Bajan Reflections of 2016

Surprisingly I found that Bajans who generally don’t need much of an excuse to lime or party in years past, were not big partiers on Old Year’s Night! Perhaps it was because of the huge celebrations for Christmas that continued on into Boxing Day with picnics and all day parties.

Today, there are many places to go for New Years with events ranging from 100 to 1700 dollars (bds) that include entertainment, food and drinks. Even though one offering has a 7 course meal, I’ll pass on them all.

Since I won’t be doing the planned “Bajan New Years Past,” I have decided to take a look back
at the past year for me, a new Bajan. Before I do, I would like to thank all of you that have followed me on this journey thus far. I appreciate all of the 1,005 users and 6,700 page views! It’s amazing that viewers from 28 different countries have looked in. Thank you so much!

2016 my first year as a Bajan started on March 24 when I along with 56 others were sworn in as Barbadian citizens. March 24 has replaced my birthday as the most important date of the year for me! It was a giant step towards making Barbados my new home. Soon afterward I got my Barbados National ID card, now they can’t get rid of me.

The next major event was retiring from Meditech, the place that I worked for over 30 years as a Systems Support Specialist back in June. Shortly after arriving in Barbados in August, Sandra and I were featured in a story the Nation Newspaper “Family Set to Make Barbados Home.”  It was that article that nudged me towards doing a blog about my adventure of a lifetime that I later named “Retiring In Paradise.” http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/87792/story-family-set-barbados-home

We started the renovation of our small home at the end of August. I like many of you, watch House Hunters International on HGTV and foolishly thought the house would be ready in about 6 weeks. Well its been about 125 days and I am hoping that it will be done by the end of February which will make it 6 months. When people ask when will the house be  finished?  I say “When they are done.” Or if I’m asked when they will be done? I say “When they finish.” Like most work either here or in the US you pretty much have to double or triple time estimates.

There is still much to do but no worries, I will take you along with me. For some , this will be reading my cultural observations with interesting stories, for a few  it will be tips on how to retire in paradise  and for others it will be information about Barbados, a wonderful place to vacation.

If  you visit Barbados which I hope that you do and if  you ever stop by my house remember the house rules. If you want a breadfruit, a bunch of cherries, sugar apples, coconuts or even a pear (avocado) you are welcome to them. But if you are looking for “mangas”, I aint got none! Even if I have some, I aint got none!

There is nothing like a tree ripened organic mango, the sweetest I have ever eaten are from my tree. Even though mangoes are currently not in season, I still aint got none. Soon the battle will be on, between me and the monkeys to see who gets the most fruit, I think the monkeys won this past mango season!

My plans for  2017 and going forward are simple. I want to go to the beach more, exercise more and then I want to write a book. Well,  maybe writing a book is not so simple but I am planning on getting it done this year 2017.

I wish you all a Healthy, Prosperous and Happy New Year!