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
...normally I would be poofed. Zonked. Facilitating a training session is usually mentally tiring, and I got about 6.5 hours sleep last night (I'm an 8-hour person).
But you know why I am fresh and alert? Cause in between the first session this morning and the last session this afternoon, I put on my gym clothes, walked 15 minutes to the gym and worked out for 50 minutes. I was all set to walk the 15 minutes back but I got a ride from somebody I know.
Now in my earlier life, I would have found it too much of a hassle to change clothes, walk up the road, come back, bathe and put back on clothes. But I am determined......very determined.
I don't like big butts and I cannot lie, everyone can deny etc etc etc a la Shrek
I got up early to watch cricket, but I'll have to wait until 7:00am to order Room Service. Of course I could have the Crunchy Bran cereal (Alpen - 8g fibre per serving!) I brought with me. But why have that when the cooked breakfasts here are so lovely. I had 1/2 slice of French Toast yesterday with my omelette.
Naturally, I spent a long time in the gym later on in the day. The routine was...
10 mins on bicycle to warm up
upper body work for my biceps, triceps, delatoids, pectorials (or pectorals?) and back (don't know official name for those muscles)
20 mins on bicycle
25 mins on treadmill (using incline to work that tush)
For lunch, I had only had a salad and beef soup with 3 bread rolls (needed the carbs to sustain the post-lunch gym work). So for dinner I was allowed to splurge....
Crispy snapper fillet starter
Fish chowder
Cornish Hen with vegetables and coconut rice
Sweet Potato and Cinnamon Pie
2 scoops ice cream
Remember, ah got di eating under control, so don't be alarmed. (And of course there is PMS for an excuse too!)
There it is, sticking up like a sore thumb again!
It first sprouted while I was in Nottingham, and I promptly removed it. Who knows how long it was there for, but I had only just noticed it. It's hard to see it from certain angles.
Yesterday there was no mistaking that the lone (I hope!) grey hair had returned. If I look like 25, I can't be having grey hairs, so out you go.
(Ouch)
Woke up at 5am today instead of 6 am for cricket. West Indies is playing England today in my former hometown - Nottingham.
I have to think very hard about where in the world I am and then work out the time appropriate to my current location. All this travelling takes its toll.
Also in addition to getting times mixed up, I will sometimes get people mixed up. When I see a face I recognize, I always have to stop and think for a moment "now which country do I know you from!".
The old age don't help neither.
So I told you all about the one hour wait to get a live body to speak to me on the phone when I was calling to find out about making an appointment. It was evident that I was going to get nowhere then.
Anyway, I made the appointment on-line for Monday 21 June, 7:15 am. Got there around 7:00am. First thing to cuss about....
When I reach the gate, the policeman take a look at my picture and tell me they don't accept picture with glasses! Did they tell you that on the recording where they tell you what documents to bring? Of course NOT. So I have to trudge back across the road and take picture in the parking lot. Thank God for them. Excellent service for $350. I look like I was half asleep in the picture, but who cares. I got a picture within 15 minutes so I could still keep my appointment.
By the way, is you and several other people get the same appointment time!
Reach inside where you have to take off your shoes, put your back through the x-ray machine and then go round to collect it. The security guard who checks the x-ray images, says there are two bottles in my bag which he has to examine. Hand lotion and Essence of peppermint. He makes me take them out and rub them on my skin, I guess to make sure is not poison.
I'm still alive, so I guess it's not.
I go over to another man who checks my form and notes where I need to complete. Imagine me with a Masters degree can't fill out a form. Most of the places though were questions about spouse and chillun and since I have neither, I left them blank. Wrong. I shoulda put NA. Completed that then was made to sit down. There are about 100 people in front of me.
By 8:25am I had barely moved up. By 9:00am I could see that I was not going to get to the interview booth and see an official in time for me to leave there by the latest 10:45am. Why the timing was important? I had a 12:35 flight back to the Spice Isle.....
So you all wondering how I book to fly same day huh.
Well in the past, you got your passport back with the visa the same day. So I was gonna ask them for it back earlier. My sister thought I was nuts. But remember, don't take no for an answer.
Anyway, shortly after 9am, I called one of the security guards, the one who was moving people up row by row to ask him if he thinks I will get to see a person soon. Nope. I explain the situation to him. He advised me to just forfeit the interview now and make a new appointment when I get back to Jamdown. He asks an official (Jcan) to fetch my documents. She comes and explains that it is 3 working days for all visas. I told her that I had read somewhere that enough time must be allowed, like a month or two, for the student visa application to come through. She said no, 3 working days.
So in short, I wasted about US$413. What's the use crying over spilt milk? At least I was home for father's day and we all went out to dinner.
Then of course there was me getting on the earlier LIAT flight because I didn't take no for an answer. So not all doom and gloom and negative. Must look for the positives in everything.
Another positive of course is that I now know the runnings, so will be a pro when I return!
First it has dumped a few extra pounds round my mid-section. Now this.....
Two slices of chocolate cake, 2 cookies and 1/2 a scone when I wasn't even hungry!
The struggles of being female around this time of the month.....
(and the hurtful thing is that I don't feel to go to the gym. And yesterday, I went into the gym, did a half-hearted 10 minutes on the bicycle, then sat on an incline bench to do upper body work, and dozed off! No lie.)
No, not about the visa I am talking about....read on.
Was invited to submit a piece on a West Indies cricketer to an English cricket magazine. Just heard back from them two days ago that the Editor decided NOT to use it because it didn't give him the insight he was looking for. I was unable to interview the player face to face before the deadline, so used material from a previous face to face interview I had done with him earlier.
I had explained this to them, and asked if I should go ahead and they said yes (the Deputy Editor did). So after all of that I was REJECTED. My first writing rejection. Felt kinda sad about it, because the publicity for CaribbeanCricket.com and me would have been huge. But ah so life go.
Hopefully the Embassy won't also stamp REJECTED on my application.
I promise, when I have more time, I will tell you all about that experience which made me say out loud "why didn't I decide to pursue the PhD in England???"
Did I mention in any of the stories over the past 3 days that I had travelled only with hand luggage back to Jamaica? Well I did. My knapsack, my handbag and my laptop was all I had.
It meant, on Saturday, that I was out of Barbados and Jamaica immigration and customs within 10 minutes of landing. It also meant that today, I could chase down a flight.
Lemme explain...
The BWIA flight was to get in to Barbados some time after 5. I was then booked on the lovely airline LIAT at 8:25 to go to Grenada. Three hours hanging around the airport. No problem, cause I've done longer stints.
Once I cleared immigration and customs, I went around to check in. It was now about 5:30. Got checked in, and asked the LIAT guy for schedules between Antigua and St Kitts because I am stopping there on the way back up to Jamaica in July. He was taking a lil while to do that....
In the meantime, I heard them calling a LIAT flight to Grenada, and then I remembered that when I was making the booking, I didn't choose the earlier flight, just in case BWIA was late. I heard "final boarding call, final boarding call for LIAT flight 307 to Grenada, Tobago and Port of Spain, please go now to gate 9". I interrupted the guy who was now calculating the fare that I had enquired about, and asked if I couldn't catch the earlier bus....oh, I mean plane! He went inside to check and said no because the operations agent had already gone out to the ramp. I hurriedly told him thanks, not telling him about the plan I was hatching.
I sped through immigration and the X-ray machine and bustled down to gate 9. Being fit is a bonus. The airport workers who I passed along the way swore that I was on flight 307 so ushered me to the pathway I should take. Reached up to the desk and asked if I could get on that flight. The lady asked the man and the man said no. Not again. He say flight full. I say "you sure?"
I don't take no for an answer. The man came up and I explained that I really don't want to have to hang around for 3 hours. He went and asked somebody who was sitting in a vehicle beside the plane, he told him to go and ask the people on the plane and they said yes.
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
When I reached to the top of the stairs, the LIAT flight attendant saw me and said "oh, you...." Know him from when I was at the 'Aliens Hotels' in the latter part of last year.
So, never take no for an answer, cause people will take the easy way out. And always travel lightly....when you can of course.
Oh, so just in case you don't get it...I'm back in Grenada now.
Keep fingers, toes and body parts crossed please!
Well if they stamp "DENIED" at least I know I have a career in cricket writing! (So there...)
Ah got di eating under control. Kewl!
You know I left here last weekend right? Yeah, last Saturday. In Grenada, I only did exercise ONE DAY. Plus I had several scrumptious dinners, like about 4 courses.
Let me tell you about that first before I tell you what I hip-hopping about.
First you get what they call a "pre". It's really an Ameuse Geule (dat spell wrong)...something to amuse your palate. One night it was beef in a sweet chilli sauce....delish. Another night it was shrimp. Very nice. These are tiny portions, like you would get 1 shrimp, or 3 tiny strips of beef.
Then of course there is the bread roll. Whole wheat of course. Then there's an appetizer. One night it was pumpkin crepe. Absolutely delightful. Then there is a soup, for example Cream of Banana, or Tannia Vichysoisse. I usually skips the salad/sorbet course which would come next. Then there is the main course. Then I always have dessert. Coconut cheesecake was last Sunday, there's also always ice cream - Guave, Nutmeg, Cinnamon or some other delightful tropical flavour. Then to top it off, petit fours - small dessert-like things.
With all of that, I feared as I stepped on the scale at the gym today after my Yoga class.
Oh yeah, ho, yeah, arrite.....same as when I left here last Saturday. In the past, when I had not changed my eating habits, I would have put back on a pound or two, guaranteed.
Ah got di eating under control. Kewl!
So I can watch the football match on TV.......not!
Anyway, short trip. Have to go to the Embassy for visa interview. Please tell them I'm a nice person and I don't intend to stay in their country!
(you can read this one first, then go to "The other passengers..." - it's good to break the rules sometimes)
Turn up for the flight late.
Ok, Ok, so that's not how it really went.....
Was booked on a flight to leave Grenada at 9:25pm. True as I know how LIAT stay, called the airport around 8:25 to find out if the flight would be on time. Heard it was going to be leaving after 10:00pm, but that it was overbooked. Reached to the airport about an hour before 10, and the lady says "we have an overbooking situation". "But I need to get to Barbados tonight". "Sorry maam". No jumpseat? Nope - sold. Where's Captain Hi-Tech when you need a pilot friend. Oh, wrong airline.
Long and short is that I am now going at the ungodly hour of 6:05am. That flight is also full, but they've already checked us in and given us boarding passes, so according to them, we will definitely get on. Yuck. I hate waking up early.
How the money come in? They gave me a US$75 voucher which is good for a year. I told the supervisor I wanted cash instead. That hated response......"that's our policy". Well it stinks.
Anyway, as the young Jamaican cricketers have a habit of saying "it's all good" cause I have to go from Antigua to St Kitts later next month, so that will reduce the airfare. It just means I am stuck taking LIAT. Last time I did that trip, I took Caribbean Star and it's quite good.
So to bed I must go, to sleep for a couple hours before the miserable taxi driver comes back for me. Him miserable you see!! Probably not a Grenadian.
All Vincentians.
We rode in the taxi from the airport together. They chatting in the back (I sat in the front) bout all manner of things.
1. How imagine they have to pay departure tax, even though they won't be in Grenada for 24 hours (they came in this morning)
2. If LIAT know that she don't have nothing to sleep in and she can't sleep without clothes (I wanted to tell her to try it sometimes.....it's lovely)
3. They thought they were getting cash instead of voucher ("That's our policy"...she ent hear that?)
Then now, the taxi driver him....
The lady at the desk told me the pick up was 5:00am. When he dropping me off, he asked me what time is the pick up. I told him they told me 5:00am. Hear him nuh "they can't tell you that". I asked him how he could tell me that. I only telling he what they tell me! He going on bout how him tell the Supervisor that he has a 5:00am pick up so it would have to be about 5:20am.
You know what...I better get on the phone right now and alert the Supervisor of this. Being bumped twice in less than 24 hours won't be any fun.
Besides not taking my iron tablets, which contributes to the tiredness, standing up and leading sessions for 3 hours at a time, twice in a day is no easy feat. But I like what I do, so no worries. I can sleep at another time. Ent?
When I was a student in England the second year, I had broadband internet connection. It was lovely. No long wait. Could download large files. Fast fast fast.
So that's what I'm typing on here in Grenada. Every house should have one.
As I walked down to the hotel lobby the morning after I got here, Nerissa P exclaimed at my weight loss. Asked if I have been lifting weight.
Then at dinner, I saw one of the Room Attendants I know passing by. I called out to her, and she too exclaimed surprise, said she didnt notice me because I had cut my hair and that I had lost a lot of weight.
Then Brigitte saw me yesterday and also commented on the weight loss.
But I don't feel it. I feel as fat as when I left here in 2001 to go and study. At that time, I was 31 pounds more than I am now. But what baffles me is that these people all saw me when I was here the end of April/beginning of May. Could I have changed that much? The only thing I have done differently is started taking Pilates and Yoga. Hmmmmm maybe that's it.
I was thinking about the Yoga/Pilates teacher the other night. In fact everyday I hear her high pitched English accented voice saying "belly button to spine, belly button to spine" and immediately I suck in my gut. Can't wait to do those classes when I get back.
But body image is a helluva thing cause when I got in the hotel room on Saturday evening, I took off my clothes, looked at myself in the mirror and cursed my large cellulite-filled legs....oh, did I add stretch marks to that? Well add that. And I cursed the folds of fat at my waist. But if the truth be known, that has seen remarkable improvement.
But my butt's still big, my legs are still big and my arms are still big. The only thing that's shrinking apart from my waist, is guess where......
MY BREASTS!!!! And I didn't have much to begin with!! Life is just not fair.
Everytime I come to this country, I knew why I moved here in 1997. Had I not wanted to do higher education, I would probably have still been living here.
Was driving in a taxi today, and me and the driver there talking about the present government. This is without fear that if I express an opinion I might offend somebody.
It's so free and relaxed here. Just lovely. Make a trip to Grenada one day will you?
Well if you normally do the former, please change and do the latter this time. In fact, that's how, for continuity, you should read this blog. That's an order.
Told me he heard me on the radio during the last Test match. Said that he heard me talking about interviewing Rowe.
So I said "you read the interview?" Hear him nuh...."you don't write short you know!". Is true dat. I was telling him that I was asked to do a profile on a West Indian cricketer for an English publication. Hear the word limit......800 words. Now what can I write in 800 words? Captain Hi-Tech asks how many I wrote. 1,000 -ish.
Tonight I get to sleep until "whenever". First time in a couple weeks. When I'm at Big 12, somebody or something wakes me up. Kids getting ready for school, Villy in the Kitchen, the neighbour mowing the lawn. Something.
Ah going to ZZZzzzzz until the cows come home.
One of my suitcases didn't arrive. I had to connect so herein lies the problem. Although it's the small one, it's the one that has my exercise wear in it? I hope it's nearby; if it is, it will come tomorrow morning. If it's not, then that's a late night bizniz tomorrow.
Drats. Don't the airline baggage people know that I have pounds to lose? Instead they lose my pounds (the suitcase) for me!
When the plane landed, I came out of the cockpit to find one of the flight attendants reading my Self magazine. I told her it was no problem. What I didn't tell her was to give it back to me personally.
Mi dears, mah, dovetails, pumpkins....when I finally came out of the cockpit, I asked where the magazine was. The flight attendant say she put it on my seat. It aint there! She surmised that when the passengers were boarding, one of them may have thought it was a magazine that was given out, and took it! Can you imagine? Which airline gives out free Selfs to passengers, even if they are in First Class?
Steuuuuuuppppps. Is not the cost that's the problem, it's the fact that somebody could think to take it without asking. And I hadn't even dented it good yet. Cho man.
I mentioned in the entry I'm Off Again that my friend, Captain Hi-Tech would have been the captain on the flight today.
He didn't know I was no the flight, so when I asked the Purser to tell him that Michelle wanted to come and say hello, she said he asked "Michelle who?". What???????
When I got in there and asked him how he could be asking that, says he "I know several Michelles you know". So ah seh "you didn't see me walking out to the plane?". Nope. Don't you look at all the passengers who are boarding? Nope. Why? Cause they have more important things to do, as I would soon find out.
Took my seat, strapped myself in and proceeded to enjoy the ride up front, which is much like driving in a mini bus (maxi taxi for all you Trinis). You can't imagine all that's back there ie the rest of the plane. A gazillion gadgets to fiddle with, briefing sheets to read before take off, and people to talk to over the radio.
We were now approaching our first stop over.
Me: Can I stay for the landing?
He: You might get scared.
Me: No, remember I was in the cockpit one time a few years ago in Barbados?
He: This is different. Shorter runway. Just close your eyes if you get scared.
Now he got my heart beating a little faster. I flashed back to the panic attacks that used to affect me anytime I flew. Some deep Pilates-type breaths would help me now. They did.
A whole heap of switches to switch in preparation for the landing. As the plane got closer and closer down to the runway, an automated voice started the countdown. 100 feet.....50, 40, 30, 20, 10,. We're here. So that's how the landing goes.
My contribution was to flight the switch of the Flight Deck Access System (a consequence of 9/11). There's a red cap covering the switch. Captain Hi-Tech asked me - the guest pilot (hey, I was in black and white too! I qualified!) - to turn off the switch. Lifted the red cap, flicked the switch to Off then put back down the red cap. Simple enough ent? But then the captain, my boss for a few minutes, looks and sees it's back to square one. Oh.....putting the cap back down turns it on huh.
I say to my boss "but, but you didn't say leave the red cap up". In his usual calm, lilting voice he quips "I didn't say put it back down either". Ok, you didn't.
Stayed for the take off too. So that's twice I've been in the cockpit for both take off and landing. The one I did with Captain Hi-Tech many years ago was landing in and taking off from Barbados, and that was evening. That was "way cool" (have to practise my Americanisms in preration for school in the US of A).
All in all, it was a good day spent in Captain Hi-Tech's cockpit. Here are two pictures. One of him, and one of the Cockpit Controls. I guess they have an airplane name for it, but I ent get that far yet in my pilot studies!
Flight instruments maybe they're called?
Captain Hi-Tech. I asked him to put on his cap but he say that wouldn't look natural since pilots don't wear that while they are flying.
That's the amount of pounds lost.
I told the gym instructor today and he said, like last time, "tings a gwaan fi yuh". Told him I was going away, he said something about coming back with more pounds, but I told him no way. I will exercise while I am there. Have already packed the exercise wear.
I told him that I would be 5 pounds lighter by the time I come back mid July. So that would have been 24 pounds lost if I can stick to that.
Back to the Spice Isle. My second home. I'll have little time, so you won't hear from me too often.
Now while searching through cupboards to find material to take with me for the project I am going to be involved in, I bucked up some letters and cards from 1992/3. After my grandmother passed away, I asked Pops if he had gone through her stuff to keep any bits of memorabilla that she might have had. He said there was nothing there, and asked if when I passed away they would find anything for me.
Oh yeah. Letters and cards from Army majors, letters and faxes from cricketers, journals with rivetting stuff. One day when I am old and graying, assuming that these things would not have got old and grey themselves, I will put them in some sort of chronological order, that is if arthritis has stricken me and I can't use my fingers!
So, gone back to finish packing. I leave on good old BWEE tomorrow, with Captain Hi-Tech at the controls. This was the same captain who said when I was coming up from Trinidad the last time....
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. The good news is that we are going to Jamaica....the bad news is..just not on this airplane!" I will speak to him later to warn him not to pull anything like that this time. Mek sure de plane is hail and hearty and humming like a baby. Or is it a bird?
Performance (P) and Expectations (E)are two factors involved in assessing Service Quality (I'm speaking about academic things now).
There are three scenarios where these two dimensions are concerned.
P = E
P>E
P less than E
Now how are expectations determined? Well, one way is by what companies promise you.
So I motored along to Life of Jamaica the other day. It was actually to ask them to cancel a policy, since I want to keep monthly expenses as minimal as possible. Imagine my surprise when the lady told me that it was an investment policy! Had no clue. So I decided not to cancel, but to take whatever money was there.
Now let me back track. When I walked up the stairs to the customer service place, I noticed they had changed up. Instead of one long counter where everybody could hear yuh bizniz, there were now individual private desks with partitions. My expectations were now being influenced just from the floor layout.
After forms were filled up, she said the cheque would be ready in 10 - 15 minutes. Wow! My expectations are now even more raised since at Guardian where I had been the day before, it takes 2 hours.
I look at my phone, it's 1:02pm. I go downstairs (that will be another blog) and come back up at 1:14. that's 12 minutes ent? Well lady at cheque disbursement desk HAD NOT YET GOT THE FORM FROM CUSTOMER SERVICE LADY! I chastized cheque lady (nicely of course) about their standards and not delivering them. She pronto called the lady and told her to send it right away. I go back and sit down.
I come back at 1:22pm. Not yet ready. Hmmmm, so some process didn't go according to plan.
Eventually I got it at 1:31pm.
So the point is that firms influence customers' performance of their service by the promises they make. If they had said to me I would get the cheque in 30 minutes, they would delivered it in 29 minutes and I would have been ecstatic.
But, they probably have unrealistic service standards, and so it results in customers not getting a service within the time promised, and therefore rating the firm's performance as unsatisfactory.
The student mentality says get everything for as little, or no, money as possible.
While waiting for my LOJ cheque, I decided to go downstairs to Docu-tech to see how much one photocopy out of a Psychology book would cost. I had been planning to go by Pegasus to get it done for free, but decided to check the price.
I thought the young man said $24. I thought this was reasonable, so I said ok. I repeated it and he said it was $4.60. I had heard wrong. He did it, it came out quite clear, and I tendered a $100 bill.
The empowered young man put up his hand and said "that's ok, no cost".
So had I decided to use student mentality, I would have driven all the way to the Pegasus, had to park up the top probably, and the copy would not have been as crisp as this one.
Sometimes it's good to ditch the student mentality.
At 63 years of age, soon to be 64 in less than a month, Villy (aka Mummy) cleans the house, cooks the food and washes the clothes like no other helper can.
She's using it as a means to exercise. She'd do the ironing too, but instead, she's getting 'the girl' to come tomorrow to do that. I told Villy to just let everybody press dem owna clothes, but they getting Patch's Wednesday lady to come tomorrow.
I earning some extra cash for school by hiring her out. Any takers?
"Wait, how you looking so?"
"How so?"
"You looking so fit and trim".
Jeezas! Life sweet iyah.
Natch I had to boast to he that I had lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
I've lost 17 pounds since early January.
OK....BUT YOU'RE STILL 43 POUNDS OVER THE UPPER RANGE OF THE IDEAL WEIGHT FOR YOUR HEIGHT (5' 8") SO QUIT GLOATING!
(little Yammie with pointed ears and a pitch fork on big Yammie's shoulder speaking)
When I calm down, and finish doing the school run which they have made me now extremely late for, I will give you details.
.....OK, I'm back.
I need to make an appointment to apply for my students' visa. Called this morning, and the automated service said to go to Scotiabank, pay the fee and make the appointment. Goody, I said, since I was going to the bank. I reach there only to be told "no....they took that service away from us nearly a year now. You have to go to Paymaster".
I called the embassy immediately to complain. Says the operator "you know how long we telling them to change the recording".
Ok, so paid at Paymaster, and now I have to go online to make the appointment. The date that I want (June 21st) is not yet making itself available for clicking, so I call to find out if I can make one over the phone. All I want is a yes or a no.
Well would they answer the *$#^#%@& phone? No. Ring ring ring ring x 100 times. No joke. Finally the phone is answered and I tell the operator I have trying for nearly 40 minutes to get somebody to answer the phone. I tell her what information I need and she puts me on to an extension.....that rings out too. No, I do NOT want to leave a message damn it. I want a live body.
Call back again. No answer. No joke. Call back again. No answer. Really, no joke. I could even go into another room in the house and look for a book for Sis, while I was holding on to a ringing phone.
Eventually, while I take the chance to go to the potty, the phone answers. I explain my plight. She says she won't release me until somebody picks up at the other end. How kind. This is after I tell her how dissatisfied I am with their service.
I get a lady, and within a minute she gives me the information I need. I tell her, always very calm I am, that it is quite unreasonable for me to have to wait ONE hour, une heure, una hora, uno ____ (hour in Italian which I should know but forgot while waiting on the ringing phone !) to get this info. I told her that I was put on to an American, who, before she could listen to what information I needed, said "stop right there, before you go any further, you have the wrong section" and transferred me to an automated service! No joke.
I will reserve my letter of dissatisfaction to Ambassador Sue Cobb, until AFTER I have been granted the student visa.....lest they hold it against me!
My very good friend is off the island and she asked me to pick up her kids this week. #1 is at Mona Prep and finishes at 2:00pm, #2 is at St Andrew High and finishes at 2:15pm.
Today was the first day, and I guess it was all about establishing the procedure. I had never been into Mona Prep before, if I have then I don't remember. Luckily it's not a big school. I made sure to wear a red top so I would be easily spottable. Went and twirled around the courtyard for a while. No sign of child #1.
What I do spot are several wee ones, running, oblivious to the fact that I am there. And then the next problem was that they are so far out of my radar, that I actually walked and bumped into one! I held on to her and said sorry a thousand times.
Went upstairs to #1's classroom. She's not there. A braces-filled mouth tells me to go look in the Lunch Room. I do. She's not there. I come back into the courtyard and feel like a lost child about to cry. Nah....there must be a science to this. So I spot a teacher to ask her if there is an intercom or something like that. She said no. I told her who I was looking for, she asked me if I looked in her classroom. Yes, she's not there. Then she walked off!!! I kid you not. The teacher was NOT in the least bit concerned with my plight.
I go to who I should have gone to before....a group of Grade 6 kids.
"Hi, do you know #1?"
"Yes, she's under the tree"
I look, I don't see her. One says "no, not that one, the other one. Oh, look in the lunch room"
"I did that already, she's not there"
"Oh, then she MUST be in the Art room"
Bingo! there she was. Collected her accoutrements, and then we had a chat about the places that she is likely to be, so that tomorrow will be easier. So now I know the rules.
Off we drove to St Andrew, where child #2 was spotted within a couple minutes. I got from her as well the likely places that she might be so tomorrow, if she is not where I found her today, I can find her.
But I must say that I thought the traffic would have been worse. I seemed to have timed it well, so will try and maintain those times for the rest of the week.
I tell you, this having kids thing is not easy at all.....I lift my hat to those who have.
For the second time during a cricket match, Neville 'Bertis' Bell surprised me by saying he was going to interview me during the lunch time break. The first time was during a match at Alpart in St Elizabeth, south Jamaica. The second time was yesterday.
It was during the last test match between Bangladesh and West Indies. He interviewed a lady named Rhonda first from Cayman, whose company manages the sponsorship of Cable & Wireless for West Indies cricket. Next was my turn.
Asked me a lot of questions, some about the website I write for (CaribbeanCricket.com), about West Indies cricket and what would I do if I were President of the West Indies Cricket Board, about the most interesting people I had interviewed (Tino Best - a Barbadian fast bowler, and Lawrence Rowe - Jamaican batsman who went to South Africa and was banned) and about who I'd like to interview that I haven't interviewed yet.....
...the one and only Brian Charles Lara. Why? To provide an insight into his soul. Lots of criticism has been heaped on him, and I would love to get inside his soul. But as I told Neville, that's for a few years yet.
Let the others grab him now while the second world record is still the buzz. I want him when he has mellowed some more. I said on radio that he has matured quite a bit because I remember him when he just started, and the team used to stay at the hotel that I worked at (they still do), he was very cocky. Now, he has matured plenty plenty. But people still criticize him, I think unfairly.
I don't think the radio station taped it, so I won't have it as a memorabillia (dat spell wrong) to let my children listen to.....(what children????)
1ST BOY
I was about to go into the cricket players' dressing room area (you have to walk there to go upstairs for press conferences). A little boy who looked to be about 4 years old, if that old, was sitting on a chair by the grill gate. He started to bawl. Tears came to his eyes. I have a soft spot for children, so I stooped down to get to his level and asked him what was wrong.
He said something which I thought was "my knees". So I repeated that and he shook his head and said it again. I still couldn't figure it out. And then he said it again and pointed at something.
When I looked around, a police car had driven up. Then, I had remembered that around the time he started to holler, I had heard the sirens go on. (The teams get police escorts to and from the ground). Ah, so that was it. He was saying "Police".
I was horrified that the sight and sound of a police vehicle could evoke such a reaction in a toddler. In the most soothing voice I could find, I said to him "no man, it's ok, that's friendly police. Friendly police. They're going with the team back to the hotel". And then his tears dried up.
I don't know where he lives, but I imagine it must be in an area where he sees police vehicles often, and it might be as a result of some violent crime. The other thing too is that he associates police with brutality.
What a place, a destitute place that we have created for our children.
And it's all the adults' fault!
2ND BOY
Now this one wants a slap.
After encounter with boy 1, I went back to the press box, packed up and was headed across the road to the car. As I exited the ground, I came upon a group of boys, about 13 or 14 years old. One of them said something to me. I heard what it was, but said "Excuse me? What did you just say?".
He comes up to me and returns the stare that I was giving him. "Miss....good afternoon miss, beg yuh $20 please". So he was polite. Bizniz not. I asked him why he was asking me for $20. Where was his mother? He was eating ice, and had to keep taking it out of his mouth to answer my questions.
She was at home, he said, somewhere around the road. Does she know you are asking people for money? No. If she knew, would she be pleased? No. Do you go to school? Yes. Where? Clan Carthy High School. I told him the only way to ensure that he did not have to beg was for him to do well in school. And instead of begging, he must offer to do something for a person and maybe, just maybe they might offer him something.
He maintained the eye contact throughout, in a sort of daring way almost, and then a van drove up and paused, and the lad hopped on to the back as it moved off, unable to hear me say "don't do that, you'll fall off and get crushed".
Somehow I don't think he would have even slightly cared.
I had told him he'd probably not want to tell his mother that he had begged me. I said to him "because you know she will give you a beating".
I take that back. Tell her. Tell her.
17 pounds so far. It's a little slow going this time of the month. In about two weeks I'll be able to report more weight loss than 17 pounds. Soon, I'll be able to wear hipsters, because when I suck my stomach in, it will look flat.
(Yes, sorry, I would have to suck my stomach in.)
But progress is being made people. Only hope I don't backslide when I go to Grenada next weekend for a month or so. Must continue this regimen. Must.
Cricket, that is.
Starting Friday, West Indies play Bangladesh in the second test. All those who thought that we would have walked over the lowest ranked cricket team had another thing coming after the 1st test ended in a draw today.
Hopefully, the pitch at Sabina Park won't be as dead as the one in St Lucia, and we will see some lively cricket.
The players and everybody else comes in tomorrow, and there will be a social in the evening which I will be attending. They're a nice set of guys in the team....I don't know why people keep saying they don't get along.
That's how much time the doctors have given a lady who I know of. She is in her 40's I would think, with an 11 year old son.
Sad thing is she doesn't know. Had a brain operation to remove a tumour, the doctors found more. Has about 4 - 6 and they are agressive.
So, the question for you all is.....if you were told that you had six months to live, what would you do?
Me?
I'd spend my money and go somewhere that I've always wanted to go - Anguilla, Providence in Rhode Island.
Then I'd write something detailing how I was spending the 6 months, and my feelings during that period.
Then I would spend time with people who matter.
Oh, I'd also go to watch the Worst Indies play against England in England this summer....after all, what ah would be saving the money fuh?
What would you do?
In fact, after the first 3 months of her employment, when her true nature was manifested.
This is the helper I am talking about. Started working with us two years ago, and there was signs from within the first 3 months, that she would not have been allowed to continue working had she been in my employ.
Well last Thursday, story came to bump. Mummy asked her to press three items of clothes. She told Mummy that she couldn't promise her that she would do it....Mummy asked her to repeat and she said it again, then blazed up and said some other things which were not reasonable.
Mummy again repeated the instruction to iron the things.
Lo and behold, the lady left without doing them. So that evening a letter was typed terminating her services. She received it on Friday morning, and one of the things she said to Pops as he was reading it to her was "But Ms Mac know I would have done them today". That's not the point though, is it.
As I tell people all the while, is only when you work for yourself that you can do as you please. In any other situation, you have to follow instructions. Sure, if you don't agree with something you can engage your boss in a level headed discussion and try and get him to see your viewpoint. But if that fails, you'd better do what he asks, or else leave di wuk! Ah so mi see it.
As you know, I went to the pharmacy yesterday. At the prescription counter, there was a pregnant lady in front of me, in a short dress. Good for her. But I looked at her belly, looked at mine, and said to myself that the only way I am going to have a big belly, is if I put back on weight. The pregancy thing....still an alien concept.
Today now, at the gym this evening, a pregnant lady came into the cardio room and I said to myself if I ever got pregnant, I'd be like her. Exercising for as long as the 'Guyanese' doc allowed me to.
Hey, that doesn't mean I have grasped and embraced the pregnancy concept. It's just a thought.