Thoughts on Mauritius

Ready to roll- snorkeling here we come

We are back from Mauritius safe and sound.  I am slightly tanned, and by that I mean, I no longer dissolve into the color of the wall. I look like most normal people look all year round.

Mauritius was the tropics.  It didn't feel Africa, but more like Singapore or possibly India. The enveloping heat reminded me so much of Singapore.  I sat on the veranda, reading and napping in it, and I found it so comforting.  It made me want to move back to Singapore in a heart beat. Even the fruit, the fruit was similar and so wonderful. Papayas and pineapples and grapefruit, guava, passion fruit. The exact twelve hours of daylight. I loved wearing dresses again, the simplicity of just throwing one on and feeling good to go, rather than the layers of tights and cardigans I normally don. I love seeing the Bogan Villas again and the plants that we had in our garden in Singapore. It reminded me so much of my mom, our family and our times in Tiomin, it almost felt like home.

I was shocked that I found the night gecko's chirp nostalgic and not flat our terrifying.  I could even see a gecko and not scream and run away. This is enormous progress from the girl who would broke a window trying to 'shoo' a gecko at fifteen!

The country spoke Creole, but used French as their linga franca, and English for all written documents.  Apparently the dodo even used to reside on this island.  The sand was full of coral and one didn't wade far to find lots of lovely fish in the swimming area.  The delightful angel fish were my favorite, with their black and yellow coloring and long snout.

It was lovely to be away from laptops and cell phones.  The entire holiday I kept thinking I was in a James Bond film, the old Sean Connery ones.  After having this thought, to my great delight that very double '0' was continuously on tv and it was wonderful to watch them while dressing for dinner. 

And it truly was a holiday. One I most certainly didn't deserve. I read and ate and drank and ate and slept and read until I could stand it no longer and had to do something.  But in the doing I managed to do things that scared me, things I don't have a natural affinity for, like being hopeless at golf or hardly standing up water skiing. Even snorkeling, with its myriad of new sights and colors, frightened me. In that way it was expansive.

Despite the long flight, I have come back feeling rested and eager to work.  I don't want to go anywhere. I want to enjoy the daffodils in my garden, the wonderful lengthy hours of sunlight, and the pleasure of accomplishing work.