When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": Pretty pictures of a Tuesday NOT spent in Belgium

The waves are higher today. I can tell by the thundering sound reaching my bed. Once it is bright enough to see them (still way before sunrise) I can finally see where that thundering comes from and head down to the waterline.

There is also a 2-minute video with waves and thundering, but Blogger thinks it's too big to upload here, so anyone missing tropical early morning waves can watch it on YouTube HERE.

After a bike ride to Keauhoe shopping centre (I find another Pinot Grigio for $3.99), Grandma is still too tired to go anywhere so I take the bicycle down town. At the central market I get 3 bird of paradise flowers for US$ 2 (2 years ago I paid $1 for 3; this market seems to have doubled in price !) and head over to Honlua clothing company where I know works a very friendly girl whose birthday it is today ;-) . She's not in but I leave 1 Bird of Paradise with her co-worker, who will hopefully hand it over.

That is a 'Hawaiian shirt' made by the Australian Billabong company. Globalization Confusion?

This time I catch the Thai restaurant (Bangkok House) open and head in for lunch. Ever faced the dilemma in an Asian restaurant whether you should order HOT or not. Does the HOT item on the menu mean that the food is HOT for the spandex-clad senior tourist crowd, or does HOT mean that it's HOT for an Asian eater? Bangkok House has solved this problem. Their menu lists Mild, Medium, American HOT, and Thai HOT. I end up eating an American HOT Seafood Curry and am relieved not to have ordered Thai HOT after a bit of food takes the wrong turn down into my wind pipe.

The food is delightfully YUMMY but for the price that they're charging, their Seafood Curry should contain a bit more seafood. I also suspect them of using New Zealand frozen mussels. Of course, the buck doesn't stop with them, it stops with all the crazies travelling to Hawaii (or where-ever) and ordering chicken curry (is Hawaii known for its chicken?). I vividly remember my time in Cuba last January when the Chefs tried to spoil the guests by throwing fresh local fish, fresh calamari, and fresh prawns on the hot plate and then wondering why this crazy German was one of the few people coming back for more with a smile, while 80% of the Canadian tourists kept queueing up at the Pasta Bar. (I just overheard the order at the next table: Fried rice and spring rolls. How BORING! And the customers actually were HAPPY that the answer to their question of what kind of meat was in the spring rolls was: Australian Pork) No wonder the restaurant owners can't afford to stock fresh local fish!

I am just pushing my bicycle back in through the condo unit door when I see Grandma stumble over the sliding door tracks to the Veranda and go down straight as an arrow. She manages to grab a couch on her left but instead of rotating her upper body to have the shoulder take the fall, she puts her chin down and greets the floor with her forehead. The floor fortunately consists of a THICK and SOFT carpet and after a quiet "ouch" she is back on her feet 2 minutes later. Grandma is the most stubborn person I know in this world, so after I mention a doctor 3 times over the rest of the day and keep getting negative answers, I decide to maintain the peace and head down to the rocks to watch a sunset that is promising to be a windy one. The number of surfers on the ocean visible from the balcony is a good indication of the height of the waves. And today there are lots of heads bopping along the water's surface like corks.