One of the claims you often hear repeated about Bermuda, especially by the Department of Tourism, is how friendly the place is. A number of occurrences over the past week or so have made me wonder how true this is....
One of the hardest things about writing this blog is making sure I don’t come across as just another bigoted, white, English expat who thinks nothing in Bermuda is as good as it is back home. Over the last week...
Our windows are rattling in their frames. After spending a couple of baffled minutes trying to figure out why, I've finally pinpointed the source. A jet black car parked outside the hardware store immediately below the house, playing his stereo....
Following an anonymous tip-off, police have recovered an anti-tank rocket launcher, or LAW, from the Pembroke dump. The current weapons amnesty requires you to hand in your weapons at a police station, but perhaps the guy who had it wasn't...
Bermuda is starting to get ready for Christmas. For the first time this week I've seen some houses decked out with their Christmas lights on my drive home from work. Decorating the outside of your house for the festive season...
Christmas has come early in the Wells household. Almost two months after the event, our wedding presents have started arriving. It's funny. Weddings must be the only celebration when you don't actually get the presents on the day itself. Ironically,...
Bermudians tend to have a pretty laid back attitude about most things. The law is no exception. Over a year ago a law was passed requiring local companies to include a list of ingredients on the products they sell. Hardly...
Came in for some random racist abuse today. At about 6.15pm this evening, Francis, Steve and I were walking along Church Street from the office to the cinema when a black guy driving past on a scooter yelled at us...
It seems the government may be in the process of executing a face-saving climbdown on the vexed issue of term limits for expats. The Royal Gazette reported today that a number of companies are in the process of being designated...
Seems I didn't have to wait two years to get my blog mentioned in the Royal Gazette after all, even if it was buried at the end of another story. Would have been nice if they'd got the URL right...
Mandy found this bottle of wine in the supermarket the other day. What a great name. Apparently there's a whole line of them, including 'Old Tart' and 'Old Fart's Wife', and they're actually French. Just hope it tastes better than...
We’re currently in week one of a one month gun amnesty declared by Bermuda Police to encourage the Island’s youth to give up its illegal weapons. There’s a general consensus that the amnesty is a good thing – every weapon...
The furore over the possible liberalisation of the Island's gambling laws rumbles on. As with a number of issues here, notably what should be built at Morgan's Point, some people seem to be focusing way too much on what the...
Shhhhhh! Quietly! Look, over there - see the guy sat at that table? Get a little closer if you can. Can you hear what he's saying? I think there's still half an hour before Lockjaw comes on. Did you hear?...
I love reading the Letters to the Editor in the Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper. The letters page of the London Times it ain't. There's usually at least one letter in there every day from some crazy, aging Bermudian...
Kudos to Cablevision. It's a Sunday afternoon and their guy has just turned up to give us digital cable. OK, so he was supposed to be here at 2pm yesterday afternoon. But while war vets are still waiting for their...
Went to a comedy show at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club last night featuring three of the funniest men on the Bermuda comedy scene: Chris Broadhurst (of Not The Um Um Show fame), Gavin Wilson (of The Um Um Show...
Users in the US are signing up for broadband internet access in greater numbers than ever before (Broadband net users boom, BBC News, 15 November 2003). But analysts are now warning that this level of growth is unsustainable as there...
One of the things Bermudians are encouraged to do is to spend their money locally rather than buying from abroad. ‘Buy Bermuda’ is a slogan you see a lot around the place. That’s easier said than done. Bermuda is a...
Had my ears lowered today. That's Bermudian for "had a haircut", in case you were wondering. This is only the third time I've been since moving to Bermuda, but when I called to make the appointment I discovered that my...
Dr. Grant Gibbons, leader of the opposition UBP, is pushing for the creation of a code of conduct for MPs (UBP proposal takes aim at 'negative' political campaigning, Royal Gazette, 10 November 2003). Essentially he wants to prevent a recurrence...
Today was Remembrance Day - a public holiday in Bermuda. Scarcely a month goes by here without a public holiday. In fact, every year Bermuda has ten of them, compared to the UK's measly eight, and they’re more evenly spread...
You might have thought that when I married Mandy at the end of September I would have become a spouse of a Bermudian right away. In some respects, I did. I can now work in Bermuda legally without a work...
The curse of the Cliffords has struck again. Last time these relatives of ours visited our house it ended with our cats, Dark and Stormy, hurling themselves in terror from our first-storey balcony. Today, after dropping her daughter off for...
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the purpose of this blog and where I see it going. It started out as a way to keep friends and family – mostly in the UK – up to date with what...
Yesterday morning started out hot and sunny, so I took the opportunity to get out and shoot some more photos for my Bermuda Abstracts album. Bermuda's a great place for that kind of photography - the architecture and the colours...
PLP senator Larry Mussenden has had a eureka moment. He's figured out what the Island's youth needs to do to curb their violent, anti-social tendencies. "Put away the rap and turn on some Motown!" (Scrap rap and take up Motown,...
I've ranted on about the parlous state of driving in Bermuda before, but today I came across this little nugget which confirmed my worst fears: In its total land area of 21 square miles, Bermuda has six times more vehicle...
There's a current fad in Bermuda for American-style licence plates. They've been legal since mid-2000, but seem to be becoming more prevalent. Despite my well-documented disdain for most things American, I actually think these plates are quite cool. Many people...
So now Private Jessica Lynch, the heroine of the Iraq war, valiantly rescued by US troops, has landed the Pentagon in it by telling American TV the circumstances of her capture and rescue weren't nearly as dramatic as they were...
Good grief! Another Bermudian blog! Those of you interested in the political shennanigans in Bermuda and who prefer an alternative to my white expat viewpoint may like to check out politics.bm. Be aware, however, that the site is authored by...
The yobbishness of Bermudian youth continues to make headlines. It seems the Bermuda Football Association (BFA) are now considering axing night matches over concerns that local hooligans are using them to settle personal vendettas (usually with machetes, baseball bats or...
Finally got our wedding photos back yesterday: 14 films worth of 6" x 4" prints. And that's not including the digital shots (which we've already received) or the black and whites. They've come out really well. We saw contact sheets...
November 5th! Bonfire night! Well, not in Bermuda it's not. I'm not really complaining. Guy Fawkes' Night is all about a guy who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 in the UK. Why would Bermuda celebrate...
I'm not the only blogger in Bermuda after all. http://www.bermyadventures.com
While Halloween in the UK is always a bit of a non-event and Americans get right into the spirit of things (no pun intended) by turning their homes into scaled down versions of the Haunted Mansion, some Bermudians just use...
The humidity in Bermuda causes a number of problems. The foremost of these is the tendency of things to go mouldy. Photograph albums, CDs, clothes, shoes, pictures - almost nothing is immune. Leave things untouched in a non-air-conditioned room for...
Shortly after arriving in Bermuda Mandy and I went down to St. George's for dinner one evening. As we were getting out of our car we were hailed by one of the (black) town drunks sitting under a porch with...
Dark and Stormy are incredibly cute cats. They'll curl up on the bed with you, roll over to let you tickle their tummys and lift up their heads so you can scratch under their chins. Stormy will even gently suck...
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