My last posting from the Jamaican cyber café, in 3 parts… YESTERDAY AFTERNOON Acephale, acephalos, akephalos, akephale... akefalh, -fali... you name it, yesterday we went through all the combinations. The lady helping me was smirking by now, as if we were never going to find it. But we just tried all the possibilities, until we got to AKEFALO. “There we are!” she said, as if she was pleased for me. “How do you say that?” and she swung the PC monitor around so that I could read it. AKEFALO LTD. DATE OF INCORPORATION 1962 She went off to find the file. [View Full Entry]

---

---

just back in the Jamaican cyber cafe... Acephale, acephalos, akephalos, akephale... akefalh, -fali... you name it, we went through all the combinations. The lady helping me was laughing by now, as if we were never going to find it. But we just tried all the possibilities, until we got to AKEFALO. “There we are!” she said, as if she was pleased for me. “How do you say that?” and she swung the PC monitor around so that I could read it. AKEFALO LTD. DATE OF INCORPORATION 1962 She went off to find the file. A few minutes later I saw her [View Full Entry]

---

---

Yesterday, whilst I waited for the news from Greece, I headed over to Paradise Island. This is smaller and narrower than New Providence, and close enough for a bridge (there are two). However, there is also a sea taxi, which runs every half hour, and has that definite Bahamian style to it... “When does it leave?” I ask the ticket girl. “Twenty-five minutes.” There are already some people sitting inside the ferry, waiting. I decide I don’t want to sit for that length of time. “You gotta get on for the time to start.” she tells me. “The time don’t start [View Full Entry]

---

---

I’m in my usual sweaty, overcrowded, noisy Jamaican/Bahamian cyber cafe and DVD pirating shop, after a strange day. First off, I had a meeting with a lawyer specializing in offshore work. Her offices are in the building adjoining the Hilton Hotel, Nassau’s finest. I won’t give her name, because I got the introduction through the Ministry of Tourism, and I don’t want to offend anyone. As James explained yesterday, if you want anything done here, you gotta bribe people; then you really can get ANYthing done... Let’s just say that this was a pretty swanky firm of lawyers, and their suite [View Full Entry]

---

---

I didn’t make it to the Huey Lewis concert on Sunday night. My eye was still a little uncomfortable, and just as I had suspected the tickets started not at $79 but $99. I had a beer at the casino bar and watched the craps for a while, then had an early night. As you can see from the comment on yesterday’s post, I now have my camera back. Thank you, Beth-K. And as for the shots of people you left on the camera, with their heads cut off, nice touch! It’s good to know that someone is reading the blog. [View Full Entry]

---

---

After returning to my room without my camera I started to get the symptoms of a cold. Then my eye, which had been itching all afternoon, started to swell. The eyeball itself was developing a film of transparent mucus, and it got quite uncomfortable, like having about a half teaspoonful of raw egg white on your eyeball. I went back to the reception and asked to see the locum. The what? The doctor? They have no in house doctor here; I guess when you only have about 5000 guests spread over three interlocked hotels, then you’re most unlikely to see any [View Full Entry]

---

---

I spent part of yesterday evening taking photos of the 3-hotel complex in which I’m staying, which seems to be in a state of semi-repair, a bit shabby but not that bothered about it, like a grandma who insists on dressing up as a showgirl. There’s no actual repair work going on, but there needs to be. My room has a sea view, about an inch of sea view between two of the other great towers in our part of the complex, and right down from my balcony is the outlet of the hotel’s air-con and also the entrance for all [View Full Entry]

---

---

I got my invitation to the tea party when I was at the Ministry of Tourism in Thursday, after my first, abortive attempt to enter Ansbacker House. What I really wanted was the Office of Tourism (I was looking for a map) but when I arrived, mistakenly, at the Ministry, a young lady asked me who I was, then took me up to an office, where her boss asked me who I was again, weighed it up, then handed me an invitation to the Governor-General’s residence for tea. Here’s some advice: if you want to impress people in government Ministries, wear [View Full Entry]

---

---

My understanding is that the Bahamas has not always been very open with company details, but that it has cleaned up its act in recent years. The ground floor of the Registrar General’s offices is open-plan, with a counter separating the general public from those working at desks behind. A lady with two-inch finger nails asks me what I want. All I have to go on is: HEADLESS LTD 2002 Sovereign Trust She taps at a computer keyboard, using the nails (which really are a full 2 inches long) as talons, picking at the keys. It takes several minutes. She finds [View Full Entry]

---

---

Huey Lewis and the News are playing here in my hotel tomorrow night. Tickets apparently cost ‘from $79’, but I don’t believe that. Everything here costs more than you think it will, especially the restaurants, so I don’t see why chicken-in-a-basket cabaret featuring faded eighties rock bands should be any different. At least we won’t be expected to leave a 15% gratuity. And b.t.w. if you happen to be reading this and you are one of the many people who keep trying to sell me Cuban cigars, please stop. I am already struggling to see how I can include a [View Full Entry]

---

---