Holidays & Sails

Today marks another day of Montserratian intrigue - it seems that the last Monday of May here is a bank holiday, which of course works out nicely for most of us. However, nobody (including a few people who live here) seems to know exactly why it's a holiday when I asked around. Given that it's the Memorial Day weekend in the States this weekend, it might have something to do with that - although I can't imagine how.

(Update: After some snooping around online, I have discovered that today is Whit Monday, a Christian holiday. According to Wikipedia, Whit Monday "was also a public holiday in various former British colonies, especially in the Pacific. It is still a public holiday in some of the countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean.")

But still, I am certainly not one to question my good luck - having only found out last Friday that today is a bank holiday, I've been using this free day to catch up on a bit of lesson planning and work. All after a weekend of dinghy sailing and tackle fishing with Jon Stone. Jon managed to procure a Sunfish, on loan from the Montserrat Yacht Club, for the weekend and here's the result.

Recitals & Rum shops

About a fortnight ago Volpanics put on another gig - a tribute performance of sorts, for two of its players, Caroline & Henry, who will sadly be leaving the island soon. This time it was at People's Place, one of my favourite spots in Montserrat. It's a scenic spot that serves up food and drink overlooking the valley adjacent to Forgathy Hill. And in true Montserratian style, we simply set up right beside the road and 'panned' away, with drivers who were passing by just pulling up and to enjoy a lime with live music.

As part of Caroline and Henry's leaving series of parties, Talus - Montserrat's only rock and roll band - also did a gig right on the helipad of MVO. Talus comprises of MVO employees Henry, Paddy and TC, and they certainly rocked away in style with the Soufrière Hills volcano as their stunning backdrop.

Volpanics and their roadside gig.

Talus on the helipad.

Special guest guitarist?

Last weekend has been especially busy, considering I managed to squeeze in yet another rum shop tour on Saturday. I'm starting to really enjoy the finer points of such tours - cramming onboard a bus with an assortment of instruments whilst traversing the entire length of the island, stopping off at various rum shops for a raucous good time! Think of it as a Monopoly-style pub crawl, only with lots and lots of the aforementioned rum.

The newly-formed MSS pan ensemble has been thriving well so far. The turnout for players has been positive, and at the moment we are working on a couple numbers hoping to be ready for the next concert that I have been planning. As part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, my fiancée Jocelyn Freeman (who just so happens to be visiting) will be giving a solo recital, along with the Montserrat Youth Choir who will also be performing. Filipe Sousa, a very good friend of mine as well as an accomplished pianist, is also visiting next month; he will join me for some four-hand piano pieces, most of which will most likely be rather improvisatory, given our style of working together.

This will also most likely be the last big music event that I will be planning - indeed, I have decided that, while my time here has been immensely well-spent, it is time to hand the baton on when my fixed-term contract finishes on 15 July 2012. Clare Catchpole, from GSMD, who has been assisting with managing this project, has sent out a few feelers to scout for the next possible replacement.

And given my impending departure from the island, I've decided to make the most of my time left by exploring bits of the island which I have left out so far. And only yesterday did I finally make my first visit to the last of the six 'main' beaches of Montserrat - Lime Kiln Bay. The others being Rendezvous Bay, Old Road Bay, Woodlands Beach, Bunkam Bay and Little Bay. There are also a few other beaches such as Foxes Bay and Isles Bay, but they are either more difficult to access or are in the restricted zone. Not that that will be stopping me!

Sunset at Lime Kiln Bay.

And as the end of term slowly approaches (already?!) I will soon be swamped with writing exam papers and planning practical tests for my music students. In the months since January, some of them have indeed displayed some innate musical talent and I am keen to see them do well over the next few weeks. In the meantime, however, planning for the upcoming recital should take up most of my time.

Mallets & Balls

Over last weekend I joined Tom & Emily at Little Bay for something a little unusual - helping out at the Montserrat Reef Project, building reef balls. What are reef balls? They are gumdrop-shaped concrete structures ranging from 4-6 feet tall, built using a pre-fabricated mould that consists of a central inflatable bladder. Right, that was a rather befuddling attempt to explain it, so here's a picture.

Freshly made reef balls.

And on Saturday, we turned up at 8 in the morning ready for some manual labour. With Tom & I not having wielded many a hammer in our lives so far, we embarked on a good start by taking and hammering apart the moulds that were filled in the day before. Each mould consists of three or four panels, and on each panel are small inflatable 'buoys' that give each reef ball it's signature 'cheese' layout. These holes within the structure will allow for water filtration and movement which will aid in coral growth. It also, of course, enhances the 'playground' effect for fish when it is finally put in the sea.

We then proceeded to reset and build the moulds again, for a marine-specific concrete mix to be poured in eventually. Each mould has a central inflatable bladder that gives the reef ball a hollow interior, and this bladder along with the smaller buoys are inflated before the concrete mix is poured in.

Andy & I with a smaller reef ball.

Looking very 'wieldy'.

Reef ball hatching.

The Montserrat Reef Project has been working with the Reef Ball Foundation, a non-profit organisation that specialises in artificial reef technology, reef propagation and public education & outreach; these fibreglass moulds were specially designed and built by the foundation. This project itself has been propelled by the dedication of Emmy & Andrew, the ocean-loving owners of Scuba Montserrat.

I certainly was glad to break out the tools (and muscles, of course) for this worthwhile cause, as well as contribute towards some sort of direct investment of Montserrat's marine future. And given how the corals will take about a year to propagate to reefs, from the time of transplantation, I will just have to come back in a year's time for a dive to marvel at the fruition of this project!

Steel & Pans

Having travelled quite a fair bit for work and performance over the past four years has presented me invaluable opportunities to pick up a wide myriad of different instruments from different cultures and amalgamate them into my performance practice and teaching methods. For example, during my time in Guildhall, SEZENYŪM travelled to Palestine for professional development and creative exchanges with local musicians. There, I fell in love with the darbuka and picked up a bit of playing and technique on that.

More recently, during my stint in Gordonstoun, I was completely enthralled by the bagpipes and picked it up as well. And now, living in the Caribbean, how could I possibly avoid the steel pans! My first foray into arranging for Volpanics has turned out well - we can now crack out a pretty good rendition of Big Spender, which certainly isn't a common tune for steel pans. And riding on that, I have decided to set up a steel pan ensemble for MSS students. However, instead of just focusing on Caribbean classics (and a few indispensible Bob Marley tunes, of course), I will be arranging music less commonly heard on steel pans. What exactly? I'm still mulling over it. But as I'm typing this, Lady Gaga's Born This Way is playing on MFR, and I'm thinking this might be a good one to tackle.

Anyone interested yet? All are welcome!

Goats & Sweatbands

So what do you get when you get nearly a dozen goats, dress them up, line them up and cheer wildly as they bolt down a 30-metre long course? Welcome to Montserrat's answer to the Grand National, where goats of all shapes and sizes battle it out on the racetrack for fame, glory, and if they're lucky, escape from the goat water pot.

Last weekend's goat race was part of the Island People Fete, a carnival which was held at Tropical Mansions. The Montserrat Running Club entered a goat, which we later named Ishwar. Ishwar, according to club president Tom Regan, has had a "good pre-season [...] and has only been pregnant twice over the spring, and has only been run over once". Perfect.

Seb, Aoife and I got down with good time to spare to dress up our goat - in running attire, of course.

Only the best kit for Ishwar.

Just before the pre-race pep talk.

Pink, blue & yellow - perfect colour combo.

And Ishwar certainly didn't fare too badly - a few false starts aside, he blazed through the heats and even managed to grab himself a coveted spot in the top three. Unfortunately, his desire for oats (offered at the finish line as an incentive to run) was probably not was strong as his opponents' desire to not end up in goat water, and he never made it beyond third place.

And of course, like every respectable race, bets were accepted for each goat before every race. However, I did manage to abstain from putting any money on a goat, given my sore lack of experience at attending such races. In hindsight, I probably should have attended the Oxford & Cambridge Goat Race this year. For the uninformed, this race is held every year as an anti-elitist alternative to the annual traditional river Thames boat race between Oxford and Cambridge. At least no class war protests marred the goat action!

Seb's last day in Montserrat.

Super goats in action.

In the end, Ishwar pulled a full Monty stunt - by the time of his last race, every single piece of clothing and accessory adorning him had come off, save for one sweatband around his rear right hoof. Guess he was getting himself ready for the goat water pot after all.