Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Home for Christmas

December 11th  12th to 27th, 2010

The phrase "Watch what you wish for" comes to full fruition when my joking statement of "I'm not coming for Christmas unless there's tons of snow!" is met with the closure of the MSP airport due to blizzard conditions.  We've been flying for over 40 hours, from Christmas Island to Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam to circling above Minneapolis, and then backtracking and ultimately landing in Detroit.  Several other international flight were also diverted to DTW, and the international arrivals area is a sea of weary travellers waiting in unmoving lines to talk with understaffed Delta representatives to discover too few solutions.  After several line re-schuffings and several hours we hatch a plan with other Minneapolis-bound passengers to rent a car and drive the rest of the way.  The snow storm is heading towards Detroit, and we're afraid we'll be stuck here for several days (if we can even make it through the line) before it'll be clear to fly outta here.  We finally figure out that flying is probably in fact our best bet to make it home in one piece, and are happy to find out the airlines is putting us up for free at a Hilton, and covering our meals.  We successfully make it home the next day, and I finally get that long overdue hug(sssss) from mom and dad.  And we're (er, Arthur) is immediately welcomed into the wintery tradition of shovelling out the driveway.  





The house renovations are simply beautiful!  I'm loving the open kitchen and find the countertop bar to be the perfect addition.  


Arthur makes himself at home by whipping up some delicious homemade bread.


OMG! I never realized Christmas Island had its own game.  And that it was my favorite childhood game, Fireball Island.


Dinner at our favorite bistro, Pierre's.  So good.


Rocking the UNO game on the fabulous new bar.


Oh delicious peanut butter kiss cookies.  Let's dip you in sprinkles and make you holiday cookies!



Let the Christmas decorating begin!


Making Grandma Wittman's famous meatballs takes a lot of onion chopping.  Finally a way to prevent my eyes from crying...


Happy Holidays from the Wittman family!


Mother and daughter bond over new glasses purchases.  Related, yet different, smart and beautiful always.  The glasses, that is.  What else would be would I be talking about?  ;)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Red Crab Migration

A compilation video of footage and pictures from the red crab spawning at Ethel Beach.

Friday, November 26, 2010

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Arthur stuffs a bird and we invite some folks over to celebrate that wonderful American holiday.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Greta Beach

Head to Greta Beach for the afternoon, and encounter a brown booby handing out at the head of the stairs. The heavy rains have recently come, cueing the start of the red crab migration, and the crabs are starting to gather near the coast.  In a month or see we should see the mass spawning on the beaches...





Monday, October 25, 2010

The Grotto

We hop on our bikes and head out to the Grotto, a cool little cave where the freshwater gets mixed with the incoming ocean waves.  Technically you can dive down and swim out to sea (signs warn you of the danger in English, Chinese, and Malay) but we're happy just to check out the cave formations and sit in the undulating water.  We ride back to town, and enjoy some beers at the pub at sunset, entertained by an Egret, and watch the navy vessel pull an old refugee boat behind it.  They'll ensure it won't be used again as a people smuggler boat when they use it for target practice; in awhile all you can see is a plume of smoke on the horizon.







Friday, October 15, 2010

Mmmmmm, coffeeeee.

Hard, well, impossible, to get good coffee here.  So one espresso maker purchase + some increasingly delicious practice getting the perfect extraction produces what we've been missing.  Especially once our frothing thermometer arrives...




Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Territory Week

Sept 27 - Oct 4

It's the anniversary of when Christmas Island officially became an Australian territory, and the island spends a week celebrating.  There's musical performances by high school students, the Malay drummers,  the Chinese dragon and traditional dances, and a special sitar performance.


Later on in the week the Christmas Island Cricket and Sports Club hosts a games day, including a tug-of-war, an egg toss, and lots of races.  Arthur took home the coveted "fasted man on the island" with his 100m dash win, and he and some friends also took home gold in the 4X400m relay.  



And to cap off the celebration is the Raft Race, where folks put together homemade rafts and race them around the cove.  We find 8 discarded mini-fridges and an old trampoline, and put together a make-shift catamaran. Weaponry is also allowed (perhaps even encouraged), and we mix up a batch of flour-bombs, laced with red dye.  After a parade of all the rafts, we take the water.  We're a bit heavy for the race around the buoys, but we do manage to hit a few targets with our red flour bombs.  The "Nemesis" is pretty solidly built, so we take her on a few sunset cruises around the cove.