Treasure Trove

It's always nice to have guests on the island.  The flurry of extra activity gets you out and about a bit more, it makes you a little more sleep deprived, but it's always nice.

Visiting at the present is a good friend, her husband, and two children from Edmonton.  We had lost touch in the melee of life, and it has probably been 10+ years since we last saw each other.  Somewhere between the wedding, in which I was a Bridesmaid, the first baby, my clinical year and start of life as a shift worker...we just lost touch.  The beauty of now is a quick google and you can find almost anyone nowadays, and so i did that about a year and a half ago.  And so this week we are reacquainting in Bermuda.

One of the kids is 7.  His homework while missing school includes a journal of his daily activities, which he read to me at dinner at the Swizzle Inn last night (famous for its rum swizzle...I swear this was not my recommendation to take the kids to another pub, but the hotel sent them there because it was rib night).  "Then we met my moms friend Jenny.  We went to Wahooooos.  On Wensday we wetn to Hamilton for a festival market.  Then we went to Flanagan's."  Yup the 7 year old is leaving here knowing how to spell the name of Irish pubs before days of the week, and this is the legacy I am creating,  In my defense, it was the only place open to kill time while waiting for a bus to take them back to the hotel.  But I felt a little remorse thinking of the teacher's impression of this Jenny when he reads this to the class.

It has been fun, and what was really interesting to me was the dynamic of an old friendship renewed.  People, places, and events that had been consigned to the past for so long that i would not be able to recall them on my own suddenly leaped out in my mind as fresh memories in our dialogue, and the recall would come from an expression of speech, or an expression crossing one of our faces.  Random conversations of the present, ie tax law, would bring up an ancient memory and much laughter.  "I am not a tax accountant, but I know one," she said.  "You better not mean Disappointment Dave," I said before I could even remember Dave's last name, what he looked like, or why he was a disappointment.  She quickly replied with "Disappointment Dave the angry gay accountant?!?!?"  "OMG!!!  Yes, him, I forgot about him being angry and gay."  "No not him."  Now poor Dave was probably none of these things, except for the accountant part, but he had the fortune (or misfortune) of working with us in an office about 20 years ago.  He was a fit, attractive man who had the strange tendency to stop talking, stand up, and leave whenever I entered a room.  His aversion to me got him the moniker "The Angry Accountant."  After a couple of years, he started smiling at me some days, charging out on others, but never talking to me.  So we decided maybe he was shy and not angry.  A young group of professionals, the company had some sweet perks -- a corner office on the 25th floor of of a downtown skyscraper overlooking the river valley AND downtown, skybox tickets for concerts and sporting events in town, a jet and a bunch of fancy cars which they did not share with us, and VIP access to a chain of popular nightclubs.  One night the angry accountant was out with his group, saw me, and marched right over, looked me in the eye, opened and shut his mouth without a word and stormed off.  At 20 years old, that qualifies as "oh, he really likes you."  Which may have been true.  On one other occasion where he wordlessly marched up and grabbed my hand to pull me onto the dance floor (and in my ever present state of grace I slipped in my stilettos on the first stair and fell down the steps, but rose immediately in a force resembling absolute levitation caused by the mortification I was feeling, but the accountant never looked back and remained forever unaware.  This lack of gentlemanly awareness is when Disappointment got added to the moniker.)  While the accountant never saw my fall (or ever managed a hello let alone ask me out on a date -- hence the gay addition to the moniker), my friend remembered it with absolute clarity last night, so 20 years later, as did I, and we got a good laugh at Disappointment Dave, the angry gay accountant (disclaimer -- after maturing for 2 decade using gay in the moniker was offensive and I sincerely apologize.  Clearly I frighten men of any sexual orientation, occupation, etc etc etc and this was a misnomer of ignorant youth.  My apologies to all of the accountants who may have been offended by this tale.  The end).

Except it's not the end.  That is just a piece of the beginning of a new phase of the collective memories, experiences, and thoughts of two friends with many years to catch up on.  Speaking with her face to face has uncovered a treasure trove of of smiles, stories, and snippets of  who we were just becoming.  What a treat!  And what a relief to have another reminder that true friends are never forever lost.

Beach Brain

What did I do today in Bermuda?  Well, I went to work, then came home and parked myself on the computer to do online coursework for the next 5 hours.  Not overly exciting to blog about, but, I did come up for air at the end of it with a few new fresh insights.

First and foremost, I have not killed off as many brain cells as I feared with all the frequent trips to Flanagan's and Friday nights on Front Street.  If anything, most of them are still there, and my inability to remember certain mundane things (like cleaning the eyewash station at work when it's my turn and where I managed to find a parking spot for my bike at work that day) is not actually due to a depopulation of brain cells.  It is most likely that they are just all metaphorically resting in little brain cell hammocks staring at all the beautiful Bermuda beaches in my head.  I can live with that as long as they step up when required for the more important stuff, like figuring out a brief understanding of international tax laws on an afternoon in the not so distant future.

What is truly amazing is that is I google "brain in a hammock" a picture pops up that I can use in the blog, making life easier, being kind of amazing, and a little disappointing that perhaps I am lacking in original thoughts if everything I come up with can be found in technicolor by Google in seconds.

There are a few things I want to share about my courses though.  I finished the first one, and I really enjoyed it.  It was online, and FREE.  You can pay for a certificate, or if you just want to shake the rust off of the old brain, you can register with no charge.  I recommend you look at www.courses.edex.org if you are interested.  I took Bioethics from GeorgetownX and US Health Policy from HarvardX.  I am not sure, but the X just denotes online, because the lectures are from the actual classes from programs from Harvard School of Medicine and Georgetown University.  So the content is good.  The grading was simple quizzes, and one can most certainly take home some new and interesting knowledge from the many courses available.

The first real insight I had was how different education is now than when I was enrolled in school many years ago.  To start with, last night at Harbour Nights the children of my visiting friends, aged 7 and 11, were able to sit down at the open chess table and play a game to completion.  Their mom explained that they teach them chess in Kindergarten now to develop strategic thinking.  Having never been shown how to play chess or hunted down the basic rules to learn myself,  I thought that was pretty impressive.

The second insight I had was how different the content of information is that society provides to its youth vs its adults.  The education we get, unless we are enrolling in courses and programs, is primarily TV, news, and magazines.  Even the continuing education offered for my profession is insular.  These courses provided me with a number of very important facts and concepts which we are not talking to adults about although we should be.  I am happy our academic institutes are talking to the younger generation about it, but I don't think it's enough.

Here's what I mean.  See which of the following questions you can discuss.

1.  Who is Donald Spurling?
2.  Where do you think MH370 is?
3.  Which country evoked Martial Law earlier this week?
4.  What animal recently saved intervened when a dog went after a child?
5.  In which country were students arrested for dancing to a video of "Happy?"
6.  Roughly what is the global population?
7.  What is the estimated global population estimated to be in 2050?
8.  Which ethnic group will be the most prevalent in the US in 2050?
9.  What commodities can you think of that will be threatened in 2050?
10. What is so important about 2050?

If you can answer 1,2,3, and 5 I am reasonably certain that you watch CNN or a standard news program regularly.  If you can answer those but not 6-10, you are living in the now.  If you can only answer question 4, I am reasonably certain that you only get information from social media and you would be very comfortable taking these online courses and learning about more than just cats on the Internet.  If you got them all right, you are more informed than I was a few weeks ago.  If you don't know the answers, I will enlighten you.

1.  This isn't really important and none of us should know.  Those of us who do should try to forget.
2.  I have my own conspiracy theory that is too long to talk about.
3.  Thailand.
4.  A cat, of course.
5.  Iran.
6.  We hit the 7 Billion (yes, 7,000,000,000) a year or so back, you Nat Geo fans will know that.
7.  9 Billion (yes 9,000,000,000)
8.  Latin Americans.  Why us this important?  Due to socioeconomic differences that affect wealth, health, education, and scores of other things.  The US knows it needs to correct those differences in a big hurry.
9.  Food and Water.  Yes Water.  Climate change is going to seriously affect precipitation levels, agriculture, and availability of clean water to 1.9 Billion people by 2050.  The demand for food to supply for an extra 1.9 Billion people as many nations are shifting from underdeveloped to developed is predicted to increase by 70-100% by 2050.  At the same time, global fish stocks are expected to decline by 30%.
10.  What is so important about 2050.  Well, it's only 36 years away.  Chances are most of us are going to experience some dramatic shifts in how our own little worlds function, and how the entire world functions as its people struggle for decreasing resources.

This is not a theory.  This is the future, this is what we are teaching the next generation to expect.  They are being trained to think ahead with this mindset of global justice, resource sharing, and economics.  It's fascinating and terrifying all at the same time.  But why does our generation, the ones who grew up hearing about greenhouse gasses and climate change, still hide our head in the sand on this topic?  Well, the psychological principle at play there is an old but tested one.  We are programmed to reject evidence of our actions that cause harm to others...we don't want to believe it.  This situation is not the fault of our generation, but perhaps all the talk about it in the 80's actually made us feel guilty and more adverse to the information about what was happening.  30 years later we still don't accept it fully.  The other psychological factor at play is the idea that there is nothing one person can do against such a staggering reality.

There is a bright side to this though.  There are 7 Billion of us.  It might not seem like a lot for you to turn the light off when you leave a room, or not use the TV as background noise, to ensure the lights are off in your office building at night, to unplug the electronics that you don't use daily like that toaster in my case, or to consider what you are buying when you do your shopping -- ie, pick a cause and say no to Palm Oil, choose fish over beef once in a while to lower that carbon footprint, things like that.  Those little things mean almost nothing to your daily routine and lifestyle.  But the effect when multiplied by billions of other people doing multiple effects as well, could quite literally make a world of difference.

So that's what happens when I am not at the pub or the beach.  I hope you will give those ideas a few minutes of your time.  Goodnight for now, I promise pretty pictures next time.

Gombey Dancers

When I first started blogging, a good friend who lived on the island asked in the first month, "What are you going to write about later, I mean you have almost covered all of the obvious places."  I smiled and said I was pretty sure I would always find something to ramble on about.  It is true that I am greatly amused by the little things.  It is true that there is always something to do in Bermuda.  However, sometimes it's not that obvious.  Sometimes it is an event that just takes a moment or two but is worth seeing.  Sometimes it is doing things over for the tenth or eleventh time but in different company.  I can honestly say I have never been bored in Bermuda.

This week there are some friends on the island who wanted to see Bermuda before I left.  They have two sons, aged 7 and 11, and so I expect I will be seeing things through another whole new set of eyes this week.  Today they took their first Bermuda bus ride (I forgot to ask if the bus driver was one of the ones who likes to play tour guide and entertainer, as several do, and if they had any moments of terror, which can happen on our narrow windy roads).  They made their way into Hamilton and walked around town while I was at work, and I met them in town for supper, the 11 year old looking very dapper in his plaid pastel island style hat he picked out since he forgot his cap at home.  I chose to take them to Flanagan's because they have a broad menu, with lots of things for the kids to find.  I discovered the Flanagan's I already know and love so well is really great with kids as well.  They had crayons and coloring, colorful plastic cups for the drinks, and when we went back the second time at the end of the night after missing the bus, the same waiter greeted us again with a smile, and cut the little guy off on chocolate milk too late at night and convinced him he should go straight milk.  What can I say, parents and kids and tour guide were happy.

In between stops at Flanagan's, we took in Harbour Nights, which is a weekly event taking place on Wednesdays where local artists and small vendors set up tables with their craft.  There are many unique items that you can only find at Harbour Nights so I recommend it for all visitors -- on this occasion I fell in love with a Bermuda Cedar clock, some beautiful hand painted tiles, and the yummy deliciousness that is Amber's Rumcakes.  I have to be careful what I acquire as moving space will be limited in July, but I loved all of these things and hope to go back for them before I move away.

I meant to take my camera, but I forgot.  So I was left with only my phone when the Gombey dancers came by.

The Gombey Dancers are a colorful, traditional group that dance to a heavy drumbeat in an energetic fashion.  Some of the dancers "challenge" each other in the course of the program, and it is very interesting to watch.  It is also interesting that the dancers include small children in the same elaborate costume.  The lead dancer carries a bow and arrow.  Another figure has a whip.  A loud whistle or two are interspersed with the heavy drumbeats.

The dancers were masked to hide their identity when the dance was not welcome, if not illegal outside of certain holidays, as late as the early 1800's.  The group traditions are passed down orally, and it is an esteemed tradition to be a part of.

Gombey dancers are an icon of Bermuda and unique to the culture of Bermuda.  There are other similar styles, such as the Goombay's of Bahama, but, the Gombey dancers are recognized by academia as unique to Bermuda.  I know this to be true because I just wiki-ed it.  Overall, I am just glad to have a picture of it now, even if it is just a grainy phone picture.  They only performed for a few minutes, but this is one of those short but sweet occurrences in Bermuda that you want to see at least once.

Whale Bay Surprise

Just as I was getting ready to leave Whale Bay, I heard the screech of a longtail and noticed a little path in the grass going up the hill and into the trees.  I decided to follow the little path and see if it would take me over top of some cliffs where I might finally get a good longtail picture.  What I came across when I got to the top of the path was instead this.

The walls of the old Fort at Whale Bay

"I found a new fort!!!"  I texted to a friend overseas that I had been "chatting" with all morning.  OK, it wasn't exactly new as it has been there since 1867 and I immediately remembered seeing a chart that lists Bermuda's many old military forts had one called the Whale Bay Battery.  But it was new to me as I had never before seen it and explored its walls.  Bermuda's oldest fort is Fort St. Catherine, which has been around for closer to 400 years, so this is relatively new in fort time as well.

I love old buildings and sites.  I quite enjoy looking around places like this and seeing how much has changed.  I could not imagine the cramped quarters of the barracks, and get a little giggle here again at how short people were a couple of hundred years ago.  For example, by one of the inner walls which i could have easily hopped up onto, I notice a stone staircase with 5 stairs so that they could climb onto the wall.  There are holes in the wall which they could shoot their rifles from while ducking beneath the wall that would have much of us hunched over to use nowadays without being to move around efficiently.

Not the short staircase I mentioned, but little narrow staircases running up the outer walls to defensive positions

short people stairs

Today the site was abandoned almost completely.  No other tourists, no locals, no ghosts that I could tell off (Bermuda's Forts didn't see any military action, in fact none of the numerous canons that surrounded her shores were ever fired with intent in the 400 years that Bermuda has been inhabited.)  Nope, the only ghosts that could be would be the soldiers who succumbed to yellow fever in the epidemic of the 1800's, or a few who had mishaps that are laid out on their tombstones at the Royal Naval Dockyards Cemetery -- which detail a few grisly deaths, and a few unfortunate ones like falling off the mast and drowning in the harbour.  However, these poor souls don't haunt Bermuda, if they were still here they would be happily enjoying the view like the rest of us.  The only other living thing on the site on this day was a little fellow who clearly considered himself Master and Commander of the Fort.

The Commander of Whale Bay Battery

He was not intimidated by my presence, and gave me the steely one-eyed stare of him as I got closer with the camera, never one leaving his command post.  I saw a few of his minions on he outer walls a little later as well.

Bermuda's defensive hopes lie on this one bird

Aside from the teeny tiny outdoor oven and the narrow little outposts in the fort, the other thing I marvel about is the officer's view.  They are always facing the ocean, and on this day the waters were stunning.

The view from Whale Bay Battery

A walk around the outer wall showed, as always, that the fort is larger than it looks at first.  I got a nice view of Port Royal Golf  Course.

Port Royal golf course, where the PGA Masters comes

And thought this neat old tree along the wall  might just be the Great Wall of Bermuda.

A successful day of random adventures completed, I went home with a smile and another load of photos.

Whale Bay

The last few tines of scootering around I would pass Whale Bay Road and realized I had not been to Whale Bay.  And so it was put on the list to do.

After unsuccessfully trying to get a longtail photo in the last blog, I carried on to Whale Bay.  I couldn't believe I had never been there when my first residence on the island was literally across the road from Whale Bay Road.  As I drove along and up the road, it became familiar and I remembered that I had come up here before, before I had my camera, and back when riding my first scooter, Little Red, would have been a challenge.  Little Red was a big bike, quite heavy, and only 50 cc.  She didn't go up hills very fast.  Gradual inclines were a struggle as well.  Perhaps that is why I didn't go back,  Perhaps it was because the transition from 17 years in a city to driving down a road, being the only bike in the park, walking down an isolated path through the coverage of trees and settling down on a totally empty beach takes some getting used to.  The good news is, that big city nervousness is at least partially reversible.  I look for those places now on my days wandering around.  But I admit that Shibby and I had the heebie jeebies by the creepy deserted house at Hog's Bay Park.

The first thing you notice is how big Whale Bay Park is.  This is a pretty big patch of open space for Bermuda.

The entry to Whale Bay Park

The second thing is how soothing the view is.

Complete with a bench to relax and enjoy it all

In my case the third case I noticed was again the sound of longtails, but peer over the edges as I might I yet again could not spot them.  Getting a photo of them has become my most disappointing effort on the island, as I have tried for SIX summers in a row now (that includes my first vacation to Bermuda when the island stole my heart).  And then you glance over to the right and see a beautiful beach.

Whale Bay Beach from above

It seems as though one can always find one empty beach on Bermuda, if you know where to look.  We play up our famous Horseshoe Bay for the tourists, and it is jam packed all summer long.  A few are getting wise to it and working their way down the south shore and discovering Elbow Beach and Long Bay.  A couple will find Jobson's Cove and Stonehole Bay.  St. George's attracts everyone to Tobacco Bay.  But, only Horseshoe Bay and Tobacco Bay have refreshments on the beach.  Sorta.  Elbow has the hotel restaurant and a hot dog stand has been hanging out around Warwick Long Bay or Jobson's Cove the last year or two.  That keeps the rest of the beaches pretty tourist free, and so locals can tan in solitude on this lovely island any day.  This would be another perfect spot for it.

The rockier portion of Whale Bay Beach

And of course with the ocean blues, I love the green algae that clings to the rocks, so had to get a picture of that too.  In the second shot, I think the close rock is moss (it was on the north), and those ocean blues are what Bermy is all about!

Nature's palette

Just Scootering Around

A few week back I had a day off and decided to do on of my favorite things.  Go toodle about on my scooter with my camera for a few hours.  Having recently been down to the east end of the island, I opted to head back to the west end.  As always I hoped to get a picture of a longtail.  And so I crawled down the cliffs to the spot where I usually see them.

Stalking longtails, unsuccessfully again

There were 2 there, but they would have nothing to do with me.  I sat out in the baking sun for another half hour waiting patiently for a fly by.  They made they they stayed several hundred metres away before taking a perch somewhere so far away I couldn't even see them.

The longtail fascinates me with it's long, featherless split tail that trails behind it

I finally accepted that they were not coming  back and just took some pictures of rocks.  I liked how the water would surge over them, and then create little waterfalls as the wave retreated.

Nice view of the ocean colors from my birdless birdwatching cliff perch

Eventually got mesmerized watching the water wash over and down the rocks

As soon as I made the steep sweaty climb back up the cliff face and way totally out of range with my lens, I heard the squawk of the longtails returning to the flights right over where I was sitting.  They were just waiting for me to leave.  Another day without a good longtail picture on the record.

I took a little drive down on of the back roads in Somerset, or maybe it is part of Sandy's, and found a gorgeous vista.  The property appeared vacant, but still had a no trespassing sign.  I took a picture because it seems a great irony to post a sign keeping people out of such a beautiful spot that no one else is on site to enjoy.  It of course brought out my inner rebellious nature.  On the plus side, it may have once been some type of home for the elderly.  Or possibly it still is but no one came outside that day.  Either way, nice spot!

Yup, some days I get to live a postcard perfect life.  Other days I go to work lol.

Brunch At Henry's

Since we were on the topic of brunch yesterday, might as well confess that we did it again this Sunday.  'Tis patio and brunch season after all.  Of course you can sit indoors, but we love to get a little sun when we can.  It was Mother's Day, and so one of the Mum's in the group chose Henry VIII's which is on the South Shore between the Hamilton Princess and the Reef's.  It was of course, packed, but one of the best things of brunch is that the restaurants expect you to stay 2-3 hours with all the courses, bevvies, and coffees.  Which of course we did.

Brunch started with 8 of us.  We had Steve and Adrie again,

One of my favorite couples, the MacGregor's

George was another repeat offender

It's a camera, not a gun George!

Me and Lizzie again,

With Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in the background

And coming out for the first go was a sleep deprived Siobhan, fresh off the night shift at KEMH,

Our lovely Irish Flower needed a little more shade for her self described pastiness

and these pictures must have been taken before the rest of the crew arrived.  Eileen was a few minutes late, possibly due to needing a minimal amount of sleep between the end of the night watching Jimmy Keys who had a show in town and the start of brunch.  Later still was Andy, who had to finish his round of golf first.  Straggling in later still was Lenny, fresh and bright with enough humour to torture Steve for a couple of hours.  And Gary and Kate rolled up a little later for a cocktail in the sun...and I must say the staff took it in their stride while our table of 8 blossomed to 11 on an extremely busy day.  The food was again great, although I missed a whole room of the hot food in the back of the restaurant, and did not have the desire to try to stuff any more in after focusing on breakfast, sushi, and desert.  George was a trooper, going for curry on principle alone at the end (he's a well known curry hound).  We had a great time telling stories of old, plans for trips where will we meet up in the future when some of us are gone, and stories we just made up, like Lenny's detailed description of his time with Steve in the UK secret ops unit.  I do say Steve "the microphone" MacGregor took his share of ribbing this brunch, and there appears to be no end in sight!

Another great outing, I left while the crew headed down the road to Coconuts, another beach side spot just down the road at the reefs.  It sounds like a lot of fun, but, I was still a little tired from the crazy work week and needed to use up the rest card.

Yup, I think there will be a few more brunches this summer.  Lizzie has sniffed one out that has a non-stop champagne service.  I can hardly wait!  But not til June guys, I have guests the next few weeks!