“Scott! Look at this! It was made in Barbados!” I’m holding up a leotard/unitard/one piece shorty exercise outfit. Exuberant tropical flowers, red, orange, pink, are splashed large across a white background. What’s surprising is not so much that it was made in the country we now live in, but that I’d bought it 25 years … Continue reading Beautiful Barbados Broad
We took our friend Richard to the airport. We’ve been neighbours for a year and a half; we’ve shared a rental car for a year. We would walk into each other’s houses after yelling a token “knock knock!” would see each other almost daily on the water, surfing, and would get together for drinks and … Continue reading Coming Back to Barbados?
The DNA results came back. I’m 100% Finnish. It was a surprise— I expected some Swedish, maybe a little Russian. Family myth had that there was some Roma in the bloodlines. Yup. No measurable amount of anything but Finnish. I’m 100% Canadian. I was born there, educated there, from kindergarten to all three of my … Continue reading 100% Finnish. 100% Canadian. Or Bajan?
BANG! The car started veering so I looked for a place to pull over— not so easy on Maxwell Main Road. Fortunately there was a wide sidewalk in front of one house so I drove onto it and got out to look at the damage. What had I hit? It could have been a deep … Continue reading I’m Glad It’s a Rental: Driving in Barbados
“Wow,” messaged Ruochen, a former student who had just seen my blog. “There’s a lot of content!” It’s true. When I wrote this post, on December 2, 2021, the third anniversary of my first post, it was my 120th. I started my blog as writing practice, and it was supposed to be a travelogue for … Continue reading Welcome to Brave Travels!
The five of us walked into the beach bar after pulling our stand-up paddleboards (SUPs) above the waterline and digging face masks out of our dry bags. “Wow, we watched you come in,” said a man at the waterside table. “We’ve mostly just seen people falling in all day. You are impressive!” I was secretly … Continue reading Barbados Paddle Board Adventures
“I’m heading home.” But what does that mean? It’s a fundamental question for me right now. Sometimes I solved it by putting air quotes around “home.” Other times I avoided it altogether by specifying: back to Canada, back to Barbados. Which way is the plane facing, when I’m going home? I thought Canada, my home, … Continue reading Home After a Year— or After a Month?
We were walking down the driveway, on our way to dinner, when Richard looked at me, startled. “Is that a CARDIGAN?” Simone, who was also carrying one, and I exchanged a men-don’t-really-understand glance. “I might get chilly.” Simone nodded in agreement. “But it’s still 28 degrees!” “But it might get down to 26 tonight. And … Continue reading My Barbados Evolution
I’m lying in bed at 6am, before my first coffee, and I reach for my phone. Not to check the weather— that’s going to be a high of 30 or 31C, low of 25 or 26C, every day, because it’s July. Predictions of rain are erratic— it could be pouring rain here and sunny a … Continue reading A Day in the Life, Barbados version
“Good morning!” I say cheerily as I pass anyone. Or good afternoon, or good evening. Bajans will always greet as they go by, and even a teen wearing earbuds and attitude will reply in reflex. “Alright, alright.” Or, “Mornin, mornin.” Once I was walking alongside an older woman whom I recognized from other trips along … Continue reading Talking the Talk: Bajanisms
Brave Travels 