On Sunday morning, we set out with 8 of our friends on a pontoon boat we had rented for the day. By the way, 10 people and five gallons of rum swizzle makes for a pretty great time out on the open water...we had a blast. We set out towards our place, stopped to feed a huge swarm of snappers some of our Doritos (they loved Spicy Habenero but were not very impressed with salt and vinegar), and did some exploring, diving off the side of the boat whenever it got too hot. The water is very close to the temperature of the air now, which is somewhere near 80 degrees (or 26, depending on which side of the thermometre you're more interested in). It was still refreshing though and there was just enough of a breeze that we didn't completely roast ourselves.

We also did some cliff jumping, which I haven't done for years. I wasn't totally sure that I would participate, but one more glass of rum swizzle was all I needed. It was awesome. The cliffs are on top of these caves, which you have to swim and climb through to find your way to the top. It's really cool...these natural little caverns and "stairways"...almost like Mother Nature deliberately set up a diving spot for us.

By the afternoon, we were less interested in exploring and more interested in just lazing around, so we found a quiet spot between a couple of little islands, dropped the anchor and just hung out until it was time to return the boat. It was a great day...so great in fact that we immediately booked it again for a weekend when Laila and Dallas are here. It's so neat to see the Rock from a different perspective and find these little spots that are impossible to see, even from the ferry.

No one does a long weekend like the Rock. People here take their weekends VERY seriously. I think there must be nearly as many boats as there are people here, ranging from rubber dinghys to gigantic yachts, and every single one of them was out on Sunday, mooring up together, BBQing on the little beaches, playing soccer in the open spaces on all of the little islands, and really making the most of their weekend off. It's neat to see everyone treat it like such a vacation...especially when you know that no one is more than a few minutes from home.

After such an awesome Sunday, it was only fitting that Monday was a bit...lacklustre. After a slow start, we headed out to visit a friend of ours on the other end of the Rock (about an hour's drive) when the Vespa decided that it had other plans for us. The belt snapped off and the scooter just stopped, right in the middle of the road. Kurt pulled over right away to see what had happened and sure enough, there were little chunks of the belt all over the road. Awesome! Thankfully (we were SO lucky), we were only about a 10 minute walk from our house. Had it happened even 10 minutes later, we would have been seriously screwed. We walked it home, hopped in the car and headed to the beach to meet up with our friends. Unfortunately, every single other person on the island was at the same beach, so the parking situation was lousy, the beach was crowded, and there was just enough wind blowing to make you feel like you were being sandblasted as you laid on the towel. Unpleasant. We didn't stay long...maybe an hour or so...just long enough to gather enough sand on our persons to leave trails through the apartment when we got home. Oh well. There will be more successful beach days in our future.

Now I'm back at work, commencing Week 2 of Awkward Four Week Notice Period. My boss is absent today, meaning that it's somewhat less awkward, though I still have nothing to do which means that the next 6.25 hours are going to pass by very. very. slowly.

Only three sleeps until the next weekend...(my weekends start at 5 on Fridays).