Urgent! Help with deliveries – could you lend a hand?
We receive a delivery once a week for our grocery items. This is every Monday at approximately 4:30pm. We have a small team of volunteers who work in pairs to meet the delivery, add the items to the stock system and restock the shelves. It takes approximately an hour. We would really appreciate more volunteers to join the team and help spread the load. It’s not complex, just requires care and attention. Let us know if you’d like to help or would like more details. We are very short handed and in need of more people.
May
The draw for our Easter raffle took place on Good Friday, 4 April. First prize, a large hamper of Dorset produce, was won by Meriel from Tolpuddle. 2nd and 3rd prizes (small hampers) were won by Tony Johns and Gill Davies. The proceeds came to £130.33 which we have donated to Weldmar Hospicecare. Thank you to everyone for your support for this very good cause.
Two volunteers who manned the shop counter during the week have recently moved away and another one is likely to be leaving soon. So, if you might like to work in the shop one morning a week, or even every couple of weeks, please leave your name in the shop and someone will get back to you and arrange to have a chat about it. It’s a really good way to support the shop and to get to know your neighbours and all the news.
Strictly speaking, what follows is not Shop & PO news but we thought our customers would be interested in news from Ann-Marie who, until recently, worked the occasional shift behind the counter and also helped with the Sainsbury’s deliveries. She writes:
‘Greetings from The Cayman Islands!
First question I’m always asked is where are the Cayman Islands? Well they are a group of 3 Islands consisting of Grand Cayman which is the largest – size approx 76 square miles, capital is George Town. Then there is Cayman Brac – size approx 15 square miles and then Little Cayman at 10 square miles. They are located about 150 miles south of Cuba with Jamaica 180 miles to the Northwest.
Why are we here? My Grandad was born on Cayman Brac but moved to the UK during WW2. Last year I decided to apply for citizenship through descent and it was granted. In August 2025 I officially became a Caymanian Citizen. So Graham and I decided to take a year out of the NHS and try our hand at nursing in the Cayman Islands. Due to the delights of bureaucracy we are still waiting for start dates. Graham says the British invented bureaucracy; The Cayman Islands have perfected it!
The Cayman Islands are a British Overseas Territory so although they have their own government there is also a British Governor appointed by the UK government. The official language is English but the locals use the informal Caymanian Creole- nope, we haven’t learnt it yet! The Islands are very patriotic and every government building has both the Caymanian flag and the Union Jack flying. There is also a picture of King Charles III in all government buildings including the smallest Post Offices like Briantspuddle.
Island life is slow-paced and relaxed; no-one rushes, there is no tutting if you are in a queue, and politeness abounds. Caymanian life is like turning back the clock – how England used to be. Everyone is friendly and it would come across as rude if you did not greet someone and ask about their day – regardless that you have never met them before.
The Islands have strong Christian values and there are approximately 200 churches between the 3 Islands for a population of about 80,000! Due to the strong Christian values most shops shut on Sundays and around Easter Ash Wednesday & Good Friday. Meaning Sundays are generally when you see families out at the Beach as it’s generally their one day off. We are living in a place called “Hell” which is part of West Bay, approximately a 10 minute walk to the beach which locally is West Bay Beach but the start of the famous 7 Mile Beach.
So what are we doing with our time?
As we are not far from Central America we took a trip to Panama City which was amazing although the taxi ride from the airport was a bit of a white knuckle ride! We primarily went to see the famous Panama Canal and were lucky enough to coincide with a boat trip on the canal and through the first section of locks. In the Canal parallel to us was a cruise ship and seeing this hulk of a ship in the canal passage and being guided through was a work of art. We also took a trip to the Gambola Rainforest where we were luckily enough to see Sloths but wouldn’t have noticed if the guide had not pointed them out. We also see various species of monkeys, fruit bats, iguanas and a Yellow Headed Caracara.
Back on Grand Cayman we have become members of the Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Gardens (QEIIBG), The Cayman Turtle Centre and volunteer at the Cayman Humane Society. The QEIIBG, apart from being widely known for its acres of botanical gardens, is also a conservation centre for the breeding programme of the endangered Blue Iguana
In 2012 the Blue Iguana was down listed from Critically Endangered to Endangered and this is due to the breeding programme at the QEIIBG, where over 1000 Blue Iguanas have now been released back into the wild or protected areas. We have been lucky enough to see them in the wild several times; once when I was laying on the beach a beautiful blue male came strutting along at a very chilled pace. Yesterday we saw one basking on the rocks by the sea.
Sea Turtles are a local delicacy and often served in the local restaurants; at one point they were being hunted to extinction. The Cayman Turtle Centre now has a breeding programme in place to release a large number of turtles back to the wild. To try and decrease wild hunting they specifically also farm turtles for their meat which they sell to local residents.
So this is Island life for us currently until reality sets in and we have to work.’
Hopefully we will bring you more news from Ann-Marie in later articles.
We would welcome some more volunteers
We always need more help and an increasing amount of work is falling to just a few of us and this is not sustainable in the long run. Tasks such as organising the shop rota, collecting stock, keeping a check on prices in the shop and even writing this monthly article need not be done by a member of the committee and it would be a great help if some of these discrete tasks were taken on by someone else. Please consider whether you could spare an hour or two a week to help keep the shop ticking over.
Join the committee
If you might be interested in being co-opted onto the committee or would just like to know more we’d love to hear from you. See the Village Shop Committee page for further information.
It is your Post Office and Shop. Please support it, either as a customer or as a volunteer. Preferably both!
Opening Hours
Shop: 9.00am – 12 noon Monday to Saturday and 10am – 12 noon on Sunday.
PO: 9.00am – 12 noon Monday – Friday.
If you would like more information about about how you can help keep the shop ticking over, please get in touch. You can telephone the shop on 01929 472000, e-mail briantspuddle.shop@gmail.com or pop in and see us. The Shop is a vibrant and valued village resource, not only for buying your essential supplies but as a meeting point to have a chat. You never know when you might need it!