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Moral dilemma

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:13 GMT

You see $25 lying on the street with no-one in sight who could have dropped it. Do you:

Pick it up and congratulate yourself on having a lucky day;
Leave it there in case the person who lost it comes back for it
Take it to the police.

Bonus points for guessing what I actually did.

On the ferry to Dockyard

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:11 GMT

Phil Wells posted a photo:

35 hours

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:05 GMT

It's ironic that Bermuda is considering introducing a 35 hour working week just as France is effectively scrapping it.

France introduced a 35 hour working week in 1998 on a voluntary basis and made it compulsory two years later. As here, one of the goals was to give workers more personal time.

However, French President Nicolas Sarkozy blamed the policy for damaging France's economic competitiveness. Last year a parliamentary committee reported that it cost France more than $13 billion a year. Another criticism was that employers simply froze salaries to make up for the loss of labour.

It's also unclear how the Bermuda government expects this to help the "too many" parents who feel they need to work two or three jobs to provide for their families.

Of course, so far the Government has only floated the idea. As with other initiatives (their recent crime plan, Workplace Equity, etc) there's been no promise that they'll actually follow through. In this case, that's probably a good thing.

Tourism fail

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:49 GMT

Took the ferry up to Dockyard this afternoon. We left St. George's at 4pm and arrived Dockyard 4.40pm, which gave us 50 minutes to wander about before catching the 5.30pm ferry to Hamilton and then the 6.15pm bus back to St. George's.

Sadly, the 5.30pm ferry never showed up. Presumably because - silly us - we had assumed that the ferries were running on the "Sundays and public holidays" schedule (when there was a 5.30pm ferry) instead of the "Monday-Friday" schedule (when there was not). Since the next ferry on the latter schedule wasn't due until 6.30pm, we had to get the bus to Hamilton instead. And since it wouldn't have got us there in time to get the 6.15pm bus, and we needed to get Aidan home for dinner and bed, we had to call granny and pop to come and pick us up from Hamilton instead.

And let's not mention the woman on the bar in Snorkel Park. Actually, no, let's. She saw us waiting to be served, but chose to carry on chatting with her mate for several minutes instead. Not until our patience snapped and we moved to stand right in front of her did we get served.

Still, at least she was pleasant enough when she did rouse herself to serve us. Unlike the miserable sod serving ice cream at Horseshoe Bay on Saturday whose surly attitude was enough to make you want to hurl the ice cream straight back in his face.

Forget tourism summits. Bermuda needs to get the little stuff like this right if we want to make repeat visitors out of our tourists.

2008 sandcastle competition

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:36 GMT

Went up to Horseshoe Bay on Saturday for this year's sandcastle competition.

To be honest, I didn't think it was quite up to its usual standard. There were fewer professional sculptures than in previous years, and most of the amateur efforts weren't that great (the notable exception, as always, being the sculpture done by Hannah Emmerson and her friends).

More pictures here.

Farewell to Mulligans

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:31 GMT

This morning we went for breakfast to Mulligans - the restaurant at St. George's Golf Club - for the last time.

The golf club closed several weeks ago, in preparation for the redevelopment of the old Club Med hotel, and today was Mulligans' last day. It was pretty sad. It was a great little restaurant, with lovely views over the golf course and the water, and friendly staff.

Frankly, I don't understand why the Government had to close the golf club and the restaurant down now. The new developer for the Club Med site is still not fully committed to the project and could yet pull out. If that happens, St. George's will have lost a nice little golf course and restaurant for no benefit. Even if it goes ahead, it's surely going to be at least several months before development begins.

Here's hoping Alfred and his team can find a similarly great location to reopen their business soon.

Golf ball

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:48 GMT

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Putted

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:47 GMT

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Running

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:46 GMT

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Oooh, so close!

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:46 GMT

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The hole's here, daddy!

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:44 GMT

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Fore!

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:43 GMT

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Watching daddy

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:42 GMT

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Daddy and Aidan find a golf ball

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:41 GMT

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Eskimo kisses with mummy

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:41 GMT

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Fruit salad at Mulligans

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:40 GMT

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Aidan having some of daddy's coffee

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:39 GMT

Phil Wells posted a photo:

To avoid over-caffeinating him, I just let him suck it off the end of my finger!

Jumping in unassisted

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:38 GMT

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Aidan has just started jumping off the diving board with anyone holding his hand.

Playing in the surf

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:38 GMT

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Swimming with daddy at Horseshoe Bay

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:37 GMT

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Idiots

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:36 GMT

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Mummy watching

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:36 GMT

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Swimming with mummy at Horseshoe Bay

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:36 GMT

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Sitting in a rock pool

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:35 GMT

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Drinking

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:34 GMT

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