At 1:30 Janet myself went to meet with Jason the real estate agent from Seaside Reality, as previously Jason was very helpful and shoulders loads of properties and areas.

We started off with the gated community at millennium heights. This had not appealed doors from the descriptions and the cost of $3,500 Barbados dollars per month plus utilities was more than we had initially planned on. But in actual fact they were very nice and you did not seem to be on top of one another which was my main objection. We were shown a townhouse (terraced house) and a condominium (apartment or flat). Both come for the furnished and work to a very acceptable standard. Both were to be, the townhouse was slightly larger and have the advantage of the patio doors out onto a communal grass area where Alec could play. We looked at a first floor condominium which had the advantage of more breeze than the townhouse but while smaller and not as easy access to the gardens. The townhouse, and I understand the top floor condominiums, have high ceilings following the profile of the roof. Whilst I personally like this feedback from occupiers was that it was just more space to Air con. Whilst both bedrooms and air conditioning I personally prefer just a fan and to get used to the heat, which is what we’re doing in a house we presently rent.

The grounds are quite extensive and are beautifully. In this heat it’s not about idea to have someone else do the gardening for you and being a gated community it has advantages of security. There were two reasonable size pools on side along with tennis courts, walking track, community building etc. If money was no object this would be a nice place to live although it is further from the beach and I would like, possibly 10 minute drive, and whilst most people a 10 minute drive to fantastic beach and sea would great, to me moving to a small Caribbean island I expect to be walking distance from the beach or at the very worst cycling distance.

Jason then took us a tour of the south of the island both inland or in the country and down along the south coast. Jason is killed or is a mixture of properties in all sorts of price ranges, some with stunning views, some of each, some on a golf course etc. From one point of view it left me slightly confused but it has given me a much better understanding of the geography of around from a residential point of view and the sort of things I should be looking for and the areas I should be looking at. The south appeals to me it’s being reasonably close to Bridgetown and the likely schools for Alec.

Some of the areas in the south near Oistins presented a good mix of being close to the beach, Bridgetown and in nice residential areas. I will way of a side comment, on Friday and Saturday nights there is a open air event at Oistins, a former fishing village, with music, local traders, and lots of fresh caught and cooked fish and other delicacies.

After retiring three hours Jason dropped off to find our own way home through the somewhat congested traffic as they’re being a accident on the roundabout. Traffic in rush-hour is a bit of a pain to be mildly and best avoided if you can.

On all detours to get round the traffic I came across the offices of BCQS International a quantity surveying practice based just outside Bridgetown in Christchurch and working throught the Caribbean. I took the opportunity to pop into Inquirer about employment and I was able to have a chat with the director Sanjay Amin who was very helpful. He said that whilst construction was quiet at the moment it should be possible to find work although sorting out a work permit would be a challenge. He said whilst they normally prefer full-time staff key freelance surveyor who could help balance the load could be helpful and BS that I forward my CV which I will do.

When we arrived home we decided it would be quite nice to grab a bite to eat so we went to “Just Grillin” which as the names suggests those grilled food. Janet and I had platter of the day of which there were three fish to choose from Marlin, flying Fish, Dolphin (not Dolphin as we think of). I went from Marlin and Janet the flying Fish and had cheeseburger, I and a beer, Janet a Pina Colada (which was very good) and Alec Sprite, total cost was $90 Barbados or about £30 which seem very good value for money.

What I enjoyed about the meeting was just how genuinely friendly the Barbados people are. One of the areas that Pooka suggested we should look at was Millennium Heights, this being Condo’s with middle-class Bajan and expatriates workers from various countries and companies including Shell and First Caribbean Bank etc (Barclays). This being a complex which is 8 to 10 minutes away from the beach (by car ) with shared swim pool walls tennis courts clubhouse etc. As someone who has worked abroad previously listed not sound like my cup of tea!

Next we visited Seaside Reality and the manager Jason McFarlane. Again Jason was fantastically helpful and went through all the things we should consider when renting or buying a property here. He again pointed out gated complex such as millennium Heights and suggested that that would be a good area for was to consider. A two bed condominium would be in the region of $4000 Barbados per month (£1300) on top of this is electricity, water, telephone/Internet, and satellite (although as we do not have TV in the UK we will not be needing this). Again Jason went through the importance of living somewhere where Alec would be able to socialise with his school peers after school and suggested that gated complex is alike Millennium Heights would be ideal.

I personally was looking for something considerably cheaper and closer to the coast. Personally I would be quite happy to beach hut providing it had Internet access. But I do need to take into account integrating Alec into the society and indeed making friends and contacts here myself and Janet. It therefore looks like we should perhaps consider renting somewhere like Millennium Heights for 6 to 12 months whilst we integrate into society.

Jason has very kindly offered to show is round some properties on Friday afternoon at 1.30 even though he knows we will not be renting anything until May or June next year and that’s assuming everything goes to plan. Again it just shows how friendly and helpful people are here and as a race they have far more time for people.

During our conversation with Jason it was interesting to notice the different names for the different types of properties.

• Condo or condominium is what we would in England call a flat or an apartment i.e. it is all on one level.
• Townhouse is what we would call a terraced house i.e. one built in a row with other houses either side.
• Duplex is what we would call a semi-detached
• Standalone is what we would call a detached property be that on one or two stories/levels.

After this we went to the marine nature reserve just north of the whole town where we had a chance to some snorkelling in the protected bay, protected both as a national reserve and also with buoys around the perimeter to protect you from the jet skis.

It is at present half term for the schools so we will make appointments to visit them next week. We are advised that we should be able to get Alec into these schools without too much difficulty. The fees appear to be around $6000 Barbados per term which is the same as we are currently paying in England for Alec’s primary School. There is a possibility that Alec could take the 11+ and go to a state school in Barbados but as a non-resident they charge fees which are similar to the private schools. I understand that the locals have to pay for the schooling but it is considerably cheaper than that charged to foreigners, which is fair enough.

I have now had the chance to load the photographs onto my computer and the card reader I bought here worked very well. I will hopefully get these on to the site tomorrow.

We have wanted why the Real Estate Agents did not have the address on their signs but just the website address. There are a couple of agents that have offices and as luck would have it they are quite close to where we are renting the house that Paynes Bay in the district of St James. We will be visiting them tomorrow.

Whilst we were walking around Bridgetown we noticed the immigration office and so we decided to investigate what the position was that we had not had an awful lot of success looking it up on the Internet. Unfortunately, and rather expectedly, there was a huge end as we did not have the specific questions we decided it would be better to phone in later and get directions that way.

We also had questions with regard to income tax as we had been advised that if you get it wrong you could be paying tax in two countries on the same income! We went into the Inland Revenue building and they gave us some forms/leaflets as a guide.

My son badly needed a haircut to keeping cool and so we went into a local barber’s. Obviously they are not used to dealing with Caucasians and my son’s hair is particularly wiry and difficult. While these barber that did Alec’s hair took its time and really good job asking as he went along. To my amazement the cost was five dollars Barbados which equates to about £1.75!

I also needed a card reader for the camera so that I can upload the photographs onto this blog. I went into the first electrical shop that we came across and found a 50 in one card reader for $28 Barbados or about £9.00 which was less than I was expecting to pay. I had a look round the shop while I was in there and thought that the prices were generally comparable with the UK.

Time to the beach so we went to one of the beaches just south of Bridgetown itself and just before the Hilton hotel. There is a car park right next to the beach and despite the fact that you are very close to the centre of Bridgetown it was a lovely clean wind beach and beautiful clear sea. Unlike the other areas we have been swimming the sea shelved very gently and you could walk or swim quite some distance don’t before you out of your depth. The coral was just in the smallish clumps put as usual crowded with beautiful colourful marine fish.

As I was playing with Alec and I saw something in the water about 3 foot away from me. I watch this space and sure enough it turned out to be a turtle! This was about 10 foot away from the shore and guess swimming around on his own and did not appear to be bothered about the people in the sea, though in fairness was not many.