A New Diver!

This is Duncan, my brother. He has just left us but on my birthday last week he and I dived together with our friend Rob. Duncan had undertaken a Resort Diving Course and so was not qualified to dive alone, hence Rob keeping an eye on him. As you can see he did very well and we went on to dive again later in the week.

This is the first time I have downloaded video onto my blog. Let me know what you think of the service - did you get it to play properly? Was there a delay? If it works ok I have other video I could download. I am no professional videographer but I do like to try things out.

Feedback, feedback.....

Dear Readers I have not been all that well recently. The last three days have been a bit of pain as I have felt distinctly dickie. Today I am feeling better and have ventured outside for some air.

Sitting on the terrace listening to the pounding of the waves on the reef, there is a hefty groundsea, I tried to catch up on some reading by flicking through an old copy of the excellent en Route, Air Canada's inflight magazine.

Arjun Basu, the magazine's editor-in-chief wrote an excellent article entitled 'The Write Stuff,' (March 2007) in which he talks about Air Canada's sponsorship of the CBC Literary Awards. In his article he says, 'Reader feedback is like blood to a writer; writing is a solitary activity, and once a piece ... goes out into the world, the writer cedes control of it to the audience - a feeling that is even lonelier than the act of writing itself. Feedback helps keep the writer's craft - and the writer - alive.'

How right he is!

I often wonder, as I write my column for The Anguillian or write up an article for the Chamber of Commerce, what people really think of my work. Sometimes I have the odd person come up to me in the street and tell me they look forward to the Thoughts of an Expat column I write but that is about all the feedback I receive. It would be nice, and extremely moral boosting, to have a few more comments forthcoming on this blog for example. I am never really sure if there is anyone out there in reader land or not!

To begin a dialogue with readers would be a good thing to launch for 2008. It will inspire me to write more often and, hopefully, to write well, and will become an interactive, living thing.

So, I ask this of you, my loyal readers, if you like my work, tell me what you like about it and pass my blog address on to friends. If you dislike it, tell me why you dislike it and perhaps give me pointers on how to write something you will like. Just remember, I cannot please everyone all of the time!

In the meantime, I have run out of steam. I am covering the Chamber of Commerce AGM tomorrow for ACOCI Connection so am off to have a rest. Happy reading folks and I look forward to reading the feedback!

Oh, and if you are not sure about how to leave a comment, just click the word 'comment' at the bottom of each blog and follow the directions!

Anguilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry Awards Certificates for Best Christmas Decorations

The Anguilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACOCI) sent out Undercover Photographers over the Christmas Period to capture images of the decorations put up by businesses on the island.

All the images have been published in the January edition of ACOCI Connection, the Chamber's bi-monthly newsletter. What is clear is that the island looked really good this year!

ACOCI judged the decorations in three categories:

The National Bank of Anguilla won the Award for Best Outside Decorations.
Mills Baby World won the Award for Best Window Display.
Caribbean Commercial Bank won the Award for Best Christmas Tree.

Certificates were presented to a representative of each business by Calvin Bartlett, Executive Director of the Chamber and Valerie Zaharia, Volunteer.

Comments on my blog!

Whilst I welcome comments on my blog I will not publish anonymous comments if they are not constructive, nor will I publish rudeness. If a reader does not like my blog, please feel free to tell me what you think is wrong with it, but there is no need for profanity.

I cannot please everyone all of the time!

Happy New Year!

2008 already! Time flies when you are having fun and that is just what is happening in the Legg household in January.

Joe and I have just celebrated our Silver Wedding Anniversary and our son, Thomas, and my brother, Duncan, flew in from England to join our friend Susan, who had flown in from Pakistan (just ahead of the Bhutto assassination I am pleased to say), to help us celebrate. We renewed our vows on Shoal Bay Beach (one of the world's top beaches and just up the road from our home) and had a little party afterwards which was attended by many of our friends on island. The event was covered by my lovely editor Nat Hodge of The Anguillian (http://www.anguillian.com/) with his brand new Nikon (12 megapixels and tiny - wonderful!) and I sat up writing an account for the newspaper so it would hit the next day deadline.

Susan had been with us for Christmas and New Year and it was fun doing touristy things with her. She was also one of my two Best Ladies (the other being my unflappable friend Julie) and she ensured I was adequately dressed for the occasion by buying me the most beautiful shell necklace to enhance my black and white dress. Bless her.

Thomas and Duncan were Joe's Best Men, along with Julie's husband, Rob. They did manly things like Elvis impressions with their collars turned up in our living room before we set off for the beach!

Pastor Jeremiah was great. He had obviously done lots of these ceremonies before and he was professional throughout. He was even happy to have Thomas adding a mobile phone to the proceedings so my parents in England could join in the event.

The sun shone and we had a great sunset to finish off the day. Great!

A group of friends met recently for the Second Pimms (unofficial) Tennis Tournament in Anguilla. This is a fun event for players with limited abilities (such as yours truly!) to play doubles tennis and drink quite a lot of Pimms. As you can imagine, it is a somewhat giggly event by the end of the tournament. We look forward to next time with eager anticipation!

Today came the news that I have been accepted as a Full Member of The Society of Women Writers and Journalists in England. I am really very pleased by this news. I must thank Nat Hodge for proposing me to the Society and to the Society's Secretary, Wendy Hughes for seconding me. This will open up new avenues and I will be able to mix with other writers from all over the world. I look forward to a long association with the Society.

Thomas leaves us today to return to the UK. I will be sorry to see him go but he has things to do in England. He has just bought a boat to live on and he needs to organise getting it from its present mooring in a marina on the south coast of England to the Thames, near Hampton Court Palace. The boat needs a little work on it and so he will be busy for a little while with that.

Duncan will stay with us for another couple of weeks. This week he will take a Resort Dive with our friend Rob and then, if he still likes diving after that, Joe and I will dive with him at the weekend. I am really looking forward to that. It is a shame that Thomas could not stay any longer and join us but it was not to be.

Looking forward my birthday is on the horizon and then we will be looking at the beginning of February. Time flies. In the meantime, I need to get my finger out and do some work. No peace for writers, let alone the wicked!

The Photos are all from our Wedding Anniversary and show our Best Ladies and Men along with our good friends Sheryl and Mike, Thomas and I, the sunset, Joe and I and Rob and Julie. Julie is trying to distance herself from her Elvis impersonator husband!