Golf Game Secrets

Ah, Mauritius – I had never even heard about it until I took this job.  It is apparently a hugely popular vacation spot for Europeans who flock there year round, particularly around the holidays…and so we flocked!

Our total journey from Stockholm took 20 hours, starting with a 2.5 hour flight to Paris.  We connected at Charles De Gaulle and boarded an 11.5 hour flight on a Boeing 747 (sadly did not sit on the second floor) that went around the northern Mediterranean coast, across the Sea, over Egypt, the Red Sea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and part of the Indian Ocean. It was a night flight so there was really nothing to see (except an amazing thunderstorm over the Red Sea – so cool to see one from above!).  As we approached Mauritius in the morning, I had a prime window seat to catch the sunrise!

Good Morning Mauritius!

Good Morning Klara!

One family, two weeks, 8 checked bags, 2 sets of golf clubs, 6 carry-ons, 1 portable DVD player, 1 portable Play Station 3, 4 Nintendo hand-held things, and a partridge and a pear tree.

We stayed at the Shandrani Resort on the south-east side of the island.  It was tucked away in huge palm trees and was decorated nicely for Christmas – although it was strange to be looking at Christmas decorations while sweating and drinking a fruity drink!

Lucky little me, I had my own room!

My lovely room – all the rooms there were waterfront, looking out on the lagoon behind the resort.

…view from inside…

…on the balcony to the right…

…and to the left…

The sun rose every day at 5:30 am, shining right into my room.  I forgot what it was like to have so many hours of sunlight – I went from 4.5 hours a day in Sweden to about 14 in Mauritius!

There was one ocean-front location on the resort and it was my favorite place to go layout…

Sometimes huge cargo ships would pass by, presumably going from India to Madagascar or South Africa.  The waves crashing beyond the sand bar were enormous and the water was perfectly clear…exactly how I like it!

The resort itself was great – there were 5 restaurants, including a delicious buffet, Italian restaurant, Thai restaurant, and two other generally delicious-food-serving places.  Besides the views, the food was by far my most favorite aspect.  Every meal was absolutely fantastic!  We ate at the Italian place for lunch every day because it was right next to the pool – by the end of the trip we didn’t even have to look at the menu (and I think I tried everything listed at least once).  We had a fun time at the Thai restaurant one night with too much wine and lots of funny stories from Annelie and Joakim and their early days as a couple.  I definitely became much closer with the entire family during the trip and, when possible, would spend my free time with them.  I was able to enjoy 2 massages (one complimentary from the resort, one from the two other families we traveled with) and received a set of silver placecard holders as a Christmas gift from Shandrani.  I got a great tan, got to see beyond the resort walls (more to come on that soon) and truly managed just fine on my first Christmas away from home.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sad, but it was almost selfish to sulk over the fact that I was away from family when I was a) in such an amazing place and b) surrounded by people who have become a new family to me over the last 5 months that I also love very much.

But enough of that!  More pictures…enjoy!

Exhausted from the flights

First day, pre-tan, obviously.

Yes, that woman in the background is topless – welcome to vacationing with Europeans…lots of men wearing speedos and women wearing hardly anything.

Mauritius is actually a volcanic island – that’s why all the rocks you see are black.  Thankfully, it’s not a currently active volcano.

Klara just couldn’t handle the first night…having at least one child fall asleep at dinner every night wasn’t unusual.

Someone got waaay too much sun the first day and had to shalack the sunscreen on the rest of the time

I want to eat them with a spoon…

Axel burrito!  We travelled with two other families who each had 2 children.  Axel is part of the Bengsston clan (who my friend Nicole works for – unfortunately she didn’t come on this trip)

Klara doing what she does best – color by the pool.

And Sixten doing what he does best – get sucked into his Indian Jones video game.  Kasper spent most of his time playing football with the other boys on the far end of the beach – he even made some new friends with other Swedish boys staying at the resort who live right here in Stockholm!

On Christmas Day we decided to go water-skiing.  Everyone tried except for Sixten and me.  Instead, along with another travel-buddy, Oliver, we went on a boat with a glass-bottom and scoped out the coral reef and fish out in the lagoon!

Getting a water-ski lesson

Klara and Emily waiting their turn – neither of them made it much further than 7 meters from the dock!

The resort from the water.

Sixten and Oliver looking for sharks – there were none thankfully!

Our boat captain cleaned the glass for us so we would have a better view.  Unfortunately, my camera did not take great pictures of the cool fish that we did see, so apologies for no fish.  But we saw trumpet fish, angel fish, clown fish, parrot fish, squid and many others whose names I don’t know.  I was impressed because I had never seen anything like it before, but Mr. I’ve-Snorkeled-in-Thailand-Indonesia-and-the-Maldives Sixten told me the selection of fish was actually kind of boring.  HA!

The local coast guard station.

On Christmas Day we got double rainbows!

I was fully engrossed in books 2 & 3 of the Milennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, a Swedish crime-fiction author whose three books are insanely good and popular – if you get a chance to read them you should (they’re translated into English).

The whole brood.  Starting with Kasper and going left – Kasper, Oliver, Klara, Felix, Me, Axel, Sixten and Emily.  There were only three nights that I had all 7 by myself and one of those nights became the new Encylopedia example of Murphy’s law – within 2 hours I had one child run away from me because he was distraught the batteries on his nintendo died, another child fall and tear his knees to bits and Sixten get a piece of glass stuck in his toe, so badly that we had to have a doctor come from the local (30 minutes away) hospital to remove it.  All the while, the parents were having dinner at another resort 45 minutes away.  It was simply bad luck.  At the time, I wanted to cry.  The next night, when all the parents toasted me for surviving, we all laughed.  When I write my book about being a nanny/Au Pair, that night will have an entire chapter dedicated to it.

I went back to Sweden a few days before the family and on my last day I had the kids (just my own, thankfully) to myself in the morning.  We swam, had lots of ice cream and ate one last lunch at the Italian restaurant.  The kids didn’t want to eat with the other families because they said they only wanted to spend time with me – warm my heart.  They are sweet, funny, smart, loving and, honestly, the best part about my job.