Machetes, fame and 7.3 of shaking earth

The locals tend to wander around with machetes in hand. I feel a little concerned that there is something they're hiding... Or maybe they just all do a lot of gardening.

The dog at our villa, Reggie, was a gift from His Royal Highness, Mick Jagger. So one could say I am one degree away from MJ himself... Yesterday Tommy Hilfigger arrived at our villa to check out the architecture as he is using the same man to do his villa. He left his flip flops behind, and his architech turned up this morning to collect them - they had tigers heads on them. If only I'd known - I could have sold them on ebay for a small fortune.

Yesterday there was an earthquake here - none of the staff at the villa have ever felt an earthquake. I was the only earthquake experienced person there. It went on and on and instead of carrying up the road with small boy in buggy under bending trees, we did a very quick turnaround and walked right home again. V, the maid was completely hysterical and praying very loud that we should all live through this. Dwayne the butler who had just arrived home in the buggy/cart thingy was oblivious to the earthquake and spent the next several minutes calming V. I have heard since that an office building collapsed somewhere and a woman was trapped in the rubble. She was found and all seems well. It measured 7.3 on the Richter (sp) scale I'm told and lasted 5 minutes - it was very long as every few steps I stopped to see if it was still going. and it was for a looooong time....

Mustique the mystic

Oh well, goodness me, I sit here typing away in the library on an island in the Caribbean which has a population (at peak tourist time) of 1300.

I'm surprised each time I look out my window by the beauty and uniqueness. I wonder if 11 days is enough to not be stunned by this place and to take it as ordinary...

I am here with a family I worked with a while back. They have 20 month and 3.5yr old boys and my job is to mostly take care of them at night while they get used to this time zone. If last night is anything to go by, I'll be busy!!

We flew from London yesterday to Barbados then hired a private planette) - ie a very little plane - to get to Mustique. That part was 35 minutes and compared to the 8.5hrs earlier, was a piece of cake. The boys were incredibly good on the whole journey and even though it was 11pm (UK time) when they went to bed, I couldn't complain at all. The fun started at 1am local time and lasted til 5.30am. Tonight I hope they will be a little more acclimatised.

This morning I was up with No2 at 6.45 but I had no complaints as the view was really something to behold - although No2 was not at all interested in anything but his glass of milk...

I have now made it down the hill to the library which looks better set up then the Chelsea library at home... The only problem I see with that sentence is the 'down the hill' bit. It is a serious hill and I have to walk up it again soon. Although on the way down I saw a tortoise (the land ones are tortoises... yes? no?) so I shall try to locate it - or any other wildlife that wishes to come my way by leg and preferably not by belly. Not so sure I want to see the slithery locals that much.

As soon as I find a way to download photos, I will oblige.