The day got off to a slow relaxed start at the usual time of 5.30am, it was a beautiful morning, as soon as the sun came up we knew it was going to be a hot one, by 11am it was 34°C in the shade!
We had two presents to open which were wrapped in newspaper – Chloe had treated us to two of the things we miss most in the food here – ferried over from the UK, by her sister who is here on holiday.
The daily jobs still needed to be done, Chloe and her sister walked the beach to check for nesting turtles
and Angie recorded the weather.
But there was plenty of time to relax, Pete found time to do a bit of art work
and Phil came in to see how dinner was going.
Christmas dinner was going to be a joint of pork and all the trimmings, well all that we had anyway and everyone was going to prepare a bit and we all planned to eat together. There were 7 of us left on the island and we were all from the UK, with the local lads having gone to the main land to be with their family. Melv as the chef prepared the meat and roast potatoes and whisked up a pudding.
When it got too hot in the kitchen we both went in the sea to cool off, the water was like a mill pond, and it was incredibly calm and amazingly warm.
From 12 noon we were all relieved that technology behaved and we were all able to contact friends and family, so text messages, emails and phone calls flew backwards and forwards with the UK through out the afternoon and evening.
Once all the daily jobs were complete, the magpie robins had been fed and the beach checked for tracks for the final time, we all sat down for dinner at 5.30pm, which was amazing:
Main CourseRoast pork, in honey and soya sauce
Roast potatoes
Pumpkin and aubergine
Carrots
Papaya chutney
Pineapple sauce, (we didn’t have any apples), bread sauce, stuffing balls and gravy
Sweets
Trifle (with rum as we didn’t have sherry)
Pumpkin and coconut pie, with cream topping
Pineapple upside down cake
Followed by Christmas chocolates – (thanks Jean)
Accompanied by glasses of red wine and other alcoholic beverages!
Chloe and her sister used their artistic skills to create hats and decorations, and we opened parcels that past volunteers and visitors had sent us.
What about the wildlife well that was great as always, all day the fairy terns chuckled, the sunbirds rattled their song and warblers piped their melodious tune, even the bee eaters visited for a short while, the frigate birds chilled out on the thermals and the Audubon shearwaters serenaded us with their eerie call as we watched the sun go down.
The sunset was out of this world, turning the whole sky pink and producing a 3 dimensional light which makes the island looked surreal.
So what was Christmas like on a tropical island: hot, relaxed, quiet and rather special – Cheers!! 
No comments:
Post a Comment