Being vegan in Barbados is a lot like being vegan in the 1970’s in England. I make a lot of rice and peas! And butternut soup. Which is fine for me but perhaps a bit of a snore fest for the rest of my family… So, here’s some ready-to-serve vegan treasures I’ve managed to track down and where to find them!!
Everything is expensive in Barbados. Excluding turquoise waters and breath-taking sunsets, of course, which is how we all remain sane. But an actual bag of nuts? Enough to actually make you count out 6 for a snack. But I did recently find sanctuary – and reasonably priced cashews – at a little shop called The Nut Place….
For the last 6 weeks, I have been learning Spanish online with Baselang.com. For a flat rate of $129 USD a month, I have had unlimited hours of very professional teaching – video calling Venezuela for lessons online! 37 hours to be exact, which seems like fantastic value for money. What’s it been like learning Spanish by Zoom? Conocer más…
To go completely vegan was a decision that came to me while eating my lunch. With my chickens! I was having a salad, they were pecking about. I used our relocation to Barbados in 2017, as the opportunity to make the leap. Find out what helped me make my decision and whether I’ve been able to stick to it in the land of the fried flying fish!
We were told my husband’s Bajan work permit would take 6-8 weeks. So, we moved the whole family kit and kaboodle back to Ireland from Jamaica, thinking it would just be an extended holiday. It took 8 months! A introduction to the Bajan speed of doing things; what I now know well as ‘island time’…
After 4 years of living here, I have a certain respect for Jamaican drivers. It takes some skill to navigate a junction when the lights are out, spliff in one hand, phone in other. Let alone managing to balance a goat on the roof, or driving round Barbican Roundabout backwards at speed, or ride a motorbike with one leg, all of which I’ve recently seen. But the recent death of a 6 year old boy known to our nanny, just cannot leave my mind.
‘Strawberry Fields Together’ has to be one of Jamaica’s prettiest low-key resorts. It’s half a dozen little cabins dotted around two pristine coves on one of the last unspoilt stretches of Jamaica’s north coast. We’ve visited on day trips from Kingston before with the kids, but this time decided to make a night of it and get away without them.
It’s a week since my baby girl Julia landed, and I wanted to share how and why I choose to birth at home here in Jamaica. It’s an unusual choice here, in Kingston anyway… I’m sure country mamas are popping out pickneys at home in the Jamaican countryside every day! It’s definitely disapproved of by obstetricians. But, once I’d made up my mind it’s what I wanted, somehow all the details fell into place. Two good previous deliveries plus two years of teaching and practicing HypnoBirthing certainly helped give me the confidence I needed to go ahead. I had fantastic support, and I’m delighted to say the birth went perfectly.
The only people interested in reading this post will be other poor devils approaching some massive journey and wondering how they will manage, and those of you with a sadistic bent! I just flew home alone from London to Kingston Jamaica, with my 7 month old girl and a 2 year old boy, and mainly kept it together except for a total loss of plot at Jamaican Passport Control right at the end. This is how it went…
