Tag Archives: Antigua

All About Eve

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The Single Best Thing is OUT NOW!  It came out on Kindle on Valentine’s Day and it’s the finale to the Singles’ Series, and it’s a look into the future, telling us what did become of Eve and her life after leaving Travel Together at the end of Singles, Set and Match. Did she and Melv have their Happy Ever After?  You’ll have to read it and see!  It will also be out in paperback next month.

To accompany the blog tour, so wonderfully organised by Rachel Gilbey I wrote some articles for various bloggers.  I will be putting them … Read the rest »

Something In Your Soul Dies

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There’s a very moving Spanish song – I think it’s a Sevillana – which says “When a friend leaves, something in your soul dies.’  Now as much as I enjoyed the song, I never really thought about the words; never really took in their English translation.  Until 21st August.

On that day one of my oldest and closest friends died.  We met on our first day at grammar school.  She was a lively girl, smart and popular.  We were both good swimmers and were selected to go to special training at the South East Essex Technical College pool (later University … Read the rest »

Toasting With Lemsip

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Happy New Year!

Goodness me, it’s been a while since I put fingertips to keyboard and posted something for you. Sincere apologies! But there are two fundamental reasons for my extended silence.

The first, it’s all been bad news really and nobody wants to read about other people’s problems; most have enough with their own without having to listen to mine. 2017 was a tough old year – three hurricanes, the sale of Avocado Cottage falling through four times, banging my head against a brick wall against so many people and things in both Antigua and UK, finding myself with … Read the rest »

No Way Jose!

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Well, after much macho, Alpha Male posturing and threatening, Irma’s mate Jose stamped his foot, flipped his cape and turned north in plenty of time to miss us head on and to act out the worst of his anger over the Atlantic. Phew! What a blessing! Our small island has had quite enough to deal with.

When I look at the radar picture showing Barbuda in the eye of Hurricane Irma and us just thirty-nine miles to the south my stomach churns and I break out into a cold sweat.

And still she races forward. How many people have had … Read the rest »

Blue Angel and Clary Sage

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During the school holidays when we were children, the Sister and I used to get Our Mum to make us jam sandwiches and we’d take them and a plastic flask filled with water, or if we were really lucky, Tizer, and go into the garden or over the park to have An Adventure. We never really knew what An Adventure was; we’d just knew that’s what the Famous Five and the Secret Seven did so we followed suit.

In sixth form I was the first to put her name down for the school trip to Majorca because I knew it … Read the rest »

Waiting for Irma

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The heat is like none I have ever experienced before anywhere in the world.  Not even in the market in Port Louis, Mauritius when I thought I was actually going to melt.  This is a heat that surrounds and encloses you; makes you feel as if you’re in a tiny cell with walls of heat pressing in on you.  And it’s been like this for several weeks and that apparently, is a sign.

The Fella tells me that the water is hot out on the reef and that’s another sign. And my friend Z’s mum says the signs have all … Read the rest »

Flamboyant Frenzy

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June is possibly my favourite month to be in Antigua – apart from the heat which is a bit heavy and oppressive.  It’s my favourite because June means an abundance of glorious mangos – which I just can’t stop eating! – and a frenzy of wild, splashes of glorious, vivid  red all over the place.  The flamboyants are in bloom!  And I absolutely love them.

Not only are  to be found in the countryside, but in the villages, too, and even in the capital, St John’s.  These extraordinarily beautiful trees adorn the gardens of many town houses, the edges of … Read the rest »

Butterflies, Christmas Baubles and Feminists

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I’m taking advantage of dropping anchor on Singles At Sea (see what I did there?) as the laptop is charging to catch up on my journal. Just to explain that my extension lead had ceased to work and the socket is too far from the table for me to write while the laptop’s plugged in. So here I am in the iPad, giving you a quick look at the last week or so.

It’s butterfly season at the moment. Every day dozens of pretty pale yellow butterflies are all over the garden, until I grab the camera and they disappear! … Read the rest »

Super, Satisfying Saturday

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When I got Saturday mornings back a couple of weeks ago, I decided not to waste them.  After all, one of the reasons that influenced my decision was the fact that if I used the time productively on my writing, that I could write another book in a short space of time.  So, I got up early this morning and spent two hours working on my next novel, which has the working title, The Banjo.  Then I went and got the paper, prepared my vegetable smoothie and took my place in the armchair, from which I have had to be … Read the rest »

Rollercoaster

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January is turning out to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride.  And like most rollercoasters, it’s fast and furious.  Today it is already 20th; eleven more days and it will be February.  Scary or what?  As Einstein said, ‘Time is an illusion.’ (I tell myself that every birthday.)  But is it an illusion that it definitely speeds up as one becomes older, or does it actually speed up?

So, ‘what’s made it a rollercoaster ride?’ I hear you ask.  The answer is that loads is going on and it’s all sooooooo exciting!  Professionally I’m involved with four projects now, … Read the rest »