Sailing weekend

 

BVI Optimist Sailing Team with Coach Omari Scott

No guesses what we've been doing this weekend. It's the boys last international regatta now until after the Summer. Lots of bobbing around in ribs saying "where's my child?" and a huge course that took between 45 minutes and an hour to complete.  The boys and I went through for 4 days and Tyler joined us on Friday. Boys did well, sailing against their peers from the USA, the Caribbean and South America.  Sailing parents also faired well and enjoyed relaxing on the Floating Gin Palace, when they weren't whizzing between races on dinghies or ducking large swells and squalls. Now we're all finished and off for an early night in a bed that doesn't move.

Georgie in the Parade of Nations



 

Proud Sailing Mama & her Sailors

Georgie's last Green Fleet race ever. Next season White Fleet. 
 He always looks far too relaxed!
 

Sailing Parents watching the Competition Fleet in what
feels like the middle of the Caribbean

James in the big swells!

Watching the sailors round the markers is a good time to see how
fiercely competitive these kids are 

"Where's IVB 103?"

Sailing Papa: "There he is! What's HE DOING?"
 

Sailing HQ aka The Floating Gin Palace.
Anyone need a glass of Rose after all that?



Happy Fathers

 

We are very nearly back to normal. Tyler is fulltime in the bakery which was very busy last week, the kids are in their final two weeks of school, the house is slowly getting back to civilized standards and I'm really enjoying spending half the week at home and half the week in the bakery. Contrary to the rest of the world, I now love Mondays. 

 

Tyler is getting stronger day by day although he's still dealing with a pinched sciatic nerve and a rather haywire body (no electrolytes, for example). He enjoyed Fathers Day yesterday however: He got to sleep in, have breakfast cooked for him and then go for a lovely snorkel a Brewers Bay, where he saw a moray eel and a barracuda followed by a picnic supper on the beach. We were all in bed by 9pm. Bliss.

Nothing like a major trauma to make one appreciate all that one has. I'm not a sentimental person at all (my Mother's daughter indeed) but I did enjoy the cosy reaffirmation of Fathers Day yesterday: The benign indifference of the children; the need to nag them to make their father a card and then to remind them to give their Dad a hug in the morning. Tyler graciously pretending that the children had got him the snappy Cressi Crystal Mask he wanted and the children momentarily shamefaced because they hadn't, but hustling for some chocolate anyway. A typical Fathers Day in our household, then.

Last night as I came down to pour myself a glass of water - after Tyler had already put the dog out and switched off all the lights, I could hear the hum of the dishwasher and smell the warmth of the laundry coming up from the basement, in the dark. I felt a surge of contentment, a real happiness that has often been elusive before and I am very grateful for this.

Although there is a constant sense of fighting a losing battle against the sheer volume of damp papers emerging out of children's backpacks, little boy's bathrooms and the light fingered-ness of curious children - just about the only thing that really is sacred anymore is the normality of our everyday domesticity, happy fathers and our continued good health.

Long may it all last.

 

William had just following off a rather large rock. Brothers don't look too concerned

 





Family Sunday

We scrubbed up for church yesterday (it took me a long time to find my lipstick and mascara, which just shows you how standards have slipped here on the island ) as not only was James being made a deacon, but we needed to say goodbye to the wonderful Patterson's and Kalama's who have been our backbone over the past few months.

Then we went on to our friends Jane & Peter (our secular backbones) and we had one of those wonderful 8 hour lunches with much laughter and good food and the kids turning into wrinkled prunes with red eyes as they spent the whole day in the pool. We all slept in the car on the way home, then Tyler and I slept through our DVD rental which we'd already slept through on Saturday night and then the weekend was over. But it was a good one.

We've definitely turned the corner as you can see, and Tyler has now gone back into the bakery fulltime this week, although things are very different. I'm spending Monday to Wednesday in the Bakery's Carrot Bay HQ (ie home) and Thursday to  Saturday in the Bakery, as we really are very busy over those days. Tyler is going to have Tuesdays as his business day and not be at the coal (oven) face all the time. We are very excited about all the new developments and plans, and so grateful for the growing popularity of our little bakery. It is hard work, no denying it, but so fulfilling.  We are very focused on the future and hope to continue to add more baked goodies and other delights, as we find more space!

Much time now is also being spent on Travelocity and Expedia as we look at Summer flights and the boys are starting to get excited about seeing family and SA friends again. I'm back at gym again this week and Tyler and I are on a healthy eating kick (although we blew it with mutton curry on Saturday night, delicious but hardly slimming) as we need to be able to fit into our jeans and jerseys again soon!

Life is good.

Snaps

Carrot Bay House: From Top Left - the balcony, Madam, garden, study, backyard, sitting room tablescape, entrance hall hat rail, guest bedroom and all our mangoes

With all our drama over the past month, I quite forgot that Tyler had given me a rather fancy camera for my birthday. I've had fun fiddling around with it this Saturday afternoon, and took some snaps of our house. They are all of downstairs as I was too lazy to walk upstairs.

Expect a new and improved and snappy blog from now onwards!

Above water again

 

 

We slept for 10 hours last night, something neither of us have done for the past three years and I actually felt like a human being again this morning which was further improved by a delicious brunch cooked by Tyler of rosti, chorizo & eggs and a couple of litres of coffee. I'm ignoring the house which is now beyond redemption and lying on the sofa catching up on 3 months of Vanity Fair's and Saveur magazines, with the parrot happily screeching on the balcony and the new cat (which arrived 2 days before Tyler collapsed) bouncing off the walls. The cat is called 'Scratchy' - need  I say more?

The family is slowly getting back to normal. Tyler has just taken the boys off to Brewers Bay to try out his Birthday freedive fins which he still hadn't manage to use yet. He is improving daily, and despite some continuing health niggles which we want to get to the bottom of this coming week - seems to have turned the corner both physically and mentally. He's still weak, gets tired very quickly and is stiff and sore - but he's back to working mornings in the bakery and is quietly very pleased at the changes we've made and the growth over the past few months.

The bakery's New York shipment is finally happening this week after so many delays and setbacks and the shelves should be going up (carpenter never pitched up again this weekend) with the AC unit's imminent installation. Once all of this is in place, we are expanding our product range quite significantly which we'll test-drive over the Summer, in time for next year's season.

I do think we should have a bloody great party on September 5th, when we would have been open for one whole long year. We should style it on the Oxford & Cambridge Commom Balls' Survivor Parties, held at dawn with some bacon butties and beer tankards of Pimms. 

That will be me dancing on the tables.