The Sweetest Christmas Announcement Every Caribbean family with relatives “inna foreign” knows the season has officially started when you hear the magical phrase:“Mommy, the barrel on the way!” My daughter, living in the USA, has once again upheld our beloved Christmas tradition—sending a blue barrel packed with goodies, love, and…
Dear APUA, (powerless company) Retirement Wasn’t Supposed to Include This Warm greetings from Vernons in Antigua and Barbuda, currently brought to you by candlelight, battery packs, and the occasional flicker of hope. Now, I know retirement was supposed to be peaceful. A little gardening, a little TV, maybe a nap…
Listen. I was just out for a harmless little drive along the Cedar Valley main road. Windows down, YouTube on blast, cruising like a woman with zero responsibilities and exactly the right amount of caffeine in her system. Then I saw it. A roadside botanical bonanza with folding table, tarpaulin,…
Of First Dishes When people ask me what the first dish I ever learnt to cook was, they usually expect something deeply rooted in the food culture of Antigua and Barbuda… something like ducana and saltfish, or pepperpot. After all, I was born and raised here, and my mother was…
Retired but Not Tired Retirement is supposed to be all about naps and newspapers, right? Well, not in my corner of the Caribbean. Over here, it’s DIY projects, dirt under the nails, and learning things I probably should’ve Googled before picking up a power drill. But hey, I’m living unclogged,…
Retirement Math: Time, Time, + More Time Retirement has given me something I once claimed I never had: time. Time to swim (or more like dip), time to learn new things. Time to look at my calendar and say, “This week for sure,” while already knowing it’s going to be…
When your out-of-office reply becomes a lifestyle. Dreaming of the Unclocked Life Ten years ago, I spent a weekend at Sandals Resort. It wasn’t exactly the carefree, planned getaway it looked like on the brochure. You know what? Let’s call it what it was, a staycation. Just two days earlier,…
Sunstroke and Questionable Life Choices Midday, melting heat, and pretty sure the sun was targeting me specifically; waiting for me to step from the confines of my air-conditioned ride. Yep, truth be told, it felt personal. The kind of heat where you question every life choice that led you to…
How a Garden Mistake Turned Into Something Beautiful Some gardens come together because of careful planning. Others… well, they happen by accident. The pine tree in my front yard definitely falls into the “accident” category. It wasn’t supposed to die. All I wanted was to give it a light trim…
Richest soil, that is. That’s what I imagine filling this beautiful clay pot with. When my sister handed it over to me, I could not believe my luck. To her, it was just a container to stuff with old rags and forgotten odds and ends. To me, it was a…