The other reason why I was up early was because Dwayne, in case an emergency exit out the front door was required, locked the door but left the key in the lock so we could make a quick escape! And thus we have crowned a new Captain Safety...sorry Uncle Dave! Because the cook, Julia, and the housekeeper, Mardell, were arriving at 8:00am I got up at 7:45am wondering if they tried to unlock the front door from the outside and the key was in the lock on the inside, would the door still unlock and open for them? When I came into the hall Dwayne was just coming up the stairs from unlocking the door, apparently he had wondered the same thing!
When Julia arrived we all sat on the patio and made a meal plan for the week and then went grocery shopping. Dwayne decided to come with me to the grocery store and when we got outside the house he climbed into the back of the van and let Julia get in the front. She said "You sittin' in the back?" he said he was ok in the back and then she thumbed it over to me and said "She a good driver?"..better than him, trust me. Though Dwayne said today.."play dumb in the kitchen and you don't have to cook.." I get the drift, play like a bad driver...Leanne seemed pretty adamant that he not drive though, so there must be something there. When we arrived to the store I asked Julia if I was a good driver, she said "ya, you a good driver". On the drive I was asking her a lot of questions about Barbados..like what are the Barbadian people called? They're Bajans (sounds like Cajuns); there is little crime on the island, but there are crimes of opportunity so to make sure we lock the doors to the car; most Bajans own their homes and live in a "family home" where they all live together and it passes through the family; public school is free to age 17/18; there are 4 Universities on the island; their main export is sugar and other stuff I can't remember. I could t get a good idea of what the wages are or how much a home costs to buy..she was sketchy on those type things and said wages depend on what you do (obviously) and wouldn't elaborate even as I asked and homes wouldn't give me a rough idea. I thought maybe it was because she's private, but then she told me about her period pains and the delivery of her son, so I'm not sure what's up.
When we got back from the grocery store Jay, Trev, Lea and the girls were at the beach. We changed into our swim suits and they arrived home so we jumped in the pool before lunch and cooled off. The weather here is pretty much perfect. Its a high of 29 and a low of 26 every day. Its humid and so it rains every day a little bit, though today didn't rain at all and yesterday it only rained for about 5 minutes on our drive to the house.
Dwayne read the blog this morning and laughed at all the appropriate places and then later said to me - I want to read the blog again tomorrow...uh, and see what happens? while here..on vacation...with me...ok...
We had lunch on the patio again and went for another swim. Dwayne was sitting with his feet in the pool and said "Dana, you've opened my eyes to a whole new way to travel - and I like it!" and Leanne said the same thing later when she came down from their room and Mardell had done the laundry in the hamper and folded it and left it back up on the bed. They've got the baby next year, so might not be able to join us, wherever that trip may be, but they've got the right of first refusal sewn up. While Dwayne and Trev sat at the edge with their feet dangling in, I was in the pool easing in. The pool is refreshing because it's just heated by the sun, but the air is about 80 and humid, so the pool is 80 and my kids are wimps! Anyway, Sophie was looking a little cagey and whispered something in Trev's ear. Of course, because I think the world revolves around me, I think she's planning on splashing me wet while I'm adjusting to the temperature of the water. About 5 mins goes by and she's getting really restless, I've asked a couple times what she's up to and she just giggles. Then, no one is paying attention and all of the sudden Dwayne is in the pool! Haha - her plan was for Trev to push him in! Later when we came back from the beach to get in the pool Paige stopped in her tracks, looked at Dwayne and put up her two hands and said "I am not the one that pushed you in the pool!" Haha - I said to Sophie that she should tell him "no, I'm not the one who pushed you in the pool!".
A little while later Paige asked me if I would go to the beach with her since I missed it this morning so I said sure! The girls, Dwayne, Trev and I ended up at the beach - Jay was sleeping and Avery said "I'm too tired to go to the beach" which suited Lea just fine, who I'm pretty sure was thinking she had totally scored (but then Avery never went to sleep!).
The walk to the beach is a little perilous. Its across the street and down the road literally a block for the beach access, so close, and yet the roads are so narrow that its absolutely dangerous. We heard a beep beep beep at one point, a little car giving us a heads up its coming up on us from behind? Oh no, a HUGE bus traveling 60 km an hour and baring down on us and our little slice of roadside sidewalk/path. The bark absolutely did not match the bite on that one! And then it happened again, it really was just a courtesy beep but it should be a HONK! Buses should not sound like Hyundais!
I brought my camera and took a few photos of the beach..Dwayne said "No pictures of this (body sweep with the arms) on Facebook"...I said "same here".
We played in the water for a bit and then decided to move a little further down the beach because it was fairly rocky (like bits of reef rock) where we had set up and Trev said while they were there earlier in the day they were down further and it was more sandy.
We dropped the bags on the sand up near the wall, under this tree and went back in the water with the girls. There weren't any breaking waves, but there were some big rollers..some big rollers that swept right up to our bag and washed all our stuff out as the wave retreated! We managed to gather everything while 3 Bajan workers looked on, probably thinking 'stupid tourists' as they laughed inside at us scrambling and screaming to grab our stuff! So then we dropped our stuff ON the wall instead of BY the wall.
Shortly after that Trev and Dwayne took the girls a little further down the beach where it looked like there might be some waves and I stayed in the water by our stuff to watch for Jay and Leanne in case they came down to the beach. They came down a few minutes later and I told Lea that Dwayne and the girls were over on the other side of the point where it looked like there were some waves and she asked if you could surf over there, but I didn't think so. Dwayne and Trev made their way back to where we were all swimming with the girls, the waves weren't that good over there either. Then a surfer walked across the beach a little later and Leanne said to me "I want to take lessons with THAT guy"..."Yeah right" I said and then "I'm right here.." said Jay "and Dwayne is right there.." and pointed to Dwayne..then Jay says "the only thing that could make that funnier is if Dwayne was going like this" and posed like a body builder with one arm pointed toward the horizon!
Shortly after that Trev and Dwayne took the girls a little further down the beach where it looked like there might be some waves and I stayed in the water by our stuff to watch for Jay and Leanne in case they came down to the beach. They came down a few minutes later and I told Lea that Dwayne and the girls were over on the other side of the point where it looked like there were some waves and she asked if you could surf over there, but I didn't think so. Dwayne and Trev made their way back to where we were all swimming with the girls, the waves weren't that good over there either. Then a surfer walked across the beach a little later and Leanne said to me "I want to take lessons with THAT guy"..."Yeah right" I said and then "I'm right here.." said Jay "and Dwayne is right there.." and pointed to Dwayne..then Jay says "the only thing that could make that funnier is if Dwayne was going like this" and posed like a body builder with one arm pointed toward the horizon!
Some other fun pictures of the girls climbing the trees and at the beach.
We headed back to the house, with the wet towels, wet flip flops, and wet beach cover ups that had been dragged into the ocean and rinsed everything off in the outdoor shower and then went for a swim in the pool...rough day!
The girls had a snack, Trev made tequila sours and then I went and grabbed some chips and salsa and brought them out - only I had bought taco sauce instead of salsa (picture salsa flavour in a tomato soup form). It turned out to be not so bad...we were chatting about the house later and Dwayne said something about how he liked at the top of the stairs to the bedrooms there are metal gates that you can close and latch..like in case of a home invasion (good lord). And I said to him, the only problem is that someone would leave taco sauce at the gate for him, like a trojan horse, and he would say 'oh look, taco sauce' and open up the gates!
This is one of the nights that Julia isn't doing dinner, so we went into Holetown and went to a pizza place for dinner on the beach. Its a restaurant that Lea had found online. It was really good, but the kids were all tired. At one point Avery just dropped her head onto the table..and I can't remember if that was before or after we ate.
This is one of the nights that Julia isn't doing dinner, so we went into Holetown and went to a pizza place for dinner on the beach. Its a restaurant that Lea had found online. It was really good, but the kids were all tired. At one point Avery just dropped her head onto the table..and I can't remember if that was before or after we ate.
Sophie was a bear too all through dinner...finally at home after she had been impossible for so long I said "what's the matter with you?" She said "I just don't know!" - too much fun in the sun today!
We were sitting down on the patio, just before I came up to bed and to write, listening to music when the music turned off. I said to Trev "what happened to the music?" He pointed to Dwayne and Dwayne said "I like to play with the music.." I said "I like to listen to whole songs"..Dwayne apparently likes to listen to the first 30 seconds of every song and then switch...maybe I'll reneg on their rights of first refusal...but probably not, its a first offence.
We were sitting down on the patio, just before I came up to bed and to write, listening to music when the music turned off. I said to Trev "what happened to the music?" He pointed to Dwayne and Dwayne said "I like to play with the music.." I said "I like to listen to whole songs"..Dwayne apparently likes to listen to the first 30 seconds of every song and then switch...maybe I'll reneg on their rights of first refusal...but probably not, its a first offence.
We're the mermaids able to swim on their own?
ReplyDelete