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.

Sensible stuff

Play Date: Hailey, Georgie & William in full make-up

OK, enough of the teenage stuff and on with the serious business of life, like the BVI Poker Run. That's about as serious as it gets here.

Great photo from the Peggy Sue II Facebook site, care of Google Images

Now I wasn't actually on this infamous Sunday interlude (WATCH OUT 2012!) but did stop for a break (from cleaning the fridge, I kid you not) to watch over 100 power boats go zooming down the Channel like a swarm of bees. Picture this: gazillions of  very powerful speed boats racing between 6 islands to pick up and play a poker hand (and a few drinks) at each place and then racing for the finish. The prize is completely inconsequential to the amount of fun which is had along the way. As the first stop was Scrub Island, guess who was working! Many (read most) of our friends did it, along with their kids - and all lived to tell the tale. Our Local papers are rather quaint, and this article is classic island-style journalism. It encourages locals to participate, as you dont have to "wear any make-up or stuff".

The rest of the weekend was relaxing. Tyler and I had 'Burgers in Paradise' on a Friday "date night"  and James & Georgie went out sailing (and crayfish hunting, but sadly no luck) with their mates for the day on Saturday. That evening we all went along to watch Avatar outdoors at the Long Bay Resort, next to the pool. Now that the tourist season is starting to wind down here, all the hotels turn their attention back to us locals and we are 'allowed' to start using all the facilities again. We get really good rates & specials, and little extra's - like the free movies on Saturday evenings.  Being a cheap bunch, we all flock.

We're starting to fall in now with the ebb and flow of island life.  The summer is really starting to kick in again: fans are on all the time, AC full blast in the car and shorts,vests & slops  are de rigeur wear. The pace of life slows down and many people leave the island for both July & August, seeking cooler pastures. The schools break up for the year in four weeks time (for nearly 3 months holiday!) and Hurricane Season officially starts tomorrow, so it's back to radar-watching.




The Lesser Spotted Orange-Clawed Domestos Goddess
in GLOVES she was given for her birthday, because they
reminded someone of Martha Stewart. Do I look like MARTHA?



A 70's Girl Hall of Fame


As a follow-on to the last blog post - I'm having far too much fun with my What do my Seventies Teenage Pin-ups Look Like Now research, which has been kicked off by my rather pathetic realisation that we are all getting older and looking our age.

Bear with me whilst I work through this. I also can't promise it's going to end here either. It really is very absorbing. Even funnier, when my Mother-in-law emailed me today after the blog with a 'hands off Sean" mail, which made me laugh out loud.  I'm not quite at the "it's cool to be old" stage yet - but this is all very positive for the wrinkled brow (pre Botox, that is).

The research methodology is simple. Crude, in fact.  I've had a rather fabulous time thinking back on who was on my wall and then typing in their name into Google Images (2011) and then either being horrified or delighted.  I was at High School from 1975 to 1979 (my research parameters) and I prided myself on being a little 'alternative' a la PFP-Surfer-Hippy kind of thing...so definetly no Donny Osmond.

The results - we now see here on the page - are both good for our recently depleted hormones and other idle moments (huh? I wrote that?). Anyway, they all look great and good on them for that.

JOHN MacENROE



ROBERT REDFORD



Just as interesting as who looks good now - is who dosn't. I would post them - but this is a pretty blog - and it's also too depressing. So very quickly, those who didn't make the cut were Bjorn Borg (eeeeek), Jan Michael Vincent (What Happened?!) Tony Alva (you are not Anthony Kiedis, you are a 70's skateboarder) Kenny Roberts (always slightly dodgy) and Jean Claude Killy (looks like a European Commissioner - in fact, worse).

Ayrton Senna is sadly dead, so he still looks good.



BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN



DAVID BOWIE



Enraptured

Shot in the Bahamas by Annie Liebowitz

Well, we’re all still here. No-one (we know) was raptured off. Of course there was an 'End of the World' Braai on Saturday evening, where we ate lots of delicious potjie and boerewors, whilst humming Abigail's brilliant End of the World playlist including REM ("it's the end of the world as we know it") and Blondie (Rapture) . Any excuse for a party, not that you need one here.

The Facebook fascination has already waned a bit since I’ve realized that my rather waspish sense of humour probably doesn’t translate too well onto jaunty Facebookland – so I’m switching myself off, and will resist the urge to make witty remarks, especially after a few Rum & Tings.

  

Shaun Tomson  at 55

The other shock of FB is the age thing. I’ve managed to delude myself for quite a long time that I’m not actually looking my age yet and that on Bad Days when I look about a 100, it’s blamed on the angle/the light/the children/lack of sleep or whatever I can think of really and consider it a passing thing. The reality of course is brought home when you see your peers and how they look now - which is, um, ur, well ......older.  Oy Gewildt (as my favourite and now re-connected house mate, living in Sydney, would say) my delusions have vanished and I'm off for Botox at Christmas (not that my friends arn't beautiful, just a little bit greyer!).

I felt I needed to cheer myself up with some glamorous images of gorgeous Wrinklies – like this super-divine one of Sean Connery at 78 years.  I'm not usually one for pin-ups, but isn’t this seriously good Older Girls crumpet?

Older Girls Crumpet #2 has to be Shaun Tomson, all-round Surfing Hero and Fabulous Fella. A Saffa too. (it was Laird Hamilton, but I reconsidered this. Sorry Laird!). I had this huge poster of Shaun on  my teenage wall, shining down on me. Once a surfer-girl...

Laird, however, is now a SUP hero and  I did like what he had to say (click here) about how people (like me) can SUP, so Laird, you inspired me to get up - without my Zimmer frame - onto a surfboard again, so thank you!

OK that’s enough perving for one day, though I was just starting to enjoy myself here.  I might have to carry on with this ‘research’ – it has definitely cheered me up!!

Mark Zuckerberg slightly worries me

I feel like I may have recently cracked the human genome secret or something. I now know what everyone else is doing with their lives – they’re spending it on Facebook!

As a sad latecomer to the wonders of social-networking, I’ve done the equivalent of the 0 to 100 in 60 seconds type conversion and even forgot to feed the children lunch on Sunday I was so absorbed looking at everyone else’s friends.

It’s the ultimate 21st century toy, isn’t it? It’s pleasantly voyeuristic in it’s ability to keep an eye on the cosy Global Village (the twitching net curtains aspect). It has the ability to adopt a rather carefree - dare I say it vaguely teenage laizez faire attitude to everything (“OMG you have hairy arms!!!!!!!!”) and it has the wonderful ability to allow you to edit your life as you would like it to be. Have to say, I’m completely hooked.

I do find this whole “do you want to be my friend” thing rather nerve-wracking and am left wondering who said “definitely not, stupid cow”. I’m also intrigued that there is only a ‘Like’ button and not a ‘Don’t Like’ one for the sake of keeping everything upbeat. I’m also now slightly freaked out that people are going to post hideous pictures of me, particularly ones where your face is sliding off after 25 Painkillers and have filed a new memo to self not to get drunk in public anymore (not that I ever do, of course).

The age-democracy thing, in that ones friends teenage children can read all the stuff you normally only talk about when they have left the room, also slightly unnerves me and what's with the Greta Garbo ones where it says So and So only shares some information with certain people – is that the equivalent to the  Facebook VIP Lounge or something?

Best of all however, is the mercenary ability to manage friendships where you can just Unfriend’ (is this a new verb?) someone and literally switch them off. So easy, so mess-free - oh for that to translate to the real world!

But who needs the real world when you’ve got FB hey?