There can only ever be one queen in Barbados so I’m not surprised Elizabeth is getting the push for… my queens.
Dee-Dee The First
‘Don’t come too close you’ll smudge my make-up’, Dee-Dee, the Purple Queen of the Foreday Morning, drolled.
To be fair I had purple paint and mud in my beardie and hair. And enough rum to sink a Johhny Depp ship.
Walk this way, Geraldine
And just like a royal corgi I and my new Virginian friend Patsy would get walked every day from Club Barbados around the Platinum Coast.
By Geraldine who would give us her generational view of her island, political correctness and its colonial past.
But also loved her Soca and burned me a Crop Over CD which when I play it here always brings me back to Bim’s West Coast..
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby
In the British vernacular a Ruby is a curry… in my Barbados my Ruby is my cooking instructor.
Ruby at Club Barbados taught me how to make Bajan Cou Cou…
And already a bit Cou Cou, myself, from my morning rum punches she had to pull me into line.
The Saintly Donna
Jimmy, Jevan and Donna
Donna would always bring a friend with her because she needed to be mob-handed for Jevan at Foreday Morning.
And this year they had me to contend with too!
Donna drove us home at about 4am, hosed the paint and mud off us and gave het a Bajan cooked breakfast.
Donna is an angel… and is now looking down on her great love Jevan. Her spirit lives on.
Ri-Ri rah-rah
Where’s that hand?
I spent two trips to Barbados in search of Barbados’s other superstar Rihanna.
I checked out Oiston’s market (that was always too touristy), Bridgetown, the Platinum Coast and the Grand Kadooment, the climax to Crop Over.
But I finally did get my Kiss from Rihanna.
Bajan women rule
And Mia Mottley rules supreme as Jevan predicted she would when he took me to her rally… and yes, there was rum and soca, my kind of political party.
The head honcho of the Barbados Tourist Board is the redoubtable Cheryl ‘Mrs’ Carter who kept an eagle’s eye on me when I went off piste. Legend!
In the frame: With Cheryl
And Crystal who wouldn’t let the lurgie slow her up, stop her dressing up, getting her nails done (and the Bajans do that in style).
And showed me how to do up a bandana… now look at me.
