OtherGoose: Jan 19-22

January 22

Good morning! The last three days have been busy...

For a couple of days after Sue and Les left we just bumbled around, mostly hanging out with Stephane and trying to figure out what to do with these $@#% batteries. We went for walks on the beach and I was looking for art lessons and inspiration.

Monday, the first day of school was SCARY! A room full of Grade 1 & 2's and they had zero focus. I haven't worked with that grade level since teacher's college, where I swore I wouldn't ever again. It's like herding kittens, or pushing a rope! I literally ran when the class was over! So I went back and talked to the secretary and they said Fridays would be better. SO today is Friday...

After I spoke to her I went to St. Andrews school, and the principal was waiting for me. They had already out me in the schedule but a staff change necessitated taking me off again. She emailed me a schedule on Wednesday...Tues /Thurs/ Fri. Uh-oh. Now I have problem. So today I will go sort it out. She also wants Quentin to go in and work with the math teacher...good because that gets his Community Service topped up.

Monday we also went to Immigration to get our personal permits renewed. You don't get the same time as your boat to be in the islands. Stupid, eh? But...we don't make the rules. Inspector Adams was...aggressive to say the least. We were 8 days past the limit - they only gave us 30 days to be here!

They kept us waiting for about a half hour. I mentioned that I would have to cancel all my time at the school if they made us leave, and we would have to let Liz know right away so not to send Quentin yet until we got back. He officer brought us into "HIS" office and he reamed us out, talking to us like we were 10 years old. When he found out I was volunteering, he went off again...I was supposed to let them know. I said I didn't know that because it didn't say that in any of the rules about entering and no-one else told me that. He sort of backed down and said the school was supposed to tell him. I almost said "then go yell at her", but I kept my mouth shut!

They gave us 60 days so we have to go in before March and renew. It's never an issue if you go on time but they change the number of days so you really have to watch the entry!

Tuesday I worked at the Regatta T-shirt booth selling t-shirts with another boat, "Strider". Brent also works with the kids at the school.

Wednesday, when we picked Quentin up...that's another story...the Customs agent calculated his entry so that we could all go together and get renewed.

So...picking up Quentin...the taxi was going to cost $30.00 each way, so we told him to come from the airport on his own, but Rick decided that we should get a car, check out all the marinas and lumber/construction places so we could find battery acid and a pole for the generator at the same time as we picked him up. Cheaper, right? No, the $60.00 car turned into $100.00 because they didn't have one available ...so, we got there and watched him get off the plane. But one of us had to go into Customs and prove that he was coming with us. No big deal...he had all the papers and his travel letter. It just made it easier all round and having my passport meant that he could give us all the same time in the country. We managed to get some battery acid (not enough) and a pole to put up the wind generator (if it ever calms down!)

We arrived back in town and introduced Quentin...most people stopped us and said, "HI, this must be Quentin / your grandson."

While we were having lunch in the little cafe behind the beauty parlour, a tall handsome man came in and said hello, enjoy your time, etc. When he left I said to Rick, "He looks familiar. I think that was Elvis." [the harbour master]. He came back to pick up his order and after a minute or two, he asked if we knew who Elvis was. I said we had met him but we had met so many new people I wasn't sure if I'd recognize him." He said, "I'm Elvis and I remember you guys!" we had a good laugh and now I will remember who he is! His Water Taxi is yellow!

Yesterday, Rick put the battery acid in 2 of the batteries...not nearly enough! He has to go get a 5 gallon pail because that's the only quantity it's sold in here! He got the bottom of a box the other day. $9.00 a gallon!! But our batteries have almost no acid in them! We are going to get them supercharged when they are equalized.

Don't buy batteries from BATTERIES PLUS and don't buy DURACELL PROPLUS [from Proctor & Gamble] Neither company cares whether or not you have problems as long as they get your money!

Last night we had dinner with Stephane...he made chicken & mushrooms in a curry cream sauce, with rice. Quentin even liked it!!! He ate it and said it was good!

SO we are waiting for another wind storm to rush through here, so we haven't been able to go over to Chat n' Chill. We have had 3 in the last week. Last Wednesday, then again on the weekend and now this weekend we are expecting another one with 30-35 knots of wind and gusts of 50-60 in the thunderstorms. Welcome back, Q!