Wednesday and the afternoon off

I went to Rotary today and caught a ride with the Manager from the local First Hawaiian Bank branch. She was previously 27 years with Bank of America in Orange County, California. She and her husband have been here ten years, they enjoy Maui, but she says salaries are 30% lower than the mainland and cost of living is 30% higher. We can verify the latter, fruit and vegatables in particular are very expensive. Gasoline is said to be 40 cents more here than the mainland. So it must be the weather that everyone comes for. She was also telling me that many of their friends live here, but their families are back on the mainland. So they call themselves orphans, and they do many things together to make up for the lack of family close by. One of these is Christmas on the beach, which they start to plan now. Imagine turkey with all the trimmings, set up at the beach??

The speaker at Rotary was the CEO of the local hospital. It was the same speech we hear in Stratford when the CEO from the local hospital speaks. We are very fortunate with the service we receive, they are shortfunded, and they are mounting a massive fundraising appeal in order to qualify for government funding. I understand this fellow makes US$190m per annum and is one of the highest paid people on the island - sound familiar?

Today is our half day off, and the pool is beckoning so I will sign off.

The attached pictures are from the balcony of our room. The view is certainly picturesque.