“You were on my wish list and part of my vision, from day one.” Tish, Creative Mastermind, Somerley Fields
Tish and I first met in Costa Rica when I was backpacking through Central and South America in 2015.
Fast forward ten years, to 2025, we met for the second time in a supermarket cafe in Chichester.
Tish told me about Somerley Fields – a new, countryside events destination on the south coast of England that she’s working with – and said “you were on my wish list and part of my vision, from day one.”
Tish is one of the silhouettes in the photo below, looking out at another incredible sunset on the beach in Costa Rica.
Tish also told me she’d been following the bananas adventure since day one – specifically, my chapter delivering for Amazon to ‘make the dream work’. I had no idea.
Tish, whilst you’ve never experienced POWER, to know you ‘get it’ from simply watching it all unfold through a screen, and you’re cheering us, on means a bunch.
We simply cannot wait for POWER in the Sunflowers, in August.
I’m excited for bikes because that’s me (and where POWER began) and I’m really excited to see a bunch of 25 experiencing POWER Yin together, amidst my favourite summer blooms, at sunset.
POWER Yin is the – even more inclusive, even more accessible – bananas evolution I dreamt of when Tish and I met in Costa Rica.
A decade later here we are, reunited, and via the power of collaboration we’re making a uniquely bananas all-new Summer of POWER Pop Up happen: POWER in the Sunflowers.
When we met to ‘plant the seed’ for POWER in the Sunflowers, Tish recalled the story of when I was delivering Amazon for a few months in 2019, whilst I built POWER. For me, it was one way to make the bananas dream work.
Most of us will open, or will have opened, the door to an Amazon delivery driver. It could be their dream job, or (like me) it could be one way to make the dream work.
Everyone of us at the depot had our story, and everyone of us appreciated the people who showed us humanity and kindness.
As with everything in life, I gave it my all. I’d regularly get a double high five from the depot guys for winning the everyday Tetris challenge – roof up, roof down, roof up – wedging all 48 parcels into my Mini. I quickly found that wedging parcels around my gear stick posed an extra challenge for the inevitable three point turn, when the Amazon GPS failed me.
Whether torrential rain and soggy cardboard, or roof down in the sunshine proudly delivering a double mattress, I made it count.
Delivering to the highest flats, in the highest blocks, when the lift was out of action, and the furthest farms, at the bottom of the seemingly endless muddiest tracks, I nailed every one of my 4 hour shifts in less than 2 hours. 1hr 6mins was my personal best.
Every delivery was an athletic pursuit, naturally, and I was gunning for Amazon delivery driver of the year. The reality was that I was unceremoniously sacked, by text message. The reason? Too speedy? Too, thinking of ‘outside of the box’? I shall never know.
Amazon and beyond, I’m grateful for (and proud of) every chapter of the bananas adventure so far, and the bunch who have crossed my path to make it the ‘blooming’ great and soul-full story it is.
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