Dispatches from the Front

One love people.

The weather here in Antigua has yet to dip beneath 30 degrees. As a result I am pretty much a limp rag doll for much of the time but Lisette is absolutely loving it!

We've been watching pelicans fish each morning and flying fish jump from the water (prior to getting eaten) as well! You'd think they'd learn but alas they don't.

One surprising side affect of arriving in Antigua is that both Lisette and I have gone from not sleeping at all to developing some strange offshoot of sleeping sickness. Our favourite catchphrase of the moment is "I'll just have a little snooze" - we're averaging about 20 hours sleep a day at present

Lisettes ability to make friends in all places as ever knows no limits - we got to go to a *very* lively Antiguan church with Roxanne (one of the girls that works here) as a result of one of Lisette's "friendly chats".

Despite that, to our surprise the Antiguans as a bunch don't seem to be the most cheerful people going - one is rarely greeted with a smile... As a result a new game has been formulated called "make an Antiguan smile" - it's actually quite easy to play and remarkably rewarding!

Yesterday we went on a "Catamaran" boat (we think) to Great Bird Island. We then felt a little robbed when we discovered not a single bird on it at all! We did meet a friendly family from Darlington though.

One heart,

John and Lisette

Comments

Be ye here

Working out where to go on holiday has always seemed like slightly hard work. How do you choose? Do we go to Italy? We've been before. Do we go to France? They'll only want us to wear Speedos at the swimming pool. So where shall we go? We were delighted when we discovered a friend in Belfast, who had recently had a baby, would be up for a visit. A mutual friend of ours, was also planning a trip back to Ireland from where he lives. We've known each other for 25 years now, and have travelled before as a group. Why not get the band back together and spend some time in Ireland this summer? That was the thought, and so the Reilly family made plans. Passage was booked on the Liverpool to Belfast ferry. Grandma Reilly kindly leant her car to the Twickenham Reillys, so that myself, Lisette and the boys could roll Northwards and over the Irish Sea to Ireland. We were leaving an English summer that was that rarest of things: warm and sunny. The week before we'd left, Twicke...

Mr Ow Much and the steam engine

The bodies lay upon the ground in the field. They were dressed colourfully, each kitted out in varieties of neon outfits that shone in the sunshine. "They're very still" I said, by way of summing up the situation. "They all died" said Lisette, who was also taking in the view. Because I'm a slightly gullible fellow (and, well, you just never know) I watched keenly half wondering if it might be true. They were very still. After a surprisingly long period of time, the figures started to move slowly. It turns out that yoga in a field can, temporarily, be indistinguishable from death. Camp Wowo We were staying at a campsite named Camp Wowo in East Sussex, England. It's a campsite I have stayed at many times over the years. Initially just myself and Lisette. More lately, having got past the initial intensity that results from the arrival of children, we've come to taking our boys to camp together as a family. It's never been without incident. The...

Glamping and Brewing (edited by Benjamin)

On May 27th 2019 the weather in Peschiera del Garda looked like this: Whilst in Twickenham it was more like this: Since myself, my good lady Lisette and the marvellous, "extreme" (that's right! - Ben) Benjamin and James were camping in the former location, we collectively agreed it was a bummer. To be more accurate, we were not so much camping as glamping (correct! - Ben). Whilst we were living under canvas, we had not erected that canvas with the honest sweat of our mutual brows. Rather, we had opted to show up and occupy a tent which had already been pre-assembled for our living pleasure. Even calling it a tent seems a stretch, given that it featured a 4-ring gas stove, a fridge, a microwave, beds, lights, electricity and was sited upon a raised wooden deck rather than muddy earth. But it didn't have a toilet or running water, so we could still argue that on some level we were still "getting back to basics". This kind of camping also fulfils a ...

Reillys on Tour

Search This Blog