Anthony – new life…

ANTHONY’S St LUCIAN BLOG – Part 2

The first week has gone rather faster than I expected but I have adjusted to the time change and to our change of habits in going to bed and getting up early. It’s only 7.30am as I type this and I’ve been up for nearly two hours already.

We had a fun time at the “Jump Up” on Friday night despite some fairly heavy showers and Allie got me dancing, even though the music is not my favourite, the beat is infectious and hard to resist. I ate Lambi (Conch) for the first time and will definitely have it again.

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Food wise we are really enjoying the huge range of fruit and veg available, much of which is unavailable in the UK. Apart from a magnificent cheeseburger and fries at Spinnakers on Saturday I’ve been eating pretty healthily and am feeling very virtuous!

I’ve not yet met anyone to chat to during the day apart from a couple of tourists but Allie has just got me contacts at the tennis club to follow up and I’m going to walk round to the Marina at lunchtime in the hope of meeting a yachtie or two so hopefully I can expand my social circle soon. I also intend to pick up my sketchbook, pencil and paints this week and see whether I can capture some of the vibrancy of this place.

We’re shopping day to day, it gives me something to do, and the local supermarket, Massy Stores is very good. There are two branches in Rodney Bay, a standard one and Massy Gourmet which sell Waitrose Essentials and a wide range of UK and US brands as well as local produce. To show how convenient the shops are I’ve attached two photos taken from the same spot in the street outside, the first showing our house and the second the front of Rodney Bay Mall over the blue roofed white houses to the right. Allie’s colleagues often bring in fresh fruit and veg to share which is really nice. Our neighbours are friendly and one of them has been giving us fresh avocados from their tree and they are huge and delicious. I’ll attach a photo.

I went with Allie and her colleague Aretha down to Vieux Fort on the southern tip of the Island last Thursday and spent the day on the beach while they were at work, the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th photos on my last post were taken there. I avoided the sea as it’s on the Atlantic coast and a lot rougher than the Caribbean west coast but it’s a nice beach although occasionally a bit noisy as the main airport runway is just the other side of the road.

Due to lack of space in my luggage as a result of bringing two pillows, a cushion and various other domestic items to enhance the house I only brought one pair of shoes, my trusty Orca Bays, but they’re rather hot so I’ve bought flip flops. You may not know however that my toes just don’t seem to be designed for flip flops, I’ve always found them uncomfortable, but they’re the only realistic option here so I’m forcing my feet into submission and hoping I brought enough blister plasters to last until my feet acclimatise!

One thing I will take away from St Lucia is the almost constant sound of strimmers. As I’ve said before the vegetation is lush and fast growing and this includes grass, weeds etc. Everywhere one goes there are men strimming lawns, whole playing fields like the one outside our house, roadside verges and so on. It seems they don’t use mowers at all so the strimmer is ubiquitous. The operators tend to wrap cloths round their heads and wear masks and goggles and wellies and so they must be sweltering all day. It must provide employment for a good percentage of the population.

I’m reading at least one book a day, thank heavens for Kindle Unlimited, and I have found book exchanges at the Yacht Club and the Cockpit Bar round the corner so shouldn’t run short of reading material. Allie is trying to convince me to write a book instead of just reading them but I have my doubts about my ability in that direction.

It’s now 7.30 on Wednesday morning so I must put the rubbish out, they collect twice a week!, and get on with the washing up – the life of the house husband!

More in a few days…..