Another Wonderful Weekend

It was another great weekend at Silver Sands but boy did I get my ass cut at dominoes! Not to worry as we were playing bruk an spoil.  Anyway, it must have been my partner Oran who was the weak link since his girlfriend Jackie also played with him and got six love too!

Whitney and dad Bernard aka Bernie

Actually, before the big guns arrived, my niece Whitney had the presence of mind to go off to bathe when she and I were losing five love so we missed it earlier. Serve Stewart and Audley right as they wanted to take advantage of a new, inexperienced player and go boast about it.

Actually, it was still another great weekend although I never got to go fishing to surpass my performance the last time I did. It wasn't my fault anyway for I even went to bed early Saturday night to make sure I could get up early to go fishing, but guess what, my brother Bernie forgot to tell the fisherman that we were going.

It was lovely seeing my brother and his younger daughter Whitney again however. S she had just been called to the bar and was cooling out in Jamaica with her dad before going to work with government sponsored media house in Washington DC. This media house supplies information to far off corners of the world where television is unavailable (American propaganda I guess) and Whitney who speaks Mandarin fluently is looking forward to being sent to some remote corners in China. I think I am even more excited about the project than she is. It sounds like the kind of thing I would have loved to have done when I was young. Actually, I am taking  a bet right now that she is going to end up in politics one day and make a great success of it.

We all had a great time. The sea was absolutely calm and beautiful, the food great, the camaraderie with the thirty or so people who came to the domino session, great and of course, my brother was preening all over the place about his first grand child to the point where the pictures he brought for me, were in constant demand as he kept coming back to borrow them to show off to each guest as they arrived!

So Ian was the real star this weekend!


For more photographs see; http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150348753946823.396125.763366822&type=1

A Waste of Taxpayer's money

I wonder if other people feel as I do every time I hear an announcement  that the JIS (Jamaica Information service) slot is about to be aired on radio?
For that is usually my cue to switch stations as I object to how the budget of that public institution is being wasted.

Why can't the JIS budget be usefully deployed to help improve things in the society rather than promote the so-called achievements of politicians?

Why can't it be used to promote things like cleanliness, protection of the environment or even give useful information on how to help consumers ease the pain of things like JPS extortionate bills by giving conservation tips or even ideas on how to do the things that use the most electricity during the non peak (cheaper rates, right?) hours etc?

Surely that would be a far more progressive way of using our limited funds for the good of all instead of killing us with meaningless nonesense!

Celebrating Jerome's Achievements

Dr. Jerome and I

This was quite a hectic but enjoyable weekend. To begin with, my godson Jerome who is the only son of my late best friend Hilma, recently achieved his goal of becoming a medical doctor and he is presently doing his internship at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Hilma died in 2009 but she had spent many pleasant days on my  veranda and one of her favourite topics had been the giant party she would host for Jerome when he graduated.

 Since she did not live long enough to see him achieve his goal, I as godmother felt obliged and it was as pleasure to host a little party with mine and Hilma's friends to celebrate the occasion.

 As Jerome is busy and is often on duty on weekends, I had to ask him to choose the date. I also asked that he choose a date before the 20th August, as that is when my grandson Shadrach was due to return to New york and I wanted all who had not seen him since he was a little kid to see what a wonderful young man he had become.

Thor with baby Shadrach

Would you believe the date he chose was the 13th August! Whats so great about that date you may ask? Well to begin with, that's Fidel Castro's birthday, but the greater significance for me is that 40 years ago at 3 pm, my late, only son Thor was born. As fate would have it, he was only with us for 24 years but had it not been for him there would be no Shadrach, my grandson. Marsha, Jerome's sister said it was a good omen for Jerome to have chosen that date without even knowing the significance.

Shadrach (front) l-r Jerome, Joan, father Ramsay

It certainly turned out to be an excellent night, great food, lots of drinks and good friends all in one place to celebrate this young man keeping him eyes on the prize and accomplishing his dream despite the tragedy of losing his mother, with whom he was very close, during what was a critical time for him.

In the meantime Fun and Thrills, my riding group,  had planned a ride to Hollywell on Sunday 14th and since that area is a favourite of mine, I made sure to set my alarm clock so as not to miss it.

I did not ride with the main group but left early with Charles and Nicky. The ride up to Cafe Blue was reasonably easy but after we stopped there to have a drink, my muscles started to complain  and I could sympathise with them, for after all, I had already done 7 miles of solid uphill riding. Now normally, as I get tired, I jump into a support vehicle. But each time as I sought to ease the stress to my body, Charles gave me a pep talk so he and I continued struggling up together, for super fit Nicky had left us long before then.

Stefan and Nicky were among the first to arrive

 Soon Dennis Chung  flew past us then so did Andrew. After much pain and suffering, we made it up to Newcastle where we found Chris with the support vehicle and quickly jumped into the juices we had carried up in a cooler. At that point Charles, Andrew and I decided to take the easy way up by driving the rest of the way to Hollywell.


When the rest of the riders (about 15 persons) arrived, Michael drove up with them along with our Maryland " "chef," Coy and breakfast. What a wonderful sight!

After a delicious breakfast, the majority or riders sped off but as I was feeling quite tired, cold and sore, I opted to drive down with Chris, accompanied by Charles and Andrew. 

When I stopped by a neighbour on the way home, she commented how tired and bedraggled I looked. And she was perfectly correct for after the party on Saturday night, I only had about four hours of sleep and I was really pooped.

So you can guess where I headed to right after I arrived home!


For more photographs, see;  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150340990661823.393930.763366822&type=1

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?

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

Some young people may be shocked to hear this, but there was a time (in the olden days)when Jamaica had a really impressive craft industry. This industry was nurtured by an organization called “Things Jamaica” which trained young people in producing real quality stuff. To make a long story short, Things Jamaica was converted into a prison and now the craft shops are full of colourful junk bearing the Jamaican flag, but guess what “Made in China, Taiwan…..etc”.

Since I live in hope, I am expecting that the flicker I saw over the past weekend will develop into a real flame.

On a visit to Trelawney, I ran into an artistic acquaintance of mine who told me of a course she had just completed at the Heart academy in Falmouth, making jewellery from glass. She had a few pieces on her and they were really impressive and luckily for me, (I thought) she said they would be having a display at the Academy at 1 pm the next day.

Forgetting that even training institutions have no respect for time, I was there a few minutes before 1 pm and was certainly not impressed by the level of preparation. Anyway, I must say the staff was very pleasant and took us on a tour to explain the project which they had undertaken with the kind assistance of a professor from Ghana, compliments of their government.

THE CLAY OVEN

I was really impressed with was I saw from the clay oven they had made from scratch to bake the glass at just under 1000 degrees, after it had been beaten and sifted, to the finished products which were beautiful, exquisite  bracelets, necklaces and pendants. I really hope this will take off and not just fizz out because we really need to offer  visitors and locals alike something good  to come away with when we visit the resorts.

I was also very happy to see the level of cooperation between an African country and ourselves for although we pay lots of lip service to African culture and our roots, it usually stops at that.

So kudos to Heart, if they could only introduce time keeping into their curriculum.

I was a bit concerned however about the pricing of these products for the process seems quite time consuming and I couldn’t get a clear indication of where prices would end up thus allowing the craftswomen to make a decent living without pricing themselves out of the market.

Anyway I wish them the best of luck for it offers a real ray of hope for one segment of our craft industry.

I w

Sumfest 2011

Yup, today is one of the greatest days of my life. Why? I caught 13 fish! Oh to some people this may be no big deal but after years of going out to sea and coming back with one and two ticky ticky, this is a major achievement. To add insult to injury (not mine), the fisherman who took us out caught 4 and my big fisherman bother Bernie, 3. Heh heh. What a day as I reeled them in by the minute as they looked on enviously.

Shadrach (back)  and Kristof make their way in with their chairs.

This was the grand finale to a great musical weekend. at Sumfest 2011.


As my grandson Shadrach was here for the summer, he and his friend Kristof came with us to Sumfest. Things did not get off to a dignified start for as I sat in my China made chair I dropped to the ground. Very embarrassing. This was a sturdy looking chair made from aluminum and canvas but proving once again that " a chain  is as strong as the weakest link' for while the chair was sturdy, the thread that sewed it was rotten and it was clean break. Bernie had the exact same chair and his broke about an hour later, same place, same clean break.

Things got better after that though . On dancehall night, Thursday night,  the place was ram packed with fans and we could not even get to the bathrooms without a struggle but we enjoyed ourselves immensely and  bleached the entire night until Vybes Kartel came on and chased us out with his nonsensical performance at about 7.30 am.

Luckily we had already had a belly full with wonderful performances as most artists were on top form and obviously set out to entertain. The dancers energetic and creative and most of the costumes really colourful and attractive.

 My fabvourite dancehall artist Mavado  really displayed great talent and maturity. Pity he keeps getting himself so mixed up since today it was all over the radio that he was wanted by the police because of some violent incident involving he and his "crew" and a motorist at Sumfest.

I had bnever seen Khargo before on satge and he too delivered a great performance as did Kiprich, I Octane, Bounty Killer, Jah Vinchi, Cecille and Spice.

You know that one of the negatives of dancehall is that some performers who have great voices never have these exposed as they make so much money from dj-ing that they don't bother to sing. For example, for years I never knew that Lady Saw was a fantastic singer until I saw her at the Jazz festival last year performing as Marrion  Hall. (her real name!) And the same thing happened with Spice. Man she did an acappella performance as her final contribution on Thursday night that sent shivers through the audience because of the melody and power of her voice. I predict that she is going to end up being recognised and respected as a great Jamaican singer, far outperforming her dj persona. Our young friend Kimberley was a back up singer for Tifa but we really could not hear her as the backing band was very loud and Tifa dominated the stage with her antics.

A dangerous practice....generating huge flames in the crowd from insecticide cans!

I Octane wows the crowd

There is however a dangerous practice that the organisers need to do something about before we have a major tragedy on our hands. In the "olden days" people usually used their lighters to show their approval when their favourite performers were rocking the place but now they have graduated to using huge flames lit from aerosol tins of insecticide. This practice needs to be outlawed before someone gets really badly burnt at one of these events.

Friday was a real bomb with Coco Tea making us forget very quickly that the expected star R .Kelly wasn't coming. His performance was memorable, entertaining and simply out of this world as he kept us rocking for about an hour with his and the music of other greats such as Bob Marley.

Chris Martin has really become and excellent entertainer and he has built himself a body that he was proud to display as he crooned to the females hanging on to his every word as we admired his physique.

Tanya Stephens has always been one of the female performers that I have always loved and she grows from strength to strength with her entertaining antics and lyrics and of course Beres is just Beres. I just can't say anymore, about him. We just love him every time everywhere. Yes, I love R. Kelly but boy he was not missed at all as we got as good belly full.

We left early as we had to drive all the way back to Silver Sands,so we didn't hear Bunny Wailer but after  Coco Tea and Beres we really didn't need anymore. We skipped Saturday night as our friend Oran was celebrating his 70th birthday at his brother's Ocean Sands hotel in Ocho Rios and we just couldn't miss that and I am glad we didn't for I saw many old friend whom I had lost contact with over the years.

 Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest but some friends dropped by and it was dominoes, liquor and food all day. And how better to end a wonderful weekend than by outfishing all the big fishermen?

Robins Bay Again

This is the second time the Fun and Thrills group has organised a ride to Robins Bay in St. Mary and  although this time we ended up at a different location for breakfast, it was just a memorable. What was great too is that this time no one ended up in the hospital (as unfortunately Pat and Desiree had during my absence ) and there wasn't even a spill as we enjoyed our leisurely ride along the  the extremely scenic Junction road accompanied most of the way by the snaking Wag Water River as it slowly navigated around humongous rocks.

I left my home at about 5.45 am and rode alone towards Stony hill until I was joined by Gary, a professional rider who opted to keep my company up to the square where half of the group was already waiting.

The next stop was the scenic Castelton Gardens outside of which the greatest soup is available.... janga  soup. While pleasing our palates there, we were joined by most of the others who had left headquarters at Hope Pastures later than the A Team.

While we were there, it started to rain but not very heavily, so we set off for a pleasant ride with just enough rain to cool us down.  On most of the way to Agualta Vale, I was riding with Charles Simpson, who though new to riding is fulla stamina. (dancehall lingo).  Incidentally, the humorous story leaked out how  he had been conquered by some of the slopes going up to Stony hill and had to tie a rope on to his SUV to pull him over the hill. I am only sorry that I did not arrive in time with my camera to catch that sight. This is not a first among Fun and Thrillers however for Michael Chuck invented that move some years ago on a ride to Newcastle in the hills of  St. Andrew and I have the picture to prove it!

When we got to Agualta Vale we saw some of the party waiting, but Charles who proudly tells us that he is St. Mary born, convinced me that our final destination was less than 2 1/2 miles away and gullible me swallowed it hook line and sinker. Naturally, in typical Jamaican style, the 2 1/2 miles ended up being about 5 miles. I could have kicked myself for not having stopped to rest with the others.

Anyway I survived and this time our final destination was just at the turn off to Robins Bay proper. As we arrived first and I saw a number of domino tables, I wasted no time in recruiting three local players and got down to business. Before I could either drop or receive a 6 love however, the rest of the posse arrived and breakfast was announced. The food was absoluteluy fabulous and the ambiance just great, right beside the sea.

After breakfast it was straight to the beach for some of us while the MTR's went riding into the bushes in rugged country. We walked about 1/4 mile to a beach but it was full of rocks so after enquires we set off to another which we were told was not too far.

In  true country style, not too far turned out to be very far but it was a nice beach near an area with huge rocks protruding but where the water was fresh and clean and it was situated in a cove which protected us from the fierce currents that Robins Bay is notorious for.                                                                                                          It was another great day of fun and camaraderie with  the group of wonderful adventure seekers from Fun and Thrills riding club.

For more photographs see; http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?id=763366822&frecId=false&qn=1310492716&tid=190063094373469&success=11&failure=0&set=oa.209587812420997