Emancipation Weekend

This Emancipation weekend was a real Fun and thrills affair.As usual we had our Saturday morning ride and breakfast and developed the action plan for the long weekend. 

F&T ites lyming at surfing

On Saturday night we had a party at Howies house for the July members and boy did my foot get stuck in my mouth! You see they have this Book Club which I am not a member of but I arrived at the party before their session was over. Charles introduced  me to a man named Horace  Fisher  and I thought he said he was an author, not the author of the book of the month, Fish kill. So when someone asked me if I had read it, I declared that I heard it was boring so would not waste my time reading it.

(I did hear that) Embarrassing moment. Anyway, why would I want to read a book called fish kill? After that moment, I declared then that I  would never again speak for the rest of the night, but you know that impossible right?i After they broke up, I had quite a pleasant conversation with him and all is well. Hope he does not take me seriously and stop writing.!

Sunday it was to Coy as usual in Maryland, then in the afternoon it was to Yallahs, St. Thomas, to watch surfing, in fact an international surfing meet to boot. Yes, in St. Thomas Jamaica!

Maurice and a friend of his rode off into the sunset, sorry, sunlight to Yallahs at 11.30 and and we left about 12.15 pm but by the time we arrived, they were already  there. Man that Maurice must have been a bicycle in his past life!

The surfing was a new experience for me but nothing like what we see on tv, for Jamaica just does not have the huge waves necessary to make a spectacular splash in this type of sport. But all the participants were enthusiastic and did well.

Charles, Maurice and I decided to take am sea bath and while Maurice was able to wade out far enough to float in peace, both Charles and I had a problem getting past the rough waves which tossed us around as if we were made of straw.

It was a lovely day however as we walked around and socialised and sampled all kinds of food and Juju gave us the dessert in the form oft. a huge jack fruit.

This 1671 lb bull came first at Denbeigh

Monday morning I went for my usual walk and listened with one ear to hear if the planned trip to Denbeigh in Clarendon was still on.  That is where the Jamaica Agricultural society stages its annual farmers show. We had originally wanted to go on the newly restored train which had a special excursion, but that fizzed out as the return trip was not till 6pm, there were logistical problems with parking etc and besides when I heard Digicell would be sponsoring the train ride, that did it for me since anything they sponsor draws crowds of free loaders in search of free phone cards. Also since the train was out, I wasn't particularly enthused about going. Besides I had bad memories of Denbeigh since the last time I went there,  about 20 years ago, they towed away my car and I had to take a minibus to Four Parts police station to retrieve it and had sworn off Denbeigh for life. Anyway, its a good thing we decided not to go by train as the reports are that it was oversold.  We saw the train there however and were able to take a number of photographs as it is really attractive, decked out in Jamaica's colours.

Anyway Howie called about 10.30 am to say they were still going so naturally I decided tot accompany them. Maurice picked me up and we joined the convoy of three other vehicles outside Michele's gate.I am so happy I went for it was a really nice day. Yes we spent a lot of time just standing around and waiting while others went off on private jaunts, but as no one was in a real hurry it was no big thing. I was really impressed with the winning bull which weighted a whopping 1671 lbs and the goat display was also impressive. The parish stalls were not particular innovative or outstanding but the samples of rum punch and flavoured coffee we got at various points allowed us to overlook those imperfections.

As Janelle  had to get back to Kingston for a function, we eventually dragged ourselves out at minutes to three, but despite the need to hurry, we could not pass the coconut vendor just down the road.

When I got back to Kingston it was off to a jerk pork session by at Harry's place. Harry is such a pork fanatic that he actually built a smoke house at the back of his home and relishes overpowering his friends with smoked jerk pork....hmm delicious. What better way to spend  absolutely wonderful weekend?

Well its now winter in Jamaica.

I know. laugh all you want but the fact is we have very serious winters here sometimes. Anyway, there are two recorded occasions when snow flurries were seen at the Blue Mountain Peak.

But you don't have to go to the Blue Mountains to freeze. I do it all the time. At Munroe, Spaldings, Colleyville and my hometown of Malvern, I am forever cold.

Neither is Kingston exempt as the members of "Fun and Thrills" have been demonstrating over the past two weeks. For no longer can we find most of our "dedicated riders" on a Sunday mornings at 6.30 am, for they all claim that it is too cold to get out of bed.

This Sunday was no different for we only four of us rode out of our headquarters at close to 7 am. They were Michael, Chris, Barry and of course, myself. Damit joined us about an hour later in Maryland.

Talk about cold! After riding uphill for over an hour, when I got to Maryland and got off my bicycle, the cold bumps were still visible on my arms. It must have been at least 72 degrees!Then horror of horrors, none of my brave Tarzan like colleagues jumped in the water. At least last week, two did show the spunk and jump in. This week, none did, but each one was urging the other to jump in but they never did! The water looked like ice and the air outside gave enough warning about what awaited anyone who got wet!

Well at least the breakfast was wonderful. Last week, Coy introduced us to gungo and salt fish and it was absolutely delicious. And guess what, he did it again this Sunday and although I did not know it could have been improved on, it was even better this week.

So whether its winter or summer and whether I am freezing or not, I suspect that Coy's breakfast will remain a magnet to drag me out of bed to continue doing the Sunday rides. Unless of course it actually snows!

To be fair to Howie and Heather however, despite the fact that its winter, I am sure they would have gotten out of bed, but they had gone to Negril to enter the "Reggae Marathon"and they did fantastically well in the half marathon category with Howie doing 2 hours and 8 minutes and Heather 2 hours and 40 minutes. I look forward to Howie's report (on everything, not only the running part!) on his blog.

Getting Blessed

Today should have been just a normal ride up to Maryland, but it was very different from the rest. For today was the day when we were all blessed. Yes. I said blessed.

Well as you know, whenever anything weird happens, Charles is behind it. And he did not disappoint. For when we stopped for a "Kodak moment" at our usual bridge, we saw a small group armed with a large cross and flags, emerging out of what was once Blue Mountain Inn.

Immediately Charles decided that we should ask them to if we could take a photograph with them. Some of us were reticent since some of these religions are not friendly to "worlians" but he rode off to catch them and did just beyond the turnoff to Maryland.

Surprisingly, not only did they agree to take a picture with us, but the lady carrying the drum dropped a hell of a great prayer on us. From then on we were blessed, for not one person crashed or fell, although Barry was with us. (Well I did trip and fall by the orange stall, but that was minus the bicycle! I suspect that Howie will scandalise me about it on his blog.)

It was a very pleasant and heavily overcast day and we had some 14 riders. The swimming "pool" was not as deep as we have become accustomed to but we had a wonderful frolic anyway and of course our water mnassage under the falls. In fact it was so nice that Naomi took her car's alarm for a swim too!

As usual Coy made the day with his delicious, ackee and saltfiish, okra and saltfish and pap chow. He had introduced us to bizzy tea some weeks ago as he claims it cleans out the blood and again we had our arties and blood flushed. It was great and Charles owes me $500 as he claimed I could not eat all the food I had on my plate. Obviously he does not understand why I ride!

The wicked coup de grace was when Barry convinced David to try a penalty kick using a ball lying on the ground of the community centre where we have breakfast. Obviously without thinking,David did just that and he was barefooted to boot. Then to his chagrin, he discovered that it was a bowling ball, not a softball . Ouch. I still feel it for him.

Sunday Ride

Today was again another nice ride into the salubrious hills of Maryland. There were no serious incidents and while some 15 persons had confirmed that they would be riding, thus causing Howie to order that number of breakfasts, only Howie, Barry, Penny, Stefan (with Zorie in carrier on the back of his bicycle) Damit, Barry, Chrles, Andrew, Michelle and I took the trip. Grace, Jervais,Donna and her friend and Renee Hall did not turn up. Fatman drove Howie's vehicle and his son Zacky came along.

The reason why have put out Renee's full name is because we are going to keep and eye out for her in the 2012 Olympics for she currently swims for Jamaica ( following in Betty's footsteps) and is a Carifta silver medal holder. Her specialities are freestyle and butterfly.

Anyway, I deviate. There was no excitement this week in terms of incidents since all that could have happened on the ride happened last week. (Folks are still laughing over Heather and my crash last week which had me landing flat on top of Heather. She left the island shortly after, I hope its not the crash that inspired the move. I am just kidding for she has gone to see her husband Johhny ......an "expatriate member of "Fun and Thrills" since he has migrated to Maryland, USA as he still has Maryland on his mind, even if it is not Maryland, St. Andrew, Jamaica!)

The "swimming pool" up at Maryland was a bit shallow today for apparently they had some rains and some of the sand bags which are used to dam up the water, were destroyed. Barry and Andrew made a valiant attempt at hydro-engineering and we did manage to get a little more depth but it was not quite up to where we have become accustomed. However, when I was riding down, one of thew local gentlemen told me that he was on his way up there to repair the damage so I suspect next week we will have a deeper pool.

The crowning glory of today's ride was the breakfast cooked by "Coy" and for which Betty drove up to join us. Boy the callaloo is the best I have had anywhere. The menu was callaloo, stewed chicken and ackee and codfish with old time chocolate tea and don't joke, the food was plenty, lots of dumplings, fried jonnie cake and yam and even pear. He increased the price on us overnight from $200 to $300 but it was worth it from a thief.

On the way down, Zory fell asleep in her carrier and at one point, her helmeted head hung out precariously out at the side of her carrier, so her parents had to put her in the van.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures this week but Howie should be posting some on his facebook page soon. ( I subsequently stole the photo above from his facebook!)

By No Means Uneventful

There is one adjective that could never be used to describes today's ride and that is uneventful.

Well certainly not for me or Heather, for today was the day when we crashed. That right, we had a minor event.This was after a series of other minor mishaps however.

For from I picked up my bicycle in Hope Pastures, the front wheel was flat do Andrew was set to work to pump it up. Peter was riding with us to Maryland for the first time so hew was having the same difficulties we have all had on that first ride up those hills. At one point I was ahead and decided to turn back to look for the others. As I turned back I saw Andrew and made a circle to go back up the hill. That's when my front tire tripped me! At least that how I like to think of it since my tire was almost flat and again I had to prevail on Andrew to pump it.

As we approached bottom Maryland where we had seen the pocomania parade the week before and I was struggling carelessly up the hill in the middle of the road, I almost crashed into Andre and his bcdn of professional riders speeding down the hill. I in derstand they had ridden from Norbrook up to Peter's Rock and were on their way home. This near miss caused me to have to dismount at that point.

When we got to Maryland we found that some of the local people had beat us to the "swimming pool," so we joined them and had a glorious frolic in the ice cold water. Barry had suggested that since we are invading this small sleepy village on a regular basis and using their facilities, we should at least find a place to start ordering breakfast. So Howie has now made arrangements to start buying breakfast from "Coy" as of next week.

When we were ready to descend, lo and behold my front tire was really flat this time and with no Damit with us, we had nothing to fix it with. The men in the square were great however going to get patch and solution for us and soon we were back in business.

It was when we were on the return journey down the hill that the real drama occurred. We got to a spot where Howie had ordered some ackees from a young lady. I was in the front of my group and a man standing by the stall shouted to me to remember the ackees. I pulled over to the lef side to stop, not realising that Heather was right behind me. That's when we collided. My bicycle fell on top of her bicycle, she landed on her stomach and I landed on top of her!


It must have been quite a scene, but this as one of those occasions when no one was taking photographs so the greastest show on earth is unrecorded, except for this blog of course! The only thing hurt was our pride, thank heavens, but everyone had a great laugh.

The rest of the journey to Papine was uneventful so we bought breakfast and went up to Howie's house with the great view of Kingston and brought the day's ride to an appropiate finish after a delicious meal.