The Acer laptop had all of a sudden given some problem when starting (noises emanating from it while Bios kick in) and while operating, sudden series of dots running loose. Alison as usual panicked wondering what went wrong and wanted to go to the Acer dealer like yesterday, if possible! I just ignored her and told her that I would sort it out……God knows how? She also wanted to go to AT&T store to find out the possibility of buying a pay as you go card.

She had made further enquiries with regards to the bus service from the girls in the Popeye restaurant yesterday and the No 1 bus would take us to Virginia Beach shopping mall. As we didn’t expect any further response from Environment Protection Agency (EPA) after getting the confirmation that they had received the email and fax regarding the letter of exemption, I sent on Friday, we decided to head for the Mall.

When we got to Pembroke, the bus driver told us that we could get to the beach front by taking the 29 Bus from the same stop. The decision was made for us to head for the beach instead of looking at the shops. When we got to the beach front it was shocking to see all three miles of beach without any trees or shades in between. All along the front there is numerous numbers of hotels. I wondered if the beach is manmade as it looks so artificial.

It was then time for lunch and we found this pancake place which serves sea food as well. I opted for fried mussels and Alison had the crab cake. As it turned out I should have ordered something else as the mussels was rubbish, sliced so thin that I could only taste the batter. I had to force myself to eat it!! However Adrian enjoyed his pancake, which was the main reason for us to go in the restaurant in the first place.

As the bus was running on the hour and half hour, it was just the right time for us to be heading back after lunch. When we got back to Pembroke I received a message from EPA asking me to sign a memorandum of understanding before they could draft the letter of exemption. What a time to receive the email as I had no access to a printer, being on the road on the bus!!!! I would not have been able to open the attachment in any case due to some fault we have on the Acer.

It was 5 pm before we got back to the hotel and I rang John Trestrail up to fax me back the MOU that was requested by EPA if I emailed it to him, which he obligingly did. I signed the MOU and had it faxed to EPA and told them that as I had done so and will check in the morning to see if they have received it. At least the EPA issue looked positive!!