We went to the printer two weeks ago with the Spring/Summer edition of Island Temptations Magazine. The magazine printed beautifully, and was shipped to Aruba–hopefully it will be released from customs by the end of the week.
You might not know, but the magazine also has a US distribution which includes the North American ATA reps, who get cases delivered to them to use for their travel and trade shows.
I was very happy to receive some feedback on the new edition, which has been distributed in the US, and this is how the it read: I love this edition of Island Temptation – well they are all great but this one is super fantastic! Angelina was just asking me about a possible new 10 min presentation for an office training and I told her to go by her storage unit to pick up the magazines and use them! We have been focusing on Families and activities for them on island, San Nicolas and of course Wine on Down the Road! Love, Love, Love! Keep up the great work, big hugs, Business Development Manager, USA, Aruba Tourism Authority.
After a short trip to the printer, I courageously crossed the globe to the mid-pacific, visiting super special friends in Hawaii.
I have a lot to say about that trip.
Mostly that green will never mean the same to me. If there are 50 known shades of gray, there must 500 different shades of green. That island, Oahu, is so blessed with an abundant nature, it all looks fake, ridiculously overgrown, and tackily overdone. And Oahu is not even the best-looking of the Hawaiian island chain, I understand a few others give it a run for its money.
And people are nice.
We stopped at a Starbucks late one afternoon after exploring botanical gardens and golden beaches. There was a perfectly manly-man sitting just across my table, he was nonchalantly wearing a flower lei with purple orchids around his neck, while sipping his coffee and checking his phone messages.
Sure enough, two rows down to the left during the concert performance of the Symphony Orchestra at Honolulu’s cultural center, a woman with a Haku Lei on her head, was in full bloom, in the audience. She wore her flowers out for the night and no one complained she was obstructing the view, of giving them allergies.
What did I tell you? People are nice.
My generous host received an intricately woven-style flower lei for his birthday, a miniature carpet of cabbage and eggplant-colored flower parts, tightly strung together. They must have dismembered hundreds of individual blossoms, laid them flat and sewn them together, to create this very linear and disciplined artwork, which he wore round his neck all day, as he went about running his business.
We live on a beloved desert island, where the Bougainvillea struggles with wind and drought, and every bloom is a miracle. You absolutely have to see this tropical green splendor, at least once, the mountains, the trees, the yellow hibiscus. It’s a different majestic universe.
I am back, will try to catch up on my writing.
