A Tale of Woe?

Lisa has left the family to fend for itself – she is off to the States to continue to commit her citizenship there (she's back in 3 days). But the Bahamas clan rolls on; Emily doesn’t miss a beat (she’s off for lunch with her best friend Andi), the cats are cowering under a bush because there is a workman in the house and Mark is as miserable as ever – no change there. The current workman is Duran the painter. He was given the job of revitalizing Emily’s room and painting the master bedroom to complement the new tiles. After a dodgy start with some messy work he has come through with good work in the master bedroom. It really is "hit and miss" with Bahamian workmen. Most of the time they are extremely honest and trustworthy, but their game talk rarely pans out. The key is to be present throughout the job so as to monitor every move. So far we have had more “hits” than “misses” with Nelson the tile guy and the plumber leading the way – although we do have another major water leak (outside thank goodness) we speak. Next is an electrician – this is a critical one since the current electrics look like they have been patched together over the years by someone with a mechano set. We need someone who will act both as a consultant and worker to get this done – from pool motors and back-up generators to phantom switches and spaghetti wiring. The search is on.

A final comment on the state of Bahaman cars. Every car has a bump and every second car is beaten up fairly badly. The driving is careless and aggressive but no more than other parts of the world so why are the cars all smashed up. There are a couple of possible reasons. One may be that all bashes produce insurance claims and any monies that are passed over are spent on “sky juice” and not repairs. Secondly, the state of the roads in Nassau is a disgrace – there are potholes and debris all over the place (we’ve already changed a tire twice and currently the front tire has a slow leak). Whatever the reason, the watchword is never buy a new car