First Day

So after 36 hours of travelling over two days (one of which was 36 hours long in itself!), we arrived at our new home in Honolulu last night around 9. The city is so neon and sparkly at night! I love it! Unfortunately sunset is really early - it was at about 6.45 tonight.

Tom's doing our first set of washing up and broke the tap into three pieces, whoops. The room is actually bigger than we expected, with tons of storage so it should be easy enough to keep tidy-ish. There is a double bed and a single, and a little kitchen, and a bathroom in a DELIGHTFUL shade of brown, and a pool outside, so who cares, really =) We don't actually have any windows - there are window panes, but no glass. It's weird. There're just thick wooden blinds and mosquito nets. It gives you a real feeling of being outside when the blinds are swivelled, but you feel really protected and cosy when they're closed! In fact, loads of the Hawaiian 'indoors' is actually outdoors - that pool outside our room is the hotel lobby!

I slept terribly last night and was irreparably awake from 2.30, fixing our internet and sending various emails. We walked down Beachwalk this morning and went paddling in the sea - were propositioned by this weather-beaten but lovely old lady who told us we were in shape and that twelve hours after landing in Hawaii was the best time to learn to surf, lol.

Then we went to Walmart - a giant, giant store, with only about a third of it dedicated to food. I was SHOCKED at the things they don't sell: vegetables! Flour! Pesto! CHEESE (how will I survive?)! Butter! And that's just the stuff that was on our list. Also, it seems that Hawaii doesn't truly believe in shower gel, it's like precious jewels here, impossible to find. Yet despite all that, and walking back with several heavy bags of shopping in 30 degree+ heat, it has not even occurred to me to complain! We've even been talking about cycling up mountains etc and I've been fine with it! Being in Hawaii overrules everything else =)

We are watching America's Got Talent and have just learnt that Sharon Osbourne doesn't know the word for 'frisbee.'

This afternoon we opened a bank account (that's $100 gone until we get our cards... gulp) and then came back to the room to drop off my bag and get some towels and go swimming at the beach. Then we decided to have a quick nap, and go to the beach for sunset around 6... and woke up after 8, in the dark. That is going to screw up our schedules even more =(

Oooh, one of the things we found in Walmart was frozen gyoza! We're cooking that now with (homemade) peanut sauce and rice. So I've got 4 out the 6 ingredients for peanut sauce, I'm sure it'll still be great. THEN we shall go to the beach.

And last thing: CONGRATULATIONS KELSI AND STUART.