Time Warps and Bad Tunes

My flight back home was in early afternoon so I didn’t have time to do much. I wanted to check out Silver Sands in the south coast, a place known as a good spot for kite and windsurfing. However, I missed the spot (Barbados does need better signage) and ended up on Enterprise beach, considered one of the best on the island. Enterprise beach has a shallow little crescent that seems to be favored by families with children and people who can’t swim. Even some adults bring buoys, which to me is puzzling because I can’t imagine anyone drowning in that shallow water. But what really caught my eye as totally out of place on that beach were the vain women who came with shower caps! I had to blink twice to make sure I wasn’t seeing things because that was something I had never seen before other than in photos from the 50’s.

Some of you may probably be wondering why I haven’t said a word about Bridgetown, the island’s capital. I did go there, but it’s such a crowded and hectic place that I really didn’t think there’d be anything attractive to explore there. I used Bridgetown mostly as a transportation hub as I was moving around the island. There are essentially 3 modes of public transportation in Barbados. The official is the Barbados Transport Board bus, blue with a yellow stripe. All is prim and proper, you pay as you board and need to have exact change. The second is a yellow with a blue stripe minibus, where you travel to the loud sound of whatever the driver is listening to, usually R&B or hip-hop (the rocker in me tried to avoid these as much as I could). And finally, there are the white minivans that can carry about 10 people. They vary widely and I took a colorful one today that had a DVD player and I had the immeasurable “pleasure” of listening to and watching the video “Trapped In The Closet” by R. Kelly at top volume. If you’ve never listened to this song, please do (or at least check out the words). It’s the tackiest thing I’ve heard in a long time, and the video was so cheesy that I was just laughing the whole trip through. R. Kelly’s music is so bad, so bad that it kind of becomes fascinating…a bit like a Mexican soap opera.

And speaking of songs, there’s one I’ve been listening to a lot lately – Crack The Shutters by Snow Patrol. It’s one of those songs that’ll put you in the mood (if you know what I mean) and is original, without beaten clichés. Just imagine the whole scene as you listen to the song and I bet you’ll like it. Plus, there’s something really sexy about singer Gary Lightbody’s Irish accent. Oh, God…now I need a cold shower!