One Road- Ariann Mieka

With a slogan of “We don’t pose we party”, its no surprise that everyone was talking about the crop over band Xhosa Barbados after their debut last year. Even though the band was new to the Crop Over scene, they showcased beautiful costumes and successfully created that sought after no hassle party vibe on the road. This year I was invited again to tag along on the two-day photo shoot of their new 2016 presentation   “From Royalty to Redemption” which pays tribute to Barbados’ 50th year of Independence. I was excited to discover more of the island’s beautiful scenery and also to see what costume designs they came up with this year. The beauty team working their magic! Makeup Artist: M Deane Beauty Hair: Atelier by Gigi The location of the shoot on day one was an estate on which the photographer had pre selected a few spots to showcase the costumes. I loved the fact that this location had many different scenes to utilize as backgrounds within a very short proximity ...

I felt like we drove around the entire island. I was tagging along on a photoshoot for Xhosa the new Crop Over band and as we moved from location to location, I could not help but be enthralled by the beautiful landscape that unfolded around me. In the past, I always thought of Barbados , as the flat island with the crystal clear blue water, but in recent visits my eyes have been opened to the differing landscapes that this small island possesses. Dramatic rocky cliffs that plunge into the sea below, rough tumultuous water on the wide beaches of the East coast and gently rising hills that showcase breathtaking views of the coast in the distance or take you on a bumpy yet peace inducing drive through the country. For this crop over, the new Bajan band premieres with six sections led by LehWeGoSleek , Esquire Entertainment  (‪#‎XhosaCares‬), Punchy Punch , Richard Rollocks, SCORCH Bim and Roasted Entertainment . They are shaking things up as two of the section leaders are base...

Verse and I set off early in the morning to go from Den Haag to Antwerp , Belgium for the day. He was going to practice with the Asham band for the first time and I was excited to hop across the border for a day of music and adventure. Many moons ago when I lived in London, I travelled to Belgium and stayed in Brussels for a bit but I had never been to Antwerp and was looking forward to seeing a new section of the country. Due to the short distance, I bent my rule of avoiding travel by bus and agreed to go on Eurolines . This rule was made over a decade ago during my first trip to Europe when bus was primarily my main mode of transport to different countries. Some of the distances were so long and the ride was sometimes complicated (and uncomfortable) that I vowed never to do that again. As we found the Eurolines bus stop memories flooded back. (There was that time a bus station we were supposed to go to to get a transfer bus decided to close early and we had to re route our journey...