Apologies for a bit of a boring day again. It will hopefully become more interesting once we’ve caught up with all the mundane stuff we need to do and start going out and about more.
The morning’s ‘jobs’ stretched into the afternoon although we did manage a meal out and a walk on the beach.
So, the day began with some more shopping!
Buoyed by yesterday’s successful first Publix Instacart shop, I was on a roll. Shortly after waking up, I was shopping for some non-food items to arrive that morning. Interesting items (not!) such as Downy fabric softener, washing liquid, cleaning products and dishwashing liquid (NOT to be confused with dishwasher liquid/tablets as we discovered to our cost in a sea of foam in a villa kitchen in the early nineties!
) all found their way into the virtual cart.
That done, attention was turned to the hot tub again which had almost fully drained, with the remnants pumped out by the rather exciting portable pump, which had come with us all the way from the U.K. A couple of hours saw the hot tub sparkling like new, with the pipes having had cleaning fluid ran through them to ensure no nasties were lurking! It was refilled and the heater switched on.
My attention then turned to another important matter. Doing a Bath and Body Works order
. This will probably not be the last one I do and I also plan to visit our local B&BW. My enthusiasm is somewhat tempered by our baggage allowance home. Although we are in UC (from Atlanta as things stand right now), we brought a lot of clothes with us as we didn’t want to have to wash anything in Jamaica. I also have one of our granddaughter’s Jamaica clothes with us to take home, which is half a suitcase full! Normally I would leave some stuff here, but as we aren’t sure when we’ll be back, I need to appraise this situation carefully and decide what needs to come back with us. On the plus side, I do have some space as I brought a few beachy decor bits over for the house, and, of course, some candles can go in hand luggage as long as you don’t mind the additional airport screening!
So, over $200 lighter in favour of B&BW, a knock on the door saw my latest Publix order arriving and I could get on with the job of washing the pillows and towels and anything else which isn’t nailed down. I’d used up the remainder of our supplies on clothes last night so was itching to get started on linens and towels!
I’m a bit of a clean freak and although most stuff had been washed by the cleaners at some point since we left, I like it all to smell really fresh and so I’d loaded up on nice-smelling fabric softeners and drying sheets. I love the fact that the washing dries so quickly too. (YAWN-but I do!) I can hang bedding out in the morning and it’s ready to bring in before lunchtime. (Zzzzz). Also, don’t get me started on the huge tumble driers-a load dries in no time!
We also ordered some new bolts for the leaking cistern, a universal bike rack for the hire car (and future ones!), an Allen key for the broken waste disposal, (Mr Mqt insisted we didn’t have one, I thought otherwise. Guess who was right and later found it?) an Alexa, and a new bike seat for Mr Mqt*.
*day 5 will further explain 😀
As an aside, I also managed to order a cute Jack in the Box for my youngest granddaughters. They love me to tell them stories, some real, about when I was little, and some made up. In one of the most requested ones, I tell them a story in which they are the main characters and it features a Jack in the Box which turns into a Christmassy Rudolph Jack in the Box. I’ve been looking for such a thing in the U.K. for ages and even thought about making one. Well I’ve found one! I’m going to keep it for during Advent when I can once again tell them the story and present them with the real ‘Rudolph Jack in the Box’. I can’t wait!
So, a day essentially spent doing chores. It felt good to be back and the day flew by. Before we knew it, it was time to get ready to go out for a meal. We decided on The Ugly Grouper, which is one of our favourite places to go. The food is fresh and tasty and best of all, it’s within easy walking distance.
Parrots spotted on the way.
The Ugly Grouper is a fun place to eat. It’s all outdoors and there are cool games for the little ones to keep them amused. There’s often live music too. Their ‘USP’ is the huge grouper statue made from metal junk.
(Picture courtesy of google)
Grouper tacos and Hogfish were consumed. Their Grouper Tacos are something else! Well, they are if you have them without modification! Unfortunately I’m not a big cheese lover and these come with a rather fancy cheese ‘shell’ over the usual tacos.
The ‘real’ tacos.
The ones I ordered ( I know, I know, a sad imitation) plus Mr M’s Hogfish.
Since we arrived yesterday, we’d not managed to get to the beach, what with all the jobs which needed doing. We’d deliberately eaten fairly early so we could have a walk afterwards and catch the sunset.
Anna Maria is about 7 miles long and our place is about in the middle. We set off walking Northwards and managed to get to the top of the island at Bean Point shortly before sunset and caught the rest of it whilst walking back down.
For those of you who haven’t been to Anna Maria, the beaches are stunning. As we were strolling on the beach I realised just how much I’d missed it. I felt like I was inhaling the view and just taking it all in.
The sunsets are renowned for being so beautiful and indeed they are. Often they are so breathtaking that you can’t believe what you are looking at is real. The pictures below are just unedited iPhone snaps from the day.
There were quite a few jellyfish on the shore at the North end of the island.
Apparently a lot of them are Moon jellyfish which are not that harmful (Not that I’m intending to test this theory out!).
By the time we got home, it was dark. We loaded up the star finder app so we could settle an argument about which planet was clearly visible (Me 1, Mr M, 0)
I was pleased to have got some ‘steps’ in. I hadn’t worn my Apple Watch in Jamaica and I normally average between 18-25,000 steps a day. I was wanting to get back to some sort of level whilst here. It’s never as much, but after our walk, I’d clocked up over 20,000 steps that day, so I was well pleased with that.
A dip in the now-warmed hot tub when we got back plus a maple and walnut ice cream and a quick catch up of Corrie. (#saddo)