Another day in paradise

I can't believe it's nearly the weekend again -- I remember Serge (who is supervising me here and with whom I worked in Florida before) telling me that somehow it seemed as though time flies by faster in Noumea. I have to say I agree -- it does seem as though the days somehow have fewer hours!!!

The sun poked its head from between the clouds a couple of times today -- which put me in an awesomely good mood despite a few major technical hiccups… like my computer freezing a few too many times – so I decided to defragment it which took a good 2 hours… then my external hard drive not being recognised by my laptop anymore… and one of the USB ports dying on me too… The external hard drive is with the IT folks so let’s hope they fix it --- fingers crossed.
I guess being in paradise doesn’t really keep you safe from such mishaps!!!

A friend of mine was commenting how upon receipt of my last email he stood in front of a world map in his office – he then commented how quite in the middle of nowhere New Caledonia is!
I guess it’s true – although then you start to look at all the other Pacific islands, and I go man o man those places area REALLY in the middle of the big blue sea!!! I guess this is also what makes this place so unique! New Caledonia is considered, as far as I know at least in terms of its marine biodiversity, is considered one of the world’s ‘hotspots’ … i.e. there are lots of things here that don’t exist anywhere else, thereby making New Caledonia even more of a pretty special place!!! There is something of the quaintness of it that really becomes me – quality of life here is incredible … and when the city gets to you – though the capital in itself isn’t too big either,120 000 people, there’s plenty enough of wild spaces to go and explore!!! Makes me realise time and again how incredibly lucky I am to have had the fortune to have met the people that are welcoming me here for a while.

I was working on Cuba’s seagrass yesterday --- the process is tedious and progress is so slow … frustrating – yet patience was rewarded as my classification seems to do alright in placing seagrass where I see seagrass. I got through most of an image yesterday though need to finish tweaking a few things and then move on to the next one.
Tonight it’s Patricia’s birthday – a girl who works here and joined us on the weekend trip to Le Cap. We might stop by there for a wee while… though not too late for me as I want to get lots done before we take off to l’Ile des Pins on Sunday morning bright and early. I can’t wait – people say it’s one of the most stunning places around here. More seagrass experience in close up!!! The pictures this time show some of the thing we saw last time snorkelling around.
Hurray --- hopefully the weather will be kind!
Tata :o)