Twenty Two Down, Sixty Six To Go

(written Saturday 26/9/09)

I want you to imagine your most recent birthday. Ok, now picture where you went and/or how you celebrated it… Good, good. Now keep that in mind as I describe to you my birthday celebrations from yesterday…

For my 22nd celebration of my natal day I just sat around reading, I sat around talking with Alex, and I sat around doing some inconsequential thinking… while tanning on one of the most beautiful beaches on Viti Levu in Fiji!

The day started off with some casual tanning at our lodge, which I’ve been doing every morning while Alex was still asleep (the bed here wont let me sleep much later than 8:30am). Then after getting a little burnt, she and I went to a beach 50km to the south of Nadi. It was gorgeous! It was well worth the time it took to get there, even including the two mis-turns. The sand was a dirty white, and the water was a clear blue. I have swum (swam? Swam-ed? – past tense of swim) in the Gulf of Mexico before, but I don’t remember having seen such clear water as here. It was really fun to just stand knee deep, and watch the movement of the sand as the waves crashed just behind me.

After reading, laying out, and talking with Alex on that beach (Natadola beach) until sunset (just after 6pm our time – that is 3:30p Adelaide time, 4p Gold Coast time, 2a NY time). After that we drove to Port Denarau for dinner. Port Denarau is almost a peninsula, and it is the location most cruises, both day and extended, leave from Viti Levu for the islands. As you might imagine, that means that it is built up for tourists. For example, for dinner we ate at Hard Rock Café.

This was my first Hard Rock experience. I had a tasty Hickory BBQ Bacon Cheese Burger, with the drink Purple Haze (I think it was a mix of vodka, rum, grenadine, sweat and sour, and some raspberry flavoring… it looked purple and was a bit hazy, but very tasty). It was funny to be in such an American resturante in Fiji. Almost all of the diners were Caucasian tourists from Australia, Europe or the States (judging by our guesses, most of them were probably Aussies). The only thing that made this HR different was that the live music was being performed by some Fijians, and there were two items on the menu that were Fijian (both were burgers: one had an egg on the burger, the other had some pineapple).

After dinner, which Alex was nice enough to cover (including the drink which was $20 – the cheapest alcoholic drink listed on their menu was $15.50FJD), we drove back to the lodge where we sat around recovering from the day, enjoying some fun conversations.

Other than the light burn I got from all the sun, it was a very relaxed and yet remarkable day. Thank you all for your good wishes! I hope your next birthday can be as enjoyable as mine was, weather tropical or not.
Cheers!