Wishful thinking…

Holidays.
It’s fair to say that I could do with one.
Master Oh Waily has been an absolute gem in pretty much every way.  He’s got a great nature, like his big sister, and not much seems to phase him.  He is even courteous enough to sleep an hour at a time only during daytime hours, while through the night he has managed a minimum of 3 to 4 hours almost from the very first.  We are now lucky enough to enjoy anywhere up to seven hours of night time sleep.  This is great but still a little bit inconsistent.  And it still means waking up anywhere between 2am and 4am for an early morning food stop.

What all this sleep talk means is… I am over the lack of it.
With a toddler running rings around me during the day, an afternoon nanna nap is just not possible and if you know me, then you know I like my sleep – preferably nine hours a night if I can get it.
I am not getting anywhere near that, at least not in one long peaceful stretch.  So now I’m hanging out for a holiday.  Christmas will be the first stop on that journey, but since it is “the silly season” there is only a minimum chance of an actual extended rest.  Then there is the joy of being your own boss… sounds good until you’re the ones on call through Christmas and New Year.  “Silent Night“… maybe by Christmas, maybe not.  There will be no breath-holding by Ms Oh Waily on that score.

This all leads to the very nice conclusion that a holiday must and will be booked to take the misery out of next winter.  It has been done.  The Oh Wailys and grandparents (aka as babysitters) are booked for a holiday in June.  There are many reason why this is so.  Here are a few of them:

1. Doesn’t interfere with enjoying (fingers crossed) a lovely summer at home while Master OWW is still small.
2. Doesn’t interfere with our No.1 customer’s service schedule (don’t change it, please).
3. Master Oh Waily will be a good age to deal with the travel and enjoy the destination.
4. Master Oh Waily may be walking (if he follows in his sister’s footsteps) by then.
5. June can be totally miserable here and no one needs to live with SADs.
6. Fiji should be warm and inviting, but not frying and drying (hopefully).

So, here is my homage to our destination.  And a bit of a perk-me-up as I look forward to floating in the pool, eating out at nice restaurants, maybe even snorkeling again and possibly splashing out on a visit to either the Mandara Spa or the Heavenly Spa.
After all, “I’m worth it”.

Where I plan to float

Where I plan to lounge

Visit where we were married

Although frankly, the white picket fence does nothing for me, and I am so glad that it was much more “rustic” when we had our wedding here. A nice Fijian garden with local plants and a beautiful woven archway. Much nicer than the frou-frou white fence !! See if you agree…

An Oh Waily Wedding Snapshot

Ahhhh, just looking at those photographs and thinking about Fiji is making me feel all relaxed and goofy already.  Swim-up bars (which I may even be able to visit by June), warm weather, warm swimming pool, nothing “to do” but lie around and read a good book or two, a bit of retail therapy at the Port and maybe even an iced coffee at one of the new eateries. Oh I am looking forward to it, I REALLY REALLY am.

Now all I need is for the Commodore and our government to calm down a bit and play like nice children in the Oceanic sandpit.  Not that Suva is on our travel itinerary, and Nadi is only if you can be bothered, want cheaper souvenirs or a visit to the local open air food market.  Personally, after this many visits, I’m going for the peace and quiet and pool and to do nothing.  Oh I can’t wait to be back riding on the Bula Bus.

Home from the holiday

And what a holiday it turned out to be.

Now I need a new plan – where can I go that isn’t going to turn into a natural disaster zone two days after arriving?
Suggestions anyone?

It looks as though we would have perhaps been better off running the potential pitfalls of Frank Bainimarama’s current escapades in Fiji than visiting our next door neighbour over the ditch.

Surfers Paradise turned out to not be quite the paradise we were hoping for.  In fact, it became a natural disaster zone some two days after arriving thanks to a rather nasty low off the south Queensland coast.  A man even lost his life just a kilometre up the road from where we were staying.  Nasty freak accident involving flying debris and smashing windows.

From our 16th floor vantage point, facing away from the sea (thank goodness), we could see all manner of deck furniture whizzing along the footpaths and roads.  No flooding near us, but the beach decided that the footpath might be retaken from man’s interference.

Then one day, having ventured out in the rain to the nearest shopping mall in an attempt to fight off the cabin fever that comes from being stuck in an apartment with an energetic toddler, I discovered that our accommodation was situated on one of the worst wind tunnel corners in the neighbourhood.  This would have been fine, but for the fact that when I got off the bus with the toddler’s push chair something in my brain did not register this potential.  And while crossing the road I found to my horror that it could become something of a windsail if I actually unfolded it.
Mercifully the breeze had dropped to just gale force and the rain was slightly less than horizontal meaning that I made it across the road only slightly worse for wear.   Quickly finding the least damp place I folded said windsail back down and proceeded to attempt “the corner” only to find that the gale force winds had gained a bit of momentum and the rain had resumed horizontal service.  Even folded down the windsail proved to be a problem.  Ducking around a large real estate sign flapping in the breeze I found myself confronted with “the corner” and barely made it across still on my own feet.  I genuinely thought that I was going to do a comic turn for those watching from the safety of their hotels or apartments.  The only unknown factor was: would I look like Mary Poppins or a very bad mime act doing the old “bear walking against wind” chestnut.
All members of the Oh Waily household made it safely to their digs, wet and windswept, but grateful to be indoors again.

And there really isn’t much more to say about the holiday – wet, windy, expensive (talk about fleece the tourists) – and it is the first time in my memory that I actually looked forward to coming home much more than staying where we were.

***

Just a note on Q1.
We booked through a third party, so the following comments may not apply to the Q1 managed apartments.

1. Definitely not luxury apartments.
In fact we decided, based on the real estate information in their own retail area, we were staying in a 1 bedroom plus study not the “2 bedroom compact” described.
2. Nothing to do indoors, so when bad weather hits it’s your room or the lobby for undercover entertainment. Or a fairly long dash across the open pool areas to the games room (arcade games of all descriptions) and the indoor gym.

I have stayed in much nicer hotel and resort accommodation.  It was tidy and had we spent lots of time outside at the pool, would probably have seemed a lot better than it actually is.  However, the apartment amenities were just in fair condition and certainly don’t deserve to be raved about.  (Nasty weather aside.)
It was the worst place I have ever slept.  Frosted glass doors meant light leakage from everywhere to the extent that I could have almost read in bed without a single light turned on.  No lock on the bathroom door – makes for interesting possibilities should you be sharing the accommodation as we were. The second bedroom sounded like an aircraft hanger when the air-conditioning was turned on and there was an unexplained background droning noise that we couldn’t discover the source of too.

So, if tempted to stay here – don’t be.  The marketing pictures are beautiful, but the stated costs per night do NOT warrant the quality of facilities provided.  Go to the Sheraton or the Westin in Fiji – they’ve both been done up in the last few years (one is more modern in style than the other), and on the whole provide a much better quality of experience.  At least they don’t promise more than they provide.

Right, that’s negative reviewer mode off.  Hope you were all well while we were away.

Holiday Time

This is just a quick note to say that the Oh Waily family will be on holiday from tomorrow until the same time next week.

We are all looking forward to it, and if I have the time and am able to, I will try to drop a short note here. Otherwise, if we do anything other than lie around reading books I will give a full report on our return.

Return from vacation

It was tough, but someone had to do it.  After all, you can’t just let all that good sunshine and tropical heat go to waste.

And if they put up bure shelters and sandpits for you to sit and loll around in, then the very least you can do is spend some time drying off after your swim.

And before you ask… yes. We did have a great time.  Thanks.