So here I am, sitting in my typical bleary morning state eating my breakfast at the table under the shade of the veranda (not often you can write that in November woo hoo!) Now, you’ll no doubt be surprised to hear that I’m not at my most convivial or mentally challenging at this time of the day (no really….) So having blinked a lot and looked blankly around me for a bit, I decided to read the cereal packet. Like you do.

Now the cereal is called “Caribbean Crunch” which the packet reliably informs me is a blend of “Toasted oat cereal with pineapple, banana, raisins and coconut”. Sounds a sensible enough cereal to produce in a country that grows pineapples, bananas and coconuts and that can supply you with more raisins in the supermarket than you can shake a stick at .

However, the interesting thing about this “deliciously toasted selection of freshly milled oats and other tasty ingredients, packed with nutritional goodness for a most nourishing and sustaining breakfast” - which also, incidentally, “puts a new crunchiness into salads” (SALADS?!!!) - is that it is not made in the Caribbean at all. No, no, no no! It’s made in good old Blighty….Crewe to be precise. That centre of Caribbean culture and cuisine no less.

So before this packet of breakfast cereal reaches my breakfast table, it has undergone a complex trans-Atlantic journey. The pineapples, bananas and coconuts have been grown in the Tropics. Then shipped to the UK. Where upon they are stuffed into a pile of oats. And promptly flown back to the Caribbean. Logical really isn’t it?

Now this isn’t the only interesting thing about this cereal (OK, contain your excitement a wee bit longer…..). This is a RESPONSIBLE breakfast cereal as it comes with a health warning. See, you can tell now that it’s made in the UK can’t you? Nothing we like better than a good old health-protecting statement to safeguard unwary cereal-eaters about the perils they may be putting themselves prey to.

See if it were a truly Caribbean cereal there would be no health warning. Or if there was it would be something along the lines of “Don’t be falling no sleep when you be eating dis cereal or de Good Lord may take you to He Kingdom in de sky”. But this is a good old British health warning and reads as follows:

“PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A CRUNCHY PRODUCT. IF IN ANY DOUBT ABOUT THE CONDITION OF YOUR TEETH, PLEASE CONSULT A DENTAL PRACTITIONER”

Followed by additional warnings of: “THIS PACK CONTAINS NUTS AND SEEDS” (would never have guessed when the ingredients include coconut, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds) and “SENSIBLE WARNING: CEREAL MAY BE HOT WHEN REMOVED FROM MICROWAVE – BE CAREFUL!”

It seems to be a peculiarly British thing to feel that we have to cover all possibilities of an accident or mistake being made. Is it because the cereal manufacturer really believes that their elderly customers may forget to put in their false teeth before munching their morning cereal? Is it that they really believe that without the warning you may not realise that a microwave makes things hotter? Or that that someone with a nut allergy may accidently overlook the fact that the word “Coconut” contains “nut” in it? Is it that the cereal manufacturer is scared he will be sued by a toothless, nut allergic twit who mistakes the microwave for the freezer? And anyway, what if said toothless-nut-allergic-twit-who-mistakes-microwave-for-freezer is also illiterate? What then?

Since I’ve been in Grenada I have noticed a stark contrast to the amount of risk that your average Grenadian is exposed to during their lifetime to your average Brit. The other day we went to Annandale Falls which is one of several big waterfalls in the rainforest area of the island’s interior. There is a natural pool here at the bottom of the waterfall, and people love to come and swim here and dive into the cool clean water. It makes a wonderfully refreshing dip after having got very hot and sticky in the heat of the sun.

We were there at a weekend and it was wonderful to see so many people out enjoying their Sunday afternoon. Children ran and jumped into the shallow areas. People had a cooling swim in the middle. And young lads kept trying to outdo each other by diving into the deepest parts from the rocks around the pool. A couple of women sat on some boulders at the edge and one was washing and combing out the others’ hair. People had picnic baskets and sat chatting as they watched what was going on.

I couldn’t help but wonder how these waterfalls and natural pools would have been treated in the UK. I’m sure that at the very least there would have been a contingent of lifeguards and various posters stating rules and regulations….no running, no diving, no petting, no bombing, certainly no hair washing! There would be lockers for valuables and the deeper area would have been cordoned off so that children didn’t accidently swim into it. There would have been opening and closing times, stringent water quality checks and no doubt a hefty entrance fee in order to offset the costs of everything involved.

Now may be this would have been a good thing? Or may be it wouldn’t? I’m not about to become one of those people who spend their time saying “Oh its not like this in Country X…it’s all so much better there”. For example I do think that Grenada would be better off having a drink driving law (at the moment there are none, although you can’t drive very fast on the narrow country roads so it presumably makes accidents less dangerous on the whole). I also think that they should continue to enforce the new seatbelt legislation. And I must admit that coming from the UK, seeing lads diving off high rocks into waterfall pools or riding on the back of trucks with the cool breeze blowing in their hair, does make me quite uneasy.

But perhaps in some cases, being too careful and safeguarding everything too rigidly can remove some of the fun and spontaneity from life? Certainly the fun that was happening that Sunday afternoon at the waterfall would have been different if it had been strictly regulated. And can too many safety regulations also be counterproductive, because when we expect life to be made safe around us by “others in charge” we lose our own instinct to be careful and protective ourselves?

Wow, that was very long and pondering for me at 9am!!! I think I need a lie down now! Actually I’m going to go swimming to cool off because it is very hot already. Don’t worry though, I will be safe enough with my armbands, lifejacket and rubber ring as you just can’t be too careful these days…..”Belt, braces and a piece of string just to be sure” as my Dad would say Haha!