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| Barnes Bay |
Finally, we awaken to the promise of rain! There are few things my husband and I enjoy more than sitting out on the balcony, reading a book, feeling the rain mist against our faces, and watching the storm clouds roll out to sea. The island could clearly use it, but alas, it didn't last very long--less than 30 minutes--but as luck would have it, I read a new word in a book just as I was experiencing it, which was a nice bit of synchronicity.
Petrichor: the word for the how the earth smells after a rainfall.
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| Thinking he might be hungry, I shared some leftover pork panini with him. |
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| Don't you just love that ear? |
Anyway, Monday was a day spent mostly at Barnes Bay. We played with the friendly dog on the beach, went for a walk, swam in our little cove, and ate breakfast & lunch "at home." We left the grounds of Caribella just to run a few errands--to find an open petrol station and to find a particular, ahem, feminine product on the island. I remember packing a box of 'em, but for whatever reason, they weren't in my suitcase when we unpacked. Admittedly, they were in the bag with the notice from TSA saying they'd opened the bag, but it's hard to imagine why TSA would want to steal a box of OBs. Anyway, we went to two places and couldn't find any, and I was starting to feel a little panicky...after all, we'd just asked Vandra, our housekeeper, where we might go to buy some, and she hadn't even heard the generic word we use in the US for them. Uh, oh. I got cranky and demanded that we go home, and my husband obliged me.
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| Mango's by day, seen from the beaach |
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| Mango's, seen at twilight from within the restaurant |
We decided to stay close to home for the rest of the day, including dinner at Mango's that night. We've always enjoyed our meals there, and we knew they'd be closed for the following two nights, so we jumped at our chance. They do such a great job with seafood that we never order anything else there. I was debating taking a chance on the cilantro content in the sesame snapper, one of their signature dishes (I'd taken a chance once before and the foul herb was so minimal that I couldn't even taste it), but played it safe and ordered the shrimp Provencal instead. DH ordered a terrific grouper, and we shared the grilled conch salad for an appetizer.
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| The grouper--those mashed carrots are great, too! |
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| My yummy shrimp |
So good! And the waitstaff there remembered us from before. I just wish I knew the names either of the women who were so warm to us. Anybody happen to know? I guess I'll just have to ask the next time we're there. We finished by sharing the apple tart with a rich caramel sauce and ice cream, which was good, but not quite as good as what was in my memory from last year. Two cocktails and a bottle of sparkling water brought our meal to $156, plus additional tip. The service charge was clearly marked on the original bill, and the credit card portion that I signed had the word "extra" written in where the tip line goes--it would be so nice if every restaurant does that, to eliminate confusion. As soon as we walked out of the restaurant we heard Viceroy's obnoxiously loud music, which only served to inflame the foul mood I was in earlier that day. Tarnation! I went to sleep early, with the aid of earplugs, and it was still going at 11:30 when I woke up to get a glass of water. Not cool, Viceroy. Decidedly not cool.
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| View from our table, looking toward Viceroy |
Might be Andrea at Mangos, she's one of our favorites - love her sassy sense of humor and can't forget she gave Mark his first hug from a local. Pepper and Penny will know others, they've helped me with names.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the uncool music will get even more uncool... When we were there a few weeks ago they had DJs scheduled three nights a week, sometimes until midnight. I found the nearly every-other-night party tunes to be over the top. I just like peace and quiet at the beach... Give me a glass of something nice, a chair and the waves with stars overhead versus Beating party music any day!
P.s. my iPad locked up, so I had to send...but didn't mean to capitalize mid-sentence - have to give such a disclaimer when posting on a bookseller's blog!
ReplyDeleteDidn't get to say thanks again for another Anguilla "fix" - love reading your updates. If you run low on female stuff, I've found a great US brand supply at the pharmacy near the West End; past jumbo plaza on the left if coming from the West End.
Mangos -- ah yes -- my ears have perked up. We do love that place and have championed it right through some rudeness of a past person to heavenly Dave and his staff.
ReplyDeleteThe feisty one you are talking about is Andrea. She rocks and tells it like it is. No sugar-coating with that gal!
IMO this is the place to go for seafood.
(but they changed the raspberry sorbet on me the last time -- get the old one back again, Dave!)
Emily: I want your opinion of the rag "50 Shades of Gray". It is bombarding the bookshelves.
Oh, Pepper. 50 Shades of Grey--if I start going on about it, I might not stop. Part of me feels that anything that gets people excited about reading is a good thing. And then there's the part of me that wants to tell people that there are *much* better written things out there for when you want a little titillation. (And who doesn't, at least every now and again?)
ReplyDeleteI think it's an extraordinary success story in terms of self-publishing. I just wish that when Vintage bought the rights for it, they'd actually bothered to edit it. It's *so* poorly written that you can open to almost any random page and find something to mock. (This is what I've done--I've not read it, per se. Like anything else I read, I want my smut to be well written)
That being said, there are at least two women in my extended family who've said that it has greatly enhanced certain part of their lives. So that's definitely a plus.
What about you? Did you read it? Are you going to?
There is no way I will (or need) to read junk no matter how popular it is with the "Mom" crowd.
ReplyDeleteI detest lousy writing. (except my own!)
It amazes me that stuff like this gets such press.
Ah well, there are a lot of unhappy women out there who seem to get off on more than just soapers, I guess. So in that sense, it's delivering a service, eh?