Looking Back

I just cant find the time to keep up my blog these days as I am recording some of the more interesting incidents in my life in a soon to be published book called "Looking Back".

It is becoming far more intense than I had initially intended though, but I guess that's life. Cant wait to finish it though for it has become so all consuming that I find that I find myself putting of everything else. 

Well Deserved Honour

My brother, Dr. Bernard Marshall, OB/GYN, got a well deserved honour from his old Alma Mater Cornwall College for his support over the years to the institution through the old boys association. Bernie is a  second generation Marshall to have attended that all boy's institution and some years ago he set up an annual scholarship to send two poor kids to that noble institution in memory of our late dad Joubert Marshall.

So this weekend he came home to attend the banquet to receive his award as one of this year's Men of Might". Well done bro.

Of course I went down to Silver Sands, not to see him get the award (as the award banquet was not open to non-Cornwallians) but to go to the beach, go fishing, play dominoes and reconnect with him.

 The sea was ultra calm on Saturday and Al had beginners luck catching 10 fish including an eel while I only caught only 3, and Bernie 5 but the sea was just great for swimming afterwards and I really enjoyed it as usual.

That afternoon, the weather changed and a super lightening storm started around 3 pm. I have never seen so much lightening or heard so such thunder in my short life! This was followed by a brief shower of rain accompanied by lots of breeze, but luckily that bad patch was over within half an hour.

By the end of Saturday night  however, I had gotten two six loves and never even gave one. Sunday was not much better except I did give back one this time. But what the heck, we give them and we get them and the weekend was absolutely wonderful as usual. 

A Swinging Hindu Wedding

I always considered Hindus conservative so  I never expected to have such a swinging time at Danraj's wedding. Everything was wonderful except I kept feeling a bit sad that his mom Karla did not live long enough to be there.

Danraj is the son of the late uncle Joe and Karla and he got married in Stanford, Connecticut to Anjana, who is from India but who has been living in the states for many years. She like he has her PhD and she is really a full of life person. 

I have been to Hindu weddings before but the difference here is that liquor flowed freely and the music was fantastic. The only place I have ever heard this version of Indian music is on the minibuses in Guyana as they tend to be operated by young Indian men who play modern, blaring music. This music seems to be a very lively mix between traditional Indian music with a Caribbean/pop beat, so there is no way you could sit down as it drags you to your feet. Just like dancehall and reggae. Just about everyone there was on the dance floor at the Italian Centre which was the venue. And the liquor was certainly talking for at one time as I went outside an Indian man approached me to congratulate me on the speech I had made. I never made a speech, it was my daughter Michele who was even in a sari while I wasn't so his eyes were really blurred!

Michele in a sari sits with Michelle and Madelyn

But as I said, the liquor was flowing so I made my blooper too, hugging a lady sitting beside Danraj and telling her congratulations. Only problem it was not his bride but what the heck, after several glasses of red wine, Indian ladies in saris all started to look alike!

Incidentally, I don't think I will be eating Indian food for some some and it is not because it was not delicious, but on or arrival in Stamford, we stopped at a restaurant with an  innocuous name for lunch,. only to find it was an Indian restaurant with a great buffet. Then there was Indian food at the reception and an Indian brunch put on by the bride's parents the next day so after three  consecutive Indian meals, I need a break!

A family photo at Lincoln's memorial in Stamford

Stamford is quiet and clean, no way as developed and bustling as Hartford but apparently the very rich live there as I have never seen so many Porches, convertible sports BMW's and Ferraris being driven on the streets downtown and that includes Manhattan.

Stanford is also literally just around the corner from Mt. Vernon where we stayed with Michelle...a mere 20 minutes drive on the I95.

 What I found interesting is that we had to pay toll on the same highway going up but not on  the way back. Strange indeed.

Danraj is such a wonderful person that people came from Jamaica, Atlanta, Colorado and many other far flung places to share the day with him.

Michele and family came from Colorado and we spent a great week together. I think we only quarreled once, a miracle indeed.

We took Madelyn to Central Park and  she really had a ball.  I had no idea it was so huge in the middle of Manhattan, 800 acres, the guide told us with everything brought in except the rocks!

Then we went lyming in Times Square  and thank heavens there were  no exhibitionists around this time.

 

The huge rocks are the only things which were not imported into Central Park

Actually, my  trip to 

New York this time challenged all the stereotypes that I had always had about that city since spending a few months there before escaping to Canada when we migrated many decades ago.

For the subways are now clean and I was alone at the bus stop at 10 pm one night and felt no fear. Then when I took the trolley at La Guardia and did  not have a metro card, the driver took me free. Then a young lady helped me with my suitcase without me even asking and a young man swiped his card to let me into the subway for $$2.00 when the fare is $2.50, when he saw I no metro card and there was no one selling there.

Hanging out in Times square

If someone had told me they had such pleasant experiences in New York I would have marveled.

The experience that knocked my breath away however was when we went to the beach ( ie. the cold, dirty Atlantic ocean which we went to visit, not to swim) in Stamford. Two young men were arguing nearby and using some M....F....and a man pointed to the baby and told them to stop using that language. Later as Michelle and I walked around, they came up and apologised for using that language near us! Absolutely amazing. 

Anyway I don't see myself going back up north for a long time as my grandson has now relocated near Tampa where he goes to university and I don't know of anyone else getting married or any other important function up that way soon.

For more photos, see https://www.facebook.com/gratestj/media_set?set=a.10151881714136823.1073741837.763366822&type=1

Shadrach on the grounds of St. Leo's in Florida

OF ATLANTIC CITY AND LESBIANS

After seeing how hurricane Sandy had devastated Atlantic city, I had the urge to go see for myself what it looks like now, since I had seen ads saying they were again open for business. Although I am too much of a cheap stake to gamble, the fact that the casinos give back a large proportion of the greyhound bus fare in cash in the hope passengers will gamble in their hotel, spurred me even more to take the two hour trip. 

However, if these casino owners had more people like me, they would go bankrupt, for the last time I went there I got back my full $22 in cash and only gambled $5. This time I noticed that they only gave back $25 of the $37 fare, but what the heck.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how normal the place looked, no sign of the devastation less than  a year ago. It seems to me too that they have brought in a whole pile of white sand, (the sand looked grey the last time I was there) probably from Guyana which has an over- abundance of white sand which they export to as far as South Africa.

What was really great too was seeing Red Stripe beer billboards on the along the boardwalk, although the signs made no mention of Jamaica anywhere.

Anyway, the rest of the world does not seem to be aware that they are back in business as the numbers were really low with the majority seeming to be older retired folk many with walking sticks and other walking aids. But I guess that is normal as it was a Tuesday when most younger people would be at work.

The casinos and hotels are really fabulous and because Donald Trump is such a prig, I hate to admit it but the Trump hotel complex was really the nicest.

So they are back in business but it still remains a secret!

On the return to New York I had to go to Times Square as it is really one of my favorite places in the world and although I know everything goes in New York, I really was not prepared for this.

Two black lesbians in the middle of the street topless and feeling up each other.

Ugh, disgusting and all this while young kids and families were around in abundance.

Bloopers and Serial Killers

The last time I was in new York, it was April and cold.

I had been staying with my daughter in law who has a coop apartment in Mt. Vernon.
.
There are two identical blocks of apartments in the complex but what I did not realize is that the same key opens both security doors.(  She tells me they do this so that if for example  the laundromat is not working in one complex they can go over to the other.

I did not know that and in my anxiety to get out of the cold, I  had run into the wrong block.

Unfortunately too,  the apartments have the same numbers and same location so I was totally discombobulated when my  key would not open the door. (I had never had a problem with the key before).

 After several frustrated tries, I started banging on the door impatiently as my grandson was at home. You can imagine my shock when the door opened and I was confronted by a startled Indian man dressed in shorts and no shirt.

He demanded to know what I wanted and I mumbled something and shamefacedly hurried  away from the door, thinking to myself how lucky I was that he was not a serial killer who dragged me into his apartment, had his way with me, (as often described  in murder mystery novels) then hacked me to death before hiding me in the basement.

While all that flashed through my mind, I still could not figure where my apartment had disappeared to, after all, it was the same number and same location beside the elevator and the same floor. Then I remembered seeing another apartment block looking the same and went back into the cold to try and  figure it out.

I did and have been thanking my lucky starts ever since then that  serial killers exist more in the movies than in real life!

Jaywalking

I just finished my daily walk, and  every time I jaywalk, I remember this wicked blue stripe cop in Half/Way Tree, Jamaica.

They had just inserted some grids on the main thoroughfares on which motorists were supposed, never to stop. Unfortunately for me, I was in slow moving traffic and the light turned amber just as I got on to the grid. Before I could move forward, a whole bunch of pedestrians stepped out in front of me and the light turned red.

This idiot of a cop was right there and saw everything but pulled me over and told me she was going to give me a ticket

 I asked her if I was supposed to have mowed down the pedestrians  and she ignored the question and kept writing. So I asked her why the hell she did not give the pedestrians tickets too  for jaywalking, to which she replied "There are no laws against jaywalking in Jamaica".

My only regret is that I forgot her face immediately so will never have to face the possibility of seeing her on the road as a defenseless pedestrian one day!

I guess that's a good thing.

OFF TO UNIVERSITY

I thought when your grand kids went off to university you would be so old you would have one foot in the grave ! Well maybe I am and just do not know it for last week my grandson Shadrach started at St. Leos university in Florida.

 This  is the oldest Catholic university in the USA and would probably have not been my first choice. My first choice would have been Pace University which is one of the top universities in the world and one to which Shadrach got a good scholarship. Problem,  it is in New York and like myself he hates New York. So he opted for this other one to which he also got a scholarship.

Anyway where you get your first degree is no big thing for can you remember where Obama got his first degree?

I knew you couldn't for it is where you specialize that makes the difference.

Anyway it is a small university with a beautiful campus having even a little lake, landscaped green areas and some of the largest oak trees covered with an  attractive parasite looking like beards.

 I am sure he will be very happy and very successful there.

It is not far from Tampa, just 45 minutes drive so I will be visiting him from time to time. Besides we have friends nearby ( in Florida terms) and he even has an invitation for the Thanksgiving weekend already.

Yup...getting old fi true