Blackbeard jam

Where I left off yesterday we had done very little all day, but in the evening it got a little more interesting. It was the manager's cocktail party and barbeque, to which we turned up as there were free rum punches. Got talking to a jolly nice accountant from Cardiff called Alex and his wife (considerably more interesting and fun than him) Liz. They were, we judged, somewhere indeterminately in their 60s, and had two grown up children, one of whom is in Toronto with Canadian wife and three children. Liz told us in all seriousness that we should discourage, to the point of active subterfuge, any foreign potential partners for our children on account of the likelihood of them pushing off overseas, rarely to be seen again. They had a chap called John in tow, who was on his last night here. He was another person of A Certain Age, and it turned out that he had been coming here for 12 years with his wife but that she had Gone West recently and he had come back on his own. Entirely sure that this was bad for his general well being and not the sort of thing I'd do, but on the other hand he obviously knew the place and, over dinner with the other four of us, invited to a jam session at a place called Blackbeard's in Holetown down the coast. We duly got a taxi and went, and it turned out to be a fun evening. Some old dudes and a couple of younger ones playing blues and rock standards. A good lead guitarist but sady no bass. Struck me as slightly ironic listening to a bunch of old white guys playing Bob Marley covers in Barbados. Got back at midnight, which seemed terribly late. 

 

Found out today that Barbados was settled by the English in 1625, which makes it one of the very first outposts of empire. It had over 300 years of government from London, and was the only Caribbean island never to change hands. It also has the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere. Interesting, eh? It is quaint and English in some ways, with imperial units, parishes and Anglican churches, but still very Caribbean. I like it a lot. 

 

Today we had the usual torpid morning and decided on the spur of the moment at about 3 (having missed lunch through not knowing what time it was) to get the reggae bus to Holetown and check it out - the decision was partially due to me having swollen ankles and us deciding that it was due to indolence and inertia. The bus ride was great - they live up to their name, with the music turned up to ear bleeding volume - and it's only $2 for any journey length. On the way there lots of immaculately turned out school children got on, and on the way back it seemed to be a collection of professionally dressed and very traditionally-built Bajan women. On the way we were overtaken in an enthusiastic manner by another reggae bus, more modern than ours, which was the only bus I have ever seen with a spoiler on it. 

 

Holetown (originally Jamestown and site of the first settlement) is not hugely exciting - a collection of very posh shops catering to the rich tourists and some more down-to-earth bars. We bought some bits and pieces from a souvenir shop and then had a couple of cold beers in a splendid bar on the beach. That was the point when we decided we had acclimatised, liked the place and wanted to stay longer than Saturday.

 

Hungry due to lack of lunch we hit the restaurant early and had another excellent meal. C had a thing for afters which she thought was amazing but actually tasted exactly like one of those hideous Reese's peanut butter cups Americans like so much. I had duck, my first non-fish meal of the week. It was good, but I kind of missed the mahi-mahi. 

 

Tues afternoon

Yesterday evening we went for a walk south along the beach - couldn't get very far due to the tide being up but nice anyway. They are building/extending a big condo block next door, but no intrusion here at all. 

We were dangerously close to actually doing something this morning. After breakfast (attended closely, as usual, by the enterprising Lesser Antillean Bullfinches, which fill the "thieving and fearless little brown bird" evolutionary niche) we went to reception and asked about buses to Holetown a bit down the coast. They have blue government ones which stop at the bus stops, and yellow "reggae buses" which will stop anywhere and are, according to the receptionist, "de experience of a lifetime - dey do aaaal the wrong tings". Anyway, after that effort we were a bit toired and so decided to stay here and swim and lie in the sun, or in my case, out of it. We now think we will hire a car Friday morning then drive ourselves to the airport in it on Saturday. Two birds etc. Which reminds me, we have seen a hummingbird in the garden, and a frigate bird off the shore, both of which I'm strangely excited by.

Right, now for some more reading and then maybe a swim and a big dinner, with the remaining half bottle of petit Chablis we failed to finish last night...

 

Monday

Writing this Monday evening at one of the tables by the pool, having watched the sun dip behind an annoying cloud (yes, cloud!) just on the horizon. I sort of expect it to get chilly now but of course it doesn't, although there is a pleasant offshore breeze now which is keeping the mugginess at bay. Ooh our rum punches have just arrived. My, they're strong, and we had a bottle of NZ Sauvignon with lunch as well... Anyway, yesterday after a huge slap up brekky we went for a walk north along the beach, including Speightstown, which is small but interesting, with a collection of old colonial buildings, some of which are crumbling but others are being restored by the Barbados National Trust. Everything was closed, because the entire population appeared to be in church. Got as far as the Almond Beach Village (not as nice as our place but on the most lovely stretch of sand) next to the marina and extorted a coconut out of Andrew the Coconut Seller on account of him being slightly too keen to show us his wares and us having no money. Took lots of photos and got fairly horribly burned through factor 30 sunscreen.

 

Then there was some other stuff - swimming, reading, lazing about and complimentary cakes for tea. We ended up not having any dinner as neither of us was hungry, so we watched the stars for a while and tried unsuccessfully to stay awake. Eventually turned in at about 10 and slept for 10 hours. The unbelievably noisy Bleepy Things In Trees are strangely soothing after a while.

 

Today we had another big brekky (eggs benedict) and did some swimming and a lot of sitting around, but not so much actual sunbathing due to bits of us being bright red from yesterday. Went to the Speightstown supermarket (local Banks beer 2 bajan dollars as opposed to 10 in the hotel...) and were reminded of what a civilised country we live in and how good places like Tesco and Sainsberry's are. We had lunch, which was excellent again, with the aforementioned bottle of sauv. blanc. Apart from that we have just been here, and very nice it has been, too. 

 

Cobblers Cove

Barbados airport was like a big car park, but nicer than the St. Lucia equivalent. Looked wistfully at the Virgin 747 as we crossed the tarmac, 30 degree heat hitting us in a not unpleasant kind of way. Entertaining taxi ride up north with an elderly Barbadian lady as our driver - "we got a laaang drive ahead a us, you goin waaay ap narth today" - turned out to be 20 minutes past lots of sugar cane fields and colourful houses. There's obviously poverty here but in general it seems more prosperous than St. Lucia. Cobblers cove is very nice - the rooms have the feel of an old colonial cottage, with a big sitting room, balcony and shutters, and are arranged around a beautiful Caribbean garden. The main house is an old (well, 1942) summer house build by a sugar baron and turned into a hotel in 1968. Some of the staff, especially Philip the restaurant manager, look to have been here ever since. It's all very quiet and genteel, although C was briefly annoyed by a small child with a loud voice in one of the neighbouring buildings. The restaurant is excellent, as is the rum punch. Yesterday evening we had a rum punch and half a bottle of Chilean white each with the swordfish and a rather animated theological/existential conversation ensued. Other diners must have wondered what we were getting so exercised about.

 

This morning (Sunday) it is overcast, but we don't expect that to last. We'll stuff our faces with breakfast and then explore.

 

Distance to destination: 2502 miles

So we left at 7, with me panicking slightly as usual, but the roads were so clear we got there by 8.30 so had a long wait at Gatwick north terminal. Which is as nice as it sounds. Actually not too bad, and some decent shopping (but not a single water fountain - I suppose the sellers of overpriced mineral water are in on the act) C bought a netbook for £250, an impulse buy if ever there was one. Got on to scruffy BA 777 and left 10 minutes late in bright sunshine which I hope is repeated in Barbados. BA premium is rubbish compared to Virgin - almost not worth the extra cash, although having said that, standard economy does look pretty hellish. I think the difference is that BA treat you as an economy passenger with extra legroom, whereas Virgin treat you as a business passenger with a non-flat seat. I'm sure it's to do with the modernity of the cabin too, but that is certainly the impression I get from both Qantas and Virgin. BA needs to up its game. Have just finished Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (rubbish, entertaining) and gone for quick nose powder before duty free touting stewardesses get in the way. One of them, in particular, there would be no getting past. None. One has to go into the economy cabin (eurgh!) to go for a wee. You don't have to do that on Virgin...

 

 

Essex & pirates

Saturday was a free day, so C and I decided to go for a walk. First proper one since my back problem, so we did a fairly short one of about 6 miles from Chrishall. It's a little way from Duxford, west of Saffron Walden, and the countryside is nice - not the Cotswolds of course, but a little hilly and quite pretty. We liked a little place called Upper Green, and sat on a strangely large bench next to its eponymous cricked pitch. We also saw some unexpected red deer in a wheat field.

 

 

C went out to a girls night in the eve so I asked Ian if he wanted a curry and a pint. This we duly did but got a stream of texts telling us to come to the pub the ladies were at. We relented, and it was quite fun in the end, despite being an awful 80s disco at an equally awful pub. Good for people watching. Turned in at 2, which is v. unusual for us these days.

Sunday I excelled myself and finally built a matching bookcase to Dad's one in our bedroom. Quite pleased with the result and even more pleased that I had got round to it. Bouncy children arrived in the evening.

Had a day off on Monday, and spent it alternately painting my bookcase and entertaining Jim, who was on a baker day while the girls were at school. We went to see "Pirates: an adventure with Scientists" in the afternoon, which was entertainingly silly. 

 

Easter weekend

Jim and the girls arrived Saturday evening this weekend. I hadn't seen Jim for a couple of weeks due to his trip to Tenerife but G still delivered him late. It was, apparently, important that they had a roast dinner in the evening despite his having spent the last 10 days or so with them. Anyway, he was so incited to get to ours that he didn't go to sleep until ten o'clock - an almost unprecedented occurrence. Nice that he seems so happy to be here though. He also seemed to have a very nice time in Tenerife and there was a picture of him with some dolphins at the water park. He's been on about dolphins ever since.

Sunday morning we headed off to Bournemouth in the exmax and were there in 3 fairly untroublesome hours, including a car picnic. Grandma Jane and Grandpa John's house strangely familiar but although Jim is now in a frame with the girls I am still not graced with a picture to replace or complement the one of James. I am slightly offended by this, but not for any really good reason. The day was good enough (i.e. not raining) for an easter egg hunt in the garden and a trip to the beach, where the kids made sandcastles and seemed impervious to the cold. I paddled and it was ok once I lost all feeling in my feet. Back to the house to the huge box of geomag, a warming bath (we used too much water) and roast beef for dinner. All the children did well, but Minnie definitely has a different mode there - she knows what the expectations are. We had to request the central heating was turned on so we didn't all die of hypothermia, and I turned the bedroom radiators on. Probably a capital offence, and I forgot to turn them off when we left... 

 Monday was horrible - rainy and windy. Children happy and bouncy in the morning though. Caroline and I left them for a bit and went out for a short walk. We ended up buying wine from Marks & Spencer and various oddments from Lakeland. Later, Caroline's step sister Ann and her kids Matthew (11 and trouble - apparently mostly interested in breaking things) and Lucy (a precocious 13 but good with Jim) came round for lunch. In the afternoon it had cleared up sufficiently to go to a local woodland park, which was excellent. Kids loved it and Jim really didn't want to go home. Calm and happy bedtime. C coping well with being at the olds' house.

Tuesday was a much better day, but we had promised the kids a swim at the local pool. It was awful bedlam but I was happy to wallow in the training pool while Minnie and Jim messed about and Amy and Caroline went in the big pool. Then lunch and home via vile Starbucks coffee at South Mimms and an unpopular stop-off at the Bury Lane garden centre, tempered by a go at the pick and mix. This despite them having eaten their weight in chocolate over the last few days. The pigz were still alive, hurrah, and all was well despite some slight stroppiness from Jim in the afternoon. I'm reading Harry Potter to him at the moment and were at an exciting bit, so I read for too long and didn't put his light off until just before 9. I've been wondering if relatively late nights in the holidays would make him wake up later, but apparently not. They were up and about at 6.45 as per usual this morning.

Weds: I am writing this on the coach on the way back from a work trip to the GE Energy HQ at Bracknell. Jim still at home, hopefully behaving himself, and in a change from the usual routine the girls are going back tonight and Jim is staying until tomorrow morning. It has been great to see him for a few solid days - our little family is working really well now and everyone seems content. C and I talking about moving to gain more space, but we're both a little conflicted about it. The market seems to be moving a bit, and nice houses are coming up, but the question is about what sort of place we want to live in, and how much we want to (comparatively) impoverish ourselves...