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
Hmmmm, can't go back to UWI for any more treatment until I clear my debt.
$18 whole Jamaican dollars (US$1 = J$60). Can you imagine?
But I was so pleased when I asked the fella at the cashier desk if $582 would do, he quickly said yes. That's empowerment for you. No need to check with his supervisor to see if he could allow me to be seen with out paying the full amount.
Well I guess I should tell you how the day transpired huh.
After a leisurely morning which involved parting a fight with Penny and Kali (one of them must be in heat) with water, I dressed and went up to the University Hospital of the West Indies. (So it's really not UWI, it's UHWI.)
First there was Nurse McLaughlin, quite pleasant, who chuckled when I told her I had taken 4 aspirins. Chuckled with surprise I mean. Then she explained why she reacted like that. She said that aspirins will thin the blood and that can be great if you are having a heart attack, however, if you don't know you have a bleeding disorder and you take aspirins, then you could bleed to death.
I was given a priority 3 slip. When Alvin had to come and get his cut finger looked after, he must have got a priority 10! (They actually stop at priority 4). He waited 6 hours, if you remember me blogging that.
Well, I was in a hurry, so was hoping for the best. It worked! Positive thinking. Within about 15 minutes after paying, I was called into the inner section to wait to go into the consulting room. Within 10 minutes I was called into the consulting room. Then I was sent to pay for an EKG, then went to the do the EKG, took the results back to the doctor, and I was outa there in a flash. I think everything took about 1 hour 45 minutes or thereabouts.
Dr Smith who saw me, look like him JUST finish medical school. He did a thing with his face, and I asked him what was the matter (I always make conversation), he said he was having a hard time getting used to his retainers. He had apparently just taken off the braces.
He was very assuring.....I was not deading. No sah. Well not today at least.
So I'm in debt to UHWI first for not keeping me too long (I said to Dr Smith that it looks like Thursdays are a good day to get sick!), and to the tune of $18. I better not get sick again.
Oh, the EKG was normal. I got the miracle drug Cataflam, to treat a muscular condition. Let's see how that works.
Hi. Here I am again. A little earlier than the last post, because I actually haven't fallen asleep as yet.
I was silly to take the MiniGynon again tonight, but I wanted to see if that was what was causing the chest discomfort. It seems so.
So now what I am doing? On the internet reading up about symptoms of heart attack and/or angina. Them people who write them things sure know how to frighten people. "Get help now! Dial Emergency now. Do no delay".
Well we aint have that in Jamaica, sorry. And I not going to alarm the family by saying I'm driving myself to the hospital. Maybe if I was living alone I would do that.
So I'm going to take some aspirin with a slice of bread and see how I feel in the morning.
I've turned on the air conditioning to make sure I don't get hot. The night is pretty cool anyhow.
And I hope I'm not alarming anybody here. I just like to take my mind of things by writing and what else can I write about really?
Ok, aspirin time.
This is bloody annoying.
Maybe it's because I took some Comtrex last night, as I felt flu-y and can't afford to be sick.
Now my heart region feels funny. I went into bed at about 11pm, but didn't fall asleep until long after (and it's so hot, to make matters worse), all the time with this funny sensation in the left upper quadrant of my torso.
Heart attack? I guess not. I would be gagging already wouldn't I?
Maybe it is that Comtrex and Minni Gynon (dat probably spell wrong!) don't mix?
For sure, assuming I last out the day, no Comtrex for me tonight.
I'm sipping a cup of tea now, and just had a slice of bread cause mi did 'ungry too.
The hurricane puppy, Vanna, got her first bone today. An oxtail bone. She didn't seem to know what to do with it....was trying to scrape off the fragments of meat left on it. She's fed in a kennel so that the hawks aka Kalli and Maxi don't go and eat out her food.
She was finished the food part and I didn't see the bone so thought she had finished that. Alas, when I let her out, the hawk Maxi went in and snapped up the unfinished bone. I held her mouth open, hoping it would fall out, but to no avail.
Oh well, Vanna didn't seem too perturbed anyway, so why should I be? She was in a hurry to go and grab at the water. Unlike most dogs, she doesn't use her tongue to lap up the liquid. She opens her mouth and literally bites the water! Quite funny to look at.
Oh, you want to know about Kalli and Penny nuh? Still grrrrrrrrrrrrowling at each other. Today I saw Penny rail up on her hind legs in a tussle with the bitch Kalli. She suffered a little scratch on her face, so I had to comfort her.
Oh I will be so happy when my brother takes Kalli away at year end.
Oh, I won't start another sentence with Oh again.
....Tonoya Toyloy.
She also won the public voting. The top 5 were Caroline Yapp, Candace Thorbourne (they came 2nd and 3rd respectively) and the other two were Debbie McKreith and Jordanne Halsall. Yes, Jordanne was the one we knew, also Debbie.
Toyloy was very well spoken, but her body was not as good as say Candace Thorbourne. What I think may have swayed the judges was her allaround ability. She plays classical piano and have a degree and is becoming a licenced pharmacist. I heard her on Smile Jamaica morning show and she was very articulate.
Now after they pick the top 10, they ask them questions. Each girl picks a judge's name out of the bowl and then the judge chosen reads the question. I have been made to understand that the girls know what these questions are beforehand, and so are able to make up an answer before hand, instead of on stage. What a crock!
I believe (oh, that was a favourite phrase) that had they not shown the girls the questions, one of the ones who would have answered well was the eventual winner.
Sis said she going to get swallowed up in the Miss World competition. So I posed the same question....should you pick the best girl in terms of who has done well, and is representative of Jamaica or should you pick somebody who you think will win Miss World? She said "then what's the point of sending them then?" suggesting the latter.
When the newspaper report comes out, I will link it.
Mad Bull, beg yuh a link nuh to di Miss Jamaica web site so dem cyan si who mi a chat bout? Mi cyan bodder look it up.
Ivan came and interrupted the finals of the Miss Jamaica World competition. The finals will now be held tomorrow evening, and tonight, they had excerpts from the pre-judging.
This is where the girls line up in their bikinis in front of the many judges who scrutinize their bodies. Then, each judge gets to chat one-on-one with a girl....in their bikinis! So breasts in full show. Lawks.
Anyway, the judges weren't the only ones scrutinizing. We were at home too.
"Lawks, fat in har back"
"Terrible skin"
"No nappy hair girls huh...well just one token one"
The latter was in reaction to the fact that everybody have "tall, pretty pretty hair long down har back".
For those of you not familiar with Caribbean culture, this is something coming down from the days of slavery. First of all, the slaves coveted to be the plantation owner's house slave, that means you would work in the house and not in the fields. Then inevitably, the slave owner impregnated the house slave and the kid would be coloured with "tall, pretty, pretty hair long down har/him back". This mulatto kid would then be a favoured child, and would be very well looked after by the father (the slave owner).
So now, many people still believe that to be beautiful, you have to have "tall, pretty, pretty hair long down har back". Beauty contests have been severely criticized here in Jamaica for that very reason, that they never seem to pick girls who represent what the majority of Jamaican women look like. When Joan McDonald won in the late 70's, it was during the Manley years and that decision was hailed in many socialist quarters. Since then, we have had some dark skinned, nappy hair women, albeit their hair being helped by Dark & Lovely or Optimum hair relaxer, but dark skinned none the less. (Hair relaxer is used to straighten the nappy hair which usually has very tight curls)
None of those went on to place anywhere in Miss World though. But is that the aim? For us to produce a Miss Jamaica who will stand a chance at the Miss World pagaent? Or do we choose a Miss Jamaica whose looks will say to the world, "this is what a typical Jamaican woman is like".
Of course, those Jamaicans who are mixed will say they are as Jamaican as those who are dark skinned. But dark skinned people are definitely in the majority here.
The finals will be showed on TVJ live tomorrow. I have not a clue who they will choose. No one really stands out...not like when Alison Barnett and Sandra Foster entered and you could see that they were runaway winners.
Mad Bull had posted something about the contest on his blog and I think he mentioned Caroline Yapp as a favourite. She's quite attractive, so too is Candace Thorbourne, Debbie McKreith and Jordanne Halsall (who we know).
May the best girl win.
Well, let me take my nappy hair and get out of here. Har, har.
I promised you this last night but Gmail was acting up. Here is the account of a non-Caymanian nurse as she and her husband experienced Ivan. Really scary, you just can't imagine it.....
September 15, 2004
Dear Family and Friends,
I am sure you are all anxious to hear about our experiences concerning Hurricane Ivan which destroyed Grand Cayman Island. It was a nightmare, an unbelievable time. No one was prepared for the viciousness of Ivan, even all the Caribbean people who go through these often. This was the worst recorded hurricane ever to hit the Cayman Islands, # 5 in severity with 200 mi/hr winds traveling at 8 mi/hr. (hurricanes are usually 24 mi/hr). As our building was hurricane safe and off the ocean, my husband and I decided to stay in our condo. All the windows were boarded over with large sheets of plywood. We prepared ourselves with drinking water, snacks, flashlights, plenty of batteries and candles and settled down for the night.
This was Sat. Sept 11. (Ironic)
The winds started to really pick up around midnight and proceeded in intensity throughout the night.
Around 5AM we were awakened by the sound of water.
We realized water was poring in from our boarded up windows and within 30 minutes were up to our knees in water. We started putting our belongings that were on lower shelves up on counters and our dressers, etc. We lit our candles and settled down to watch the storm, radio on to listen to any updates on the storm. By 7 AM the water was up to midthigh and we had lost all radio contact.
My husband and I were now sitting on our kitchen counters to keep dry. Our furniture was floating around by this time. The storm was viciously howling outside and we watched as the palm tree fronds were being blown off the trees one by one. At 8AM we watched our grape tree go down along with all the other trees in our front yard. The water continued to rise. At 10AM we noticed our door start to bow inward with the rise of water outside. Before we realized what was happening the front door burst in with a surge of water (6foot wave). My husband and I made a dash for the guest bedroom and climbed upon the bed that was now floating. We had just made it onto the bed when we noticed the ceiling starting to shake and realized it was collapsing.
We made it to the guest bathroom, sitting on an end table we had place on the bathroom sink. There we sat and waited for 5 hours as we watched the water continue to rise. When standing, the water was mid chest level. I was wearing a life-jacket, as we knew if it raised much more we would have to try and swim out to reach the upper condo. After about 2 hours the end table we were sitting on collapsed (particle board does not hold up well submerged for 2 hours in brown sewage seawater) sending us into the water. We found 2 Rubbermaid containers floating and were able to get those up on the sink to sit on to wait out the rest of the hurricane.
One of the things they tell you is not to leave your dwelling under any circumstances, you are safer to stay in side your home rather than try and get out as then you are exposed openly to the elements. I should mention when the surge burst through the door it swept everything that we had stored on the counters and dresser tops off into the fast flowing water out the front door. We lost everything, including our candles, flashlights and drinking water.
Our fridge, stove, washer and dryer were floating.
The water started to subside around 5PM and we were able to move back to the kitchen counter, though the ceiling was partially down. At around 7PM the winds started to subside, where we felt safe enough to venture to higher ground though the winds were still pretty strong and the water was at waist level. We made it to the condo above and behind us and they were wonderful neighbours. We just knew them to say hi but they brought us in, clothed us, fed us and gave us a bed. We have been living with them since and they have made us feel welcome. We will stay with them until we find further arrangements.
The next morning we woke up to calm weather. We ventured down to our condo to assess the damage and almost cried. We had lost everything, our clothes, shoes, appliances, everything. We were able to save our laptop, a few pictures, jewelry and important papers, but other than that all we had were the clothes on our back, which weren't even ours. We even found someone else's chair in our living room, books that weren't ours, etc. The place looked like a bomb had struck.
Everyone was walking around in shock. Everyone's place on the ground level looked like ours or worse. The house behind us was no more, gone into the ocean.
We walked to Grand Harbour, where my husband works and people were walking around devastated. It is hard to believe but we fared better than a lot of other places. The condos all along the ocean were gone. We now have an ocean view. We lost both of our cars and I had no way to get into work, though I was to report in immediately after the hurricane. No one was prepared for this (not even the Caymanians), they had never experienced a hurricane of such intensity.
It was actually the water surge that raised the ocean 20 feet and sent a 50foot wave over the island.
Anyone who has been here knows how flat this island is, so can imagine how much damage a wave like that would cause. Seven mile beach is no longer part of Cayman. Condo complexes were swept into the sea.
We don't know the number of fatalities but there are numerous people missing. Graveyards in Cayman are usually along the ocean and many of those were destroyed, so bodies, already dead were floating in the sea. It is a site no one would believe without seeing it for one self.
We are now in a state of emergency. As most countries, the looting started the next day and the Camanian government has put marshall law into effect.
There is a 6PM curfew and the police have been advised to shoot to kill all looters. Two Jamaicans were shot and killed this morning for looting.
There is no electricity and running water on the island, oh for a shower! Today is the first day we have had internet and there is no land phones, thank goodness for cell phones but most of the batteries are now dead. I have been working 12 hours with sometimes 4 hours off. We are running out of medical supplies, linens, etc. People are being sent back to the shelters, who shouldn't be. Other countries are now coming to our aid and medical supplies are starting to arrive. They are getting all people off the island, who don't have to be here. I could go on and on but I just wanted to give you an idea what is happening in "once" paradise. My husband and I have been too busy with work to deal with our loss, but after working 2 days, I realize we got off lucky.
Everyone is helping everyone. I now have 3 pair of shorts, 5 tops, 2 pair of shoes and 2 pair of socks to my name. I will be taking tomorrow off to try and see what I can salvage from our condo. Our landlord said he will not be rebuilding as there is too much structural damage, so at the time we are homeless.
Anyway, I wanted to give you all an idea of what the last 5 days have been like.
I mentioned a couple of months ago that when I was in Grenada in April, I cleared out stuff I had stored. In the box was a notebook which I had kept. One of the pages had a letter I had started to type to Oprah. This is how it went......
"Dear Miss Winfrey" (instead of Oprah cause me have 'broughtupsy'!)
"I know you wouldn't expect to get a letter from Grenada! Hope it's a nice surprise. Anyway, your show is very timely as I have just embarked on a more serious campaign to get fitter and healthier. I have been overweight all my life and every day while eating the foods I shouldn't be eating, I used to say 'tomorrow I'll start'. Well I think tomorrow has come."
"I moved here from my native Jamaica in mid 1997 partly to accomplish my long time goal of living and working outside of my home country and partly to improve the quality of my life, which was not allowing me to take full advantage of the beauty of living."
"I have a great job, which allows a lot of the true me to shine, and allows me to use the great abilities I know I have. I feel that losing soem weight will make me feel much better about myself. I don't want to be thin. I want someone ot have something to hold on to! Your personal weight loss story has been inspiring (Where can I get the book and video?)"
And that's all I have. Can't remember if I typed it up and mailed it....if I did I certainly didn't get a reply. But reading this, and reading all my journals and mini-notebooks from over the years, it highlights that my weight, or rather the abundance of it, has dominated my thoughts, and still continues to do so.
And of course, each mention by somebody about "look how your belly jumping" just brings it back into focus if I had temporarily and conveniently forgot I had an overweight problem while downing the cake and ice cream.
I don't know why I thought back then that writing to Oprah could have helped me. Maybe nothing or no one can help me. I know, I know, you will say "no one can help you but you".
And maybe I don't want help. Maybe I want to be this size that I keep hovering around for the past 7 or so years. Who knows.
LET THERE BE LIGHT!
I told you the JPS people were on the road right? So this afternoon, around 5pm when the neighbour called to tell us that the power had come back, we had to wait until Pops came home to turn the breaker switches back on.
When he did, there was nothing. My 8 year old niece asked "Grandpa, you pay the bill?" Of course we had.
So at my insistence, we called the electrician who told Pops what to do and as I was finishing up my shower....sorry, one-gallon-bath, on came the lights. We all squealed.
By this time, all the meats had been cooked and eaten, all things which had spoilt were thrown away, and I remarked to Villy that the hurricane was good for ridding us of things in the fridge that weren't being used. A sort of inventory purge.
So it's an end to the candlelight dinners, but not an end to the Kandlelight Kalooki games. Because my nephew is back at school, we have to play fewer games. He won tonight, but watch out for me and him tomorrow.
The dogs are the same. Kalli hasn't learnt. I am dying for my brother to take her away to his house. In the meantime, Ivanna (she still doesn't know that's her name) is barking up a storm. She likes water, I got her into the habit by bathing her very often in the sink outside. I also used to wash her feet when I couldn't bathe her fully. So she's not afraid of water. I guess she's the perfect Hurricane Puppy.
We started to clean up the yard today, so it looks a lot cleaner now.
But Ivan was a non-event as far as I am concerned, but I am sure when we hear from Mad Bull it will be a different story.
Lawks, these last 3 days without internet were cruel. Even more cruel than being without light and water, which we still don't have. Am about to run and pick up some over at the Mona Reservoir.
The dogs are fine, we are fine, no damage, just some tree limbs came down. Hurricane shutters work people. Go out and buy them.
Unfortunately the hotel in Grenada is extensively damaged. They were right on the sea front, with glass doors in all those beachfront rooms, which all blew out. They will be closed for a long long period.
Now the more important question is how is our recent export Mad Bull doing over there in Cayman? Lemme go take a visit to his site. I hear that there is a lot of sea water on the island, which is as flat as a pancake.
Wanted: One raincoat that actually works!
If you see rain fuh so! The dogs were howling so as soon as the rain let up, we went outside, took off the galvanize off part of the kennel and fed them. Me thinks they are a lot happier now. They will sleep in the kennel tonight rather than being let out in the pen.
My sister and brother and Alvin have gone driving down the road to check out things at his apartment (all is well) and his office. She said they had to bank the sidewalk in some places as there was too much water on the road.
After I finished wit the dogs outside, I had to bathe cause the clothes dem wuz soaked. I bathed in very little water (I'm clean! Guh weh!) and you have to think how much water we waste.
My sister just called from my brother's office, lots of trees along the way.
Tomorrow you will get pictures, but for those of you who havent seen them yet, look at the first navI Notes and you should see the link for where I have pictures.
Over and out.....battery for laptop dying. You won't hear from me until tomorrow.
Give thanks.
Mad Bull, brace for Ivan now. It's Cayman's turn.
I think we have been spared....somewhat.
Where we live is Kingston & St Andrew. The latest advisory said that the hurricane was located 30 or so miles south of Hellshire Point in St Catherine. That's to the west of where we are. So it seems as if Ivan has skirted the south coast of Jamaica. It means that we are getting mostly the rain.
Of course, we've been hearing the winds as well, rattling the shutters we have up on the window. Through one of the windows, we've discovered a trickle of water, nothing major.
Using flashlights to look outside, it seems as if part of the ackee tree has fallen down....and it was laden.
My priority is to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow and check on the dogs. Now if you have been reading this blog in the past couple of months, you would have seen stories about the tormentor Kalli. Well, right now she is holed up in the same kennel as my favourite dog who she is always terrorizing. Like me, my favourite dog doesn't fight back, she just walks away. But when she has had enough, she let's Kalli know just who is boss.
I hope therefore from the experience of them going through a Hurricane together, Kalli will be a litte kinder to Penny) my favourite.
So too, us in this house have had to be in the same space and keep nerves even. I think we've done a pretty good job.
Midnight was supposed to be the danger period. It's fast approaching that time. We know not what is to come. But we sit, wait, hope, chat, laugh, sleep (not too much) and wish this man, a tormentor, a speedy exit from near Jamaica Land we Love.
Ivan in gusts...
Woieeeeee. It's now 6:21 pm on Friday evening. From reports we are getting from friends who have called, we are not experiencing bad things at all. A friend who lives in Waterworks has spoken of downed trees. Mad Bull has reported that Dr D reported that trees are down. But we have had none of that.
Sometimes during the Kalooki game (I'm winning....yipee!) we heard howling and looked to see some trees swaying. We just had dinner, and are pausing before we go back to the Kalooki game (I'm winning.....)
It will be Kalooki by Kandlelight because they turned off the power at about 4:30 this afternoon. Precautionary measures. The water is now gone. TVJ stopped transmission earlier this afternoon, but Radio Jamaica is continuing programming as normal.
Right now, Dionne Jackson-Miller is interviewing AJ Nicholson, the Attorney General. This is because the Prime Minister declared a Public Emergency and the Opposition Leader soon-to-be-full-time-stay-at-home-Dad came on the air to say that it was unnecessary, we should "wait and see". (He's old, you have to see with Eddie). So RJR got AJ Nicholson on the air to discuss the matter. Well, him tell har that the matter is not important and that she must focus on Ivan. Puppa Jeezaz....Mrs Jackson-Miller take him on.
Anyway, we heard in the 5 pm news that some boys were playing football in Cassava Piece. Mad people. When dem dead now dem cuss.
Anyway, we are fine, not getting the gusts too badly, but the worst is yet to come.
9:00 tonight is I-time.
(oh, we've decided on Ivanna for the dog's name....she doesn't know it yet though!)
Ok, people...
I'm writing this after having just seen a gust of wind. It came from a totally different direction from where Pops thought it would have come. He thought it would have come from the south side, down by the sea, the Harbour direction, but it came from the hill behind us. Behind that hill is near Jack's Hill.
The power keeps cutting out and coming back on, so I am about to pack up the internet thingy.
The eye is expected sometime tonight around 8pm, much later than projected because Ivan chilling. Him slowing down. So in another 6 hours, I guess I will have a helluva story to tell.
Check in around then.....(if the phone still works!).
Oh, we now going to start a Kalooki game.
Cho b%$#&#@^!
Mi wake up dis morning, expecting to hear howling wind, rain pouring etc. Instead what did I find? Just a normal (English) weather day. Cho man. It needs to be done and gone.
Now is not till dis evening dat we will see any gusts of wind etc.
Do you know why this is a problem? Cause of the dogs. The big dogs are battened down in the kennel and the only means of air are some holes big enough for my (yam) hands to go through. So, with that available space, I shoved the bundles of newspaper that had dog food pellets wrapped up in them. And the puppy, who had been put in the laundry in her portable kennel (she was NOT amused), I took her out and she's now on the verandah making merry with Mother's plants (Shhhhh. Mother doesn't know about that yet!).
So we sit and we wait. And while we do, the water has been turned off and we turned off our tank to make sure it is full. An empty tank on top of a roof is something that Ivan would like and we are so pissed with him that we want to withold treats from him.
Check out three new pictures (or maybe it's more, maybe less, not sure) that are on the picture website. I took those this morning. There's one of the freed puppy, now looking cross, 'hangry', miserable. Wait till the winds start howling later this evening and she is put back in her small kennel. Then we will have not only the winds but puppy howling too!
Oh, she doesn't have a name yet? Any suggestions?
Ok, we've done all we can. There is nothing left to do except perhaps huff and puff and blow and see if we can blow Ivan away.
It's time to sleep, perchance to dream that I wake up tomorrow and everybody is asking "Ivan? Ivan who? What hurricane?". And then to wake up and find out that it wasn't a dream. Wouldn't that be luverly?
Any way, I'm outta here. I guess the howling winds at about 6:am should wake us up huh....
It's 6:15 Thursday evening and we have just about completed our battening down in preparation for navI (that's Ivan spelt backwards in case you didn't figure it out).
What have we done?
1. Put up storm shutters on all the glass windows.
2. Put up galvanize sheeting in front of the mutts' kennels
3. Brought the puppy inside
4. Bought drinking water
5. Took the satellite dish and Dss antenae (dat spell wrong) down off the roof
6. Got batteries for the transistor radios
7. Bought ice to use in igloo coolers should electricity go.....sorry WHEN electricity goes
8. Ensure all the cell phones are charges
9. Cooked enough food to last through to Friday night
10. Packed away plants
11. Parked two of the cars at Daddy's office in the basement car park
We had enough food because we had just done the monthly shopping last week.
Now we sit, we wait, we watch. The clouds have got darker, and thunder has started.
I have put up some pictures at this site so go take a look. I will update pictures tomorrow morning when it gets bright.
We should start feeling the effects around 5am and the eye should be passing over around 3pm.
More anon. Check out navI Notes: 2
Woke up this morning to find out that Hurricane Ivan has strengthened to a Category 5 Hurricane, the strongest that there is.
As a Category 3 storm, it hit Grenada and battered it. Can you imagine what it will do to Jamaica? I went to bed hoping that when I got up this morning, it would have shifted, or better still, dissipated into winds of less that 60 miles an hour. That would have been some miracle huh.
At this rate, it is expected to hit us at 3pm on Friday.....yikes!!!! That's tomorrow!
The storm shutters will go up this morning, we have to find a way to secure the dogs....we were thiking of bringing them inside but Pops will figure out a way to keep them safe in their concrete kennel.
I wasn't here for Gilbert, so I have not a clue what to expect. I hope it somehow miraculously does not do as much damage as a Category 5 is expected to do.
I have a laptop, so if we still have a phone line, I can post stuff.
Keep fingers, toes and other body parts crossed for us.
I just finished typing the remembrance my Dad wrote for the funeral on Saturday. It got me thinking...
When I pass away, assuming they haven't inventing a way for living forever by then, what will people say at my funeral?
I wonder, when I pass away, will I have a family? Will I be 80? 60? 40 (two years time)? Will I have a husband, a lover, a boyfriend? Who will say the remembrance? Will there even be a funeral? Suppose by then I am destitute and have had to resort to begging and living on the street, there would be no funeral, would there.
I wonder, I wonder, I wonder. Would you like to see into the future to reduce the wondering you have to do? I have never ever ever done the tea leaf reading thing, or card reading thing (me = big fraid). I will continue therefore to wonder.
I wonder.....I wonder?
Phones ringing, but I guess they not registering. Want to find out if reports of the capital being flattened are true.
The news reports say that the Prime Minister's residence was destroyed. The Opposition would say that that is retribution for all the wrong he has done. (I wouldn't put it past them)
I'm a celebrater of birthdays. I don't necessarily have a party, or do anything major major, but there must be celebrations of some sort.
This past weekend I was doing up a cricket schedule for the regional one day tournament and realized that there is a Jamaica match in Grenada on my birthday. I'm scheduled to be in Grenada at that time and so I thought how perfect my birthday will be this year. Last year was pretty smashing too, also celebrated in Grenada by having dinner at Bel Air Plantation. The restaurant is called Water's Edge. Very nice and simple and right by the water. Had a fantastic time with a colleague from Trinidad. Go back and look in October archives on the 22nd.....yeah, that's the date of my birth. Bookmark it!
Oh, be sure to click on the Villas link at the top of the website. The pictures are real. I've been inside the villas and they are top class. Would recommend it highly and was going to spend a night there sometime last year but it didn't work out. Yes, it would have been a one-woman show!
I didn't leave the computer until about 3 this morning. After I turned in, I wasn't tired so read part of my SELF magazine. From the early pages I knew this one was going to be better than O. You bet.
In one feature, they asked 13 'wise women to reflect on the life decisions, large or small, that shaped them into whot they've become today'. Several of them made me look inward, but this one especially got me thinking....
GIVING UP LONELINESS
As a child of divorce, I grew up thinking that relying on others was dangerous. Love died. People changed. It was better to be independent and self-sufficient. By 14, I could cook, clean and take care of myself for a week at a time.
As an adult I continued to perform my one-woman show. I avoided roommates. I chose a solitary profession. I fell in love with unavailable people. Outwardly I was confident, but inside I was lonely.
Ultimately I had to admit what I'd grown up denying: No woman is an island. So I chose to take off my mask of self-sufficiency and let others begin to know me. I deepened relationships with my family and made more nurturing friends. I met someone who was available and, for once, I stood still. I've since replaced my one-woman show with an ensemble piece. And I've never been happier.
Rebecca Walker, editor of WHAT MAKES A MAN: 22 WRITERS IMAGINE THE FUTURE
So I got to thinking....
1. Am I lonely?
2. Do my friends really know me?
3. Am I a one-woman show?
And I answered myself....
1. Most times not really.
2. I think so....ask them.
3. Most definitely....I was just thinking that the only real relationship that I've had lasted for 8 months, the explanation was that I moved away, but it's quite possible if I hadn't moved away I would have got tired of the monotony, the sameness, the routine, and ended it. Because I am self-sufficient. I don't need anybody to cook for me, wash the sink load of dishes I've been too tired to do for the past 2 days, bring my favourite flavour ice cream.....or do I?
Hmmm, maybe that one not so settled yet. But paragraph 2 is me 100% except for the fell in part with unavailable people. The difference is I didn't fall in love with them. I must be a magnet.
Anyway, another of the 13 wise women wrote something that I connected with as well.....
BECOMING A WRITER
When I was a kid, I loved to write. Nothing earth-shattering - I had no drawers full of novels or stacks of stories, only diaries with entries that consisted mostly of "tonight Mommy made lamb chops and pease" or later, "Oh God, I love him so much." I wrote for pleasure, without thinking. Then, my freshman year in college, I got pregnant, married and expelled. It was 1959. By 36, I had four kids, two ex-husbands and a long list of things I'd failed at. I could, however, roast a mean chicken.
At that point, I viewed writers as a group apart. They knew something secret, something big, something I didn't. Now and then I'd sit down with pen and paper, but after a few sentences I'd crumple the page. "Who do you think you are?" a voice in my head demanded. "You haven't even read MOBY DICK." Then one rainy afternoon I heard a story told at a funeral and I couldn't wait to get home and write it down. My first attempt was terrible, but instead of flinging my pen at the wall, I decided to try again. The story was most important than my ego, and five hours later there were three pages I liked. I was 46, but at last I knew the secret: There was no secret. To be a writer you don't have to start right, you just have to start.
Abigail Thomas.
What struck a chord with me was "To be a writer you don't have to start right, you just have to start". Do you know I started to write a short story several years ago....well it was a semi-autobiography. I gave my brother to read and he laughed at it, and so I deleted it from the computer.
But while in Grenada in April, I was cleaning out the boxes I left with all and sundry for safekeeping in 2001. There, in between the lizard crap, was an old notebook. For some reason I don't like throwing away notebooks. You bet....the handwritten story was in there.
Of course now I would write it differently, having had a lot of practice first writing stories from England, then this blog, I guess I've improved a bit.
I saw Sis's ex-mother-in-law in Miami last week and the first thing she asked was "Where's the book?" This was a question many people asked when I just started to send them the stories from England. So I thought of a title "Somefink to write home about: Diaries of a Yardie Yamfoot in the Motherland" and they would be short episodes rather than a running book.
The title of the semi autobiographical one would have the words "Croaking Lizard" in it, because there have been two episodes with those creatures which have been profound.
So I need to do like Abigail and start writing! Maybe I could become like J K Rowling and be a billionaire off my books.
I bought the most recent copy of O magazine. That's Oprah Winfrey's magazine. So thick and full of advertisements.
Well I leafed through it last night and realized that were it not for the interview she did with Alicia Keys, I would have been sorely disappointed at having spent nearly US$4 on it. Usually the magazine is choc full of good articles, but this one was frivolous. I shoulda known by the cover. The main feature was about shopping. Who have money to shop?
Now about that interview....
You know I do interviews quite a bit. Even before this cricket thing I had to do job interviews, not me being the interviewee but me doing the interviewing, also had to do research interviews for my thesis, and now these cricket interviews. Each time that I do one, I review it mentally, and then again when I type up the transcripts, to look at the quality of the questions. I want to make sure that I don't put myself in the interview too much and if I do that it has relevance to the subject I am interviewing.
Well, while reading the Alicia Keys (what a fabulous performer she is) interview I thought to myself that Oprah put too much of herself in the questions/statements. Lemme give you an example....
O: We watched you take home five Grammys. Was that one of your dreams?
A: Part of the dream was to be....I don't know if successful and accepted are the right words.
O: Those are good words and I know where they're coming from. I know you don't mean bling or a big house.
A: Right. I kept diaries when I was young......
O: I've kept them since I was 15. They're among my most prized possessions.
A: It's like "If the house is burning down, get the diaries out". When I was 9, I was in my first music group. I wrote this stupid little thing about how this boy asked me to dance at this party, and at the end of my diary, I wrote, "Please, please, please let this group work out.". It didn't but other things did.
O:In my first diary, I wrote "My dad won't let me go to Shoney's with Anthony Otey. Dad doesn't understand true love."
A: That's so cute.
O: I'll go back and read something I've described as painful, and I can't even remember the incident. You always manage to walk through the pain and come out on the other side.
A. Aint that something?
Too much of Oprah don't ya think? As an interviewer you have to resist the urge to talk about yourself. Ah so me see it.
You notice that I don't have a profile of me right? like how Mad Bull has one of him. Well there are a couple of reasons why. One - Ooonu too fahss! No, what I mean is, I like the anonymity of this. Ok, sure, some of you know me and would be able to flag me down on the street and say 'Yammie, what a gwaan'. But mainly I am incognito (I think).
Second thing is, I don't know where the %^$%@# to put in a profile on this thing. Ryan set it up, and I'm not bothered at all about that.
But I was just roaming on Owen's site (look on my blogroll for the link) and looking back on some older posts and I found this where I attempted a bit of a profile on his site. I think I have one on Bootsie's site as well, can't remember. I wrote this while I was in Grenada, long before the PhD mild state of confusion hit me. So maybe in my subconscious I wasn't so sure about that step as the next one, from looooooooooong time.
Who know what we know when. It's all a mystery. Just like my profile.
(and oh, I have a bump on my face. doesn't have anything to do with this blog entry really, but it just hurt me so it's topical - literally. and yes Dr D I AM trying to squeeze it. slap me.)
That's the lead story in the Sunday Gleaner today. And I agree 110%. I've known of people who "don't eat this, and don't eat that" but by the time they got back from boarding school, they were eating everything in site.
And it's true what the article says I would imagine, that boarding school makes you appreciate diversity.
I've been suggesting to Sis that she sends her two to boarding school. They need a little toughening up and to appreciate what they have. But then again, I was told of a boy who was shipped off to boarding school, and he came back with his finger nails bitten to the core. After three years his parents decided to bring him back home. But I am sure he would have been better off for having spent three years there.
Board them!
I wonder if these things really work? I'm sorry I can't link the article in the Sunday Gleaner's magazine Outlook (they haven't updated their site yet can you imagine?), about Lorraine Gentles who is a registered nursse and also a herbalist.
She tells the story that she was diagnosed with a tumour, and given three months to live. She refused to take that diagnosis and used alternative therapy. She learnt from her granny who she says has never taken a tablet in her life (yeah, right). Anyway, MRI's showed no tumours after three months.
Of course doctors were amazed. Sure.
She says "I can't marry anyone". I say the same thing, but not because I don't get home until 9:30 every night as she states her reason to be. I just can't tolerate anyone around me for all times. But then again, if he like Ms Gentles is a herbal healer who can work on weight loss, maybe I can take him on as a project to take me on as a project.
The Sunday Paper is the place to look if you're looking for employment. I saw a vacancy today which caught my eye. I think I will apply.
"The Jamaica Defence Force wishes to recruit a medical doctor".
What a fantastic position that would be!
But I don't know if it was the Atkins shake, or the combination of that with the apple juice and apple (you ever wonder how apple juice taste so different from the raw apple itself?) that did it.
Thank goodness for Kaopectate. Meant I could have the curry goat which was for dinner.
Phew! Wouldn't have wanted to have missed that.
During a room clean up exercise, a notepad I used in England was found. Flipped through the pages and found a shopping list that looked like this....
Lettuce
Tomato
Sweet Pepper
Onion
Garlic
Broccoli
String Beans
Carrots
Cucumber
Spinach (learnt to make it in England)
Apples
Grapefruit
Orange
Plums
Almond
Hazelnuts
Lentils
Kidney Beans
Chicken
Mince
Mackerel
Tuna
Sardines
I really eat healthily don't I? Lots of heart healthy stuff too. That's why my cholesterol is so low. I've never had high cholesterol. Never.
Atkins Advantage. Straweberry flavour (very very tasty).
Water
Calclum Caseinate (a milk derivative)
Soybean oil
Whey protein concentrate
Cellulose gel
contains 0.5% or less of the following
Natual and artificial flavour, potassium phosphate, cellulose gum, soy lecithin, carrrageenan, sucralose (Splenda), Cochineal extract, magnesium choloride, magnesium phosphate, tricalclum phosphate, D-Biotin, D-Calclum pantothenate, folic acid, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, dosium ascorbate, thiamin, mononitrate, vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin B19, riboflavin etc etc etc etc (too much to type).
Per serving:
170 Calories. 80 from fat
9g fat (saturated 1.5g)
15mg cholesterol
170g sodium
580mg potassium
5 g total carbs (3g dietery fibre, 1g sugars)
20g protein
Several vitamins and minerals.
It doesn't sound too bad Bootsie. What you think?
....when I lose about 15 - 20 pounds. With all the Atkins shakes and protein powder I bought, I hope this happens sooner or later. If I really really really really work hard, I could conceivably lose that by year end.
But I don't feel like working hard. In fact I don't feel like doing much except blogging, surfing, writing. Is there a job that pays you to do that?
I need some purpose, that's what I need to get me moving again.
I'm in a rut. That's it. A rut. A diet/exercise rut. A career rut. A rut rut rut.
You remember this entry where I spoke about that 40 something year old who had got 6 months to live? Well that was May and she passed away last week.
I wonder how she spent the remaining months? I wonder how her son is coping?
From the safety and sanctitude of my home (or rather my parents' home), I read about and hear about a world, only about 15 or so minutes drive away from where we live (of course with no traffic!) where the things that go on there seem so foreign.
Am I living in the same Jamaica? How come when I moved in, I didn't have to be introduced to the people who run the area, so that they would know that it's ok to let me in? How come I don't have to rush home before it's dark, so that those who patrol illegally with their guns don't mistake me and put two in my back?
Why the great divide in this land of wood and water (that we all can't enjoy)? Why bother have elected leaders? Why don't we just do as we want? That's pretty much how it is now anyway. Law and order has no control.
In a 'by the way' conversation with a friend a couple days ago, she spoke about a fill-in domestic helper she had while her regular one was away and how good she was. As you may recall if you've been visiting here often enough, we had no choice but to ask ours not to come back after an incident of insubordination.
Since that time, mother aka 'Esme', has been doing the chores (mostly) even at her ripe 'old' age of 64.
Anyway, I got a bright idea, and my friend got in touch with this temporary helper and fortunately she did not have a regular job. So she came for an 'interview' yesterday morning.
During the chat, my niece was ever present. I must tell you that she and I have a strong affection for food in general, so when she heard the lady say that she bakes cookies and other things like quiche, my niece was as happy as a pig in swill. Well....perhaps that's shouldn't be the analogy I should use!
So the lady starts on Monday and quite coincidentally, she used to work at the hotel I worked at, but before I got there. She also knew Mummy who used to go with her Lions Club and run a health clinic in the lady's area. Small world eh.
Maybe I shouldn't have had that mini Snicker bar or the other chocolate I had after dinner last night. Was up until nearly 3 am!
Now I am tired to brute, but hopefully the cricket match I am about to go and watch will liven me up.
Hopefully. Have to find some shade so the sun don't zonk me out. Oh to be carefree and lazy and not *have* to do anything other than I *want* to do.
I'll enjoy it while it lasts.