Barbados Day 5 – Northern Dancer
Still rules OK

I forgot to say yesterday that I was quite pleased to see that the art world does not change as the year pass by. At the gallery as we were looking at the pictures, the owner was taking down all the artwork that one particular artist had produced and was placing it onto a table. We asked what’s happening here and were told that some potential buyer was coming to view this artist’s work. Beki then said “Oh right has he died then”. The answer came back, “No but he is quite ill” followed later by “Of course I hope he gets better”…….Its good to see that, as it’s always been, an artists work is expected to be more valuable when the artist is no longer alive. I just didn’t realize that vulture culture was so up front.

This morning we visited the printer again and picked up the canvas version of Ayers Rock. It was absolutely superb, the rest of the order was not ready, it was running in Bajan time. We went to the fish market and I was pleased to see that fish was being sold by the pound weight, unlike at home where we can only sell England by the Kilo these days. I wondered what PC Tourist Tone would have said if he had ever bothered to visit the Bridgetown fish market. Tonight Sam and I eat Flying Fish, and in the freezer we now have a large amount of Tuna and Marlin to eat later. It was unbelievably cheap.

I decided after finishing the Rum Punch at lunchtime and then making up a new jug full I would spend the afternoon down at the local beach which is behind a large old hotel. I found my way there and ordered a beer at the hotel’s beach bar. I soon found myself in conversation with some of the hotel guests and the barman. As the afternoon went on an very old lady came along leaning heavily on her stick. The barman mixed up a drink which I perceived to be a mixture of white wine and tomato juice, but I could be persuaded that I was wrong. As the old lady arrived he handed her the drink and helped her into a chair.

After she had finished the drink it seemed she no longer required the assistance of the stick and joined us at the bar where she proceeded to wind up the barman and the hotel’s security guard about football and the significance of a number 9 shirt. All this was going on as she downed another of her favorite concoction. As the argument got more intense and the Security guard had reeled off the names of a number of star players who over the years had worn a number 10 shirt, I suggested that she had achieved her goal of winding up the other people and perhaps we could call it a draw. She said that she just loved sport and enjoyed talking about it, I asked if she was Canadian as that was what her accent seemed to be and she explained that she had lived in Barbados for 44 years having married and divorced a Bajan. She had nothing much good to say about Bajan men, either white or black and cracked up when I told her about the American comedian who had said that he had no problem with Gays getting married because then they could be as miserable as any Man and his wife.

Suddenly she sprang a sporting question on me, “who was the greatest Canadian racehorse” To most people I guess they would have thought that this was a trick question, but (yes I am going to brag a little here) my Bank’s soaked brain realized that there was only one answer and I replied “Well it has to be Northern Dancer born in 1961”. Suddenly she was animated; nobody had ever given her the answer before. She tried to catch me with another question about an American Triple Crown winner but again I got it right, we were talking about Seattle Slew. She tried once more and asked me about a great racehorse who was around in America way back in the early part of the 20th Century. As I mentioned Man O’War she capitulated and bought me a beer. I asked her out of curiosity what had she done in the 44 years she had lived in Barbados and she told me she had owned and ran this hotel until recently passing the reins onto her children.

The printer delivered the rest of the canvasses just now and when Beki has finished sorting them out we’ll be heading down to OPA’s to listen to Garvy play guitar and sing