Around Honolulu

Hi Dear Folk,

The forecast is rain.  It rained most of last week and so far has rained this week.  So back to sunny Hawaii.

Well here we are up bright and early on Sunday morning to make it in time for the 9:30AM Branch Meeting.  By flying out that weekend we missed attending it at our own congregation, so found out it was being streamed at the Diamond Head congregation in Honolulu, so we made it up there, navigating the very good Honolulu bus system.

Here are some friends from that congregation.

Joy and her mum.  We later saw Joy who had volunteered at our hotel to help at the JW International Delegate desk which was in the lobby of our hotel, as they were in all the hotels where delegates stayed.

And I couldn't believe it that we ran into friends from the very area The Boy and I visited Summer 2013 from Apalachacolo, Florida, remember how much I loved that name and how much we loved the beach at St. Joseph's, sand like confectioners sugar and almost white, long beaches backed by dunes on the Gulf.

This take out at Diamond Head is very good because the owner has a restaurant in town, but trains his staff here, so the quality of take out food is very good.  Here we all are lining up to place our orders.

We were going to catch the bus back into town, but a sister in the congregation, insisted on taking us back, and then as a last minute thought she said would you like to visit a craft show.  Now this was the same craft show that a lady who we sat at the bus stop had said that she was visiting.  She also mentioned the Japanese restaurant in our hotel as being very good and authentic, but that is another story.

Here we are at the craft show.

 

I bought a pair of these for The Boy, on the line, third from the left.  They are shorts made out of Rice Sacks.  The grandfather started this business during the depression and they have carried on with it.  I can say that Rob really loved them, so I was right to walk back and buy them.  It was the only place I ever saw them.

 



 
My friend Barb bought several handmade items from these lovely ladies.

 

Here we are back at the hotel and the same time that we were dropped off by Terine, so sweet spending all day running people round, the friends from Argentina were arriving.

 



This is Terine saying goodbye.

Group of friends from Argentina and a local sister.  It seems luggage from Argentina gets poly wrapped

Unfortunately I do not speak Spanish and most of the friends from South America only speak Spanish.  Is on my list of to do, must learn Spanish.  This was a sweet girl, so very bubbly, still we understood the joy being shared.

Christy

Awake In The Wee Hours

Hi Dear Folk,

What does one do when you are wide awake at 3:00AM?  Well you make yourself a cup of tea, I will admit to taking a supply of my own tea bags and a good job to because the hotel only had coffee, can you believe that?  Sit outside on the balcony and take photos.  So here are some of my nocturnal photos.

View of the pool and marina by night.

View of a full moon, looking up the side of our hotel and as you can see no balconies except on our level.

Listening to Hawaiian music played in the distance.

Up bright and early to catch the 8:00AM bus to Diamond Head.  Here we both are in the leis we received at the airport.

Hawaii Prince Hotel lobby.

I bought a good coffee and a doughnut made out of Poi see here so the inside of the donut is purple and very good they are too.

Christy

Honolulu Here We Are

This is our hotel the Hawaiian Prince by the marina.  All rooms in this hotel have a view of the ocean, it's actually made up of two interconnected towers, we were in the tower you see above.  Our room was not that high up, on the fifth level, and we wanted to be higher, but as it turned out, we had one of only a few rooms, just fifth level that had balconies, and these rooms were on the same level as the pool and jacuzzi, just around the corner from us, so we were very happy when we realized this.  Nice for an early morning dip, which it had to be as our schedule turned out to be so very full.  The balcony was great for an early morning cup of tea, and I mean very early morning as our internal clocks were so messed up.  Hawaii is five hours behind us.

Here I am we are taking an evening walk after checking in.  This is the marina, and we walked past here down to Waikiki Beach.  I'm wearing my new Firmoo Sun Glasses.

Here's my friend Barb in the water at Waikiki Beach, in the background the mountain you see is Diamond Head, it's the actual top edge of the crater.  We did walk to the top of this, that's another post.

In the center of the photo above, you can see the twin towers of our hotel.

These restaurants sit right on the beach.

A Hui Hoi, until we meet again.
Christy

Honolulu Airport Greeting

Hi Dear Folk,

After taking a flight from Philly to Phoenix, Arizona and then Phoenix to Honolulu, here we are at the airport and this is the first greeting sign we saw at the airport.  On our last flight we actually sat in front of delegates coming in from Atlanta, Georgia, so that was fun getting to talk to them, because their convention back in the summer in Atlanta, Georgia had also been a host city for an international convention.

The friends were at the airport waiting to greet brothers off over 800 flights, so you can imaging what a lot of work this was and sometimes things went amiss, as to who was on what flight.  So we landed up being greeted by a group of friends from the Spanish congregation, waiting for friends to come in off a flight from S. America.  What a warm welcome that was as you can see in these photos.

Unfortunately because we were not on any ones list who was there, they could not give us a lei.  These leis were specially made by all the friends at different congregations around Oahu.  This was an orange lei made to look like the special orange flower leis that were made for the Hawaiian Royal Family.  So as we were boarding the shuttle to our hotel, I think one dear brother felt bad about this and said wait a moment, he I'm sure went to the airport shop and bought us flower leis to wear, so that we were greeted in Hawaiian style.  Of course we did get our orange leis later on. 

Christy

Reluctance to Resume

Hello Dear Folk,

It seems that I have a reluctance to resume blogging.  I have been analyzing this and can only say that coming back to the reality of November in Pennsylvania must be it, I landed with a big bump.  I have been on winter vacations before but when I think about it only to the UK which is also winter, so have not had to leave an idyllic weather pattern of 85f  and sunny, for 32f drizzly and dull.  Having said this, we totally ran ourselves ragged on vacation, yes I know, I'm not one to sit and lounge on the beach for too long, I have to be out and about seeing all there is to see.

Also the perfectionist side comes out in me, can I really do this vacation justice, by my mere paltry verbiage.  Our vacation was really split almost into two vacations, the week from Saturday to Monday week spent on Oahu as an International Convention delegate and the Monday to Saturday spent on Maui.

Well everyone should visit Hawaii at least once in a life time and as it was an JW International Convention in both English and Spanish, we met a lot of delegates from South America, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and from Central America, Mexico.  As well as friends from many other countries.  As we were leaving the delegates for the second convention were coming in from Japan, New Zealand and Australia.  It was amazing to see everyone.  We were all greeted at the airport with Orange Leis, but that's a whole other story.  We wore these where ever we went, to identify each other as international delegates. 

When we arrived home we were exhausted and I was so happy that it was a short three day work week, being Thanksgiving Holiday.  The Boy came home for the week, so enjoyed that time together. 

This week I've been working on baby booties for a shower this Sunday.  So here I am two weeks back and no post.  So future posts will be with pics.

Take care, have a wonderful weekend.

Christy

PS:  I did put up a new Hawaii banner, Waikiki Beach, with Diamond Head in the background.

R.I.P. Tinkerbell

Hi Dear Folk,

We had to have our dear Tink put to sleep today.  It was a very hard decision, but we feel it was the kindest thing to do.  She had a stroke yesterday, could not walk and was not eating.  We put her cozily in a box with a towel, she was sleeping and purring, which made it even harder.  She was about seventeen years old, had a long life for a Himalayan.

Mr. B. and I went together, shed our tears, we have buried her in the back garden next to Baggy a previous cat.

Here she is a few years ago, doing what she loved, sunning herself in the garden.

Christy

Count Down Is On

Aloha Dear Folk,

The count down is on until our departure to Honolulu, just the name conjures up pictures from my childhood, of far flung places palm trees and grass skirts.  We have a 7:00am flight out of Philly to Phoenix and then a connecting flight to Honolulu.  We arrive after 3:00pm gaining some five hours.

I hope to be at our hotel in time to walk down to Waikiki Beach to see the Hula Show see here, our hotel is on the Marina at the Hawaii Prince, so not too far, we think, never sure until you actually get there.  I have never stayed at such a ritzy hotel, that will be interesting.

I have been gathering, what I call staging things together.  Some things are packed and other things need ironing and then I will pack them.  I wanted to try out my new backpack that Mr. B. treated me to back in the spring, it is a Fossil and I think will work quite well as we are only taking one very small suitcase that you take onto the plane with you along with one other bag.  All my odd bods just about fit into the backpack with a little arranging. 

Not consciously, but my colour scheme turned out to be mostly black and white, with French blue, light blue, a bit of green, and one yellow dress thrown in if I have room for it.

Internal US flights, unlike International flights provide about zilch on the amenities, such as food.  I am rather spoilt with flights to UK where you get a snack, a dinner, complimentary wine, and breakfast, and that's in economy, on internal US flights I don't think you even get a bag of peanuts now, so will pack some snacks, maybe a sandwich.

Most days at work, well almost all I take a salad to eat.  Mr. B. packs it for me, just the ingredients and I wash it, chop it and assemble it at work.  This is what I had today, I bet no one else has had this combination.  Spring lettuce, green pepper, cherry tomatoes, radish, dates, raspberries and a chunk of liverwurst all with a dressing of balsamic vinegar, and you know what it was good.  I chop it all up in to little pieces or slivers.

I sent this to my son.

He agreed it is his modus operandi.

I'm going to make a new label Hawaii.

Take care,
Aloha,
Christy
 

My Saturday

Hi Dear Folk.

Today, Saturday it poured with rain most of the day; which means that Mr. B. does not work, so he was home.  An ideal opportunity to put away some of the garden furniture that needed to be put away in the shed for the winter, along with bringing in a couple of plants.  I hope to winter them in the Simla room, I would bring in more, but just don't have the room. it's hard also to keep them going through the winter.

  

Here are my passion flower and my Tahitian Bridal Veil.  I bought the plant below just as a little one and it has grown to this during the summer.  I wonder if Tahitian Brides did put this in a bridal head piece, it is a very delicate flower and has length to it to wind it around.  As soon as I saw it I loved the tiny white flowers.

Guess what came in the mail. the new Pesephone Biannaull.

Inserted was a bookmark with a Cheese Pudding recipe on the back.

A friend gave me this shawl a while ago and I always felt that it needed an edging on it.  So I've been crocheting on edge on it. An adaptation of what they call the butterfly stitch.  I thought that this stitch would be nice at the bottom of a crochet skirt too.

Wrote a letter to my Boy today and enjoyed the company  of Miss Tink, who is getting old and a little doddery on her pins.

She had a scare last week.  We have new neighbours and they have two pitbulls.  I heard this terrible clang of metal and looked out the window to see a man running around my front yard.  It turned out to be my next door neighbour, chasing his pitbull, who was chasing my cat.  Not a too auspicious meeting with the new neighbours.  I miss George, we are not in Kansas anymore.  As the cats go out, I say look out for wolves.

Fortunately I eventually found Miss Tink hiding in the basement window well.  I saw her little cream face and heard a meow.  I think the metal clang I heard was my metal chiminea being knocked over, my patio is a bit of an obstacle course.

I did speak with the neighbour and expressed my concern over their dogs, and the fact that Miss Tink is declawed, she came that way from the SPCA, I said Miss Tuppy can probably look after herself as she's a true Philly cat and pretty feisty, plus can run up a tree but Miss Tink cannot.  They had said that when their dogs are out they put them on a leash, but obviously not always.  We may have to extend the fence, as they ran through the hedge.

Later on Mr. B. and I went over to the thrift.  Mr. B. likes to find CDs there and I found this lovely book "Around The World In Eighty Sweaters"  I like the pun and I liked the pictures and patterns along with the sketches.

So interested to see the different patterns from around the world interpreted into knitwear.

I did get my suitcase out of the garage, but didn't get to my ironing and packing yet.

Have a great weekend.

Christy