Bermuda!

Made it!

I'll start with a few photos - the temporary lodgings:




























BTW - The Great Pumpking weighed in at 47 pounds, the duffel at 34, who knows what the carry-on or computer bag weighed. It all got here, intact and complete. I was very happy to find Mr. Outerbridge still waiting for me when I emerged, well behind the rest of the passengers, from Immigration and Customs.

They admitted me provisionally, since the paperwork wasn't at the airport, on the basis of phone confirmation from some official whose name I had been given about 3 minutes before boarding in NYC - nothing like cutting it skinny. Customs required listing the serial numbers of all the electronic and camera gear I'd brought in; I was given a little slip of yellow paper with the serial numbers and an unreadable signature, signifying these had been brought in and no duty was due on them.

Mr. Outerbridge is well known - and, any visitors, if you aren't willing to take the bus in or have luggage beyond a carry-on sized bag, book the gentleman's services. He cost me $30 with tip to carry me and gear the distance, giving me something of a tour and a definite welcome while so doing. (He used to be a fire marshall, and knows the ins and outs of local building and plan review bureaucracy; he was the second one to warn me that it will be a challenge working in the Department.) He made sure I got to my off-the-beaten-track address, that the place was ready for me, and carried the bags in. A dear.

My seatmate out of New York, turns out, was Bermuda's Tourism Director, a fellow from Barbados who has a past career in resort/hotel management and has taken on a somewhat moribund department. We chatted the first half hour or so - he has been focusing on the larger markets, but it seems there are negotiations on to expand the service from Charlotte to daily, and perhaps add a Raleigh departure. He'd like to explore the NC/Bermuda connection, drawing on the historical links between the two places.

I saw his picture in the paper yesterday, with the announcement of a second Jet Blue departure from JFK to start shortly.

It was positively balmy when I landed - tho with blue skies on one side of the plane, and whipped-cream piles of clouds on the other - 68 degrees, way too warm for the multiple layers Raleigh/Durham and New York necessitated. I was stripping stuff off from the moment I got the bags settled.

Went 'down the hill' to Modern Mart, the nearest grocery store, a small place but one of the central pivot points of the local community. Picked up a few things, semi-shocked by prices and what was available - definitely the sort of place where you go see what is in the shop, rather than plan out your shopping list. I spent $55 on a fish fillet, a bit of meat, a bottle of water, a bottle of wine, an onion, a garlic bulb, a bit of ginger, some cherry tomatoes, and some brussel sprouts.

Thursday I went in to Hamilton to start my search for phone, internet and banking services. These are limited, and expensive - neither of those are a surprise. Here, one contracts with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and an Access Provider (AP), usually different companies. Best case, this means the bill for internet (whether via cable or DSL or wireless) runs about $135/month, or $180 if I got cellphone thru the same agency.

Setting anything beyond a SIM card/time purchase on my existing phone requires a local bank account, a copy of the work permit, and proof of local residence. Without the work permit I can't get a bank account, etc. Frustrated on that score. (This also extends to being unable to cancel my unneeded return ticket Jet Blue required me to buy while at RDU - they didnt want to accept the contract or email as equivalent to work permit approval. I will have to reschedule my 'return flight' til even later to avoid losing that refundable fare because of the bureaucracy not being ready to go when they said they would.)

I'll break this and post it, and start with some other photos.