And…relax?

3rd November 2025

I cast my mind back just over a week. The day after the nuptials dawns bright and sunny. I must rise promptly as last night I agreed to let Omar, the lighting guy, in at 8am. We went to bed after 1am and had a very disturbed sleep, but I can’t be feeling sorry for myself because at 11pm last night Omar was going from Pollards to an all night jump-up at Bushy Park, a karting racetrack not far away, where he was working till 7am before returning here to dismantle his rig and head on to another setup on the west coast. Hard working man. It was the shenanigans at Bushy Park that kept us awake last night. We hear the racing there from time to time but nowhere near the volume of this rave, and obviously not all night! I asked Omar what it was all about. Apparently there were 3000 people there and sometimes they have even more. I asked how this was allowed. He shrugged. “They pay a lot of money”. Oh well.

Having seen Omar and his kit on his way I head over to the pool chattel to relieve the night watchman:

Clearly nobody wanted to mess with him, as all is well within. We then set about returning Pollards to something approaching normality. For my part this involves cleaning the pool chattel facilities and picking up hundreds of little bits of plastic and paper from the lawn before they blow to the four corners of the island. To be fair the catering team have done a great job and the rubbish/garbage is all bagged up ready for collection, so I’m just doing the fiddly bits which were invisible in the dark. Nicola rolls up her beautiful fairy lights and we gather in and pack away all our signs, hooks, ropes, paper towels and other stuff which is now all nestled together in our ’event box’ for next time.

The tent guys come and do their dismantling thing, but there’s still a hell of a lot of different kit on site. Various phone calls establish that Rome is not going to be built in a day, so in mid afternoon we call a halt to proceedings, ask the remaining contractors to come tomorrow, see everyone off the premises, jump in the car – and head over to the yacht club for high tea:

We were lucky enough to enjoy tea at the Ritz on Piccadilly a couple of years back…

…and today’s experience on the south coast of Barbados is every bit as enjoyable. The ham sandwich is divine! With a feeling of great satisfaction and no little relief we raise a cuppa to what we have achieved. A major milestone for us.

The sun sinks towards the horizon, the sky rapidly darkens as it does in the tropics, and we very nearly call it a day and head home, but I persuade Nicola to change into her cozzie and we slip into the briny waters. They’re beautifully warm and, despite the encroaching dusk, amazingly clear. We see right to the bottom as we swim out to sea under dramatic clouds and a bright crescent moon. A simply glorious end to a momentous weekend.

The next two days see our customary flurry of activity as we make many phone calls and meet our lawyer, bathroom contractor, mechanic, gate engineer and property manager. The remaining wedding paraphernalia is gradually moved off site. I mow the grass one final time and go up and down ladders checking the roof valleys for leaves and detritus. We run around like lunatics getting the house ready for departure, pack our bags – and fly back to Britain.

Well. What an incredible ten weeks. Thank goodness we didn’t have any staying guests or do any entertaining at home or we’d never have got it all done. But we did it. And now…it’s only five weeks till we return to Barbados. Our adventure continues!