I found this lovely beach just down the road from Banana Bay. There are no other people here. There is a little shady spot where I can take my patio chair. Yes, it is a patio chair not a beach chair that I drag around. Super comfortable and not 4 inches off of the ground like the beach chairs. I love listening to the lapping waves sitting in the shade reading my latest book and sipping on cold water. Lovely, simply lovely.
This was the group last week. Every week new people come and we start from square one. I've requested that we don't take any new people in Jan. so this group can get on from a scarf to a hat. I'm not sure anyone will heed my request....
I had a really hard time understanding why we weren't going to meet again until Jan.6th. I asked the women and they had no reasons other than that they just couldn't come. I finally dragged it out of Jerrisma that Dec. is the month these women do spring cleaning. Everything in the house gets a shine. Different, interesting, cultural. It seems to me that any Bahamian house I've ever been into is shining to begin with!!!
One of these women is blind. I had great difficulty showing her how to knit even with my eyes closed so I contacted Judy Bierma who knows all about teaching the blind and she suggested finger knitting so we will try that in January.
First puzzle completed. Just one of my kindergarten activity centres that I amuse myself with.
Eight Mile Rock has this amazing bakery with loads of great stuff from fresh bread to cheese cake and other dessert wonders. The baker and owner was a delight so warm and friendly. I'm sure you can see it in her face.
No Jerrisma is not visiting a local jail. She is picking up our lunch. This place is too funny. You look through this door and there is a board on the other side with todays fare on it. As the items get sold out they simply get rubbed off of the board. I think I had lamb which is pretty common here compared to home. The food is always delicious. You get to choose your sides and they also have dips. There is always a line up. It is very popular and I know why.
On Sept.1, 2019 hurricane Dorian hit the Caribbean. Here on Grand Bahama Island the winds got to 185 miles an hour and the storm raged on for days with huge wave surges crashing over the land. We are on our way to Celebration Key and right here the water was 20-25 feet high on the land. All of these pine trees were destroyed by the salty water. Devastation
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Palm trees are finally starting to grow. These are all baby palms and will one day make this island beautiful again.
This looks very nice and inviting.......Strange that on the way we had to pull over and Jerrisma had to send security a photo of my passport. I'm like, "Are you serious?'
Another nice sign. Looks all cute and inviting. Strange and questionable to me that local Bahamian people who live on the island are not allowed access to this place. I'd really like you to google it and see what it is all about. Kind of like Disney on a Caribbean Island. I honestly hate these discriminatory things that happen here like when the cassino was operating no locals were allowed there either but they had little betting shops all over the island. Sometimes being here is like living in a time warp.
These are the people that Celebration Key caters to. Thousands of them, 7 days a week and if you have a little shop here you are expected to work 7 days a week from this hour to that hour. Rules beyond belief!!!
We pull up to security and I roll down my window and give them my passport like I'm going through customs and the head guy walks around to Jerrisma's window and the discussions begin and they go on and on and on and on. We are blocking entry so we move over to the side and sit there for hours. Ok, maybe 20 minutes. More security people arrive and I can hear Jerrisma saying, "She is white!!!" I start laughing and ask if that is a good think and she confirms that here and now it is. Not always has been my experience.
Eventually they decide that there is no way that I may gain entrance and sit in the car while Jerrisma takes a bag of new stock to her store. I'm just way too much of a security risk. OMG!!! Are you serious??? I even told them I'd brought a book to read while Jerrisma was gone. To no avail. Poor Jerrisma had to haul her goods to her shop on foot.
As I'm sitting in the car enjoying the scenery, I notice all of these lights which must have been used during construction. This was phase one and they are already working on phase two to bring even more ships in on a daily basis.
Nice to see a familiar face...
Pedicure by Tasha. So many bubbles!!!
These are Tasha's two children. No more. "The store is closed." Oh that adorable little one was a busy boy.
I asked if I could take a picture of his braids and when I asked if he sat still while she did them she told me that she braids his hair while he is asleep!!! Too funny.
To the right of the Solomon's grocery store mall before you get to the bank at the back is the water store. I'm so happy that Pat showed me how to get here last week or I may never have found it.
The delicious buns were from Ron's Mom's kitchen. Such a kind woman.
As one might expect, inside the water store is lots and lots of water. It is a little strange. The young man takes my jugs, rinses them by the tap and then fills them up and brings them out to my car and loads them in for me.
I noticed that Pat tipped him so I tried to also tip him and was told that he didn't take tips. Here again is this black/white confusion that I'm often faced with. I tip the woman or child that packs my groceries into my bags because they are not employees of the grocery store. I tip the lovely guy who takes my cart back to the store for me. He is always so cheerful and happy. Smiling from ear to ear. Lovely greeting and goodbye. Not sure I will ever get this straight of who to tip but I'll keep trying. Oh, and while we are on tipping I learnt the first week that 15% is automatically added to every restaurant bill. That is after I had added 20% to the bill as I would at home adding up to 35% tips for the first week. I got it now!!!
This is where I have been getting most of my dinners from at Solomon's grocery store. They pile it up so high that it lasts for two nights. I'm still not cooking but I think that is about to change.
Occasionally there is line up but most of the time there is a mob. They start serving at noon.
I now accept that I will be served last. I get it. No problem.
The first time I took money out of the machine on the left I was beside a woman who's card was eaten by the machine on the right. FYI - 200 Bahamian is 300 Canadian. Exchange is the same in USD.
Clouds at the beach? Almost unheard of. I honestly felt two drops of rain and then it was over.
Yesterday we went to a new restaurant that is just around the corner from my place called Upstairs on the Bay. The first table we sat at was in a really hot room so we asked to be moved and they put us at this table right below the kitchen pick up place. All I could think of was that if someone dropped something down my back I hoped it would be a salad and not soup!!! It was hot from the kitchen. You could hear all of the chef talk and you could smell everything being prepared. It was kind of like sitting in the the kitchen!!! Finally someone left a lovely window seat and Jerrisma asked again if we could change tables,. Too funny. I can't imagine what the guests and employees were thinking should they have noticed this couple constantly changing seats. No one probably noticed. They were all looking at their phones!!!!!!!
It really was a great view. We both had conch soup and a sandwich. It was good. I'd eat there again.
Then we went to Pirates Cove at Taino beach. Jerrisma is going away for 10 days to Vegas and needed to get things at her store here in order. I sat and watched the world go by. Always entertaining.
As I'm sitting there a woman stopped and asked me if the conch shells were made locally. I just laughed. I mean really what other answer could I give?
Then we picked up my stuff and headed to Island Seas a local hotel and time share place that I was booked into for a week. It did not go well. We sat at the entrance gate for at least 5 minutes pushing the button as it said to access the property. My experience has been that usually their is a security gate or a code to put in to get access to gated properties. This button indicated to me that anyone could get in. Simply push the button and the gate would open but it didn't. I turned to Jerrisma and told her, "I'm not good in situations like this." Then I started blowing my horn. A cabbie from inside the gate indicated that I needed to go to the next gate. Here there was a security office and no one there. It also said staff entry. Next I pull up to the front of the hotel and were told I couldn't park there so I drive 10 miles down the parking lot to find a spot and walk back to the hotel entrance. By now, I'm not a happy camper, my hair is wet, my face is red and now the red tape BS starts. Why do you need my birthday blah blah blah!!!! No map of the premises. No list of activities. We owned timeshare for 16 years, I know how this game is played. "We are trying to save paper." which in Canada would make a lot of sense but here in the Bahamas where they don't appear to give a damn about the environment I know it is to save money!!!
Jerrisma, with great difficulty gets the door open to the unit, helps haul my stuff and leaves. It is spartan. No art on the walls. Really? I've just come from a unit that is full of fun Caribbean schottisches. I decide to pull up the blinds in the living room to get a view. They won't go up or down. They are stuck about a quarter of the way up. The windows are filthy. The unit was clean. I need the fan to rotate higher. The remote doesn't work. I go into the bedroom and the main light won't come on. There is no bedside table on the side I usually sleep on.
My plan was to have dinner at the hotel and I have no idea where the restaurants are. I see a woman coming towards my unit from the pool and open the sliding door to ask her. She was very nice and very helpful. She told me the place was empty. I'm not surprised by now. Now, the sliding glass door won't close. I have to keep pushing from the middle. Then I notice that if I go to the pool or restaurant there is no way that I can lock my door from the outside.
I get my computer and discover I can't connect to the internet. A call to the front desk lets me know that there is no internet in the rooms it is only available in the entrance or around the pool and that was the last straw. I packed up and left. Done!!!!
Now, I'm back here in my lovely Bahamian home and expecting company on Dec.17th. Ray is coming down with Tehya and I am so looking forward to it.
Again, thanks for reading my adventures. Pls share and drop me a line. It can be lonely here on the island.
Blessings!!!
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