7th November 2025
The ‘?’ at the end of my last blog title (‘And…relax?’) was prophetic. On Wednesday we received our usual weekly email report from the pool maintenance team. Usually I give this a cursory glance, look for any mention of bat shit, and smile at the nice photo. This time? No nice photo. Just a short message. “Unable to vacuum pool. House has no power”.
WTF?! That can’t be right. First, power outages are rare and usually brief – we had none during our recent ten week stay. Second, we have a hulking great generator which has only just been serviced and had a new battery fitted. It should kick in automatically.
Unfortunately I am on the hoof at the time – in Oxford. My audiologist is based there and I’m seeing her due to waterlogged lugholes from Barbados swimming – TMI already! Nicola has come along in the hope of a lovely afternoon together exploring the dreaming spires of the oldest university in the English-speaking world. That relaxing plan goes out of the window somewhat as we scratch our heads and consider our next move.
Back in March our friend Chris – the main driving force behind the renovation of the poolside facilities (see ‘The Sistine Chattel’, 22/3/25) – told me that we would work our way through a lot of poor tradesmen before finding ones we liked and trusted. Wise words from a wise old head (just kidding mate 😆) as he’s been proved spot on in many cases. One shining exception is our property manager Jennie. We really landed on our feet with her. Nothing is ever too much trouble, brilliant can-do approach, very much sees herself as being on our team – in fact she’s the MVP. So, naturally, I give her a call. The wonders of WhatsApp. Free and instant communication across the globe. Of course she’ll head over and check it out.
Well, she signed up for a long day. To cut a long story short, she and our generator engineer Solomon (another fantastic find, at our second attempt – Chris’s First Law of Reliability is rapidly gaining credence) worked hard. The upshot? At 8.46pm in pitch darkness the Barbados Light and Power Company restored power by repairing cables damaged by overhanging trees – never mind that we’ve been trying to get them out to deal with these since February 🙄. The generator? Dodgy. Cut out several times. Solomon will take a closer look once he gets a chance, now that we’re back on track.
But you know what? This is all a first world problem. What would go wrong if we had no power? After all, we’re not even there at the moment. Sure, we’d lose a bit of food in the fridge (I’d be far more upset about the 1.75 litre bottle of Mike’s Fresh Bajan Rum Punch in the freezer). The water in the pool might go green with no power to the pump. Worst case scenario? The pool has to be drained and refilled. We obviously had to do that in January after the pool was refurbished. That’s an awful lot of water and a lot of money…
But so what? Spare a thought for the people of Jamaica. At the time of writing, 67 people on that beautiful island are confirmed dead following the devastation of Hurricane Melissa. Nicola has very close family in Montego Bay. They felt Melissa’s full force. Fortunately they are alive and well. They suffered a fair bit of damage to property but are better off than most. They, and countless others, are still without power – and water – ten days after the disaster. Their swimming pool water is being used to flush their toilets. Puts it all into perspective. Cuba and Haiti have been badly hit as well.
Barbados is very lucky to be off the path of most hurricanes, sitting just east of the Caribbean. Even so, it sometimes gets a wallop – just last year Hurricane Beryl wrought a lot of damage but, as so often, the full force was felt by the Windward Islands to the west.
Despite widespread popular perception outside the region, for most people life isn’t idyllic in the West Indies. Far from it, in fact – many countries in the region are disadvantaged in various ways. Geographically and economically Barbados is better off than most, but now I risk straying into a different area of discussion altogether so I’ll leave it there. In the meantime our generator will keep for another day. And we’ll count our blessings.
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