Leisure time update...

Paleni has posted about the candlelight dinner available at McDonalds here in Suva. I'm linking as his photo is better than the ones I took and it's got some interesting commentary. R and I went here for Valentine's day and it was quite charming. The place was decorated, there were tablecloths and candles and they took your order at your table. As our waitress said, "We don't have menus, but you know what we have!" As weird as it was to be in the double-armed embrace of corporate imperialism (Hallmark and McDonald's) it was also definitely a cross-cultural experience. Mostly I could see how this was a lot of fun for the staff. They were wearing matching "street clothes" (red shirts, white skirts) rather than their uniform, had decorated the place and were having a lot of fun taking orders at the tables. Having worked at McDonald's way back when, I can see how it would be a welcome diversion. I'm just glad they had burgers. For the past week or so the McDonald's here has not had any beef products and is "sorry for the inconvenience". Yep, that's right, a McDonald's without beef, indefinitely, for no stated reason. That's Fiji.

Last weekend, R and I took advantage of a special local rate for the swanky resort The Pearl. It was really quite nice, even thought the food while expensive was merely edible. We also saw the Firewalking and Meke show at the Arts Village, which was quite entertaining even if it was more 'warm rocks', than 'fire'.