A thief with good taste: One of two Jill Walker framed prints that were taken from my Barbados rental apartment.

The Heist

Renting out the pretty apartment Greg and I own to folks who travel to Barbados is a great pleasure for me. Everyone seems to love our beachfront location in the lively St Lawrence Gap, the breathtaking & expansive view of the sparkling blue Caribbean Sea, and the casual luxury of the place itself.

This is what travel to the Caribbean is all about. This bit of Caribbean Sea view is a fraction of the sea view from our rental apartment.

Renting the place is a personal experience; I and only I handle all rentals. By the time guests to our island arrive, we’ve gotten to know each other a bit; a bit of “bonding” has taken place. It’s not an anonymous transaction.

So I was really surprised when I discovered that guests in our place had removed and presumably packed in their suitcases and taken home the two framed Jill Walker art prints I had hanging in the master bathroom.

Our vacation rental: St Lawrence Beach Condominiums, "Deja Blue," Apt 11

A Classic Whodunit

I didn’t discover the heist until weeks or months had passed. This is because turnover occurs quite quickly: guests depart and new guests arrive, usually on the same day. My faithful and hard-working colleague Monica Greene greets our guests, makes sure they’re comfortable, and keeps the place sparkling clean during their stay. I stop by during the guests’ stay to offer a welcome gift and say hello.

I also enter the apartment to replace vases, duvet covers, coffee cups, rugs, towels, artwork on the walls, and so on … it’s fun to keep the place fresh and pretty.

I noticed the bare wall in the master bathroom in early September. I immediately called Monica to ask what she knew. She said the wall had been bare for a good long time; she thought I was replacing artwork. Of course she didn’t think someone had packed the art in their suitcase; who would do that?? And why, when anyone could walk down the Gap and purchase the same thing at the Best of Barbados or Walkers World stores for a reasonable price?

My first thought: “It’s about me.” Did I personally offend someone I rented to? Did someone feel ripped off by the $200 a night price?

My second thought: “What goes on in the mind of this person?” Did the person …. just …. like …. them …. and thought they would look nice in their home? Once they hung the artwork, did they look upon them fondly, as a special souvenir from Barbados? Do they gaze upon them today without guilt or remorse? Do they feel a high from “getting away with” something? When guests come into their home and say “nice art,” does the thief say, “Thanks. I stole it from this lady’s apartment.”

My third thought: “Worry” Will they rent from me again?

My final thought: “Enjoy!” I hope the person who has the art is enjoying it. Jill Walker is a special person and her art beautifully captures the more innocent Barbados of decades past, a simpler way of life that’s mostly gone now. We’ve all had things taken from us; in the final analysis, they’re just things … I want the taker to appreciate and enjoy the specialness of these images.

I placed new framed Jill Walker artwork in the bathroom.

The Circle of Life

Friends invited Greg and me to a fundraiser for their son’s school this past weekend. There was a “Chinese auction,” in which participants purchase $10Bds  ($5US) tickets, sign their name to them, and place them in boxes in front of the various items on offer. At the close of the auction, a ticket is drawn and the winner is announced.

I placed a bid on Jill Walker artwork on a set of six place mats, each one featuring a different painting by Jill. Beautifully constructed, the place mats are a high quality hard surface backed with cork.

~~~~~~~ You already know where this story ends, don’t you?   ~~~~~~~

When my name was called I sprang up to the stage to collect my prize and whisper a little prayer of thanks to the gods who decide such things.

The new place mats will look so cheerful in our rental apartment. May they long be enjoyed by our guests.

I propped a couple of the place mats up in the window of our patio to take this photo for you; aren't these sweet images?

]]> http://planetbarbadosblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=1486 7 http://planetbarbadosblog.com/?p=1277 http://planetbarbadosblog.com/?p=1277#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:53:22 +0000 Jane Shattuck Hoyos http://onelovebarbados.com/?p=1277

Out of the window of our Caribbean Air flight from Barbados to Jamaica yesterday, I snapped the beautiful coastline of Barbados with my iPhone. This is far north along the east coast, the Atlantic Ocean side of the island.

My generalizations about Bajans in Barbados continue … These are, of course, my perceptions about Bajans, not absolute truth. Wait a minute … they’re my truth. Anyway, perceptions always contain an element of truth.

6. Bajans are peace-lovers. I live in the lively St Lawrence Gap. I hear street noise, sure. But I never hear yelling or witness violence. Never.  

7. Bajans love cricket. Such an elegant sport this is, the way they break for tea and all. Gary Sobers (Sir Gary Sobers) is a national hero. Children start cricket very young and by the time they’re grown they’ve become as fanatical as Americans are about their ridiculous and violent game of football.

8. No one is exempt from the slow service Bajan waiters give. It’s not about you — not about you being white or a tourist or an “ugly” American — or anything else. Enjoy the pace … yeah, I know it’s not easy being Type A in a Type B culture. Once you get used to it, though, you’ll see it’s good for your health.

9. Bajan waiters won’t bring a check until you ask for it. At the end of your meal, don’t sit there fuming about not getting a check; ask for it already. Your waiter is not being neglectful; he/she just doesn’t want to rush you.

10. Bajans hate the rain. This tickles the former San Franciscan in me! Even though rain showers in Barbados come – and then depart – very quickly, even Bajans in the sea (um, where it’s wet) leave the sea to seek cover. Outdoor concerts stop as patrons will scatter for cover. Streets empty as people crowd beneath overhangs… even those who have umbrellas.

11. Bajans are blunt. Greg hadn’t been to see his 94-year-old dad for a while, so we stopped by his dad’s home the other day to say hi. Joyce, his dad’s nurse, beloved by all the family, told Greg he was getting fat. No judgment; she just called it as she saw it.

Okay, that’s 11, not 10, fun things to know about Bajans. Maybe I’m getting generous in my old age. Which is actually a 12th fun thing to know about Bajans: Bajans are generous. To wit, a very recent example: When Greg and I returned home from St Lucia last week, we were delighted to find that, as a gift, our housekeeper had come in and spruced our home up for our arrival. Ahh, thank you, Monica!

Gosh, Barbados is wonderful place to be.  Such good-natured souls, a low crime rate, a fabulous climate, beauty all around, and, if not everything, then most of what a city girl like me needs to be comfortable. What Barbados may lack in department and upscale grocery stores it makes up for in creative business endeavors that tickle me to pieces. To wit:

1. A combination taxi/funeral business.  Located in St Michael, Bryan’s Taxi Car & Funeral Service can either help you get around … or leave for good.

2. The mattress factory.  I was told to go directly to the factory to get some window seats cushions I wanted cut. “Factory,” to my mind is defined as a building or group of buildings in which goods are manufactured. This one was a clearing in the country with a giant pile of foam, a man, and a saw. The chickens running around – what were they, factory workers? (No matter.  I left with my window seat cushions and a new definition.)

3. The ubiquitous under-the-tree mechanics surrounded by cars they can’t, won’t, or haven’t gotten around to repairing.

4. The mobile vendors. Usually of Indian descent, these folks sell clothes and household items from their cars to people living in the countryside of Barbados, often with a $1-down-$1-a-week payment option.

5. Sno-cone sellers. They push carts through the streets and I’m happy to see them on a hot day when a cup of ice drowned in sugary-sweet syrup hits the spot. With or without condensed milk added (with milk this is quite a decadent and delicious treat).

6. The used-book seller on Hwy 7 across from Accra Beach who is either ultra laid back or catatonic. Customers browse the handful of books that are not arranged in any particular order while the owner sits at a small desk reading. When I go in there, I want to shake this low-energy (contemplative?) soul until he sees he needs to make the place bright and cheerful, organize the books, create channels to keep the stock fresh and plentiful, and engage customers in conversation about books and travel and life … On the other hand, maybe he has the right idea: read the day away.

7. The 9 to 9 grocery store in Quayside that’s open 8 to 10.

8. The kite makers who, for the few weeks around Easter, the windiest time of year, sell their beautiful, colorful homemade kites at roadside stands.

9. Suicide transportation. They’re officially called route-taxis but are more commonly known as Zed-R vans for the “Z” designation on their license plates. The time-has-slowed pace of the Caribbean doesn’t apply to these reckless vans. They zip through Barbados streets, stopping anywhere and anytime on a dime to collect passengers, annoy other drivers, and terrify  wandering tourists. A Bajan told me that they’re not so much high-speed as they are low-flying transport.

10. Ice cream trucks that play “Home on the Range” and other campy tunes in a continuous loop. Now I know where that Good Humor man from my childhood disappeared to: He ran off to Barbados, changed his name to Blue Bunny, added soft serve to his product line, and is living happily ever after in the sunshine. Smart man.

Brooms: $10Bds. The broom lady's smile: priceless

Driving down the street near Belleville the other day, I spied this lovely broom-maker. HAD to stop.

With her homemade sign and sunny smile, she charmed me completely. Bought a broom, made with dried palm fronds — she was charging $10Bds ($5US), but I paid double and asked if I could take her photo for my blog. She was fine with it and even stood up and posed next to her broom display for this shot.

I wish I’d had time to sit and chat awhile, but I’d pulled over with lots of traffic whizzing by; I was half on the sidewalk, half in the street. (Definitely becoming a Bajan driver …)

PS The broom works great, especially on carpet.

Yes, even though I carry on, Alice, I love Barbados.  Love it.  Sitting by Carlisle Bay last night, watching the sun set and the waves softly stroke the sand at our feet, I felt deeply happy to be alive.  In this context, Chubbies and the bad service you sometimes get in Barbados doesn’t seem like such a big deal.  I’m proud to call Barbados my home and grateful that I get to live here.  The beautiful aqua sea and sugar-white beaches are among the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in my world travels.

The incident at Chubbies on Saturday was such a shame, really.  I’ve been really down since my sister’s sudden passing and went to Chubbies innocently looking for a 90-minute diversion.  It was the first time I’d been anywhere except the beach since I returned from Miami Beach.  To see my kind and patient husband treated so poorly pained me.  And it was utterly unnecessary.

As things happen, we got a happy surprise the very next morning.  A package had arrived at Greg’s office while we were away in May … a wedding gift.  Greg picked it up Saturday afternoon and we opened it Sunday morning.

And a wondrous gift it is: an Apple TV.  More than just a gizmo that gives instant access to movies, tv shows, and documentaries galore, Apple TV means I never, ever again have to step foot inside Chubbies video rental, home of scowling service.  As Greg hooked the thing up, I danced around the house like the Munchkins in Wizard of Oz when they found out the witch was dead.

Before Sunday, I’d never heard of Apple TV. Now I can’t live without it.

Apple TV delivers non-bootleg movies and tv shows that you can either buy or rent.  Whatever you’re watching fills the entire real estate of the tv screen — no more black at the top and bottom. And such beautiful clarity and perfect sound HDTV offers, wowie.

Because everything we buy or rent exists in the Apple TV hard drive, we don’t have to store dvds.  We don’t have to await a package from amazon.  We don’t have to wander among the wasteland of offerings at our local dvd store.  We don’t have to drive back to Chubbies for anything evah.

Best of all, we can order whatever we want bippity-bam … takes two secs … no frowns, no attitude.  Just great entertainment.  Life in Barbados is great in nearly every respect.  A little bit of technology just made it a even better in our household.

Now that’s service with a smile!

Gorgeous Bajan Butts at Crop Over 2005. Photo by Keith Clarke

Indeed, in the States, someone you know could gain a hundred pounds and NO ONE would say a word (to their face). Someone takes off five pounds and everyone says, “Hey, you’re looking terrific … ”

We Yanks Just Don’t Talk About It.  Not about that, not about getting fat. Legendary for our puritanical views of sex, we will ask about your sex life before we ask why you’re fattening up like Christmas goose. Obesity is our individual — and our national — shame.

So I was surprised when someone I barely know said to me one day last year, “Since you been comin’ to Barbados, girl, you’ve put on size.”

I glared at her. “Whaaaaaat did you say?”

She clarified what I had just heard clear as a bell: “Your ass gettin’ bigger,” she said.

I couldn’t believe the audacity!  I looked behind me as though my behind were standing back there like a sorry third party unable to defend itself.

Never mind that it was true, I pushed back, “Did you just say I am getting fat?”

She looked me as though I was making a big deal about nothing.  “Yes,” she glared back, “that’s what I said.”

I had never heard anyone mention my putting on size, as the Bajans call it.

Flash forward to yesterday: I ran into this woman again.  I hugged her.  I reminded her of this exchange and apologized for being so touchy.  It was a trigger response, I explained, because No One in America comments on another person’s fat, either being or getting.

In the year and 3 months I’ve lived here, I’ve learned that Bajans call a spade a spade .. and a fattie a fattie.

Now that I’m accustomed to it, I have to say, I love it — not getting chubby, which, of course, I hate … what I love is the freedom to say the obvious.  Taking it out of the dark, silent place it’s hidden removes the shame of picking up a few pounds.

It’s really No Big Deal here in Barbados to talk about fat.

Interestingly, my weight is more stable here in Barbados – even with all the Bajan sweets I love so – than it ever has been in my life.

P.S.  On, ahem, the same topic …. Have you had the Coconut-Rum Creme Brulee at Little Arches restaurants?  I did last night … so rummy, so coconutty, beautiful crust on top … it was sooooooo good … SO good in fact that I’m tempted to compare it to ….

Oops, almost forgot: we Americans don’t talk about sex.

Did I say ‘inefficent’?  I really need to stop using that term; I believe the socially correct term here in the Caribbean is “laid-back-hey-mon-wat’s-de-hurry” speed.  The children in the Kiddies’ Carnival were so adorable that I wasn’t bothered by the parade being stuck in one place much of the time.

But last night’s Panorama competition seemed unnecessarily slow, with up to 45 minutes of a single song being played over and over again until the next band’s 8-minute appearance on stage – playing the its interpretation of the song we’d just been listening to.

Still, once I got my Type-A self to take a back seat, I have to say the Pamorama competition was lots of fun and really super entertainment.  The talented, 100-strong group Silver Stars took the gold in the prestigious competition, winning $1m playing an upbeat rendition of “First In De Line.”  Waiting 45 minutes for them (and seven other bands) to come on?  Hey, mon, don’t worry ..

Our Trini holiday had auspicious beginnings. Or maybe not auspicious.  Maybe the events leading up to our holiday were just typically Caribbean.

The day before leaving Barbados the entire country spent much of the day without internet (here’s a wonderful piece from Barbados Free Press on a similar outage a few weeks ago).  Imagine if other whole countries were down for the better part of a day; economies would fall (further).  Here in the Caribbean?  Hey, mon, don’t worry …

The day we left for Trinidad, the toilets at Grantley Adams International Airport were not flushing.  Imagine if the same problem occurred at JFK or SFO or LAX.  On second thought, don’t imagine it … really, don’t.  Hey, mon, don’t worry …

We boarded Caribbean Airlines  on time but then sat waiting 40 minutes to take off because some doofus tourist had lost his wallet in the airport. Sweat the delay? Hey, mon, don’t worry …

The J’Ouvert souca bands play in the streets tomorrow beginning well before dawn; as an early bird, I really can’t wait; the energy will be wonderfully upbeat and loads of fun.   Muddy people hugging revelers like us is involved, so best to get a good night’s sleep and wear casual clothes.

Right now, we’re vegging in our hotel room at the Hilton, where we’ve called the front desk three times trying to get coffee sent up.  Need caffeine?  Hey, mon, don’t worry …

I won’t.

Miami Beach Delano Hotel Pool

If Miami Beach were a cat, it would be a sleek black panther wearing rings on 3 fingers and getting out of its red Ferrari … slowly, so that as many people as possible could see.

If Barbados were a cat, it would be a pretty little tabby stretched out in the warm sun with a rum punch nearby, smug in the knowledge that it was the very best cat anywhere, no need to roar about it.

I had a great time in sleek Miami Beach where, even in the current economic downturn (in Miami one might call it blight), there’s no bling shame.  The ‘haves’ show off their Astin Martins; the ‘used-to-haves’ relax next to the Delano pool in Gucci bikinis and charge it.

Both locales are seaside retreats, but like panther and tabby, the two places couldn’t be more different.

In Miami Beach, the buildings, like its women, are tall and sleek.  The hotels feature avant-garde art such as the table and chairs in the pool. Open-air cabanas next to the pools are air-conditioned.  The cute-little-purebred-dog population calls for doggie boutiques the size of Cave Shepard.

Our buildings are, like our island, petit.  ‘Avant-garde’ and ‘Barbados’ don’t belong in the same sentence.  The frugality built into our English heritage doesn’t allow for blatant waste of precious resources.  And here, mutts rule and not one of ‘em has its own sweater.

Miami Beach

There, beaches are as long as our entire perimeter.  The sand is brownish and chilly in the mornings.  The color of the sea is dusty blue; the water’s cold. Our beaches are as white as sugar, warm as toast, and our water as brilliant as Miami bling.

I had a blast. Loved every minute. Adored that Miami Beach keeps up appearances, just as the Rockefellers would if they fell on hard times.

I’ll return soon. But right now I’m happy to stretch out in the sun, rum punch nearby.