The Lime - or Liming

Or perhaps I should say Limin' (with an island accent!) is a true Trini past time and a large part of who they are. It seems to be a very versatile word as it can be used a noun - Are you going to the Lime tonight? - or as a verb - Who were you liming with last night?


Essentially liming is hanging out with your friends, having some drinks, sharing some laughs and generally having a good time. A Lime is not a party, though - there needs to be an element of spontaneity and lack of organization. If you have invited a bunch of friends to your house in advance, that's a party - if a bunch of people just meet up on the street and have some beers around someone's car, that's a Lime.


Our guidebook notes that Liming is "T&T's favourite pastime" and a paper I found on the net says that liming is a social institution and a cultural state of mind. Although nowhere can I find out where the word came from, or why it's called Liming. I guess it's just always been a part of life here in T&T!

One of the regular Limes (I know I said it had to be random and unplanned - the definition is illusive...) occurs at the office every Friday afternoon! Yup, around 4:00pm, people stop work, some rum, coke, ice, snacks and beers appear out from the corner and we have a Lime. Now not every Friday does the entire office partake, but it seems that almost everyone comes out to the last Lime of the month. This is when there is plenty of food, lots of drinks and birthday cake - it's when they celebrate the people's birthday's that were in that month as well as any other significant events (births, people leaving, etc.).

Sorry there's not any exciting pictures today, but in addition to sharing our photos and adventures, we want to try and share what we're learning about Trinidad and Tobago and it's people (Trinbagonians is the politically correct way to describe the people from the entire country). Trini is really what people use.

Hope you all had a Lime or two over the long weekend.

Stu and Kate