Question: Where was this photograph taken? Chester? Chichester? Or Cricklewood?

Nope, none of these. These photos were taken yesterday afternoon in the “sunny” Caribbean!

Only the other day Brad and I were eulogising about the rain out here. You see normally we are more than happy with the kind of tropical rain showers they have here. I’d go so far as to say the rain here can actually be quite enjoyable!! It’s rain done properly. In fact if I were to write an ideal job description for rain, tropical showers would fit the vacancy perfectly.

This is how it works: A bucket of rain comes down for 10 minutes and it’s really dramatic stuff this rain. None of your murky English drizzle for days on end…. The skies go dark, the torrential rain thunders down deafeningly on the roof, mini-floods appear everywhere and sometimes some dramatic thunder and lightingmake an appearance for full effect. Then as abruptly as it started it stops. The sky brightens up, the sun comes out, everything quickly dries and life carries on as if nothing had ever happened. Job done! The plants are watered, the grass stays green and it’s all over and done with in quarter of an hour.

At least that is how it’s been any time we have ever been in the Caribbean. But yesterday it obviously decided that enough was enough and that perhaps the English style of rain has a few advantages. Because yesterday it rained nearly ALL DAY! I don’t think the sun appeared once, the sky was dark grey and it poured down almost non-stop.

The rainy season is supposed to end on 30th November! Perhaps it’s just realised that it’s been slacking on its job description a wee bit too much and that it only has two days to make up the overtime?

Today is our final full day here in Grenada. I never thought I would hear myself say it, but we are now starting to feel ready to come home (and no, it’s not just the rain that has caused this by making us homesick for November weather in the UK!) We have had an amazing month and seen and done so much. But I think we have explored every nook and cranny of the island over the last four weeks and, although it is very beautiful here, it is starting to feel a bit small. I guess that’s not that surprising considering that Grenada is only 21 miles long and 12 miles wide.

I think it is also because we have moved from “desperately-needed-holiday-mode” to “living abroad” mode. Don’t get me wrong….if I could I would always have white sandy beaches, warm seas and a lovely swimming pool available. And sunshine on tap and pretty flowers. But I’m starting to wonder if on their own those things are enough to build a life around day after day forever. If I lived here I would need some kind of project - either studying or working in some capacity or a serious hobby – in order to keep my mind occupied. Brad says he now feels the same too.

If someone had said this to me a month ago I would have thought them crazy! After all, what could be better than a life spent lying on a beach, swimming, seeing the sun each day and relaxing? I guess it’s just another interesting insight that this last month has brought me. I came to the “Spice Isle” and have realised that variety truly is THE spice of life.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could have the ability to have the best bits of the whole world all in one country! You see, the sunshine and warmth here is gorgeous….but not if you need to get something done. It’s fine if you can just lie on a sunbed and keep cooling off in the sea, but if you want to get a job done or run a business or even just go shopping in town, then within a few minutes you are soaked in sweat, exhausted and desperate for a cold shower and feeling awful. And when every day is exactly the same weather wise, you can actually start to fancy a little variety in the seasons (although not the kind of variety of a British winter I hasten to add!)

In an ideal world I guess I’d be a millionaire with a private jet. I’d have houses all over the world and when I felt starved off sunshine, sand and sea then I’d hop off to somewhere exotic for a week or two. If I fancied some culture I’d disappear off to a European city for the weekend. And if I fancied some serious shopping I’d just call up Emily and we’d go and wear out my platinum card (haha!) buying ourselves shoes in Harrods for the weekend. As money would be no problem, I could take on as many projects as I wanted and then employ staff to manage them all when I got bored and wanted to move onto the next one. Like in Grenada, I’d set up a Dog Rescue Centre for a start. Definitelty. Oh and naturally I’d be incredibly brainy and quick-learning, so I could train as a vet one year, a doctor the next, a business analyst the third. And if I didn’t ever use the knowledge then so what? I’d just learn it for the sake of it until I got bored of it! Oh and I’d also learn to do things like surfing and horse-riding and painting and farming (god knows where the latter came from, just humour me….). I’d keep designing houses to live in with pink and green walls and balconies, or bright yellow walls with white fretwork. Then when I was bored of living in one, I’d build another one somewhere else.

And you know what? After all that I might just wake up haha!