2020 Vision!

As I begin this 2020 blog, the toes are warm….in January (!!!), the tan is easily topped up nicely at weekends and we are now almost ready to welcome Catherine to experience the beauty and bounty of St Lucia. We have had a quiet and uneventful 2 weeks since the new year began, enjoying the rest and that we are not needing to do anything in particular. We have been reading some great books, laughing chatting, and playing scrabble (I am still in the lead!!), swimming and generally being just ‘us’ in a contented and comfortable way. This is a special time for us as a couple. We have been together for 15 years this Easter. In that time, we have never had the quality of time on our own that we are now enjoying. I had 4 children at home when we met; what a brave man Anthony was to take us all on! There wasn’t often time for ‘us’, as my boys only sporadically spent time away with their father, so we managed the occasional night away here and there and evenings out when I had babysitters. Anthony too had most alternate weekends with Jonti and for both of us the children came first, and that was how it should be. A few years later, when Anthony moved in with us, my boys were still at home, so I was a busy working mum with not as much time and reserves for ‘us time’ as we both would have liked, not to mention the additional time and pressure of running the yurts, so we had to be patient. Since Isaac and Sam have left home, our mothers have needed us more and my job on the mainland has been demanding, with nights away most weeks, so our time together has continued to be less than generous. Since coming here, even with visitors, and me working full time (but less full time than before), we seem to have had quantities of time for each other that is new and surprising. Maybe we could have found that we bore or irritate each other, and the relationship could have been strained, but it hasn’t been that way, quite the opposite, thank goodness. Being in this adventure together has, for me at least, brought us closer and has given us new ways to be together that we like. Of course, I can’t speak for Anthony, but I have never had this depth of trust and connection with my partner. This isn’t one of the many reasons that I chose to come to St Lucia, I have to admit, and it is a very unexpected benefit. We want to hang on to it when we get back. Which brings me on to coming back:

As I begin to write this blog, it is 7 weeks today before I leave St Lucia, 6 more weeks at CDGC. I knew that once Christmas was over, the time would go quickly, but I can’t believe that almost 6 months has gone so very quickly. Like the perception of time always is, it seems both a long time since I was packing up the house and saying my goodbyes, and yet no time at all since I arrived here to the heat and humidity, to the abundant welcome St Lucia offered me. A good word they use a lot here, an old fashioned word for the Brits, is ‘vex’ or ‘vexed’. I am not sure why but I like this word, however, it adequately reflects my feelings as I start to think of coming home. It means to be annoyed, frustrated or worried, troubled.

I am a little vexed by moving back; unsettled, slightly troubled, in a dilemma. I am just making friends in St Lucia that I am now getting to know better and who I really like, and our networks are expanding in interesting ways. Like the Isle of Wight, in St Lucia, everyone seems to know everyone else, or be related to them. As we go to more places, more events, we now bump into at least one or two people we know and who now know us. As time goes by, we are seeing more and more ways we can get involved in the community we are privileged to be living in. We find more things to do, more places to go that we like and more people to become friends with. Leaving all this, not to mention the natural beauty and benefits of living in this wonderful climate, makes me feel sad every time I think of it. Nevertheless, I am excited to be coming home, to see my family and friends and to ease back into the community of West Wight. In so many ways I am missing you all and am ready to be back among you. I don’t think I would have liked to be away for much longer, yet…. I want to stay. Life is such a dichotomy sometimes, not always in bad ways, but nothing in life is perfect is it? I want most of my old life back, but I neither want to be the same person in every way nor do I want all of the things I was doing or all of the pressures back. I aspire to hang on to the best things I have learned, and become, by being here, when back in England. Is this even possible? We shall see…..You can probably see the conflicts that are already apparent from the move and how that may be vexing me?

At our first work meeting of 2020, Kim asked us to think of a word that will be our mantra for the year. We only had a few minutes, but what stood out to me was returning and relaxing. I am returning to the UK, but also hope to be returning here at some point in the not too distant future. I sincerely hope that when I leave St Lucia it will not be for good. Anthony, fortunately, agrees. I am also more relaxed here than I have been for a most of my adult life, so I really hope to remain so back home. The British way of life looks, from here, as if it is not conducive to that, but this is my aim. So, in 2020, I will be returning and remaining relaxed. So far, so good, but this is the easy bit.

Blogs take quite a long time to put together. Loading and sorting the photos alone is usually one or two evening’s work. Writing most blogs seems to be quite a few hours of work, at least 5 or 6, maybe more, and I always like to leave the final version overnight and then re-read it to check for any typos or clumsy phrases. I write when I can, but also when I am inspired to, ‘in the mood’, which seems to be important for me to ‘flow’. Both these requirements, time and internal conditions, don’t come every day, so sometimes it can take 2 or 3 weeks to complete a blog. As I am writing today, on a rainy (yes, rainy-but warm) Thursday at St Jude’s in Vieux Fort, 2 weeks have passed since I started this and we have had Catherine here for 10 days. We are having a wonderful time in her sunny company. We have been lucky enough to know Catherine for about 3 years and have both enjoyed her fun loving nature, her easy company and kind and generous nature. For me, we have enjoyed some good walks too. Catherine is a good friend, a thoughtful and good hearted person, enormously hospitable and is someone who laughs a lot. She has an infectious giggle that I love and it is impossible to spend more than half an hour with her and not be laughing. I love people who laugh a lot, they are good for me, and it is a gift to be able to see the humorous side of life, even if things are being tough on you. Catherine is one of these people and this was more than confirmed during her stay. We have lots of adventures to tell….

As with all my dear friends who have come and stayed, spending real quality time with Catherine has been a privilege. When you see someone day after day, morning and evening, all day at weekends, you get to share and chat about things that you rarely would over a dinner party or meeting for a walk or coffee. You also get to enjoy experiences together that build deeper bonds. For me, sharing these visits with my friends has been special and added to my friendships with them. Catherine, Anthony and I have had a blast. We walked, we laughed, we ate and drank, we explored, we put the world to rights….a few times, we relaxed and watched the sun set over the sea, or the mountain. Catherine also introduced us to RummiKub, a game of numbers based on the well-known card game Gin Rummy, but using numbers on a sort of ‘chip’ rather than cards. The rules seemed a bit complicated at first, but we soon got the hang of it and found it challenging and great fun. Of course, Catherine won all the time at first, and of course, neither Anthony nor I are competitive (hah!), but over the 2 weeks she was here, both of us beat her twice. She was, however, rightly the champion. It was a lovely after supper pastime as the crickets and frogs chirruped and we had another one, or two, glasses of wine.

Catherine arrived on a Tuesday and spent a couple of days seeing the immediate area with Anthony while I was working. They went up the mountain for a foot spa, had time, and a few quelques choses at the Marina, swam at the beach and, of course, did lunchtimes at the Yacht Club (somethings never change!). On the Saturday, we did a ladies walk at Cas en Bar, on the east coast again. This time it was a slightly different route, to see if the developers had started on the threatened golf course. We didn’t see any further excavations but a few days later, Finola discovered that they had been clearing further inland. So short sighted and sad, to be ruining such a beautiful landscape for future generations, who will never see it as we have. Money talks louder than sense and integrity, sadly. If it was on IW, this would certainly be an area of outstanding natural beauty, AONB, owned by the National Trust, and be an area of special scientific interest, SSI. This would save it, but here, the Government seem to be hand in glove with big businesses and want to develop anything and everything for tourism. Very short sighted as tourism may be declining over the next decade or so, with global warming and as the natural environment needs to be preserved. We saw a turtle shell that seemed not too old, from the smell, and were not sure whether this would be due to poachers or permitted killing of turtles. Apparently, a handful of people have a license to kill a small number of turtles for meat in a permitted season each year. It is a delicacy in some countries, but most people I asked would never eat it. On our way back along the beautiful cliffs, we say 2 brown boobies on a rock. They mate for life and these looked very much like a couple as they posed for our photos.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach, with a long lunch at Spinnakers watching the turquoise sea, ahhh….! On Sunday we had hired a car from Jo, our next door but one neighbour. Her great little jeep took us to Soufriere for the day. This trip included the mud baths, a beer and walk along Soufriere sea front and marina (a very small marina) and the Tet Paul walk, a first for us too. Catherine enjoyed the sulphur baths, & I am now looking about 20 (10 years younger each time is the usp). I joked about this to a young local guy who tried to sell me necklaces, ‘Well’, he joked, ‘I’m really 98!!’

Then we drove around the mountain to Tet Paul. This is a short walk, about a mile, that takes you up to a ridge between the 2 pitons with the most spectacular views I have seen yet. We could see the whole of the plain down to Vieux Fort and had a clear view of St Vincent in the distance. At the top, there is a small stall selling mementoes and piton beers, so we had to have one after our climb, didn’t we. We joked to the lad working there that he had the best place in the world to work. He didn’t disagree. There was a hammock strung between 2 trees on the top on the southern slope with views towards the tip of the island. I had to have a swing in it and could have stayed forever. We had lunch at Stonefield, it really keeps calling us back. Catherine wanted to see it and thought that the afternoon by the pool watching Petit Piton would be just the thing, so after a short walk around Soufriere sea front, and a beer of course, we headed there. The weather was perfect, the view was as breath-taking as ever, there were boats in the bay, including a super yacht with heli pad and the ‘copter, and the food was delicious. We had a table by the pool, under the mango tree, and the hummingbirds came on cue. It was, quite simply, idyllic! After lunch, Anthony stayed in the shade with his book, and Catherine and I sun bathed on the comfy loungers by the pool and then swam. Anthony has the most infuriating ability to never sit directly in the sun, always in the shade, but he always gets a beautiful tan! I, on the other hand, sunbathe sensibly, early and late in the day, at weekends only, admittedly, but I still don’t get as brown as he does. We finished a simply gorgeous day by arriving at Calabash Cove in plenty of time to have a rum punch and watch the sun go down.

One of the week’s highlights for Catherine was whale watching. She chose Wednesday. We didn’t realise it when she booked, but this was going to be a day of constant and heavy rain. The weather forecast out of the hurricane season is pretty consistent and pretty sparse. It is usually sun, sun, sun, around 30C, maybe with a few clouds. If you do look at a weather report it nearly always says ‘sunny with a few showers’, ‘ A few showers with sunshine’ or most usually now we are in the dry season, ‘Sunny, 10% or 0% chance of rain’. The showers we have usually, don’t forget, are the short sharp variety that blow over in under half an hour to give more brilliant sunshine. We do get rainy days, but it is still hot and we always know that the sun will come out the following day. So, we don’t bother with the weather forecast here much. Catherine wasn’t at all sure about the trip, when we woke up and saw the dark skies and heavy rain, but at least there was little wind so it was going to be reasonably calm. The boat went west and, in the last half hour, after coffee and rum punch, they spotted whales; a sperm whale and her baby, and then another with 2 babies. The photos alone look magical and for Catherine it was an unforgettable experience, despite a baby, human, being sick on her bag:/ I now really want to do this trip before we go and hope to go on my birthday.

That evening we went to an art class at Island Mix, last frequented with the artistic Brenda. On this occasion, we had to paint half a papaya. It was a bit daunting but Naj is such a good teacher that I am sure you will agree that our efforts weren’t half bad? We did it in acryllics in 2 hours…utterly amazing!

Friday was Jump Up night. We had an invitation to go to Pigeon Island to the opening of an exhibition of environmental art at Jambe de Bois at 5.30/6pm so went there first with Elaine and Tony. It was a lovely event with a few people we already knew, including Veronica with her daughter in law and a friend from the ladies walking group, with her sister a pilot, one of the first female pilots. Liz is a really interesting woman who does a lot to encourage women to become pilots as only 10% of all pilots are women. Why is this, after all we make the best car drivers? Why didn’t I think of being a pilot….John? Maybe my slight nervousness in the air? But it is a great career. The evening was lovely, the prosecco was dry and chilled, the nibbles were delicious and plentiful and the evening balmy as we sat by our favourite bay with Elaine and Tony ‘limin’. This is another Caribbean word that I am coming to love. It simply means hanging out with friends, drinking and chatting. The Lucians do it a lot and everywhere. Of course, we do it in Britain too, but just limin sounds so much more fun! We listened to the sultry jazz music of a friend of Tony’s on his saxophone and we were also treated to a reading by one of the artists who is also an acclaimed poet. I love a bit of poetry and this was really good, funny and thought provoking in equal measure. After a bit of culture, we all headed to Gros Islet for more limin and da dancin. We left Elaine and Tony with some friends and did the tour of stalls and bars, having a rum punch or two. We met a lovely couple, Chrissy and Mark, who were on honeymoon and shared another rum punch and a few laughs before having a dance, well I had 2, actually. As most of you know, I love to dance and often as not, I start jigging before those I am with do. This night was no exception, and as I was getting into the rhythm, I was suddenly whisked off by Elijah to dance a while with him. A charming local guy who was working on the rum punch stall, by the massive speakers, Elijah knew his moves and had rhythm. Anthony thinks it was all a ploy to get us to buy punches from his stall….well, it worked! But I also enjoyed our dance. Later, when the road was heaving with bodies, we all danced for a while and much fun, and exercise, was had, writhing and swaying to the rhythm of the music. The secret seems to be in the hips and mine are keeping supple!!

For Catherine’s final Saturday we headed to Pigeon Island together. She and Anthony had been once before but we wanted to have a meal at Jambe de Bois and go together, so we had chosen Saturday because there were to be no cruise ships in the bay. Since just before Christmas, there have been many more ships each day, from 2 on one or two days a week before December, to 3 or 4 a day most days a week now. Many of the boats are bigger, with up to 5000 people aboard, and also there have been smaller (and more exclusive) cruisers anchoring in Rodney Bay. These usually have 3 to 5 masts and part sail to reduce fuel and pollution. They look like elegant schooners from days gone by and typically have around 250 passengers in classy luxury. No shopping malls and just cultural evenings, they seem like my kind of cruise if I were ever to do one. However, when these are in the bay, they tend to book the larger beach at Pigeon and there is a trebling, at least, of the usual numbers on this small space. Of course, they come because it is more elegant and exclusive than the main Reduit beach, and closer to their anchorage. The National Trust, also has to make more money now as the Government has reduced (or is it ceased?) their income. Preserving the beauty and heritage of St Lucia has, it seems, a lower priority for the present Government than tourism and development, and the Prime Minister is famously at ‘odds’ with the Trust as they are, quite rightly, objecting to some of the Government’s plans. Anyway, I digress, we prefer to try and go when the island is quiet and this day, we managed it. We got there just after it opened after a lovely walk around the bay and got sunbeds in our favourite spot. That day was fantastic for fish and we all swan through the crystal clear water in shoals of silvery fish around us. They were close enough to touch, although you never can, but a few times they came up and gently nuzzled us. With a snorkel on, we also watched the long (3ft in some cases) thin fish with long noses (don’t ask…no idea!), colourful small and large fish, some bright blues and yellows, some stripey, and admired the sea eggs (urchins) and coral. Catherine and I walked up to the fort and around the barracks and ruins. With another delicious lunch at Jambe de Bois, it was a perfectly perfect day.

A few other highlights from Catherine’s stay with us were an amazing supper at Razamataz, dog walking, many trips to the yacht club, drinking fresh coconut water from the palm trees at the end of the garden after the men had been up the tree, an afternoon at Harbour Club, lunch and pool, and Anthony and Catherine spending a luxury afternoon having lunch and sunbathing at Calabash Cove, while yours truly was working (as usual!). We sadly waved her off on the bus after a fantastic fortnight of fun, friendship and adventure!