We were invited to be interviewed for The Family Hour on Premier Gospel Radio in the UK. If you don’t normally tune in, it’s a great station with awesome presenters and good mixture of Gospel music and talk. (Listen to the live stream)
We mainly spoke about our four month adventure in St Kitts, but also covered things like large families, marriage tips and other topics!
It’s always really weird hearing your own voice on the radio. I wonder if regular presenters feel the same way!
Was there anything we spoke about that you’d like to know more about? Or maybe something we didn’t cover but you’d love to ask? Let us know in the comments, via Twitter or Facebook
Thanks for visiting. You’re probably here as me and my family were recently featured in “Britain’s Favourite Black Newspaper”, The Voice.
I remember reading it on and off over the years as my Mum and Dad often buy it and now we’re actually blessed to be featured in it! Shout out to Marcia Dixon for asking us 😊.
My blog is a mixed bag of thoughts and observations but I’ve tagged all the St Kitts related ones so when you click the St Kitts link, it shows you all the relevant posts. Shout out to my extended family, far and wide, I love you all!
Just for fun, let me know in the comment section what brought you here, or connect with us on Twitter (Phil) and Twitter (Lisa)
We’re back on cold and frosty UK soil! Brrrrrrrr. I’m going to be back blogging real soon, but in the meantime let me update you with how many things I’ve ticked off my list from the last post.
We’ve done pizza, and fish & chips so far. Trying to keep things healthy over here 🤔
Fast internet and constant mobile data, oh how I’ve missed thee!
And finally, life on the open road!
It’s good to be back, catch up with a few friends, re-arrange the house and all the good stuff.
Our stay in St Kitts has been absolutely awesome…but there are still a few little things I’m looking forward to again.
1. Yes! Food is at the top of my list. And fried chicken too. And chips. Ahhhhhhh #drool. But you know what. I really need to stop eating this kind of thing, so strictly for special occasions. Like first day back. And 2nd day back. That type of thing 😊
2. I miss a Full English Breakfast. Premier Inn, watch out when the Mayers are back in town! Not only is it tasty, but with there being 9 of us the Kids Eat Free deal suits our pocket too.
3. Did I mention the internet is slow here? And did I mention we’ve just been upgraded to 70mbps *yay*
Oh, I might as well throw in my mobile data package in this section too. The little tech things that I miss.
4. A nice hot bath! Showers are awesome, but baths are awesomer! Some bubbles and light reading (note: using electronic devices in the bath is not recommended. I mean, who would do that anyway?)
5. Driving! I actually haven’t driven at all for nearly 4 months. I miss it. The purr of the engine, the growl as you move through the gears, the wind on the open road, the speeding tickets. Wait a minute. I live in London. The A406. The M25. Maybe catching the rickety busses to Basseterre isn’t so bad after all!
Apologies for the blog delay, normal service resumes next week Monday (or Tuesday. I’ve been unwell plus the time zone thing keeps catching me out)
Have you ever been scared out of your wits but had to keep it together because you’re the strong one? That was me last night as a bat flew around my daughter’s room! Thankfully she was half asleep and thought it was a cockroach when she came to tell me, so that’s what I was armed for 😕. The way I backed out of the room like a stealth ninja when I saw it was a bat😲
Now, there’s prayer and there’s prayer!!! Does everyone find that SERIOUS prayers need a strong African or Caribbean accent? 😂😂😂
But everything ended OK. No dads were harmed and the bat was escorted out of the room safely and quietly with no screaming from me😊
Note: I was too scared to take a picture in case the flash went and scared it again, so it’s just a bat off Google!
There’s a gospel artist who has been working with secular artists for many years, but a recent collaboration seems for many to be a step too far. Now when it comes to these things, we’re often encouraged to “look for the fruit”. But what happens when the fruit (or veg) doesn’t look like we expect?
A nightmare to peel, but perfectly edible.
It could be a bit bruised, damaged, or shaped strangely. Where I am in St Kitts, you get green bananas that are ripe! How many of us are bruised, damaged or shaped strangely?
So should we toss perfectly edible food away because it doesn’t quite fit the strict rules? In the same way, are we quick to write someone off because they don’t fit our own strict rules? Perhaps they’re a bit too short, or too tall? Maybe too fat, or too skinny, too dark, or not dark enough? The list goes on and on.
Thank God we haven’t ended up in a landfill somewhere! He sees us as something beautiful rather than something ugly. Something useful rather than useless. All across the globe He’s taking people as wonky veg and transforming them into brand new creations. God loves you!
2 Corinthians 5:17–Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Now this is where I’m supposed to unveil the final installment of the “Why Do We Homeschool” series with a flourish of red cape like a Caribbean Matador [insert pic of matador here] Ole!!
Instead, if I’m lucky, you can have pic of a local goat.
Because today, the Internet is being stubborn. Like a goat
🐐.
Hopefully it returns to running on full steam tomorrow. As soon as it does, I’ll post the last bit.
In the meantime, why not follow me on Instagram, where there are no goat pictures!
Life is very different in St Kitts. Now if I was organised, I would have 16 things to be grateful for in 2016, but because I’m not (yet), I’m just going to do 3 (aka 3 Things I Take For Granted in the UK).
1. Running water (which is sometimes hot).
There are a couple of different reasons this one makes the list. Over here, the water sometimes goes off at night and the pressure is variable anyway, which affects whether or not the hot water kicks in! Not every home here has a water supply so standpipes are a regular sight here too.
2. An Internet connection
As someone who uses the Internet every now and then 😊 I’m truly grateful that I can keep up to date with what’s going on in the world and keep in touch with friends. A couple of noticeable differences though. The Internet is SLOW. Currently 2Mbps (but moving up to 6Mbps soon) compared to the 50Mbps I’m used to at home. But hey, give me warm weather and slow internet over cold weather and fast internet any day.
3. Electricity
We had our first power cut recently. No electricity means no wifi, or charging devices, or using a microwave, or having lights. It’s another one of those things that are “just there” ready for you to use whenever you want, so when it’s not there, you really do feel it.
So if you have hot and cold running water, an Internet connection and electricity, recognise that you are blessed!
What are you grateful for?
Oh, and here’s one of my favourite tunes. Grateful (Fanatix Remix) by Dennis Ferrer & Kenny Bobien.
One of the things that is noticeably different about living in St Kitts is the abundance of food that either grows nearby, or can be supplied by a neighbour (often they just bring things round for you).
So far we’ve had breadfruit, bananas, coconuts, pumpkin, starfruit, breadnuts, yam, oranges, peas and watermelon all for free!
Some veg still has dirt on it, or is shaped strangely, but organic is much more tasty. Coconut water fresh from the coconut is much nicer than anything I’ve bought from the shops.
Phil's Blog 
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