Diversions

We’ve been here for just over a week now and all seem to have settled in. Oisin is clearly enjoying having free-run of the house and the nursery – with ample amounts of outside space for him to play in. We are a drive from the beach (the nearest beach is about 15 minutes away) so Nicky bought him a paddling pool and once he realised that jumping in an out of the swimming pool helped him cool down considerably (Osh that is!) we solved the ‘hot sticky and bad tempered’ child problem very quickly.

At the weekend we finished building Oisin’s bedroom and installed a bed and mosquito net. He is most delighted with the sliding door in the bedroom which disappears into the walls. And, we discovered yesterday that it is an excellent viewing spot for humming birds. Immediately outside Osh’s bedroom windows are the tall yellow spikes of the aloe flowers – a favourite of humming birds. We were reading a book on the bed when we both wondered what the strange noise was outside the window. Turns out it was a humming bird hovering all of 6 inches from our noses – the bird couldn’t see us through the bug screen on the window and the mosquito net – normally you can’t get anywhere near that close to them. Now we know why they are called humming bird (their wings make a burring noise as they beat them).

We also took a trip one afternoon to a beach on Grace Bay and Osh and I had a lot of fun in the water. This is not the first time he’s been in the sea, but I think it is probably the first time he has leapt around so extensively in the water (it is usually too cold in England). He was completely unphased by the waves although he didn’t like the taste of the salt water one bit – and he drank plenty of it.

Other forms of amusement have included loading nursery equipment off a barge and onto the back of the truck. South Dock is the main entry and exit point for all goods that come onto the island – and at the moment the bulk of them appear to be building materials both for the massive development of hotels on the island and also the luxury development over on West Caicos. As you can imagine the docks are just chock full of excitement for a small boy. He spent hours watching fork lift trucks moving sacks of cement, a huge contraption that lifts containers up and moves them around (actually, even I found that enthralling) and very, very large cranes. And then he proved most able in helping put empty plant pots on to the back of the truck and then off loading them at the other end.

There is no TV here (because the satellite dish is not working) so Osh has gone about the longest time ever with no telly - but appears to be managing! He watches Thomas on my laptop and last night we rented the Polar Express for him to watch. He has also had to be more imaginative in his games and he made some wooden boats from offcuts. I'll post pictures later when I have the spare hour for them to upload!

Last night Osh helped to feed the 2 dogs and then was allowed to go around the nursery with Nicky turning on and then off all the various sections of irrigation (sprinklers) – he thought that was great fun and told me in great detail how it all works.

Grown-up entertainment consisted last night of a very lovely dinner party at the home of Larry and Beth Sulak. They live in Boston (Larry is a Professor of Physics at MIT) but have been coming to the island for many years on holiday and own a lovely house down by the beach. The prime topic of conversation was the way the islands are changing so rapidly and how the nature of the visitors is changing too. General consensus seemed to be that the pioneering spirit of the early visitors (only 10 years ago Provo was largely undeveloped) is giving way to cut-throat investor types who’s sole interest in the islands is investing money and getting out quick once they have made their fortune. And with condominiums on West Caicos selling for $2200 a square foot there is plenty of money washing around out there!

I have been steadily working on the translations that I brought out with me (paid work but certainly not going to buy me ever one floor tile of a West Caicos condominium!) and cleaning the house, doing the laundry, cooking breakfast. Being a full time cook and mum, in fact. And I’ll tell you now it is exhausting!

The weather has been lovely but the past couple of mornings have been chilly – long sleeves and long trousers sort of weather at first light – although by about 8am it is comfortably warm again.

Yesterday we paid a visit to Osh’s school – a lovely small private primary school run by an old friend of Nicky’s. We hope he will be able to go afternoons, but still waiting to hear if they have spaces. Within the same school they have pre-kindergarten (pre-school) and kindergarten (reception) and Alison (headmistress) and I think that putting him into pre-kinder would be the best option. This way he is the eldest in his class (but not by much) rather than being the very youngest in Kindergarten. If they have room for him I’ll post you photos of the school. He thought the school was lovely – lots of open space and at least 3 different climbing frames for him to romp around on.