The Barbados Version of Steptoe And Son
One of my all time favourite comedy’s shows is the British sitcom Steptoe and Son, which starred Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell. Steptoe and Son. It was originally broadcast during the 1960′s and early 70′s and it is what I would call classic comedy.
For those of you and I can only imagine that many people that live in Barbados may have never heard of Steptoe and Son, that is apart from those that may have spent some time living in the UK, the show was about two rag and bone men, who lived in a fictional street called Oil Drum Lane in Shepherds Bush in London.
The reason for bringing to the attention of the many people living in Barbados and I suppose the various other countries around the world that avidly read The Barbados Blog, is because of a house that I pass everyday as part of the infamous school run. The house basically looks like a junkyard.
Every time I pass this house it reminds me of Steptoe and son and the crazy and hilarious escapades that Albert and Harold would get up to in each episode. I don’t know with any certainty that the owners of this house and junkyard are a Barbados version of Steptoe and Son. I suppose it is a possibility.
For those that have never seen Steptoe and Son I have featured a video clip form the show for your pleasure.
The Nightmare Of Driving In Barbados
Barbados sure is a crazy place as far as driving is concerned, it is an adventure every single time I drive anywhere on this island. Whether it is trying to avoid one of the many potholes, some of which if you were to drive into them, you would surely mess up your car real bad. The problem is especially bad at night because street lighting is virtually non-existent. Or the other major problem is trying to dodge people walking on the road, because pavements are also virtually non existent, and at night as you can imagine this is a massive problem for drivers and I suppose also for pedestrians.
Oh I almost forgot to mention, another favourite pastime in Barbados is when driving at night you have to have your full beam on all the time. You almost need to wear sun glasses to avoid getting blinded, the situation is that bad.
I oven wonder to myself if there is even a driving test in Barbados, because the standard of driving is unbelievable bad. Virtually every day I see the aftermath of an accident, I don’t mean major accidents, but stuff like someone going into the back of someone and giving their bumper a wee tap. Now what I cant understand, is that when this happens. The cars just stay where they are, and then they call the police. Which as you can imagine creates crazy traffic jams. Back home in the UK and most other countries the procedure, when there has been a minor bump, is to drive your car to the nearest place where you are not causing a disruption and then exchange details.
The only thing I can think of, as to why the police need to be called to deal with such minor incidents in Barbados, is the fact that they haven’t got anything better to do. In the UK if you called the police to deal with tapping another car with your bumper, you would be waiting for about a month for them to turn up.
Last week I had the misfortune to be involved in 2 minor bumps, which were both caused by people that can’t drive and have obvious concentration problems. It all started last Monday, when I was sitting waiting in slow moving traffic to pull out into the flow of the traffic, when a woman drove into the back of me. Fortunately it was nothing more than bumpers hitting, she apologised and said she wasn’t concentrating.
You wont believe this but fast forward 2 days to Wednesday and on the same road, but in a different place, a guy rammed into the back of me. He was pulling out of a side road and wham went straight into the back of me, causing the damage in the picture above. Again the driver gets out and apologises for hitting my car, you guessed it, and he wasn’t concentrating.
Maybe the $2000BDS he has got to pay for my car to be fixed will help him with his concentration problem. Maybe I should also charge him for the time and hassle it caused me having to mess around going to my insurance and wasted time, which could have been spent more productively, like going to the beach.
I’m not sure if drivers in Barbados are the worst in the world, because I haven’t been to every country in the world. But what I will say is that they are real bad and you need to have eyes in the back of your head to avoid them.
Just yesterday I witnessed a woman reversing around a corner while she was talking on her mobile phone, what a joke. Driving in Barbados is a dangerous game and I just with I could afford to buy a Hummer H2 that would make me feel a hell of a lot safer when driving on this island.
The Barbados Lager Experiment Conducted By The Wandering Scotsman
Nothing beats a good ice-cold bottle of lager to end the day in Barbados; because most days here are fairly hot they seem to go down a real treat. For me it has to be virtually ice cold or it isn’t going to go down quite so good. The problem in Barbados is that because it is still quite hot hear in the evening it doesn’t take long for a bottle of lager to lose its coldness.
Back home in Scotland my beverage of choice would have been ice cold Guinness on draft, or bottles of Budweiser, Coors, Miller, Hoegarrden bottles or on draft, Peroni, or Amstel, all great drinks in my humble opinion. I would gladly drink copious amount of each of those drinks given half a chance.
In Barbados there isn’t anything like the wide choice of lagers available to choose form, in fact I would go as far as saying the choice on this island is the most limited I have every experienced in any country I have ever travelled to. But don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining but making a very real observation.
I have personally reviewed what I consider to be my favourite lagers, which are easily available to buy in Barbados. I could have also included Sol the Mexican lager in my list but I only seem to like it when I’m eating Mexican food, so for that reason I have not included it.
My Four Favourite Lagers That Are Readily Available In Barbados:
1. Banks Beer, Is Brewed in Barbados itself and this is the only country I have ever seen it sold, but it is seemingly available in a few major cities around the world. It is a very drinkable beverage, which goes down a treat, but it must be ice cold to fully appreciate it.
2. Heineken, an internationally known lager that is brewed in Holland and this one I had tasted many times before I moved to Barbados. A very drinkable lager, that goes down a wee bit too easy, which I suppose isn’t a bad thing, unless you drink too much of the stuff.
3. Carib Lager, another lager that that I hadn’t even been aware that it existed until I sampled it a few years ago in Barbados. This good tasting and smooth lager is brewed in Trinidad and Tobago.
4. Piton Lager, Once again another lager that is new to me out with the Caribbean. This one is brewed in St Lucia and again it is a very good tasting lager, which is surprisingly the cheapest of the bunch at about $1.90BDS a bottle in the supermarket.
I wouldn’t say any of the above lagers were any better than the others, I find them all very drinkable and refreshing lagers, which do the job they are meant to do, which is taste good and help me to chill out at the end of another tough day in Barbados!
The Best Pina Colada Recipe In The World
For me one of my favourite cocktails in Barbados is the Pina Colada. For me there is just something magical about drinking a Pina Colada in a tropical climate, it just seems to taste extra special.
I must be honest and say that I have tasted some delicious Pina Colada’s in Barbados, some not so good ones, and some, which were an absolute disgrace. It isn’t exactly rocket science to make a truly delicious Pina Colada; there are no secret ingredients.
The trick is to use the proper ingredients and you cant really fail but to make a Pina Colada that will taste as good as you will find in the swankiest cocktail bar in any bar in the world.
Pina Colada Recipe
Ingredients:
2oz of Mount Gaye Rum
1 ½ oz of Cream of Coconut
2oz of Fresh Pineapple (cut into chunks & also use the pulp)
1 cup of ice
Method:
Pour everything into the blender.
Blend for roughly 20 seconds or until smooth
Pour into a frosted glass
Drink it through a straw; it somehow makes it taste better
Follow the above instructions to the letter and you will succeed in making the best Pina Colada in the world. Don’t take try to substitute any of the ingredients for something inferior, such as pineapple juice or coconut milk, it just wont work.
What else can I add to the above, apart from find yourself a nice bar or restaurant in Barbados overlooking the Caribbean Sea, along with some candle light, and good company and you will have created a near perfect ambiance to go with the perfect Pina Colada.
I Suppose It Could Be Called a Secret Barbados Beach
During my wonderful recent break at a Hotel on St Lawrence Gap, I was staying at a hotel that had a nice wee beach all of it’s own. As most people are aware there are no private beaches in Barbados, but the beach at the hotel was kind of hard to get too if you were not staying there. In fact I would hazard a guess and go as far as saying if you were not staying at the hotel you would probably not even be aware that there was a beach there.
Even though the hotel was fairly busy during my 10-night stay, you would very rarely find people on the beach or even enjoying the beautiful Caribbean Sea. In fact the most people I seen in the sea at this beautiful wee beach at the hotel was 5 people. I know for people that go to places like Majorca, Ibiza, Crete, Nice etc this is something that is very hard to believe, but believe me it’s true.
I suppose this beach could be called a secret beach, because you will not see it from the road or anywhere else apart from if you stay at the hotel. The name of the hotel, I wish I could tell the world, but a secret is a secret and I’m not going to give the game away.
I for one will be staying at the hotel on a fairly regular basis, there is nothing quite like getting in the car and driving for 30 minutes and going to stay at a nice hotel overlooking the amazing and beautiful Caribbean Sea. Before I moved to Barbados, having a wee break like this is something I would have never anticipated doing. But now I say to myself, why the hell shouldn’t I go and get a deserved break, without the hassles of travelling for hours to get somewhere.
I guess if you want to know where the secret beach is and I suppose I could say the not so secret hotel, because it sits on St Lawrence Gap somewhere, all you have to do is seek and ye shall find!
Do The Banks Want Us To Shed Tears Over Their Mighty Downfall
I can’t believe this huge banking crisis is happening in the UK and the USA and now various other banks are starting to now crawl out of the woodwork all over the world. What I find even more unbelievable is that the Governments within theses countries are now doing all they can to save many of those poorly managed and corrupt banks.
Let rewind to this time last year, most of these banks that are about to collapse under there own bad investment strategies, were reporting profits of hundreds of millions of Dollars and in many cases they were making billions. How can it be possible to make so much money year in year out and suddenly your are about to blow up in crazy financial mess, because you have one bad year.
It shouldn’t be possible for this to happen, so why did these poorly managed banks think there would never be a downturn in the housing markets, problems with bad debt, the world economy or whatever other excuse they want to give for their present crisis.
I think the law of the jungle now need to be applied to all these once mighty banking institutions, they shouldn’t be bailed out and helped by Governments. In my opinion they must be allowed to go bust, bankrupt or out of business, or whatever you want to call it. We all know how quick banks are to chase the public if they miss a credit card payment or loan payment by one day!
I have recently read in the local papers here in Barbados, that the banks here are not experiencing the same problems as faced by many others all over the world. I don’t personally know if that is true or if they are hoping that things get better instead of worse. Nothing would surprise me, for I pass many extremely massive, grand and opulent buildings that are used as headquarters and offices by some of the Banks based on this island. Something tells me that they are not afraid to spend huge amounts of money maintaining an over the top image.
Like many others I will not be shedding any tears over the current crisis faced by many of the banks. If you have any doubts about your bank surviving, I would suggest you do your research and find a well managed and ran bank to look after your money.
On a Moonlight Night the Grim Reaper Came For Me
It was a beautiful moonlight night in Barbados last night when I had a very real brush with death, you could say the grim reaper had came calling for me and this time he failed to take me.
Lets begin at the beginning; a few days ago I had a flat tyre, which is a fairly regular occurrence because of the unbelievable bad condition of the roads all over the island of Barbados. I tried to take the flat tyre off myself so that I could put the spare one on, but it had been put on too tight and wouldn’t budge. So I pumped my tyre up and drove to the nearest tyre repair shop to get them to change my tyre for me. A bargain at only $5.00, or so I thought.
So far so good, fast forward two days and I had just dropped the kid off at his private evening lesson, when something went wrong with the car. All I could hear was this sort of loud clunking noise. I got out the car expecting something to be dragging or hanging off the car.
I then moved the car a few meters forward to a more lit up area to try and locate the problem. I couldn’t believe it; the front wheel that had been changed at the tyre shop was hanging on with one bolt. I can only assume that the tyre wasn’t put back on very tight.
Only an hour before my wheel nearly came off, I had been driving at 100 km on the ABC highway. If it had happened then, the grim reaper would have surely taken my family and me. I call this a very real and close brush with death and feel very lucky to still be one piece.
This incident has taught me another very, very valuable lesson to never trust anybody to put a tyre back on my car properly. From now on I will be doing what I should have done in the first place, checked the nuts on the tyre myself.
As the saying goes when your number is up, there is not much you can do about it. To help ease my nerves from my brush with death, I went to local shop for 3 bottles of ice cold Heineken and drank them watching the sky lit up beautifully by the full moon.
100 and Still Going Strong!
Today I have reached the milestone of my 100th article on The Barbados Blog and everything is going from strength to strength. I started this blog after I moved from my home country of Scotland to come and live on the Caribbean Island of Barbados, this happened during the last week of June 2008.
I started this blog with the objective of documenting my experiences on the island and to give the world an objective insight into what life is really like in Barbados for an expat who isn’t rich. My move to this island is all about seeking out new challenges and the reawakening of my body, soul and mind through the adventure of travel.
The next article milestone for The Barbados Blog will be when I reach the 1000th article and hopefully by then I will be achieving over a 1000 visitors a day to my site as opposed to the 100 or so that presently read my blog.
No matter what we do in life, we need to seek out new challenges to remind us that we are alive. The easiest thing to do in life is to just let things drift along and let time pass us by without actually doing much or achieving anything. We all need to find something to give keep us motivated and to challenge our minds, because if we don’t, what is the point of our existence
The Barbados Blog is one of many projects that I am currently working on and I give it the same input and effort as everything else that I do, because I have a clear vision of where I want the blog to get too, I just have to figure out how to make it as successful as I want it to become and know that it can become.
“To find what you seek in the road of life,
the best proverb of all is that which says:
“Leave no stone unturned.”
Edward Bulwer Lytton
Who Are We To Judge Others
There is a beggar I see every morning in the car park where I wait for the school to open before dropping off the kid. He is there every morning without fail; we call him stinky because you can smell his foul smell from about 15 meters away. He is what we would call in Scotland, a beggar and he obviously sleeps rough.
He has his breakfast in the car park, which is behind a post office, he has a fairly good feast every day, and he has at least a 4-course breakfast, which includes fruit, fruit juice, water and cooked food. I’m glad that this poor unfortunate person at least eats well.
He doesn’t seem to be in the best of health, he walks with a bad limp and has a real bad twitch, which makes him look crazy. What surprises me about stinky is that he packs his food and drink up when he has finished eating and places it all in the bucket next to the post office. Which is good to see, because you see plenty of healthy people, with seemingly sane minds in Barbados, dropping there rubbish in the streets, without giving it a second thought.
I was really shocked and sadden by human nature and how people treat other people because they are downtrodden and don’t have much in life. A few days ago the beggar as usual tidied up his rubbish and hobbled to the bin to dispose of his rubbish. As he was walking away from the bin, someone appeared from beside the post office and made some comments towards stinky and then through a big rock at him, which narrowly missed him. Mr rock thrower obviously gave himself the job of judging others and felt it was his god given right to treat someone like crap.
Who are we to judge others who have less than us, what gives people the right to treat the afflicted in an inhuman way. Who knows the history of this particular beggar and how his life turned out the way it has, he isn’t dong anybody any harm as far as I can see, he is just doing his best to survive.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” – Matthew 7:12
Historic Gun Hill Signal Station In Barbados
I had the pleasure of visiting Gun Hill Signal Station during the week and even though it looked like the downpour would never stop, I still had a good time visiting one of the most historic buildings in Barbados.
Gun Hill Signal Station is located in the Parish of St George in Barbados and was built in 1818 after the slave rebellion. It is one of a series of signal station dotted around the island, which were built for the purpose of watching for approaching ships, hurricanes and to warn of slave rebellions on the island.
You get a real sense of history when you wander around the signal station, the surrounding gardens and from the historic artefacts that are on display. I however personally wish there were more military memorabilia, more written information and some more photographs, which I feel would enhance the attraction even more.
The views around the island from the top of Gun Hill Signal Station are some of the best, which you will on the whole island. It currently costs $10 BDS to visit the signal station, which I would say represents fairly good value for money. All in all I would say it is worth paying Gun Hill a wee visit, and even though it isn’t the greatest historic site you will ever have visited, it is still gives you an insight into the history of Barbados.
I took an amazing picture of the rainstorm form the top of the Gun Hill Signal Station Tower, which can be viewed at the Barbados Photo Blog.
Sponsor
