Wednesday 24 March 2010

Little island life




Man, it’s always nice to come home. We are just back from a wee trip visiting Claire’s brother in Bermuda. Being a miniscule island waaay out in the atlantic and fairly isolated it’s a quirky place! We’ve visited before, but this time it left more of an impression. I think last time it was too hot for a Scots brain to function and I walked about like a sunburnt zombie most of the time.
This time it was cooler and some reasonably brisk physical activity was possible without body meltdown. The above wee video shows a couple of problems I found in these old smugglers caves. The first one seemed pretty tricky but it went easier than expected (V10) when I caught it in ok conditions.
Like many small islands I’ve been to it’s culture has many faces. Many good, some not. On the surface there’s the brightly painted houses, pictures of the Queen and everyone saying “Good afternoon” to each other. But then you go for a morning run and barely a single car moves out for you, leaving joggers in a gauntlet between the narrow walled roadsides and the cars whistling past your toes. I gained a new appreciation for both how much I love the open spaces I’m lucky to have access to, and how much of a privilege they are! Bermuda seems to be going through the same struggles many wee communities go through - for the balance of positive and negative forces to keep leaning positive while adapting to the rest of the world changing around it.
After some sun, some social, some book research time and a battery ‘reset’, there is much to be done at home…
Some more pics/video of Bermuda bloc, sport and DWS here

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