day of alternately sitting on the couch listening to the weather updates and standing on the lanai looking for any signs of change in the waves far below. Oh, and watching the wales frolic.  They were going batty out there today.

As you can see from the photo above, we had a great vantage point over the ocean - if a wave was coming, we would notice!
But as you can also see....nothing ever showed up on our side. The windward side of the island received some six foot swells, and the Big Island was hit a tad more aggressively. But good old Lahaina town was snug as a bug. Evacuation for nothing.

Although....I would do it again if I heard the sirens again tomorrow morning. Better safe than sorry. I'm not even wanting to mess around with a wave which has a crest that can last 15 minutes or more. Good grief. That's just freaky.

As good a time as any.....

So, I set up this blog about a month ago, but have never gotten around to posting in it. I figured I would start after the move...but then the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I'd be super busy after the move and (knowing me) I wouldn't begin at all. I work like that.

But I have been sitting on my ass doing absolutely nothing today....so why not start now? I usually come up with a gagillion reasons why not to start something, but today I decided to ignore my lazy nature and just dig in.

I know...I'm proud of me too.

I suppose I should start right off and be honest that this will NOT be a 365 blog. I do not have the time nor patience to be posting online every day. I lead an extremely rock and roll lifestyle. My company is constantly in demand by all and sundry. (hopefully dear reader is equipped with a sarcasm detector band) And as such, I will share only the best and juiciest details of my life. Never the boring or trite. Mundane things never happen to me anyway.....

So...shall we?