Swimming

A year ago, during a challenging time, I was offered an escape to the Caribbean this November to the Barbados Open Water Festival. Honestly, this time last year, I would have agreed to just about anything—sanding floors in Sidney, dry-walling in Duncan, coal mining in Cumberland. But it turns out, the 2025 Barbados Open Water Festival was an excellent event.

I trained harder over the summer, encouraged by the more accomplished swimmers in my group, improving my technique and endurance, and met my goal of completing the 3.3-kilometre event despite the swells and gusting winds that are unusual for Carlisle Bay. Three of our members placed in age group categories on both days. And the answer to the classic travel question, Would you do it again? Absolutely.

Eight of us stayed in a share house like it was 1976 again. It worked perfectly, lubricated by rum punches. Each day, we took the public shuttle bus, a ZR, to the beach. The ZR is a privately owned white van taxi service that stops at official stops but can also be hailed. They are a cultural microcosm—packed, pumping out loud tunes and usually speeding. As one taxi driver explained, “When I tell the tourists about the ZR, half are excited to try them and half are terrified.” I loved them.

Each ZR trip is a minestrone of tourists, commuters, and school kids, transiently sharing the same goal—being at a specific destination at a certain time. This shared goal promotes an efficient and kind co-operation. Experienced passengers direct the tourists. Passengers sum you up, exchange places and find the exact best spot for each traveller. Jump seats are flicked open and closed. Somehow, the passengers make intuitive adjustments for all the body types and abilities. Four abreast on seats that I would have thought could only fit three or even two. On occasion, there is a little impatience with uninitiated tourists.

Cash ($3.50 B) is given to the driver or the person acting as a conductor. You can’t miss your stop if you announce your destination as you board. The crowd will guide you off at the correct stop.

If only for a twenty-minute ride, it was a privilege to be included in such a cooperative community. And it was weird doing up a seat belt when I got into a private vehicle to ride to the airport.

What I am reading

When I walked into the Comox library after I got back from Barbados, to return my overdue books, I noticed the 2025 Booker Prize Winner, Flesh by David Szalay, was displayed for short-term borrowing. This is my lucky day, I thought and one of the advantages of our excellent Vancouver Island Regional Library service. So slightly jet-lagged, but mainly riveted, I swept through the spare, tense prose. “OKAY” working hard as dialogue in each chapter.

The story is a merciless study of an unlikeable, passive male protagonist, Istavan, drifting through life, dependent on external circumstances. Chance, class, nationality, education, and male physicality (and sexuality) determine his fate. The transitions between the ten chapters are abrupt and disorienting. but the author skillfully drops the reader into the new time and scene, confirming the evolution of major events. The plot is tense, and the protagonist is infuriating. The dialogue is spare but loaded, uncluttered by embodiment or action. “Okay.” There is little exposition. Yet, this reader couldn’t stop reading. For a more detailed review, see Keiran Goddard’s review in the Guardian.

A much longer book with an eight-year-old, albino protagonist, Edgar, that stuck with me for days, is
Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato. Travel with Edgar after his caring grandmother dies, and he tries to understand the harmed and harmful adults remaining in his life. The perfect point of view of this intelligent, sensitive child is heartbreaking.

North Island Writers Conference — Save The Date

And if you are in the neighbourhood, consider joining the Comox Valley Writers Society and North Island College for the ninth annual North Island Writers Conference.

Thanks for reading

Carolyne