It is important to plan the transition from work to retirement carefully. It is easy to fall into the slippers to the shops routine,Lorraine Kelly, Buster and all day TV. So when I knew I was to retire I made my plans. Leave work on a Friday the next Wednesday off to the Bahamas to spend three months with my family. Best laid plans, etc ……If you're keeping up you will know that at the last minute I got grounded by the Doc. But now some six weeks later Christine and I are off to see our family. So the next few sessions will be a personal view of life in the Bahamas.


We arrive in Nassau courtesy of British Airways. Another smooth flight, free drinks and excellent cabin crew just as expected. It’s February, the sun is shining, it’s 83 degrees and Alex and the grandkids meet us at the airport with big hugs and kisses. Can life get better, well I suppose being David Beckham wouldn’t be too bad, all that dosh, skill and still in his 30s but would I trade places, not likely, I’d have to listen to Posh singing.


A word in general about the Bahamas, nothing happens, when someone says they will do something they don’t mean now and they don’t mean they’ll do what was asked. But eventually they will do something and it can always be put right by someone else later.


Eating out in the Bahamas is an experience you must try and there are quality restaurants, Café Matisse and Luciano's of Chicago in Nassau are exceptional for lunch or dinner and are as good as you will find anywhere. The Atlantis Hotel has Nobu and the Marina Village has Café Martinique (used in an early James Bond film, I believe) both reported as excellent but beyond a poor struggling pensioner like me. So I ignore these in offering the follow tips:


The Spanish say tomorrow, there is nothing that urgent in the Bahamas so don’t be in a hurry.
Order only what’s on the menu if you try for something a bit different who knows what you will get.

Never have the ‘special’, it's probably left over from yesterday.
Whatever you order take it with everything on the menu and just leave what you don’t like. It’s easier.

If your order arrives quickly, there’s only you there and you are probably in the wrong place.
If your order arrives correctly it’s an accident.




For everyday breakfast and lunch try the News Café on Paradise Island run by our friend Mike, it's the best and won't cost a mortgage. When you get there ask Mike (Arsenal fan) about 'Blogs' (hates them) or Arsenal, he knows nothing about Blogs and less about football. You can’t miss him. He’ll be the one doing nothing but then again so are all the others. Well, he’s the only bloke, so that may make him easier to recognise. But the point of all this is to say stick to the menu.
You can get excellent english muffins or bagels for a snack, you can even get bagels with cream cheese because its on the menu but you try and get muffins and cream cheese. Won’t happen. Not on the menu you see.


So imagine the surprise last week we order our sandwiches, there are five of us and the place is quite full so we settle down to our wait, read the papers, but no, the order comes quickly and surprisingly it is correct, we pass our compliments to Mike who tells us ‘she’s new, not got the hang of it yet, it won’t last’. We all laugh, this is the Bahamas.



While we are out here Christine starts planning things for us to do together when we are back at home. Now I have been worried about being a ‘we’ for a while but more on that tomorrow.