Antigua might well advertise 365 beaches but to access
them by road is no mean feat in fact, it is impossible; at least that is what we
found when we drove towards Dickensons Bay with the mistaken idea of obtaining
lunch there and playing for a while on the beach and in the water, with
Mia.
That end of the island appears to be much more prosperous
than the rest; Sandals and other all inclusive hotels with beach access, as well
as many expensive, private properties, populate the area.
We found three beaches, one quite tiny. It was next to a
Trappas style restaurant although the tables were all adorned with pristine,
white table cloths and quite unsuitable for a noisy dynamo named Mia.
Although there has been next to no rain since we moved
into the apartment 7th March, it poured with rain before 8.30, on the
morning of Easter Sunday and Monday. Fortunately, although the rain was heavy,
it was short-lived and the sun came out but there remained a fair bit of cloud
throughout the day.
There have been some wonderful pelican displays just
before dusk, at Nelson’s Dock Yard. At least twenty were soaring and diving on
at least two evenings over the Easter holiday.
Dick has started to play on-line Bridge and has had
several sessions playing tournaments with our friend Richard who lives in
Spain. It is
amazing to see the various locations from which players connect. We have played
with and against, people who live in
India,
Brazil,
Guadeloupe,
Australia,
Italy,
UK,
Switzerland,
Poland,
Russia, etc.
Quite incredible really that the www can bring all these people together like
this. Mind you, there is still a lot of agro via messaging back and forth
between partners and against opposition.
One of the things I find off putting is that people don’t
appear to be very committed to the game they are playing and think nothing of
leaving the “table” while half way through a game.
Now that we no longer have the boat, we have started to
plan where we might like to spend next winter and have been checking out
locations on the internet. At present, I quite fancy
Brazil,
particularly as Mia might be able to spend some time with her Brazilian
relatives if we do go there. Possibly think about South
America in general and definitely Cape Horn.
Easter Monday, Caroline and I went to Hot! Hot! Hot!
This is a café at the Dock Yard,
where we were to attend an art lesson. However, this is
Antigua and we are on Caribbean
time so, we were not too put out to find that the class had been rescheduled for
Tuesday because Monday was a holiday. We went back again on Tuesday but the café
was closed and no-one was sitting outside. We climbed up the external, wooden
stairs to the Signal Locker to make enquiries and were told that the meet was
behind the building. Although we were not early, there were only three people
present. Another joined ten minutes into the session. Caroline is so very
talented but any talent I have has all but disappeared from lack of use; Dick
did a brilliant job of looking after Mia while we were away, on both
occasions.
It was a useful session and we were set homework to
produce at least one drawing a day until we all meet again on the following
Monday.
We are tending to eat too much, having lunch out every
couple of days. Lunchtime suits us better because Caroline and Mia are able to
join us; also we don’t really care to go out after dark, especially as we are
not in a very populated area.
I roasted a turkey breast for lunch on Easter Sunday but
as there were only three of us, plus Mia, we didn’t have the bacon rolls,
sausages or gammon; to have done so would have meant that it would have crawled
away on its own before we could have consumed it all. As it was, we were eating
the dessert for several days before the remainder was put in the
freezer.
By mid week, Mia had a fever with a temperature of
102.7º; very scary for Caroline who, alone on the boat, spent all night trying
to cool the baby down. Fortunately, by late afternoon the next day, Mia’s
temperature appeared to be back to normal.
I haven’t been able to buy any grapefruit this week.
Don’t know whether that is because Easter messed up the boat delivery from
Dominica or
whether the season is over.
We located the Red Cross centre in
St Johns with a view to donating the
things we won’t be taking back with us to
Europe.
Once again we ate at Trappas, this time accompanied by
Chris and Graham from Eowyn; they had arrived the previous day and were spending
a few days in an apartment at Jolly
Harbour, before their boat is put
back in the water. The next day, Dick’s birthday, we met Caroline and lunched at
a beach restaurant at Long
Bay. Mia was unable to join us as
coincidentally, it being her father’s birthday, he wanted his toddler to spend
some time with him.
It poured with rain on the morning of the 15th
April and heavy cloud remained throughout the rest of the day, reminding me that
when we woke on that morning in 2000, still living in Hampshire, it was snowing
and the snow had started to settle. This was just a tiny bit daunting because we
had arranged to spend a couple of days on the Solent, in
a motor cruiser, learning how to operate it, with a view to possibly buying a
similar type of boat.
It poured with rain while we were lunching at
Long
Bay and it became necessary to move
to a table which was less likely to get wet. The wind was strong and Caroline,
unused to the colder weather was quite chilly. We were grateful that Mia wasn’t
with us as she would not have been very happy with these conditions. In fact, we
would have had to abandon our lunch to find somewhere warmer for the
baby.
The rest of the week, our last week here in
Antigua and there has been a lot of cloud and rain at
least once a day.
We filled the car with bags of clothes and produce which
we took to the Red Cross centre at St
Johns. Caroline kindly took for us, yet another box full
of medical items, mainly dressings and bandages, to the paramedic’s office at
Falmouth.
I packed the bags and we were ready to go. Goodbye
Antigua, don’t know when we will see you
again.
