I woke up in the night with a runny nose..not a big deal you think but I wear CPAP to bed with just a nasal mask so in reality not great. Not a lot I can do about it, I wiped it out, took another cold pill and went back to bed hoping it didn't happen again and planned to clean it well when I get up.
We briefly spoke last night about possibly doing the Yoga at 7am but several times I said "I'm not committing to 7am Yoga". Good thing because I woke up around 9am! We have black out curtains which are glorious. Jay was up already, he said he had a good sleep but he woke in the night for about an hour and had an email that needed attention so he had to do that. He'll likely make up for it in naps today - he does that...Vacation Jay as we call him - if he can get into the mode he will make up for months of sleep when on vacation. He works long hours, he trains long hours but when he shuts'er down he shuts'er down which he needs every once in a while to recharge.
Maria is up but Jim is still sleeping and breakfast goes until 10am so Jay and I send her a message that we're going to head to the restaurant and we'll either meet them there or see them later. We walk over, it's not far, not even a 10 min walk but A LOT of the guests call to their butlers and have them drive over with the golf carts. It is hot here, so I can see the appeal, but I just decided that breakfast time I'll wear yesterdays clothes over so that when they're sweaty after walking back to the room I can change into fresh today clothes!
The buffet is Amazing (everything here is), there are fresh yogurts (I think they literally mix plain yogurt into flavours, I had the blueberry and it was heavenly), fresh fruit, fresh baked pastries, an omelette station, a Dosa station (which I really loved on the tour and he had said it was a breakfast food but for me would be more of a snack food). I'm not a huge breakfast eater so I had a yogurt, some fruit and a croissant with a decaf cappuccino (which was perfect).
The restaurant Manager brought us out a very cool plate with some treats on it and a card wishing us a Happy 20th Anniversary. I looked at it and wondered about the coral and dolphin.
When the Executive Chef came over to say hello and to ask how we like the dolphin I wondered if it was made of chocolate. The Chef asked about our Anniversary, he had also just celebrated his 20th. He has a wife, 19 year old daughter and 13 year old son in India. After he left I said to Jay "break off a piece of that coral and see if it's chocolate" and it is! So we took it back to our room and put it in the mini-fridge because now if we want something sweet rather than eating $18 M&Ms we can have a bit of the coral (I'm not sure if the dolphin is also chocolate or if it's fondant, we'll see).
On our way back to the room we passed Jim and Maria heading to breakfast and told them to let us know when they're done. They saw Assan at breakfast (so did we, he came over to say hello and asked if we would like the morning service for our room and we said no) and I asked her to ask him to make a reservation for the Japanese and Steakhouse restaurant for dinner tonight - she also arranged for him to pick us up to go to the restaurant because it's the furthest away (over a km) so that we don't get sweaty for dinner and then we'll walk back.
I came outside to sit on the deck and try to finish up the blog because I'm a couple of days behind and realized that even though it's not yet midnight at home (so it's March 1st) it's March 2nd here which means it's Myah's 16th birthday. Then I cried. I've actually cried 2-3 times so far today because we're missing her 16th. It's a huge milestone and I love her. I sent her a birthday text and I know we'll do a celebration when we're home. Juls sent a message to Maria and I with Kobe's schedule - he is rostered for the Canadian Men's 7 Rugby matches this weekend in Los Angeles!! When the Toronto Arrows MLR team folded earlier this year he was offered the opportunity to move to Vancouver and train with the Canadian Men's team (it's an Olympic team, so he got his letter from the Olympic Committee and everything - they likely won't make the Olympics because there is only one more qualifying tournament left I think, in June, but what an accomplishment and Kobe is still young, for a professional rugby player, at 22 so if he does well then he could stay on for the next 4 years to train for the next Olympics). They didn't think he would have the opportunity to play this season, that he would be in training mode, especially since he's a 15s player and not a 7s player (though he has played 7s)..but he's Kobe (and Steve and Juls are extremely humble) and so of course he's travelling as one of the 14 chosen to go to LA. Kobe is...Kobe. He's electric. He's positive, driven, dynamic, energetic and a complete weapon on the field. I can't wait to be able to see him in this new environment. I love him too. And now I'm crying again. I’m very proud of all the Faust kids - I cry when I’m sad but mostly when I’m happy, I usually cry at least once while watching Kobe play (I’m a sucker for the National Anthem) and Myah dancing? I’m a mess. Ava won’t let us go watch her ride but I’m sure - waterworks.
We headed to the Adult Pool area, which is over by the Japanese restaurant and arrived and no one was there. A server came down and brought water and asked if we wanted anything to drink - because I'm on the all inclusive I got a pina colada and asked for him to bring a bucket of ice, everywhere we go now I ask for a bucket of ice now - I like a COLD drink and the ice melts quickly. While we went to the pool Jay went to the gym for a workout and then joined us. Looking over the edge of the pool we could see fish and a small reef shark at one point.
I started to turn pink so we got out and went to the Thai place for lunch which is at the pool but raised up into the trees, it’s very cool and you get an awesome breeze. I decided to get the grilled prawns with black pepper sauce and glass noodles - it was perfect, 3 large shrimp and about 2 tbsn of noodles (I could have had more noodles but I stole some of Maria's rice) and Jay and I shared vegetable rice paper wraps. Jay had a beef dish with rice and the server asked if he wanted it spicy..he said "how spicy is spicy" the server said "there is medium spicy and then "indian spicy' and then "maldivian spicy" which is very spicy" - Jay opted for medium spicy but then asked for some peppers on the side and the server, who's name I can't remember how to spell but was like Zeruvan but longer than that so I'm missing something in the middle - he said if you added all of the peppers it would be maldivian spicy, he's from the Maldives. He said that all the staff live on the island in staff quarters and there are about 150 of them in total. He works in 2 restaurants, the Thai and the Japanese & Steakhouse so we'll see him tonight. There are only 61 rooms on the resort between the beachfront villas and the overwater bungalows, most rooms only accomodate 2-3 guests so at most there are likely 150 guests at any given time so there is a 1-1 Guest-Staff ratio which is why the service is exceptional. Maria had a Thai green curry dish and Jim had a fried rice dish and everyone said everything was excellent.
Walking back to the rooms, its a little over a km, we were passed by so many golf carts carrying guests either to or from their rooms. I enjoy the walk, helps to digest our food, but I'm definitely looking forward to a dip in the pool when I get back.
When we were walking back from dinner last night I wondered how the island was powered. It's 180KM from Male, do they have a big generator? Jim looked it up somehow and it does have an island generator that is powered by diesel fuel, Jay said "I guess we'll know if we see a tanker this week show up" but I bet that they do it at night so that the guests don't have to see the tanker or on the opposite side of the island from where all the villas and restaurants are.
I've had sunscreen in my eye since putting it on at the pool and my eye is burning and watering - such a pain!
I dip, I blog, Jay naps and then comes outside for his repositioning nap and now has gone back inside to read (and nap) hopefully he can sleep tonight after all this napping.
I definitely have a full blown head cold. I'm still taking medication - thankfully it's not like a flu. I don't feel achy or feverish or even tired really, just congested.
Somehow it's 5:30pm already. I'm caught up on the blog - I need some photos from Maria, lol. I'm going to read my book for 30 mins or so then take a shower before supper. Also, time for another cold pill.
I didn't end up taking a shower, I read for longer and decided to just shower after dinner because I'll just get sweaty at dinner and walking home so that's when the cool shower is required. Have I mentioned its HOT here? It's supposed to be like this all week. Its glorious in the shade but I also learned that the sun is INTENSE. I only was wearing my tank top today for the walk to the pool (not wearing sunblock yet), lunch which was completely shaded (sunblocked but before we hung in the pool for 40 mins) and the walk back to the room which is also almost all shaded except for the pier back - and I'm burnt in my tank top shape! Going forward I'll make sure I'm wearing sunblock from morning until night regardless of if I'm in full sun or not.
Assan picks us all up at 7pm and drives us over to the Japanese and Steakhouse restaurant, we have a reservation but didn't specify inside or outside. They want to put us inside but we want to be outside so they move 2 tables for 2 together to accommodate us.
They brought curry leaf bread and chimichurri to the table to start and it's so good. I love chimichurri. Jay, Jim and Maria all order off the Steakhouse menu - Wagu steak with sides of broccolini and parmesan truffle fries without the truffle oil and I order off of the Japanese menu some spicy tuna rolls to start (and so did Jay) and then teppanyaki chicken for dinner which is just stir fried chicken and sauteed vegetables. Dinner at this restaurant isn't included in our stay but our drinks are still included and we get 60% off of the meal so overall dinner came to just under $200USD after our discount. I had 2 glasses of the Rose, which grew on me, it wasn't amazing but that's ok and Jay tried a Sri Lankan beer called Lion which was kind of a mid-colour beer, not quite amber, he liked it.
Our server tonight is also from the Maldives, his home island is 3 islands away and has a population of about 1,200. He gets 1 day off a week so usually saves them up so that he has 3-4 days off and goes home which is about a 40 min speedboat ride.
After dinner we walked back to the room and said good night to Jim and Maria with plans to play 5 Crowns tomorrow night - we just have to find a place with a table inside that has air because it's too windy to play outside. I think it's about 9:30pm when I put my phone on Do Not Disturb and go have my cool shower and get ready for bed. I've taken another couple of cold medications, I'm almost out of what Maria gave me but I know she has more.
I read my book until I finished it and then couldn't get to sleep, it was 1:30am when I got out of bed the last time. The girls have a hockey game (Playdown) while it's the middle of the night here, it's too long to stay up for but because it's too late now when I'm going to bed I won't get up to watch it either so I'll just have to check the score in the morning.
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