British Prime Minister Tony Blair sipping his Banks beer while chatting with an unidentified woman over lunch at the home of Carl and Betty Rayside last Sunday. (Picture courtesy Daily Mail.)

LAST TIME, he held a ukulele and strummed Bajan folk songs to applause from his family and friends.

Now one year later, it was a bottle of beer that Tony Blair was holding on his visit to the same wealthy acquaintance at the same house in Barbados.

The Blairs were again lunch guests of Barbadians Betty Rayside and her husband Carl.

The tables were set up beneath an awning on the island's craggy eastern shore, a short walk from their modest beach house.

Blair drank bottles of Banks – called the "Beer of Barbados", a strong pilsner lager brewed locally from British and Australian malted barley.

Wearing a pink polo shirt, the Prime Minister hung his folded sunglasses from the V-neck as he chatted to other guests of the Raysides. He grinned, talked and drank, and posed for a group picture.

Betty manages JCB tycoon Sir Anthony Bamford's £5 million holiday home in Barbados, which the Blairs have also been visiting.

They use his mansion, Heron Bay House, as a glorified beach hut.

Carl Rayside is the retired owner of an egg distribution firm.

It was his cousin, renowned local calypso artist Emile Straker, who last year accompanied Blair on the ukulele.

The duo sang folk songs as Cherie clapped and took photos of them together. Blair was believed to have taken the ukulele on holiday with him.

But this year, there was no sign of a ukulele or any other instrument on Sunday as the Blairs spent about three hours at the lunch with the Raysides, having earlier attended morning mass.

Calls to the Raysides' home [Tuesday] were answered by a woman who said: "Mrs Rayside would not want to comment on the lunch."

The day before the lunch, Blair had been spotted stripped to the waist as he made the most of the sunshine.

The Blairs are in the third week of their summer holiday on Barbados.

They are staying at Sir Cliff Richard's £3 million villa, which has a private swimming pool and tennis court.

Adapted from yesterday's Daily Mail in London.