Spirit, the worst airline in the world.

When Spirit first started flying, I heard a number of my friends saying it was the way to go. The fact that I have not heard anyone say that recently should have warned Me that all was not well.

For Christmas, I decided to go to Florida, but my credit card started acting up, so I asked my daughter in law Michelle to check out a good rate and book me a ticket.

Well, she chose Spirit, and I did not have a problem with that until I arrived at the airport.
To begin with, my luggage quota said 2 bags and when I arrived with my two bags, the attendant said it meant one to go to Florida and one to return home! Wow. 

I had never seen that version of 2 bags before.

Anyway, since my luggage was light, I decided to combine the bags. Six pounds overweight. Would you believe the attendant wanted me to pay $50 for the 6 lbs!

Well since my travelling companion's bag only weighted 25 lbs, I told the clerk that we would combine bags. No, she said, that bag had gone through already so I must pay for the overweight. Only when we asked her to call the supervisor did good sense prevail and since our combined weights were far short of the 80 lbs, she decided to let it go through.

Fight one over.

Then we boarded and I could not adjust my seat, so I asked the flight attendant how to do it. Oh, the seats are pre-adjusted for maximum comfort she assured me smilingly. In other words, passengers had no option to adjust their own seats. See me there with my long legs curled up in a seat that felt like a minibus.

Fight two lost.

I pledged all the way up that I would never fly Spirit again and have been pledging that every time someone mentions flying. I had planned to complain to the authorities about the baggage deception but what they heck, been having a wonderful time here so can't bother.

 After all, I will never have to have anything to do with Spirit again after I return home next week. Thank God for choices. No wonder Jamaicans have been referring to Spirit as the "duppy airline", (a spirit in Jamaica is a duppy. ie. ghost!)

Then to add insult to injury, when I returned to Jamaica on the 6th January 2012, it was without one of my checked-on bags as Spirit had tagged it to Mexico City instead of Jamaica!  Who knows, maybe I will get it by the 11th January (so they say) or maybe I am going to have to make a claim for lost luggage and spend the rest of my life waiting for compensation.

 What next with Spirit?

 I won't be able to tell you, as that airline will never get my business again.

Feting the Children

Today was the third time the riders from Fun and Thrills feted the children at the National Children's home for Christmas.

Our association with that organisation established by the Methodist church for unwanted and handicapped  children, started some four years ago and quite by accident. We used to ride by the home on Saturday mornings on our way to breakfast and Charles ( Williams) came up with the idea of us doing something for them. We made an approach to Mr. Anderson, the man in charge, and he said he could initiate a programme to take the kids riding in Hope Gardens as something for them to work towards. So we fixed the two bicycles they had there and begged some others. Howie made a bicycle rack at his workplace and it started from there.

On Saturday mornings we would take some of  the well behaved ones for rides and drinks. Then that Christmas we took them breakfast.........lots of goodies and cake and sat down and ate with them.

Time flies quickly and today marked the third year and the best by far for Mr. Anderson gave a most moving speech on how our association with the kids had motivated them to excell and now they have even had a music section added to their activities.

Some the kids gave an impromptu concert,........ bongo drummers, harmonica players, one violinist and an  excellent rendition of Bob Marley's "Everything's gonna be alright" was the chart topper. It was really wonderful and shows how well kids can respond and how quickly they learn when motivated. Some kids even presented some of us with hand made Christmas Cards and my godson Domique had brought along a gift which was won by one of the kids who answered a question posed by Charles, correctly. That litte intervention was fun too.

We learnt too that some of the girls from Glenhope Home are now at the National Chidren's home as there had been a fire at Glenhope  recently and some kids were displaced.

It was really a refreshing morning for the kids and for us riders.

Hiking to Red Light District

Sunday was quite and interesting, slightly stressful but overall, enjoyable day.


Thanks to Nicky (Sheriff) from Petrojam, we were informed that a gym was arranging a hike from Red light district to Newcastle in the Blue mountain range.


We should have left the gym in Barbican at 7 am, but when I got there at 6.30 am to register, I was the first so I headed off to join Charles (Ayatollah) with whom I was travelling. He and I share this thing in common where we hate hanging around to wait for people who have no respect for time, so accompanied by Theresa  Nicole (Lawrence) and Lisa, we drove up to Red light district and parked. On checking by phone we realised that the rest of the crew were at least an hour late, so we started walking, having gotten instructions on the trail from Sheriff.


Problem is, after asking directions and finding out that the shortcut would be from Cotton, when we got there we saw no significant trrail so continued on the main road until we saw a farmer tending his goats. His name was John. He told us that the best short cut was at a section called Two passes and after some encouragement he agreed to accompany us to the turnoff. He was a very nice gentleman who told us he farmed coffee, cassava, bananas etc and took them to the Cross Road's Market on a Saturday.

Our guide John with the first group minus Lisa, the photographer.

He took us to the turn off and accompanied us up the path for a while before leaving us upon our own.

Well I am here to tell you that there was a close mutiny as we ascended the steep, slippery path with nothing to hold on to but sharp, tall, grass, at times even having to crawl on hands and knees. Everyone of us except Charles wanted to go back down and continue on the main road, (The total distance on the road from Red light district to Newcasretle is 6 miles). Anyway, the Ayatollah kept insisting that we continue and suddenly we arrived at the top of the hill and saw buildings in front to of us. Those were the living quarters of the soldiers at Newcastle. The uphill journey was hard but it took us only about 45 minutes to get there as opposed to probably 2 hours if we had continued on the main road!

The soldiers were as surprised to see us as we them. After messing around  them for a while and taking photos at Newcastle we called others with the main group and ascertained that they were still more than an hour behind us. So we made our way slowly to Middleton, taking a bathroom stop at a guest house and taking photos. Charles even found a cold waterfall along the road to mess around with.

We stopped at a small shop at Middleton for refreshments and directions then continued a slow trek downhill to through the pleasant, picturesque countryside to our destination.

Raf Jam is actually an oasis in the hills. It is a tastefully set out guest house in the valley and owned by Sharon who looks 14 but who says she is 31 years old.

A river runs through the property and although it looks harmless, it's actually six feet deep in sections. Well after sticking my finger in the water, it was the first river I had intention of jumping into, for years.

After about half hour we were joined by others including Michael and Howie who were not at all deterred by the freezing water.

The last hikers trickled in at minutes to twelve after which a fairly nice lunch was served. After lunch we left but it had been a really nice outing all around, even though Lisa did end up with some welts on her arm as a result of having been cut by the tall grass we had encountered at the first section of the short cut.

Such hazards do occur when we hike in the hills but are soon forgotten when the real fun begins.

Nomination Day

Yesterday, Monday 12th December, was nomination day for the elections to be held on the 29th December to elect a new government.
Thank heavens, it was a peaceful day with scenes of supporters from the two main parties, the JLP and PNP actually walking, singing and dancing together. There are 63 constituencies up for grabs and some 150 persons nominated for the jobs of members of parliament.

Quite frankly, I am so turned off Jamaican politics these days that for the first time in my life, I don't really care who wins. For although the PNP had been in power for 18 years and made a mess of the economy, the JLP has been in power for only 4 years and have already made almost everything they have touched into chaos and confusion. For example, while they hit us with a gas, supposedly to fix the roads , the roads have not been fixed but they spent over $100 million out of the money to refurbish the implementing office and have $60 million in furnishing waiting to equip it.

Fact is, this will be the first time in my voting life (since 1976) when I will not be voting, this is not because I do not feel like voting but I had already made my plans to be overseas long before they announced the date for the election.

 Such is life. Anyway, I won't miss much as the two main parties are hardly any different these days......nothing but back daag and monkey.


I just hope they keep it peaceful and do not mess up the peoples' Christmas and new year celebrations.

Dreaming

I have a dream. Nah. Not the type the late, great MLK had, but ordinary every night or almost every night dreams.

You know there was a time when I knew I had dreamt but could never remember anything about my dreams. Now I remember a number of them. Problem is though, I have been trying to understand the significance of dreams, but can't figure it out....I canna cross it!

In the past, I  have followed some gamblers who said I should buy cash pot when I remember my dreams. Twice I did that madness and lost a total of Ja$200, so I will never buy cash pot again!

Some of my dreams are very stark, but I just don't know what to make of them.  So out of curiosity, I have decided to start recording my dreams right here and maybe one day when I get old and have nothing to do, I will buy some dream books and see if there is a pattern or something.

Of course I have to figure out how to separate actual dreams from my subconscious playing games with me. This  happens often as I always go to sleep with a radio blaring in my ears (usually BBC) and sometimes when I get up thinking I had an exciting dream, I hear aspects of it on the same station in their news.

I remember a terrifying experience I had as a child with this same outside infiltration of my subconscious. You see, I had this grandmother who was such a devout christian that she was addicted to preaching on the radio and would even  endorse the back of her pension cheques and send them straight to Oral Roberts and Billy Graham!

One morning, I was having a nightmare about being in hell. Everything was hot and blazing and as I tried to escape my feet were being burnt up as I was running on red hot, searing coal. At the same time I was being chased by a terrifying monster with a fiery spear. It felt real and unbearable. I was so happy when I woke up and realised it was just a dream or rather, a nightmare. But guess what?  I  realised that what I had been living in my dreams was what I had been hearing on my grandmother's radio in the next room,  for she had been listening to some loud, firebrand preacher shouting about the trials and tribulations of life in hell!


So that is how external forces can play havoc with what we think are our dreams. Then there are the instances when you have too much vodka and have very confused and muddled dreams. However, I can recognise these and eliminate them.

So yea. I have decided to start recording them, but guess what, I know I dreamt last night but have been unable to remember anything about  that dream although I have been trying all morning!

Anyway, even if I can only remember one dream per week and record it, it will give me something to do in my idle years ahead! lol.

15th December 2011.

How ironic, now that I have decided to record the dreams which had been coming regularly and which I had been remembering clearly, I have almost stopped dreaming! In fact, I have only dreamt once since recording this decision and I forgot what I had dreamt about by the time I woke up!

Anyway, there is time yet.

A Petty Bureaucrat

I had to reply to the Public Defender's letter in the Jamaican Observer, since his personal attack on me just confirmed what I always thought of him, ie. he is nothing but an ineffective petty bureaucrat.
The letter is below,.

I refer to the public defender's letter of December 5, "Public defender in his ackee, takes on Joan Williams, Al Miller". I won't bother to comment on his defense of his office, but with regard to his childish, unthinking and spurious suggestion that I provide employment for Mr Junior Christie (the man sentenced to three months for stealing 45 ackee) I have no vacancy at this time!

However, I live on the periphery of King's House and have often commented on the state of what appears to be hundreds of acres of idle land overgrown with weeds. Since King's House receives millions of dollars per year for the upkeep of the property from us taxpayers, may I suggest that the public defender Mr Earl Witter put a proposal to the governor general for the development of that vast property to provide employment for Mr Christie and so many others in need of work.

Kudos UTECH

The University of Technology has always been my favourite local tertiary institution and they have risen further in my estimation with the announcement  in today's Jamaica Observer, that they have been operating of a Legal Advice Centre "......to provide legal advice for members of the public who are socially, economically and otherwise disadvantaged" since July this year. And to think their legal department is fairly new!

KUDOS UTECH, as usual you fill a need.

Kudos too to Legal Aid for jumping to take the excessive sentence of 90 days in jail for stealing 46 ackees which was handed down by RM Pusey against Junior Christie, to appeal and getting bail for him in the interim. One would have thought this role would have been undertaken by the Public Defender's office,  but with  their poor performance record, it is as well.

Thank God, we are finally seeing a trickling of institutions that are working in the interest of the poor and dispossessed in this country. If only the myriad of other publicly funded institutions mandated to perform similar functions would resolve to start giving taxpayers value for money, 2012 could be a great year.


Yes, I am a dreamer!