Aloha Festival

We have learnt the true meaning of "Hawaiian time" - no, it doesn't just mean GMT-10. It means that a 90 minute festival beginning at 9am ACTUALLY begins at about 9.30 and goes on for nearly four hours. We left after about an hour and a half because it was just too hot, and because the best part of the parade was over. The best part was when an elementary school marching band, with hula dancers, played the theme tune to Hawaii Five-0! It was kind of surreal. Sadly both our camera batteries had already died by then, but take my word for it, it was cool.

There are quite a lot of pictures and some videos of the parade that I shall put up later on.

We are thinking of heading up to the North Shore tomorrow - we wouldn't be able to swim, because there are huge waves up there at the moment apparently, but we would be able to watch surfers. (Talking of surfing, our resident surf teacher hasn't been in touch. Might have been a one-off, sadly.) The waves are 10-14 feet high, although everyone says that the estimate on the news is "Hawaiian measurements" - it's actually twice that. I hope we don't see anyone crushed and torn apart by a wave!

Oooh, we have a phone, finally. I am having a problem sending international texts, though, so I will take it into T-Mobile (again) on Monday morning to fix it. They are very slow but very helpful there, so it's probably worth it. We also have a phone card and have been trying to call Lloyds, but all the phone numbers I can find for them are apparently "non-working," which is extremely annoying. We'll be going back to a pay phone later to try and sort it out. Obviously it's not ideal to be sorting out bank stuff on a public pay phone on the busiest road in Waikiki but it seems to be the only option.