New Year, Same Fear

Little Ets started at a new nursery for bigger kids, which also benefits from being a lot closer to us!
And a feeder for a potential school near Oistins. Difficult decisions to be made, but planning ahead.

So with her going full time for 3 days a week that made more time for her parents to get some jobs done around the house.
And meant more focus for us all to enjoy the downtime! This is Etta swinging at Foul Bay in August 2020.

Spiderman yet to return to Oistins, but she's always looking for him, and practising her own moves.
One day he's going to have some serious competition.................

Other than that I moved on to a full time senior position with Harris Paints, a Bajan and Caribbean staple.
Great to be part of the Harris family, and amazing to find work/security at this point in the pandemic.
Etta is very proud too, and is always pointing out buildings that need some paint - there are one or two on the island.

Big Bajan "Ben Ben" Burton visited in November, finding his roots for the best part of a month.

Great place to hide out from Covid, he was also the first person to test the quarantine route, and proved very comfortable at Butterfly Beach.
Home from home became 6Mix which does great Banks buckets and even better nachos. We even let Jenn join and share from time to time.

Much rum was drunk, lots of good times had, and he was a godsend for helping with various jobs around the place too (painting, tiling, even babysitting!).

What else happened - we became pet owners! Well, cats this time.

Kittens to be exact, from Olivia over the road. She rescued 2 tiny balls of black and white fur, but couldn't keep them herself because of her dogs.
Would we like them? Etta said an emphatic yes, and like that we became cat parents.

Hard to make out since they stayed hidden for a while, but that is 2 tiny kittens.

Etta chose the names "Kitkat" and "Toots" (after Toots Hibbert from The Maytals - she's big into classic reggae, or was it an Uncle Bill suggestion?
Both lucky to find such an indulgent home, particularly Toots who had an abscess in her leg and would have died without us (and the vets).

We thought they were boys for months, until Kitkat went on heat. How could we have been so wrong?!
Very quickly they became a large part of family life - work, play and rest.

How do you top all that? How indeed - maybe more visitors?
Uncle Bill and Aunty Claire exercised their uncanny ability to travel and holiday well during a pandemic.
Christmas and remote working in Barbados? That'll do nicely thank you.

Again much play, fun and rum, this time interspersed with some very competitive backgammon.
Highlights too many to mention, but the brothers were very lucky to blag free all day cricket at the Kensington Oval.
And I will never forget Bill AND Claire on the same bicycle weaving their way back from the newly opened Caspers bar at Miami........