Days like these.........
I am back in the Seychelles again for a management meeting, it’s the last big trip of the year for me and it’s nice that given this is the first year of this blog that I start and finish the long haul with the same location. Today was one of the great evenings that really add to my enjoyment of the job I have.
I had arrived in Mahe on Sunday morning at 10AM after an overnight flight from Paris, The service on Air Seychelles is great and of a quality that most airlines have forgotten how to deliver. In business class it’s the small things like the quality of wash bag and the meal being served direct from the galley to your seat and not from a trolley. In economy it’s just the fact that you really think they care and the fact that they do two meal services on the ten hour flight not just one and a sandwich.
I spent the day dosing by the pool, its no my thing at all. I get very board at beaches, I just can’t see the point, and this time I was tired so it was OK. In the late afternoon I took a walk down the beach and at the very end there were fish in the water so close to the edge of the beach I could have reached in to pick them up.
The evening was the real highlight though, I met another delegate for the meeting and asked where they were eating, it transpires that they had arranged for a local beach trader to organise a barbecue for them and they asked if I wanted to come along. The Barbeque was on the beach just outside the Hotel, and there were just five of us, the local youth who was organising it had turned up with a bonito and a small Tuna fish, the accompaniment was two breadfruits that were cooked within the barbeque. The “Barbeque” was a few tree branches and the cooking was very simple in that it was just flavoured using a Creole sauce and gilled. The food was served on small palm leaves that he had just cut from the trees and eaten using our fingers. The waves were gently breaking on the beach it was 25°C and the stars were out and, with much less light pollution than the UK, are bright. After we had all finished he put sand on the barbeque to put it out, he took our empty beer bottles out of the bin and took them to be recycled I assume he was getting paid to return them. When we left it was as if we had never been there. We then sat outside the hotel drinking Citronella which was made from the leaves of one of the garden plants infused in boiling water.
What a great evening, the payback is to come tomorrow though as I have to start work at 8AM which is 3AM on my body clock. Still its worth it for days like these.
I had arrived in Mahe on Sunday morning at 10AM after an overnight flight from Paris, The service on Air Seychelles is great and of a quality that most airlines have forgotten how to deliver. In business class it’s the small things like the quality of wash bag and the meal being served direct from the galley to your seat and not from a trolley. In economy it’s just the fact that you really think they care and the fact that they do two meal services on the ten hour flight not just one and a sandwich.
I spent the day dosing by the pool, its no my thing at all. I get very board at beaches, I just can’t see the point, and this time I was tired so it was OK. In the late afternoon I took a walk down the beach and at the very end there were fish in the water so close to the edge of the beach I could have reached in to pick them up.
The evening was the real highlight though, I met another delegate for the meeting and asked where they were eating, it transpires that they had arranged for a local beach trader to organise a barbecue for them and they asked if I wanted to come along. The Barbeque was on the beach just outside the Hotel, and there were just five of us, the local youth who was organising it had turned up with a bonito and a small Tuna fish, the accompaniment was two breadfruits that were cooked within the barbeque. The “Barbeque” was a few tree branches and the cooking was very simple in that it was just flavoured using a Creole sauce and gilled. The food was served on small palm leaves that he had just cut from the trees and eaten using our fingers. The waves were gently breaking on the beach it was 25°C and the stars were out and, with much less light pollution than the UK, are bright. After we had all finished he put sand on the barbeque to put it out, he took our empty beer bottles out of the bin and took them to be recycled I assume he was getting paid to return them. When we left it was as if we had never been there. We then sat outside the hotel drinking Citronella which was made from the leaves of one of the garden plants infused in boiling water.
What a great evening, the payback is to come tomorrow though as I have to start work at 8AM which is 3AM on my body clock. Still its worth it for days like these.
