entry created: Saturday 7 June 2003, 10:30am (NZ time) latest entry  |  archive  |  about  |  contact  |  guestbook

Location:  Scottish Arthur's, upstairs Lagoonies Local time:  Friday, 6:30pm Music:  Umm... Bonnie Rait (trust me, not my choice) So I've been doing a bit of thinking and reckon I should chill here for a bit, sail America's Cup boats, get a cheap apartment or share a house, a runabout car and just have some fun in the Caribbean. Whaddya reckon? Bought some fancy leather scuffs/sandals and some shorts today. At least clothing is cheap here. Philipsburg, the main town on the Dutch side of the island, is a crazy place really. It's so easy to spot the tourists wandering the streets too - generally they're rather pale (or bright red) Americans, fresh off the cruise ships, sometimes in disgustingly garish floral shirts or sarongs. All around the town and the beaches alongside, you here the big local black women shouting to any female tourist "hey miss you want braids?" and the local men muttering "taxi, taxi" (here pronounced "tarxi") as you walk past. I chuckle to myself every time I see a braided white woman now ("hee hee, dumb tourist"). I reckon there's a market on this island for bumper stickers or t-shirts saying "I say NO to braids". 'Tarxi tarxi', and 'you want braids' - two phrases that for me will always epitomise this little island 'paradise' (for want of a better word). I'm still sleeping around (on other people's floors, that is!). It's cool that I know so many great people here already, and they're usually always willing to help out a destitute musician. Heh. Am half-heartedly eyeing the local papers each day for an apartment that grabs my eye, but I've really gotta get serious about it if I'm to stay here. I'm gonna do some drumming at Get Wet Bar (yeah they name the places here pretty strange sometimes) on the beach in Philipsburg. It's also Canadian-Rob's birthday there tonight. Then there's supposed to be a trance rave (not so common for this little Caribbean island!) at the Reggae Cafe. Could be a fun night. Time to run. Peace mon. < previous     next >