Back in Suva Second Go Around

February 2, 2008 @ 2350
South Pacific Dispatches / Suva Motor Inn, Suva, Fiji
I just returned from dinner at Fong’s Chinese which is a great place to eat. Still have to disconfirm the use of MSG or not at this point as I did not think to ask at the time. I was too hungry as all I had today was tea in Suvavou with biscuits or as the Fijian say, bisketi. I much prefer the sound of bisketi! I took some of my ex-in-laws to dinner with me and afterwards went to see No Country for Old Men. I loved the movie, especially the soundscape which was very distinct, spare and beautiful. A bit of a confusing movie at times and I shall have to see it again to deepen my pea brain analysis of a very complex bit of filmmaking. Overall however, I loved it despite the violence.

How normal it seems does it not? Dinner and a movie? Yet I treasured the normalcy of that for myself this evening. I am sleeping where and when I want, eating what I wish, I am very clean after a long hot shower and have been quite happy in my nest of a hotel room. Lonely a bit but great for introspection, reflection, review and analysis and most of all the silence, the space to do nothing, think nothing.

I bought a few groceries this evening for tomorrow so I could enjoy a nice breakfast and coffee for tomorrow. I shopped at MH’s which stands for Morris Hedstrom. The old store burned down over 10 years ago and it just reopened about one month ago. Fiji time anyone?

I attempted to get online at the Tanoa hotel but the internet there is down, both the wired and wireless. I tried Skynet Internet Café, logged in through my U3 Sancruiser Titanium USB drive. It runs a shell on the machine and protects the key data behind a virus and malware shield (Avast). It worked as advertised, warning me of a trojan horse, probably a key logger program so I terminated the session immediately. I don’t have a lot of valuable data but I protect it. The USB drive was an excellent purchase. The frustrating thing is that I have a lot of blog entries written and pictures to be posted yet finding reliable access is a great annoyance. I caught a whiff of a network in Suvavou Village on my Iphone last time I was there about two weeks ago so if I visit tomorrow will try to hop on the network – I was shocked to find it there. Isa Fiji, how it has changed! Even this morning, waiting for my commuter boat for the one hour crossing to the mainland I saw children and adults go to the seawall to text and / or call people. People text a lot! Saves money over a phone call. You can add minutes at almost any store – I bought additional minutes with my groceries this evening.

Another big change is the level of supposed sophistication in the way people are talking, dressing and acting in the city. More nightclubs and I was even blatantly propositioned by at least 3-4 prostitutes on the walk home even though it was obvious I was trying to avoid them like the proverbial plague.

Less than two days left in Fiji. I will spend Sunday and most of Monday here. I want to get another Bula or Aloha Shirt, maybe another sulu, Fijian Music CD’s and so on and so forth. I bought some nice curry supplies today so I am looking forward to making curry next week.

It just turned February 3 so I will sign off here. Thank you for reading.
David