Hettie & Chad December 2011 Trip Report

[Hettie]

I'm glad I've finished writing about arrival day which, although fun, was busy and full of tasks to be completed. Now I will have time for more descriptions, reflections, and anecdotes...

I didn't sleep well the first night, I was torn between not wanting to sleep so that the day wouldn't end and the desire to want to fall asleep quickly so that I would wake up and it would be morning! I kept waking up hoping it was almost time for sunrise, but it would be 2:00 am, 3:00 am, and so on. I finally fell asleep for a few hours straight and woke up around 7:30, I think, which I consider a little late because when in Negril I like to wake up by 6:30-7:00 am so that I don't miss out on a second of the sunshine.

Chad makes the coffee because for some reason I can never get the water/coffee ratio right and his coffee is always perfect. We brought a coffee grinder this time-- fresh ground beans are so much better and a grinder doesn't take up much luggage space. The Round House at Citronella has a cozy little kitchen that is nicely furnished with everything we needed, except a wine glass, which I brought along with me...oh and the coffee grinder.


We had our coffee (mine with a generous sploosh of rum cream) on the verandah with an incredible 180 degree view of the sea and did some more rejoicing and thanking/praising for the 11 full days ahead of us. In the past it's taken us a few days to relax into the groove, but on our first morning we felt like we'd already been there a week. I don't know if it was a newfound comfort level derived from experience or if we just forced ourselves into relaxation using sheer willpower.

After coffee I decided to do some yoga and get the blood flowing. I'm the main photographer in this pair, so I'm usually frustrated when we get home and there are only around three photos of me out of 300-400, so I told Chad I wanted him to take more photos so that I would have evidence that I was actually there. Unfortunately, he chose to take a lovely series of rear view photos while I was in compromising yoga poses which I will not be displaying here or anywhere else. Here are some of the more flattering shots:

Here you can see Sir D's/Firewater/Love Nest (Which is it???) in the background:

And the same pose again...


While I appreciate Chad's effort, I didn't really mean that he should take 50 photos of me doing yoga (and mostly of my butt). Note to self to be more specific in the future...

Wow, this is the first report I've done on the new board and I didn't know about the 10 attachment limit. To be continued...