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Published: April 23rd 2007
New Bike
!!! I love it already!!! The last couple of weeks have been excellent! I've bought a brand new shiny bike (which didn't cost me an arm and a leg) and now I am happily cycling round Suva and hope to go on a ride to the hilly interior soon. Cycling along the waterfront is great. Very relaxing. Even when it is raining. Of course, as soon as I had the bike, I participated in my first Duathlon (the "super-sprint" version 500m swim and 10K cycle). It was great fun, not so much the part where I had to get up at 5.30am, but once the race had started and I was cycling along empty roads at full throttle in the early hours, I was happy. It was quite exhilarating. Next time I am going to do the run at the end as well, to make it into a proper little Triathlon...
I've also been out on the ocean, just outside the harbour where there are some awesome waves. Shame they break on a reef though, which means unsurfable for me, but I still enjoyed watching the real surfer dudes from my paddle board. The water was warm, the waves were big and the surfers
New vegetables
Taro and eggplant...not as exciting as the bike... were cool.
What else? I have cooked my first taro - it tastes a lot like potato actually, but I find it slightly more interesting. Probably because I class it as "exotic"! Eggplant has also been cooked, although it is suspiciously similar to aubergene so I am wondering whether they are the same thing and I just haven't realised because I cook so rarely, whatever country I am living in. Other food related news is that I am eating as many Papayas (Paw Paw) as I can now that they only cost 20p each! And have checked out the Japanese restaurant in Suva (called Daikoku). The sashimi was great. I think I am definitely developing a taste for seafood here in Fiji, for the first time in my life. Or at least a taste for raw fish. At least it is a healthy obsession (I think) and will definitely make my mum happy, as she has been trying to convince me to eat more fish ever since I left for University and escaped her culinary influence!
I've also been meeting a whole bunch of new people over the last fortnight. Mostly Australians, many of them volunteers, but also
Surfin'!
Well, not really, I was just paddling and watching the real surfers but it was fun! from other places: USA, New Zealand and Greece (a compatriot!). And I've bumped into some more English people, mainly working for NGOs. Greenpeace and WWF and a whole bunch of other NGOs have offices here (mainly for nature conservation and saving the fish), so I am hoping to check out their activities sooner or later. The only area I have been unable to infiltrate so far has been, ironically, the basketball scene. I am getting the feeling that basketball is an even more minority sport here than it was in the UK, if that is at all possible. But I am sure sooner or later I will get some play. in the meantime, tennis, swimming, jogging, frisby and cycling are keeping me active!
I am now starting to plan for some regional travel next month, the though of which is getting me excited already. I am going to go to Sydney to see Neil and Katherine, who I have seen for 7 months and 1 year respectively and then towards the end of May I'll be going to Nauru and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, way out in the North Pacific. These are two of my project locations,
The real thing
Here's someone who is actually doing some surfing... so I can't wait to go and see them close-up and get a real feel for these countries. Not to mention meet a lot of the people I am going to be interacting with intensively for the next few months. It's going to be good. I'll be sure to write about it!
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Ahmed
non-member comment
Great B+W's Kat! Hope ur enjoying urself