Blogs from Bermuda, North America - page 7

Important question asked by the Chris and Earl in NZ...what is a Gombey???? My brief description is they are colourful masked dancers, who dance and whirl to amazing drum beats. The history of the gombeys goes back to Africa and slave times. Now in bermuda they are a national icon and are awesome to watch and listen to...... Given that my creative writing skills are not the best (Brother Greg got that gene) I have enlisted the help of the internet to explain what a Gombey is.........enjoy the description below The Majesty and Mystery of the Gombeys The pulsing cadence of the drum reaches out and grabs you as it rushes out of the hinterland to run unfettered through the streets. And from around the bend, appearing as suddenly as midday apparitions, come the Gombeys, leaping ... read more

Well, been a few weeks since I have added an entry....so here goes. The cricket...20/20 international classic was great. We watched the Aussies lose very convincingly to the West Indies. We sat with the rest of the aussie crowd, all in all about 30 of us in the stand. Once the game was over, Damien Flemming, Ray Bright and Ryan Cambell came to join us for a bit and signed some stuff (in my case a ball that I caught when a truck drove round throwing them to the crowd). We then saw Bermunda South Africa in the final. It was great the atmosphere was excellent Bermudians going crazy everywhere. South Africa won, but it was great to watch. The party afterwards was pretty good too. We drank and danced with some of the aussie cricketers ... read more

Happy easter everyone, The past couple of days here have been rainy and cold, not fun when you are walking home with groceries in brown paper bags and in t-shirts (erin and I both under prepared for rainy cold wheather....we're in bermuda for christ sake who would have thought we would get cold and wet....?). Work has been good, everyone is nice so far and I have managed to do a few cases and appear like I have it undercontrol which is always a bonus. Well public holiday for me today. I spent it at the botanical gardens with people from work watching them fly kites. It is tradition in Bermuda to fly kites and eat fish cakes on good friday so that is what we did. Erin and I have made friends with and indian ... read more

It's a holiday and I'm still working. :( But I did manage to sneak away for a couple of hours down to the beach to participate in one of Bermuda's traditions. Every Good Friday in Bermuda there is a tradition of kite flying, fish cakes and hot cross buns. Last night lots of kids worked hard to make kites to fly down on the beach. They're a unique shape, not the diamond shape that I'm used to seeing. Today I got lured into the hotel lobby with an infectious rhythmic drum beat, it was a troupe of traditional Gombey dancers. Their costumes were colourful and they danced around to the beat of snare drums (?) and whistles. Some of the locals told me that when the Gombey dancers start going through town, people just start to ... read more

I finally got a chance to get out of the office and see a little bit of the sun. Yesterday was a big blur as I recovered from jetlag and tried to get my head wrapped around work. The sand really does have a bit of a pink tinge and it was so amazingly clean. The sand is really, really fine not the coarse stuff you see on Vancouver beaches. The sun is supposed to disappear tomorrow afternoon with gale force winds and small craft warnings. Oh well, back to the freezing cold server room. ... read more