The jet-lag on the way back from this trip been bad. We're both pretty seasoned travellers and we sure talk big about our ability to handle travel easily, but we have been knocked out by time differences like no other trip either of us can remember. Angus and I have been sleeping about 14 hours a night, passing out cold way before bedtime and not getting up before 10am. That, and I have a killer cold which has pissed me off. Coming home has not been easy!

Here's a rather long summary-pictures are attached, and you can click on the link below the embedded pics for a larger version.

Angus and I left for the airport on Thursday morning-the horrible weather matched our sour moods, as the fighting continued in the car. Bad weather made for bad traffic, upping the stress levels ten-fold and making us hate our lives. Luckily, as we made it through the bad traffic and were blistering a path towards Heathrow, Angus took my hand.

"Everything will be ok." He said, staring out the window.

And from then on, it really was.

We got upgraded to business class on the long flight to Washington Dulles. Now there's the way to travel-champagne flowing throughout the flight, incredibly comfy chairs, and complimentary socks to keep the little footsies warm. The flight attendants may still hate you, but then, don't flight attendants always hate you? The 8 and a half hour flight passed quickly, and then we had a short stay in Dulles before catching a flight to Miami. Going through immigration was easy-strangely, there were virtually no queues in the American citizens line, and since Angus is (according to English law) my common-law spouse, he went in the same line as me, as my family member. He got the fingertip biometric scan (which both of us are opposed to), and then the immigration guard smiled at him, and in a flash of humanity said, "Welcome to the US, sir." And, turning to me, he winked. "And welcome back, ma'am."

Once in Miami, we picked up the rental car, Angus swinging it out of the rental car building. It was dark, we were tired, but getting on well and looking forward to a hot shower. Our hotel, the Cadet Hotel, wasn't far, a short jaunt to South Beach, so we would be there soon.

But swinging out onto the street, we woke up quickly.

"Get over! Get over! Wrong side, wrong side!" I shout, as Angus pulls the car out of the garage and starts driving...the English way. He jerks the wheel over and we both laugh, relaxed enough now to know that we are ok, that the car is ok, that the other drivers were maybe a little confused but would shrug and say "Hmm......Foreigners."

We get to South Beach and find our hotel, gratefully jumping into the shower and peeling our travel-weary clothes off. The hotel itself was quite smart-a swish 1920's design with colorful painting and soft white beds. We change into comfy shorts (my God it was so hot there!) and hit the streets, looking for some food and some wine to enjoy. As is our usual pattern, the first grub of the holiday was simple-we went into Burger King and scarfed some greasy food. Then we popped into a liquor store and indulged in American wine fare-Beringer it was for us back in the room, and it was nice stuff, too.

The next day was easy-we walked around South Beach to take in the sights. The beaches were clean and deserted and the water was so warm and perfect. We walked along the beach for ages, letting the sand and sea pet our feet, letting the sun soak into our English-weather weary bodies. I found a piece of old board washed up on the beach, soaked through and covered with a thin sheen of algae. It was clearly a part of some boat, and was waterlogged through and through. I debated keeping it and taking it home with me, but in the end I flung it back into the sea, figuring that it probably wanted to be home with its sunken mates somewhere, and who was I to deprive it?

I really do think like that.

Anthropomorhpism and I get on well.

In the afternoon, after a nice boozy lunch and a bit of pizza, we went swimming. The water was heavenly-warm and reasuring, as warm as bath-water and a lovely turqouise color, and there were only a handful of other swimmers out there. We spent a lot of time just relaxing in the water, watching the airplanes come in, and naturally (it being us and all) we got down to some hanky panky in the water.

That evening, we went to a nice restaurant, then to a local bar to enjoy a personal favorite of mine-frozen margaritas (which we had throughout our stay. See the sidebar pic). Heaven. Absolute heaven. We half-watched one of the Red Sox/Yankees games ongoing, neither of us big sports fans, and soaked up the evening atmosphere, our skin tingling, our heads filled with alcohol and our stomachs filled with food.

The next day we spent shopping-right now, the British pound is stunningly strong-bad news for Americans travelling to Britain, great news for those of us who get paid in British pounds travelling to America! With an exchange rate of £1=$1.80, the shopping was mighty. I bought an armload of books that are difficult to get-a watch and digital camera joined the our household. And the best news? Angus bought a pair of flip flops, which his girl thought he looked incredibly cute in.

Angus on the Beach

The one thing I do have to say about Miami itself is this-it really helps if you know Spanish. I picked up a lot of Spanish living in Texas, and I could often understand what people were saying to me, I am just utter crap at speaking it. Utter. Crap. And there are a lot of parts in Miami where speaking Spanish-or even just understanding it-would be extremely helpful. I had known that Miami has a large Spanish-speaking consituency, I think I was simply unprepared for just how large it is.

The next day we got down and into domestication and trooped off to a laundromat to do our laundry. Our flight left for Nassau in the evening, and so we had lots of ambling time in the morning. We dined on some authentic Cuban cuisine for breakfast while the world's fastest tumble drier did its business. It was a smal hole in the wall restaurant, frequented by the locals, and the people behind the counter had friendly smiles and enormous helpings, with tortillas roasting silently behind them. We walked hand in hand back to our hotel, enjoying one last luxurious walk on the South Beach shores. We checked out of our hotel and just drove along the beaches, enjoying the warm afternoon, stopping along the way at another Cuban restaurant for some spicy fare.

Miami International Airport is not actually that large an airport, but they do seem to have a stunning number of people whose job it is to constantly stop you, asking for your ticket and passport. Constantly. I think we were asked no less than 5 times, once within view of the last person who had just asked us for our info. It never ended. I understand security is needed, but come on. This is definitely not an efficient use of anyone's time.

The flight to Nassau was short and sweet, flying over waters that came in colors I had never seen before, over islands that looked like the perfect paradise get-aways, a Castaway option come true.

Islands

Stepping off the plane, we were hit by a blast of warm air and a sparkling sunset that ribboned the sky in purples and reds. We were whisked in a taxi to our hotel (the one that practically delivers you to your hotel room via a water slide), which was situated on an island just off the coast of Nassau, an island called Paradise Island.

The other hotel was the Atlantis.

And man...was it something. An enormous coral-colored structure towering over the surrounding Paradise Island, it was almost as though Walt Disney whipped up a fairy tale castle and plonked it down on angel white beaches.

We had never heard of it before, we simply chose it as Expedia.co.uk got us a good deal on it. Apparently, it's world-famous and has the single most expensive hotel suite in the world there-an enormous suite that costs a total of $25,000 a night (no, we didn't stay in that suite. We both work in telecom, after all). The hotel was enormous-riveting towers of lit up coral-colored wonders. It looked like a fairy tale castle. It was the single most surreal hotel either of us had ever stayed in.

Once dropped off, we checked in, and after a bit of wheedling (including me saying: "We're so in love, and he's been so romantic. If you can help us get a nicer room, he might even be more doting and charming!") we get upgraded to a nicer room, complete with a balcony over the sea. We go for a walk around the grounds, and are amazed-there are various tunnels that take you underneath enormous acres of aquariums, tunnels that show you barracuda, grouper, reef sharks, starfish and (my favorite) eagle rays and manta rays. At one point you walk under what's called the Predator Lagoon, a huge aquarium with any number of different type of shark, some of them hovering at about 10 feet long (my reaction? "I saw this movie-it's called Jaws. Isn't this the scene where we see a man's arm hanging out of the shark's mouth, holding a grenade?")

Shark Tunnel

Sharks

The next day we spend time by the pool and by the beach-crystal clear waters and perfect, sugar-like sand.

Helen on the Beach

Taking a friends advice, we head to Goldie's for dinner, a little shack-like restaurant in an area of Nassau called the Fish Fry. Goldie's is painted in every color under the rainbow, bright cheerful colors that complement the face that the tables are plywood rejects and the conch shelles get slung from the kitchen window to an enormous pile outside. We ask the waitress to bring us whatever she likes, and I have to tell you-the food was incredible (as was the local drink, called Sky Juice-coconut rum and gin. And the waitress gave us extra gin to, as she said, "take us to the sky"). She set a steaming plate of conch fritters before Angus, smiling at me.

"I hope you took your birth control pills, honey! Cause conch makes a man potent, you know what I'm saying?" she says with a lazy wink. We laugh.

After Angus devoured the conch fritters, she returns.

"You know, I think you're right about that conch...I am feeling a bit on now!" he tells her, grinning at me.

"You feeling sweet, baby? Got a little juicy for your Lucy?" she asks, and we roar with laughter.

"Juicy for your Lucy" has now become a catch phrase in our house.

Tuesday we leave for an island called the Blue Lagoon. It's beautiful, sunny, gorgeous water. And you know what?

I fell in love with another man.
It was love at first site.
I even briefly debated leaving Angus for a life with him.
His name was Andy, and he was gorgeous-young (19), huge brown eyes, white teeth and a strong muscular body.

Here's a pic of him flirting with me.

Helen's Lover Andy

I still dream about Andy at night.

Wednesday was a special day-Angus learned how to dive. He took a "resort-dive" lesson, and was certified to dive with instructors. We packed up our stuff and went to Stuart's Cove. Since I am already licensed, I didn't have to dive with the instructor, but we wanted to be on the same boat, even if we couldn't be in the same group. We were obliged, and off we went, speeding our way to a few wrecks and a wall reef dive.

In my group, we had me, the Divemaster, and two American couples armed to the gill with the fanciest dive gear I had ever seen in my life. Angus was in a group with one other American resort-dive guy, and their instructor-ironically, an Englishmen, spending time in the Bahamas before heading off to do work for the British Army.

As for Angus and myself, we had only rented the basics-fins, BC, regulator, weight belt and mask and snorkel for him (I'd brought mine. Due to my flat Asian face, I have to use a child's mask and snorkel. Seriously.) The other couples cleared out their dive computers, spent ages tugging on their wetsuits, and fucked around forever with their kit. This was how it was in the water, too-once at the site, I was the fist one in the water, and then had to wait.

And wait.
And wait.
Finally, when the others got in the water, they spent most of their time dicking around with their gear. They also pissed me off by touching the coral, and carelessly flicking their fins against the delicate sea fans-I just wanted to scream: These are alive, folks. Kill them, and they don't come back. The other divers were aghast that I was only wearing a swimsuit (as were Angus and his dive buddy and English dive instructor) but to be honest, the water was glorious and warm, even when we went down to 85 feet. I wasn't cold for a moment. It was sheer heaven diving in the water, feeling it surround my arms, waist, and legs.

When we returned to the surface, I saw Angus on the boat. I asked him what had happened, and it turned out that his regulator had malfunctioned, and he cancelled his dive-it had made him too nervous. I couldn't imagine how nerve-wracking that would be-the first dive ever and the air malfunctions. But my brave boy decided to try again, and he would try to do the second dive.

The second dive was the dive site that was filmed in the James Bond "Never Say Never Again" film. We went down, and there I was inspecting the wreck used in the movie upside down (I often hang upside-down in the water. Why limit yourself to one perspective when, in the only instance in life, you can have any perspective you want?) when I saw some familiar trunks swim past me.

It was Angus.
And he was diving.
I was so proud of my boy.

The dive finished about 40 minutes later, and back at the surface, Angus was thrilled to have been able to dive. I couldn't stop hugging him, and I was so pleased. The divemaster turned to me.

"You're a natural underwater. You're like a little mermaid or something." he said, shaking water out of his hair.

Maybe so. Maybe it explains why I've always loved the water so much. Down there, there's only me. No need to worry about what I say or think or do. It's just me, and just the water, and a healthy respect for what the depths hold.

Thursday was leaving day, but before we left, we did something that I have never done before-we rented a jet-ski.

It was fantastic.

My arms wrapped around Angus' waist, we flew across the water, the sun overhead and the water warm and inviting. At one point I looked over and saw that the sky had been punctured by one of the many cruise ships that went by, it seemed to be pouring directly into the water, because no matter how hard you looked, you couldn't tell the sea and the sky apart. I was blissfully happy, and utterly relaxed.

In fact, the whole trip had been relaxing. In the Bahamas our cell phones didn't work, so we simply winged them into the hotel safe and forgot about them. There were computers in the hotel in the Bahamas, but neither of us were tempted to use them-behind the blinking screens lay The Real World, full of work, telecom, issues. We were utterly cut off from The Real World, and for the first time in my life, I was absolutely happy to be so. We spent time laughing, reading, talking. Political discussions on tv got turned off. Newspapers were ignored. Evenings were for drinking and eating good meals. When we had a spare quarter we fed it into one of the many machines in the Bahamas casino, and even though we never won, we also never felt inclined to try to play more money.

The trip home was rough, full of angry airline employees, tired Helen and Angus, and no upgrades. But we made it home (with all our luggage), and now have to face the real world-work, moving house in a few weeks, visits from people, and our tans peeling from our bodies.

I'm still relaxed, though.

A bit more about my feelings tomorrow.

-H.

PS-major pc problems here. If you've sent me an invite on Yahoo! then I have lost all my data due to broken cookies. I hate broken cookies. I much prefer them whole and dipped in a little bit of milk. Also, the sidebar on the London Streets skin is a bit wonky, and I have no idea how to fix it-it's located at the bottom of the screen, for your convenience. Or you could choose the Subway skin (my fave), or the phone booth skin (Angus' fave).

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 07:36 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
Post contains 2956 words, total size 19 kb.

1 Judging by the pictures (I haven't read ALL of the text, yet) it looks like you indeed had a lovely time. I'm so glad, sweetie. Make-up sex is really great -- but that's no excuse for a fight. Hear me?? *giggles* Love you, missed you, glad you had a wonderful time. xoxo

Posted by: Margi at October 25, 2004 08:45 AM (MAdsZ)

2 Helen.....you could make a root canal sound glorious. My G-d your writing skills are amazing. I felt like I was there, enjoying the sand and surf right along with you. Never dove...would love to...but have jet skiied. Is that not the most awesome thing in the world? I'm so glad you had this...you really needed it. Will write you back soon.

Posted by: Serenity at October 25, 2004 09:52 AM (xdd6k)

3 Sounds good; not as good as being stuck in an office doing work all day, but good enough. Seriously jealous here.

Posted by: Simon at October 25, 2004 09:58 AM (FUPxT)

4 I can actually taste the holiday. Good for you. I personally am too stressed out at the moment to even be envious. I'm glad you're back home, safe and sound. Lovely pics.

Posted by: RP at October 25, 2004 12:59 PM (LlPKh)

5 Sounds like a blast. It was nice to hear about something cheerfull. The last two days have been depressing here (&*@# Red sox!)

Posted by: Easy at October 25, 2004 01:41 PM (U89mk)

6 They filmed Thunderball there too.

Posted by: pylorns at October 25, 2004 02:00 PM (FTYER)

7 oh mi god, I am only 1/3 of the way in and I had to comment. poor Angus wearing Abercrummie and Bitch! back to reading

Posted by: stinkerbell at October 25, 2004 02:16 PM (m18uI)

8 gorgeous picture of you and Andy! oh yeah and Angus so glad you enjoyed yourself soooo much

Posted by: stinkerbell at October 25, 2004 02:21 PM (m18uI)

9 I adore your vacation! And my biggest jealousy is of your encounter with Andy. Swimming with dolphins is something of a life-long dream of mine! Make-up sex is awesome, I have to agree!

Posted by: scorpy at October 25, 2004 02:56 PM (/KNmO)

10 Glad you had such a great time! Wonderful pics! I feel more relaxed just *reading* about it! Thanks.

Posted by: Amber at October 25, 2004 04:34 PM (zQE5D)

11 Glorious! I'd say I'm jealous but it's really more like simple manic envy. ;-)

Posted by: Jim at October 25, 2004 05:27 PM (GCA5m)

12 Thank you for allowing us to live vicariously! It's especially nice when it's through someone who knows HOW to live, like you.

Posted by: redsaid at October 25, 2004 05:37 PM (8xW3v)

13 Glad you had a good time. Hopfully more trips to this side of the pond in the future.

Posted by: drew at October 25, 2004 05:39 PM (CBlhQ)

14 hoorah for a wonderful journey! and thanks for rooting for the red sox along with me. ;-)

Posted by: kat at October 25, 2004 06:08 PM (QkuGS)

15 Helen's back, Helen's back, Helen's back! Squeeeeee!!! What a lovely lovely trip. Gorgeous pictures. You know, if I ever swam with a dolphin - am not sure I would ever be able to leave him. WOW. I feel all sandy and refreshed and warm inside just reading this. Thank you for sharing the lovely details. Elizabeth

Posted by: Elizabeth at October 25, 2004 11:19 PM (ehQxN)

16 oh that sounds just divine honey (I read it all over last night and this morning *grin*, Sex and the City got in the way!)! I bet your batteries feel nice and recharged now, in more ways than one . I'm so impressed with your diving adventures - you can't get me anywhere near a fish (or aquine mammal), no matter how muscular and gorgeous they are. xox

Posted by: goldie at October 26, 2004 12:01 AM (vPSJh)

17 I am sooooo very jealous of your vacay. Here, I probably live a third the distance to the bahamas that you do. We've cruised through there a few times, but never spent any amount of time there. Though I remember seeing Atlantis from our ship. Next time - I'm doing it your way.

Posted by: kalisah at October 26, 2004 03:15 AM (rU32B)

18 See, that's what happens when you, or in this case I, don't come visiting here for a few weeks: you read about dear Helen having lots of sex with some guy named Angus, and you think "who the bloody screaming hell is that Angus guy?!" And then you feel the cogs start to move in that cranial cavity of yours, and you remember that Helen was looking for a new name for Mr. Y when you last read her, and conclude that by some convoluted path or other she must have arrived at the idea that Angus is to be that new name for Mr. Y, which is confimed when you scroll further down and see those envy-inducing pictures of Angus and Helen. Sounds and looks like you two had a great time!

Posted by: Gudy at October 26, 2004 03:07 PM (8YCkn)

19 Wow Helen, my husband and I were in Miami last week on our honeymoon. We may have even passed on the street in South Beach.....scary! Glad you had fun, although for me, Miami wasn't quite what I had expected.

Posted by: Rebecca at October 26, 2004 05:26 PM (ZHfdF)

20 I'm surprised nobody commented on the bag in Angus' hand... Talking about commercializm, and all the wonderful american places to go shopping and you, Helen, took him to Walmart!?!? Have you no shame?

Posted by: Clancy at October 26, 2004 09:17 PM (JxYJc)

21 Two words, Clancy honey: Cheap Wine.

Posted by: Helen at October 26, 2004 10:20 PM (DCpYG)

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