16TH JULY, 2010

Well it has been almost a week since I last wrote my blog.  Quite a lot has happened since then.  First Antonia had her graduation ceremony at Leeds University, I was unable to attend but one of her Godparents and family did and we will celebrate when we return.  The 2nd news is that Malcolm has announced his engagement to Becky!

The reason I have not had much time to write this week is that Jonathan got a temperature of 38.4c, his leg was very swollen and hot and pain in the calf area as well as two bites lower down which were still infected despite the 7 days of antibiotics.  I decided it was time for him to see the doctor,  my feeling was that it was a thrombosis and the doctor's was cellulitis, although there was no obvious tracking of the infection up the leg, but a hard, painful lumpy calf muscle is a sign of thrombosis, so a chap who does not DO ill was feeling very sorry for himself and ordered to bed and leg up for awhile.  He is back on antibiotics and antihistamine (he seems to be allergic to all other bites) I have put him on coated aspirin and anti-inflamatories, so he is being attacked from all sides and to add to his fun I have found an airline stocking for him to wear as a pressure sock to help the circulation as Fiji does not sell the proper pressure stockings.

The second reason for the lack of writing is that I kept finding moths in the yacht, after investigation they were breading in some flour and sealed Waitrose oats!  They seem to have laid eggs in every nook and cranny around the yacht.  So this week I have been emptying all the cupboards, spring cleaning, spraying and reorganising.  I also spent a day, when J was laid up, scrubbing the decks.  We now have a local guy polishing the yacht both the white area and the hull.  So she should look pristine inside and out by tomorrow.

We have had the most amazing welcome in Savusavu, first with a presentation of a Pandanas basket of fruit then in the evening a Kava ceremony.  Kava is made from a root which is pounded to powder and mixed with water.  If a lot is drunk it has a soporific effect, the Polynesians often drink it whilst playing music.  One man from each country in our rally were asked to sit on the pandanas mat to drink the kava, it has to be drunk in one go as the watchers clap three times.  It looks a bit like dish water and tastes as bad!  It is served in a special wooden Kava bowl and drunk from coconut bowls. In the small town is a Kava (Grog) factory where you take your root to be pounded.  Only Kava is known as Grog in Fiji.

There was also an amazing party at the Copra Shed with a very good band playing great music so we danced until the early hours.  

On Sunday night, which was a day when not a lot was organised we, on Aqualuna, organised a BBQ as we had 23 steaks from the Yellow fin Tuna we caught.  We used 'Natibou's'  BBQ on the Copra shed dock, Natibou had also caught tuna so we had plenty, others brought along salads, I did a big dish of couscous well spiced and others brought along rice, it was great fun and I think everybody had a good time.