Patrons

I watched tonight's sunset from the "Short Pier" just west of our barracks on the Indian Ocean. It was particularly stunning due to its inclusion of nearly every type of cloud. Even gravity waves. And Jupiter right before the cut. YouTube link: http://youtu.be/Pb6s-vKwFKw (pardon the switch to the low-light setting at the very end)

We continue to check out new places on the island, including Mene Gene's Burgers, the cannons, the 300-seat pavilion where they show a different movie every night at 2000 (and 2200 on weekends), and the Officer's Club for brunch. There are usually exactly zero people at each of these places (we have yet to see a single other person at MGB, only ever seen one other guy watching the movie, etc.). It's even rare to see someone else at the pool, or at the marina wanting to sail, snorkel, or windsurf. This leads to a strange aura of maintained abandonment about the village part of the island. Perhaps sort of like an overzealous and under-frequented Great Plains roadside attraction. We posit that the Navy (specifically the MWR Office as Adam discussed in the previous post) keeps these places open and staffed regardless of patronage. Intriguing...

And now for your biweekly installment of semi-relevant photos:

The pool (and oddly enough, one of the highest points on the island - they built up the land instead of digging it out to diving board regulation depth)

Public transportation for the contractors

The Navy's "Ship Store", the large general store with better business ethics than Walmart

British Police HQ

A typical Golden-Corral-style meal at the Mess Hall

-Gavin