Breakfast in Barbados

Woke this morning to find Roman Abramovich’s yacht outside our cabin window.
We had arrived in Barbados.

It had its own helipad, something `I missed at first, not being acquainted with the life of the uber-rich, until someone pointed it out to me.


After two weeks cruising in the Caribbean I have got accustomed to breakfasting on deck every morning in guaranteed sunshine, and that is what I am going to miss most when we return to-day to snowy Scotland.

Heaven knows what awaits us on our return to storm battled UK.

Looking around the deck at my fellow passengers all neatly spruced up and well tanned I thought that overall things have improved for us. Forty years ago none of us would ever have contemplated a cruise, that was something for the wealthy. Today cruising has come within the range of people modest means.


Against this though is the growing economic evidence that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

The Russian owner of Chelsea football club, Roman Abramovich, is the 50th richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $14.6 billion dollars. Putin wants him back in Russia to ask him a few questions. Not surprisingly Abramovich is reluctant to renew his acquaintance with this former friend and mentor.