“Strangers in the Night” in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize.

It’s been a while since the last edition.

I’ve (obviously) still been waking up in the morning. I’ve had my ‘me time’ on the veranda. Me, my black coffee and iPad. I’ve set out most mornings with the firm intention of ‘knocking out’ an edition but …

No doubt about it, I’ve got lax. Feeling somewhat disappointed with myself I determined on Saturday that I would show the necessary self discipline and knuckle down and focus. But first I would watch Arsenal’s very important away game at Liverpool. Big mistake! We were out maneuvered, out played, out fought, out scored. Out of the game in fact. And I was out of my mind with despair. Certainly not in the right frame of mind for producing an edition.

It’s at times like this though (and if you follow Arsenal as I do, there are always going to be times like this) that I think of all of the good things I have experienced since starting the blog. I’ve had people bring or send me presents. I’ve had people thank me for information (more often than not inadvertently I’m sure) that I have provided. I’ve had people asking for me at Estel’s (why Estel’s? Anyone would think I go there a lot!). I’ve had people taking the time to comment on the blog. And I’ve got to meet some of you that read my ramblings. And that’s just what happened last week.

After a hard day (well it was hard for me) toiling in the garden Rose and I headed to ‘Town in the evening for a well deserved (I deserved it at least!) Belikin at Carlo & Ernie’s Runway Bar & Grill. When we got there it was busy ( it’s been busy since it opened but it’s got busier since BC’s closed) we managed to secure seats at the bar. We were just about to take the first swig when behind me I heard “Are you John? John that writes the blog?”. Turning around and nodding in assent I saw a guy who then introduced himself as Ed.

Ed told me that he had been reading the blog for some time and enjoyed it (you don’t think I would have mentioned this if he didn’t, do you?) and owned a condo south of town that he and his wife had bought in 1997 (around the time that Rose and I first came to Ambergris Caye). It’s the chance meetings like this that ‘reward’ me for the blog. And, remind me of how powerful the Internet is. Without it Ed and I would have remained strangers in the night ( relief – that’s the link to the headline ‘out of the way’).

So with the headline taken care of I’ll let you know how I filled up my time since the last edition.

Having cleared the south-east corner of the front garden I decided that I would start repatriating some of the coconut trees that we have been cultivating (who am I kidding, we just planted them!) in our adjacent lot.

If you look hard you can just see me in the undergrowth.

“This one will do”.

Marley has a companion!

I had just started on uprooting the second coconut tree when I heard a voice behind me and on turning around I saw it was Edward, the guy that we bought the dwarf palms that we planted in front of the house from. He had some dwarf coconut trees, avocado trees and some bamboo plants if we wanted them. I got Rose (such decisions need to be joint!) and we had a chat and told Edward we were interested to have a look at them so he set off on his bike to bring them to us in his boat.

While we were waiting for Edward to return Rose and I had a walk around the garden to decide where we would plant them if we bought them and we were still doing this (decisions, decisions) when we saw Edward approaching with his father, Edward senior.

The ‘shopping cart’.

I took a backward step and let Rose carry out the negotiations. She’s like a terrier! After beating young Edward up, not literally of course, the deal was done and Edward The Younger and Edward The Elder brought our purchases ashore.

The dwarf coconut trees.

The bamboo plants and avocados.

And then the planting began.

Edward The Elder didn’t get the easy jobs. He got to carry the black dirt.

Time for the one for the north-west corner.

It’s in!

And then the bamboo plants.

For the southern side of the back garden.

We then moved to the front garden for the planting of the avocados in the south-east corner.

More company for Marley!

There’s still a lot more purchases to make and a lot more planting to do but the back garden is starting to look less like a large litter tray.

For those of you that are interested ( and for those of you that aren’t for that matter) we bought eight dwarf coconut trees, nine bamboo plants, three avocado plants and ten bags of black dirt. And we didn’t even have to leave home to do so. A bit like on-line shopping!

The headline for today’s edition is based on the single released in 1966 by Frank Sinatra which reached number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart.