Well, here I am in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, so why don't I tell you a little bit about the hotel and then the little US territory it is standing on?

I am temporarily based at the Frenchman's Reef Marriott and Morning Star Resort. There you go, that's quite a mouthful, innit?

Normally, I would now give you the website where you can look up pictures and stuff, but as I have recently upgraded in the pictures department I will try and provide the pictures myself, even though that probably means that the page will take 2 days to open. It also means that you all will be viewing this on screens of different sizes, so everything that looks okay on my little screen here, is likely to have moved when you look at it. It is not because I have had one too many!

The hotel might have more than its fair share of problems, but it certainly has an outstanding location with awesome views! Let's have some of that first.

Not bad, ey? As last year and also this year the main theme for some of you seems to be getting married, maybe you want to consider doing it here...

I have pondered the last half hour if I should put up this next pictures. It might just be too painful for some of you, but as this is my blog after all, tough...

These next pictures (I swear to god!) are taken from my room. Yes, yes, I know... And the cruise ships really come that close...

There is obviously a downside to it and a more sinister reason why they gave me (who can't really complain) this particular room. My room is directly beneath a restaurant, which Housekeeping management in their eternal wisdom have decided to clean at about 5:30am. For this, it seems to be of great importance to move all the available furniture (and possibly some other furniture carried in for just this very purpose) around several times. Well, certainly a few times more than really necessary. They also don't seem to make use of a mop or anything like that, but cleaning it seems is expedited with crowbars and pick-axes.

So, my dear cleaners, I know it is not really your fault that you do this at this time, but just wait until I get my hands on the old and trusted SuperSoaker 2000 (yeah baby!) again and we'll see if this can't be done some other time! (Insane half-naked German attacks cleaning crew with water gun at upscale hotel!)

And for the record, the TV and the air conditioning unit in the room are also sh#$te!!!

Nevertheless, the room does have a certain charm and attracts its fair share of visitors. Here is the most impressive so far that came by to say hello on Saturday afternoon. We must have looked at each other for a good 20 seconds from not more than an arms length. I could have patted him on the head if I had wanted or dared to. I am however proud to report that he laughed first....

There are iguanas in Curacao and Aruba, but the geezers here are decidedly bigger...

But enough about my room and the hotel, and a bit of information on St. Thomas and the US Virgin Islands. For those of you keeping notes, the islands are located at 18 degrees 20 minutes North and 64 degrees 55 minutes West, which means a little of east of Puerto Rico to you and me. They (as well as the British Virgin Islands) were discovered by ol' Chris Columbus himself on his second voyage in 1497 and comprise about 100 islands, inlets and cays.

The bigger islands (specifically St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John for the US and also Tortola and Virgin Gorda for Britain) have been properly inhabited since around 1670 when the Danish came along. The islands have also been in the hands of the Spanish, Dutch, French and English over the years, before the United States bought them for $25 million in gold to establish a strategic presence in the Caribbean.

Most major remaining buildings of any importance were built during the Danish rule and it gives the island a slight Scandinavian feel. The fact that you drive on the left is obviously a British leftover.

The islands are all volcanic and it is very mountainous. Some lucky guys got to blast away a whole mountain a few years back to extend the airport! It really is a constant up and down here. Some of the inclines beggar belief! It is a lot more humid, green and lush than Curacao or Aruba!

The harbor here in St. Thomas is the Caribbean number one cruise ship port of call and home to a large charter yacht fleet. Here are some more pictures.

Now, where there is cruise ships, there is shopping and here its all about Jewelry, Designer Clothing, Perfume, Tobacco and of course alcohol. Good Lord!

There are no taxes on any of these goods and f%&k me, is some stuff cheap. I bought a liter bottle of Bacardi on Saturday for $7.95!!! That is only about 5 Euros or 4 Pounds in real money!!! Can you believe that? In case you need me, I'll be at the liquor store...

Well, I could go on forever here, but obviously I have a lot of drink to take care of and also I'll again be gently awakened at 5:30am by my friends above.

Before I go I have one more treat for you. You might remember from my last entry that I arrived here last Monday in the early afternoon.

The people who work for Marriott are called Associates and once a year its Associate Appreciation week, where there is usually all sorts of activities for the associates and even edible food on some rare occasions. Last week was Associate Appreciation Week. Here they kicked it off with a GSS (Guest Satisfaction Survey) Party in the Ballroom. Apparently the task was for every department to come up with something related to the GSS. Little did I know...

I arrived about 10 minutes before it was Accounting's turn... 10 minutes later I was on stage singing the GSS reggae... don't ask... and yes, Accounting won...

Yeah mon, and with that I leave you for today. There is lots more to report!

Buyaka!