Tea with Tracey

When we were in Bermuda on holiday a couple years ago, Tracey Caswell's book, Tea with Tracey seemed to be in every shop we popped into. I was working my way through a massive, but satisfying book on Winston Churchill at the time, so I never got around to picking it up. I finally ordered it a couple weeks ago when we started talking about going to Bermuda for another visit.

Tracey, an ex-pat Canadian, relocated to Bermuda with her Bermudian husband, Paul and her two children. Her book chronicles the challenges she faced after moving to the islands and how she adjusted to island living. Tracey recounts her battles with mold, cockroaches, humidity, and chickens in a down to earth and entertaining style. The book is filled with practical advice and pearls of wisdom that she picked up over the years. It's a great book to read if you're planning a visit to Bermuda. I wish I had picked it up while we were there. It would've provided answers to many of the questions we had. For instance, I was fascinated by the politeness of everyone. Who says 'thank you' to the bus driver? Why are there chickens everywhere? Why isn't anybody in the ocean besides us and that Canadian couple? Why is everything in pastel? Why do the schoolkids look so neat and tidy? If I'd read Tracey's book some of these little mysteries might've made more anthropoligical sense to me. I'm sure Winston Churchill wouldn't have minded if we'd picked up where we left off on the flight back home.