Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Indian River tour





Fab. This is the shot where Johnny Depp went to see the Sorcerer at night (but it was really filmed in the day). Anyway, this is what her house looked like and this is what it is like now. Disney built the house around the trees. Now, I really must watch these movies so I know vaguely what I'm talking about...

Monday, December 29, 2008

Scarlett


Sometimes, you just need your own time out...

Christmas Eve


So, we park our car in Pointe Baptiste village and walk down a dirt track for 10 minutes or so until we reach the beach. It's breathtaking, white sand but fairly impressive waves ensure we don't walk too close to the shoreline. You can see the end of the beach to the left and right. The kids run off to the left so we follow behind. Now, I'm lazy on these beaches, I sort of drift up and down the middle and can never be quite bothered to go to the very end, however, Scarlett was determinedly striding on so I had to follow. On reaching the end I spotted two very smart teak chairs nestled amongst the palm trees. I looked around and saw no-one except two children playing. I got a bit nervous imagining all sorts of horrors having happened to their parents (well, you always read these family at beach go missing headline tragedies on Christmas Eve don't you?). So, I asked them 'were they looking forward to tomorrow and what did they want from Santa Claus?'....child one then reeled off a whole list of things all beginning with two letters and ending in several numbers, none of which I'd heard of but nodded with a fixed smile on my face whilst ascertaining she's definitely not local, child two then said she wanted a Rubix cube, I warmed to her immediately. At that point a lady in white linen floaty trousers, silk top and lots of gold appeared from no-where, with a crystal glass in her hand and smiled warmly. Phew, she must be somone's mother I thought and realised I could now abandon them without feeling guilty. Upon turning around I heard more clinking of glass and spotted some lights twinkling through the palm trees. Andy then told me to go and look. Why me? Why do I have to be the great adventurer - I like to be the one following. Anyway,I did what I usually do and found a child (yes, one of mine) and pushed them forwards into the undergrowth, so I could look like I was following them. Well, 10 steps in and I see a scene straight out of Fantasy Island - 5* beach bar, lovely solid tables, comfortable seats and all set upon perfect sand. I then realise I am amongst the beautiful people too and whilst I am looking suitably windswept and mother of three-ish, with bulging pockets of just-in-case items, they are all looking like Ralph Lauren beach photoshoot models. I get close to the bar and my heart starts thumping, it's someone's house, I'm going to get evicted swiftly. As I turn to leave, a lady appears before me, with the largest smile accompanied by 'welcome to my bar, have a glass of ice cold Chardonnay'. I was speechless. I'd got in and hadn't even had to utter a secret password to cross the threshold. What was this amazing place, welcoming host and would the Odd Job character suddenly appear and say 'Mrs Sawers, your fantasy has begun'. I found myself a seat, sat down, relaxed and thought about all my friends and family that I'd like to join me at this very minute. Dominica - Defy the Everyday - you bet.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Happy Holidays




Happy Christmas to you and yours!
We're off to stay in Calibishie Lodges now and we've rented our Villa out.
The Lodges are run by a Belgian couple....so, it will be home from home...I guess.

Friday, December 12, 2008

'Tis the season to be merry


We had our first 'crop' of bananas yesterday which is great but note, crop, quite a few ripen at the same time, err, obvious really. So, last night after force feeding the children as many as possible accompanied by 'isn't this fantastic, our own bananas off our own tree, aren't they even sweeter' in a Mary Poppins type voice (I need more adult company clearly), I acknowledged that we need to distribute their useage more. Chloe suggests banana cake in a resigned voice (think she still wistfully recalls the days of going round the supermarket and buying what she refers to as 'real' cakes, you know those pink Disney Princess packaged ones with over 100+ bizarre ingredients in in v.tiny writing that you can't read. (With the calorie content displayed in large letters too as if kids care?). Saying that, there is still a packet lurking in the bottom of our fridge our friend brought out, that no-one's touched so maybe they have moved on....

Anyway, I then did a Google on banana recipes and something caught my eye - Banana Daiquris - bingo - banana, fresh lime juice, ice, shot of rum, teaspoon of sugar, throw it in the liquidiser and there you go. The whole process caught the kids' interest too (noisy ice crushing sounds fun) so we used up a few more bananas making more, yeah yeah, minus the rum. The childrens' Christmas school fair is tomorrow, think I should set up a little stand selling cocktails. Would just need to add a touch of tinsel to the straw....

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Yes, we're getting there....


Moving somewhere new is a learning curve in all sorts of ways from learning the language (yes, there's someone at work and I don't have a clue what they're talking about on a daily basis so I just nod and smile a lot like an interviewer on TV) to learning how to drive all over again - well I will drive sooooon. In addition, the art of improvisation (the swimming pool) and trying again is almost a daily occurence. For us, coming from a throwaway society, this has been a whole new ball game. Foremost being, we throw away practically no food at all. This week, our coffee machine decided it didn't like grinding much anymore so now I still use fresh local coffee beans, grind a load in the liquidizer and now still use the coffee machine on a daily basis (Starbucks eat your heart out) and use the fresh powder instead of beans. (There were a lot of 'fresh's' in that weren't there - well everything is here ok!) That would have thrown me 6 months ago but now I'm much more matter of fact about things I can't change. That's not to say I still get frustrated but I put everything into perspective much quicker and realise it's not the end of the world. I'll aways be a worrier and about things I can't change but give me a hammock and I'm horiontal in a jiffy or two.....

ps Bless his octton sox, he tried again this morning and they're fab!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Yum yum, lovely love




Busy busy busy lately. Time flies - can't believe it's nearly Christmas - got the decorations out over the weekend - the kids will get really excited when we unpack them - however, their biggest concern is Santa Clause finding them as we'll be travelling around, aka gypsies really, for 10 days

Found new hot pools recently and finally had a bath. Our builder was horrified when we rejected all the baths in the house in favour of showers only and he insisted on leaving plumbing - sticking out naturally.

Also, Andy attempted bagels with the kids - trying to compete with my magnificent baps (ok ok) no doubt.... Anyway, it all went swimmingly until a 7hr power cut ensured that they rose like the Eiffel Tower then proceeded to deflate over the hours finally resembling flattened dehydrated doughnuts. Andy was determined to cook them so we (me), every morning, are crunching into these bagels resembling those toy turds you see in joke shops. They taste ok mind, well not NY cinnamon & raisin bagels but if you don't succeed first time, try............well, I sincerely hope not...

Work started on the pool today - I didn't see any difference myself but nodded enthusiastically upon my return from work.....you gotta stay positive....