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
My nephew will represent Jamaica in table tennis. He was half asleep when I called this morning to congratulate him after being selected yesterday.
So he joins his Grandmama as a family member who has represented the great Jamaica in sports.
Me? I never so much as lifted a ball. Ok, that's not really true, but me and sports was never any great friend. From the weight tracker thingy, can't you tell? But I've played ball more as an adult than I did as a teenager. See, sometimes you can be a late bloomer!
Join me in congratulating The Nephew. I'll probably have a surprise for him at the weekend.
Hurricane Dean's passing has meant that on the day The Niece heads to the cool Malvern hills, I am back in Grenada. The entry of new students had to be put back by one week because the school suffered damage.
Just spoke with her and she sounds upbeat so hopefully she will be ok. The family will be nearby until Saturday.
Meanwhile, I recently spoke with a foreigner who had been to boarding school.
He went in at age 7, and didn't see his parents again until he was 18! He sounded bitter about that, but apparently his parents were working abroad, and it was in the time of World War 2. Transportation across seas was only by boat, so the parents didn't come home, and he couldn't visit. He said all he had for company was his brother.
When he got married and had kids, guess what he did? Enrolled his son in boarding school! But at least they were in the same country and they saw each other often! I told them about The Niece and explained that she will have every third weekend off. What she will do with that (remember I said that after a while, she will tell us she going to stay by some friend!), only time will tell.
Me thinks y'all will prefer this one....
A few things to note...
1. The upright bike in the entertainment area, right opposite the wet bar!
2. The piano.
3. The fish tank in the formal living room.
4. My guests will not have to walk far to use the shower room (there's no bath in it, so can't call it a 'bathroom'!)
5. There are sliding doors leading to the laundry both from the kitchen and from the entertainment area....makes it easy to replenish the ice and hors d'oeuvres.
6. If this house were being built in Grenada, the entertainment area would have grill around it rather than walls. In Jamaica, then walls, windows and grills.
7. Big Kitchen....
8. Toilet off laundry for the helper and gardener to use.
9. The measurements are (32 x 30) + (4 x 20) = 960 + 80 = 1,040 sq feet approximately. Nice and cosy.
10. The TV room would be air conditioned, although there is also a window leading to the entertainment area.
I've said I'm not buying a house, right? And that still may be the case given my nomadic tendencies. However, came across a website called Smart Draw that allows you a trial to design your own home.
Here is my attempt at designing the house I will never be able to afford....
Would you come and visit me?
Here is The Niece in her uniform. Of course, since we're related, she also has a white box on her face!
I hear she likes the pockets....
Read all the documents that the boarding school gave Sis. There are various rules and guidelines on it. Some very reasonable ones like "all students must speak standard English." Nothing wrong with that.
However, there is one that caught our attention. The students are not allowed to speak with the garderners, bus drivers and other auxilliary staff! Back to the plantation we go?
I can understand the rationale for a rule like that, since you never know what can happen these days, however, isn't that creating a kind of elitist mentality in the students? I hope they are allowed to say "good morning."
I come back to The Rock to find out that the helper has been off sick for a good while. Perhaps in some households this would have created chaos, but when you have my mother for a mother, this is no biggy.
She turned 67 today, and you wouldn't know it. Still motoring around like a 40 year old spring chicken....
At a little barbeque we had for her up at the brother's house at the top of Jack's Hills (even up there it was too hot today), the story turned to helpers and stories were related by others who were there. Mother said she came home to find one taking a bath in her bathroom, even though the helper had quarters of her own. She said she told her to dress and pack her things immediately and leave, then decided she didn't want any more around her, so for a good while, we didn't have one. Again, no biggy. This was when all three of us were under 10 and she was still playing netball for Jamaica.
Tomorrow, she is cooking stewed peas in other of a friend who is visiting. I asked her why she arranged it for Monday, knowing the helper is off. She said 'no biggy'. She has energy to kill.
As she was taking out the dishes and so on late tonight, I told her she was just like her mother, who used any excuse to entertain. And whenever she would come from foreign to visit us and we were entertaining, she was in the thick of things even when she was well in her 80's. I guess we will expect the same of mummy!
I'll tell The Niece that I'm blogging out her boarding school experience to the Whole Wide World. Then she'll say "Aunty Yamfoot, suppose I don't want you to tell strangers about me?" Then I'll say "when you have kids you can show them what was happening in your life as you prepared for high school".....I wonder if the www will be around forever?
Anyway, spoke with her today because she was summoned to the school. Our family uses any excuse for a country run, so off went the mother, the gran and the grandpops to Malvern, St Elizabeth. As was to be expected, The Niece ran off and went about exploring the school, with the help of the friendly students who would come up to her and say hello.
She says she likes the dorms, and the school is pretty. I can't wait to see it! I should change my name to Aunty Gladis!
I think I am more excited for her, because she is going to boarding school in the country. I think I would have enjoyed boarding school.
I think I will time a trip to Jamaica to ensure I can be included in the drive to drop her off at her new school.
By the way you old people on here......
...do you remember when you took Common Entrance and what you felt when you got your results?
I think I found out before the school got it (you know....somebody knew somebody, who knew somebody that knew somebody blah blah blah). I was very cocky about the exam. When it came to picking schools to put on the form, I only put St Hugh's and didn't care what the parents put as second, because I knew that was not going to be under consideration!
I even thought I would have got a Scholarship! Well it wasn't far fetched. I had come first in my primary school class for three consecutive years. Of course, I went to school downtown, so maybe the standard wasn't very high! I remember a girl in first form at high school - she who got a scholarship - laughing at me with disdain when I told her I thought I would get a scholarship. She who is now living somewhere in Europe, was the one who emailed me when I tried to make contact with her, and said "I just don't think we have anything in common any more."
Anyway, what was the waiting for Common Entrance results like for you? And how did you feel when you got the results?
I went to two houses on the same day, and it struck me how different the two kitchens were.
In the first one, the counter was very clear, except for maybe a breadpan, a toaster, a microwave oven and a basket which had some fruits.
In the second one, there was lots of stuff on the counter, and the kitchen looked like it was the hub of all activity in the house.
My kitchen probably looks a bit like the first one I've mentioned. On the counter are a toaster, a juice extractor, a microwave oven and...only because I haven't packed them away yet....six tins of Grace Ackee. There are no fruits, only because I am away though. Normally on top of the fridge I would have oranges, grapefruits, apples and ripe banana in them. I think you could tell from my kitchen that I don't cook much. Same like the home of the first kitchen.
So what is the personality of your kitchen?
It certainly don't seem like Christmas day to me. And certainly yesterday didn't feel like Christmas Eve. The streets were empty. Maybe coz it was a Sunday perhaps.
But compliments of the season to you all. And think about those less fortunate that won't have a memorable Christmas Day. Like the late Neville Willoughby's children and family. Sad thing about his tragic car accident so soon to a time of merriment. (dat spell wrong)
Yamfoot....doing the customary blog entry on Christmas Day but certainly not feeling it. They say Christmas is for kids. I really must be an adult now for sure!
After not sleeping much last night, I went to work at 9 this morning. Came home at 4:30 after doing the supermarket as I have a friend coming to stay on Wednesday night for a few days en route to Trinidad, and I had to buy stuff. The rest of the evening up till now was also because of the impending visit.
Washed one full load and one half load of laundry. Used fabric softener both times. I remembered *yeah*. Put some outside on the line, where they shall stay until tomorrow morning. The weather forecast says no rain tonight or tomorrow morning early.
Then cooked Ackee & Saltfish, which takes a lot of preparatory work - pick saltfish, cut up seasonings....well, maybe that is not so much to do. Cooked Curry Shrimp and curry Soy chunks. Spread the bed in the living room. Will clean the bathroom before I go to bed.
Now what I didn't tell you is that last night, I swept and mopped, spread the creaky bed, dusted the room, and wiped off all of the kitchen counter, including under the microwave and toaster.
I live with insects, so lots of stuff associated with that. I have spider webs, grasshoppers, crickets, some other flat insect that I have no idea what it's called.
So, suppose I then had to go have sex (on the creaky bed!) with a husband, help the kids with homework and other things associated with having a family, AND get up tomorrow, go to work at 9am, finish at midnight (with about a 2 hour break for that whole day), I would go nuts!
Thank goodness for singleness!
When I lived in Grenada, everytime I was driving north, I would look at this old house along the Grand Anse main roag going towards town. It was dilapidated and run down, the land around it unkempt, but something about it was attractive.
A friend of mine came to visit and without me saying anything to him, he thought the same thing. I was therefore very happy to see that somebody has started to renovate it. They've changed the external colour and I was trying to peek inside but the glass distorted the picture.
I did take some pictures of the house from the outside though.....
And these are a pictures of the chairs they are restoring.
I am going to be spending the greater part of 2006 in Grenada and have therefore started the search for somewhere to live.
The american university might be good for the island generally but bad for renters like me. Everybody who building in this Grand Anse area is targetting the students. They put in air conditioning because the students will not rent without AC, but then the prices are exhorbitant. The students will pay US$500 for a one bedroom unit!
When I was living here before, I was paying EC$1,400 per month....about US$600 for a two bedroom in Lance Aux Expines which is like a Beverly Hills, Upper Hope Pastures type area (those areas are in Jamaica) and it had two bedrooms, AC in both, washing machine and dryer, fully furnished etc. True....that was since 2001 but still. Things haven't gone up that much! Well, nothing but the ST George's University's student population!
I am going to rent a car tomorrow and drive around, looking for any house that has two electricity metres and knock on the gate and say "room for rent?" I won't buy a car, so it will have to be near the bus route. I will be yamming it...me and the yamfeet.
I just finish mixing some tick wash and pouring it on Penny. Now the instructions sounded quite ominous. Wear gloves, wash clothes that you wearing separately etc etc.
I did neither. So I'm wondering.....will my hands fall off? I really didn't put my water in the wash that much. Still, the fingers looking shrivel up a way.
Anyway, I was so pleased that Penny sat still and allowed me to pick ticks off her face, close to eye. And then she allowed me to use a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol to kind of clean out her ears.
She spends a lot of time in the yard, so she has the most ticks. The bitches - Kalli, Maxi and Vanna don't have so much so mi nah go bodda wid dem.
Only Penny will get me to risk my fingers falling off on her.
Penny normally gets her run of the yard while the other three mutts stay in the pen (because they attack her). One of the three is young Vanna (named after Ivan as she was a puppy back then), who just seems to 'raw raw, yap yap' at anything. So she follow the other two bitches in yapping at Penny.
Now the plan, eventually (and I can't wait), is to give the two bitches (Kalli and Maxi) to my brother. So it will leave Vanna and Penny here. I therefore decided that I have to start mixing the two of them so that I won't have to newspaper the kennel etc when the other two are given away.
I think Penny was happy for the play mate. Here are some pictures of them romping...
Penny enjoying a quiet moment....before Storm Vanna
Duelling Dogs, in a friendly way...
More romping...
And they slink towards me to ask me what exactly am I doing. "Did you get our permission to photograph us????????"
I didn't mention that my sister, her kids and my mother are away did I? So it's just me, Pops and the mutts here.
Usually on a Sunday I help with a part of dinner, but, as Mad Bull would say...yuh done know seh I had to do ALL of it today. No problem.
Lemme do like Dr D now and describe the preparation...
Saturday, cut up and season a whole chicken. I dont like recipes and I like to experiment. So in went some Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning (recommended by Adwoa-Shanti....I'm never returning to Grace again!), nutmeg, cinnamon, pineapple juice and pineapple (tin), garlic, thyme, bay leaf and soy sauce. That was left overnight.
Today, put that in the oven along with two potatoes wrapped individually in foil. Then deveined some shrimps, cooked a curry sauce with coconut milk, strained it and then dropped the shrimps in and let it boil and simmer.
Cut up some cho-cho (christophene) lengthwise rather than cubes, julienned some pumpkin (very thin strips) and cut off some broccoli florets. Used the steamer to steam those veggies.
Boiled corn as well.
When the chicken was cooked, I strained off the juice and added a concasse of sweet peppers, tomato and pineapple slices (nicely cubed).
So when I served it out the plate looked real pretty. I fanned out the long slices of cho-cho and put the shorter pumpkin strips on top, then put down the florets. Placed the chicken on the plate and drizzled the gravy with the concasse over it, so you got this explosion of colours.....red, green and yellow.
I cut an 'X' in the potato and squeezed up the flesh.
And Pops said "not bad at all". (That's a compliment).
Of course, I shoulda take a picture, but I've described it in detail so you can visualize. It didn't taste half bad, if I must say so myself.
Next week Sunday I'll be alone, so maybe won't do anything fancy.
I was a little apprehensive when, on approaching three servers who were standing at the entrance to the restaurant, not one of them met us and said "Good evening, welcome to Restaurant Japan". I paused and gave them an opportunity to talk to me first (one of the practices of excellent customer service....never let the customer talk first). Eventually one got it.
Then our server came and everything was fine. She was a pleasant missy. Didn't talk much though...needed to have been a bit more personal. But she had a constant smile and she got the orders correct.
The food was tasty. I had Pork Ginger or Ginger Pork and the pork was nice and tender, and very flavourful. The rolls were good too (the ones wrapped with rice etc that you eat with the wasabi).
But the creme de la creme was when the owner, a Japanese lady came over and said "who's the birthday lady" in her best English. Then after the main meal, about four of the employees came over singing happy birthday with a candle stuck in a Melted Pudding (fried ice cream - delish!).
And then the icing on the cake was when they presented Mother with a gift....a box of four wine glasses. Then the owner came back over again to ask how everything was.
See, it's not that difficult to please customers, but not everybody can do it. I can bet you that the family will think to return or recommend this restaurant to others.
Oh, here's what I looked like tonight....
(all 215 lbs of me!)
A headless Yamfoot....
Tomorrow is Mother's 65th birthday (and she's behaving like she's about 45!) so we decided we would go out for dinner rather than having people over.
But what restaurant should we go to? She had two requests. They had to serve lobster, and there should preferably be music....in that order. We went to the Hilton poolside last Wednesday to celebrate a friend's birthday and they had a poolside barbeque with lobster, so I guess that's where that came from.
We heard that Terra Nova had a similar thing on a Friday, so off I went. Wrong. They discontinued it after Ivan. So that put me in a tailspin. I conferred with Brother, who eats out quite a bit. He suggested I look at the following:-
Gaucho's Grill on South Avenue (heading down to the plazas)
Thai Gardens (beside Ahkbar Indian restaurant)
Restaurant Japan at the Hilton.
What about Kabana, I asked. He said he had heard mixed reviews which were mostly "nice atmosphere but indifferent food".
To Gaucho's first...
The service staff didn't give me a good first impression. The setting was very nice and included water. I think that's always a winner. The menu looked quite diverse, but ooooops....no lobster. Strike one.
Thai Gardens
I walk in (about 4:45pm) and there were some people (I assume staff) playing dominoes! Not a good first impression. Sure, the restaurant was closed, but still....Strike two.
Alexanders at the Courtleigh (where Mingles nightclub is)
No lobster no deh pon di menu. Strike three (I know, it wasn't in the original list but I had eaten there and liked it mostly)
Restaurant Japan at the Hilton
The restaurant is closed, but I saw the Japanese cooks preparing for dinner tonight. Naturally, I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but when I went up and asked about reservations, one of them could muster up "speak to cashier".
This wisp of a thing came out and I asked her what happens at the poolside (on the offchance that there was a barbeque on a friday). She didn't know. Tut, tut, tut said the trainer in me. Anyway, I asked her if I could make reservations. She proceeded to ask me for what day, what time, how many people. Standard questions. Then a not so standard one (by Jamaican standards anyway). "Is it a special occasion for anybody?"
Well....how did you know! Yes, my mother, she'll be 65 tomorrow and you have lobster which was one of her requirements. Before she came out to talk to me, I had asked the Japanese guys if they have lobster. He pointed to some on the counter top that were looking all...well....lobster coloured you might say. Then I asked him if they had bought it before the season closed. "HUH?" Never mind.
Back to Miss Wisp....
The next question she asked was "do you want to reserve the lobster?" Well, that was a surprise. I told her that I knew that at least two people wanted lobster. Mother and Father.
Well, that was certainly a pleasant encounter. That's what I will be trying to drill into the minds of the trainees later this year...that most of the times, it is their behaviour in the service encounter that will lead to satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
I'll let you know how the dinner goes tomorrow.
Suppose you were living with somebody and he/she yapped at you all day? Wore you down mentally? Abused you verbally? You would want to get away wouldn't you?
Well dogs seem to be no different. Penny, the meek mild dog (my favourite) is constantly harrassed by the bitch Kalli and the other two (imagine the likkle puppy tek up wid dat foolishness too!).
Yesterday, I was out and my sister called me to say that Penny, who was locked up in her kennel, jumped over the (high) wall into the kennel next door. That kennel door next door was open, and so she walked out.....right into the waiting jaws of the other three.
Water works every time so that was used to separate the dog from the bitches.
Now today, she was out in the yard which is separated from the front by a gate on either side of the house. Whenever my nephew goes outside with the ball, the bitch Kalli starts to abuse Penny. I don't know. The ball just excites the bitch into yapping.
To get away from it all, Penny jumped over the gate that separates the front lawn from the back yard and was on her way out the street gate, which is normally left open.
It made me think that no matter whether you are a dog or a human, there is only so much and no more that you can take. At least dogs can't commit suicide.
A couple weeks ago, they sprayed the area and we got some relief.
Now with the recent rains, and the many plant pots my mother has around the house and yard, the mosquitoes are back with a vengence.
I sitting here at the computer, and it's like my body is on fire and is not even a man causing it!
There was a prowler in our yard while I was in Mandeville. I was just hearing about it for the first time last night, when the alarm went off for no apparent reason.
The family was around the back in the den. My sister looked and saw a man walking past the windows. She thought at first it was my brother, because sometimes he comes around the back when he comes to visit. When she looked and saw that it wasn't she shouted "what you doing in here, what you doing?"
I don't get the impression that the man ran. Anyway, the security company was called and I hear they were here in a flash. The police was also called and arrived about 30 minutes later. The officers sat in the car across the road and shouted out my father's name and asked him if he had called the police. Pops shouted back and said yes he had called but he hardly thinks the crook would have been waiting for them!
It happened at something to 10. Now a few weeks before, the lady across the road up one, was held up at gunpoint at her gate when she came home around 9pm. She apparently owns a bakery. After that incident, I said to myself that we wouldnt have a problem like that, and in fact we've never had any incidents like that. Hah, was I wrong!
I also go out in the backyard sometimes late because I let the dog run around before putting her back in her kennel. What di hell would I do if I went outside and saw a man coming up the walkway? Crap in my pants probably.
So nowhere is safe. Nowhere. Not in Jamaica at least. I must get out of here.