The plan was, on Old Years Day, to get up early-ish, go to the beauty salon, get prepped for the night ahead and then go to the Zipline Extreme. Not really as it happened.
I woke up fine n dandy, being used to the timezone, the heat and well, not really used to having days off, was up n at 'em before E could even lift her head. I tried to wake her, softly, for the pedicure but it was a lost cause. I was going solo.
Before I could go, though, I had to wait for N's car to be dropped off - a great thing, really, since she offered the car instead of us renting one, but kinda annoying when her friend was meant to be dropping it around by 9:30 then after 10 I'm about to walk to the beauty salon, leaving E locked inside my house with no clue to my whereabouts, when the car comes in the driveway. Just breathe, be thankful you have the car.
I got the pedicure done no worries (you should have heard the Spanish woman complaining about my toes to her workmate haha - only at the end did she realise I could understand her), and even calmed down a fair bit during the process (the massage chair helped) as I was quite stressed thinking I'd miss the Zipline, or worse make all the effort to wake E and get there, then miss the timeslot. I realised that I could just throw it in the too-hard basket, let E get up in her own time and then head to Orient Bay to show her the French side of the island. Easy.
So that's what we did. We headed out, Ponche Kuba n ice in hand, direction Orient Bay, with nothing but good Old Years vibes hanging off our shoulders. Stopped by a random mountain top restaurant for some takeaway (which we ended up eating there) and enjoyed watching our heavily pregnant barmaid smoking away as she took our order (god love the French), and enjoyed the views even more. I swear that beach is better from above.
Down at the beach, finally, it was afternoon and the clouds were gathering. Soon enuf, us nestled comfortably in our banana chairs, the rain started. But we were ready. We grinned n bared it. Put our bags under the chairs and just laid there. Whatever. It's Old Years! Party! Rain, hail or shine!! We waited for the shine. It came back... eventually.
When we were packing up, I saw another Doberman exactly like the one we'd befriended at Maho, and turns out it was her! Random. The owner was a chatty fellow, I got talking while some black guys from the bar next door invited us through E to some random French side house party for Old Years. Hmmm, thanks but no thanks.
Packed up and left for E's hair appointment, where she paid what I thought was a ridiculous sum for a wash n blow dry (hooray for tourism), but looked HOT! And then it was time to prepare... Old Years here we come.
Showing posts with label pedicure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pedicure. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Friday, 6 January 2012
Worst. Day. Ever.
Today was the worst day at work so far, hands down. Not only did I not get a single dollar in tips, I had to endure the most hideous of French women on a private ride that thankfully was so unbearable (for her, apparently, for me, definitely) that she cut it short.
This woman and her daughter, well for starters were French and that never lends to favourably to politeness or generosity in tips. She was complaining - in French and English - before we even got her on a horse... eww, everything is muddy, the saddle is dirty, I want an English, no I want a Western, my back hurts so we can only walk and canter not trot, I want to gallop on the beach, is this ALL the beach you have, where is the sand, there are too many rocks, my saddle is hurting me... SHUTUP!!!!!!!
The daughter was quite a good rider, much better than the mum, and seemed to enjoy herself although neither wanted to do much cantering after the first time. And when they realised our beach was not a 50 mile stretch, she made some remark about being able to have the same ride in Europe, and that she wanted it to be cut short. FINE WITH ME. I tried my hardest to make it a pleasant experience but she just tried even harder to be difficult.
We came back under an hour after leaving, although the ride was meant to be 1.5 hours. The office manager asked what happened and when I told her, she understood. Ahh, the French, she said... and she's from the French side!! Needless to say I didn't get a dime at the end of it all, even though I still gave them a new, fun experience in the water at the end, in fact she didn't even say goodbye. We called ahead to her hotel to warn that she would complain and the concierge politely said, don't worry she is a bitch that has complained about everything here so far. Good riddance.
I had another ride, two cute little girls from Caracao I could practise my Spanish with, and 2 French/Canadians who could speak a bit of English. So it was a bilingual affair! Yay. They didn't tip me either. And that was a bitch of a ride, trying to keep them all in order. None could ride and the girls really both should have been on a lead but I could only put the older one, on the horse that kept eating. Glad to see the end of that one too.
I was SO thankful when the day was over. Couldn't get out of there quick enuf. I knew I had 6 days off ahead of me, and I was eternally grateful that included New Years Day. Party ahead!! So I was ready to get a pedicure and have nice nails for 6 days of the day.
Stopped at the supermarket for some food stuffs - needed to save money before the big party for Old Years - and quickly whipped up some spag bowl before heading to the beauty salon. Turned out to be too tight with time so shoved the food into one of my empty yoghurt containers and shovelled it down as we walked up the road. Everyone must have thought we LOVED our yoghurt. And with a Corona in the other hand, what a treat we must have seemed.
After all that rushing, turned out the salon was out of power and our "white skin" would be too difficult to work on in the dark. Forgive me for thinking black skin would be somewhat harder to see in the dark, but apparently that's the truth! So we were relegated to the following morning, which really pissed me off since I knew how hectic it was going to be anyway.
So we went for some drinks to Buccaneers and La Bamba, as per usual, ensuring that any activity we had planned for the next morning was going to be that much more difficult to carry out. But then again, that's what we do best!
This woman and her daughter, well for starters were French and that never lends to favourably to politeness or generosity in tips. She was complaining - in French and English - before we even got her on a horse... eww, everything is muddy, the saddle is dirty, I want an English, no I want a Western, my back hurts so we can only walk and canter not trot, I want to gallop on the beach, is this ALL the beach you have, where is the sand, there are too many rocks, my saddle is hurting me... SHUTUP!!!!!!!
The daughter was quite a good rider, much better than the mum, and seemed to enjoy herself although neither wanted to do much cantering after the first time. And when they realised our beach was not a 50 mile stretch, she made some remark about being able to have the same ride in Europe, and that she wanted it to be cut short. FINE WITH ME. I tried my hardest to make it a pleasant experience but she just tried even harder to be difficult.
We came back under an hour after leaving, although the ride was meant to be 1.5 hours. The office manager asked what happened and when I told her, she understood. Ahh, the French, she said... and she's from the French side!! Needless to say I didn't get a dime at the end of it all, even though I still gave them a new, fun experience in the water at the end, in fact she didn't even say goodbye. We called ahead to her hotel to warn that she would complain and the concierge politely said, don't worry she is a bitch that has complained about everything here so far. Good riddance.
I had another ride, two cute little girls from Caracao I could practise my Spanish with, and 2 French/Canadians who could speak a bit of English. So it was a bilingual affair! Yay. They didn't tip me either. And that was a bitch of a ride, trying to keep them all in order. None could ride and the girls really both should have been on a lead but I could only put the older one, on the horse that kept eating. Glad to see the end of that one too.
I was SO thankful when the day was over. Couldn't get out of there quick enuf. I knew I had 6 days off ahead of me, and I was eternally grateful that included New Years Day. Party ahead!! So I was ready to get a pedicure and have nice nails for 6 days of the day.
Stopped at the supermarket for some food stuffs - needed to save money before the big party for Old Years - and quickly whipped up some spag bowl before heading to the beauty salon. Turned out to be too tight with time so shoved the food into one of my empty yoghurt containers and shovelled it down as we walked up the road. Everyone must have thought we LOVED our yoghurt. And with a Corona in the other hand, what a treat we must have seemed.
After all that rushing, turned out the salon was out of power and our "white skin" would be too difficult to work on in the dark. Forgive me for thinking black skin would be somewhat harder to see in the dark, but apparently that's the truth! So we were relegated to the following morning, which really pissed me off since I knew how hectic it was going to be anyway.
So we went for some drinks to Buccaneers and La Bamba, as per usual, ensuring that any activity we had planned for the next morning was going to be that much more difficult to carry out. But then again, that's what we do best!
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