These are new pages to catalogue Nigel's "Updates" on life in Trindad - much appreciated by those of us far from home... They are a wonderful mixture of reportage and personal observation and I am really sorry I lost so many of them in a stupid software glitch last year!

I had saved the whole lot, right from the beginning of the Pointe-a-Pierre web site, so if anyone has any of those old ones and would like to email them to me, I'd be really happy! The ones below begin in 2001.

Nigel's own web site (from where these pages are taken) is @: http://www.papmemories.net/

Sunday, October 21, 2001 4:01 pm Subject: Sort of Update.

Hi All,

The pace of settling-in has begun to slacken just a bit......haven't had construction dust in our food for quite a while, and know where most things are. With only the electrical work left to complete, and the antennas to put up we are nearly there.

The country is on notice of an elections and this is going to take up a lot of my time so thought that while I had a slack moment would bring you up to date on some significant things.

Steve and Christine Denton spent a few days with us while on holiday in Tobago. It was a great pleasure to meet Steve and to see Christine again after 37 years. Although she is really quite changed I recognized her immediately as she came out of the Tobago Arrivals corridor.

She was very moved at visiting PaP, Roble Ave, and her old home where we were very luck to be welcomed in by the resident who actually was in the throes of moving out.

In a way I shared Christine's emotions seeing the house was one thing, but being there and seeing her there visiting with her ghosts took me back to a time long ago when we would both have stood on the same place......wow!...tough stuff!

We had a super little party on the Sunday and Roz Fernandes and Stan Soodeen were there, Kevin and Linda Krogh (Maingot), Brock and Pat Gibbons, Charlene Salazar (Turner) Jackie Carr-Brown (Gibbons), Barry Carr-Brown, Geoff and Yvonne Parsons, John Archer, Jennifer Franco (Darwent), and Simon and Anne Healey (Meaden) all enjoyed the day. It was a sad farewell watching Christine get in to the car to head off to the airport but this time I was able to say good bye, and tell her how much I treasured our friendship.....great stuff.....all the best Chris....see you again.

Larry Devin had heard about the party and timed a call from Florida hoping to be able to speak with all the people present but was about 10 minutes late....arrrrrrgh! sorry Larry......they sure don't make them like they used to.....party finished by 7.00pm!!??........was great talking to you anyhow.

Trying to get confirmation on this but understand that Pete Hughes may have lost one of his boats in hurricane Iris when it hit Belize. Will confirm this when known for sure....but the loss of a boat like that can be like the loss of a treasured family member especially if there were casualties.

Our political situation has heated-up with the clear evidence that even if a formal pact does not exist between the President and the Opposition they have a common objective.......get the PM out of office by delaying the next election until the last possible moment in order to try to strengthen the unconstitutional move to change government by decree rather than the constitution.

The opposition has joined forces with three dissidents from the ruling party including one who a few days ago was their worst enemy, and was the person who spearheaded the government's move to unseat the President and challenged the independence of the judiciary. He also tried on a number of occasions to challenge press freedom. Power by any means!!.....even if it means tearing the country apart again.

Thank goodness the other English-speaking Caribbean (CARICOM) countries have sided with our constitution and have openly stated that the president "MUST" act on the advice of the PM....no discretion.

This is going to be a rough election campaign in which the intrusion of the president into the political process is going to harden positions on both sides...one side feeling that with his support they have a God-given right to "TAKE-BACK" their government lost in the last election, and the other side feeling so cheated by this awful turn of events from a previously trusted and cherished office that they have nothing to loose by reacting to any attempts to take away what is theirs, won constitutionally in the last election......baaaaad stuff.

Just a quick side bar since nearly a week has passed since I first drafted this note......the dissident faction of the ruling party has now been put out by the opposition who now believes that arithmetic and numbers of a split vote will guarantee them the next election, so have decided to stop their loser's war against the Election and Boundaries Commission and the accuracy of the voter's list....obviously now wondering if they won the election on what they insist was a inaccurate list that cost them the last election, how could they accept victory against such a soiled and inaccurate list......I have news for them.........the dissident's launch yesterday had only about 1,000 people........the people are smarter than their leaders and it is they who will save the day!!

Crosswinds has not been behaving well and their ups and downs has compounded resistance to my efforts to get the site fully uploaded and the new campaigns posted......hope that they have it right this time.

Weather is strange.....we are having quite a dry wet season......mind you while Christine's party was going on we had a downpour that resulted in our street being flooded for a short while.

Haleland Park is cold....people laugh when I say that we turn on the air conditioner to warm up the room....HaHa...just kidding.

The sun is heading south and is producing some breathtaking sunrises as I drive down to the office in South. On the return trip in the evening if I time it right the sun has dipped far enough that old Mt.El Tucuche is darkened and the hills on the south flank that tend to frame it when looking north, and the contrast on clear evenings is breathtaking....the old No2 stands out beautifully and helps me work out the day's accumulation of adrenalin.

Keep well and ketch ya soon Nigel.