Posted by Kimberly King-Burns on October 26, 1999 at 21:45:59:
All of the local homes, businesses and expat houses are coming along nicely. No local homes appear to be without building supplies right now, and a lot of the winter resident homes are undergoing renovation. A few of us had cocktails at Jef Fox's place and his new-and-improved view [read: 200 sand bags are holding up the side of the house until sand reinforcements can be brought in] of the ocean is completely unbelievable.
One of Rose's final gifts to the island was the transformation of the former divers' apartment/frat house at Run Joe's complex into the new veterinarian clinic for the island. Huge fire sale at VDC was quite sad, with Bob and Kenneth Stewart and Rose and Jerry Albury getting rid of everything that they could, including the dive boat. No work being done on Valentine's whatsoever. It's amazing to everyone that the Reach and the offices and the bathrooms were able to fit in such a small space, now that we can get a look at the actual foundation. Lot of work being done up at Harbour Island Marina, and that place will be in shape over the next few weeks. Busy at Coral Sands, too … and they open on the 30th. Fast Ferry/Bo Hengy built a new beach house beside Coral Sands, with bathrooms and showers and lockers for visiting day trippers. We had lunch at Pink Sands, which looks terrific. Didn't go into Romora, but could see that the docks were blown away from our vantage points at both Harbour Island Marina and the turtle dock at the end of Dunmore Street. The houses in the Narrows fared quite well, even those close to the beach. I'll have beach, harbour and island pictures up as soon as I can get them developed and scanned in.
Tip Top's open, Hilltop has the best produce on the island, Summer's is going gangbusters, Pigly Wigly features the best coconut trifle next to Miz Sybil's, Arthur's Bakery is fine and the Pizza and Pushups place has been partially replaced by Charlie's new Town Center Bar, aka Island Cafe. He and Brennie are getting married soon, and they both look great. Everyone's still in shock over losing Paddy Lewis, which subject was the frequent topic of conversation wherever we went.
I really liked the Bo Hengy ferry, which I took to and from Nassau since I had to take a few meetings with clients as I came through. Very well-built, great 2-hour ride, lots of locals using it ... and yes, they spent $10K renovating those stinky bathrooms on the government dock, as well as building a lowkey wooden building with bathrooms and showers on the beachside right next to Coral Sands. $90/roundtrip at this point, although I've suggested frequent traveller packages for folks on the island who have been really using it to coordinate their rebuilding efforts.
Christmas shopping update:
[Hey, Kristi asked!] Actually, just about any island maps from Rene's or great stuff [frames, knacks, music] are available at Dilly Dally - the cool new place being run by Mr. Sidney's niece just beside Tip Top -- or various prints from Harvey Roberts' new gallery just catty corner from Bonefish Joe's and across the street from Miz Jacqueline's Straw Market. Miss Mae's wasn't open. Pink Sands was open for guests. There's a new gallery beside Miss Merle's Monty's Hardware taking off, too, owned by Charles Carey. Androsia's open, the fuel tanks are clear, the shops are doing business and everyone's quite busy. Jill Ironside's running Briland Browser as Funny Pyne takes some time off. I love Queen Conch, which is a cool stand in front of Pineapple Tavern that serves up excellent scored conch and conch salad while you wait. LaVaughn Percentie runs the place, right next door to Wade Higgs' fried chicken takeaway [yes, competing with wife Joy's chicken shack closer to the Fig Tree!]. Harvey's new place is just down the street, catty corner from Bonefish Joe's and across the street from Miss Jacqueline's straw market. When he's not serving as local island administrator overseeing the reconstruction of the island post-Floyd, he actually gets a chance to paint.
That's it for the King Briland update..
See yinna soon --
Kimberly