The Ghastly Caribbean!!!

What a discovery!! chocolate-ginger confectionary savoured with sips of Calvados. The sweet and spicy ginger pieces coated in dark chocolate are a perfect contrapuntal experience with the very dry, yet musky, fruity, alcohol hit.

Back to the main subject! Here in damp and beautiful Cornwall again after a couple of fortnights in Pirate Seas, I can enjoy once more the pleasures of real ale and a thick duvet. The Island of Antigua (pronounced An-ti-ga as you well know!) is a dreadful place and best left to the hordes of cruise tourists. Apart from Factory Road there is nothing worth seeing and I always have a thoroughly miserable time there, and I had to put up with four ghastly weeks there this winter. I find I have to endure these “tropical paradises” so that I can make my poor attempts at “art” in an uninterrupted environment; no phone calls, no visitors, letters, e-mail, domestic arguments, demands or invitations.

Apart from lobsters and red snapper, mahi, mahi and wahoo, goat, strange vegetables, golden rum and exotic fruits of all kinds, there is little of special interest to excite a gourmand. After a few months on the island one might feel the need to resort to the French or Italian restaurants that can be found near Nelson’s Dockyard.

Talking of Nelson’s Dockyard; at the “Slipway” you will find Catherine’s café, an up-market but casual and relaxed, French restaurant; where on a Wednesday night you may eat to the erratic sounds of a four piece jazz band of no mean musical ability. Lead by the world famous Roland Prince (who I suspect has blown his mind with illegal substances) his partner Valerie (the nominal white musician) on electric base, a trumpeter who sits down to play and who never moves an inch, and a totally laid-back drummer who turns up an hour late, then rotates his head in all possible axis in the ecstasies of musical improvisation so elastically that one fears for his spinal chord. Roland has dreadlocks down to his knees and a divided beard ending at his waist. Now cadaverous, gentle, kind and unassuming, Roland was once a handsome and well covered West Indian with a deep and sexy voice (which he retains to this day). Valerie, his partner for many years, is still slim and generously warm hearted, even if her voice has gone a bit.

I could go on (No please don’t! Ed.) but I have had complaints from readers. The sight of too much text seems to put some people off.

Best wishes to all my loyal friends and enemies, pip, pip,

The Leg.