Endless Summer, coming up shortly

RFA Waveruler in the Channel - for some reason this makes me happy

This week just felt like it was never going to end. Mothers and children are almost on their knees by now, counting down the hours till schools out (next Thursday). My first season as a full-time mother has been long and interesting. We all really, really need a holiday.

It is now officially bloody hot. It must also be summer as our Royal Navy friend,  RFA Wave Ruler has replaced the mega yachts (who have all go down to the Trinidad hurricane shelters for Summer) and is moored out in Drake Channel again. The boys keep a watch with the binoculars from the balcony ("I can see canons..."). Apparently an active Hurricane Season is expected – so some compulsive Weather Channel watching coming up again, interspersed with a few moments of potential anxiety for us.....

Many people are disappearing back to England and other places for the next few months. Restaurants are starting to close until October/November and there are no cruise ships coming in. It’s just going to be us locals banging about the island for a while now, panting in the shade and having the place to ourselves for a bit.

Hard to think that it’s already the end of June and that in 2 months time, we would have been here for a year. The children are slowly acquiring Mid-Atlantic accents and James has definitely got the long-haired-trilby-hat-bermuda shorts-island-surfer-dude-thing down pat.

The boys are very excited about doing lots of sailing during the summer and I’m compulsively drawing up lots of schedules in the hope that it will all just organize itself.   

Tyler is back on night shifts again for a bit, so we have a quiet weekend coming up. Our mango trees are covered in hundreds of mangoes and I need to get on with some chutney-making and other domestic delights. Can't wait.

A good friend has just moved in next door, and so we now have a little road of kids whizzing up and down on their bicycles and running in and out of each others houses. Not quite Stepford Wives,  more Melrose Place, but all very cosy.

Time to go and fry the Waitrose Cod Fish Fingers for the children's supper. I know I'm a chef's wife and that the carbon footprint on this one really sucks. Frankly, right now -  I really, really don’t care.

PS: This is what kept me going this week. Magnetic Man - I Need Air (Yes, I related to this sadly). I am really, rather completely  utterly in love with this song. What's wrong with me?  I'm becoming this 40-year old ++  Rave Bunny. Must be the sun. (PS Don't watch the video - too many Hoodies on E).

Happy Days

Amazing he could see where he was going with that hair

I think if I had any lingering doubts that the move here had not necessarily been the smartest thing ever, then this weekend has killed them for good.

Anegada was really magical and more so as it was  shared with a good group of new friends and fellow Tortollans, many of whom were carrying even more toys and clobber than we were.

In just one day, we (as in the royal 'we') managed to do a 2 hour round boat trip, a 22 mile mountain bike race, kitesurfing, paddleboarding, snorkelling, waterskiing, Bloody Marys at 10am,  2 hour Lobster Lunch, some lolopping around tepid bathwater playing 'Lobster Touch' (similar to tag) and even just some hanging out limin' (doing very little).

We are now on a 7 day count-down to the end of school. Tempers are short, mothers are frazzled, it's freaking hot and we're all just clinging to the cliff with our finger nails.  Then it's the new phenomenon of 10 Week Summer Holidays to get used too.

"Sittin' on the dock of the bay".... Dawson/Haycraft Boys

Lunch washed down with lots of chilled Pinot Grigio

Paddleboarding.

BVI Mountain Bike Club: "The Cadet Pelaton' (thanks Sally & BVI Local for photo)

Happy Father's Day: A Wonderful Day



Father being a father - carrying stuff!

TGIF

Cow Wreck Beach  - where we will be paddleboarding on Sunday

Sometimes things just get a little bit too pioneering here for a suburban girl like me. Another grumpy, sweaty mother muttered this week about how men are really happy here but that women were not quite as keen (I'm putting this very politely). I made this observation in one of my earlier blogs, but didn’t quite realize that we would be fixing our own car using the Internet. for example. The Ford had a hissy fit this morning and shut down. Mechanics wielding monkey wrenches wern't going to work this time, so we were left with Google. Just what you need after a long week. A look at the 'history' information on our internet researches for this week reveals such fascinating subjects as 'household mould', 'swelling caused by injections’, ‘why hens don’t lay eggs’ and ‘weekend breaks to NYC’.

We made the difficult decision this week not to go back to South Africa in July, primarily because - frankly -  I’m exhausted. So it’s a 'staycation' for us (trendy Recession-speak) and the slightly daunting prospect of 9 fun-filled weeks to organize for the children.

We’ll both take August off, and maybe do a bit of island-hopping and Puerto Rican shopping. Just how Robinson Crusoe we are with the island-hopping (ie camping on the beach) will depend on the budget, but I’m hoping for a little bit of R & R (ie boutique hotels with hot and cold everything).

Lesley Styles - see blog link

Sunday is a huge day for us, as Tyler has his first Sunday off for the year. As it’s Fathers Day, a big group of us are off to Anegada, a beautiful coral island which is part of the Virgin Islands, but about an hour away (all the other islands take about 20 minutes). James is riding in a bike race, we’ll do some paddleboarding and snorkeling, but Anegada is really famous for its lobster – so I’m mainly looking forward to lunch!

Have a good weekend everyone.

The "Cheer Up" Mix

A Caribbean Ground Orchid - first of many, we hope

As my neighbour India Hicks said today on her blog "I'm sure one should only Twitter when one's up not when one's down. I'm down. No Tweets". It must be a general Caribbean malaise that has all us 'Colonial Leddies' feeling a bit blah at the moment- so nothing better than making up a 'mix' of all one's favourite music of the moment to keep talking to a minimum.

Just ignore the videos' (apart from Rihanna and Swedish House Mafia) and put your headphones on!

First up - my all-time favourite at the moment - a little bit of drum & bass which needs to be played very loudly: Chase & Status - Time

Next, some Caribbean Gangsta ragga  by our local homegrown  girrrrlllllll Rihanna (Bahmian) which as you can only imagine is rather big over here. The video is very Caribbean - it really could be Tortola.

Tinie Tempah is also huge here and I just love him, especially for his sharp Oswald Boateng suits. And for once he dosn't look like Ali G, as is the type.

Here's some brilliant angsty eighties-type indie rock with The Suburb's 'Ready to Start' which I've  listened to on replay a 1000 times. It's got a bit of the Cure, the Smith's, a dash of Jesus & Mary Chain.  This is when I start looking for my old Echo & the Bunnymen cassettes again.  Ohhh, this music makes me so happy!

Still can't stop loving Usher's OMG. Such a sexy, sexy song - it makes the parrot screeching right next to me, just disappear. "Honey gotta booty like pow pow pow".

This is fun, huh? Now for some more drum & bass: The Scream's 'Lets Get Ravey'. Breath-taking!

OK, now for the Boys fave:  Swedish House Mafia. This has to be played full-volume in the car with the aircon on max for that Caribbean effect!  I particularly like this version as it features Tinie (again) and a seriously cool video (vaguely smutty and again a bit Carib).

A little bit of South African pop by Lonehill Estate's Green Pocket. My friend Susie says it's too Randburg Flea Market for her and Tyler thinks it's 'a bit X Factor' and admittedly it has a 'Flock of Seagulls" feel to it, but what the hell, I like it.

Finishing up with Rihanna's ex-boyfriend Mr Chris Brown's Beautiful People. He's a bit of an *hole, but his music's great.

OK, hope I've made a difference to your day. It always seems to work for me, till the good times come back again.

The Hurricane Club

I'm not having a very good day today, for various reasons. I burnt myself quite badly last week and now understand why burn victims are kept in a coma. We had 8 people for dinner last night, and just the thought of going downstairs & seeing all the mess, makes me feel faint. Tyler's working, as usual - the cleaner seems to have done a runner - it's freaking hot and I dont have a Sunday paper or a book to lose myself in.  

But apart from all of that, I'm having fun watching the hurricane tracker - as it really does feel like a storm brewing and apparently we are in for some flash floods and non-stop torrential rain.  Ohhh yipee.

We're looking for a name to register our new business - bakery/deli/breakfasts & lunches. I really like the Hurricane Club, but some dive in NYC has just stolen it. It has a nice Hemingway/swasbuckling feel to it. Any suggestions, anyone? First prize gets you a meal voucher for two and bottomless Mimosa's.