Diving at last...!

Hi all, well since last Friday plans haven't exactly gone according to plan!
All the others went to go diving on Friday afternoon, but we were hit by a massive storm whilst on the beach. They spent a total of 7 minutes in the water, losing each other as the visibility was so poor and came back out again. I helped them take all their kit off and was equally as wet as those who had been in the sea as the rain was so hard and powerful! Still was nice to stand out in the warm rain and sea at the same time!
The rain eventually stopped and we went to Honiara Hotel for cocktails that evening. It's one of the poshest hotels in Honiara and has a olympic sized pool, which all the expats/police/army use in their free time, as long as you buy a drink or two.
Saturday, well saturday turned out to be the wettest day so far. I think it started raining again about 4 in the morning and didn't stop until about 9 in the evening - and it was proper torrentail downpours. Myself, Anna and Minali all stayed in reading our books and witnessed a tree falling down about 30m from our house. It narrowly missed one of our neighbours houses and the poor guy spent the rest of the day cutting it all up, as it had landed on their power cable. We had tempermental electricity during the day aswell, but was back on once the rain stopped in the evening. The others all ventured into town to do shopping, and use the internet etc and came back absoloutely dripping wet, despite the fact they had raincoats etc. Apparently they had to wade through calf deep puddles at times. Also, we found out that the rain and flooding was so bad, it destrouyed a part of the bridge where we go divinbg, so now only one side of traffic can go down it at one time! Also about 18 people died in the flood waters somewhere on the island.
Anyway, we ended up at the Yacht club for dinner, and had our first burger since being here! It was amazing, especially when taken down with a SolBrew (The Solomon Islands very own beer!!).
Sunday, well the rain had stopped but the flood waters and rivers had washed so much silt and crap into the sea that the visibility was too bad to dive. So the others all did their theory exam and then we spent the whole day up at Honiara Hotel just sunbathing, swimming and eating. And oh was the eating good. They have a BBQ lunch on a Sunday, and so me and Anna shared some salad, and possbily the best tasting grilled fish ever! We were glad to have splashed out on that food! Got a little bit red that day, the sun is more powerful out here than I can remember experiencing, so slapping on the suncream is routine.
Again Monday, the weather conditions were no good for diving. But seeing as we had made the trip to the beach, me, Anna and Joff all decided to stay and spend the day on the beach. We eventually made it home when one of the doctors from the hospital gave us a lift back into Honiara. We also had our first tast of Frangipani Ice, the local ice cream, which is ver very good. Being Easter we also bought some hot cross buns for breakfast the next day and headed back to Kiwi House. The others who didnt stay on the beach went to the Botanical Gardens and to the War memorial, which me and Anna intend to do at some point, maybe when Matt has joined us.
We shared cooking that nice with Claire and Philappa and had a rather yummy concoction of rice, sardines and veg, which reminded me very much of my Hong Kong days! We had some drinks that night at King Solomon Hotel,. but left at 11 when they closed.
Tuesday - well I didn't feel very well, the return of D+V unfortuantely. So I spent the day chilling out at Kiwi House, whilst the others went into the hospital for the morning, and then managed to get their first proper dive in after lunch at last!! Only 1 week since all their theory work....! Still they all enjoyed it.
The water situation at Kiwi House is more tempermental than the electricity so we went up to Pacific Casino hotel for showers before having dinner there. Cheeky, bu thtey don't mind as long as we spend money!
Today is Wednesday and we have spent all morning back at Bonegi beach where the open water divers have just completed the rest of their dives (they did 3 today) and are now finally finished! I went along with them this morning and finally managed to do some snorkelling. The sea was so nice and calm and there was loads of coral and fish to sea quite close to shore. There is also a ship wreck from WWII which I could see part of from the surface. I managed to use my underwater case and take some phtoos underwater - not overly clear but their are definitely some fish visible!
So a good day so far. We are going to try and book a trip away this weekend to somewhere exciting, and will try and do that today. We also want to go to Malaita for some time when Matt gets here so need to look into that.
It is also Claire and Philippa's last night here as they fly to Gizo, in the Western Province, tomorrow so I'm sure some farewell drinks will be had.
Anyway food is now calling me, so will speak soon.
Love Kylie xx