The bad side of St Maarten

I had an unfortunate incident today, the first really bad side of Caribbean I've seen since coming here. I was coming back down from the horses and I heard an awful screaming from a dog, yelping and obviously in a lot of pain. I looked down to the beach and saw its owner (I assume) pulling at its leg, almost breaking it. I have no idea why the dog would have deserved that, but in my opinion there's nothing he could have done to warrant it for so long.

Given there were a lot of tourists around gasping at the scene, and the fact I'm an animal lover, I shouted at him would he mind not killing his dog on our beach. I was so angry I was physically shaking and stormed over past the bar, yelling out, "What the hell do you think you're doing??!!" only to get the bar lady telling me to be quiet, it was his dog, he could do what he wanted, it wasn't our place to yell and get angry. What, so I have to stand there while the guy practically breaks the dog's leg?? Don't think so.

So, so angry I was. Then the bar lady tells J and he starts having a go at me, telling me I'm not in Australia anymore and these kind of guys would likely come and punch me to the ground for my trouble. Awesome. Now I've got a black dot next to my name and have to be EXTRA careful on the streets. But seriously, if that's the way people in the Caribbean act with shit like this, what a fucked place to live.

Later on I told A, the boss' wife, and she being a strong-willed woman too agreed with my sentiments. Good! At least I had her on my side! I thought I was going crazy there for a second, getting vex over something like this. Brrrrr... shake it off!!

In my fury, I texted my boy to come online as I had a 2-hour lunch break and didn't mind having an ear to vent to. I did mention, in the somewhat badly worded text, that "something bad happened" so of course that got his drunk head in a tizz n he was messaging and messaging to no reply. This was because my phone has been in and out of reception recently at work so nothing came through.

Halfway through the lesson I was pulled in last minute to do with the camp kids (that was fun...), he calls me all worried and pissed off he didn't get any replies. I tried to calm him quickly as it was bad timing and he ended up just hanging up quite abruptly. Never got to text him back when I was free later, either, cos my phone wasn't working still.

So this, on top of my already annoyed mood (getting pulled off trails to cover kids riding lessons didn't do much for my tip jar), was not really something I needed. I know he was just concerned, and I'm very touched by that, considering it was pretty much my fault I got him in a tizz, but to get all angry... I'M the one who was meant to be angry in the first place! This just throws it all out of whack!

My day started out OK. Had a family of Aussies on my first ride, funnily enuf they were the least polite when it came to the end. No tip - though that was expected - but not even a thank you, they just walked off halfway through one of my sentences explaining where the bathrooms were. Geez, I hope they don't act like that everywhere! Give Aussies a bad name.

Had another ride, cruise ship as well, with a birthday boy turning 10 who was super impressed with everything on the ride. The whole time I could hear him going on about how this was the best birthday present ever, how amazing riding on his own was, how he couldn't wait for the water... Nice to hear, and surely a great memory for him and his family.

Didn't hear anything back from my travel agent, which is unusual since he is usually on the ball with these things, so no movement on booking my flight home. Days like today kinda make me wanna push it forward, but to be honest the dates I'm thinking of are not THAT far away anyway. I want to make the most of the island while I'm here. There's still that 'To Do' list to get through, after all...

The days are certainly getting colder - I sat in my wet boardshorts on lunch as I often do except today they were almost freezing on my skin. Later in the evening I put on my around-the-house summer dress and went to the megastore cash n carry place with A, freezing inside the air con place and outside with the rain and wind whipping up. She took an age to come out and when she did, the trolley was overflowing... "just need to get some dog food" I remember her saying as we walked from the car.

My boy called me while I was waiting, killed some time at least. He'd just woken up in a friend's hotel room after I night on it, had some stories to tell he couldn't tell me then, and we talked through what happened today. I am blessed to have him so concerned and I do feel bad for making him so worried. I need to sort my words out - and I'm meant to be the writer of the two of us! Next he'll be overboiling the eggs and burning the bacon!