As we tick through the final minutes and hour of February 14th, Valentine’s day, I send you my love and hope you have had a good one.
I came into the day with all kinds of assumptions of it dripping with Hallmark card saccharine commercialism, but it was anything but. I’m ending the day smiling that of all the cultural differences I’ve had to adjust to, I think this might be my favourite one yet.
This morning a stream of Happy Valentine’s messages came through on my phone from work colleagues- I assumed this was because we have the best social organiser ever on our team. She goes large on every celebration, sometimes I am sure, frustrated at the lacklustre enthusiasm of some of her British workmates (er, me!). This time though, people came good, and it became apparent to me that celebrations like this were happening all over the island.
People went into nursery, day services, offices, wearing red. There were hearts on doors, in windows, and the roadside stand that sold fireworks for NYE was filled with red boxes of Valentine’s treats. Four or five people wished me a Happy Valentine’s day in person, and two of them were my clients. None of it felt odd or saccharine at all. People were being kind, and expressing their regards. It wasn’t at all British. But this is not Britain.
After many years of expectations, hopes, disappointments, tubs of ice cream alone, or with a lover, today turned all of that into something more collective. Something more connective, and fun.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
You are loved.
Isn’t this what we all want to hear? Well, today the Cayman community made me feel it. How was it for you?
Picture of Valentine’s Day window in George Town, Grand Cayman
After a long day I drove home in a bit of a daze, reminding myself that it’s February. Not only did this Valentine’s Day feel odd because of the generosity of demonstrations of appreciation for each other, but also because it was so damned hot. At lunchtime I took my car back to the rental office to ask them to look at my air conditioning. Can it really be February? For over 40 years my body has known February to be a very different kind of beast. A month to sit by a fire with a tasty Sunday roast. Today I saw pictures on my internet feed of snow in the UK, whilst feeling warm in flipflops and linen, trying not to expire in a too-hot car.
Welcome to winter on a Caribbean Island.
My brain has not yet processed it. My body is doing it’s best. I’m taking a day at a time! The ground beneath us keeps on moving.
Last weekend we had a tsunami warning following an earthquake a couple of hundred killometers away. It was horrible, and memorable. Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightly version), will forever be fused with wine and snacks and the all clear. I have my tsunami buddy, and a plan to have an emergency bag packed and ready to go.
This week I’ve been sent the forms to apply for my new work permit.
‘Some people hate it and leave within six months’, I was told at interview, and there were plenty of days when I thought I might be one of them. This place is amazing, and then a tsunami warning or hurricane comes out of nowhere and everything changes in a heartbeat. But this week a sad event brought home the reality that this can happen wherever we live, and we just don’t always get any warning.
Life is precious and fragile.
What if we turned a page and started a new chapter? What if we worried less that we might fail? What if we told ourselves we were loved every day?
What would be in your story of 'I'm good enough'?
So here I am, reading the forms I need to complete to stay, ready to complete them.
It’s not time to buy a hat just yet*, but after five months of getting to know each other, wondering if we might be a good match, wondering if I’m good enough for you, and you for me, we’ve decided to give it a go.
Happy Valentine’s Day Grand Cayman- our love affair lasts a little longer.
*Reference to British celebrity Cilla Black who hosted the show Blind Date from the 1980s, who joked about buying a hat to wear to the wedding of couples who got on well.
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