November 18, one week to Thanksgiving and the University is putting on a Thanksgiving Dinner running all day to cover about 700 people. I wonder how close to a US Thanksgiving dinner we get? I do hope the ultrasweet yams and marshmallow topping are not part of the menu. I am serving during the last session.
It is going to be a busy time since there is probably a faculty party on the Saturday shortly after a group of us have been sailing in 12-metre America’s cup yachts as part of a Diabetes Foundation Fundraiser – a great opportunity at a greatly reduced price from normal. The boats we are in are pictured at http://www.12metre.com - Inappropriately for diabetes, but welcome, the 2-3 hour experience includes drinks on board plus rum punch, snack and professional wine tasting after we return. So I expect to feel quite hazy by the time I get back to the apartment.
Up to now, it has been a glorious November: Not too much rain, if any, and bright sun and deep blue seas, just like the Caribbean should be. My old black lady friend has been visiting again, snorting around the house late at night and complaining as I drive her away. She seems to have become a nocturnal visitor with all the neighborhood dogs proving a chorus of barking to signal an intruder is around. I have a rather poor picture of her by flash as she bars my way to the door that leads to our stairway.
We had a visit to Philipsburg a couple of Saturdays ago. A colleague, Fernando, from the Pathology Department and our librarian Chris went down for a day. It was nice to have Chris there as she planned to shop and therefore became a magnet for the salespeople, while Fernando and I just looked on and tried free samples. One store had a bottle of “Shipwrecked” strawberry liquer for $3, but it is very sweet and probably only really good in an English trifle. Fernando, took us to a Gulmohar’s. It seems to advertise fine jewelry on the web suite but the picture says otherwise http://www.best-stmartin.com/detail.asp?storeID=4160&catID=15&typID=28 There was a fantastic selection of rums and whiskeys many available for sampling. The rums themselves varied but some of the better ones were superb. One was particularly tasty with a back taste of whiskey coming from having been aged in old whiskey barrels. Though we kept to sampling only the rums, we sure were pretty happy as we rolled out over to a beach restaurant for lunch. Also in Philipsburg, there are Indian groceries and they have a good selection of prepared sauces in packets as well as an impressive variety of all sorts of food wanted by the Indian community here. The prepared sauces are are actually very good and, with a bit of rice, meat and extra vegetables and some yoghourt make for an excellent and easily prepared dinner.
That same day, after a bit of sobering up, I had a trip back to Philipsburg with several other people from AUC to see a play “Antillean Green Card” in the Cultural Centre. Most amusing with some very good acting though the story line became a bit unbelievable at the end. The audience really got into the mood of the platy and it was an animated interchange with the actors. Really a lot of fun and I didn’t sleep at all- something I worried would happen after my rum-filled day.
November 11 was a national holiday, St Martin’s Day, and several of us went to Pinel Island for a day of sunbathing renting beach chairs and just vegging out. It is a short boat trip and has the advantage that you don’t have to watch stuff with an eagle eye since if anyone stole your bag, they would not be able to get off the island fast. Just drinking and lazing around in the sun is a very Caribbean activity and we all agreed we were totally exhausted by this strenuous work when we got back around 6:00PM.
Last weekend was the diabetes Walk-a-Thon, said to be around 6 miles but it felt less. Only I and Chris (our librarian) got up early for it. It started at 6:00 PM. It did give a chance to see a nice sunrise and some mushrooms.
Just finished my last lectures- over 20 organisms, many very important ones, that cause upper respiratory tract infections covered in 3 lectures! I think I got the message across that people who worry about vaccines should compare the so-called problems (almost all are falsely touted) with the real likelihood of death from infection should their children not be vaccinated. At least vaccines have not become whipping boys of mainstream politicians! We are all horrified by the situation of cholera in Haiti but it doesn’t not really impact St Martin since it is a long way away. However, I suppose persons traveling from Haiti right now will be carefully screened wherever they go in the Americas.
Catch up from last message: The professional singer at the Anglican choral event was Mr. Melvin Hodge. Well worth hearing and I will be checking out when he performs at one of the Casinos.
