Wednesday
The pre-dawn rituals this morning indicate a beautiful sunrise. We try the roof of our room block first, It has great views but not of the sunrise so we move back to our Sunrise Suite. As we reach the roof we smile, it’s going to be an auspicious day. Out to sea a full moon is setting with clouds on the horizon. Just as the moon drops into the clouds the first rays of daylight hit the tops of the clouds. We watch darkness slip away. As we turn around we catch the first bright beam of the sun poke through the trees. Moonset at Sunrise…
We head down to the cliff decks. We decide on the far west deck and begin, seeking the bubbling well. This is my favorite spot of all time for doing Tai Chi. Perched on a cliff and staring at the sea it is so easy to slip into the meditative state. There is a tremendous sense of peace and satisfaction as we finish our repetitions. We linger for a while on our favorite sun deck. As is almost always the case our period of reflection ends with a question, “Coffee?”
The journey to Easy Rock is interrupted by a few street dog encounters, Sweetie Pie happily calling the dogs. Most of them are wary but they all find their way to the treats, usually sneaking off with them. We see Scar in the distance, he is different. He comes running up to Sweetie Pie and does the circle dance. A couple of dog treats are downed quickly and he is at our side until we get to Easy Rock. He won’t cross the street though, he sits and watches as we enter. He sits there for quite a while.
There are already a few other patrons this morning and we make small talk on the verandah. Max is very excited about the Beenie Man show last night. “It was wild, mon,” he says, “All the ladies were bumpin’, the ladies love Beenie!” The cricket report is on the BBC sports feed. “I’m gonna tell you,” Max begins with a phrase I will always associate with him after this week, “A lot of people say you’ve gotta be this or that or you gotta be a certain way to play cricket. We say, ‘If you got the skill then you get to play.’” I tell him that’s a philosophy to live by.
Max is having problems with one of the keyed padlocks to the bathroom sticking. I show him the pencil trick, loading up the key with graphite. He gets excited, “I love these kind of things. A guy showed me a couple of weeks ago how to clean my computer screens with peanut butter!”
Sweetie Pie needs to use the computer but we’re busted after coffee. We need to go to the ATM and we tell Max we’ll be back later. Back downtown we head. We’re starting to get pretty comfortable walking the west end road. The one place I never really like though is the hill and turn just past the Commerce Bank. It’s safest I think to be on the water side for most of it but that means having to jump over the road twice when you head into town. You need to do this quickly while paying attention. I try to find the ATM at the shopping plaza where the NCB is. Someone tells me it’s out front so I walk back toward the road. This out front thing has NOT messed me up for the last time. We can’t find the ATM but know there is one at the Scotia Bank. We’re hoping we’re early enough that it won’t be too crowded.
