Mango Fruit Shake, Barbados Style
It’s another real hot day in Barbados and all this heat gives me a raging thirst as soon as I wake up in the morning. In order to deal with my early morning thirst, I always like to start the day off with a delicious cold glass of fruit juice made by my own fair hands.
Living in Barbados is fantastic because all I have to do is walk into my garden and I have some trees with delicious local fruits on them. I have a mango tree, coconut tree and guavas.
So I suppose this delicious mango fruit shake recipe that I’m going to share with you, came about only because they were the fruits that I had available to me in my garden in Barbados.
Ingredients for Mango Fruit Shake Barbados Style:
1 cup chopped mango
½ cup chopped coconut Jelly
½ cup chopped guava
½ cup of 100% pure orange juice
½ a cup of natural yogurt
1-teaspoon angostura bitters
1 teaspoon of brown sugar (optional)
I cup of ice
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend for 2-3 minutes or so until smooth.
This will give you about 4 large glasses of delicious fruit juice.
Not only does my mango fruit shake taste absolutely delicious, it is extremely healthy for you, it is full of vitamins and fibre.
Nothing beats starting the day off with a large glass of healthy fruits blended together, it is a great way to give your energy levels a boost and get your day off to a great start.
My First Drive In Movie Experience, Courtesy of Barbados
Drive In movies were something I use to see cropping up form time to time in bad American movies. I had never previously been to a drive-in movie theatre before or even had the opportunity to watch a movie at one before. Last night July 29th of July in Barbados I was to experience my first ever drive in movie when I watched Batman – The Dark Night.
The movie was due to start at 6.45pm and just as we were preparing to leave, the heavens opened and it started lashing down. A friend had told me, that if the rain was real heavy and prolonged that the movie would be cancelled. Fortunately the rain went off as quickly as it went on, and it was a normal warm evening again in Barbados.
The Globe drive in theatre is located in the Adams Castle area in Christ Church and was only 10 minutes drive from my house, which makes it nice and handy for us.
I wasn’t too sure what to expect from my first ever, drive-in movie experience. As I drove up the road leading into the Globe, I must admit I felt like a wee excited kid. The theatre are itself was as big as I was anticipating and the screen was huge. We found a near perfect viewing position directly in the centre of the screen, and tuned our car radio into the correct frequency so we could listen to the movie.
For me a trip to the movies isn’t just about turning up and watching the movie and then heading home, I see it as being a fun and enjoyable night out. Watching a movie just wouldn’t be the same without getting some supplies to eat as it plays. We headed over to the concession area and the choice of food and drinks was good. I personally bought some, fishcakes, large french fries, popcorn, large cup of Mauby and a nice surprise was that they also sold beer. I of course had a couple of wee cans of cold Heineken, which went down a real treat. It sure wasn’t this good watching a movie back home in Aberdeen.
The drive in movie experience for me is certainly a unique night out, I would personally say it is a great way to watch a movie. The whole ambiance of watching a movie in an open-air theatre, with the warm air and the starry sky was a fantastic experience. I will most certainly be back again the in the near future, such as when they show The X-Files, I Want To Believe.
I suppose I probably should say a little bit about the movie, I had read all the hype prior to Batman – The Dark Night and was expecting it to be a great movie, I would personally say it was a fairly good movie, but it wouldn’t say it was a great movie. Is it the best Batman movie ever, I don’t think so, was Heath Ledgers performance as the Joker, the best ever portrayal of a baddie in a Batman movie, I don’t think so.
My favourite quote from the movie just has to be this one by said by Alfred Pennyworth speaking to Bruce Wayne.
Bruce Wayne: Then why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
A clip from Batman – The Dark Night
How To Build a House In Barbados, The Stress and Worry Free Way!
Building a house is one of the most stressful tasks that anybody can ever undertake, and building a house in a foreign country will take your stress levels to a whole different stratosphere.
Barbados may be a paradise like Caribbean Island and as a result people often allow the feel good factor of being on the Island, cloud their vision when it comes to building a property. It is strongly recommended that you do not allow your heart to rule your head when it comes to making decisions regarding the building of your new home.
The building trade in Barbados, is much like it is in every other country in the world, you will find great builders, bad builders, people claiming to be builders who haven’t got a clue, and worst of all down right rip off merchants.
The beautiful Island of Barbados is full of stories of people from all over the world being ripped off by unscrupulous builders. I personally know of people that have had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to sort out shoddy building work, those were the lucky ones. The unlucky ones are those that have had houses built that are unsafe to live in, and believe it or not it gets even worse! I know of someone in England that paid over $250,000 and all she got was the foundations, when she was expecting a fully built house. They had sent her various pictures throughout the supposed building of the house to reassure her things were moving along smoothly. It was of course not her house in the pictures; she had paid for someone else to have a nice house built.
For those of you that are looking to build a property in Barbados, it is imperative that you have a good architect, trustworthy lawyer, as well as having a top quality building team and project manager. It really is as simple as that, if you want to have a house built to the standard that you expect and not get ripped off by the many sharks that are waiting to steal your hard earned money!
If you are looking to find a plot of land to buy, build a house, continue a previous building project or even a renovation project, we at Awaken Paradise Property Consultants can make it happen for you in a stress free and worry way.
We at Awaken Paradise offer a safe, reliable and very effective service for those that are seeking to build a new house or finish an existing house in the beautiful Caribbean Island of Barbados. Through us you can be assured that your best interests are being taken care of by a professional, honest and hard working team. You can visit our web site at awakenparadisepropertyconsultants.com.
Dream the Dream, Then All You Have To Do Is Believe, Achieve, Succeed!
Can success in life really be as simple as my title suggests, I haven’t personally reached the stage in my life where I can lay my beach towel down on crane beach in Barbados and lie back and relax knowing that I have succeeded with my life. I’m at the stage where I’m dreaming the dream and I sure as hell believe that I’m going to succeed. I suppose at the present time, I’m stuck at the achieving part of the great plan to become successful. It has taken me decades of working in a variety of jobs, to come to the conclusion that being a slave to a wage isn’t what I want my life to be about.
Being told what I have to do, or when I can have my lunch break, or when I can or can’t have my holidays, or how much of a pay rise I deserve, is not how I want to live my life anymore. That was the reason I quit my job and decided it was time to fend for myself. The time had come for me to be in control of my own destiny.
I had been dreaming the dream for a number of years, of working for myself and quitting the rate race in the UK and heading to the sun, but I was lacking the spark or the courage to do something about it. Having a secure job with a reasonable wage, 6 weeks holidays a year and a good pension, was a big chain around my neck. As much as I hated working for the boss man, I couldn’t free myself.
But I started to open up my mind and dared to dream the dream, there were those, and still are those people, that will tell me that dreams are fantasy and will never come true. That’s why the dreams of those people can never come true, they don’t believe in the dream.
It really is as simple as the heading of this article states, but you also have to put a lot of commitment, effort and time, into making the dream become a reality. Anyone can do it, you can control your own destiny, and it’s up to ourselves which path we choose to go down.
I put together a game plan as to how I was going to move forward with my life and achieve the things, which I desired. So here I am in Barbados living a much more rewarding and fulfilling life. I may not be earning anywhere near the money I was making back home in the UK, but I’m so much happier working with my family in building up a business through hard work, integrity and honesty.
My advise to anybody out there that hates their job, hates the boss or has had enough of the rat race, or for whatever reason they are unhappy in life. Do something about it; don’t be like all those whingers around you, that are happy and content to moan about how much they hate life, rather than put the same effort into doing something constructive to change things.
You have to begin by dreaming the dream.
Saturday Night At Oistins Fish Fry
Oistins Fish Fry is an institution in Barbados, and is frequented by hundreds of locals as well as tourists alike. Oistins was originally a weekend affair, but nowadays you will find it buzzing every night of the week. For those of you that have never been to Oistins Fish Fry in Barbados, it is an open-air fish fry, where you will find over 50 stalls selling virtually every variety of fish that you can imagine, cooked in every possible way.
I have personally being to Oistins Fish Fry countless times, and I have never had a bad meal once. Friday night is the busiest night of the week, with Saturday night being ever so slightly quieter.
Oistins is better than ever, as it has now returned to it’s original home after being upgraded. This was my first trip to Ostins since I moved here at the end of June. I was intending to go on Friday night after I had enjoyed a few cocktails, but just as we were about to leave, visitors arrived and our plans were changed.
We headed down to Oistins about 7pm and parked over at the huge car park across the road from it, just beside where Ostins was when it was being upgraded.
I knew where I was heading to first and that was for a wee appetizer, I had driven or walked past Oistins numerous times, since I arrived and had noticed the stall for one of my favourites. I just had to have a few fish cakes from The Legendary Fish Cakes stall and believe me they are delicious. The only downside to the fishcakes is that they are so hot, that you have to wait about 10 minutes until you
can eat them.
Finding our next port of call wasn’t going to be so easy, we wondered around for about 10 minutes searching for our regular stall, without any luck. We then bumped into my wife’s cousin who dragged us into a rum shop and bought us a few Banks beers, which washed down the fish cakes perfectly.
I must admit the Banks Beer in this rum shop were chilled to perfection and were sliding down real good. So I bought one for the road and it only cost $14 for 4 bottles of banks, a real bargain. Just as we were about to leave the bar, a local good looking young girl dressed up to the nines, walked into the bar for a few seconds and brought loud cheer from the locals as she left.
As soon as we stepped out of the Rum Shop, we miraculously arrived at the stall we had been looking for called Uncle Georges. It was only about 8 o clock and the queue wasn’t too big, which was good news, because those beers had built up an appetite.
As usual they had 3 different fish to choose from, Kingfish, Marlin and Swordfish. During the 10 minutes it took to get served I managed to changed my mind 3 times as to what fish I was going to be having. I eventually settled on Swordfish, which was served with baked potato, salad and tartar sauce. I just wish they would share the secret of the marinade that they use on their fish, because it is unbeatable. It is maybe a simple meal, but for me it is as good as anything you will get in one of the many fancy restaurants that you find in abundance in Barbados. The best thing of all is that it only cost $25 and the amount of Swordfish that I got was huge, there was more than enough left over for my lunch the next day.
We eat our meals on a table facing the stage, so we could watch the very talented band playing, as we appreciated the ambiance and buzz of an evening at Oistins. It is truly an unforgettable and truly enjoyable Bajan experience, which I shall be attending on a regular basis. I ended the evening with a Pina Colada, which was made to perfection and was so much better than those I had to suffer at a fancy hotel I was staying last year!
Further Reading:
1. Harrison’s Cave Barbados, It Was Finally Open, 3rd Time Lucky!
2. It’s Friday, and It’s Cocktail Evening in Barbados
3. Roasted Bread Fruit Bajan Style, A New But Delicious Experience
Harrison’s Cave Barbados, It Was Finally Open, 3rd Time Lucky!
The first time I tried to visit Harrison Cave in Barbados was in November 2006, when it was closed for renovations, I tried again in August 2007 but it was still shut. I wasn’t holding out too much hope of it being open June this year, when I arrived here to begin my new life in paradise. I appreciate the fact that I’m in the Caribbean and that things take a lot longer to happen here in Barbados, compared to in the UK.
I was amazed when I found out it was finally open, I knew they had being upgrading things to improve the Harrisons Cave experience for visitors. It was going to be 3rd time lucky for me; I was finally going to get the chance to visit the supposed number 1 tourist attraction in Barbados.
Harrison’s Cave is almost located in the centre of the island in the parish of St Thomas. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the caves from Bridgetown, which is the capital of Barbados.
It was relatively easy to find the caves. But I do hope the new government improves the road signs to all the major tourist attractions in Barbados. I think it is an absolute disgrace, how poor the road signs are to many of the tourist attractions and beaches in Barbados.
On our arrival at Harrison’s Cave there was fairly small queue, it took us about 40 minutes to gain entry, 
which wasn’t too bad. A chilled bottle of Banks Beer helped to pass the time. I couldn’t believe the two moaning Americans behind us, complaining about how long it was taking to get into the attraction. I couldn’t help but wonder what planet they were living on. I have queued up for longer in America to buy a can of Coca Cola!
What can I say about the Harrison’s Cave experience? Before we entered the cave, we watched a very interesting and informative video presentation telling us how Barbados was first formed. We were then driven around the cave on an electric tram; I would estimate that there are around 40 people in each group.
The tour lasts for around 40 minutes and you get off the tram on two occasions for a closer look at some amazing natural wonders. The tram travels fairly slowly and stops at various points for photo opportunities. A tour guide provides running commentary throughout the tour, which I again thought was very interesting and informative.
At times as we were driven through Harrison’s Cave I couldn’t help but feel like I was almost in a Indian Jones movie. I found it totally amazing looking at the Stalactites and Stalagmites on the cave roof and floor. I would love the opportunity to go exploring off the tourist road, within Harrison’s Cave. I felt like sneaking off the tram and going for a wee wonder myself, but I didn’t want to bring shame to my family. 
The only gripe I would have concerning the Harrison’s Cave experience, is that I feel it would have been an even better tour if they let us walk about a bit more. I feel that they should consider creating a walking path out of the caves to finish the tour off with. That would add something extra special to a very special tour.
Harrisons Cave was a tour, which was very much enjoyed by myself, and family. This is a tour that both the adults and kids will thoroughly enjoy. If you only go on one tour in Barbados I would recommend that you go and visit Harrison’s Cave. I feel sorry for those stupid Americans in the queue that couldn’t be bothered waiting for another 10 minutes to get in.
It’s Friday, and It’s Cocktail Evening in Barbados
It’s Friday and it’s almost the end of another great week in paradise. Friday in Barbados can only mean one thing, and that’s Ostins Fish Fry, which I will heading down to later this evening.
Before I head down to Ostins Fish Fry I plan on getting myself in the mood by having a few cocktails. I must admit I like a few cocktails form time to time. I remember the good old days when I was a student in Aberdeen and those Friday happy hour cocktails sessions we use to have at Henry J Beans.
Sitting on the wall in our house is a calendar with some cocktail recipes, which have been created by local bar tenders. They seemed easy enough to make and I thought it would be fun to make a few of them.
So here are 3 cocktails which all have a Bajan slant to them, some of the ingredients such as the Banks Beer and Sorrel may be difficult to obtain. If that is the case, just improvise.
Banks Gingerade
8 ozs Banks Beer
2 oz Ginger Ale
½ oz Falernum Dash of Bitters
Sorrel-Rhum-Tini
1 oz White Rum
1 oz Raspberry/Passion Fruit Liqueur
½ Lime Juice
½ Simple Syrup
2 oz – 3 oz BBC Sorrel Frutee
After Shock
1 oz Frangellico
½ oz Kahlua
Banks Beer to top
Staffordshire Bull Terrier Husking a Coconut
Another day and another gift from nature, today its some coconuts delivered by my wife’s cousins as they pass by again. They didn’t stay long enough to husk the coconut for me. Which left me with a small problem, how do I actually open up the coconut to get at the goodies inside.
My Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Mable, which I brought from Scotland with me to Barbados, duly solved my coconut husking problem. If the task involves ripping something to bits or food, my dog is as sharp as a razor blade.
Mable is a smart dog and she knew there was something inside the coconut, which she could devour. She husked the coconut for me in about 10 minutes, I doubt if could have done the job any better or quicker myself with a sharp knife.
Unfortunately for poor Mable once the husking of the coconut was complete, I took over the task. I had opened a few coconuts myself back home in Scotland so that part was a synch, I got my hammer from my toolbox and broke it open.
I managed to open the coconut in less than a minute and it tasted dam good, I even spared a wee piece for Mable for all her hard work husking it. All I can say is I knew good old mable would come in useful at some point in Barbados.
Further Reading:
1. Roasted Bread Fruit Bajan Style, A New But Delicious Experience
2. Traditional Recipe For Bajan Limeade
3. A Blog All About Barbados, Is It Really Paradise!
Roasted Bread Fruit Bajan Style, A New But Delicious Experience
It sure was a tough morning for me yesterday, I had to help unload a truck full of cement blocks for a house my company Awaken Paradise Property Consultants is building. It sure was hard work unloading those blocks, with the sun beating down on us, by the time we were finished, it felt like l had just had a real tough long workout at the gym. The sun sure seems to shine even brighter and hotter in Barbados when you have to work hard.
Fortunately this project is just across the road from where I live, so I never had to crawl far to get home. The combination of the hard physical work and the hot morning sun had virtually burnt me out. Unfortunately it was only 11am and it wasn’t even siesta time, but I thought what’s the harm in having it early, I was in Barbados in the Caribbean and there isn’t any predetermined constraints as how you should live your life.
After an hour or so of relaxation I felt alive again and ready for whatever the rest of the day had in store for me. Fortunately the rest of the afternoon was fairly sedate and laid back, dealing with mainly administrative things.
It was early evening and I was rounding off the day by burning some wood and garden debris in my back yard when my wife’s cousins dropped by. One of them climbed into the back of the truck and said catch as she through a breadfruit at me. Having been to Barbados numerous times, I was aware what a breadfruit was and had even sampled it a few times. I must admit I never really liked it too much; I had previously only ever had breadfruit boiled.
They said they would roast a breadfruit for me, I reluctantly said that would be great, thinking that it would taste much the same as it did boiled.
I watched with curiosity as they surrounded the breadfruit in wood and then set it alight. After about 15 minutes they pulled the breadfruit from the raging fire, I was half expecting it to have been burnt to a cinder. I should having known better, because they know what they are doing when it comes to good food and cooking.
They cut me a big chunk of breadfruit, spread some margarine on it, put some pepper sauce on it and finally squeezed a lime over it. I must admit it was looking rather tasty. All I can say is that the roasted breadfruit tasted absolutely delicious.
It sure was a good end to the day, washing the roasted breadfruit down with a bottle of banks bear and watching the colourful flames burning on the open fire. Life sure is good in Barbados.
I recently listened to a real nice tune at gallimaufry.ws, called “Joshua Gone Barbados” by Eric Von Schmidit. I would recommend that you listen to the song and read the story behind it, you will find it listed under July 21st.
Further Reading:
1. Traditional Recipe For Bajan Limeade
2. A Blog All About Barbados, Is It Really Paradise!
3. Choose Barbados As Your Dream Wedding Location
Barbados Shopping List, the Price of 20 Selected Items
I have been asked the question many times by my friends back home, what is the cost of living like in Barbados compared to back home in Scotland.
Some things such as a car are much more expensive here, whether it’s a new car or a second hand one. For example a second hand black 1997 BMW 323i would set you back around $39,000 BDS here, or brand new Suzuki Grand Vitara 1.6 for about $62,000.
I would have taken my car from the UK which was a 2004 Peogeut 307, but It would have cost me about 3 times what the car was worth in shipping and import duties. So you can see the reason why I sold it before I immigrated to Barbados.
Petrol on the other hand is a fair bit cheaper here and you don’t even have to fill your car up yourself, there is usually a pretty young Bajan girl to do the task for you. Also to park your car in the city centre it is a lot cheaper here, I parked in the centre of Bridgetown for 4 hours last week and it would have cost me 6 times more to park in the city centre than back home in Aberdeen.
Also if I was to buy a piece of land and build a house through my company Awaken Paradise Property Consultants I would get a hell of lot more for a lot less money than I would back home.
I would say in comparison to back home in Scotland that the cost of living overall is a little bit more expensive in Barbados, I would hazard a guess and say that it was between 20 – 30 % more expensive here.
I have put together a wee shopping list of things to give people a rough idea as to how much things cost in a supermarket in Barbados. Because Barbados is a fairly small island and there isn’t a huge amount of supermarkets to choose from. There also doesn’t seem to be much price competition between supermarkets like there is back home.
Barbados Supermarket Price on 20 Selected Items, prices are In Barbados Dollars:
Kellogg’s Cornflakes, 500g = $12.59
Frosties 482g = $10.24
Hellmans Mayonnaise 887g = $ 13.89
Tuna Chunks 120g = $2.79
Libby’s Corn beef = $3.39
1 Litre of Suplegen = $8.99
2 Litre bottle of Coca Cola = $ 4.35
4 Pack of toilet rolls = $11.25
1 Roll of Kitchen Roll = $ 4.15
Colgate Total Whitening 170g = $7.65
Ajax washing up liquid 473ml = $4.19
Fabreze air freshener 275g = $10.55
1 small bag of potatoes 1.175g = $3,00
1 Orange =$0.66
2kg Oven chips = $14.45
Smoked back bacon 200g = $7.65
Whole chicken 1.025kg = $ 10.24
Minced beef 0.360g = $5.68
Leg of Lamb 2.580kg = $81.40
Bottle of Banks beer 275ml = $2.25
The slightly higher costs of living in Barbados are something, which I accept without grumbling because the lifestyle benefits that I gain from living here make it a minor inconvenience. Barbados isn’t the cheapest place to live in the world, but it is also not the most expensive place to live either.
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