NICOLA: So we’ve been back in the Caribbean for about 6 weeks now and it’s like greeting an old friend. Sure a few things have changed since I was last here about 18 months ago but it’s mostly just the same. The taxi driver who picked us up from the airport remembered us, as did various yachtie acquaintances who welcomed us back at the regular Hog Island Sunday Beach BBQ. The roads are still full of potholes, the music is always played loud, local guys walking around with huge machetes is no cause for concern and the locally made hot sauce is way hotter than any dodgy vindaloo you might have chanced at your favourite curry house

NICOLA: Hang on New Yorkers, before you start giving me a hard time about the title of this blog let me start this off by saying unequivocally - we love New York. Really love it. Yes, it’s probably the best city in the world. The music, the art, the culture, the food is outstanding. Everytime we come here we feel inspired by the incredible energy of the city and the range of diverse talent that inhabits the place squeezed together cheek by jowl in vertical villages. And it truly is the city that never sleeps, whatever you want anytime night or day you can get it. 

NICOLA: Since we went on a road trip around America in a van called Vera for the last two years we get asked this question a lot: "So what do you really think of America and Americans?" It's a tricky one to answer. Not unlike that awkward poser, "Does my bum look big in this?" You have to wonder is a truthful answer really required? Do those asking it really want to know, or are they just desiring confirmation of what they think you should think.