Week Four

Tuesday 6th December

Yay .... we are finally getting our two small double beds changed - for a lovely large Queen. This now gives us so much more space in our room and maybe, just maybe I'll stop bumping in to the corners and giving myself lots of bruises!

  

Wednesday 7th December

More people are now arriving which is great so we are meeting lots of new friends that we can share this wonderful experience with.  Having more people here makes it feel that we have a real community starting and I can see there will be lots of laughs too.

So the cottage that is being provided by the hotel for us to cook and do our laundry is finally ready - Hurrah!  This means that we don't just have a microwave to do our meals we actually have an oven.  It also means we have another space to use so that we are not just sitting on our beds in our rooms!

 

 

 

Friday 9th December

Friday night and it's all happening in Hamilton.  Through December every Friday they are keeping the shops open for the lead up to Christmas.  So all the shops were handing out bubbles, wine and nibbles.  The atmosphere around the town was electric.

In Queen Elizabeth Park there was a Christmas concert.  Firstly, three young brothers played a variety of instrumental songs. The drummer was only 10, organist 14 and guitarist 16.  Very talented young gentleman that entertained everyone for three quarters of an hour.  Whilst they were playing food was handed round; sandwiches, soup and cakes.  

 Second was a young lady called Raven .....

Then lastly a very powerful singer who is quite well known around the island, Tony Robinson, she was brilliant.

Whilst all of these very talented artists were trying to perform there was a lot of noise on the street opposite which they had to compete against.  The Gombeys were out performing - and they are very loud.  

We also had three homeless people join in with the merriment, a lady was up dancing and even tried to take the other microphone to join in - we chuckled!  Then one gentleman decided he wanted to leave and was trying to get his "woman" to leave cause he'd had enough of this s**t!!  An argument ensued obviously and in the end the gentleman was gently asked to stand to one side and allow the artists to continue.  It was scary but funny at the same time and we did feel that we were in the thick of 'Life in Bermuda' :-)

So when we arrived back at the hotel late night shopping was still in full swing in the hotel boutiques.  Complimentary wine was full flowing .... Well it would have been rude not to have joined in.  When it was time to pack up we then asked could we help them out with their opened bottles of wine .... well, we managed to acquire quite a bit of wine.  This resulted in a very amusing end to the evening :-)

Saturday 10th December

So even with a hangover we were up early to make the most of Neil's day off.  Today we are off to St George's to go see the Dunking of the Wench and then the Christmas parade.

 

Fun on the bus

 

St George's Town, Kings Square

View of The Deliverance, a full scale replica of one of the two ships built by the Sea Venture Castaways which was to carry them to Virginia 

Dunking of the Wench

 The Town Crier

 The Town Crier, the Wench and a volunteer

 

The Wench who has been accused of Gossiping and stood trial

 More volunteers to help with the dunking of the Wench

 

 A very soggy Wench who was dunked not just once, or twice but quite a few times!

After all of that excitement it was time to take a walk around the very quaint town of St George's with all of it's history and beautiful buildings.

 

 

 World Heritage Centre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas is coming and I love how friendly all the Bermudians are.  I also love how they say have a Bermudaful day - the signs are up everywhere as this beautiful country is getting excited.

St Peter's Church - The oldest Anglican Church in continuous use outside the British Isles

 

 

 

 

 

 

The graveyard is separated in to two sections - This side is for the Slaves and Free Blacks

 

St George's Historical Society Museum

 

The Unfinished Church

 

 

The Unfinished Church - this church was intended to be a Victorian Gothic Church.  The structure was started in the 1870s and abandoned before its completion

The Perfume Shop

The Deliverance

 

Sir George Somers Statue

 

Chillin!

By this time we have walked our socks off and the temperature has dropped dramatically and I'm freezing.  We have two hours to wait for the Christmas Parade so there was nothing for it but to go and hide in The White Horse pub and have some dinner.

St George's Christmas Parade was lovely.  Once the sun set and it became dark then all the lights were switched on it was stunning.  The parade included lots of dancers and then Father Christmas rocked up in a Fire Truck - it was very cool!

 

 

Sunday 11th December

So you'd think we would be all Christmas'd out after yesterday.  Nope - today we went to Dockyard to join in a Family Fun day.  There was a bouncy castle, face painting, food, entertainment and a  Christmas decoration to make.  There was loads to do and it was all free.  Something very bizarre about Father Christmas sitting under the Palm Trees though!

 

 

  

 

Dolphin Quest - Christmas Carols

 

 

The last bus was 6.35pm from Dockyard to Hamilton as it was a Sunday so as soon as the Dolphin display was over we ran to the bus stop so as not to miss the last bus - otherwise it would have been an expensive taxi ride home!