Pay now or pay later

I was unsurprisingly tired when I woke up on December 28, one day after Hurricane Erm arrived... I was tired anyway and then everything we packed into her first day, well, it was taking its toll. Polly didn't come along to work as she was locked up with the other dogs, but when I got to Seaside she suddenly materialised, bounding in all smiles n barks... must've run the whole way when they finally opened the gate for her, bless her.

Had a couple of rides, again can't talk too much about them because two days late writing this blog has made me forget most of what happened. That is how much I'm packing into my days lately, the other days just shuuuush - out of there. Not much space in my brain, you see...

E had a "date" with L as he'd said the night before he'd take her to a beach, so I left them to do their thing while I was at work. At least she had someone who knew their way around the island to be her tour guide. I knew he'd try it on her, so I couldn't wait to hear what happened... was doubtful she was going to respond the way he wanted so it would have been funny to be a fly on the wall. Or the sand, so to speak.

I had told her to come by my work after the beach but by the end of the day - and I worked til 6:30 - she still hadn't materialised. I thought one of two things could have happened - either she had a ball with L and was getting boozed in a bar somewhere or she was back at mine asleep. I was hoping she was at home because I was dirty and smelly, and needed to shower. Was also annoyed I'd managed to lose $10 of my tips somehow (at least it wasn't the $20) but I suppose someone else found it and gained, so c'est la vie.

Got home and she was curled up in bed... I thought at first she had slept all day, because I had left my phone with her and hadn't heard from her all day, but she told me she had come back and crashed. 38 hours in transit had really hit her hard. But she got up and we got ready to have a bite to eat. She said she wasn't in the mood to go clubbing, even though it was Ladies Night and I thought she'd want to experience what it's like to be treated everything for free at a club, but that was fine with me. I was still tired after the day at work.

We walked along Simpson Bay to see our restaurant options, at least wanting a nice meal for the evening, and after Pineapple Pete's was full we went nearby to 3 Palms to treat ourselves to a classier experience, sitting by the water with a saxophonist playing cool jazz tunes... I had to have a Pinot Grigio!

E at first wasn't drinking, then saw my wine and it was a glass for her, then a bottle for us... the meal was great, me the gluttony had chicken STUFFED with lobster and salmon sauce. Stuffed with lobster! How many meats you wanna have in one meal?? Was an interesting taste, but I liked experiencing it. The service was good also, and I just loved having someone to talk to who knew me so well. An old friend. I have missed that.

Afterwards, we went to the Sports Bar attached to Pineapple Pete's and had a few cocktails. Erm had "A Piece of Ass" which was jovial, I had some hideous bright blue thing which I promptly swapped with E once she said she liked it. As we walked out, I got a call from A in Oz and started chattering away, while also being invited to some Jamaican party the next night by Le... anyway, I was very distracted and so it was that we walked out without paying.

By the time we realised we'd walked halfway home but also realised we didn't have enuf cash anyway, so I just texted Le and told him we'd drop by tomorrow. So then he passed my number onto the bar girl that had to fork out the missing cash, and I get a harrassing phonecall when I'm in bed, saying I have to come back n pay. I told her it was not possible and I'd pay tomorrow. I know she was out of pocket and doesn't know me to trust me, but I'm a good person, it'll be done. Then I fell asleep. Boom.

Christmas weariness

To be honest, I can't fully remember my Christmas Eve day because a lot has happened with Christmas recently and I haven't updated my blog. So I'll skim a little with the notes I made myself. Apologies.

Started my rides with a cruise ship hour, never that exciting or tip-worthy but I got a few dollars. Better than nothing. It's funny, when you expect to get something, you get nothing, and vice versa. Then a family came along, and I took them for another hour. They were American but at the end of the ride they gave me nothing. Said they really enjoyed themselves but didn't tip me, which was weird. Usually when there's kids involved you get something for looking after them.

At the bar, one of the office ladies, H, gave me another $1 which someone had left behind as a tip (wow!! haha) in front of the mum of my ride and we were laughing about the single dollar tip, when the woman got embarrassed and quickly pulled out a $20 note from her bag and said, "Here's something a bit more substantial." Ha! Thanks H, wouldn't have gotten anything without her!

It was pretty slow, so that was about all the rides I did. When N left, I ended up joining her for a shop at the gourmet supermarket then got invited to the drinks her friend was having for Christmas Eve. I accepted but said I needed to go online to speak with mum and dad for Christmas first.

Got online at N's place and got through to mum on Skype then when we were finished, dad called on my mobile and I had a nice chat with him too. Was good to hear their voices, no matter how Aussie they sounded. Ha!

The drinks were at E's place, the nicest house I've been in so far and the kind of place you'd want to live in if you lived in the Caribbean. Overlooking Kim Sha beach with La Bamba (you could certainly hear it!), the place had a nice, big balcony and open, airy windows. Good view of the planes taking off too.

At one point, N was so tired she had to lie down. Poor woman, she works herself so hard and has a 10-year-old bundle of energy (and a dog just the same) to deal with. She's had cancer before so she hasn't got the energy like she would have normally, and she just goes and goes and goes. I have another friend who pushes themselves like this - it's so hard to help them but you always want to. So she laid down and eventually I offered to drive her car home for her. E followed and then took me home, kindly.

I'd had a few drinks by this stage but was just mellow, so I thought I'd just drift into a peaceful sleep. Not so. I was awoken a couple of hours later because of all the parties in the neigbourhood... There was drinking, loud voices, music, laughing... I don't blame them, I would have been right in the thick of it had I not been working Christmas Day. So I just laid there, tossing n turning in the heat of the night (I swear my room traps it in), and by the morning I was like the walking dead. Merry Christmas to me.

A downer day

I don't even know how to start writing this day's blog, not because I can't find the words to describe an amazing event - moreso, it was more of the same for a cruise ship day.

I had several rides, the first of which was a family of English people who didn't tip. Great work, pommies, know I can always rely on you! Wonder if they realise I sometimes get more than my whole day's salary in a tip... Anyway, managed to get a lunch break today and found out the update on my boy's situation back home. He's in a bit of a funny headspace. don't blame him... but a couple of comments upset me a little (I think he was hungover or drunk at the time of writing so not all with it), and I worry he's doubting the strength of our relationship. I admit, I have those moments too, but I have 100% faith we will reunite and it will be great. We are meant to be together, I fully believe it.

One ride was fun, as they were all Puerto Rican and I was able to practise my bad Spanish with them. One lady even gave me her phone number to call her if I ever made it to Puerto Rico for somewhere to stay! What a sweetheart. At the moment, Puerto Rico does seem the cheapest route homeward, so it may well happen...

Altogether, I had 4 rides today. None were spectacularly different from the last, in fact I don't even know if I indeed had 5 rides. They all meld into one after a while. Today was the first day I started thinking... I wonder how long it'll be til I really start detesting coming to work. The busy season is only just beginning and there are already moments I wanna curse n yell.

Baby rabbits got born today but when I went to see them, the darn turtled was in their warren so they were all blocked from view. We tried to pull him off but he was wedged in good - worried he was suffocating them, but apparently it's all good. That way they grow fur quicker anyway. Still haven't seen the bloody new calf yet, and it's been 3 days!

I am tired now. And normally I would have tomorrow, Sunday, off but I got swapped the other day and now I have to work with J when the cruise ships are in. But apparently we have just one lot booked in, so maybe it will be dead after all. And dead Sundays can be DEAD. At least I'm not with D this time. Not that he's been too bad to work with, but when it's just him and I, he just talks and talks and talks, in the most annoying way possible. It's best when I have a buffer, someone else he can direct his inane thoughts towards.

I am going to admit now, I have been pretty depressed today and the drinking of beers while alone at night with just my thoughts is not helping one bit at all. But self-destructive happens to be one of my specialities. So I sit here, alone, thinking about the long-distance relationship I am trying to have with the love of my life. We both have our moments of doubt, this is clear, but I am so SO certain that he is the one, he is the person I was meant to meet and meant to share my life with.

Now I'm sorry if said person reads this and freaks out a little. I'm sorry. But these are all new feelings for me, and it's a roller coaster I never really expected to have to ride. So many thoughts are going through my head - and his, surely. I don't know if I can ride this out as long as I thought. Although, stubbornly, my self is telling.... myself.... that I should. While he, on the other side of the world, thinks exactly the same thing.

It's like we have this pigheaded road block stopping either of us from making the call and doing the grand, romantic gesture of following the other to the ends of the earth, quite literally. Or is it? I have my reasons, I guess he has his... Australia doesn't make the visa situation easy for our UK friends and I find it hard to part with this unique opportunity. But should I still be crying 6 weeks later??

I need to speak with him. Or I need to be patient. Either way, I'm not in the best way right now. My thoughts are all over the place. I never thought I'd say this but... I want my baby.

Rum punched in the gut

Friday. Day off. Time to relax and take it easy, you know, get things done. Not so, it seemed. From the moment I walked down to Seaside to speak with my boy, it was disappointment after disappointment. But for some reason that didn't really colour my mood, it was just, well that's the Caribbean!

The first reason was not the Caribbean. It was an excited boyfriend getting mixed up with my schedule as he searched for the bottom of his beer bottle, and so while I rearranged my busy day, he failed on two attempts to catch me online. But I am not bitter or angry, as my writing may indicate, I understand it's a hard timezone to fit with and lord knows I know him on a Friday night. Release the week, he says! I need a beer! In fact, where's the case??! Next time he'll know to consider his loving girlfriend too, huh ;)

Then there was my "relaxing" time... well, that was marred by the 30 toddlers at the park for pony rides. Oh my, now that is contraception right there for you. So I just laid on a banana chair between grazing horses and cow shit, trying to get some shut-eye. I also tried to go snorkeling - water was too murky, and also kinda smelly and dirty this day, and the snorkeling gear didn't want to fit my bulbous head.

The boss wife also couldn't make time to come and chat with me about all things work-related, so I had a quick evaluation with R which was really about my thoughts rather than his. I have a feeling he doesn't freely communicate observations unless they are negative - so I now feel really good that I had a few small compliments on my riding on Thursday!

I actually needed my first week's pay above everything though, so I got that before I headed off and left everyone else to deal with the screaming kids (although I have to say hearing their little mini-Caribbean accents was kinda cute - until I remembered what they'll grow up to be).

Took out what I needed for rent, headed for another successful attempt to talk to A at Pineapple Pete's - made friends with the nice waiter who then asked me out, bless him he looked about 19 (see what happens when you don't come online, baby??) - dropped my laptop back and then waited what seemed like forever for a bus to Philipsburg. Dad was giving me grief about sending his keys back (that I forgot to leave in Oz) and I needed a new labret ring with an actual ball so fuck it, let's do this.

Postage and piercing work all done, I was heading back home in bumper-to-bumper traffic when M called and asked if I wanted to drink at Buccaneers tonight. It is her last weekend here, and I didn't make it out last week so I arranged to meet her and go for dinner n drinks.

Turns out we were both as tired as each other, and after being shouted dinner n drinks by a local that works at the power plant next to Seaside that she knows (sweet), we called it a night and I was dropped home by aforementioned man by 10pm. Those rum punches were making me tired and a little funny in the stomach, I really shouldn't drink so many in a night. But it was also good to get away from this nice, but talkative man - he really just went on and on. Repeating stuf as well.

Gotta work tomorrow - originally had it off but they shuffled the schedule so I have Sunday off instead which is fine since today's trip to the French side was postponed and Is can take me then instead. M is going too, so we can all convene if possible. Saturday (tomorrow) is Halloween so technically there are some themed parties going around, and I am keen as mustard to go cos as most people know, I love dressing up, but I won't go out without some of the trusted people I know. And they don't really seem Halloween types. We'll see.

Early morning Inca shminca

After my episode with the head-tackling freak in the street, I was taking no chances about going out in places full of drunk Bolivianos by myself. So I booked onto the gringo tour of Tiwanaku, said to be the most important sacred sight of Inca ruins in South America. This day, however, was also the new year of the Incas and there was to be a ceremony featuring President Evo Morales during which they welcomed the new sun.

The new sun, as most of you know, arrives at dawn each day and therefore one must rise extremely early to catch it. I´m talking 3am. This, of course, attaches with it the need to battle the extreme cold of Tiwanaku as well as any drunkards who had been partying since the night before. We piled onto the bus, which circled the centre of town for what seemed like hours before actually getting on the way, and I slowly froze limb by limb under my newly purchased alpaca poncho (and several other heavy articles of clothing). In fact, I was basically the human representative of the alpaca clothing industry - with my socks, poncho and bag - what a way to blend in.

We shuffled along in the "etranjeros" entry line, while watching the locals line get a bit rowdy with drunken pushing n shoving. I was a little wary... no longer trust these drinking miniatures. Our guide kept disappearing and forgetting to hold his white flag up, and so it was a guessing game of Where´s Wally most the time. Quite funny, actually.

After our stuff-around with the pickups, we JUST made it in time and found ourselves waiting and waiting while the sun - clearly up already and lighting the land - hid behind clouds and refused to come out for quite a while. What an effort - for a lazy sun!! Then the President came out, although we weren´t sure who was who from where we were standing. "The President is the black man", our guide helpfully explained. Right...

Everyone put their hands up to absorb the energy of the sun - us mostly complaining that that just made them colder - and the President shuffled around down below amongst the ruins doing something or rather important with the tradition. I know I am being blaise about the whole thing, but I really had no idea what was going on. And the guide, Freddy, kept babbling on in Spanish (which I only half understood) and then giving basically 1 sentence translations in English.

Breakfast could not have come earlier - after the ceremony, we were allowed into the ruins (the President having disappeared via helicopter) and ferried around with explanations of what was what. Not that that helped much. Our group suddenly expanded to about 100 people, mostly local hangers-ons that wanted a bit of free guidance. Did I see you pay 200bs?? I don´t think so. One cheeky bugger even interviewed our guide for his TV station. Move, bitch, get out the way!

There seemed to be lots of waiting time during this day. We waited for breakfast, we waited after breakfast, we had several hours free time between breakfast and lunch to wait, then we waited after lunch... it was not the best organisation.

I made an American friend, who also didn´t want to pay the entrance fee to the Inca museum like me, and we strolled until we found a bench. My idea was to sleep on it, but J was more interested in keeping awake and occupied. I won the battle, basically just lying down and forcing her to sleep also due to lack of conversation.

We clock-watched a little and also people-watched, quite entertaining when most of them are still drinking from the night before etc etc. At one point, some teenage boys came over and offered their drinks to us - sweet dessert wine and some hideously flat mix of Sprite and some spirit. Oh, to be a teenager again. Wait, didn´t I do the same thing just a few nights ago in La Paz??

We were promised another ceremony, just for us (although by this stage most of us just wanted to go back to bed) and so after lunch (and more waiting) we found ourselves on a random hill amongst crowds of dancing, singing, drinking and playing cholas and cholitas. This part of the new year celebrations no doubt, I felt a bit like an intruder, pulling up in our massive white bus and getting out with cameras poised... But it was good to see anyway.

One local man did a ceremony for blessings in the new year, which included the burning of sweets, fruit, tinsel representing gold and silver, and llama foetuses. Eww. I was surprised at how much focus was given to the wish for money, and would have thought other things in life were given priority in such a religion - but then again, I know so little about Inca...

Burning done, we thankfully boarded the big bus again and vamosed to La Paz. It was a quiet journey home. Back in town, I had a couple of hours to get myself ready for the overnight bus trip to Uyuni. I popped my head into Sol & Luna, seeing none of the guys to say goodbye to (except the slightly crazy Bolivian girl from the other night, who of course said she will miss me ha!), and so left alone... and such is an appropriate ending to my gypsy travels in La Paz.

Lazy days

For some reason I am really tired today. I woke up to feed the horses by 8am and afterwards fell asleep again until G woke me up at midday to feed again. I feel like all I´ve done today is sleep and feed horses. But luckily it´s not too cold and I can work outside for a reasonable amount of time before my limbs start seizing up.

I worked L´s horse Cowry today, it was pleasantly surprising that he was quite well trained and in the same manner I trained my beautiful girl Issi. But not perfect so at least there´s something to work on there. I wanted to ride today but it was one of those lazy days... evidently. Me and L watched some Sex & the City (in English, thank god, these German dubbings really throw me) and I finally pulled myself outside to work Cowry just before feeding time.

I´m madly working on my lesson plan for next week. It will be third week of teaching and I´m determined to be more organised this time. Although I have successfully flown by seat of said pants these past times, I don´t want to have the stressed feeling at the end of each school day, anxious about what the next day will bring. I was, as I guessed, asked to do another week straight after next but I declined. It would stuf around the people I´m staying with too much and I need a break - two weeks in a row is just too much for a fledgling teach like moi. I don't know how my mum has done it for umpteen years!

I had a few pangs of loneliness today as I looked on Facebook at what my mates in Oz and London were getting up to... this gypsy life can be so isolated sometimes but I just gotta remember how amazing it all is. And I won´t be away from home forever. I guess I´m also a bit scared to go home because I know it will be another stretch of no luck in love. Australia is not my love BFF, that´s fo sho. But no, I gotta stay positive - no expectations, no letdowns. At least I have my gorgeous friends waiting there for me.

And the weariness sets in...

After Saturday night's efforts, I took a little time adjusting to life on Sunday. I scrambled out of bed, coaxed myself into putting some makeup on and staggered off to meet friends for lunch. Ate way too much, tried to drink champagne (someone's gotta do it) and barely got down 2 glasses... I was in Struggle Town.

Then came Parklife. My mate kindly gave me a guest ticket and another friend gave me VIP so I was sorted. I just could not for the life of me imagine drinking alcohol. Only until the bitter end did I manage a couple of beers, and by this stage everyone around me was so wasted it kinda seemed pointless to try and catch up.

But I did get a good dance in to Missy Elliott (for those times she actually chose to sing), Busy P, New Young Pony Club, Kele and Groove Armada on their last tour ever :( The festival itself wasn't that amazing but it was good to see more mates, and then afterwards head into town to see more people. Just 2 beers later and I was DONE. Absolutely pooped! Got a cab home, impressed the driver that I picked some of the Algerian/French he was talking on the phone via my Romanian skills and was tucked into bed before midnight. And god, did I need that sleep.