New Digs

We’re both here now, sweltering in the September heat that is St. Lucia. We’re back for another year. Norm is working half time now which will give him more time to do other things besides work. A couple of mornings this week we went for an hour long walk. At the half way point we swam in the ocean, and at the end we had a dip in our pool. It’s a nice way to start the day.

We’ve got new digs for the year. We live in a condo development called Admiral Quay’s. We still don’t know whether to pronounce it keys or kays. It varies depending on who you talk to. It’s a 5 minute walk to the beach, a 20 minute walk to the grocery store and the school. And it’s just a couple minutes from the tourist strip with all of its restaurants. The restaurants are a little pricey, but it’s nice to be able to walk home after an evening out.

We have a private entrance with a place to park our car. The landscaping is well done and there are gardeners who keep it looking beautiful. We had heavy rain last week and as soon as it stopped, the gardeners were in the front sweeping out all of the leaves that had fallen.

We have two bedrooms. The master bedroom is pretty nice with a queen size bed, lots of storage and a separate bathroom. The guest bedroom has twin beds and a separate bathroom. (The beds will be pushed together for couples...if they so wish :-) )

Part of the reason we chose this place is that it had screens on the windows…an important consideration because the mosquitoes can be nasty at times, especially to newcomers. We insisted that the screens be repaired before we moved in. The picture shows the unsuccessful attempt at repairs. The workers will try again when they get more material. In the meantime, we’ll be using duct tape to cover up the cracks when our first company arrives next month.

Our living room is quite large and we have a separate dining area to the let. Both the living room and dining room have doors that open up to a patio in the back. Norm's desk is set up in the living room.

The patio is quite sheltered and private. It’s surrounded by flowering trees and shrubs. And it has a barbeque…something we missed last year. A few metres away is the communal pool. We usually just go in for a quick dip when it’s hot and it’s rare to find other people in it.

So far we’re enjoying the convenience of being able to walk to shop and go to school.
And people who come to visit will be able to be on their own a lot more because everything they need is within a short distance, except for the market in Castries, which we drive to every Saturday.

And even though this is a blog about our life in St. Lucia, it would be weird not to talk about major events in our lives this summer. Elyse got married and Deny moved to Kitchener to study at the University of Waterloo. I’ve added a picture that my Dad took of Elyse and Daniel. I don’t have copies of the photographers pictures to share yet but if you wanted to see some, they are still available for viewing for a limited time at photoevolutionscanada.com. Click on your proofs, weddings and Elyse and Daniel.

And, take a look at how packed the Volvo was after driving Deny and Catherine to Kitchener. They were packed in pretty tight for the two day drive.