Monday 27 January 2014

Sunday

We're packed and ready to come home.  How's the weather at home kiddies?  Never mind, let it be a surprise! 
This morning we went to The Crane for the weekly gospel brunch, No ... it was not a church service, but as we ate a delicious breakfast/brunch we were entertained by a terrific group of gospel singers. Great fun.

The Crane is a stunning place.


This is a sprawling hotel complex/resort. There were more pools than I can recall, high end shops, several restaurants, and other facilities. The place was originally a British fortess with a convincing command of the surrounding ocean and shore.




After the gospel brunch, we took a brief tour of the capital, Bridgetown – quiet with most shops closed for Sunday.

Bajan Parliament House.



To wrap up the day, a swim and a rum punch, dinner at home, and ...
... EUCHRE.

Rum punch: RUM, lime jice, simple syrup, angostura bitters and some freshly grated nutmeg.
Add ice, a maraschino cherry, and a slice of orange and Bob's your uncle.














Sunday 26 January 2014



Day ... uh, yes, it's a day.

This morning took us to the Southern Palm Hotel, owned by Canada's Thomson family. This is in the St. Lawrence Gap area, a bit like Toronto's Queen St. West – home to funky little shops as well.





Gorgeous spot where we enjoyed coffee before heading back to "our" beach, Rockley Beach. Weather today was uncooperative– more rain than Dave and Barb have seen in the five years they have been coming to Barbados, but with frequent enough sunny breaks that we were able to enjoy some time in the water. 


Back to the house for an early dinner and more do-or-die euchre. The security team demanded to be included in our dinner plans.







Saturday 25 January 2014

Day Whatever

IT seems terribly unfair that I have to be the one who makes all the stupid mistakes. I mean, all of them. Meanwhile, Valerie tsk tsks sympathetically and swans her way regally through the days tolerating her somewhat pathetic sidekick as  an indulgent parent might a rather slow little boy. It ain't fair.

So, here is my latest stubt. I lost my glasses in the Atlanic, Spelling errors in this post will have to be overlooked as the keyboard is just a slightly familiar blur – I have on a pair of ladies' granny glasses that I think came ffrom the drug store and magnify at about 2 diopters, not eno ugh for the blind bozo.

I'm being a bit hard on myself. Ordinarily, I can't see anything very clearly, near or far, so I almost always have my glasses on. Without them I feel disoriented and even a bit dizzy. Until yesterday this was not a problem. I went into the ocean and returned with my hat and my glasses without incident.

Yesterday however, Mother Nature threw a curve. The ocean looked tghe same as before, but the breakers were many degrees more powerful than they had been. I strolled in up to my knees, and grinning and chuckling like some 10 year old lunatic, I was on my ass before I'd made it past the first breakesrs. WHEEE! Ha ha ha ha... what fun. Up I got and continued on my merry way. Wisely I turned my back to the waves to lean into them for stability. Ha ha ha ha ... WHOOPS! That wasa BIG one, ha ha. And then it struck from bhind and completely engulfed me - I was in the wash cycle and quite helpless. Ha ha ha, OH ... I lost my hat. Scrambleto my feet, glance around, and here's an eight year old girl holding up my hat for me. Clos call. Pretty funny, eh Valerie? Um, hey! Oh damn. My thousand-dollar progressive lenses went down too! Washed away along with my specially ordered fip-up sunglasses.

And my spare pair is in Toronto.

But, hey! I have my hten dollar at.Wandered up and down the surf for the rest of the day looking, but no luck. We'll check with the lifeguards today. They don't hold out much hope.

So here below are today's photos. I hope I ponted the camera in the right direction for these.

Not too much to report. We did the beach thing all day, and in the evening had dinner and dance (a live country-ish quartette) at the Crib.





Valerie here.  The swan.  I won't correct David's spelling cuz it's too endearing.
Except for Crib.....should be Caribe.  A folk/country band with the leader singer in a red hairband like Willie Nelson....good music, good food, good fun.

I had my own adventure, thank you.  I got slammed down hard into the sand by a huge wave not once but twice.  I think it dislocated my jaw slightly, and I was washing sand out of every orifice for hours.
That is some good alliteration there: out of every orifice for hours.  Heeeeere's David:

I neglected a significant highlight. After dinner, Dave drove us up the hill from the house and we dropped in on the astrology nerds at the island's observatory. The building and telescope had been closed for a couple of years, and these very nice guys were just ending an animated meeting as they discussed plans to reopen the newly refurbished buildingwith new telescope. Some donor had saved the day, The group consisted of about six frindly guys who enthusiastically pointed out Orion's Belt, Jupiter, Betelgeuse (ready to explode sanytime now. It's only 500 light years away") Sirius and others. They'll have a special telescope to look at the sun. The new dome is from Australia. Great fun for all of us, and especially for these guys with their big new toy. One of them taught at the University. He disagreed with Hawking and Dawkin who were not interpreting the data as he was, through the lens of fundamentalist Christianity.



Valerie here:  Apparently Barbados is a really exceptional place to star gaze.  At 13.2 degrees of latitude, you can see both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.  At 4am you can see the Southern Cross in the night sky.  I got up, but couldn't see it.  I also have some nice swamp land in Florida.
As we were leaving, Babs overheard one of the guys saying excitedly to another:  "See, they're already coming, and we're not even open yet!"  Another wonderful experience of life in Barbados, where people are so welcoming and friendly.

Friday 24 January 2014

Day Five

Beach, Oistin's Fish Market, home for wonderful mahi mahi dinner (chefs Valerie and David) and back into the breach for cut-throat euchre.

Papa:
Mama and chickie:






Thursday 23 January 2014


Day Four

Harrison's Cave, buffet lunch at the Atlantis Hotel, and walk along the adjoining Atlantic shore and into Bathsheba, then over roads full of spectacular potholes to the far north end of the island where the Atlantic arrives first on this side of the pond for a spectacular view of cliffs and ocean spray. And finally a to-the-death euchre tourney this evening before bed.
















I have little red marks all over me.  I thought it might be a reaction to sunscreen or bug spray,
but on further examination I see that they are from where I've been pinching myself to see if this is
real....How y'all doing in -30 degrees with the wind chill?    
Please forgive us?











Day Three

Breakfast, beach, lunch at Chefette, beach, Mount Gay Rum Around-Barbados Sailing Race, The HOT POT at Worthing Court for dinner with show starring MISTER IMPACT.

Dave with Bonnie and Clyde, resident security team.

  



Dave and Barb at the beach:



Valerie and Dave bobbleheads:

Valerie

The Mount Gay Race

Snowball fight, Bajan style:

 



Grilled Kingfish, turkey in BBQ sauce, veg, rice, salad and rum punch (on sale tonight, toofer $3.85 Canadian. Woo hoo! 

... and dancing to Mister Impact, a hugely talented performer.