Who says I don't do any work??

We spent the past week in St Thomas in the USVI – I was working (I was!!) and Laura was on holiday.  We're building a Marriott Vacation Club there – right on the cliff overlooking the Caribbean.  Very tough project cutting a resort into a rock face and we have faced many difficulties there including finding skilled labour, finding productive labour and the high cost of construction.  It's a paradise on earth, as is neighbouring St John which we visited.  Charlotte Amalie at St Thomas was one of the major slave trading ports back in the old days whereas nowadays St Thomas is one of the main stopovers for cruise ships. 

We had some great nights out at the local bars, visited the island of St John where we snorkeled at Trunk Bay, went scuba diving and saw dolphins (yeah man) off St Thomas and went to Shabbat morning service at St Thomas Synagogue. The USVI are all duty free and jewelry is very cheap there, as is alcohol and you can take 5 litres back to the US.  Trick is that you can't carry it on board so you have to pack it in your luggage and then if you fly back via Puerto Rico you can stock up there too.

 Sunrise over Bolongo Bay

 That's work

 That's work from the sea

 That's the layout of the site - note the tower cranes

 View from the model unit at Frenchman's Cove

 The interior of what we build

 We stayed in one of those apartments in the distance

 Photo taken from the Marriott hotel in St Thomas.

 Night out at "Duffy's Love Shack". I have a collection of different souvenir glasses from that place.

 St Thomas at night

 The surf break in the distance at Hull Bay

 Magens Bay, St Thomas

 Cruise ship at sunset

 Local fauna

 Flashing my boardies before diving

 Trunk Bay, St John USVI

 I'm ready to dive...I saw five dolphins underwater!!

 St Thomas Synagogue - its the oldest Synagogue in continuous operation in the Western Hemisphere.  It has a sand floor which is reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition when Jews would cover the floor with sand to muffle their sounds of prayer from the Spanish.

 St John, USVI

 Paradise...

Since moving in to our apartment we have been busy getting everything in order and Laura constructed some furniture (with my help).

 Our book shelf - varnished timber boards and CMUs (concrete masonry units) - total cost about $45

 Entertainment Unit - total cost about $50

 Entertainment Unit

We bought timber and CMUs and Laura sanded back the timber and then varnished them.  Good job ey!

I helped to put it all together.

We got ourselves a BBQ - a 3 burner Weber, and have had a number of people round for lunch and have had some great cookouts at home.

 A cookout one arvo...

 We can even get boere here!!

 Well its been over a month already, lots has happened and I have not updated the blog for a while.  Going back 6 weeks I went to San Francisco for a week of work – we're building a Ritz Carlton Club over there…Ritz Carlton Club is our luxury tier of residences which are sold as fractional ownership.  The Club is being constructed in the Chronicle Building which was built in the 1890's and was one of the only large buildings to survive the 1906 earthquake.  Its located on the corner of Market and Kearney Streets and here is a link to a photo of it.

 http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state1/photos/chroniclebldg_pic.html

Apart from work I was able to take the trolley to Fisherman's Wharf and eat crab, I went to Haight Ashbury and then Golden Gate Park (saw some hippies), visited my cousins who live in SF, and went to Alcatraz (then escaped). One late night in a bar this guy told me that he thought SF was the best place in the world and Sydney was the second best place, this was after I told him that I lived in Orlando.

 The Ritz Carlton Club, San Francisco

 The Trolley Car

 Fisherman's Wharf

 The Rock

 The Yard (remember Escape from Alcatraz?)

 Me at Alcatraz

 Locked Up

 SF at night

 View over Lombard St

We have a new home after being in temporary accommodation for 2 months and we've been in it for almost a month already.  Its a large 2 bedroom apartment/townhome, is 3 miles south of Downtown Orlando and is in a complex with lots of trees, two pools, two lakes and a tennis court.  Its also very quiet and we like it a lot.  These are some photos from when we moved in...

  View from the entry porch

 Living Room

  Dining Room

  View from the balcony

We celebrated Australia Day in true Aussie style with some roast lamb (from Australia) and with our friend Skip.

 Skippy greeted us when we got home


 and then Skippy joined us for dinner.

It was a great night and included some traditional Aussie songs like Waltzing Matilda, I Still Call Australia Home, Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel.

After the Springs we went to the very cool Park Ave in Winter Park for a spot of lunch.  While there we saw a lady with two dogs in a pram which was funny to see.  Americans love their dogs and tonight we saw an ad on tv for a slimming pill for dogs.

Today we experienced some of Florida's nature with a visit to Wekiwa Springs, about 12 miles north of us.  It is a natural spring with water coming up from underground and the water is at a constant 72 degrees F (22 C).  We lay in the sun, swam and I snorkeled - its the middle of winter here.  It was a great day and we're likely to visit again sometime soon to go kayaking.

Other springs nearby offer cave diving which will be fun and adventurous to try.

It was my 34th birthday on the 30th of December.  The celebration started the day before with a visit to Wall Street in Orlando and then continued to our local Absinthe bar.  Wall Street is an area containing about 6 bars in downtown Orlando, we had a few drinkies and hung out in the street.  Mal, our favourite bartender at the Absinthe bar plied us with Absinthe Martinis and shots till early in the morning. On our way back home we saw a running street battle in Central Blvd (further up our street) until the police arrived.

On the 30th we headed to Old Town in Kissimee for me to try and fly the Skycoaster as Laura got me a ride in it for my birthday.

www.skycoaster.com

The deal is that you get put in a harness, hauled up 300ft and then you pull a rip cord to come down in a big swinging motion, fortunately that was the only motion of the day.  My boss, his wife and a colleague and her husband came along to witness it as well and to generally hang out.

The ride was no way as scary as I thought it would be but when you get to the top you don't want to stay around and enjoy the view, instead you pull the rip cord as fast as possible and come back down to earth.

We enjoyed a nice Italian lunch afterwards and then looked at the many classic cars that come down for the afternoon/evening.

It was a great way to celebrate my Birthday...

That night we went to a BBQ at some people who live over the road from us, they had a cake for me and for a lady whose birthday was on NYE which was really nice of them.

Various photos can be seen at

www.pauljohnson.smugmug.com