I got the best bargain for a long time, yesterday. Oh yes, it was a fund raising event but it was still a great bargain for fund raising events rarely give you value for money since the theory is that you are really giving to a good cause but get a little something for your participation.
Anyway, I went on a Stella Maris foundation tour of Appleton estate in St. Elizabeth. The tour of the distillery normally costs US$25 but for Ja$2000 we got a lovely air conditioned bus ride from Kingston, with sandwiches and unlimited liquor on board. Then once there, we got a lovely Jamaican breakfast and a even nicer lunch and again, unlimited liquor. Wow.
The ambiance and the other "tourists:" were great too and to add to the fun, I ran into Cathy Gilpin -Hudson who had attended Hampton school with me from 1st to 6th form. Now I hated those years at Hampton, I guess because I don't do too well with dictatorship and that's what a boarding school is all about , dictatorship by the headmistress and her prison warders!
As a result of my disliking the place thoroughly, I had dismissed that period of my life almost totally from my memory but reminiscing with Cathy brought back some great laughs.
Also about two weeks ago I had the shock of my life while talking to someone in New York whom I had known many years ago. When he told me that my former headmistress who he had seen a lot of after I left school, used to speak highly of me, I was in total shock. I shared that info with Cathy to which she replied "I am not surprised as you were one of the 9 girls who passed Senior Cambridge out of the 11 of us who took it". That surprised me too for not only did I realize that Wesley Gammon (the headmistress) rated people based on their academic achievements and not just because she hated all students, but also I had totally forgotten that our classes had been so small at that time and that two of my colleagues had actually failed that exam. You see, I was going under the assumption that everyone just passed every exam at that time!
S I guess I don't feel too badly about those school days anymore........I still think they were terrible.....a kind of jail experience, but I guess it wasn't as bad as I try to remember!
So it was a really wonderful day all around, only to be spoilt a bit on our return journey ...... spoilt only by the reminder of the inefficiency of our police and their total lack of common sense.
On the way back, just outside Old Harbour, we ran into a big road block. On walking up to the top, I heard that a driver coming in the other direction of the dual carriageway, at about 3pm had car trouble, stopped to fix it and was set upon by two gunmen. Fortunately he was a licensed firearm holder and shot one of them and they both ran away. So here comes our courageous police who put yellow tape on both sides of the road to process the crime scene, but it never occurred to any of these smart police to tell the people at the toll booth to instruct drivers to exit or even post police there to direct traffic. The toll booth with the exit to Spanish town was no more than about quarter mile from the crime scene!
So when we arrived at about 5pm, naturally and unnecessarily, there was a huge traffic build up....some 2 hours later!
A few drivers started turning around and drove the wrong way on the on the soft shoulder to an exit about 1/4 mile away and eventually our bus driver did so too but the traffic jam was so unnecessary, considering that the scene was so close to the Spanish Town exit and a little initiative by the police could have prevented the wasting of many many hours by many many commuters. We left a pile up of at least 50 vehicles there.
It didn't spoil my day anyway as I was quite comfortable sipping away at delicious rum punch after discovering what the problem was and that no one had died. For all I know, the road block is probably still there! lol.
Anyway, I went on a Stella Maris foundation tour of Appleton estate in St. Elizabeth. The tour of the distillery normally costs US$25 but for Ja$2000 we got a lovely air conditioned bus ride from Kingston, with sandwiches and unlimited liquor on board. Then once there, we got a lovely Jamaican breakfast and a even nicer lunch and again, unlimited liquor. Wow.
The ambiance and the other "tourists:" were great too and to add to the fun, I ran into Cathy Gilpin -Hudson who had attended Hampton school with me from 1st to 6th form. Now I hated those years at Hampton, I guess because I don't do too well with dictatorship and that's what a boarding school is all about , dictatorship by the headmistress and her prison warders!
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| Cathy and I at Appleton |
Also about two weeks ago I had the shock of my life while talking to someone in New York whom I had known many years ago. When he told me that my former headmistress who he had seen a lot of after I left school, used to speak highly of me, I was in total shock. I shared that info with Cathy to which she replied "I am not surprised as you were one of the 9 girls who passed Senior Cambridge out of the 11 of us who took it". That surprised me too for not only did I realize that Wesley Gammon (the headmistress) rated people based on their academic achievements and not just because she hated all students, but also I had totally forgotten that our classes had been so small at that time and that two of my colleagues had actually failed that exam. You see, I was going under the assumption that everyone just passed every exam at that time!
S I guess I don't feel too badly about those school days anymore........I still think they were terrible.....a kind of jail experience, but I guess it wasn't as bad as I try to remember!
So it was a really wonderful day all around, only to be spoilt a bit on our return journey ...... spoilt only by the reminder of the inefficiency of our police and their total lack of common sense.
On the way back, just outside Old Harbour, we ran into a big road block. On walking up to the top, I heard that a driver coming in the other direction of the dual carriageway, at about 3pm had car trouble, stopped to fix it and was set upon by two gunmen. Fortunately he was a licensed firearm holder and shot one of them and they both ran away. So here comes our courageous police who put yellow tape on both sides of the road to process the crime scene, but it never occurred to any of these smart police to tell the people at the toll booth to instruct drivers to exit or even post police there to direct traffic. The toll booth with the exit to Spanish town was no more than about quarter mile from the crime scene!
So when we arrived at about 5pm, naturally and unnecessarily, there was a huge traffic build up....some 2 hours later!
A few drivers started turning around and drove the wrong way on the on the soft shoulder to an exit about 1/4 mile away and eventually our bus driver did so too but the traffic jam was so unnecessary, considering that the scene was so close to the Spanish Town exit and a little initiative by the police could have prevented the wasting of many many hours by many many commuters. We left a pile up of at least 50 vehicles there.
It didn't spoil my day anyway as I was quite comfortable sipping away at delicious rum punch after discovering what the problem was and that no one had died. For all I know, the road block is probably still there! lol.
2 comments:
Oh, so we both went to boarding school for all our sins. Fortunately, my boarding days at CC were happy becos I was the recipient of all kinds of blighs due to being a fixture on the athletics team. You sound like an academic star though.
I played hockey, tennis and netball for my school and enjoyed sports but I hated the jail-like atmosphere and teachers always spying on us. That's why i am still claustrophobic!
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