Brit gals in the Bahamas, part 4

Three Teeth Tony and Snorkelling

Lovely cheery chappy on the beach, Three Teeth Tony (not his actual name), was drumming up some business and us Brit gals looked like likely candidates for a bit of snorkelling. After all, you can’t do that in Croydon (not that either of us are from Croydon, but you know what I’m saying).

So, when he offered us a boat ride and the chance to see some fishes and turtles, we jumped at it. We needed cash, though, and the only way to access that was on a jet ski to the hotel with a cashpoint across the bay. Off my lovely chum George (aka ‘Boss Lady’) went, debit card stuck firmly in her bikini top.

Off they go to the cashpoint / ATM!

The snorkelling was amazing. Hoorah for turtles and fishies in the ocean.

Ah, that’s living the dream!

Cup of tea on the beach for Princess Charlotte

Back on dry land a British celebration was in order. A nice cup of tea to celebrate the royal baby! We managed to get a proper tea pot, but sadly only Styrofoam/polystyrene cups, and half and half cream/milk, not proper milk in a jug, but still we made an effort for Her Royal Littleness.

We managed to get the Union Flag in!

Blagging our way into the World Relay Athletic Championships

We British gals had really mastered the art of blagging our way into things in the Bahamas, and the International Association of Athletic’s Federation World Relays being held in Nassau were no exception.

We realised that when you ask one Bahamian something, you also have to ask another five Bahamaians the same question because you will get different answers every time. It’s like a quiz. You have to work out which is the right answer….. or are you going to just make a decision on your own?!

With the World Relays we got told 1) you can get in free with your hotel wristband; 2) you have to pay $12; 3) it’s sold out; 4) it’s $40.

With all this info in mind, we took a risk on a fine gentleman in our hotel lobby who was in a very dapper officials suit and asked him what the deal was. ‘Oh yes,’ he told us. ‘You can get in to the arena. Come along with me now, I’m on my way there.’

So we grabbed our stuff (straight from the beach!) and headed off in Alepheus A. Finlayson’s car, along with his wife Dawn, who must have wondered what the hell was going on. It turns out he’s like a Bahamas judge, official athletics person and wot not, who just this morning had taken brunch with Usain Bolt’s parents. Coolsome.

Having dropped us off, Alpheus went on his merry official’s way and we blagged some cut price tickets, getting some amazing seats right near the entrance onto the track.

At Thomas Robinson Stadium, Nassau

I can pretty much guarantee that we were the only Brits there in a sea of green and yellow Jamaican shirts and blue and yellow Bahamiam shirts. We had no flags and no t-shirts – just our British fishwife lungs! How we yelled for Team GB as our girls came home with Bronze, much to the amusement of the Caribbean crowd. In the end they helped us along a bit – as long as their teams weren’t running 😉

Team USA wooped everyone’s asses in the races, apart from in the 4×200 when Jamaica nailed it, although disappointingly Usain Bolt didn’t make an appearance, despite the hype that he would. I was v sad 😦 No matter, cos Team USA gave me a new hero in hippy runner from the ’70s, Ben Blankenship. He looks like he should be in an indie band, but he runs like the wind!

Yet again the roars and cheers and excitement of the crowd made this an awesomeballs event. I can’t begin to describe the atmosphere. Okay, I will: it rocked the flippin’ house!!!!

Lord Sebastian Coe was dishing out medals, and we cheered his British suited-ness at the ceremony. BUT – best of all, my knees nearly gave way when we spotted him behind us at the airport the next day. We went over and talked to him about what a great event it had been, how well Team GB did, and what a character Alpehus was. What a smashing chap that Seb Coe is!

With Lord Coe!

And then, blow me down, if we didn’t see hot Team USA chick Molly Beckwith-Ludlow who had a lovely natter and post-natter tweet-fest with us!

Hoorah for Team USA (our second faves!)

We were proper made up! It was the icing on our Bahamas cake!

And here ends the Brit gals in the Bahamas blog. 🙂 Didn’t we do well?!

It’s back to reality in the USA and it’s only three months till I go home to the UK. In that time you can expect blogs about trips to Nashville, Memphis, Canada and Jamaica, and I’ve been working on a complete blog post about a UK vs USA face-off! It’s all about everything I’ve encountered here in my three years and it will be super fun. I bet y’all will have a lot to say about it! 😉