The next decade....what's in store?
Musings of a yamfooted traveller still trying to shake off those last 20 pounds as she treks across the Caribbean
Our family has been plunged into mourning, after the death of my paternal grandmother last Sunday morning in the Lucea hospital. She lived a long life, to her mid 80's, and having lost her husband some years ago, they can now be together.
Sorry you didn't get to taste any wedding cake from me before you closed your eyes for the final time. (She was always ribbing me about not being married).
Rest in peace, Grandma.
So guess what? I haven't been bored these past 10 or so days here in the South of the island. And so guess what happen?
Tonight, I put on a pair of Levi jeans which I bought at Christmas. When I bought them, they were close...very close. Carried them to Orlando and couldn't wear them because the waist felt like it was cutting me in half horizontally.
Tonight....Tonight (a la West Side story)
The jeans nuh fit alright!
And the waist
Doesn't cut
Anymore
Tonight
So I've got to work on occupying my mind with other things apart from food, so I can go down to the next size jeans, which I've already bought. In fact, I bought the lower size from Christmas 2001! It's called shopping for the future. Supposed to act as motivation. Hasn't quite worked out that way....until now.
La la la la lah.
Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet.
How can you not like this game?
Today was the start of Leewards vs Jamaica at Alpart. Jamaica chose to bat after winning the toss, and made a paltry 200 runs. For some strange reason, everybody on the team seemed quite cool and calm. That's cause they probably knew what was going to happen when it was their turn to bowl at the Leewards.
In comes Daren Powell, playing in his first game for Jamaica since coming back from South Africa where he played in a club. Now ironically, just as he was about to go on the field to start the innings, I said to him "we need a 5 wicket haul from you today". Maaaaaaaaan, the man obliged.....nearly.
First over, 2 wickets. Then he followed those up with 2 more, to have the Leewards reeling at 39/5 when play ended. So I reminded him what I said to him, at the end of the game, and told him he nearly did it. Bus' big smile.
Anyway, here are some pictures from today, taken with mine, oh sorry, Pops' 2.1 mega pixels camera.
Variety is the spice of life so you got to try and have as many experiences as possible. Nuh true?
That has been my philosophy for a while now. I always thought to myself that this world has over 100 countries, so why should I spend all my life in one? Hence the move to Grenada, something which so many people told me I was very brave as a single woman to do. That's not brave....that's just living out the "variety is the spice of life" philosophy.
Then too, me grabbing the opportunity to do the writing that I do for Caribbean Cricket was also a part of that. (Go to the site now....I have two articles up right now. One interview was with Andrew Richardson and the other with Trinidadian Dwayne Bravo)
Also deferring university enrollment last August to go work for the 'Aliens Hotels & Resorts' fit in with my motto.
You should try it sometime. As one of the sayings at the bottom of my emails goes ....
"We give away the treasures of life and the potential for finding true happiness, for the sake of staying in our comfort zone".
I've moved out of my comfort zone, and I've found many many treasures in life and am truly happy (would be only happier if I could lose some more pounds).
So for 2004, your resolution, or one of them, could be that you are going to stop maintaining the status quo, rather, challenge it, move out of your comfort zone and the sameness that one's life tends to take on after a while, and bingo....happiness will be yours.
Be quided by this..
To those of you who have plans for the evening, do enjoy. I don't know what a date on Valentine's Day feels like. Is it all that it's cracked up to be??????
Departing Kingston for the South Coast this morning early o'clock.
The purpose? Cricket, of course.
Looking forward to the peace and tranquility of rural Jamaica. More anon......
...pounds that is.
But then again it could be more.
I have to go back to Orlando to weigh on that scale, then I'll know definitively how much weight I have lost.
The eating is what is making the difference, so I will carry on. Hopefully can lose another 5 pounds in the next month. I'm working on it!
Now for those who think 4 pounds is insignificant, this loss meant that I ate 4 x 3,500 calories less than what my body required to function, or that in combination with exercising more. No mean feat for this yamfoot.
When do you blog? What do you blog about? Why do you blog?
My story is that when I was studying in England, I wrote back after I had just arrived to let everybody know that I had got in ok, and the funny things that happened to me along the way (I left my radio in the luggage hall at Heathrow and didn't discover this until I arrived in Guildford, Surrey - for one). A couple days later I followed it up with some other episode of the life that I was now living. Pops e-mailed back to say he hoped I was saving these. I wasn't and wasn't planning to either.
But it gave me an idea that perhaps people might like to know how I was getting on. And so "Guildford Chronicles" was born. No, you won't find it on the internet as they were typed and e-mailed to everybody. Then when I moved up to Nottingham, the writing continued with the "Nottingham Niblets" series.
Then I got into writing for CaribbeanCricket and the editor Ryan suggested that I set up a blog. Before "meeting" him, I didn't know that people did this.
So here I am blogging. Of course, given what I'm doing at a particular time, the blogs are frequent or they come in trickles. I have a lot of time on my hands, so hence many blogs during the last 3 months or so.
But then, somebody said to me the other day that he finds a certain sameness about the blog, so he doesn't visit often anymore.
The question is, do I blog about my life? Do I blog about issues that are topical? Do I blog about the world that we live in?
I've chosen to blog about my experiences, to kind of replace the stories I used to send from England. But those readers tell me they don't seem to come here everyday. Mi spoil dem by emailing stories to them.
So the readership has probably changed, and there are the old faithfuls who come and visit daily, or every few days and there are those who have to be reminded when I send out a link to an entry that I want them to read.
So far, this blog thing is great (thanks Ryan), and I'll continue blogging as long as I have a computer and an internet connection.
Ok, I'm not going to do like Dr D and delete what I've just written! But I am going to bed.
You've got to see this movie if you want a good laugh. Just back from the "cinemawr" (British pronunciation). The whole audience was cracking up.
Some of course were salivating over Mr Matrix himself....Keanu Reeves. OOooooooh child, hot, hot, hot. I'm putting my application in for a bloke like him. Oooooooh child. Hmmmmm. Slurp. OOoooooh child. Gulp.
To sleep, to sleep, per chance to 're(e)ve(s)'.
(y'all gotta understand French to be able to get that one
You will recall my earlier post some days ago about the whole heap a dead fish in the Mona Reservoir. Well there is this news article in the Gleaner today refuting the "lack of oxygen" story that one of the men picking out the dead fish had told me.
In a nutmegshell, the dead fish was likely (that means dem nuh sure) to be from Algal Bloom and Vernal Overturn.
For definitions, since I know you don't know, continue reading....
ALGAL BLOOM
Rapid growth of algae competing with the fish for dissolved oxygen or blocking the fish gills.
ooooooon, so the "lack of oxygen" could really be the cause then, hmmmm
VERNAL OVERTURN
As a result of temperature changes, convection currents re-circulate within the body of water - the water at different levels of the reservoir 'turn over'.
Cyan't seh mi neva teach yuh some sigh-ance pon mi blog
Earlier I mentioned the Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea and wished that I never get sick in Lucea. I was just thinking last night that generally, my health has been good over my 30-odd years. Nothing too drastic, except....
When I was about 6 years old, and a student of St George's Girls School on Duke Street near Parliament, I complained of a tummy ache which had apparently lasted for a day or two. On this particular day, my Sis took me over to Mother's office which was luckily across the road. I remember this as clear as day.
Mummy put me to lie on one of them wrought iron lounge chairs in the office bathroom (Ministry of Home Affairs as it was called then), and successive people kept coming in and asking how I was.
How I was was in excruciating pain, especially when anyone's hand went near my lower right abdomen. Off to Dr Bell it was, because by now, Mummy was convinced it was serious. You know why? I hadn't eaten in a couple days! Very unusualy for this here little girl.
It was serious.
Dr Bell said "don't even take her home, carry her straight to Children's Hospital". I think that was the name in those days. The diagnosis? Appendicitis. Advanced stages. Dr Bell told Mummy that if I wasn't out of the operating table by X time, it would have meant that things had not gone well.
I remember the nurses when they were undressing me. She was taking off my underwear and commented "Wait, den a two panty she wear?". I was too drugged to respond "one is a bloomers silly".
I remember waking up just outside the operating theatre and asking to urinate.
I then woke up, after the operation, in the ward and declared "I'm hungry".
That's when they knew I was back to my normal self! And I ate off one of the other patient's food. Her name was 'Pencil'. I believe that was a nickname. Generally the stay was pleasant and the food was good. I remember Mince and Carrots, Sardine and Jello.
That's the only major operation I've had, and thankfully, the only hospital STAY I've had. Oh, for sure, I've visited the hospital many times apart from that.....
1. To get a dog bite dressed and get a tetanus shot
2. To take out a lump
3. To cut out a wood splinter out of my finger nail (that hurt so bad)
4. To check that I was not dying from a tumour or stroke!
5. To get many X-rays
So if you're in the market for a fairly healthy girl with good vitals, I'm it :
So it was in the evening when I did those 3 laps a couple days ago. The men who were taking out the dead fish were just about finishing up and were by the aqueduct by the Mona Road Side.
This is Jamaica, so naturally, they see a lady in cycle shorts, they have to comment...
Lap 1: "Strong woman"
Me: "I'm trying to get strong"
Lap 2: "You coulda run the 100m dash. Come nuh?"
Me: chuckle
Lap 3: "Ooman, you fit bwoy"
Me: smile
Nothing like motivation to get you around 3 times.
3 laps x 1.7 miles = ?
5.1 miles. Give me a clap!
Went to the Dam today. For all those of you who don't know, the Dam is the Mona Reservoir which serves many places in Kingston and St Andrew. Or maybe just St Andrew.
Anyway, when I started to walk, there was a foul odour pervading the air. I sniffed and determined that it was not me since I had bathed today!
When I got to the other side, I saw men in the water in the Dam, fishing out things. Before that, there were bags stuffed with something, with flies swarming all over them. Being the person who I am (and I make no apologies), I asked the fellow what he was doing. His response?
Fishing dead fish out of the Dam! How did the fish die? Says the man "lack of oxygen"
Not a dam thing go so!
After a visit to the Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea today, I am a firm believer that the government is taking our, well I should say "your" since I am unemployed, tax dollars and not doing a thing with them.
Not even a coat of paint, not even a little chair for visitors to sit by the bed of their relatives. Pityful (I'm half asleep now so that might not be the right spelling).
I'd like the Prime Minster to be sick and be holed up there for even one night. Well at least the meal was decent.
And such a prime location the hospital is in, with the blue blue Caribbean Sea on either side. Pity. Really a shame.
And why do we have foreign doctors working here? We encountered one from either Sri Lanka, India or Pakistan. He was quite pleasant though.
Ok, Dr D....over to you to explain why our health care system is the way it is (that is if you've managed to figure it out yet!)
Lady: I better do a management degree so that I can understand why them need all them graphs and reports. I'm a programmer at heart. Put me in front of a computer and I can sit back and say "yes, I've created this"
Yuck! Stuck in front of a computer all day. Not me boy. While studying in Guildford, UK, I got a temp job changing text on websites. I didn't go back after the first day. Felt very claustrophobic and didn't like the fact that I couldn't talk to anybody.
Group of men walking. One says "Them so disorganized in there". Another says "No man, I hear that Superplus is cheaper".
I was going to interject and say "Nope, that's not true. Check out the price for the Philadelphia Fat Free Cheese. At Sovereign it is $82.00 mash. At Superplus it's $90.00".
People's conversations are certainly interesting.