Easter 2012




Sitting room, Carrot Bay


It's been wonderful having Tyler home this Easter, despite being busy with over 20 dozen hot cross buns to bake on Thursday and Saturday. Best of all, we had friends around for Easter Lunch which absolutely forced us to deal with some boxes and so by Sunday the house actually looked semi-habitable (see above). It used to be a bit like this in Joburg: Christmas drinks every year saw things like the roof being mended and hedges trimmed, so I'm always up for entertaining as a means to get some DIY accomplished. The weather on Sunday was the perfect balmy Caribbean spring day with everyone sitting on our balcony, lots of excellent wine and conversation and the house (almost) big enough to not notice the children.

William was a bit anxious that the Easter Bunny might not find us in our new house, but luckily, being a very modern child, he suggested we went on the Internet to update our address, so thank goodness then for http://www.easterbunny.com/ as all the eggs were again safely delivered. James, also being a modern child, noted that our domain address must still say South Africa, as  the eggs were from Woolworths. Arn't kids amazing these days? The wonders of an expensive education.


The rest of the weekend I'm afraid was tinged with great sadness, as our beautiful Abyssinian cat Mimi, disappeared on Thursday afternoon. We've hunted and called and have all been rather distraught.  She's been with us for almost 15 years and despite the fact that she was a queen of note and physically accosted the children when hungry, we love her dearly. Friends have been very kind to tell us of amazing stories of their cats pitching up days, weeks and even months later - so we live with a little hope. Even poor old Jasmine the parrot has been calling for her (along with an excellent imitation of the Croakie aned our spiffy new oven's timer switch).

Awesome




Sunbeam - a Tortola Sloop (that's Sunny Jim waving) on Sunday

 
This is a quick post, as I'm squeezing it in amongst work and choosing fabric for the new sitting room, as our laptop at home has died (of exhaustion, I think). Bit of a disaster to say the least, but help is hopefully soon on the way in the form of a new one. One good reason to be a hop, skip & jump away from the US.

We had a lovely weekend, even though Tyler worked pretty much all of it. He didn't work either Friday or Saturday night so maybe Bill Marriott had read my rant. Saturday was the usual (sailing) and Sunday was also the usual (sailing) but this time on Tortola Sloops, the traditional boats built here all out of wood. James & Georgie sailed in a classics regatta off Little Thatch and had a great time. All very 'Swallows and Amazon'ish". Just as well the boys really like sailing, although I suppose there's also surfing. It would be a bit dire for all if they didn't like either of these!

On Sunday we loaded up the two cars and went over to the new house. It was a lovely evening so we stayed for sundowners at a little beach bar and watched the fishermen come in. Idyllic, really.

We're about to go off-line as we have a seriously busy 10 days ahead of us - moving and also working on the bakery. We are both on leave next week and the next time I post, we should be in the new house.

Totally awesome (as James would say).

PS: I'm going to be back in London on the 15th March and in SA until the 24th. 

Move on up

Temptation

So much is on the go this week that this post could also be called "Lots of Balls in the Air" but since the blog statistics show that the post called "Hurricane Paula & the Sex Pistols" has been by far the most well-read blog of all time, I'm a bit reluctant, given the pervie possibilties.

In a nutshell: The (new) Bakery Factory in new premises looks like it is on track and will be open 1 April. Plans are busy been drawn up ready for approval, mainly for the DTI, so we can order the ovens. This also means we are on a two month critical path.  Arggghhhhh.

We are also looking at a bigger abode, because as sweet as our little house is now - it's a shoebox in the suburbs (Tortola's equivalent). Not the stuff of dreams.  Can't say too much (this is an island) except that a large kitchen, double garage, laundry, voluminous sitting room, family room, library, four bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and sooooo much space to make a middle-aged woman who is inclined towards fantasy interior decoration, weep. It's also in one of the most beautiful parts of the island with a lovely local community and the best surfing. What's not to love you ask yourselves (or rather, "how can they afford this?"). Answer: Bitch driveway. It fulfills all my Everest fantasies, except it would be on a daily basis as opposed to that once-in-a-lifetime experience. I think (know) we'll have to run shuttle services for the cleaner and babysitters. I'm actually going to need that Hummer.

Carrot Bay

Next new big thing: William started his 'proper' sailing lessons today. Tyler said watching the squabs of six year olds trying to drag their little dinghies out of the water and de-rig was so sweet as they fell over themselves and everything else.  James (aged 10) may be sailing his first competitive regatta with the RBVIYC over on St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) this weekend, which will mean he will leave on Friday afternoon and return Sunday evening. He's thrilled but we're a bit apprehensive - it being the first time that one of our "babies" has travelled without us.

Clearly we need to start shifting the gears going forward, as IF we were to move to the new house - it would involve the boys tootling around on their bikes a lot, surfing on their own down in the bay (see above) and getting themselves home. Mr Caribbean Man has also said he'll 'machettee' some space for them around the house too, as well as build them a tree house. It's really, really no longer Parktown North.

If you'd like a good laugh and also some insight into what it's really like to live in the Caribbean read this from my neighbour India Hicks.