Easter Camp

Well, this is wierd. For the first time in over a month I am free of Oisin....! The Primary School where Daniel went as a boy was full up and unable to take Osh, but they are running an Easter Camp and that is where the oshlet is at the moment. It is only in the mornings and just this week and next week but I thought he'd enjoy some little people to play with. Osh was not entirely convinced by this, but I managed to sneak off about an hour after dropping him and no call from the school yet! Miss Myrna (all the teachers here are Miss and then their christian names) is in charge of the class - there are 7 in there for camp. Miss Myrna taught Daniel when he was small and I met her last summer when Nicky and I were invited to her TYA (ten year anniversary). Turks Islanders celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary with a big party to which everyone wears white. Problem is that no-one told me that and I turned up to the party on the beach wearing dark brown trousers and a black shirt....when I twigged that EVERYONE else was in white I felt a bit like the Ancient Mariner turning up at the wedding with the albatross around his neck (or am I mixing up two bits of classic literature there?!?).

Yesterday was very hot and we went out to Northwest Point (photos to follow) for the morning and then tidied up the farm in the afternoon. The high point of the day yesterday was me finally getting around to baking cookies for Osh (when you are that hot it seems pointless to moan about turning the oven on) and lighting a big bonfire. We had a stack of material that needed getting rid of and a Cow Bush (lucaena leucocephala) which is a giant weed and almost impossible to kill. Although given the intensity of the fire I think we managed it. Osh was transfixed by the fire, running around finding twigs to be thrown on it - by 8pm he and Nicky where installed in easy chairs on the patio (Nicky with a rum, Osh with his bottle)admiring their work of fire.

I've been asked various questions since I've been here and thought (being osh free) now was the time to answer them. One of them was whether it really was perfect living on a tax-free tropical paradise. Well, first off this place is anything but tax free. There is no income tax (hence a large number of millionaires) but the government rakes in money from every other possible source. There is no manufacturing on the islands so all goods are imported and all food (bar some fish and the odd vegetable) is imported. Whilst fresh food comes in tax-free, everything else incurs a duty of 33% (which would explain a loaf of bread costing $2.39) which, if you shop in the wrong supermarket (ie the IGA, a big international supermarket) you can spend a small fortune very quickly. Personally, I prefer Island Pride around the corner which is like a huge warehouse - short on frills, precious little customer service but nice and cheap. Other than that, I'm really struggling to find any downsides of living in paradise....the climate wrecks my hair (very windy and lots of dust and sand around), I'll be wrinkly early on, no chance to wear my huge collection of wooly jumpers, but nothing to complain about really!

Got to go and get the Osh now, will report on how he got on later. Meantime, you could check out www.provoprimary.com to see where he is.