Christmas glue

Sometimes, epiphanies come in pairs. A few months ago, for example, after a lovely evening with visiting poet John Agard and his wife Grace Nichols (plus a few local pals) I had this epiphany where I realized how lucky I am in the number of enchanting friends I have living abroad (Henry Muttoo, Vic Fernandes, Vibert Cambridge, Clive Rosteing, Terry Ferreira) plus, and almost simultaneously, I had the second epiphany – that I owe the friendship of those people to the music I’ve created over the years. Of course I have a few here, as well, whom I see far more frequently than the ones away, but the key, in both cases, is that we keep in touch.

Vic Fernandes is a Barbadian stalwart in broadcasting, and that’s how our friendship was formed – first as someone interviewing Tradewinds on radio and then, for many years, as Tradewinds man in Barbados. Vic is close to the brother I never had. We disagree about some things, thank God, but generally we look at the world the same way;