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
At Barbados immigration earlier this year, I had the following encounter which I wrote about in an article...
Having taken advantage of BWIA's online booking system, where lower fares are available, I did not have a paper ticket. I also didn't print out the itinerary. Big mistake. Miss Thing promptly told me to "stand over there, I have other passengers in the line" when I suggested to her that she call BWIA to verify that I was in fact not staying in Barbados.
So you would have thought that this time coming back from Jamaica I would have had an itinerary nuh? Nope.
Miss Immigration (a different one) tells me I have to have a seat in immigration while she verifies with the BWIA agent if I in fact have a reservation on LIAT to Grenada. I have already showed her the locator number. Not enough miss.
She was starting to get curt with a sarcastic smile but then I was civil and pleasant and she softened up. While waiting inside, she asked me how was my birthday. Well...you know.....that landed her right up there in my good books. A simple thing like that can turn around a service encounter.
Natch, I told her about the fete blah blah bloh bloh. She was laughing at something I said.
All was well in the end. She advised me that since I was working in Grenada, it might be a good idea to put my usual place of address as where I am living in Grenada. Good idea luv! Thanks!
(SEE UPDATES IN COMMENTS). And a new post is below.
You just never know what this life is going to throw at you.
One of my friends who was to have been at my birthday fete this Saturday, passed away last night suddenly. I believe it was while undergoing emergency surgery. I would guess she was about 34 or 35.
She was bubbly, even as she battled that dreaded disease Lupus. Everytime we spoke, she was always upbeat and positive.
I first met her when she was about 6 or 7, on the netball courts. Our mothers both played netball for Jamaica. Her mother had by then retired and was living in the country. They came in for something that was happening at the stadium.
I didn't have any contact with her again until she came to work at the hotel in Kingston where I was working, after doing similar studies like I did in Nassau.
She hated the job.
Her real passion was to work with kids, and after a couple of years, she got a scholarship to do her Masters in Chicago. I believe it was in Early Childhood Education.
Then she was happy. This is what she wrote in one of her emails to me last year February...
Other than that (she had updated me on her health), school is going great. I have 4 and 5 year olds in Kindergarten and I just love it. We have a lot of fun and the work load is so much easier.
By then, she had been diagnosed. Her body took a beating, with the different medications she was on. We always kept in contact. She would write me from Chicago, that was before email was around. She went to visit her brother (who she knew I had a bit of a crush on since she would tell me when he was coming for her at work, so that I would bake pineapple upside down cake for him, which he loved) and gave me reports.
While I was in England studying, she would pop up on Messenger ever so often and we would chat. She would update me on her health. Once, when I hadn't heard from her in a while, she emailed to say that while in Europe (she married an Italian), she took ill and had to have emergency surgery in Germany I believe it was.
But she was always positive. When I would moan while in Nottingham, that I was putting on back weight because I couldn't afford the university's gym, she encouraged me to exercise in my room. She used to exercise to Tae Bo videos and do sit ups and such the like and I was inspired.
I went out and bought a step. I would marvel that despite everything that she endured, she would be like the birds you hear in the morning at first light. Very chirpy. Whenever I thought I was having struggles, I would remember that hers were much much much greater than anything I have ever endured. Her kidneys had been attacked and she did dialysis twice per week. When she replied to my invitation on Evite.com 6 days ago, she said...
I'll see if (her brother) will be up that weekend - and then it depends on how I feel after dialysis that day... ;K!
My memories of the last two times I saw her was first at the Quad one Wednesday night (Dr D, you were there) and at a fete called Good Times, which plays 70's / 80's music.
I know she will be there in spirit, and I know she would want the party to go on.
Rest in peace dear bright bubbly positive friend. Gone Too Soon
When someone passes away, the first thing I do is think about all the interactions I've had with them, when was the last time I spoke with or saw them, I look up correspondence I've had from them - letters or emails and I look for pictures of them. I also write about them either in my journal or on this blog. Hopefully this blog won't die!
I don't ever want to forget the people who were special to me who have departed.
I also talk about them long after they are gone. In our family, we will share jokes about people who have passed away, or talk about what they always used to do or say. This is how we try to keep the memories alive. If you don't then the departed one becomes a distant memory and I don't think that is right.
How do you preserve the memories of your departed ones?
Normally there would be a lot of hype in my posts as it is 7 days before my birthday. But being in Jamaica, there are just too many things to get done.
If only there was exercise class only to go to, then I'd be able to watch Days of Our Lives and Oprah everyday. But there have been, and will be...
1. Function at Kings House Monday to see the mother get her national honour (an OD). I don't think I had mentioned it here. She was in the Observer this morning too.
2. Exercise class
3. Bank lines (1 hour in NCB Liguanea today, 40 mins in BNS Liguanea and 30 mins in RBTT drive through line). There must be an easier way. Oh, 5 minutes in JMMB. No cash transactions allowed therefore faster service and I had called in ahead to request some money.
4. Supermarket trip Wednesday to get some supplies for my birthday fete on Saturday.
5. Trips to the host venue (my brother's house up on a hill with a great view and cool winds....perfect for dancing the night away)
6. Picking up of niece and nephew at some point.
7. Other social functions.
8. Trip to the soft drink place, ditto for Saturday.
9. I'm supposed to be doing some work which I carried with me from Grenada but I don't see how!
10. Visit to the Opthalmologist next Monday. Will do the liquid in your eyes that make you can't see for a while. Dialation I believe it is called.
11. Visit of the lady to shampoo the dogs and trim their nails etc. I'm the official dog holder so it gets done when I come.
12. Shopping trip to find a top to wear on Saturday. Yuck. I dont like clothes shopping.
12. Shopping to get food stuff like tin ackee, bun etc to carry back to Grenada.
So you see, you won't see me so often on this blog in the next few days. Will pop in when I can.
Oh, I getting more used to the nails. But at the first opportunity when I get back, I will be soaking them off!
I'm not a team player or whatever is that group thingy that allows posts on your blog.
*sniff*
So after struggling with them last night, it was time to see how I could do all the things associated with travelling today, with these encumbrances (dat might spell wrong).
First task was finishing the packing of the suitcase last night. Zipping up was a problem.
Then there was the taking of a bath...
But before that, there was Le Twalay. I managed not to impale myself! Washcloths help with the bathing part of it.
They're good for washing my bald head. You can get a good scrubbing done. (Here comes Dr D saying I shouldn't scratch my scalp).
Lifting the suitcases had to be done very gingerly, lest one of them hitch in the handle or something and pop off. I hope the security officer saw that I had on these false things and would have understood why I took so long to open the suitcase for her to search! Actually she had acryllic nails too so she had to have noticed mine.
I got to my destination without incident.
Later this evening it was time to exercise in the home gym. Had difficulty adjusting the seats and dumbells and had to ask for assistance, as I had to to take off the watch when I was going to bathe. It has a clasp that thick nails can't get under. Last night, I used a tweezer to open it.
Flusing Le Twalay here is a problem.. It's one of those environmentally friendly ones where you have two different buttons for the two size things you hadda flush. Well, the nails couldn't do the small one, so I am afraid I was environmentally unfriendly.
Honestly, today I was saying that as soon as I reach Jamaica, I am going to soak them off. But I am likening the experience to life and moving out of one's comfort zone, something which I advise people to do all the while because they could find happiness. Not sure that I will find happiness at the end of this fake nails exercise...unless the nails feature in some delectible act that brings oodles of pleasure.
Hmmmm, now there's an idea!
I had these put on today....a gift from me for my birthday.
So now I can hardly type without makingh a misttake, it's unreal how aaawkward theey feeel.
Over the last couple of months, there have been a few incidents which made me start to wonder if I am beginning early onset of dementia and forgetfullness and all the things that being 'old' brings with it.
For example, I would put it in my brain that I had to tell somebody something. When I tell them what I wanted to tell them, they say that I've already told them that! Ok, so that might not be so bad.
But the following incident has got me concerned....
One day last week, I met a colleague making his way home saying he had forgotten his iron on at home and was going to turn it off. I laughed at his folly. When I reached home later that day, I was horrified to find that I too had left my iron plugged in for the whole day.
Ok, so that was bad and not so bad.
On Saturday afternoon I left home to camp out in the hotel for two days. I reached back home last night, Monday, to find my iron plugged in!
It's not the fact that it would have sent my electricity bill sky high for the month. Rather, it is the realization that the brain sometimes displays its age! Ginko Biloba? What other solutions are out there? Doing Soduku puzzles and crossword puzzles every day?
Dang this is scary!
A walk on the beach with a special someone would have been ideal tonight. *Pity........*
21 Days to go.
Lots of pounds to go. Ah think it was 92.4 kilos on the scale today....ah think that is the pre-M thing, but ah not fretting.
However ah be on the 22nd, will be fine. I'm just a little disappointed that I didn't have it in me to eat a lot less and exercise a lot more.