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
I go to Food Fair supermarket even though Real Value is larger, has a wider selection etc. Food Fair is just down the road from where I live so that might be a reason.
There is this lady who takes your big bags at the counter who is most pleasant. She never needs to give you a number for the slot that she put your bag in, because she always remembers everybody and their bags. She always has small talk with you "so how are you today?". Not just mechanical and robotic. Very helpful and friendly and you know she is not a young person. She wears a wig.
But she is a credit to the supermarket. I was thinking today though that if they were to ever downsize, she would be one of the people they would get rid of since that position they might not see as essential. But let me tell you how much of a difference there is when the substitute young girl is there. Very different.
Remember the last time I was here in March for around 2 weeks, I went to the gym all but one day?
Well when I got off the plane in Jamrock last Sunday, I was sniffling, after being perfectly fine the day before. These viruses like airlines you see! Woke up Monday, didn't feel better, bought some DPH antihistamine and took that after I came back from the doctor.
It kind of knocked me out and I woke up at 7pm. The Pilates class is 7:45, but I didn't think it was wise to risk regressing. Sweat and night air = sniffles. So didn't go. Couldn't go Tuesday because it was cricket.
Now today, the class is 7:30pm, and ah ent feel to go! I now know why, as soon as I land, I try and get to the gym because once I start exercising, I have no problems being consistent. I have not been to the gym since I left here on 22 March, can you imagine??????
But am pleased that even without formal exercise, and with regular eating, I only weighed 203 on Monday.
I'm going to go tonight though. I must.
Driva, don't stop at all..
Went to the 'Guyanese' doctor Monday. He is still as hilarious as ever. He has moved to a new office more centrally located and it has more space.
He remembered what we had been discussing at the last visit, which was late 2005. Gee, I'm impressed! Examination time and he takes the samples that he needs. We discuss my particular problems and then I ask him if he is going to do the driving stick test again. He bust out laughing and said I was funny.
If any of you have had your nedder regions being peered into, you know the test I am talking about. Doesn't it feel like what the doc is doing is changing gears? That's what it feels like to me.
The test reveals that those critters are still there and not going away. Surgery is an option. 'No thanks' I tell him and he laments on what I am missing out on. Is ok. Mi don't mind.
The game will miss Brian Charles Lara
Taken at post match press conference today, Kensington Oval media conference room
For close to 17 years we watched him. And we watched him not only on the cricket field, but off the field as well. I suppose it came with the territory of being a professional sportsman, and a darn good one at that.
His legs were beginning to get weary, but perhaps not as weary as the constant blame...rightly or wrongly so...made him mentally.
At some point, according to one of my former bosses, you look up...you look down...and then you say "wait nah...there are other things more important than this in life."
He has achieved; there can be no question about that. And anyone who discounts the mavellous performances which punctuated his career, because of some indescretions possible for any human being made of flesh and blood to make, is disingenuous.
This upcoming England tour has certainly been dealt a blow. You could say all that you want about him, but there are still thousands of people in this world who would pay any money to see him bat, even nearing age 38.
Such was his hold over the game, the fans, the people. He has relinquished his dominance and the mantle must be passed.... but to whom?
Will there ever be anyone as great as Brian Charles Lara? Maybe only if he produces a son!
Those of you reading this blog long enough would have read this story about making a decision whether I should go to the US university that I had been given a full Assistantship to.
That university was Virginia Tech. If I had gone, I would have been finishing in 2008 which means I would have been registered as a student there still, and still on campus. I would have been a research student. I'm sure I wouldn't have been in Norris Hall or that dormitory where the first two shootings took place, but you just never know. It's also possible that I would have been in Grenada watching cricket because I was not going to mek dat miss me!
Somebody up there is looking out for me. This is such a sad thing, but as somebody on my cricket message board says, there are several soldiers killed in Iraq every month too. But both are just sad and unnecessary, given what we know now about the VT shooter's history, and of course there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Life. A sad, sometimes funny thing.
I feel so sleepy today. I have many tapes to transcribe and I just don't have energy.
Yes, I did take a Panadol Multi-symptom tablet last night, but certainly it should have worn off by now?
And the other day, without any kind of drowsy tablet, I just could not keep my eyes open! Maybe my iron is low again. But when the lady prick me the other day, she said it was around 12.
How do you get your energy back?
I'm in my bed sleeping this morning. It was 7:50am. I sleep in the living room, you will recall. I hear a loud knock on the door. I shout out "who is it?" The name is unrecognizable. I know this is Grenada but I ask him to go to the other door which has a grill so I wouldn't have to open the door to a stranger. I go and get my dressing robe in the meantime.
I don't know the man. He clears that up first thing. He is staying upstairs. Friend of the landlord from England. Then he gets into the real purpose of his knock.
Him: Do you know you have a burst pipe?
Me: Yes
Him: How long have you noticed it?
Me: From about two days ago. I thought Landlord would have seen it as he came downstairs to me on Friday.
Him: Well if you didn't point it out to him he wouldn't have noticed it. But we're going to try and see if we can sort it out.
Me: (half asleep, face looking crushed up) Ok.
So afterwards, with my heart still thumping fast (that is what happens when I am awakened rather than waking up naturally or by an alarm clock that I have set), I wonder why di hell he had to wake me up? Why they couldn't have just sorted it out?
It is not as if it's a new problem. The pipe was leaking for a long time couple months ago and the Landlord tried everything until finally he got a plumber to sort it out.
Some people just don't think before they act. So naturally, I am in a crotchety mood!
The landlord told me the other day that he had to talk to me about the new lease. Old one finished on 31 March.
So today he came down stairs. He doesn't live in the complex. Just stays over occasionally. Says he raising the rent by 6.67%. I then ask him what is he going to be doing with that increase. He seemed surprised that I would ask him that.
But this is how I see it....
I am sure the mortgage hasn't gone up. Grenada is very stable. The yard is often overgrown. The yard have things in it that he hasn't seen fit to clear up. Sheets of ply, and old fridge etc. So if hurricane were to blow, I would be in jeopardy.
His response is that there is inflation. Bull.
Then he tells me he is going to build a little flat that would sit on the side where my kitchen window is, and one of the living room doors open up. So I said "you mean I won't be able to walk around in my kitchen half dressed?" I'm serious about this privacy issue. Nobody not making me have to lock up. The lot beside the house on the side where my flat is is empty. So is the one in front and behind. That was one of the things that attracted me to it. He says he is going to start building later on in the year.
Me thinks that 1 April 2008, I will be living elsewhere. It will just be too crowded here for my liking.
Two bathing suits. A huge difference in price. Guess which one is more expensive and by how much....
What's wrong with me? I've found that approaching 40 and more recently since I turned 40, I find myself more and more wondering if I made the right decision not to have children.
It was a very conscious decision. It wasn't that because I didn't get married, I didn't have any because, cuss me or not, I don't think that one has to be married to have a child so I was never constricted by that thinking.
I just never saw myself having kids. Heck....I never saw myself having sex! I remember a conversation with a friend when I was about in 4th or 5th form, and I've probably told it here before. We were having lunch and the talk turned to contraceptives. I declared that I was not ever going to use them. Even from that age, the thought of altering normal inbuilt bodily functions didn't find favour with me.
My friend said 'so what are you going to do about preventing numberous pregnancies if you get married?' I replied that I would onlly have sex when I wanted a kid! And I was serious! I thought back then that sex was only for conception, not for enjoyment. I've since learnt differently.
What triggered this latest pondering is that I recently met a teenager who was so sociable, well mannered, humourous, well adjusted, polite, and articulate. I thought to myself that I could have turned out a kid like that.
Who knows....maybe there is still time. But that would require a change in lifestyle and I'm kind of selfish that way I find. But I keep wondering if when I reach 70...sorry, that should have been if....and I have to be calling up my niece and nephew for company or to take me to the supermarket, that I will deeply regret it.
I see that Geena Davis had twins at 50. I'm only 40.5. Maybe I should look for some eggs, what you think? But then, it's like me not having a desire to buy a house because then I'd have to HAVE to have a steady job. If I have a kid, I'd have to be RESPONSIBLE.
I also think that if I have a kid at this age, I might as well just cut off the two breasts after I done breastfeeding. Lawks.
But you never can tell. Maybe a man with whom I think I want to have a kid is just around the corner, and he'll be financially secure so I wouldn't have to worry. And remember, if he loves Ackee & Saltfish, he wouldn't leave so financially, the family would be secure.
Better start downing my antioxidants now!
Exactly one year ago today, I moved into this flat. If you recall, I had spent the entire day and night cleaning, went to bed very late, and then this happened!
Well I am very happy that I stuck it out. Despite the fact that the place isn't very modern, it's very spacious and airy and (mostly) quiet! For almost a year, I lived without any neighbours in the upstairs flat but three girl students moved in recently. They don't make noise so it's ok. I am terribly aversed to noise. I think that's why I haven't had any kids either!
Everytime I travel and look out the window, I wonder if this is what heaven looks like. Is this where Bob Woolmer is? Seems pretty peaceful doesn't it?
Ever since my mother took me and showed me how to cut up a whole chicken, I've liked cooking. That was when I was about 12.
I'm not a fancy cook, so I can't do pretty food....besides, I am too impatient and clumsy...... but I do damn tasty food if I may say so myself. Actually, I get other people to say that. I've cooked oxtail, stew peas and chicken that have brought in rave reviews from people. Now that I don't eat meat, I haven't cooked any of those recently.
Ackee & saltfish is the thing I cook the most often now. I cooked some this morning and I was licking my chops thinking that if somebody who liked our national dish had me for a wifey/matey, he would never never leave. I put secret ingredients in it. Ssshhhh, ah not telling.
I had the good fortune to be taught one lesson by Rex Nettleford when I was doing a four week Advanced Human Resource Development course at UWI in 1996. I guess the lesson had to do with labour and how our history affected it....can't remember. I just remember being mesmerized by this man's delivery, recall and articulation. Excellent lecturer. So accomplished.
So although I don't have a very good attention span, I am about to read his address to the United Nations. If you're interested, click here. It's about the slave trade, something which I have always been interested in.