Once upon a time…… I lived a very simple life, wore a string bikini every day and hung out every night.
Ok ! don’t be too quick to judge me, I said I hung out every night but hear me out. This all started when I decided to leave my home town. Why? well I was at a point in my life where I realized that the time was never EVER going to be right – it won’t ever be the right time to start living with responsibility only for myself – it won’t ever be the right time to explore the world and it certainly won’t ever be the right time to be young and carefree. I needed to breathe, I needed to find myself and live my own truth even if only for a little while….. I needed to walk away! so just like that I packed a suitcase not really knowing where the next stop would be on the plane ride to my new life.
Well it turned out to be a wild ride! I ended up in Bridgetown working the late shift in a grungy bar on Bay St. The soundtrack to my new life was an eclectic mix of smooth Jazz, dancehall from Buju Banton and soca from David Rudder and Edwin Yearwood. I followed the handsome and very sexy Arturo Tappin to every gig I could, I would stand close to the stage and blow him kisses whenever he looked in my direction (yeah I still do that and he still loves it!) I also enjoyed CiCi who sang jazz covers at The Waterfront.
Was I missing home? not in the least! I somehow became a part of an odd bunch – Maco, Celia and Hendy. Maco was probably in his late sixties, a dark, skinny black gentleman with a shock of salt and pepper hair and a deep baritone. He was always well dressed in well ironed white shirts tucked into black pants and shoes polished to perfection. Celia was a forty-something shapely Latina with big curly hair, an ever present cigarette dangling from the side of her mouth and incredibly flawless sapodilla brown skin. She was married to a skinny German man with an angry face called Thomas. Hendy was the youngest in the bunch, a short, chubby guy, who seemed to be always covered in engine grease. I swear everything we did and every conversation began and ended with ‘are you ready for another drink?’.
Then one day I met the lovely Nicole….
