Of insects and things.....

Jon has just gone off to work and I am sitting in the little cottage, writing this on my computer so I can save it and put it on my blog later today.
I really can’t get over how hard Jon has been working. He starts at 7.30, along with the rest of those he is working with and after they stop at around four invariably, he goes on for several more hours. This means that in the evenings he is exhausted as soon as he has eaten and falls asleep really early. It doesn’t do much for our social life, but then I was worried that I was going to be the one going to bed early.
Today the manual labour is over for a few days as Chris, the captain of the sloop, arrives. He is here for a few days, during which I am sure there will be no end of meetings for Jon to attend and I am hoping that it is limited to the one that is scheduled for Saturday, not only because it’s my birthday, but also because Jon desperately needs a break.
It’s 7.30 in the morning and the frog chorus – the thing I described as insects – yesterday is continuing. It rained last night and it seems quite fresh this morning after the steamy heat of yesterday, where the humidity and temperature were both in the eighties.
I had a rather unpleasant experience during the night, although luckily it wasn’t pregnancy-related. I woke up to something that sounded like scratching in the roof and felt something small hit the bed, but figured it was probably a bit of bark or something that had got dislodged from the traditional beamed ceiling. A few minutes later, I got hit full force in the head by the evil cockroach that had been doing the scratching. Well, because I was half asleep and because I was scared, I screamed – waking up both Jon and Bean and no doubt terrifying the cockroach. Jon managed to catch it - by this point it was across the other side of the room - and kill it, putting it outside – where this morning it seems to have become the magnificent feast of about a thousand tiny ants….nice.
Needless to say, it took me rather a long time to get back to sleep after this 2am episode, because I thought all of his friends might be in the roof and because the experience had woken up Bean, who decided to treat Mummy to the full force of a foetus’ kicking skills. Jon managed to go back to sleep pretty quickly which is a bit of a shame as I had been assuring him of Bean’s kicking prowess since I arrived and he has so far only experienced a rather below par example.
It’s just over a week to go until the cut-off date of July 1 that we set for a visa decision and it probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that things don’t seem to be progressing at all. I don’t know that the actual current state of affairs is, as Jon hasn’t really been had any news from the Foundation since the upset a couple of weeks ago, but I am hoping things become a little clearer now that Chris is coming. We have a dinner that we have to go to tonight at Malcolm's house, which will no doubt be the highlight of the week, and we may find out more then as he was the one supposed to sorting out the visa issues, as director of the Foundation. However, Jon really doesn’t think things will be any clearer by July 1, so we are left in that situation again of deciding what to do. We both feel incredibly torn. I feel slightly wound up by the fact that we originally said June 1 and then July 1 and no progress has been made, but equally I don’t really want to put my foot down and say ‘that’s it; I’ve had enough. We’re out of here’, and leave us with nothing. But, it is taking the mickey a little bit.
It does give the impression of being a bit of a banana republic, which in some ways is good because it means we could probably stay here and things will probably get sorted and we will probably get the visa at some stage in the next three years. But, in many other ways, the incompetence that we have witnessed shouldn't even have a place in a third world country, let alone somewhere that seems to think it’s superior to many first world countries. And so, the uncertainty continues.
My burgeoning belly is going to put a definitive end to it at some stage in the next few weeks. Even though I don’t look as pregnant as I am, most airlines won’t let you fly after 28 weeks without a doctor’s note saying you are fit and healthy and with your due date on…which gives me precisely 10 days, or until July 3.
Well, I can probably get by with another week, or at a push until 30 weeks, but then it starts getting a bit silly. So, we need to know with certainty and not with a ‘oh, the visa will come through don’t worry’ type of island attitude.
It wouldn’t be so hard if there weren’t a lot of really great things about this place. The apartment that we would be living in is very cool and right outside that is where the sloop is going to be moored. The weather is lovely a lot of the time, but my favourite thing is the water. It is the most incredible colour I have ever seen: a combination of teal, azure and turquoise with pockets of cobalt blue and peppermint green and it so clear. I haven’t swum in it yet, partly because of my phobia of fish – something I am going to have to get over if we end up living here – and because it was still a little on the chilly side last time I was here, but it is incredibly relaxing just sitting there looking at it, diving into its depths in my imagination or dreaming of us taking off in one of the beautiful sailing boats that course its waters around the island.
Well, had better go and make myself useful. Sorry to those of you, Mum included, who couldn't make out the ultra-sound. It does show Bean's face, I promise.
xxx