Tuesday 16th February

Today saw the last day of acclimatising before the first game of cricket. I believe everyone has settled in and adjusted to the heat, sampled the food and certainly found their favourite tipple.

Difficult to add too much to what has been said before but hopefully following the game on Wednesday it should prove to be more interesting reading.

A couple more friends visited us at the hotel today, one of them was the man in charge of our opponents for the first game.  Bruce joined us at lunchtime for a quick chat but left several hours later looking rather jaded in his attempt to keep up with a few of our more experienced members of the food and drink section of the tour party. I think that was phrased with some tact and diplomacy?

We have received a small complaint however from one of our members claiming it is too long a gap between breakfast finishing at 10.30am and the bar opening at 11.00am. We are seeking a quick solution and hopefully this alarming gap in his day can be closed to his satisfaction and the tears will stop.

The day still begins at 6.00am (ish) with a few hardy souls making the early morning group bonding sessions in the sea. An hour of talking utter garbage whilst swallowing half the Carribean is followed by a cup of tea or coffee sat around poolside spouting even more pearls of wisdom. Things like, ” q: the suns out. ans: yeah”, “q: it’s hot isn’t it, ans: yeah “q: what you doing today, ans: dunno”, “q: do you want another cup of tea, ans: yeah go on then” and many other world changing deep meaning thoughts and observations.

The attendance register consist of a show of feet in the water. This requires floating on one’s back and raising one’s feet. These are then counted by whomever can actually still see through the slits that were once eyes. Then divided by two thus giving the answer. Alarmingly the count this morning was eleven. Now either we have been joined by a one legged man, a loser in an ass kicking contest, someone was cheating or someone had forgotten their swimwear! This process has to be completed with military precision. One slight misjudgment of time and you are caught by the next wave and tossed around like being inside a washing machine. I have seen at times an unholy tangled mess of bodies, legs and arses being carried to the shore with a mixture of gurgling, laughter and some words even I have never heard before.

Returning to our friend Bruce from the Wadadah club for a moment. He was a little concerned to see one of our more larger than life, colourful characters had painted toenails. It concerned him more to find one foot had red nails and the other blue. Bemused by this he sought an explanation. The answer was simplicity at its best. “So I know which way I ‘m going when I leave the bar shag”. There was no further questions.

Please for one moment don’t read into this and think it’s all about eating and drinking. I am just reporting on the more lighter side. In fact the island is rich in culture and history. Several of the group have already enjoyed days visiting some wonderful and memorable places. The beauty is that no where is really that far away. It is so easy to get around with so many buses running. Very cheap they are too. A couple of dollars will take you virtually anywhere. There is dramatic and beautiful scenery, wonderful plantation houses with history oozing out of nearly every corner, best of all are fantastic friendly people. All this you will need to experience and enjoy for yourself. Now, enough of the sensible, educational side of the tour and back to the fun.

A more interesting report, hopefully, to follow after the first match day. Until then I will leave you with a picture taken from the bar; easy to see why we are sat there so often, it’s nothing to do with the drink at all.