Postcard from Trinidad & Tobago

There's been a lot of rain here in the past few days - it's supposed to be start of the dry season now but it's apparently getting later and later every year.

The weather's great right now though, dry and sunny with a light sea breeze and I'm working about 14km off the coast of Tobago. The helicopter flight here was a highlight, flying from Port of Spain (the capital), right over the north coast of Trinidad and much of Tobago.

Trinidad is much larger and is reasonably industrial - and much of it is covered in forest. Everyone drives everywhere and the traffic is a real problem, especially going in to PoS in the morning or out at night. It's supposed to be too dangerous to walk anywhere. Tobago is small and is much more popular as a tourist destination, mostly because of its great beaches.

Spent a few days working in town. Food is an adventure, and there seems to be a big gap between the expensive western-style restaurants and the authentic local restaurants and street vendors. The price doesn't affect the taste of the food, though - so by way of recommendation we started having lunch at Shiann's roti restaurant, a small place in Port of Spain. Roti is one of the most popular local foods. You get a choice of a variety of curries - potato, vegetable, chicken, goat and/or duck - with or without hot sauce, all wrapped up in a soft bread. Very tasty. Apparently the world-famous cricketer and national hero Brian Lara often comes in for his roti on a Saturday morning.

More later, and a merry Christmas to all.

Wood: stacked!

Got all the wood stacked today, both mine and the neighbours'. It was fairly quick, with three of us and 2 wheelbarrows. So it's all under cover and there should be enough to last at least until the spring. There are various ways to stack the wood, the golden rule is to make sure the pile doesn't collapse!

Sveriges största rockband

Last night I went to Lund to see Kent, Sweden's (self-proclaimed) biggest rock band.

They're almost certainly the biggest band that actually sings in Swedish. They had some international airplay a few years ago with an album release in English (Hagnesta Hill, also released in Swedish) but they never really made it big outside Sweden.

On stage think well-rehearsed and note-perfect, with a synchronised lightshow to match. No improvisation here, folks...

Renewable energy

Today the firewood arrived. A man in a dump-truck came and tipped 8 cubic metres of dry, cut firewood in front of the house. My neighbours got another 8 - the truck has a divider, so they can easily dump the wood at separate houses. The mission for the day is to get as much wood stacked under cover (be it in the wood pile, house, sauna, wherever) as possible, and cover the rest before the rain comes. It'll take a few days before everything is shifted. The neighbours are off to Stockholm on the weekend, so they've got all the stacking to look forward to when they come home.

Vinter däcken

Winter tyres are compulsory in Sweden from the first of December. I picked mine up the other day, together with some shiny new 6-spoke rims. The rims were second-hand and cost less than the new tyres, so I got a good deal... and come the spring it will be easy to change them back.

The tyres are Nordic winter tyres, with quite a deep tread. There is also the option of having studded tyres (dubbade däcken), but down here in the south it is not such a big issue. Snow chains are illegal in Sweden.

The tyre changing operation is very efficient - you drive in and onto the car hoist, and by the time you've paid your bill, the new wheels and tyres are on and the old wheels are covered and loaded in the back. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. There's also a tyre-hotel for storing the summer tyres, which is useful if you live in an apartment.