Bye Bye Bim!

I hate this...last full day on the beach, last evening sit on the balcony watching the sea, last chat up for BH from the mad policeman, last meal at Tapas (oh, frozen lime mohitos - yours are the best!).

The day was made a little more bearable by...
3 rum punches - from Lobster Alive - officially the best on the island and at least 40% proof. Wowzer!
2 mohitos (1 regular, because I messed up the order - oopsie! So we just had to order a proper one)
1 bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc - always a fab choice.

Tomorrow we are taking another private boat trip, seeing the turtles and some of the other beaches....and today we actually packed. I live in hope of a knight in shining armour heading me off at the airport and whisking me away to his chattel house by the sea. However, having just checked in on-line and recieved my boarding card, I think I am doomed to in-flight meals and flight socks by tomorrow evening!

I am always sad at this time and never take for granted that I will return to this wonderful place. Yet I hope in my heart that I will will soon be planning trip 21. What is interesting is that BH, on her first trip, feels just the same and has the Barbados bug. I feel a bit guilty that I have passed this on to her - but I guess we are both glad to have seen this blessed isle and to know that it is here waiting for us to return. Bring on the grey skies of home if you must - my heart is turquoise waves and shell pink sand.

With love,
BKB xxxxx

Another 3 Days Go By!

Hi Folks - due to intermittent WI-fi, my blog now needs to catch up on at least the last 3 days - apologies. For those of you who thought I was lying in a Bajan gutter with a rum punch overdose, shame on you!

So - main event to report is that I FINALLY SWAM WITH THE TURTLES! It has only taken me 20 trips to the island to develop the courage!!!! I have a mortal fear - not of the water, not of the turtles, but of getting my ample arse back into the boat from the water! So, it took a fair bit of encouragement and a lot of hauling from the boat's captain, and from our beach buddy Terry, but I made it in and out of the water twice - once at the ship wreck and once with the turtles. So - if you are on the island, call into Lobster Alive, find Terry the guy who manages the sunbeds and tell him you want a trip on the boat named 'Bliss'.
Bliss comes equipped with Mae West buoyancy aids, snorkels, masks...and rum punch. So we looked the part and were suitably relaxed !
I have to say that the turtles were far prettier than us - amazing creatures. Very difficult to photograph in the bright sunshine, so the best snap I have is...

Well, we have charted the 'Bliss' for a couple of hours tomorrow to run up the coast, and we shall be taking our bottle of champagne on board too. Ah - celebrate life, folks!

We have seen some sea life right where we swim in the sea. There have been a couple of huge starfish come in close to the shore, and then yesterday, the smallest fish I have ever seen - black and yellow stripes. It kept doing laps round me and then wanted to be in my armpit! I feel like I found Nemo!

Needless to say, we have attracted male attention at the beach. It starts as we park the car and everyone runs to come and make suggestions about how we can park better. A particular favourite was the rasta who thought we were headstrong for refusing his advice and about a minute later, offered to massage my foot with his saliva! I told him it was gross and he should get a better line! Next time I'll ask him to stand behind the car when I reverse, so I know I parked ok when I hear him scream!
Bajan H has attracted non other than the local police man, who patrols the beach in his squad car. Even he now pulls up beside us and says, 'Hi, police harassment here'. At one point he said he'd given up on her, but he tells lies. It's funny how he drives in with the under cover cops in the car....subtle!
One local, who is an engineer on the cruise ships and currently on 2 and 1/2 month's leave, approached  us to say he thought we had a flat tyre. He stayed with us for the afternoon - lovely guy - and I'm afraid he chatted me up a bit. I loved the look on his face when I told him my age (20 years his senior) but most of all I loved that he carried on chatting me up afterwards! Oh Lord, this island kills me!
We decided the flat tyre was just a line to start talking to us, since the tyre looked ok, but the following day our valet parking adviser (rasta man again) declared it was flat - so we called the hire company. Imagine our surprise when we looked later and the car had disappeared! BH wondered if we should worry - I just thought, well, small island, we'll find it somewhere! Anywho - it was returned with extra air in the soft tyre, so we didn't have to fess up to losing an entire car.

I have to confess that I am a member of 'Rock Choir' in the UK and was very happy that the 5 ladies on the beach next to us were fellow Rockies from the Bromley area.....and most of them upper altos like me! Small world. They had met each other through RockChoir - so it just goes to show what a sociable activity Rock Choir is. I'm hoping to see them in Birmingham next month at the 'Big Sing'. Reminds me - must learn my parts!!!!

Places we have eaten this week......Tapas (love this place - especially the lime mohitos!). Just Grillin' at Hastings - grilled dolphin, the best!
A new place we tried was 'Shakers'. It's a little off the beaten track, on Browne's Gap - find Bubba's bar and go up the road along side Bubba's 'til you find 'Chicken Galore'. Take a left there and Shakers is just behind Chicken Galore on the right. Great grilled food (grilled shrimp for me, bbq ribs for BH). Cocktails, and a fine wine list, and brilliant service - I will be back!

Another place worth a look is the Hastings Farmers Market - Wednesday and Saturday morning, at Art Splash. Local crafts people and farmers (veggies look great). On Wednesday there was a french guy selling bread and biscuits ( he trained as a chef at La Gavroche, no less). We bought some lovely biscuits and took take away coffees from the cafe there (open from 7 every morning, except Sundays). How British - morning coffee on the beach!
We have using the local supermarket/pharmacy shop a fair bit - and we had a frenzied lip gloss and nail varnish buying trip yesterday. So - I currently have nails the colour of the ocean with added silver sparkles!

Today I was taken for lunch to a lovely restaurant 'The Lobster Pot' at Little Good Harbour. It is literally on the beach and so pretty - and the food is good too.

So - just sipping a G&T on the balcony before heading off for dinner.
Looking forward to tomorrow, 'til then, much love,
BKBxx

Top 5 Sexy Sins!

Don't worry - the title for the day isn't our itinerary, but rather the sermon that was preached in the function suite over the wall from our balcony. So, what are these top-5 sexiest sins that are known to man?

At number five, we have 'Longing'. Hmmmm.....the context given was, when a boy meets a girl, her eyes are 'up here' but his eyes are 'down there '. Whilst we can't see the preacher, we are pretty sure this infers chest level, since his next line is,
"Where there's cleavage, there is leavage". Whilst he declared this triumphantly and repeated several times, a quick Google search established that the word 'leavage' is made up. So, not sure manufacturers of push-up-bras can be accused of anything ungodly just yet.

Coming in at number 4 we had 'Lusting'. A bit hard to differentiate from longing for me, but I guess a sort of progression, since number 3 on the sexy hit-list is 'Luring', which all starts to sound a bit sinister.

By this stage, we are noticing that sexy sins all seem to begin with the letter 'L', which is confirmed when number 2 turns out to be 'Laying'. See, Adam 'knew' Eve, but Samson 'lay' with Delilah (the hussy!). And the preacher repeats this several times, then gets the congregation to repeat it too. Apparently, every time you 'knew' your partner, it's like it's all 'new' again. See what he did there? First all the L words now the whole play on words? The man is a genius! I'm just waiting for the organist to play us 'Let's talk about sex baby' but it doesn't happen.

Anywho, we are rapidly trying to guess the number 1 sexy sin beginning with 'L' and BH comes up with 'Licking', while I prefer 'Lolloping', but we are wrong. Preacher asks for a drum roll (BH drums on our table) and he announces 'Lingering'. So, this is defined as staying where you are and doing nothing....which equates to living in sin. Ok, got me there, haven't lifted a finger all morning, can't move myself off the balcony,  and I'm looking at the sea (Looking, that's an 'L' word - I'm such a sinner) and so I wait for the thunder clap.

I am happy to announce I survived and was then motivated to head out on the highway towards Hunte's Gardens, a beautiful garden created in the last 10 years buy the owner, Mr Hunte (see, more genius  on the naming front!). The gardens are amazing - everywhere you look there are plants and flowers filling every gap, with little statues in between and classical music playing in the background. I like other gardens on the island, but here there are no empty spaces

just plants and more plants.
The owner greets us on his amazing veranda, up in the trees looking down onto the garden. He brings lemonade with ginger to drink - plus a sample of his own brand of Rum (very nice). His little dog 'Flora' comes for a hug and then the cat, Miss Marble' joins us. Such a great place to unwind...but we eventually get concerned we are lingering (bad, bad people!) so we move on to Bathsheba.

Lunch at the Round House (BH recommends the pulled pork sandwich, and I recommend the mahi mahi sandwich (fish). The resident cat keeps me company for the length of time it takes to eat the sandwich and feed her fish, then she's off looking for the next people to beg from. Still, a great place to dringk the local beer.

View from The Round House terrace

We came home the pretty way - on a road called Highway 4B but it looks like it once melted and is now all lumps and bumps. We're just glad to have reached home with the car still intact! Lazy night ahead - oh no - L-word again.
There is no hope for me!
Nighty night,
BKB xx

Beach Life

Dear Blogletiers,
I apologise for the lack of posting but I have to confess that my diary has been full of appointments with a beach, a parasol and the occasional (or maybe regular) supply of rum punch!
Of course, there has been the obligatory trip to the supermarket and the bank, but nothing to report that's new. You still queue for ages in a bank and changing a few travellers cheques takes more processing than being let into the country! I reckon the bank tellers are all people who enjoyed playing at post offices when they were little - all that stamping of paper!

The beaches have a lot of seaweed ('sea moss' as the locals call it). In some places it has washed up and therefore had to be collected up by government staff. In others it just bobs about at the edge of the sea. Not the most pleasant stuff to wade through but not slimy like UK seaweed and 3 or 4 steps and you reach that amazing turquoise sea that is clear and bright and heavenly. We get looked afterby Terry on the beach - we call him to reserve a sunbed in the best position! Bliss! The tide is changing every day - so hopefully the moss will be on its way soon.

Something that never will change - the Bajan menfolk on the beach. Bajan H and I have started a collection of sayings for you.

I can't remember if this guy was selling boat trips or massages (really!) but his line was
 "I'm not here to tease, I'm here to please"
 Hmmmm...whatever he was selling, we said no thanks!

Then we met Richard, a guy selling trips and water sports. He started chatting us up and asked if we had men. Answering 'yes' gained the response,
"Ah well, the more the merrier".
This led us naturally to the subject of Bajan men and their sometimes liberal attitude to relationships. However, Richard really wanted to take us out to the turtles, but we weren't sure. He said it's the mating season....so I asked for clarity...'are we still talking about Bajan men here?'. He laughed - but I never had the answer! Needless to say, we didn't take the trip!

So - tonight we were off down St Lawrence gap - so many changes! Bellini restaurant has gone and more shockingly, so has Pisces. Big shame that. Meanwhile the old Cafe Sol remains empty and McBrides is called something like Coast......everything changes, even the moss in the sea.

Tonight's barman said we could get anything at his bar, so I asked for a Ferrari. We waited a while and BH asked if he'd forgotten. He returned with a flower for her, fashioned out of a drinking straw and a paper napkin. We later came up with several ways in which a paper flower is not as good as a Ferrari - the most fundamental being its lack of engine and wheels, that it is not red, and that it was too quiet. We didn't tell the barman - after all, he did his best!
Ok - bed time now and tomorrow a little island jaunt methinks!
Nighty night,
BKB x

The Beach Arrives in the 21st Century!

Carlisle Bay has wifi! OMG! Sunbathing, swimming and internet surfing all in one place.Paradise is complete!

Well, late down to the beach this morning but lovely to me greeted warmly by Terry  - sun bed rental on Carlisle Bay. Lazy day doing nothing at all except read, dip in the sea and chill. Lots of beach sellers around on a Wednesday - because the cruise ships are in and it's a time for them to make money. When they hear you aren't on a ship and will be here for 2 weeks, they back off the hard sell and have a chat.

Saw Wayne today - he sells small paintings that are lovely. I already have 3 but he tried to sell me another. I might be tempted later in the holiday but wasn't up to choosing today.I could blame that on many things but rum punch is a likely contender!

We were then told we have wifi at our beach bar - so we set our phones up and all those alerts came in! Still, the view is too lovely to spend all day looking at a phone,  so we were good and only peeped occasionally.

Popped off the beach to get a roti at a little West Indian takeaway. Very yummy curry at a great price too.We did have someone pester us to say he wanted to go and fetch the rotis for us...when we declined he was cross and asked why we hated him! Aaaarrrggh! So, we had a snide little comment every time he passed but we soon tuned him out. Terry came over and said we handled the guy really well and we weren't to put up with any hassle. We do get looked after!

Our land line is now fixed - so we are starting to get local calls (for us, not spam calls) and we have a real home-from-home here. As soon as I figure out how to load photos from my phone, I'll show you the view from our balcony. You will be jealous!

So - bit of a quiet evening planned and a meal in a place local to the apartment, Bistro Monet. It is such a hard life - sleeping, eating and resting! Oh - and my travelling companion Bajan H just went out to the shop and I can now hear heavy rain! Oh dear!

More later,
BKB x

Bajan Bride-to-Be! (Not!)

Well, there was I thinking there would be nothing to post - having had a very lazy lime on the beach. However, since I was at my old stomping ground Accra Beach, I managed to bump into a couple of people who always remember me.
Jason (Son of the late Chicken George) had hugs, kisses, fishcakes and rum punches for us. Always a good way to celebrate lunch!
After lunch I was on my way back to the sun lounger when I was spotted by David - Jewellery-maker and restaurant/club owner. He has previously offered to take me to his own private beach (well, private because it can only be accessed by sea or  through his house) but today he went one further - and proposed marriage.


Reader - I said 'no'.....but then had to deal with this very softly spoken Bajan telling me I had broken his heart. Blimey - things you can do without even trying! He has left the offer there for me to come back to if I want, so I shall maybe give it further consideration over a cocktail or two......or three!
So - off for a simple grilled dinner and then chill out.
Night night,
BKB x

20th Trip to De Island!

Good morning from the beautiful island of Barbados! Landed ahead of schedule last night and needed an early night.....possibly because of how liberal the bar service is on a Virgin Atlantic flight!
Consumption started at 10.30am in duty free at Manchester airport, with neat vodka shots,, courtesy of a promotion of a new brand, from Puff Daddy, no less. Well, that started on the road to being P. Diddley!.
Greeted on board with prosecco, then gin, then a bottle of champagne, then wine, then back to gin - what, we're on a plane????? Haha!
Watched 2 long films, both brilliant. 'Gone Girl' , which is every bit as good as the book, and 'Into the Woods' which I loved.
We were very quickly processed through arrivals and baggage reclaim, and greeted so warmly by the lovely Owen, with a lift to the apartment and our hire car waiting.
The apartment is fab - lovely view of the Caribbean sea and the sound of the waves all through the night. Bliss!

So, off to the pharmacy for something to stop the prickly heat and more later!
BKB xxx

Barbados 2015 - Time to dust off my blogging skills!

Well, I am 10 days away from my next trip to the island.....but so much to happen before then that I can't get my head around making the trip. I have ordered currency and I have also found my passport (I knew it would be around somewhere!). Appointment for manicure and pedicure is made, and I can confirm I have enough knickers for the trip.....the rest will have to come together at the last minute.

The trip has been the last thing on my mind - Mum has been so ill and then has sadly passed away this week so we are now in the process of dealing with all the preparations for a celebration of her life. However, I know she will be so happy that I am going to to the sunshine for some rest and recovery time. I am so lucky to be going with my niece this time, who has never been to the island before (and it is my 20th trip!). So - I shall be seeing my favourite places with fresh eyes.

For at least the first day, I have an appointment with a sun bed and will not be moving much! Still, that will give us some planning time!

So - here's to trip 20!
BKB x