The next decade....what's in store?
Musings of a yamfooted traveller still trying to shake off those last 30 pounds as she treks across the Caribbean
I saw a Facebook Friend with the following quote as her status. May it guide us all in 2009....
To venture beyond routine, invites the possibility of joy that is found best in daring to change.
It was shaping up to be a miserable Christmas Day, but then on Christmas Eve I got an invitation to lunch. That I went to, after I had cooked my nice Ackee & Saltfish, Boiled Yam (no salt) and Fried Plantain.
After lunch (left there about 5:30pm), I went next door to meet the neighbours (read the previous entries). I learnt Knock Rummy - a card game - and then I will teach them Kalooki one day....and then they'll be hooked.
So all in all (a saying made famous by West Indian cricketers!), it was a great day.
Then this morning, I stepped outside to find half of a dead rat's body, with its innards protruding, lying there. Maybe it was the neighbour's dog who left it there as a present, to say "welcome matey". As I have no man, I had to take it up myself. I didn't barf, luckily.
I'm feeling woozy again. So woozy that I headed to Casualty again, at about 6:45 last Sunday. Did I write about this before? I can't remember. That's another problem. I can't remember things.
I went to bed early the Saturday night, as I was dog tired. Roof, roof. Got up minutes to 5 and thought it was a nice day for a walk. I was feeling well rested. Made a cup of tea, had a slice of bread and peanut butter and went to read the newspapers online.
I was there for a while, maybe half hour, when my head just felt like it was swaying, the back of my neck hurt and I just felt generally unwell. Went to lie down, and it didnt help, so I went to Casualty so they could check my vital signs.
When I walked up to the nurse, I so shame so I said quietly "I need to check my vital signs please". She said "we don't operate like that you know" and was sending me away. So I told her the story like up above and she put me in the exam room, did the vitals (pressure was a bit high, but probably because I was anxious) and called the doctor.
I recognized him from one of my racing heart episodes at Casualty (those have stopped because of some stomach medication I am taking) and I said "you remember seeing me". Told him what happened, he examined me, gave me a prescription for something for the neck strain but only if the headache didnt ease with Panadol. He also gave me the cell number of the head doctor (who I have seen before) to call if neither tablets worked. Took the Panadol, went to sleep and felt better when I woke up, so went to work.
THe swaying feeling comes and goes. THis week, I was talking with an employee and I had to hold on to him because I felt like I was going to fall over. I must check my iron levels. Maybe that is the problem as my iron tablets ran out a few weeks ago. They don't have the ones I use here (Sorbifer).
Last night, my head hurt so I had to take out the rollers ("Miss Mattie" because my head was hurting me too bad. I couldn'g fall asleep so tonight I am really tired. Gone to bed.
Some of us from work went on a 5 hour tour of some of the island. We went into some nook and crannies, as well as some other places along the coast.
Included in the stops was the Grenada Chocolate Factory. Anyone who has tasted the chocolate might be surprised to see the small building it is manufactured in. They recently won another Bronze Award given out by the Academy of Chocolate of which Michel Roux is the Patron (he is a famous chef).
Highlight of the tour for me was the monkeys, up close and personal. Here are some pictures.
This harbour is really as pretty as all the guide books say. St George's Harbour / The Carenage
Concord Waterfalls in the parish of St John.
Grenville Vale Gardens at Beausejour. It will be very pretty when it is finished.
The Monkey answered the calls of our tour guide, and gets a banana in return.
The monkey wasn't satisfied so it went to really dig out the rest of the banana. It did not want our banana bread!
There were two monkeys but this one was the Shy Guy and stayed in the trees.
On the balance beam
The dog felt ignored, so later, we gave it some banana bread which it liked.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
It not feeling like Christmas, because I'm not allowing myself to feel.
But actually, I will be training right up to the 23 December.
Oh, by the way, I have a funny story to share with you......
I was at work last week Thursday. One of the local banks had their customer appreciation cocktail party by us. I was talking with one of my colleagues, when I see a man walking towards me. I thought he was going to my colleague, but instead he said "I'm coming to say hello to my neighbour"
Remember this story? Well that was Mr Man Next Door! I told him that I had no clue what he looked like.
Anyway, so we got talking about that incident in April 2006. I happened to have called his wife about three months ago (didn't realize it was she...I was after some information which led to her) and when I gave her info on why I was calling, she said "you're the lady living next door". I told her her husband has some nice music. She said "but we don't play the music so much anymore because you said you don't like music." I told her no, that wasn't true, it's just that I didn't like it early in the morning.
So I recounted this to Mr Man last week. Coincidentally, that same morning I had a thought in my head that I should ask him if I could come over to copy off some, explaining that my laptop died so I lost my music files. He said he would make a CD for me, but I told him no, I want to come over for myself. So he said "ok, you're invited over during the Christmas season."
I also told him that I used to think how similar the happenings at his house were to mine, because he always have people over, his children have their friends come over too, just like in our house when we were all there. Same time I was saying this, his brother came up. I know the brother so said hello. The neighbour told him who I was. "OH!" says he. Then he said how when he comes over, they talk about me....
"She's quiet eh....she don't talk to nobody....she's not sociable".
So explained to Mr Man last week that when you work in my industry, you just don't want to speak with people when you leave work. I asked him if he notice that sometimes the car is not there for a looooooooooong time.
Anyway, so I have an invitation for di Christmas, and all because I was neighbourly and didn't kick up such a big stink.
Went to see this tonight. Went with very high expectations because I had seen one of Nicholas Sparks' other films - The Notebook - which I loved.
Was very disappointed that in this one, he killed off the love that the female lead was going to have. I guess not killing the man off would have made it too perfect and life is not like that.
Dr D, welcome back from out of the cold. No, am not going to be in Jamaica for Christmas and that is a sore point, so the less said about it the better!