The Purple Penguin

Just woke up in Jamaica. Of course, there was a bird that was insistant it was morning at 4.30 when it was still dark and I still wanted to sleep and of course it shut up when the sun came out. Stupid bird.

The flight was probably the worst flight I have ever been on. Very full, more people not knowing how to find seats, and a very patronising air hostess made the 9 1/2 hours seem like forever. Plus we were late. Stuck on the tarmac at Gatwick for over half an hour and then late into Kingston. We managed to get to the front of the immigration queue but that still took nearly an hour to get through. Then the baggage claim – oh my. That took nearly another hour. So I was pretty sure the person who was to collect us had long gone. The best sight ever was a board with our names and a smiling face above it there to take us to UWI!

We’re staying at the Mona Visitor’s Lodge at UWI and it hasn’t changed much since I was here 10 years (!) ago. They have done some refurbishment and taken out the restaurant (which is a shame) but the general layout and bar are the same. Not that I spent that much time in the bar last time!

So we got to the visitor’s lodge and checked in, got our bags put away and headed down to the bar to try to log in to the wireless. Got our drinks (I do love decent ginger beer!) and Joe started sorting out the laptop only to discover that we can’t use the wireless connection. So that’s something he’ll probably sort out today. So the evening was spent with Joe trying the local beer (Red Stripe) and rum (Appletons) and me trying to empty the bar of ginger beer. One of the conference organisers came to see how we were settling in and we had a chat with her. Then off to find food and just managed to get into the fast food place before it closed and got patties. They were sold out of everything else. We must do better tonight!

Off for breakfast and then to discuss the conference and then looking forward to seeing more of Jamaica!

PS: He may not have worked out the wireless connection but he did manage to sort out the room connection. I don’t want to know.