
1st October 2025
Happy birthday to us. A year ago today we collected the keys to Pollards Mill, eventually gained entry (see ‘Key Day’, 3rd October 2024) and began living this crazy experience for real. What a rollercoaster of a year. We’ve pushed our boundaries way beyond the limits of what we expected or even thought was possible. We thought long and hard before committing, asking ourselves every question we could think of, did a load of due diligence and brought a fair bit of life experience to the project, but there was still so much we didn’t know and to be honest couldn’t have imagined. It’s been bloomin’ hard graft and a lot of financial commitment but we have achieved so much, had some fantastic support along the way, met some amazing people (and a few duds!) and here we are. Well done us!
As it’s our birthday, we took a brief midweek break and celebrated our first day of membership at the venerable institution that is the Barbados Yacht Club. At 101 it’s a century older than us. We have loved coming here over the years as guests of friends and family, and almost always bump into someone we know, so we decided to apply for membership ourselves to get the most out of the community we belong to here. This involves being proposed and seconded by existing members, submitting biographies and mugshots (!), an interview with the Commodore (easy – like Sunday morning 😉) and a vote of all members. We feel genuinely honoured and grateful to have been accepted. And no – we are NOT buying a yacht!
And what do you know – the minute we arrive we bump into our proposer and seconder and end up joining them for lunch after the most glorious dip in the sea. Perfect.

After lunch we scuttled back to base where – despite having the strongest rum punch I’ve ever had in my entire life (I knew this yacht club thing was a great idea) – we knuckled down and spent a couple of hours washing down the inside walls and doors in the gents toilets in the pool chattel in readiness for painting. And, of course, we had visitors: gardeners, soil delivery, bathroom project manager and a bee expert. Just another typical day in the madhouse.
I sometimes wonder what our late parents would make of our adventure. Opinions among them would vary! When we took a fairly radical mid career break in 2003, involving unpaid leave from our jobs and travelling around the world for seven months, my father sent us a card to our first destination – Barbados, funnily enough. I still have it. A quote from Mark Twain:
”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
The sailing metaphor is apt! 22 years on we’ve certainly never regretted that career break, indeed it’s the most amazing thing we’ve done together…until now? If we’re lucky enough to make it to 80 I hope we’ll look back and feel the same about what we’re doing now. In the meantime I know Dad would approve – and that’ll do me. Bring on Year Two!

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