Fiji

  When I was 15 years old, my father decided it was time to move to Australia.  I think he'd always wanted travel the world because by the time I graduated from high school at the age of 18, I'd attended 12 different schools.  The opportunity came because my father had been offered a job, sold the house and then the opportunity fell through so it opened up the chance for him to follow his dream.

So we were off to Australia as our next place of residency.  On the way down, we stopped in Fiji for a few days so we didn't become over tired and we got to see a new place.  We arrived after a very long plane trip that began in Hawaii and ended in Nadi, Fiji.

Just before the plane landed, we had to fill out forms and people came through the cabin spraying it with some sort of disinfectant or insecticide  to keep the population safe from imported bugs and diseases.

After landing, we went straight to the hotel.   I'm not sure who made the hotel reservation but we stayed at a nice, local establishment with open windows for air conditioning and a cook who didn't know much about cooking.  At breakfast, the menu listed eggs so when we ordered eggs, we were asked how we wanted them prepared.  The usual question which evoked the usual answers of "Scrambled, Over Easy, Fried".  Turns out, it didn't matter because we all got hard boiled poached eggs served on rather dry toast.

Later in the day, my father hired a taxi to take us around the area.  It was the first time I'd ever been in a country where cars drove on the "other" side.  It took a bit to get used to but other that oddity, the tour was fantastic.  It was a beautiful, exotic, and awesome.  We stopped at a small place where we bought our trinkets to remind us of our trip.  I suspect it was a tourist place but think about this, they had to earn their money some way.

It was here I had my first experience with a fried egg sandwich.  It was not something I'd ever run across but seems to be quite British in nature.  They were available in Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia.  I also learned something about milkshakes.  The milkshakes I had down there, in all three countries were so different.

I'd grown up on thick, rich, mouth watering creations.  I always went for chocolate ones because the flavor just explodes with every sip.  The ones down there were so much thinner.  I think they took milk, threw in one small scoop of ice cream and some chocolate.  The blender made it foamy and it was more like a liquid drink, than the thick, can barely get through the straw mixture I was used to.

Its always good to have memories of places we've been.  Those memories provide a nice warming in my body, in my soul and in my heart for a time when I was young and free.