Frankie's 40th

On Saturday night we were invited to our friend Frankie's 40th Birthday Party. The expat community is a real multi-cultural mix on Pohnpei so with a theme of 'The 70's' for the party it was anyone's guess what people would wear. They are a great group and I'm sure we will enjoy spending the time at parties with them over the next couple of years. After the party most of the crowd headed off to the popular dance club 'Flamingos'.

Nic and Frankie.

Frankie and her partner Simon. Second hand stores and mail-order provides a lot of avenues to get creative.

Steve dressed up for a big night. The coolest lawyer on the island.

Drinks a plenty..... Believe it or not Majella (in the centre) is wearing a little girls dress bought at 'Super Saver' the number one second-hand store on the island.

A little troubling....... We can only imagine what Halloween will be like if they get this dressed up for a birthday party.

Allois in his sailor's shirt. He wasn't amused when I asked him if some guy left it in his room......

A 'cracka' birthday cake. Happy 40th Frankie.

Ant Atoll

Nic and I headed over to Ant Atoll after diving P-Pass first thing on Saturday morning. We tied the boat up to a log on the beach and went straight out for a snorkle on a little reef about 50m off of the beach.

Saw this little beauty on the way out. A trigger fish I think.

Came across a coconut tree that had been uprooted and is now home to hundreds of colourful fish.

Once again there were beautiful clams all over the reef.

Some leafy critter thing that closes up to a single little tube if you get too close.

As you can see you don't have to duck-dive down too far to get a good look.

Fish everywhere.

Saw this little coral trout on the snorkel back into the shore.

By the time I got back to the boat for some lunch Nic had already started. Lunch, Nic, I said lunch.

After a quick feed we walked up the beach to another reef. On the way we saw this 5-6ft thresher shark cruising the shallows.

Pretty cool. Incase you are wondering, you don't have to swim fast to get away from the sharks, just faster than someone else......

We came across a spot where someone had recently had a campfire on the beach. There must have been some food left laying around as there were crabs everywhere.

Colourful little critters.

Nic telling me to hurry up so that we can go for the next snorkel.

First thing we see on the second swim is a cool stingray.

First 'flute fish' we've seen in Pohnpei.

Absolutely awesome colours on some of the coral.

More clams.

A virtual garden of coral and fish life.

As we always do we packed the rods, reels and lures just in case.......

Diving Palikir Pass

Palikir Pass in Pohnpei is more known for being one of the world's surfing hot spots than for it's diving. Every year all the big names fly in as soon as the surf starts pumping. Over our summer (which is now) though the sea settles down and diving takes over. Like everywhere in Pohnpei the water is 'gin' clear and there is lots to see. We actually dived the cliff face about three hundred metres to the right of the pass, we'll do the pass next dive.

Had some locals join us on the way out of the lagoon.

Just about every time the boat goes out we get dolphins jumping off the bow. Great if your cruising around, not so great if your trying to catch fish.

Like I said, there aren't too many waves at P-Pass during summer. Hope these guys aren't going to wait too long. The first decent swell mightn't be for some time.

This is just a 'showing off' picture. Notice the water temp is 30 degrees. How will we ever swim in Perth ever again.

Great clear water.

So much to see. Yet another cracking photo that will end up in the Pohnpei Coffee Table book Scott is putting together.

A pretty cool starfish.

Lots of 'Nemos' on this dive.

Cool huh?

Like I said "Lots of Nemos"

Scott getting a close-up of Nemo. He's hiding up in the top right of the picture.

Absolutely 'gin' clear water. Fantastic dive.

Scott down at 27m checking out the wildlife.

Indianna

Our little girl is growing up way too fast. One of the reasons that we applied to come here was to spend two/three years together as a family. Nine months away a year is pretty hard and now that Scott comes home every day the kids are a lot happier and are enjoying spending time with Daddy in the afternoons and on weekends.

Who gave you permission to wear Daddy's hat? Who could deny her.....

Such a caring little girl. Want a cup of tea Big Ted?

Big hugs for baby.

All this playing sure is hard work.

Painting with Mum out on the balcony. Waterbased paints and a hose at the ready is the only way to go.

Papayas

We were given some Papaya seeds recently so we planted a few and grew the seedlings up on our balcony. The time has come to put them into the ground. Scott thought the old sandpit would be the best spot. Unfortunately there was plastic under the sand so all the sand had to come out so that the plastic could be removed. Scott and Brandon (one of our friendly compound gardeners) worked in the hot sun for a couple of hours getting the project underway.

Brandon hard at work.

All the sand is finally removed, now to find some soil.....

Scott and Brandon went down to the fence line and dug up some very fertile soil (full of worms). The problem was that the wheelbarrow could only go so far. So it was a matter of filling up a bucket at a time, walking that up the hill and slowly filling the wheelbarrow.

Scott spreading out the soil.

After two or so hours Scott and Brandon decided that five wheelbarrow loads would be enough to get the papayas in the ground. The plan is for a few more papaya trees and some other vegies to get planted once the boys get some more soil up from the river.

Sashimi

A little while back you may remember that we were given a couple of tuna for lending out some dive gear. The time recently came to clean out the freezer so the second one had to be defrosted and carved up.

Ever filleted a cow.....

Doesn't look that flash at this stage does it.

Indi knew exactly what the end product was going to be and wanted in on the deal early. Both Jaxon and Indi love raw fish and it is a struggle to stop them from eating the lot.

About one tenth of the final product. Needless to say we gave lots of tuna away to people that would appreciate it. Yummo.