After all that hard work, time for a holiday!

Our nearest beach in St. Lucia

And looking in the other direction.....

The same beach......

Sunset on New Year's Eve (or Old Year's Night as they call it here!)

Anse la Raye, St. Lucia

Waterfall, St. Lucia

The famous Piton twin peaks, Soufriere, St. Lucia

Castries, capital of St. Lucia

Another glorious sunset in St. Lucia

The pool and garden at Apartment Espoir

The view from our balcony

Fort Charlotte from Kingstown Bay, St. Vincent

First views of Bequia (pronounced Beckway)

Bequia

Princess Margaret Bay, Bequia

and again.........

At the turtle sanctuary

Industry beach

Friendship bay

At the Frangipanu Jump Up!

Goodbye to the Grenadines!

Quick Diary: December 29 2009 - January 10 2010

Tuesday 29th:
John arrived about 4pm this afternoon. Back to Dorothy's to unload. Then quick swim at Ginger Bay. Back to Dorothy's for food. Out to St. Lawrence Gap in the evening for quiet drink.

Wednesday 30th:
Full day tour of the island with John in hire car.
Highlights: swimming in Payne's Bay on the West Coast.
Watching the waves at North Point - totally incredible!
Visit to St. Nicholas Abbey and amazing old black and white film of Barbados in 1935.
Tried to swim at Foul Bay but too rough.
Saw most of west and east coasts.
Back to Dorothy's and to return hire car.
Out to dinner at the Crane Resort - very very nice - with Dorothy and Vilma. Fabulous views of the Crane Beach.

Thursday 31st:
Quiet morning. Airport about 11.
Flew to St. Lucia.
Met at airport by taxi driver from Apartment Espoir.
Beautiful apartment in stunning location - amazing views over bay.
Swam in late afternoon.
Out into Rodney Bay in evening to search for meal. Very busy and very expensive. Got ripped off with bad and over priced meal.
Back to apartment for midnight. Happy New Year! Great fireworks over bay.

Friday 1st:
Raining! Into Castries for look around. Not looking good for Martinique and Dominica.
Back to apartment in afternoon and swimming later on.
Out to Rodney Bay Marina for dinner - very exclusive yauchting crowd.

Saturday 2nd:
Tour of island with our own taxi man Arthur. Wet and misty morning but better by afternoon.
Saw iconic Pitons. Visited volcano and steaming sulphur pools.
Swam under waterfall.
Lunch out.
Back into Castries and visited street carnival.
Back to apartment and out to dinner in Gros Islet: great find. Food and bars on the street - totally authentic and great value!

Sunday 3rd:
Raining again! Out for shopping then cooked brunch. Weather better in afternoon and swam and lazed.
Back to Gros Islet for dinner again.
Unfortunately on way home we were robbed/mugged by two young men with a gun and a machete. Handed over our money and John lost his wallet - about £250 from him and about £50 from me. Happened very quickly and hard to believe. Nobody hurt: could have been so much worse! Late night visit from police.

Monday 4th:
Into Castries to make plans for rest of week. No places on boat to Martinique to having to change plans. Booked flight to St. Vincent tomorrow night.
Back to apartment and swim. Dined at Windjammer resort - too scared to go out tonight!

Tuesday 5th:
Lazy day around apartment and swimming.
To airport about 5 and flew about 7. Short flight to St. Vincent. Taxi to Cobblestone Inn - great hotel in centre of Kingstown - and dined at Basils - excellent meal.

Wednesday 6th:
Up about 8. Breakfast then headed to port for boat to Bequia. Boat left about 11. One hours sail to the jewel of the Grenadines.
Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!
Staying at the Frangipani Hotel in Port Elizabeth.
Amazing! Amazing! Amazing!
Swam at Princess Margaret Beach.
Perfect! Perfect! Perfect!
Dinner in town and quiet early night.

Thursday 7th:
Hired jeep for day to tour this tiny island.
Went to Turtle Sanctuary.
Swam at Industry Bay.
Beer at Friendship Bay.
Swam and lazed at Lower Bay - just as beautiful as Princess Margaret.
Barbeque at Frangipani tonight.
Great food and live steel band excellent.
Big yauchting crowd in.
Great great night.

Friday 8th:
Goodbye paradise!
Boat back to Kingstown.
Haircut.
Taxi to airport and flew back to St. Lucia about 2.30pm.
Back to Apartment Espoir and great couple of hours late afternoon on beach.
Taxi out and back this evening to Gros Islet. Huge street party. Great food and great atmosphere. Back early.

Saturday 9th:
Up at 5am and flew at 7am back to Barbados.
Took bus back to Dorothy's.

Christmas Day

Quick Diary: December 21-28 2009

Monday 21st:
Morning meeting with the Archbishop at the Diocesan Office in Bridgetown. Gave him a book about Manchester. Short and friendly meeting.
Evening visit with Michael Maxwell to St. Thomas Parish Church for their patronal festival. Michael was preaching. Beautiful church. Bells, smells and procession. Not such a large congregation. No refreshments.

Tuesday 22nd:
Afternoon visit to St. John's Parish to meet Mr and Mrs Ivan Squires, friends of Lionel and Alma Weekes. Ivan is pastoral assistant at St. John's and he took us to the church for a guided visit. Incredible location with breathtaking views; interesting churchyard; very traditional interior.
Went from there to visit Cynthia Nurse- Alma's sister. Suffering badly with toothache.
From there went on to visit Madeline and Champ - more friends of Dorothy - lovely people - lovely home.

Wednesday 23rd:
In afternoon went for meal with Bridgeman and Claudine Forde, members of Holy Trinity Choir. They lived for over 40 years in Oldham and have only been back in Barbados about 6 years. Very interesting insights. Joined later by Marjorie Butcher, Church Warden from Holy Trinity. Very interesting from "church politics" point of view!

Christmas Eve:
Quiet morning writing sermon. Visit to beach in afternoon. Spent evening setting dining room table.
Went to church at 11.30pm for carol singing. Church already packed although the Mass not beginning until midnight. Dorothy, Marva and Glenda struggled to find a seat! Mass from about 12 to 2am. I preached: went quite well though was quite nervous. Over 500 people in church!

Christmas Day:
Three hours in bed then up at 7am. Up to Holy Trinity for the 8am Eucharist. Quieter than last night - just over 200 in church. Preached same sermon - went much better - much more relaxed.
Home about 11am. Went for swim: nobody on beach. Back to Dorothy's about 12.30pm. Guests started to arrive. 11 for lunch. Sat down to eat about 4pm. Lots of food of course! Ended the evening playing dominoes - had a lot of fun.

Boxing Day:
Lazy day. Beach. Not much else. In evening went to Glenda Watson's (near neighbour of Dorothy) to bless the house. Stayed for drinks.

Sunday 27th:
Presided at the 8am Eucharist at Holy Trinity - the main service of the day. All went well.
After church dropped off Marva then called at Mr and Mrs Browne's and met Canadian relatives. To beach for quick swim.
Then to Fr & Mrs Thorne's for lunch (Maurice and Yvonne). He is a retired priest. Lovely family and home. The Maxwells there and Leroy. Wonderful Caribbean cuisine.
In evening to Holy Trinity for the Christmas Cantata at 6pm. Interesting. More like the Colbert Belgrave Show..............Back home by 8pm and watched "Jerry Maguire" on video.

Monday 28th:
Spent morning around ChristChurch looking for hire car for John's arrival tomorrow. Nothing available.
Back for a swim.
Late afternoon to Marva and Douglas's home where I blessed the house - followed by a lovely meal. Douglas Massiah (MR FIX IT) found me a hire car from St. John and we went to collect it.
Back home and watched "The Green Mile" on video.

Second Sunday at Holy Trinity

Dorothy chatting with the Archbishop after church

Dorothy with niece Marva

Marva, Daniel, Dorothy

The new Archbishop of the West Indies, & Bishop of Barbados,

The Rt. Revd. Dr. John Holder

Michael Maxwell and me with the Archbishop

The confirmation candidates with the Archbishop

The Holy Trinity servers team with the Archbishop

On Sunday morning December 20th - Advent 4 - I attended the only service at Holy Trinity which was an 8am service of Holy Eucharist and Confirmation. There were 12 people to be confirmed of all ages. The service was broadcast on local radio and there was particular interest in the event as this was the first public service at which the new Archbishop was officiating. I had met him briefly at the Christmas party on Friday night and I was struck by how unassuming he is: there is no "edge" to him at all and there does not appear to be a grain of pomposity in him - all very refreshing. The service went well - again VERY traditional - indeed the hymms (which were all sung with great gusto by the choir) were verging on the turgid. I led the intercessions. All went well. The service lasted about 2 hours.

I had a quick swim at the local beach at lunchtime as Dorothy was making lunch. In the evening we went back to church to attend the Christingle service which was very well buried in a children's and young people's service. There were some very good items in the service and there are obviously some very talented young people in church - but at 2 hours 45 minutes it was just a little long!

Those Christmas lights!

Me and the Maxwells at the Diocesan Christmas party

The Barbados police band and the banner to welcome the new Archbishop

The decorated houses around Bridgetown

Independence Square

Parliament buildings

This was definitely the winner!

On Friday evening Michael and Dawn Maxwell and their two boys took me to the Barbados Diocesan Christmas Party that was being held in the swanky Grand Barbados Hotel in the bay area of Bridgetown. It was a very big event that was dominated by the big news that the Bishop of Barbados, John Holder, had just been elected as the Archbishop of the West Indies the previous weekend. It is fair to say that Barbados had been doing cartwheels since this news was announced as a Bajan has never before held the post. We did not get back from town until after midnight and I was up at 7am on Saturday to attend a wedding at Holy Trinity at 8am!

I have never heard of an 8am wedding before but the bride was no more that 15 minutes late and the whole thing was over by 9am.

I spent Saturday afternoon on the boardwalk in Christchurch and on the beach at Akkra. In the evening Dorothy's nephew Hal and his wife Margaret took us for a drive to see some of the outlandishly decorated houses around Bridgetown. Quite amazing!

Codrington College: December 18th

The drive at Codrington College, with the lily pond on the right

The wonderful drive at Codrington College - look at those palm trees!

The Principal, Revd. Dr. Ian Rock with my host - Michael Maxwell

The college chapel

The view from the college grounds! It must be the most spectacularly located theological college in the Anglican Communion......

We should have flown at 6.40pm last night but LIAT - the Caribbean airline whose acronymn is said to stand for Leave Island Any Time - was delayed by two hours. It was nearly 9pm when we left St. Vincent for the 30 minute flight back to Barbados. Michael's wife Dawn was there to meet him and they dropped me off at Dorothy's. It was past 11 when we went to bed and we were up at 6 this morning to get ready for Michael who was collecting me at 6.30.

The morning Mass at Codrington was the last of the term - the students leave today for a Christmas break until January 25th. I was privileged to be asked to celebrate as well as preach. There were about 12 ordinands in the congregation. I preached on the Gospel for this Sunday - Advent 4 - the visitation - basically a sermon about Mary. It seemed to be well received. After the Mass we had a very good breakfast in the Refectory with the students. There are two female ordinands in the college. The Dioceses of Belize and the Bahamas seem to be well represented.