More eating and more drinking. Most companies shut down at noon on Christmas Eve, except for the retailers. The stores were packed that afternoon as I did some last minute Christmas shopping. The streets were lined with christmas lights and holiday shoppers. My company took us out for lunch that afternoon and I had my first Bermudian Fish Chowder laced with Sherry Pepper and Rum. I’m starting to get the idea that they put rum in everything.

I went to dinner with my friend Dan and his friends and roommates on Christmas Eve at a very nice restaurant in the Pembroke Parish called Ascots. It was a fine company with 2 Englishmen, 1 Scottish woman, 2 Americans, and a German. No Canadians surprisingly, since almost every expats I met are from Canada. The variety of people you meet in Bermuda is amazing. They are all very well traveled and worldly than the people back home. I had a Grilled Chicken and Portabella Mushrooms salad for appetizer, half a Bermudian Spiny Lobster for entrée, and Mango Creme Bulee for dessert.

The Bermudian Spiny Lobsters are actually protected, and the government has the rule where the lobster can only be caught by hand, without a scuba tank, 2 per person per day, with a license. I don’t know how they would actually enforce something like that, but I saw Coast Guard boats cruising around the harbour. Fishes such as groupers are also protected with a fish-pot band, but with the recently newly elected government, dark rumours are being whispered about allowing the fishermen to use the fish-pot to catch fish again.

I got up Christmas morning and headed to Elbow Beach. It was unseasonably warm with sunny skies with temperature in the upper 70's, but a bit windy. About 200-300 ex-patriots gathered at the beach for the annual Christmas Day Swim. When I got there, numerous people were already splashing in the 70 degree water. This was my first time on the beach in Bermuda, and the sand looked just a little bit pink – more pale pink. Upon closer examination, it’s pretty much just white sand dusted with the tiny red skeletal remains of single cell animals called Foraminifera, which calcifies on the reefs along the shore, and is then crushed by the pounding waves.

Sounds of Champaign bottles popping could be heard throughout the crowd. I didn’t go into the water but got my legs wet. The water was much too cold for me. I attended a lovely Christmas dinner at that beautiful house again in Warwick. I still can’t get over the harbour view of the house and I discovered that they have a 2-tier garden pond, which made me even more jealous, but such is life :-). I had another Bermudian dish – the Cassava Pie, made from Cassava roots mixed with chicken and other "stuff". No rum surprisingly.

This weekend, Marc and I went to other beaches on the south shore, including Warwick Long Bay, Chaplin Bay, and Horseshoe Bay Beach. All were pale pink with deep turquoise waters and splendid rock formations. Not many people were on the beaches because it’s Bermuda’s off-season. Next night, Marc and Andreas and I went into town to bar hop a little bit. The legal drinking age is 18 here, so I felt a bit old sometimes in the dance bars.

New Years Eve came and went – never really celebrated New Years Eve anyway but was in company of good new friends. My first embarrassing moment in Bermuda came that night because I was a ditz and didn’t pay attention when my friend told me to dress "smart casual". I showed up in jeans and sweater and they sent me home to re-dress. Onward to 1999.