Halloween in Grenada or German punctuality

Today is Halloween in Grenada and this will be our second and last Halloween that we will be celebrating in the Caribbean. Last year we were in the Dominican Republic and had very loud and late night at Shaggies; this year round we took it a bit easier. We had several options to choose from, a trick or treat dinghy ride around Prickley Bay, Halloween Party in the restaurant “ De Big Fish” or in the True Blue Resort. Since Carlos was not feeling too well, and we had enough parties and action over the last few days, I decided that we will take it easy and so we went to the Halloween Party at the True Blue Resort. I like it there very much and imagined that they would have something great up there sleeve. However today my German punctuality bit me from behind, and I was a bit annoyed about my planning and action. The information I had gotten from the owner of the resort that the party would start at 4 in the afternoon, but I had forgotten that this is Grenadian time. We arrived on time, 4 pm sharp; unfortunately we were the only ones that take starting times seriously. It was suppose to start at four, but everyone else arrived 40 minutes after us. I was mostly annoyed about this, as we could have comfortably done the trick or treat dinghy ride, before heading to the resort. Never mind; the six children I had taken enjoyed their time in the swimming pool, while we were waiting for the others to arrive. We then watched, admired and enjoyed the judging of all the great costumes the other children wore. I suggested to Carlos that he could take his shirt off and go as a beach bump, he did not think that this was funny and pointed out that this would have not been gone under dressing up. Ah well, so no prize for any of the children I went with, but they assured me that they had a great time being there. When we went home Carlos had developed a fever and went straight to bed, while we enjoyed another visit from Jan and Susan, before settling down for the night.

A weekend filled with social activities

What a weekend and significant time we have spend the last few days here in Grenada. Everything seems to be for the last time, so we try to embrace and indulge into it as much as we can.
Saturday morning I had due some of my favorite chores, washing clothes! I had laid it off for quite a while, and now the washing basket was flowing over. Six loads later it was all done, the boat was clean and the Callalou soup was prepared for Girls dinner that night. The girls were going to have a dinner at Sharon’s place; while the Natasha, Julia, Carlos and Kimble went to a little kids party at Bill’s and Deb’s house. Their party started at 7.30 and was suppose to end at midnight. We had a quiet evening at Sharon’s house until it was time to go to pick up the children. Before we even arrived at Deb’s and Bill’s house we could hear the kids laughing and screaming and see the camp fire. They had roughly 30 kid’s for the party, which was a fundraiser for the local swimming community. They had the children engaged into playing games and all sorts of other activities, such as sitting around the campfire singing and playing the guitar. What an awesome place to be for the children. Deb and Bill is a very delightful couple which has a passion to nurture and look after children. I hope they do keep spreading their fun and love in the Grenadian community. It has been a great pleasure to have met them. Just shortly after midnight we left and headed back home, Natasha had a sleep over, but they were all exhausted and it got pretty quickly quiet on our JUCA.

Sunday was my special day and I was in for a treat thanks to my Yoga sisters. I had been given a voucher for a Swedish full body massage for one hour at the Soothing Touch Massage Clinic. The idea of the Soothing Touch Clinic was formed in 2003 by a lady of the name Jean fisher. She had wished to teach visually impaired local Grenadians the art of massage. The idea finally took shape in the year 2006 after a visit to China. Along with the help and contribution from the St. George’s University, they trained and certified five therapists that were visually impaired. First I went to my usual treat to the Laluna Resort for a Yoga class and then from there I went to the Soothing touch clinic for my massage appointment. I was massaged my Joseph, who was born in 1951. He was raised in Victoria in the parish of St. Marks where he still lives. He became blind at the age of 12. Joseph was very nice and friendly and boy did he have soft, soothing hands. I would dare to say that this was my best massage ever. He was gentle and careful, but still getting into the muscles. Once he finished my back and my legs, I was thinking oh what a shame – all over- but then I had turn around and he did my front legs, my arms, my neck and head…..when he finally finished after an hour, it seems so much longer, I thought I had gone to heaven and just landed back on earth! I was relaxed, balanced and happy afterwards, what else could you wish for after having a very special massage. When I finished I met Nola at the beach, who kindly had picked up Julia and Carlos and taken them to the beach for me to meet. We had a swim and something to drink at the restaurant “Umbrella”, before going for a walk on the beach and heading back home. All I can say “thank you so much for such a wonderful and special gift; I will carry this as a very special memory in my heart”.

Saying goodbey to friends in Grenada

On Friday morning Julia and Carlos had been invited by their friend Natasha to come along to a Fun Day at a local school. They had to get up early to catch the bus at 7 in the morning. Usually they do like to sleep in but this was no problem for Julia on that morning. Friday morning was also my last Yoga session on the beach. Just as we were heading off to the beach it started to rain, so we decided to wait for an hour and have a cup of tea on our boat. What a great energy to have on the boat this time of the day. When the rain stopped we went to the beach, to indulge into a last hour of Yoga together. By the time I got back to the boat it was nearly time to get ready to pick up the kids from school. I made some sandwiches and water to bring along for a little picnic on the beach, before heading back home. When I arrived at the school, I was greeted by loud music and I could see three little white children in amongst little dark skin children shaking their body to the rhythm. It was funny to watch and it assured me that they also had a great Friday morning. The school was located right on coconut beach and we walked along the beach until we came to our usual picnic spot in Grande Anse, right in front of the restaurant Umbrella. Soon we were joined by other children, Amy, Deb and Bill. We had a fantastic afternoon and the kids tolled around the water with their Surf and Boggy boards. It was hard to leave and saying good bye to Amy, William and Bella, but I am assured that we will see them again one day in New Zealand. We headed back home where I prepared a Lasagna and Susan and Jan came over for dinner and a glass of wine. They brought a salad and the dinner turned out to be absolute delicious and was accompanied by lots of laughter and chatting. When Susan, Jan and Sven headed off to the Tikki bar at 10 pm I had to give it a miss, I was tired and exhausted from the day, especially after not having too much sleep the night before. That what happens if you talk to your family back in Germany throughout the night, however every minute was worth it, but you need to know when you have reached your limit.

Life goes on - A new adenture ahead of us

Waiting is only a state of the Mind

GOING WITH THE FLOW

Bus trip to Flamingo Bay

Sea Trial and Survey

Proud to be a Kiwi

The week is over and the work is done. The last thing that Carlos I had to do before going to bed last night is polishing the ship bell and once this was accomplished we dropped like rocks into bed. It seemed like a long week of cleaning, polishing and varnishing, however our JUCA looks like new, very tidy and represent able. This morning we shifted the yacht with Jan and Susan onto the dock of the spice Island Marina, where she will be hauled out on Monday lunch time. The sea trial will be early in the morning; I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be in our favor so that everything is going smooth. This morning I went to my Sunday morning Yoga class at the Laluna resort and when I came back I just got the last few minutes of the Rugby half final “New Zealand vs. Australia”. Of course the All Blacks won, nothing else to expect, and it made me happy. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of rugby at all; nor do I understand the rules of this game even after living in this country for twenty years. However when I watched the All Blacks win I was proud of their success, our home New Zealand, and to be a Kiwi. We are now looking forward with excitement and hope to the next game this coming weekend, wishing that the all Blacks will bring home the World Cup.

Totally fallen in love with Grenada

Wow …. This week certainly has overtaken us…probably because there was so much to do and to achieve until our BIG DAY. All week we have been busy with cleaning, polishing, varnishing, tidying and clearing our JUCA from everything that is not needed anymore. This weekend we do have the day that we have been waiting for a long time; the potential buyer is coming for inspection, survey and sea trial…..keeping our fingers crossed that this will be our last survey and sea trial and that we are going to sell this time around. My emotions have been going up and down this week…on one side I am sad to sell our JUCA and on the other hand I am sooo ready to move back to New Zealand to start something new. Julia and Carlos have been on their school break this week, so that made it quite easy to fully concentrate on the preparations for this weekend. However between all our chores we squeezed in our cooking class on Thursday with Esther and Omega. This week they showed us how to bake Swordfish in a white wine sauce topped with breadcrumbs and local seasoning, and the side dish has been Christophene Gratin….once again it was a delightful class and the meal was very delicious. This time round the class had grown again; 40 people attended this weeks cooking session….the growing number shows evidence for the success of this session and how it has grown in popularity within the sailing community. On Wednesday the children and I went to visit Sharon up the hill. She very kindly made time for the kids and me and some more painting before flying off to the States for a couple of weeks. I finished off my little yoga keyword rocks and Julia and Carlos painted a Calabash bowl and Nola took them for a walk with her dog “Terra”. I had actually planned to stay only for an hour or so, but we ended up staying all afternoon as we enjoyed each other’s company once more. What a shame that we won’t have more time to spend with each other, but at least we made the most out of it and I am sure our path will cross again. On Friday we went over to the Grande Anse Beach to meet Amy and her children. Carlos had been counting the days until Friday and was very excited to see his friend William again. Since I had lost his flip flops in the morning we had to take a little detour via St. George to buy some new ones. Bingo it took only a couple of shops for us to find the exact same one again. I love the convenience of the public transport here in Grenada. It took the three of us under an hour and only $ 5 EC (NZ $ 2) to catch the bus to St. George to buy the shoes ($10 EC) and back again. The amount of flip flops we have gone through in the last 2 years is unreal and would probably entitle us to go into the Guinness Books of Records. However we quickly hopped back on the bus and finally met Amy at the beach. We all jumped into the “cold” water and the children had a couple of hour’s fun playing in the crystal clear water, building sandcastles, and zooming along the beach. These are the moments that I will truly miss when living back in New Zealand. I simply have fallen in love with Grenada and our weekly entertainments.

Another sales spring cleaning week

This week you will not hear much of us, as we will be busy cleaning, varnishing and polishing our JUCA for another spring sales clean! Yes....this weekend is our big day....have I actually mentioned it that we have accepted an offer on the Yacht and the sale is subject to survey and sea trial.... on Sunday we will be meeting our potential customer and he will inspect the boat with us and on Monday morning we will have a haulout, survey and sea trial. Please everyone keep your thumbs and fingers crossed as this will be an important time and could be a turn for all of us .....after this weekend we will be either packing our personal belongings once more and move back to New Zealand or we will continue sailing and looking at our Plan B. Enough written...lets get ready, roll up our sleeves and start cleaning and polishing!

A Fun Yoga Play Day

Wow what a busy week we had so far and it gets better and better by the day. Today we had our “Girls nurture Girls” Yoga Fun Play Day. I was so looking forward to this day. We all got picked up by Ilona and dinghied over to the Tikkibar dock. From there we walked up to Sharon’s house that had kindly opened up her home to us. It was a stunning house on top of the Mount Hartman overlooking Prickly Bay and Secret Harbor. The house included an indoor garden and a little lookout on top of the roof, absolutely cool. We all had brought some lunch to share, that we stored in the fridge until lunch. Once we had settled down and warmed up to each other, we lay down in Shavasana to indulge to a yoga session. The space was brilliant and the class was bliss….what an experience…..what a beautiful memory to take with me. After the yoga session we all agreed to stay in silence to paint our little rocks that Nola and Sharon had collected on Flamingo Beach a week before. Sharon even went through the trouble of making some hearts out of salt dough, which we all painted. We all enjoyed the time sitting in silence painting our little stones and hearts. We all discovered a creative side inside us and it reminded us of how beautiful it is to open up our heart to painting and creativity. We took a break from being silent for lunch, and as you could have probably guessed we continued to chat to a great length after lunch while we painted. The salt dough hearts were given to me at the end of the day, as a thank you gift for all the yoga classes that I have given on the beach over the last 6 weeks. The hearts were beautifully painted with a little rolled up note inside them and lined up on a little piece of string. What a wonderful gift…thank you my beautiful friends I was absolutely stunned by this gift and had to hold back my tears. You have given me equally as much joy as I have hopefully given you during our Yoga classes on the beach of Grenada. Teaching and sharing my passion with you under the Banyan tree has been the greatest gift I could have received. After we finished our painting, we sat around the living space and chatted about this and that. We filled out a questionnaire to discover what body type we are in the philosophy of Ayurveda. Just before it was getting dark, we actually remembered that there is something else out there to go back to. It was hard to leave the circle of friends that we have become that day; however we know that we will carry those friendships and this day deep in our heart for the rest of our lives. Thank you everyone for being there, you made it all very special!

Grande Anse Beach Fun

This morning after Yoga, I got ready and packed my bags as I was going to meet Amy for a Yoga class at her house. I very much like our private little sessions at her house. I had arranged for Sven to take the children to St. George and then on his way back he will drop them off at Amy’s. Once her children are getting off school we will go down to the beach and meet other children to have fun at the beach. It all worked perfectly, just as Amy and I were finished Julia and Carlos arrived and we had a bit of time on our hand before picking up William and Bella from school. Julia and especially Carlos were very excited to meet up with William again. Grande Anse beach is a beautiful long white beach not far away from where Amy lives and where we are anchored. The water is just stunning and the temperature are just right…..beautiful…..just the way you would picture the Caribbean Bays. I really embrace these moments and will hold them in m y heart for the rest of my life…..our days in Grenada….just amazing and we are so lucky to be here. On the beach we met Debbie who has an afternoon school program, on Fridays she takes the children to the beach to go kayaking, takes them for Dinghy rides, and surfboarding. As you can probably guess we met lots of other kids and had an afternoon filled with laughter and fun.

Cooking class with Esther and Omega

We have been very much looking forward to this week’s cooking class with Ester and Omega. Last week was a real pleasure and we were wondering what they have in mind for us. Julia and Carlos worked very efficient today and finished their homework really fast. We had something little to eat before we made our way to the resort. Since we had been raving on about the cooking classes so much, we had awakened Jan’s and Susan’s interest as well. We had arranged to pick them up and to walk together to the cooking class. When we got there, we were obviously not the only one that had raved on about the cooking class. Instead of 10 people taking part in the cooking class, they were 30 people eager to watch and learn how to cook something interesting. This week they surprised us with Pan fried Sword Fish with a sweet ‘n sour passion fruit sauce and cucumber sambal. What can I say it was funny to watch and delicious to eat. Esther and Omega were really impressed with the numbers and you could see that they had tripled the fun with so many attending their cooking class. After the cooking class we stayed a little bit longer and Julia and Carlos played in the pool while we were watching and chatting away at the side of the pool. We all agreed that this will be our regular Thursday afternoon entertainment while being in Grenada.

Being Creative

Being creative has been my keyword for this week. I have been creative in our school work and my yoga sessions, we opened up our musical side of the brain, we went went for a cooking class with Omega and Ester, and continued to make necklaces with Glennis. During our beading session there was lots to talk about and you could probably hear our laughter and chatting for miles. Glennis is fun to be with and I feel very comfortable in her company. She is from South Africa and her humor is just delightful, she reminds very much of my friends Ilona and Petra back in Germany, very much down to earth, but with such a dry humorous way of saying and seeing things. I just love them both dearly and I am very grateful that they have crossed my path! On Sunday I went to the Laluna resort again for my weekly treat. It is such a delight on Sunday mornings to walk to the corner of IGA and to wait for Stephanie the yoga teacher to pick me up. We usually spend a couple of hours in the resort before we head back. It is a total different type of Yoga that I am teaching and do in my personal practice, but somehow I do love her teaching style and take something new home each time. I feel stretched and relaxed and usually ready to meet the next week. This week it started raining during the relaxation and you could feel the rain as it is an open pavilion and you could hear the rain drops falling onto the leaves and making the sounds of drums leading you into a deep relaxation…… simply divine.