Doors to nowhere
Pedestrians have probably noticed an interesting characteristic featured in many of the multi-storey buildings in Road Town: doors on the sides of buildings, one for each floor. The weird part? The doors lead to nothing. Zero. Thin air. If someone were hapless enough to tear off the piece of plywood often (but not always) blocking the inside part of the door, they would step out of the building and into their coffin. On a high floor of U.P.’s Cineplex, for instance, is a door leading to what might once have been a balcony but that now no longer exists. In a lot of ways, these useless doors create a dystopian feel: as if the fire escapes were torn away in storms from long ago. Even worse than that hypothetical reality, many of the buildings with sky-high doors never had fire escapes or exits in the first place, a Beaconite has been told by a fire official. The Beaconite hopes that building occupants will avoid exiting through a door to nowhere — even during an emergency. And he hopes that building proprietors will install fire escapes and other needed facilities. If they don’t, government officials should crack down.
Three Amigos
So the opposition has formed its own opposition to the opposition — sort of. After months of trying and failing to topple Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley, opposition members Myron Walwyn of the National Democratic Party and Mitch Turnbull and Stacy Mather of the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement announced a new “alliance” at a hastily arranged press conference last week. Conspicuously absent from the event was the official leader of the opposition, Ronnie Skelton, and the other two non-government House of Assembly members. The three amigos — sorry, the three alliance members — insisted everything is lovely in Oppositionland and said their colleagues would approve of their actions. But as those colleagues did not spare the time to come around to the press conference, that might be a hopeful case of wishful magical realism on the alliance’s part. Now, not toppling Mr. Wheatley is not really the opposition’s fault: Every time they have tried to press a no-confidence vote, the premier has suddenly discovered a whole host of “urgent” legislation to stack — sorry, to fill — the parliamentary schedule, thus talking the toppling motion out of time. Pure coincidence, according to Mr. Wheatley. The alliance members say they want to unite the opposition ahead of elections expected in 2027, but the no-show of the other three left a Beaconite wondering if unity is illusory.
Hiking
A Beaconite has been enjoying going on hikes across the territory. Most recently, she walked the short trail to the Bat Cave between Brewers Bay and Shark Bay. Afterward, she decided to walk the much longer Anderson Point trail located in the same area. The end of the up-and-back trail, she noticed, felt much more like a scramble over rocks and through partially overgrown bush. But nevertheless, a trail had still been at least partially maintained. This was not the first time the reporter has explored these two trails. But despite that, she still nearly missed the slightly hidden entrance. With so many beautiful beaches in the territory, it can be easy to forget about the various hiking options around the islands. But since the weather has been nice and cool, the reporter has been encouraged to take a hike on the weekends no matter the time (aside from night-time, obviously). The previous weekend, she ventured to Sage Mountain to follow some of the trails there. She is looking forward to returning to explore further. She likes how many of these trails intersect with one another on a loop system.