Settling in to a new life in any new environment, let alone in a new country with a completely different culture, takes time. At first you know literally no-one and slowly, you recognise neighbours, colleagues start to become friends and you begin to meet people. Making a conscious effort to find like minded people and build up a new social network is not something I have had to do for 25 years since moving to the IW, and then I had children in tow which is a distinct advantage, as all Mum’s, and school-gate Dads, know. It has been at least that long for Anthony too, indeed, if he has ever really had to do that since starting at Stowe.
So, we are now 8 weeks in, me, and 5 weeks, Ant (yes, really, I know – be home before we know it!) and we are starting to form friendships and networks. For me, my work colleagues have been fantastic and are the loveliest bunch I could have hoped for. The SENSALT Team left big shoes to fill in my life but, although they will never be replaced, the CDGC lot are brilliant. For Anthony, he has now joined the St Lucia yacht club and is paying regular visits during the week, why wouldn’t he? A Friday night is now a routine visit for a rum punch and to watch the sunset. The punch is lethal (I can only manage one safely as I learned from one over exuberant Friday) and the sunsets magical (no green flash yet but we are hopeful). We are getting a small but lovely circle of acquaintances there. Peter, the Commodore, is white Lucian and a laconic, avuncular and in Anthony’s words ‘a very laid back’ individual. We like him! Impy, not sure its her real name, is the club administrator. A warm and jolly lady who runs Manaku Gardens, in the south east, during the day, a place that sounds exotic and beautiful and which I hope to visit very soon. We like her too. Last Friday we were lucky enough to meet her brother, Richard, his partner, Anna, and also their her 90 year old mother, Veronica, an amazing Bez and Mary like grand dame of the island. Richard lived in Winchester for 32 years and I am sure we must have friends in common, but we have not found out who they are yet. He has just retired from the Navy and moved back to St Lucia where he was born and grew up. He is now running a Cocoa plantation here (I know, hopelessly cool, eh?). We hope to visit this soon too. Veronica trained at RADA with Jimmy Perry, who wrote Dad’s Army, and was ‘in the theatre’ when she came to St Lucia in her twenties, just after the war. She met her husband on the beach, fell in love and never went back to Blighty. I am hearing this scenario a lot and it seems that many come here, fall in love and never go back….so romantic!! I am a sucker for romance, as you know. Veronica found she couldn’t make much money in the theatre here, and took up landscape gardening, planting Manaku Gardens from scratch, and is still working at 90 today, although not full time, she explained! She told me some of the history of the gardens as there was a plantation house there, on a hill overlooking the Atlantic coast. The ruins of the house are still there and are haunted. She told me a very believable tale of taking a group up to the ruins and when they came down they waited for the stragglers at the back, only to find that they were the ghosts! She is fascinating and, as well as still designing and managing gardens for people, she took up yoga in her 80s and still does it each week.
Many of you will have heard me saying, before I left, that I wanted to laugh more, like I used to. Well, the lovely CDGC lot laugh many times a day, every day, so my laugh quota is well and truly up! It really should be on the NHS! Everyone at work has a good sense of humour and they are all strong, intelligent, witty, entirely individual women who are teaching me a lot, not least all about being Lucian. As Aretha was explaining on the way to Vieux Fort last week, Lucians are very open and direct, rather unlike some of the national characteristics of the Brits who tend to warm up slowly and be a bit guarded when first meeting people. I have been reflecting on my own style and although I would like to think of myself as open, maybe I am not when compared with Lucians. I tend towards being passive aggressive rather than naturally direct, as many of my good chums will probably concur. I am intending to try and become more direct and open while here, so watch out, because I like it. I respect and admire these characteristics in my colleagues and I do hope some of it rubs off, and the laughing and humour too.
Well, my colleagues have been brilliant for helping me to settle in and Elaine, who gives me a lift in most mornings, gave me a real gift in my first week when she put me in touch with the ladies’ walking group. I have written about my first walk, and possibly another one, but I have done 5 walks with them now and they are also a great bunch of women. I have really enjoyed getting to know them better as we walk around the beautiful island and they have all been really helpful at giving me tips and putting us in touch with things that are going on. Last Saturday we walked for 5.9 km along a ridge of hills from Castries, The Morne, an old British barracks on a small mountain overlooking the capital, to Babonneau, a quaint Lucian hilltop town nearer the north of the isle. We started, as usual at 6.30am (after a 6 am pick up) and walked for an hour and 45 up a few steep hills and down a few more, before returning in cars to The Morne for a shared breakfast of small bananas, banana bread, local bread and cheese and a few other local nibbles, washed down with some wisdom and laughter. I was back before 9.30am to start the rest of the day.
I had a strange experience when starting the walk. One of the gals, Suzie, looked at the cap I was wearing and asked me where I got it. It is Anthony’s and has an embroidered barrel saying Ministry of Rum, Grenada, West Indies on the front. He got it in Grenada 15 years ago while on holiday with Miles et al for his 50th birthday. I told Suzie this and she told me that she had made it!! Talk of a small world! She runs a logo embroidery business and she did this run of caps for the MoR, 15 years ago. Well I never?
That evening went out to a charity concert at the home of John Bailey, the recently retired Director of Music and the Music College of St Lucia. Liz, one of the walking ladies had extended the invite and gave us a lift. It was a still, muggy and swealteringly hot evening and even with light clothes and fans around the house, everyone was sticky. The house overlooks Sandals Golf course and the Atlantic ocean on the Cap Estate area to the north of us. John is a keen gardener and guess who helped him design the garden? Yes, Veronica! We met her again here, this time with one of her other sons, James (she has 3, plus Impy). He got on like a house on fire with Anthony and runs his own landscape gardening company. So, we hope to see more of him soon. We networked, and socialised, and met some more interesting people, while drinking punch, nibbling local delicacies and listening to the most excellent music. The choir were 2 women and 3 guys who sang in beautiful harmonies to the music of John on the grand piano. All the windows of the plantation style house were open to the garden, the tree frogs chirruped along and Anthony and I pinched ourselves to think we were really part of all this now. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos of the garden, or the views, which were stunning. I was too enthralled as I was given a guided tour by Liz. There was a gorgeous infinity pool and BBQ/bar area of local volcanic stone overlooking the magnificent views, a stream and a pond by a pergola covered in an exotic fragrant climber, whose name I have now forgotten, and exotic plants and flowers all around, including the ubiquitous bananas, mangoes and other exotic fruits.
The following morning, we got picked up at 9.30am by Elaine’s lovely husband, Tony, to take us to a brunch in aid of World Physio Day. On the way we picked up Elaine’s friend Dee, a northern Irish gal who teaches the sailing clubs at the Yacht Club and is a full time professional writer. She also blogs, so I got a few tips. The brunch was help at a convent overlooking Castries, a beautiful building in a stunning location (see for yourself below). The nuns cook delicious food and 100 paying guests sat down to a wonderful 2 course buffet of fresh Lucian fruit (and you know from earlier blogs how wonderful that is), freshly squeezed fruit juice (ditto), tea and coffee for the first course, followed by a selection of hams, salads, saltfish, Lucian sausages in a spicy tomato sauce, scrambled eggs and a variety of fresh backed muffins, bakes (local specialty) and breads including yummy corn bread. We had a raffle afterwards and the first ticket drawn was mine! I never usually win a thing so it was a huge surprise and, even better, it was a Pandora evening bag. After a lovely time, we drove down to Marigot Bay for a beer or two. It is very beautiful, if not a bit touristy, with a few nice bars and eateries. We will be back there to look for traces of Dr Doolittle’s giant snail, which was there as an attraction for decades after the filming, and jumping off the rope swing that hangs from a palm tree over the water. Apparently the snorkeling is great too. We had a lovely time and got on really well with everyone, returning with plenty of time for an hour or two on the beach too. Anthony did the painting in Lucian style….pretty good, eh?
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