Barbados bound

Well, we are Barbados bound but it will be the end of March before we escape to Caribbean bliss. I received confirmation of my destination speaker status on Friday so the planning has ramped up a bit. Meaning that the life partner has engaged himself in the decision making, now that it is really going to happen and has suggested that we spend two days in Barbados after the cruise instead of one. His reasoning is that we may not have that opportunity again as usually Barbados is a cruise stop not embarkation port. So I have emailed the travel agent as to whether the great airfare deal relates to the Monday, not just Sunday return and does she know of any budget places to lay our heads. Note to self to contact friend who has journeyed to Barbados for the details. A former co-worker mentioned her son was working in Antigua and they were hoping to go visit but airfare was so expensive so I mentioned I'd take something small to deliver should they wish. Mules r Us - wait till the travel partner hears that - but I'm thinking the son will be a 'somewhat' local to really connect with on the island versus being one of a group of cruise ship passengers just out wandering around.

The itinerary is a whirlwind so research to do on each of the ports of call and of course two presentations to get together for the four islands I’m profiling. At least I have 9 weeks to complete these – this is the most wiggle room I’ve had with only two lectures and over two months. At some point it would be nice to actually use the talks more than once just to get some mileage from the research and fiddling. But....the itinerary I'm pasting here and the math of the price list tells me that we're doing the gig for at least $3000 less for a few minutes of fame. How good is that eh?

Port Arrival Departure below:
1
Barbados 11:00 PM

2
St. Lucia 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

3
Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

4
St. Kitts, St. Kitts & Nevis 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

5
Tortola, British Virgin Islands 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

6
Samana, Dominican Republic 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

7
At Sea

8
Montego Bay, Jamaica 7:00 AM 10:00 PM

9
Grand Cayman, Islands 10:00 AM 5:00 PM

10
At Sea

11

Aruba 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

12
Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

13
Caracas (La Guaira), Venezuela 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

14
Grenada 12:00 PM 6:00 PM

15
Barbados 7:00 AM

I’m left with a few moments to myself because….the shore captain is off to St. Andrews by the Sea for some meetings to do with the fishery. These are science/industry sessions for George’s Bank held between Canada and the US where the stock assessments and proposed quotas are presented for the coming year. Usually pretty glum, so I was joking at work about hiding the sharp objects before he got home. But not having domestic responsibilities meant that the dog and I played in the snow and I managed to capture a couple of shots of the summer neighbours’ places. Since I know they’re local blog readers I shall post them here and you can all enjoy the winter wonderland as well with the view from my livingroom. Beautiful but not Barbados.

I had an entertaining email today as I had written to someone I knew as an animal lover to rescue some chickens. When I went to visit my former cruise travel partner (an animal lover herself but more of a cat aficionado if you know what I mean) a group of very cold looking, small ornamental chickens (Rhode Island Reds amongst others was my guess) were huddled under her car in the bitter wind as snowflakes stung them looking very miserable. When she came to the door, I gestured at her car and sputtered “you have chickens under your car!” She rolled her eyes and said, “boy do I ever, come in”. The back-story is that someone next door moved out west leaving chickens, which are supposedly being fed daily and sheltered in a building – both untrue my hostess stated emphatically. Apparently they were so cold when her brother-in-law came to plow her driveway they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) move out of the way of the plow. I told her I knew of a local animal lover who was on Facebook who had been responding to messages of missing kitties etc. and I would contact her. I emailed the animal rescuer and she agreed to do an intervention. Today she emailed to say that she’d found a home for them (older man who kept his chickens inside so obviously a suitable foster parent) and she and her husband had attempted to catch the chickens – unsuccessfully. But a neighbour in attendance told them the chickens knew they were strangers as they usually followed him around. He had to leave shortly but the plan was that he would catch and cage them for transport to their new home. She will keep me posted and of course I will pass that fast breaking news along to you all. The yarn did amuse the prodigal son and his girlfriend when they arrived, as she lives in the chicken catchers community so we both shared the visual image and I had a second chuckle.

To leave you with a smile I will quote the Facebook post of a former co-worker that said "when I grow up I'm not having any children"