THIS IS THE SAME POST, BUT WITH PICTURES. I'LL ADD MORE LATER.

Since we no longer have inorganic Chem, we have a four hour lunch break. Four and a half hours actually. So I can finally update here because at home Internet doesn't work. Before we went to England Deckpoint said we needed a new modem. They brought one just before we went to the Seychelles and it still doesn't work. They told us we needed a new one again.

Let's start with England. We flew over on Valentine's Day. It was mighty cold outside, it wasn't
much warmer in the house. Especially the lounge with the green couch was freezing. Grandpa put the electric heater on. The fake coals lit up and bathed the room in a red light.
The rockery looks empty and bare. A few flowers have opened their petals in hope of absorbing some warmth from the sun. It will look very nice once they've all sprouted. At the front of the house, where we dug up those onion-like bulbs in summer, tulips are growing in neat rows.


I found a heavy bone, which could easily be a calf's by the compost and some ribs, which were too big to be lambs' ribs, however they could have been from a fox. I buried them so we can examine them in Summer. In case I can't come because of an unforeseen event, here's a map. You stand next to the living room (green seats) window on the left side, opposite the big tree. You take 20 steps to the trunk of the tree. Then 5 steps to the left. A big stony X and a twig, which hopefully hasn't grown into a nut tree mark the spot.
We went to Meadowhall by train and I bought Shrek 2 for 7 Pounds. They had DVDs for 1 Pound! Can you believe it?
Grandpa was busy in the garden and granny spent some time embroidering and watching TV, but mostly she slept.
Jeff Halsted came by with his new electric tricycle. First I thought he wanted to give it to Grandpa. Fat chance of that happening! Unless he snuffs it and if that happens I think Grandpa might just have a nervous break down.
On Sunday we went to the Golf Club with Mary thingymabob.
It rained towards the end of our stay, otherwise it was overcast and grey.
We spend a few days at home and then we took a taxi to Nyon station. We flew from Geneva to Paris and from Paris to Mahe. The flight took about 9 hours. It arrived at Mahe at 8 in the morning. It's three hours later there. We had to hang around there until 2. We went to Victoria, to the capital. There's a miniature Big Ben. The Tsunami destroyed some of the town, but only 2 people died. We went into a museum. It contained stuffed animals, who roam the island and upstairs were photos of the destroyed town.
At 2 we took the plane to Bird Island. It's the most Northern Island of the Seychelles. As the name indicates, there are lots of birds there. There are brown Noddies, minor Noddies, Fairy Terns, Sooty turns, Frigates, white-tailed tropic bird and the little red Fody. They nest all over the place: on the trees, on the ground, outside the little bungalows. There are 24 bungalows, spread out on the Island. The beach is 5 minutes away. The bungalows are open and there is no glass in the windows. There are Venetian blinds. Each bed had a mosquito net. The Island is about 2 KM from tip to tip. There are not only birds, but also crabs and tortoises. Esmeraldo (called Esmeralda by most people) is one of the oldest land tortoises and is about 200 years old. We did a tour with Robbie (Serge Robert) the self-proclaimed bird expert. All his knowledge comes from observing the birds. He showed us how you can swap a Noddy's egg with another one. The birds didn't like it too much, but when he gave them a different one, either from the same or a different species, they sat on it. They don't recognize their own eggs. They don't have any predators except for man and a barn owl who somehow managed to get on the Island. It hasn't actually eaten any of the birds yet. The Fairy Tern breads on precarious edges and often the egg falls off.
On the last day, Robbie dug up a turtle's nest. The babies had already started hatching and were digging themselves up. He placed them in a bucket and took them to the beach in the evening, when there weren't too many predators around. He emptied them onto the beach. They all started scuttling off towards the sea. They were so cute!
Geckos crawled up the walls inside the bungalows and chirped to each other at knight.
Then we flew back to Mahe and from there to Praslin (pronounced Pralun). We stayed in the Accajou Hotel. We went diving 4 times and saw: a little white-tip shark, rays, clown fish, tons of dead coral, fish and a squid. The corals have been destroyed by the El Nino and the Tsunami gave it the rest. The divers have their own motor boats (and catamarans, but we didn't go on them) and on the way to the diving place we saw dolphins from the boat! Cuties. We went to the Valley de Mai, a protected area. Palms that only grow there, expand over several kilometers. The biggest nut in the world is the Coco de Mer or Coco Fesse. Basically a buttcoconut or an arsecoconut if you're feeling vulgar. It's shaped like a butt or a heart. It's very heavy. If that fell on your head, you'd be more than a bit dead. The jelly inside is a good aphrodisiac according to the guide who showed us around, the elders had told him. It only grows there, but the nut was brought to the other islands by the sea. The Colonists found them on the beach and thought that they came from an underwater palm tree, until they found the palm on Praslin. The jelly inside the nut solidifies with air contact and goes hard like marble. We went there a second time without a guide. The beaches were home to many sand flies. My mother had about 50 bites. I had less, 'cos I hung around the swimming pool. One day we went to La Digue, a neighbouring island. We hired bikes and rode around. Not the whole way, the road isn't finished yet. Then we drove to the world's most beautiful beach. It must be the fullest as well. Another time the divers, who also do excursions took us and a French family to Felicité. It's a private island, so unless you stay in the hotel on the island, you can't go on it. We snorkeled and saw a lot of parrot fish. Then the ''captain'' motored us in his rusty old boat to Coco Island. It's very shallow. Perfect for snorkeling. The Frenchies saw a 'lil shark. We saw two spotted Eagle Rays, parrot fish, clown fish, skoals of blue fish, zebra fish, dunno if that's their name, but that's what they looked like. After my mother found out there were sharks she stayed on the boat. Every two days there was a buffet in the hotel, otherwise it was a 5 course meal. It was very hot and humid. Sunday we witnessed a ground shattering thunderstorm. There was a power cut, so we ate by candle light. Geckos hung from the walls watching us eat and during breakfast, hoards of little doves, myna birds and bul buls harassed the visitors. They eat from your hands. At least one bul bul did. After a week, the management sends you a coconut drink in a coconut. The grounds are lovely, full of palms and banana trees. The staff is friendly. Now I'll come to the elusive ''Cook Thing''. At the buffets the cooks stand around, tell you what the food is and serve you. There was this one guy. He wasn't bad to look at. Of course no where near the same league as your dear friend Gerry Butler (he's the hero of the new film 300 by the way). He was young. 21 in fact. So we were nearing the end of the holidays. Thursday before we left came. I wandered over to the desert buffet to check out what there was. ''The Cook'' as I nicknamed in rushed over to tell me what the stuff was. We went and sat down to the bar, which was right next door. Everything was open and airy. Sorry I am beating around the bush. Anyway, I went back to our room, which incidentally was a 2 story house. At the bottom people have a terrace and upstairs we had a balcony. The houses are diagonally connected, so that even the people right at the end have a view of the sea. The rooms have connecting doors, so hypothetically if you had been there, we could have visited each other. It's easier for the maids as well. They don't have to go all the way down the steps and up again. Anyway as I was unlocking the door, the telephone rang. Guess who was on the other end? No, it wasn't the reception or a wrong number, the way I had thought. It was ''The Cook''!!! He is called Paul and makes the bread and desserts. I was like ''what the heck am I supposed to do now''? He wanted me to go to his room. Did he think I was some sort of slut? If I'd have known then that he had a girlfriend, maybe I'd have been able to look him in the eye. On the other hand if he has a girlfriend why does he have to flirt with the clientele? Anyway, I seriously didn't know what to say to him. I gave him my number anyway. I thought: ''He won't call anyway.'' How wrong I was. I mean, sure he was kinda cute, but in love with him? Nope, not a trace. Frankly dunno whether to believe him or not when he says that he spent a whole afternoon staring at me from his room (number 17) at me on the balcony. We were in room 15, but room 17 was opposite us. To quote Timon: ''Boy, does he need a hobby.'' Let's say like this, when he did finally admit that he had a girlfriend, I was like ''good, at least I won't be the cause of somebody Else's sorrow''. Oh well, I ''forgave'' him. Frankly what for I don't know. It didn't come as a complete shock and it wasn't a Romeo and Juliette situation, so it's a bit like Daniel telling me he has a girlfriend the first time we meet. You're sort of like ''so what? Why are you telling me this?'' I'm so gullable! And dumb and ugly and seriously weird. He says what he told me was true (that he liked my eyes and he thought I was cute and some other stuff), but if he ''cheats'' his girlfriend like that you've really got to ask yourself how honest that person is. On the other hand what's the point of him continuing to lie (he still claims what he said was true)? I mean I'm not going back anywhere in the near future, in fact I'll most likely never go back, so why would he continue to lie? It's not as though things are going to get any worse or I'm going over there to kick him into outta space, is it? I'm cut in twain. Anyway, it's not as though this none-existent relation ship had a future anyway, right? I was suspicious from the start. Ha, try that one with S. and he would have found he got more than he bargained for and she probably would go over there to kick his butt! Like I said though, it's not as though I'm broken-hearted, so yeah. Oh well, he says I'm special to him. In two words: ''Yeah, right!'' Anypath, if I had more sense I'd probably tell him to get lost, but since my only brain cell got killed off and I'm immoral I'm not going to do anything, even though someone should teach him not to play with people's emotions, even though none were involved. I shed more tears the last time I lost a hair. Whaddya think? What would you do? He was quite taken anyway. Guess I'll hafta believe him. Don't worry I'll add some photos when I get home.
The End