Monday in the Tropics

It's Monday morning. Nephew has gone off to school, SIL and Brother are off to work. Boy and I are kicking about. After a fairly busy few days it's no bad thing. I don't know about Boy, but the chance to get my breath back is welcome.

We went to my Brother's estate in Mayaro. It's fantastic out there, rural Trinidad in all it's dry and dusty magnificence. This has been a hard dry season. There have been bush fires burning for days, they fill the valleys with ash and thick blue smoke that plays havoc with sinuses. Even the mozzies have been scarce, though I haven't missed their presence particularly. They love foreign flesh. Despite the dry conditions, we still saw lots of local wildlife ranging from tarantulas to tocans, wild parrots and woodpeckers. My brother took me for a quick walk in the bush to inspect a tract of land being cleared for planting. He grows hardwoods. He and I are opposites in many ways. He has a work ethic that would have many Protestants hanging their heads in shame. Whereas I can do nothing happily for days on end. He will sit down for the two minutes required to plan his To Do List and then he's up and doing. I'm so proud of what he and SIL have achieved. They've worked so hard to build the life they have today.

On Saturday morning, SIL took us to a shopping mall. Joy is a shoe shop. I have small feet. In the UK, I'm a 3.5 which is technically a children's size, which makes shopping for grown up shoes a bit of a nightmare. I went a bit mad and bought 4 pairs of shoes. I must admit, I'm thinking of going back for a few more. Fortunately, I have space in my luggage.

In the evening, we headed up to the Beach House on the North Coast. A word of warning, don't play cards with my family, they will end up wiping the floor with you. Boy and I had our arses handed to us with a cherry on top. Yesterday, after breakfast we headed down to the beach. The tropical sun, in a few days has given me the colour that I worked all summer in my garden. I'm slathering up well with sunscreen.

These are our last few days here and we still have quite a few people to catch up with. Two weeks just isn't long enough. It's been so good for us to be here. Three years is far too long to be away.