Soundbite: Hey Shirley

Overheard, the bus driver on the phone to Shirley. Obviously.

Sketchbook: conch revisited

You'll notice that I took my previous sketch, conch, from Cayman Ladies' Art Society (CLAS, we have an acronym, now we need a logo) and decided to experiment with some painting. 

Apologies for the same composition, but this exercise was more about playing with different media. I really need to learn when to stop, as I'll naturally keep plying on the layers, but I enjoyed it all the same.

More pics of the individuals paintings on Flickr.

Sketchbook: conch

Having met on Saturday morning for the inaugural Cayman Ladies' Art Society meeting I present the fruit of my first week's labours. It's a modern and bright change of pace for me, but I'm enjoying the hot pink on turquoise. (The second image is as art directed by PT, the traditionalist, who frankly hates the bright version.) What do you think?

Cayman Ladies' Art Society is an excuse to meet, eat, drink, gossip and draw, we currently comprise of three art and cake enthusiasts, an Australian,  a South African and a Brit. I hosted the event this week, so with a cloudy seven mile beach as our backdrop we diligently set about sketching, rendering and painting (and eating and drinking).

We have our first Society outing this week, which pleasantly coincides with my first piece of curating. I'm assistant curator to 'Beloved Isle Cayman', the latest art exhibition at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Who knows, maybe the Cayman Ladies' Art Society will feature in the next exhibition?!

Here's the flyer for this Wednesday's event, which I also designed, I'm looking forward to meeting the artists and seeing their vivid island inspired work in person.

Sketchbook: catboats

In a bid to conduct more island research and help with my potential new job, I've been learning about catboats and particularly those painted in Caymanian blue.

Sketchbook: beach people

Quick doodles of passers by on Seven Mile Beach.

Happy Valentine's Day

Super quick post here to say Happy Valentine's Day although you're all tucked up asleep in the UK now. Here's a heart-stone I found on the beach to adorn the dinner table, which lost me 10 points when the boy excitedly said "ooh heart shaped biscuits, what do you mean it's a stone? I got excited for a biscuit." But the meal was delicious, possibly the best we've had on the island. 10/10.

I made spaghetti and meatballs, all from scratch (except pasta), following the Hand To Mouth blog recipe, which is a food blog that you would be wise to follow. Much love. xxx

Sketchbook: beached

Greetings from the island.

It's an overcast and choppy sea scene today, we had some early morning 'sun' bathing, during which I had to admire these holiday makers for their resilience, remarkably they weren't English but were bathing under grey clouds all the same.

We sampled a long and delicious lunch at an all-you-can-eat Brazilian BBQ for a birthday celebration, before moving onto cocktails at The Royal Palms. Not a bad way to spend your Saturday.

Sketchbook: all at sea

While sketching by the pool, I looked up and saw this pirate ship sail by. How surreal, when did that become a normal occurrence?! It certainly made me do a double take and scribble it down into my composition.

Now walk the plank and jump in to the pool me hearties. Arrrrrrrr.

Money, money, money

In my bid to educate you in the ways of the island, as cold and boring as it may sound today's lesson is money. The Cayman Islands have two things in abundance, banks and churches. I thought I'd show you the colour of money, it's kinda pretty right?

There are also $100, $50 and $5 notes, but I'm fresh out of those today. Everywhere on the island accepts both Cayman Dollars (KYD or CI as they're commonly abbreviated) and US Dollars, but you get a better rate if you use Cayman Dollars.

$25 - Golden - a map of The Cayman Islands on the back
$10 - Red/Purple - Cayman beach on the back
$1 - Blue - Angel fish on the back, which we've seen while snorkelling incidentally, they're really beautiful.

We save these Blue notes for the bus, which is $2 each way and they're not best pleased to break large notes. Although I do enjoy hearing the Caribbean tones of "Hey driverrrr, ya got change for a fif-tyyyyy" and the driver muttering under his breath.

Be as right as rain

The heavens just opened on Grand Cayman, I think she needed it, there was an oppressive air hanging today. Although we've been here over a month, we're still a long way from settled, there are still many, many obstacles to overcome but we're persevering, I wish some of this would get wrapped up so that we can get on with enjoying the island.

That isn't meant to sound heavy, but we're quickly learning the quirks of (trying) to get things done here, slowly, slowly, we're getting there. We're close to getting the jeep, which I'll certainly appreciate, the four miles walking in Cayman Sunshine to the airport only to find that it was a fruitless journey was somewhat irksome.

Still, after the rain, things are brighter now, maybe we just needed a good soak. I'll try to sound like less of a drip on my next post.

Sketchbook: Sunset at Plantana

I tried to capture the hazy colouring of sunset, as quickly as possible. I sketched this scene from the balcony as the sunset, scanned in the image and added the colouring on my computer while watching the lights and colours switch and swoop in front of me. It's a quick effort and by the end I was sat in near blackness but I enjoy working to a time restraint (not to mention the light restraint).

Sketchbook: Island flora

On my frequent wanders around 7MB (Seven Mile Beach), I keep noticing these architectural plants. They're between 4 and 8 feet tall and essentially look like great asparagus spears with bendy branches coming from them. I'm presuming these are in different states of flower, or they could be different varieties altogether.

Either way I think they make great shapes and I wanted to share my sketches of them. Any horticulturalists recognise them?

Observations on a small island #2

Introducing Sir Turtle, the man of the island, he adorns nearly everything here, so I thought I'd introduce him to you. I've been doing some research and it seems this was designed by Suzy Soto (the above is my sketch of her design) in 1963 and sold to the Department of Tourism in 1970 for the princely sum of $1 but despite this, the above design is only the 'unofficial' national logo. 

Cayman Bakery

As the adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention, which is why I've been nudged into baking my first ever bread loaf, and it wasn't half bad!

On this island you can either buy small sweet American style loaves, (why would you put sugar in bread? Bread is a savoury!) or stupidly expensive fresh bread, we're talking $6 for a small tin loaf, so keeping up the British desire for sandwiches I decided to give bread baking a go. Despite loving cake baking, I've avoided bread until now, but I'm pleased with the outcome.

Thanks to Ferg and Lorenza for bread advice, I made a really sticky mess of the kitchen but after several hours of rising and proving, here's the finished article. I followed this recipe with butter instead of oil, and I added a dish of water in the oven to make it a more humid baker's oven environment, a great tip from the hand-to-mouth blogger himself.

Plucky characters

I've met a few characters so far on this island, but so far I'm falling for the charms of the chickens. They seem to be a tourist favourite around George Town too. They strut all over this island, on the main roads, on the dirt tracks, even in the port town.

Against the bleached gritty paths their bright plumes really pop in the sunlight. I've never had pet chickens, but in the future I could be tempted, if these plucky characters are anything to go by.

Sea Shells

I've been painting some shells that I collected while snorkelling. The paintings are for our apartment, the decor when we moved in was pretty special to say the least. The colourful, beachy and tourist focused designs have their place but we had to take down the crazy metal coloured fish and I'm in charge of their replacements. So here's the first batch of shell studies.

Test shots

I've been playing with my new camera, and I feel like an absolute amateur, the lighting issues are really throwing me, but I'm in a great place to learn. See some of the test shots on my Flickr.

Sketchbook: Esc The City

It's National Heroes Day on the island today, so with every shop closed I had no choice but to sunbathe, sketch and cook - not a bad way to start the week. It's a good feeling to be dedicating time to drawing again, I intend to get back into my painting this week too. Here's a sketch from earlier today, entitled Esc The City, because I got in touch with Rob and Dom from Esc The City today, since I've inadvertently become part of their cause.

They encourage people to pursue a change in direction, make the leap to be more than a city worker statistic, they're really kind of special and I'm a huge fan of their philosophy. Also their Monday morning  emails are very inspiring, so why not sign up for more information? Their website is a few days away from their big launch event so it's not fully operational, but do drop in.

Same sea, different view

First sketch from the beach behind our condo, I'm sure at some point reality will hit but it's not right now!

Weekend of firsts

As the post title suggests, we've experienced a whole host of firsts this weekend. On Friday morning we moved into our first Cayman Island home, a little beach side condo on a complex called Plantana, which as the name suggests is a green and lush place, with palms, pines and lizards galore. We are so relieved to be out of our temporary accommodation and able to start putting down roots. It's also our first home together full stop.

Room with a view

Today we moved out of room 313 and I'd love to tell you into our sparkly new condo, but instead we moved into room 323.

Now 323 may seem deceptively close to 313, but oh no, the number-giver-outers decided to place 323 down two flights of stairs (no lifts) 300m behind the grill restaurant/breakfast room up two flights of stairs (lifts ditto) and there, sweating and panting there they placed 323, our room, hopefully for just a short duration.

So we lugged 2 giant overweight suitcases, 2 small but deceptively heavy cabin sized suitcases, 2 rucksacks, 2 computers, 2 17" flatscreen monitors, 1 suit bag, 2 handbags, 1 snorkel and flipper bag, 2 beach towels, one printer and four bags of food from 313 to 323.

Watch out David Attenborough

Watch out, because there are two new marine biologists on the scene, in the same day that I discovered a giant lobster, Paul discovered a new species entirely! But it turns out we're both a bit rubbish and misidentified our oceanic discoveries.

I had been snorkelling for about 15minutes, the sea gets deep very quickly, I guess that's how so many cruise liners are able to get in, in some parts 5metres out I can't touch the seabed anymore. Anyway I

Sketchbook: punters and enduring love

I was enjoying the silhouettes of the punters on the sea, although I can't fully see the point of this pastime, (are they building up to surfing, or training for Venice?) Either way they made some great shapes (and falling noises) against the calm evening sky.

We see a lot of couples strolling up and down the beach, I was told that 7 Mile Beach (7MB) is like Florida, full of retired couples and kids. I especially like to see the older couples, still making each laugh and still holding hands in the sea (while watching the falling punters). They barely move, so they're great for drawing too.

Sketchbook: Snorkelling on 7 Mile Beach

Here's a sketch from the beach today, we've been test-diving my new snorkelling set, the great leaving present I got from Digit. I'm hardy a natural but it's a lot of fun. The beach was pretty quiet this evening, just a few small boats attached to their buoys.

Sketchbook: Sunshine Suites Resort

Hanging around in a hammock, sketching the view, while PT was out. Still grey today, but getting warmer and a good excuse to draw the local flora.

To calm your fears

As I'm sure you've seen in the news there has been a devastating earthquake in Haiti. We are lucky enough to be some 600 miles East of Haiti, and despite the fury of the earthquake they felt, we've had no aftershocks and there is no risk to Grand Cayman. All local news is reporting that we are NOT as risk of tsunami. Thank you to all those who've been in touch. It's blustery and a record low temperature for the island but that is all that's affected us.

Seeing such devastation is a reminder of the power of nature and is utterly humbling. Let's hope aid gets to Haiti as soon as possible.

Observations on a small island #1

You can take the girl out of the ad industry but you can't take the ad industry out of the girl seemingly. I've become a little obsessed with American and Caribbean branding, shopping has never been so much fun!

On my first trip to the supermarket, I felt like I'd entered Springfield. The supermarket, Foster's Food Fair, had the most unbelievable logo I've ever seen. Tescos and Sainsbury's take note, you need a scary-ass clown with a fake black beard imploring your customers to believe that he cares! Awesome.

Nesting

So you may have noticed the poll in the right hand column, it's there for a week, I'll be updating them so that you can be involved in our decisions, some will be be banal, important or just plain nonsense. But this week, we're talking property. Property in the Caribbean. Wowsers.

Thankfully I was recommended the services of a real estate agent so I've been spending time with my realtor, who for the sake of privacy (on this tiny island everyone will know who I'm referring to if I use real names) let's call her Pam. And let me tell you, realtor Pam is a diamond. She's the perfect mix of reassuringly motherly, sassy and wise-cracking. I realise I'd gotten used to the wily ways of London estate agents, but clearly as the Malibu adverts concur they're seriously easygoing over here. I tried to explain about the fierceness and fear-inducing ways of her London counterparts and she looked bemused; 'the thing is honey, I have to live on this little island too and if I sell you a bad-fit then I'd know, I'd see you all the time and just feel rotten'.

Hello New World

Things have certainly changed since I started my first blog 18 months ago. I'm now living in the Caribbean, seriously, I never saw that one coming. But don't hate me, share in our adventures and discovery as we fumble our way through island life, overcoming obstacles and learning a new way of living. So here are our first tentative steps, following Christopher Columbus and discovering the New World island of Grand Cayman.