A move to the Caribbean’s most luxurious island has opened up a whole new life to Pippa Ona Williamson, manager of its exclusive hotel, and her son, five-year-old Louis-Miguel.
Pippa Ona Williamson caught the travel bug when she was a student, and it has never really left her. "I've always liked the idea of travelling and exploring far away exotic places. Places that are very different to my home town of Glasgow, which can be a bit grey," she explains. Pippa decided that a career in the hotel industry would be the ideal way to see the world and she initially set off for France to learn the language. She explains, "The plan was for me to live in Paris for a year so that I could become fluent in French. But I fell in love with Paris and the French way of life and I ended up staying a lot longer."
Pippa worked in Paris for ten years for the luxury hotel management company GLA Hotels, then took a job with the same company in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat where she stayed for a couple of years, before GLA offered her the job in one of their Caribbean properties.
"About a year and a half ago I was offered the position of general manager of the Cotton House, the only full service five star hotel on the exclusive island of Mustique. I thought about it for a few days, because it was a big move and it wasn't something I'd planned on doing, but life is full of opportunities and this was one I didn't want to miss - it didn't take me long to say yes," chuckles Pippa.
Mustique, a private island in the West Indies, just three miles long and half a mile wide and is owned and operated by the Mustique Company. It is surrounded by azure waters and ringed by beautiful beaches. It gained a reputation as the Caribbean’s most exclusive island because royal jetsetter Princess Margare, rock star Mick Jagger and designer Tommy Hilfiger all owned or still own homes here.
At the end of May 2006, Pippa arrived on this island paradise with her little boy Louis-Miguel, who is now five and a half. She says: "We didn't bring any furniture or winter clothes, which is all back in storage in Paris, we came here with just a few suitcases full of summer clothes, some personal belongings and our sun cream.
"It was quite an adventure. I'd never been to the Caribbean before and all I knew about the island was what I'd seen on the hotel website. It is hugely different to bustling Paris and the South of France, but we were welcomed with open arms and smiling faces, both professionally and by the community."
The company helped them with the relocation and provided them with a place to live. "We live on the hotel property in absolutely stunning gardens overlooking the sea," says Pippa. "I settled in very quickly and my son was at home here and running about barefoot within about three hours. It's paradise for children here, because they live outside most of the time. It's a safe, healthy, beautiful environment and they are free to explore and enjoy the nature.
"Louis-Miguel goes to the local primary school in the mornings, where there are just twenty kids and he is looked after by a nanny in the afternoons or his grandmother, who has followed us here in her retirement.
"He spends his afternoons out hunting for wild tortoises and chasing lizards - there is no dangerous wildlife here - on the beach, swimming or playing tennis, he sometimes has a busier agenda than me!"
Pippa spends her time running all the day-to-day operations of the Cotton House and overseeing its 82 staff. "My job is generally to ensure that the 17 private suites and individual rooms, the gardens, spa and restaurants, which also cater to the rest of the island, are well maintained and that our guests are happy and well looked after," she says.
"What is great about being here is that you can really concentrate 100% on your job and 100% on your family. As the island is so small you don't have any of the ‘time consuming inconveniences’ that you have elsewhere.
"It takes me thirty seconds to walk from our house to the office and about two minutes to drive my son to school, so there is no commute. And I don't need to worry about getting the MOT done on my car as most of us drive around in little golf carts and there are very few cars here. You don't even really have to go shopping.
"There is a little local shop where you can get basics such as milk and sugar, but when you are doing your main shop you send faxes over to St Vincent in the morning and your order arrives in the afternoon by boat.
You don't work any less here, that's a myth, we all probably work more in as far as hours go, but your time off is completely free time. You don't get that luxury in Europe."
There are, however, things that Pippa misses from back home. "My friends are what I miss most, but I've had lots of visitors," she says "and I am always in touch via email and Skype - a wonderful invention for people who live in far away places.
"When you live here you don't dream about holidaying on white sandy beaches, you dream about shopping and the theatre and being able to go to any restaurant of your choice, sushi, Indian, Chinese..."
There is no open invitation to go and live on Mustique, you have to have a residency and work permit to set up home there and a full-time job or you can be one of the lucky few who own a luxury villa there.
To enjoy life in Mustique you have to be adaptable, says Pippa. "You need to accept and embrace the way of life and the slower pace. You can t try and revolutionise everything but you need to be persistent.
"At the beginning you will find some things frustrating as the whole logistics of working in a place like this are different. It does take longer to get some things done and you have to be very organized and think ahead. You can't decide to make an authentic tikka masala and invite your friends around for dinner last minute, because you can't always get the ingredients just like that.
"It is a wonderful island though and a fabulous adventure and we're incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity."
Pippa isn't sure how long she will stay on the island, but she doesn't think it will be forever. If she did decide to stay here permenantly, she’d have to send Louis-Miguel away to secondary school, "although that’s a long way off. Its an experience you have to make the most of while you're here - appreciate and enjoy for what it is," she concludes.
