Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji

It wasn't the best of days in Suva - it rained a lot of the time.

Christina (from the ship's shop) and I headed out into Suva for a bit of a wander around town.  Well...  the wandering didn't take us too far.  We headed into a shopping mall.  When we tried to emerge sometime later - there was a nice downpour outside.  Not to be outsmarted by the rain - we crossed the road to another shopping mall for a wander around, leaving puddles behind us from our dripping shoes and clothes.  Cleaners in the mall were loosing a battle to keep the floors clean and dry!

It was still pouring with rain when we emerged from the mall and it was a case of "do you want to continue wandering or do you want to head back to the ship"?  The reply would be "I don't mind - whatever you want to do".  Being easy going - we didn't mind what each other wanted to do and couldn't make our minds up.  On the way back we popped into the first mall again, once again getting a drenching whilst crossing the busy main road.

Christina's birthday is tomorrow and I had already got something for her that would be small enough for her to carry in her luggage; however whilst we were in the one shop again Christina had been looking at a nice woven reed box with tapa cloth on it for her jewellery.  When she was occupied, looking for something, I found a nice box and dashed to the cashiers to pay for it.  Unfortunately a very friendly shop assistant took it from me, even though I told him I was trying to hid it from a friend, and held it quite openly.  When Christina appeared to ask if I was getting something, the gentleman smiled and started waving the item around even though I had told him I was getting it as a gift for a friend.  It rather spoilt things a lot and I tried to hide my embarrassment.  Anyway I turned away to pay the bill and the shop assistant disappeared with the gift to have it wrapped before I could stop him - I had wanted to put the something in the box before I wrapped it up.  He came back a few minutes later and took me to the gift-wrapping service where my item was being wrapped up.  Afterwards I found Christina but we both didn't mentioned the incident.  She knew and I knew.

We walked through the rain, back to the ship.  It didn't matter that we were wet to the skin again.  Needless to say we had to dry off when we got back.

Later this evening Paul and I met up with Christina for dinner in the Pinnacle Grill.  It was a joint birthday meal for us.  Her birthday is tomorrow, my birthday was yesterday.   The meal was delicious and afterwards the staff kindly presented us a joint cake and decorated the plate for us.  Christina and I exchanged gifts.  She had got me a bottle of perfume but had also got me and Paul a joint 'something'.  It was a coconut cannibal cat!  Ugly but beautiful.  It's vampire like teeth are filed down shells, its ears are dish scrubbing pads, whiskers are made of a rough rope, the head is a hollowed out coconut with cowrie shells for its eyes.  The body is a small round wood post with a bit of tapa cloth wrapped around its body.  It is so cute!  Christina was delighted with her woven reed & tapa cloth box and her coconuts soap wrapped in a tapa cloth bag.

Heading to Lautoka

It was a nice evening to round off the day.

The Maasdam is heading around Viti Levu to her next stop, Lautoka, on the west coast.