Leaving Christmas

We plan to leave Christmas at first light in the morning. We have the dinghy stowed on the fore deck and every thing put away...a 3 hour job this time!

We had a wonderful time here this time. William and Elizabeth loaned us their motor scooter so we had transportation. We had dinner with them Monday night. A beach picnic at Henry's next, then Konnari's, then Williams again, then Minis's, then William again. I think? Lots of visiting. Lots of eating!

We had ordered a boneless leg of lamb from the Kwai. Marco, William's consultant said he loved lamb. We asked William to marinate and cook it for us all since they were too sea sick to eat it on the way. It was really good. Each time we got together, we ALL got together. William and Chuck and a Japanese guy, Matsuru, are all trying to get business proposals through the council, so they wanted to get acquainted to see if there might be some synergy. Henry is a retired marine biologist and good at
writing proposals. We were the common link to them all. It was a lot of fun and ya'll know how I love to eat anyway. There was a little beer or wine involved each time too, hehehe!

We had heard that Konnari and her husband had moved back to Tarawa so we didn't look for them. But no, they are here. We didn't get to visit them as much as we would have liked because of all the other plans. They did not get the dremmel tool we sent at Christmas time. I found the receipt for the mail and they are trying to trace it. We hope they find it. Trinda did not get to get with her to do any crafts and both were disappointed. Maybe next time? Thye also plan a trip to Tarawa for the holidays,
so maybe we'll see here there.

We went the 15 miles out to JMB store (John Brighton, a Scotsman here for a long time) and got fresh vegetables the other day. We managed to eat most of them, so we took the scooter out there again this morning to get more. He is the father of the Island manager for NCL Cruise Lines on Fanning, Bobby. It was nice meeting the rest of the family. Bobby is the one who lent us the bicycles so we could visit the folks there.

Minie is the sister of the minister to parliament for the line island group. We had met her on Fanning but didn't have time to get acquainted there much. She came up here on the Matangare (local supply ship) and recognized us. It was nice to get better acquainted. We have lots of names and addresses in the Tarawa area now. It may take all winter to see everyone!