Back home again in Eleuthera

So we are back home again in Eleuthera after our trip to Fort Lauderdale. We only spent one night back in The Other Place before moving temporarily into  our good friend Carol’s  cottage as a refuge from the mess of pulling out the old staircase and having a new one put in.

The old one was very tight and twisty and given Bob’s awful accident falling down the stairs 4 years ago , we decided that this had to be replaced with a much safer one.

And so the old one was ripped out and over a couple of days the new one was put in. We also took a set of the sliding doors out of the living area and opened up what had been a small screened sitting area and have made that into a study area. The sliders have been reused and the end result will be a great use of the space.

Now back to our trip last week. One day we had a trip to Ikea and met up with Pauline who works in the business to business section. I have dealt with her for a good few years now and she makes the buying experience very smooth. She deals with a lot of the headaches of a new ordering system and is generally considered my secret weapon at Ikea !! We bought wardrobes for one of the bedrooms and a few other items as well. I save a shopping list online that Pauline then converts to an order. Since we have been back I have also worked with her to buy the new kitchen for The Other Place.

Pauline is one of the people in my secret army of indispensable allies who make ordering and buying a simpler process. Another stalwart of 20 years is Waltman Lindsey at Brandsmart. I met him 20 years ago and he has been my go to person for buying appliances throughout all the years of construction. I call him up, tell him what I need to buy – say a dishwasher and fridge – and he will tell me what he recommends and what he has in stock , and what is a good buy. He has never let me down in all these years and he is an absolute treasure.

Another treasure is Tony Poletti – our freight forwarder. He met us at the end of the week and took what we had bought to add to the stuff that had been delivered to him – he then consolidates it all , packs it and palletizes it , and delivers it to Kings Ocean to be shipped to Governors Harbour. Again , we couldn’t do what we do without him. He has become a good friend and we have been using him for 20 years now.

Now back to the food side of our trip. We did of course eat an Indian meal at Bombay Darbar on Las Olas Blvd – I absolutely love Indian food so it did not disappoint …..

Thank you to friend Tracey who recommended Serafina on the water in Ft Lauderdale. It is an Italian restaurant and we only partially did justice to the meal we had there. The portions were enormous – we shared a calamari appetizer but then neither of us could eat much of the main courses we ordered. Now we know about the size of the portions we will definitely be more careful with our ordering. It is a great setting right there on the water and we will be going back there.

Incidentally a shout out to the Shoe Doctor in Ft Lauderdale who repaired two pairs of shoes for me. The only thing wrong with them was that they had been in the closet in Eleuthera for a good few years. One pair I wore earlier this year ended up with the plastic heel ends disintegrating and I was left tiptoeing around as there were just spikes ! The other pair I took out to wear and again the plastic heel caps just disintegrated – both pairs are now as good as new . He is a real craftsman and in the past has done much less straightforward jobs for us with great skill and enthusiasm.

Craftsmen like this are few and far between these days so it is good to be able to give business to the ones who are still around.

Well that’s it for this week – have a great weekend and see you all next week…..