beds, beds and more beds

we've just enjoyed a blessed week down in Bristol with our eldest son, his wife and our three wonderful little grandchildren and we will update a little more thoughts about that time later in the week however as a fill in we wanted to share a short post with a poem.

if you've been followed our blog you will be very aware that since leaving South Africa at the end of February we've been living out of our suitcase and therefore feel a little nomadic. With all our moving around we've just counted up we've slept in 17 different beds, we actually wish that we'd taken a photo off each one, however without those pictures we hope that this poem will capture the essence of the journey.

Beds.

Long beds, short beds, hard beds and soft beds, 

Beds with pillows and some with out,

Beds in rooms against the walls, beds in rooms as big as grand halls,

our latest bed in newquay, cornwall
which is VERY nice and soft!

Beds so narrow with little space, beds so big you leave little trace,

Beds blessed with views across the seas with windows wide open to catch the breeze,

Beds with mosquito nets to stop the bites, others with out nets so you lay awake with eyes shut tight,

Duvets and blankets on beds to warm, some have covers against the storm,

Bedside cabinets aside to place a light, to scare the ghosts of the night,

Beds so high you can hardly see the floor, others in rooms where you can reach the door,

Some beds so old that their all threadbare but with a place to lay your head you just don't care,

Noises outside that keep you awake, just shut up for heavensake,

You lay in bed counting the sheep, just trying to catch some beauty sleep.

........

we hope you enjoyed that and we'll update more about Bristol later in the week!

home is where the heart is.....

stunning sunset setting

it's really hard to know how to start this latest blog post as much of what we are going to be updating is basically normal life that we knew prior to us moving out to South Africa in 2008 and although we have been blessed with annual trips home it has to be said life in England has moved on and feels different to that which we left in 2008.

since arriving back from the Caribbean last Friday we have had the opportunity to catch up with some friends and family and so we hope that this post will give you a flavour of the times we have enjoyed back in our homeland.

maz and mandy enjoying some tidy up time

our base for this part of our journey has been with our good friends Trefor and Mandy who, with their family, have made it very easy for us to settle back in, their laid back approach to life certainly helps to give us the space we need to get our heads around some of the bigger questions that our filling our thoughts and they continue to be the blessing to us as we take this time of reflection and planning. it has also been great just to muck in with some daily tasks, such as a bit of gardening, but with the freedom to come and go as we please and we are truly thankful for their ongoing support.

marianne pampering maz!

There have been many highlights during the last week, from the opportunity to meet up with some old friends who we shared life with via our home groups that we led prior to us taking up God’s call for us to set up and run the Village of Hope to us having chance to enjoy one of the traditional English staple foods which we so miss when we are away….what food we hear you ask? The Great British Indian takeaway of course!

man on a mission

We enjoyed a quick trip up to London for a meeting and had the chance to wander down to Marble Arch and the West End of Oxford Street and Maz was also able to get her haircut, the first since we left South Africa in February, hasn’t she done well.

It was a blessing to visit our friend Marianne who pampered us for the morning at her beauty salon and even a visit to Milton Keynes shopping centre was not as bad as we had both feared.

perfectly braiied ribbetje

On Thursday evening I (Tim) was able to share my braai (think BBQ but over a full evening not a flash on a gas grill and run into the house to escape the cold and wet English weather which so many English people think is a braai) skills which were honed in Grabouw. Dave and Suzanne had visited us with their family a couple of years ago and were keen to bring back some good memories of just chilling, maybe even ‘Liming’ (see previous posts here!), around a fire, cooking food (including some lamb ribbetje, inspired by Jannie Wiegman Easter Braai a couple of years ago )and enjoying each others company. We were blessed with some unusually warm weather and a long twilight which eventually turned to darkness about 10pm.

liming at the braai....

alternative route for walkers

Whilst Maz enjoyed being pampered at the hairdressers I had the chance to take a longish walk in the beautiful countryside which surrounds our home town, the Chiltern Hills are such a haven of peace and it was great to spend some time with my Dad just walking some of the old paths that we’d enjoyed in my youth. In fact we walked part of the ancient path called the Ridgeway which is claimed to be Britain's oldest road.

We had to laugh at a signpost which announced that it was an ‘alternative footpath for Walkers only’, that certainly speaks into our lives at the moment!

emma's home!

The week ended with a visit to see Emma Podmore at her stately home (she is currently enjoying a much needed break with friends at Stowe School which shares the same design as Buckingham Palace), Emma, like us, gave up her secure job in England to follow God’s call to come serve with us at the Thembalitsha Foundation, Emma is such a blessing and we enjoyed spending the afternoon with her walking around the stunning gardens and having a bite to eat at the National Trust restaurant.

huffing and puffing

Over the weekend we were able to celebrate Maz’ Dad’s birthday a couple of weeks early as we will be away on the day and then spend the evening watching one of the most traditional English events, yup 'The Eurovision Song Contest', this surreal musical event brings back so many memories of our childhoods that we couldn't resist the chance to really immerse ourselves into the 'Euro culture' we have missed during our time in Africa. well done to Sweden who won for the sixth time, with a catchy song however we don't feel that this act will go on to replicate their 1974 winners success, ABBA, remember them? at least the entry from Great Britian got a few votes and beat those from France and Germany, but finished behind the Austrialian entry (we thought this was supposed to be an all European event!)

On Sunday afternoon we were joined by our middle son Josh and his girlfriend Haddy, amongst others, for a wonderful meal which was cooked by Trefor and Mandy 

selfie with josh and haddy

Finally at the end of that long list we must say that our week has been a total blessing with little to get up for and the opportunity to relax together, this was highlighted one afternoon as we got onto the trampoline (which sits in the garden) and took time to be still and stare into the sky, which at the time seemed so still and empty, however the longer we looked up the more activity we noticed, the sky was simply full of things buzzing around, huge aeroplanes either starting or ending their flights into the International airports of Heathrow or Luton, smaller planes and helicopters travelling more locally, Swifts and Swallows gliding and screeching above the stable yard, Red Kites and Kestrels hovering and then diving over the hills, tiny bees busying themselves with their pollen collection, and the sky filled with majestic clouds of all shapes and sizes. We have entitled this post ‘home is where the heart is’ and it must be said that England is a hard place to beat……

…..’to be in England in the summertime with my love’.

time stops for no man...

view from our beach chairs

we can hardly believe as we sit here staring out of our window here in rural Buckingham with rain falling from a slate grey sky that this time last week we were walking along the white sand beaches with the clear and warm blue ocean tempting us to cool off from the Caribbean sun.

the British certainly have an obsession with the weather and most of our friends and family have commented on the colour of us both, especially Maz, but it's true to say that weather certainly does have the ability to influence both ones mood and also the activities that can be undertaken, we feel so blessed to have been able to spend our last week in Barbados being able to walk from our beach front apartment into the glorious sunshine which greeted us every morning and we pray that God will bless England with some sunshine soon.

boardwalk around historic bridgetown

Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, is full of history mostly based around the sugar trade and they even have a statue of Lord Nelson, the great British naval admiral, his statue was erected in 1813 and the square, originally called Trafalgar Square, came into being long before the more famous one in London!
today the center of Bridgetown is a bustling little town full of local people going about their daily business, with a couple of streets dedicated to cater for the large volume of tourists who descend from their cruise ships to waste away their time

statue of nelson with bajan flag on church

in Barbados to shop 'duty free'. these cruise ships certainly dwarf the town when they dock on the newly constructed port and for a few hours a week the town and surrounding tourist sights become overwhelmed by these day visitors.

fortunately our little beach apartment was situated at the opposite end of town on the beautiful Carlisle Bay towards the more formal international hotels and tourist areas of St Lawrence Gap, which also cater for the thousands of visitors who make their way to this tropical paradise during the summer months, December through to April, however it seems that we were 'out of season' and the beaches were almost empty and apart from the local fitness enthusiasts who walked back and forth on the mile long beach religiously each morning and evening.

maz swimming with turtles

whilst Maz had been doing a bit of snorkeling in Grenada, and at the east of the island the week before, her dreams came true as the waters that surrounded our beach were full of shipwrecks, which have now been formally turned into a marine park, where brightly coloured fish and even Hawksbill sea turtles swam around to their hearts delight. 

storm a brewing over the ocean

there were local businesses offering to take us out to the wrecks on their party style catamarans however with Maz being such a strong swimmer she literally donned her mask and snorkel and swam out to be greeted by these stunning ocean creatures.


we did take an afternoon sunset ride on one of these catamarans, which plied us with some lovely rum punch throughout the trip, which took us up the west coast of the island to dive onto some of the multitude of coral reefs which are found along that coast, I'm (Tim) not that confident swimming in open water but I couldn't pass this opportunity by and joined Maz in the warm water to gawp at the awesome array of fish which ignored us to attend to their daily disputes over the best feeding areas on the reef. 

space to lime overlooking the beach!

during the trip we were surprised and excited to experience literally hundreds of flying fish jumping in front and round our boat, this has to be one of the strangest of natural sights in the world, these little fish jump out of the water and glide tens of meters before gracefully splashing back into the ocean, just a shame we couldn't capture this on our camera and oh yes they taste great fried too!

caribbean colours

our final week was made all the more enjoyable when we meet up with some local Bajan's who were holidaying in an apartment next to ours, Jennifer and Margaret not only hosted us for a cheese and wine evening but also joined us on the sunset cruise which was very enjoyable.

maz, jennifer and margaret liming on carlise bay

Andrew and Tracey, our initial contacts on the island also invited us round for a fish supper, cooked on Andrew's gas fired BBQ, and it was great to be welcomed into their home to meet their friends and family who certainly know how to have a fun time.

fish supper with andrew and his family

however all things must come to an end and on Thursday afternoon we made our sad way to the international airport for the long night flight back to England where we were greeted by Tim's mum and dad who had bought some cold but brightish weather with them.

brother mark's birthday celebrations

over the weekend we saw many family and friends, with birthday's to be celebrated and stories to be shared however we really can't believe that those last nine weeks are already over and we've having to adjust to being back in England, that said the journey is not over yet with many other exciting experiences awaiting us over the next few months and to be home for a while with family and friends is also very special.

this week we have been mostly by the sea....

view from house by day

now you may have guessed but this blog is written and constructed by me, Tim, although i do consult Maz before pressing the 'publish' button in the top right hand corner of the 'compose page', my surmising that you would know it's me is via the use of the terms 'we' and 'us' instead of 'I' and 'me', if you've not noticed then thank you, if you have please bear with us as we seek to provide you with an update on our continuing journey.

this last week we have enjoyed some wonderful time in a beach house on the eastern side of Barbados at a long stretch of beach called 'Cattlewash', yes indeed in the old days the local farmers did bring their cattle down from the hills which surround this stunning area, known locally as Scotland, (and one can see why with the landscape mirroring our most northern part of the British Isle, however not so the weather, which has continued to be hot and sunny, or the lack of wee midges but we digress) and wash them in the waves which pound this side of the island. 

view from house by moonlight

Cattlewash and it's neighbour, Bathsheba, still has a feel of a tropic paradise with golden sands and coconut palms meeting the clear blue sea, however the currents and rip tides that abound make it very hard or even dangerous to swim let for a few pools which are created around the strange 'beefburger' shaped rocks which lye along the shoreline.

that said we have ventured out with our snorkels to explore and we've been amazed at the plethora of sea life which inhabit these micro worlds, brightly coloured small fish are captured for a few hours in the pools at low tide which makes great viewing through our plastic covered eyes. we've also enjoyed watching three or four sea turtles playing in the evening surf, it really has been a blessed place to stay.

our food experiences have also been enhanced when a local lady came to make us dinner from some produce we had acquired from a street vendor at the top of the hill here in Cattlewash, that night we ate fishcakes and pumpkin fritters, breadfruit mash with a simple salad and gravy, the food was both fresh, spicy and filling but still lacked the variety we experienced in Grenada. 

view from bedroom with maz exercising 

we have walked along the wide stretches of beach but I've (Tim) been suffering from a recurrence of an achilles tendon issue which has dogged me for a few years, so mostly we have been sitting and reading in the glorious sunshine with views across the beach to the sea, however I've been impressed with Maz' determination to continue with her daily exercises, she really is a-maz-ing.

the moon has been almost full all week and as it rises from the east we have enjoyed some beautiful seascapes under the moonlight sky's and with the lack of mosquitoes we have slept with our doors open to the stunning sound of the waves and awoken not a little wet from the mist which blows from their tops.

maz has been enjoying the easy writing style of Laura Hildebrand, the second book by that author of the trip, after we both read the compelling 'unbroken' whilst in Grenada, Maz has galloped her way through the older and perhaps more famous story of 'Seabiscuit', it's about a race horse if you didn't get the pun!

stunning rocks inspired a line in the poem

i however have finished a simple and not too in depth account of the years that led up to the revolution in Grenada, written by an ex-prisoner Joseph Ewart Layne called 'we move tonight, the making of the Grenada revolution', it was good to gain some recent historical background on the country we had just visited, however my mind has really been opened by the two other books that captured my reading time.

the first, 'the old ways: a journey on foot' by Robert Macfarlane has encouraged me to think about the paths that we have taken during our lives, both with God as our guide and others via family circumstance, work or holidays and during the reading of that book it led me to another which i seem to remember was a BBC radio 4  book of the week way back in the late 1990's, 'stargazing' is the story of a young lighthouse keeper and recounts peter hill's summer experiences in 1973 as he found temporary work on three lighthouses off the coast of Scotland.

evening walk turtle spotting

both have been interesting to read as we sit listening to the crashing waves that pound the shore and they have both inspired me to write a short poem, only my second ever, and using a rhythm described in stargazing, so for your pleasure i have produced it below, it may need some tweaking but here goes.

'Sea'

'the sea like fire is friend and foe,
it's wave crest tops white a glow,
roar unending both day and night,
and fine mist ashore it doth bestow,

dangers lurk in waters clear,
sailors and bathers do both fear,
with rips and currently that give a fright,
a wide berth yourselves should steer,

it's depths a plenty do abound,
the many creatures that can be found,
on open fire cooked for our delight,
their sumptuous flavours do astound, 

its power and might can be seen,
formations in rocks from where its been,
boulders torn as if from a fight,
and pebbles all smoothed and clean,

deep blue sea meets light blue sky,
that is if the day breaks dry,
should the day be dull the grey fills the sight,
in any sky white seagulls swoop and cry,

don't be tempted by sea or play with fire,
both help for man but can be dire,
treat with contempt they sure will bite,
you could end up on the funeral pyre!'

we hope you enjoyed it, we now move on to Bridgetown for a week before flying back to England next Thursday.

Flying Fish, Bajan Buses and Fickle Fans

The title of this post should have a subheading which would help put some skin on the thin bones of the alliteration that we have been compiling as the title of the thoughts around our first week here in Barbados, it could read Flying Fish Cutters, The Crazy Public Bus Drivers and a Few Fickle West Indian Fans but by the end of this post you should have some idea of what we are taking about.

our home for the last week

Firstly lets be very clear we are very much enjoying Barbados, we have been made to feel so welcome by Andrew and Tracey, some friends whom our youngest son Arron met whilst he served on the YWAM base which in itself has become our home for the last week, the guys at YWAM have also allowed us space and a fantastic room in a house that was built for the owner of an old Sugar Plantation many hundreds of years ago, however life here is somewhat different from Grenada, our only other island to have a comparison and what follows below are some thoughts of those differences.

quaint country lanes (or bus racetrack!)

The public transport system here is absolutely wonderful, we have caught the local Blue Buses which enable us to travel the 45 minutes into and out of Bridgetown for around 60 pence or one dollar (US) each, and what with the lack of mountains that we endured on our journeys in Grenada the roads are mostly straight, there are even a couple of dual carriageways nearer to the city, however most of them are tight little country lanes as seen in those cute little Devonian villages with high sided banked hedgerows or long stretches along otherwise wide open plains with ditches which could be seen in Norfolk. (by the way the island is only 20 odd miles long so when we say long stretches that is stretching the point but we hope you get the picture)

maz in familar hang on pose on the night bus!

With the above in mind it would seem that the ‘Liming’ that we encountered in Grenada is once again lacking when a person gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, especially if it’s carrying around 40 passengers who have paid their tiny due for the pleasure of being hurtled around by a driver whose style (and we have found them all to be the same) is a mixture of Lewis Hamilton in his Formula One Mercedes (built in Brackley, England) on a quick qualifying lap around Monaco and Colin McRae (R.I.P) sliding his 'built for rally' Subaru Impreza through the snowfields of Norway.

chicken rice and peas

The passages have been a mix of local people, either on their way to and from work, some at the local prison, children and their parents on their way to church or on into town to do some shopping or a couple of cricket fans who have joined their other limited friends at the Kensington Oval for the Test Match with England, but more of them later.

Now on to the cuisine, long gone are the trees growing in every conceivable piece of land in Grenada which are harvested and included in a variety of local dishes, what seems to be the local staple here are the amazing little Flying Fish which the local fisherman catch with glee as they surf along in front of their boats before bring them ashore to be sold and then fried and stuffed into a bread roll, commonly known as a ‘Cutter’. 

maz enjoying a flying fish cutter on the local beach

You can get lots of different kinds of ‘Cutter’s’ and we should imagine other types of food, however we experienced a proliferation of chicken rice and peas and or chicken and macaroni cheese, but the variety seem to be much less than in Grenada and most of the food seems to be fried. Once again that said the Flying Fish Cutters are absolutely delicious and we could quite happily live on them for the rest of our stay.

One local deliciously that the Bajan’s are famous for (by the way Bajan is the term for anything or anyone coming or living on Barbados) is their rum and a variation on a theme, rum punch, which we have very much enjoyed each afternoon at the cricket.

day one and two crowd of home support!

OK so the cricket didn’t go as well as expected, England seemed to lose the plot in the second innings after bowling the West Indies out for a poor first innings total, the pitch which seemed to be a minefield for the batsmen on days one and two turned into a perfect batting wicket on day three, but by then the damage had been done by some very poor shot selection from our openers, we think we might have seen the end of our last remaining South African in the team with Mr Trott once again underperforming after his ‘time out’ during the last few months. Let’s get a real Englishman (thinking of one from Yorkshire to appease Geoffrey) in to open the batting, to build for the future and put out a few scouts to find better back up for the overworked James Anderson and find a spinner who could have made better use of the track than the poor Ali….anyways that’s getting off the topic that we really wanted to focus on, that of the fans who attended this test match.

Barbados is a real tourist hotspot and it was hardly surprising to see a huge amount of England fans (often touring under the Barmy Army Banner, but not all!) take a few days break to enjoy the sun on what we have heard has been a long spring in the homeland, in fact it’s a wonderful testimony to the English sports fans who travel the world, be that to follow our underperforming football team, rugby, even athletics and that new found icon cycling where we’ve heard of people travelling all the way to Leeds to watch ‘the Tour de France’!

home fans, with party girl on paint tin!

Our fans support their teams come rain or shine, good times or bad, win, draw or mostly lose they are there singing their hearts out, cheering on their heroes to the very last, however from what we experienced from our view from the Hewitt and Inniss stand block 132 the West Indian fans are a little more fickle, the term ‘you only sing when your winning’ comes to mind as during the first couple of days the local fans must have made up only ten percent of the crowd, at best, and once their team had the chance of winning the game they came, not in their numbers, which was a little sad as the ‘party stand’ seemed to miss the vibrancy that we experienced in Grenada, it’s had to get the hoped for atmosphere when you’re partying on your own.

We did however have one young lady in block 132 who was in the party mode, for the full last day she shouted and cheered at nothing in particular as she wasn’t watching the match and had more of an eye on the young Boy Scout troop who themselves sat transfixed on her gyrating in a brief cut pair of shorts, both those boys and some of the middle aged English fans sat with eyes on stalks, it really wasn’t the place for this behaviour but maybe we’re getting old and should go with the flow.

tim with sir garfield

The excuses from Grenada about the lack of local fans can’t be used in Barbados, the test match started on a public holiday (May Day) and took place over two further ‘non-working days’ and their no show was a disappointment and doesn't bode well for West Indian Cricket in the future, but that really isn’t our beef, what was really disappointing was the attitude of the fans who instead of reveling in their win were more intent in having ‘discussions’ with some surrounding England fans, Tim included, about England getting stuffed by Australia in the upcoming Ashes series. Their lack of understanding that we were there to enjoy the game, win, lose or draw and to celebrate good batting and bowling be that from our English team or their talented youngsters including the dangerous, Holder and Blackwood was lost on them.

 To finish this somewhat blunt post, which we hope won’t put you off of reading more of our adventures later, was a very funny encounter on our journey home on the crazy bus last night. Some local fans, older men, sitting towards the back of the bus were continuing their discussions, amongst themselves about England and how they were going to lose to Australia when the bus driver, who we were sitting near to, calmly turned round and asked those chatting to quit the noise, which they didn’t heed so at the next available point he stopped the bus, turned off the engine and waited until everyone was quite. It really was a scene from a school bus journey and once the old men had apologised with the words ‘Sorry Bus’ did he pick up the batten to make up for lost time in delivering us to our various destinations…

…today we move on from the YWAM base to a home by the sea on the east coast of the island, where we hope to find the ‘real Barbados’, with friendly food loving locals and the chance to get away from the busyness of the city and our internet connection.