Neither Mark nor I like shopping. But, I’m the woman, which means I “have” to go shopping more often and during those sprees, I end up in Philipsburg once in a while. Philipsburg is the capital of Dutch St. Maarten and shopping heaven for cruise ship passengers. Back Street contains the local clothes shops (where I found my wedding dress) and Front Street exists of jewelry store after jewelry store, after souvenir store, after jewelry store. There are literally hundreds of them and ever since we (I) decided to buy wedding rings, I have been dreading the moment of trying to find a suitable ring in this plethora of stores. While running around town for other items one day, I quickly checked out a few and found a great silver ring, elegant, pretty and affordable. Upon my return to Irie and my excitement about the ring and how easy I found it, Mark’s reaction was: “No silver on the boat!” Silver and a salty environment do not go together and that was that.
So, Mark and I marked a date in our calendar to go shopping for rings together. The question was: what were we looking for? Our requirements: something simple, silver color and not too expensive. We are boat people after all and Mark had already indicated he “would never wear it”. After browsing through a few real jewelry stores, checking out the white gold and staggering at the prices, we stumbled across a split store electronics/jewelry. They had an extensive array of silver colored rings to pick from, especially after depleting their sister store and bringing all the items to our store. Our eye fell on very attractive and elegant white gold rings, a matching pair. The price was too high however and after bargaining a bit, the saleswoman carefully steered us away from them and towards another set of rings we had been looking at. These were made of stainless steel and were a better match for us, our lifestyle and our budget.
Mark and I did some thinking, really loved the expensive set, but didn’t have an extra $500 lying around (and only one of us was going to wear it anyway), so decided to go for the stainless steel. All that had to happen was bargain the price down a bit and have the rings resized to our respective fingers. We held our hands out and discovered the size of our main ring fingers. An hour later, we were the proud owners of stainless steel wedding rings. The price was right, the material perfect!
Later that day, Mark and I met up with some friends at Lagoonies for drinks and live music. While excitingly telling the story of finding the right rings, I glanced over at my married friends’ hands. Curious about something, I asked” Why do you guys wear your rings on your left hand?” They gave me a funny look, explaining that that is the hand you are supposed to wear wedding rings… All my excitement was gone in a split second. Mark looked at me and blamed “Why did you not know this? You are a woman! Women should know this kind of thing.” I got right back at him “And you’ve been married for seven years before, wearing your wedding ring every day, on your LEFT hand!” Then both of us: “Why didn’t they say something at the store where they measured our sizes?” At the end of the day, we just decided to wear our rings on our right hands. It fits our status of always being a bit different. Mark’s explanation: “I tried wearing a wedding ring on the left hand and that didn’t work out so much, so now I’m trying it on the other hand!”
Last week, Mark and I borrowed Axel’s spacious car to visit
friends two hours north of Auckland. For the occasion, the car was turned into
our closet, kitchen, lunch counter and internet café, while we visited boating
friends. Due to a cold front, the weather was very chilly and rainy, but the
company of our fellow cruisers made up for the discomfort. After two nights on
SV Amandla in Gulf Harbor, hanging out with Fabio and Lisa, we continued north
to Whangarei, taking a somewhat scenic road, and stopping a few times along the
way.
It was fantastic to see the SV Iona family again after a year! Cute Leili had grown a bit, Dylan more than a bit. For the next two
nights, we stayed on their cozy boat, while Chris cooked for us and Katie was a
gracious host. We combined some work in the local library (good WiFi), with
being part of their lovely family, and enjoyed the warmth of their home and
personalities. One afternoon, we all drove out to Whangarei Heads for a beach
walk and picnic. The scenery was spectacular and the faint sun very welcome!
On the day we left, back south to appreciate the hospitality
of our friends Fabio and Lisa once more, Mark and I tried to organize our
imminent accommodation and transportation needs for a few hours and had just
enough time left to check out Whangarei Falls. This was an easy and beautiful
detour, so we decided to walk the trail to the Kauri forest, instead of driving
there. Some fresh air was just what we needed and the exercise was very
welcome. Along the boardwalk in the forest, we gazed at the tropical vegetation
– I love those “fern trees” – and the ancient Kauri trees, which are hundreds
of years old. Ah, to be in nature again…
