So here we are in Antigua which is technically our fourth Caribbean country, as we had a short stop in Dominica on our way here.
Not that we even got out of the plane… but we did land on the ground safely and take off again safely too! Small mercies.
Was kind of funny, even for me, when we were leaving St Lucia airport and told to board at Gate One, where the tiniest little 10 seater plane was sitting.
Our real plane had yet to arrive so for several horrible minutes Simon thought he was going to have to cope with me on this mosquito-sized airplane for an hour. He couldn’t look me in the eye as we stood there waiting to board – the horror that must have been going through his mind…..
Anyway our real plane did land and was much bigger than a mosquito which made us all very happy indeed!!!
I have just had a massive rant in my Herald blog about the frustrations of trying to work here. This entire tournament is a shambles, the organisation is absolutely useless. I am writing this in the media centre at the brand new Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground and behind me the workmen are actually drilling holes for new cables at the desks!!!
Hmm, seeing the first game is almost 50 overs through, and there are about 50 journalists here, you’d think having the internet access and power cables in the actual media centre before now might have been helpful.
The complications just go on and on and if something works for even a short time it’s a flipping miracle.
I had not intended to work much while I was here, just enough to keep the credit card wolves at bay. But if I don’t turn up I get penalised by losing the $350 bond I paid to get a media pass, so I’m pretty much at work every day from now on. Just like Simon the real worker!
Except he has to concentrate on every single ball that is bowled and I can just watch the tv in the press centre, or read my book, and just get the info I need at the end.
It just means the tan I worked so hard on in Barbados and St Lucia will be fading rather quickly.
We hired a car for our time in Antigua (for work rather than the other cars we hired just for ourselves), because the taxi situation is an incredible rip off. Actually everything here is an incredible rip off.
For the three Reuters photographers that are here, using taxis to get to games and practices every day would collectively cost anything from $200 a day. The car costs $1800 for two weeks, so its much cheaper.
Our hotel is an incredible rip off. It’s a sprawling complex built on a marina and is actually hundreds of villas, so you get a “house” with a lounge and kitchen and that’s fantastic.
But the complex is so big you need a shuttle to get to the main office in order to get a taxi to the cricket (taxi ride is 30 minutes drive or $80). The rip is that they charge you to use their shuttle.
An option is to hire a little golf cart to get around the complex, but that costs $50 a day!
So they stick you a million miles from anywhere and make sure you cannot move to anywhere else unless you pay. Grrrrrr.
As payback for being such meanies we got a good laugh yesterday when a staff girl was trying to drive a golf cart and totally lost control and went straight into a huge bush. HA HA.
Anyway…. its been overcast and raining since we got her 24 hours ago. And we’re sharing our villa with a chain smoking young Indian guy who can’t grasp the non-smoking in the house rule. Which is annoying because there is plenty of room outside.
Hoping for a better Antiguan experience soon!!!!!
