Its Issys birthday, again, as it was yesterday, or was that the day before, when it was today. This is very confusing. I woke up in a cold sweat a few night ago thinking that Id booked our here for the wrong nights. I then remembered the thing about the dateline, which meant that we got here before we left home . I think. My head spun for a long time before I managed to get back to sleep again.
Perhaps unsurprisingly we sleep in after sleepless night on the plane the night before. I wonder why they dont put bunk beds on planes. Im sure they could fit just as many people in, theyd just be stacked vertically instead of horizontally. Im sure there must be a good reason for this, I just dont know what it is.
I have a lot of trouble with the shower, and wish Issy luck as she heads in for her turn. She cant understand why I found it so hard, which always leaves me wondering whether I might have just dreamed that I had two engineering degrees and a forty year career in the water industry.
We wander down onto the very attractive sand of Napili Bay Beach in front of our apartment. Its well populated with mostly American sounding holiday makers. And I mean sounding. Why do American voices all seem to carry so effectively? Do they perhaps make them all go to voice projection school as youngsters? It of course means that we get to overhear some very interesting conversations, as well as some very uninteresting ones, plus some others that are just plain scary. The guy sitting a few seats behind us on the bus in from the airport yesterday was telling his partner all about how to shoot wild boar without getting yourself gored. It seems that if theyre a long way away you shoot them with your rifle, but if they get too close you revert to your handgun, just to make sure you get them before they have a chance to stick one of their tusks into your neck.
And whilst on the subject of guns, after hearing this conversation we couldnt help but reflect on this whole issue after the recent tragic primary school mass shooting in Texas. The guy who was telling the story clearly has
at least two guns, yet I think Ive only ever known one person in Oz whod ever owned even one. When will the members of the NRA and their mates ever wake up to the fact that gun violence on this scale just doesnt happen in any other civilised country anywhere on the planet, and that this might just possibly, maybe, by chance have something to do with gun ownership rates also being astronomically higher in the US than virtually anywhere else? Im sure theres something here that were just not understanding; we just dont know what it is. Anyway, thats enough ranting for one day. I wouldnt want to risk this being read by an NRA member immigration official who then decides were undesirable aliens when we try to leave next week.
We have lunch at a cafe overlooking one end of the spectacular beach, and then head in for a dip. The waters beautiful and gets deep really quickly. Getting back up to our towels does however prove a bit challenging. The beach is so steep that it feels like youre climbing up a cliff face covered in treacle. It is nevertheless all very pleasant and relaxing.
Issy says she wants all her birthdays to be like this. I hope thats not a challenge shes throwing down to me; this is going to be hard to match.
As we wander around its a bit hard not to notice the Hawaiian flag fluttering in the breeze in quite a few local front yards. Even more hard not to notice is that it includes the Union Jack in the top left hand corner, which apparently makes it the only US state flag to include the emblem of a foreign power. This doesnt feel very patriotic, and Im a bit surprised that the Donald didnt have something to say about it when he was holding the reins or maybe he did and Id already switched channels. It seems that this all came about as a result of British Navy Captain George Vancouver visiting the islands in the late 1700s and presenting the King with a Red Ensign.
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