Let's Hear It For The Sun

One day, about 6 months ago, I was driving up the coast road that runs parallel to Seven Mile Beach, and the sun was setting behind the ocean in a huge explosion of pink and coral and amber light. I was listening to Johnny Nash on the stereo in my newly purchased car, and everything about the moment was quite suddenly overpoweringly blissful. So I shrieked, out loud; I cheered, quite vocally and finished with a heartfelt Whooooooop! of sheer joy. A couple of tourists shared my release of emotion, as they were walking quite close by along the roadside and my windows were wide open. I may have startled them a little, but I think they enjoyed it too.

I remember thinking, Wow, I live here? This island of white sand and palms, where the sun rises and sets each day like a golden God, over waters so dazzling that they seem painted on. I live here!

Of course I have driven that same road at sunset many, many times since then, but I have not screamed with bliss again, the way I did that first time. Is that what happens? Can we only experience the deepest intensity of feeling the very first time, and each subsequent time, it is a more diluted experience?

I vow to cheer at The Sun, the very next time I see him.

Suspended over The Abyss

Thirty-four hours ago I was enacting a dream. The repetitive dream that visits me with such frequency is one of floating underwater, suspended in the deep blue, which stretches to infinity on every side.

On Saturday morning, February 14th, Valentines Day, I spent time with my love. The object of my desire - the focus of my passion, my imagination, and my adrenaline fuelled dreams. Diving. To be specific, diving the Great Wall off the shores of Little Cayman, where a shallow reef ends abruptly, dropping vertically into a deep ocean trench of more than 6000 feet. Visibility is seemingly infinite in this protected marine environment. At 80ft down, I could still see the sunlight sparkling on the surface far above.

The underwater world wrapped me in it's cool embrace as I floated out over the abyss. I had swam out into the open ocean about 50 yards, leaving the security of the reef wall in order to view the entire scene from further back. It was majestic. The other divers were tiny against the backdrop of coral heads, sea fans, and shadowy crevices. Below, there was nothing but the yawning deep. Behind, the open ocean - wild, deep waters stretching 150 miles to Cuba.

My imagination was running wild. The last time I dived a wall of this magnitude and water clarity, was the drop off in Sipadan, Malaysia - the same unforgettable occasion that a school of several hundred hammerheads passed overhead. Today, there were no hammerheads. Just the abyss and I. I floated, frozen in time. Meditative. This is my life, I thought. I smiled behind my regulator. Yes, this is my life, and what a life it is!

Click here to read the article I wrote about my night at Canama Bay - where the opening of the Grand Cayman Film Commission saw the red carpets graced by a few celebs straight off the boat from Hollywood! I went along as a photographer with work and ended up interviewing Jennifer Coolidge, and a number of other stars and dignitaries! I really am a jammy wotsit, aren't I. :)

A time for work...

There is a time for all things, a time to work, a time to cry, a time to sleep, ...did I mention a time to work already? For those of you who suspected that I live the life of an international playgirl over here in the Caymans, you couldn't have been more mistaken. The last 4 months has been my time to work; work so hard that I finish my 12 hour day (spent between ocean, boat, road, and office) and look forward to nothing more than the sweet oblivion of sleep at the end of it.

That kind of punishing schedule was certainly character building but it also had the unfortunate side-effect of drying up my creative impulses, like a drought-blasted river bed. Thus the blog came to a grinding halt. The stories were there, just inside my head, but my fingers were not willing.

It is with profound relief that I can say I have survived 4 months, and look forward to an altered schedule from now on. After a dramatic new year's resolution, consisting of the two magic words "I quit", my employer renegotiated my contract to a more part-time arrangement, which, blessedly involves weekends off and less physical labour! Yes!

Today was the first day of my 'freedom schedule' and I have relished every moment.

Now, on the first day of my 29th year, I will attempt to fill you in on the last 4 months in the Cayman Islands.