Rio Magno

Charles 2nd has finally redeemed himself!

You will recall how he led us on a wild goose chase last year...to port Esquivel to be exact. So wide did he carry us that he even told us to bring swimming equipment but when we got there it was an arid play field. And to add insult to injury after we rode all the way from Kingston, there was no breakfast.

Well yesterday was the exact opposite..... it was absolutely fabulous.

For off we went to Rio Magno, a lush, underpopulated area which we had to ourselves and we had a ball.

We the ordinary riders drove from Kingston around 6 am while the A team rode off at 5.15 am and I understand Michael said he would do the ride to Juici patty in Bog Walk in 45 minutes. Well while Maurice, Orrel and Alrick did it in just over an hour, Howie who stayed back to keep Michael's company and Michael made it in just under two hours. Lol. Barry of the A team, had a puncture and had to drive over.

Anyway we waited for the entire A team at Juici and although it was just after 7 am, the thick fog that characterises Bog Walk had not yet lifted. In fact as we rode off, I was a bit sceptical about breaking the traffic light to to go to Rosemont as unless the cars had on their head lights, you could barely see them coming.

Anyway by the time we cleared the miles of orange groves that accompanied us most of the way until we made the turn off to Redwood, the sun was just really emerging. This made it an extremely pleasant ride as you know my aversion to sun and for the rest of the way there was a great overhang of trees all the way.

When Charles and I had scouted out the location on the Wednesday before, the hill leading from Redwood to Cedar Valley looked daunting and I determined from then that while I would ride up to Redwood, I would not be riding up the other long hill. Surprisingly though, the hill was not as difficult as it appeared when I was drivin.... in fact it seemed a lot shorter and after pushing up my bike at two separate points, I ended up doing the entire ride without doing my usual, jumping into the support vehicle.

In fact, Charles played a role there too for as I pushed up one especially challenging section complaining loudly that I wanted the support vehicle, he told me I was mistaken as we had not yet reached the challenging hill! I disbelieved him a bit but as I had pledged to do the first hill, I carried on only to realise on reaching the top it was actually the 2nd hill that we had just completed and it was downhill all the way from there. At one point as I pushed I heard Grace shouting that she was riding through and in shock I turned around only to see that she was indeed riding, but Orrel was riding behind her and pushing her up the hill ! Orrel is absolutely fantastic at that and he is extremely strong although he is not even close to being built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have often seen him riding up long Mountain and Beverly Hills and pushing damsels in distress on their bikes in front of him. This is an amazing feat that takes an inordinate amount of strength and skill and I have never seen anyone else anywhere do this. Maybe he should be nominated for the "Guinness Book of World Records?"

Anyway I took the lead flying down the other side of the hill and while after crossing over the fording I did pass the track leading to our swimming area at first, when we turned back I saw the lady who was cooking for us and her team by the river. It didn't take me a minute to tear off my shirt and shorts and jump in the river (not nude, I had ridden down in my bathing suit underneath) and it was absolutely wonderful. Actually, where we were was the Indian river, a tributary of the Rio Magno.

At one point there was a bit of concern for whereas we had committed to bring the eating utensils, Charles had left them with Betty and he said she was an hour behind. Pat saved the day however for she had brought two lovely banana breads and voraciously we dived into them giving us the ability to enjoy the water a bit longer as we waited for Betty without dying from hunger.

The food was just great and plentiful......turned cornmeal, lots of ground provisions, calloo, run dung, ackee and saltfsh and wonderful corned pork. We had a wonderful time swimming and eating and when a local young man showed us a spot where the huge rock has a small opening that you can swim through, Michael and Barry had to scratch up themselves on the rock to prove that they could do it.

Our cook Hopie had told us on the previous trip that there was a waterfall nearby and eventually we convinced the same young man who had come there with her to take us to it. At first when she was quoting the distance, she said it was a mile away and when we protested, she cut the distance down to 1/2 mile!

Charles set out with a small group and shortly after, about twelve of us set out. Problem was, we didn't see where they went as by the time we got to the main road they were out of sight. So we followed the general direction in which Hopie had pointed and headed up the hill. After struggling uphill for about fifteen minutes and getting the feeling we were going away from the river area, we stopped a route taxi only to be told yes, we were going the wrong way for the only waterfall we would see at the top of the hill was a tank overflowing.

Disappointed we turned back but as we almost reached our original picnic spot, Charles the 1st (Simpson) suggested that we drive to look for the waterfall and Grace and I accompanied him. We went in the general direction that we had been told and it appeared that we were getting further and further away from civilisation. We were all for turning back but Simpson said that often when we turn back in situations such as this, we hear later that we were almost at our elusive destination, so we should continue a little further.

Shortly after we heard loud voices coming from what appeared to be a deep wooded ravine with humongous trees. So we went up further to find a spot to turn back and as we got back to the spot we saw Alrick sitting on the roadside. Apparently because it had actually been a 45 minute walk, Charles and company had called Betty to ask her to come for them and Alrick (who never swims!) thinking the vehicle that had passed had been her had come up from the river so she would be able to find them.

We parked and walked gingerly down a slippery and treacherous path until we got to the river where we saw Sharon under the excuse for a waterfall. Actually that waterfall is no bigger than the one we often use at Maryland on a Sunday. Behind a huge rock was Charles and company in what they described as a sauna. When I tested the water and saw how cold it was, I ignored the invitations for me to join them. However, that area is known as Ham Lane and the river is the Rio Cobre which comes down from Guy's Hill. It is an absolutely awesome area heavily wooded and in a deep ravine (I think of it as it as a very mini Grand Canyon !) with some of the largest trees and rocks I have ever seen. The eastern side is an extremely high ninety degree hill which gives it an almost eerie look.

Betty arrived shortly after and reluctantly the adventurers got out to return to our original picnic spot. When we got there everybody was more or less packing up and would you believe that Nicole and Chris Dalrimple decided that they would be riding back to Juici with the A team. Once you had gotten over the hill that we had sped down on our arrival, it was more or less downhill all the way however and we who drove back did not have to wait very long before they all got back to Bog walk.

Then it was back to Kingston after an absolutely wonderful day. Actually I think we need to find more of these quiet, natural and idyllic spots instead of always going along the beaten track to known locations such as Reggae and Reach Falls, for exploring is far more interesting.

Of course, whenever you have winners you usually have losers and we were the winners on Sunday. The losers were my friends Michael and Camille. I had invited them on Friday night but they didn't confirm. However, according to Camille, when she woke up on Sunday morning and remembered the turned cornmeal and corned pork I had told them about, they decided to drive over. Would you believe they reached Rio Magno, saw the fording and the pedestrian bridge but didn't see us.

Not being persistent like Charles the 1st, they turned back after trying to call me a couple of times and having the phone going straight to voice mail. According to Michael he left me a message filled with reams of colourful cloth for not answering the phone and causing them to have to drive back home hungry. But as it turned out the laugh was on him as he had transposed my number incorrectly!

  I wonder who got all the colorful cloths he left for me?

FETING THE KIDS

On Saturday 15th January, we had our annual treat for the kids from the National Children's Home in Papine.....better late than never.

As you recall, we the riders from Fun and Thrills MTR have been spending some time with these kids who have been abandoned by their families and are now residents of the Methodist run home. Our involvement started three years ago when we donated bicycles and a bicycle rack to the home and started taking out kids for rides on Saturday mornings at Hope Gardens. In order to enjoy this privilige, the kids must have met the behavioral and acdemic criteria setfor that week by the head of the home Mr. Anderson.

This year's treat took the form of a fun day at Rockforth Mineral spa.This formed part of our regular Saturday morning ride and get together. This time 17 of us rode to the yacht club just below the airport while the super fit, Chris, Howie and Orrel rode on to Port Royal.

In the meantime the rest of us returned to the spa to have breakfast and await the arrival of the kids. Michael Chuck brought over the breakfast and snacks for the kids and took back some bicycles for us. Then we waited and waited and waited for the kids to arrive. When they didn't, we called the manager of the home, Mr. Anderson and he expressed surprise that we were waiting on them as there was a misunderstanding between himself and Charles, leading him to believe we would have been collecting the kids. This was straightened out however and they were brought over in their bus accompanied by the school nurse.

From then on, it was fun fun fun. The kids had a great time frolicking in the water but were disappointed when they learnt that they could not remain in the water for longer than 45 minutes. We tried to explain to them that the water had minerals in it that could cause over exposure to harm them, but that did not alleviate the disappointment. Only when they had dressed and was met by the group with snacks of patties, drinks and cake, did the disappointment ease.

They had a wonderful day thoug and so did we. So good was it that I passed a resolution that we ride to Port Royal once per month and finish off swimming at the spa. This was seconded and thrided by Chales and Richard.

Negril Adventure

Shocker of the week.....the $250 jelly coconut in Negril!

Mystery of the week....how Barry left Kingston the same time as the others yet reached
Negril 5 hours before every one else. Some people think he took a minibus!

Joke of the week....A motorotist seeing Howie lying on the sidewalk and thinking he was dead, summoned the police.

These are the things we will probably be talking about for many years as we remember the decision to ride to Negril in 2011.

While the weaklings decided to ride from Chris' home in St. Ann, the real MTR's rode from Kingston.We weaklings should have travelled down to St. Ann on Friday 7th January, but at the last minute Motty called me to sit in for him, so diligently I gassed up my car and checked my tires to ensure that I could leave immediately after the programe.

As I returned home I received a call from Charles that he had arranged for me to travel down with Sharon and Richard at 3.30pm. That was the best news of the day but as 3.30 passed, I called Richard only to hear that he knew nothing about such plans and he did not think they were going...... my heart fell. Anyway he suggested that I call Sharon and she assured me that they were definitely going, only Richard did not know it yet! Anyway she said she was just leaving school so would pick me up in about an hour. Well an hour came and went as did two. Every call assured me that they would be soon there which turned out to be after 6pm. Anyway once we got on the road all was well especially when we stopped just beyond Castleton gardens for soup and jerk pork.

The others had left out long before and I hear that as they got their bikes ready, Fatman used his super strength to burst Charles' tube as he pumped it, but all was well as they were able to wake up the operator of a cycle shop to solve the problem.

That night we bunked on beds, sofas and the floor at Chris' home and that of her tenant only to be roused from a nice sleep at around 3.30 am by Charles. We left out about 4am and why wasn't I surprised that neither Charles nor Theresa had lights! This slowed us down considerably and in fact it took us one hour to cover the first five miles.

Anyway as dawn broke we picked up the pace and eventually split into two groups. my group with Nicole, Sharlene, Standford, Chris and Fatman got to Mobay at 10am. Chris the driver did an excellent job covering the both groups but in Mobay he was called back to take Sharon and Richard back to St. Ann where they had left their vehicle as they had to get back to Kingston. Charles tried to bribe us to wait on his group by claiming he had ordered breakfast for us, but we resisted this and instead had coffee at Island Grill and resumed the journey.

By the time we got outside of Hopewell, I started to see some excellent beauty spots that I might want to paint at some time in the future, so stopped to take pictures including some excellent shots of the over 200 year old water wheel at Tryall which is still in operation and which is used to keep the fabulous world renowned golf course in peak condition.

Fatman and I had stayed back with Sharlene who was having a problem with her bike, but eventually they left me as I dallied with my camera. By 11.30 am , although I was in no tired or exhausted, with the sun blazing down, I decided that since no one was paying me to ride and since my neck was killing me, it was time to get out of the sun, so I called Charles and he returned with a support vehicle being driven by his friend Stephen and thankfully I jumped in and was even more elated to hear that they were heading straight for the beach in Negril .

We passed Fatman and Sharlene shortly after and invited them to jump in but they were resolute. Poor Fatman, he told me that after he stayed with Sharlene the whole time, when Orrel the conquerer arrived, she declared " Orrel is here now so all is well." Deflated, he rode off by himself while she stayed with her hero.

We saw Chris and invited her also to come out of the sun and drive with us, but although the effects of a lack of sun block were already showing on her, she determined that she was going to go all the way.

Well we went to the beach at Shields hotel and had a wonderful afternoon while the real heroes and heroines slogged in the sun. At around 5 pm we walked into town for dinner and shortly after Fatman rode in saying that Nicole and Stanford, Chris, Orrel and Sharlene had already come in but had gone to their hotel at "Cotton Tree." He was so exhausted that as soon as he ate, he fell asleep with his mouth wide open.....a most tempting sight!

Shortly afterwards, Barry who had left with the Kingston riders at 4am and had a mishap with his support vehicle being driven by Pat, causing them to be delayed for some time at the police station, arrived. When we expressed absolute amazement at how he had arrived so early, he admitted to having driven over part of Mount Rosser in St. Catherine. We are still in awe and are questioning the steroids that he has been taking since none of the other Kingston riders arrived in Negril before 9pm....some 4 hours after he did!

Only next day did we learn some of the drama that took place with them, for somewhere in Hanover, apparently Howie had dismounted and lay down on the sidewalk only to draw the attention of a caring, passing motorists who summoned the police to investigate the dead body on the ground! Michael seems to have created similar concern for Howie did find him lying on the sidewalk near Rosehall and really thought he was not breathing until he let out a loud snore. He admitted afterwards that he had actually stopped for a nap twice and is quite deflated that motorists did not show the same kind of concern for him as they did for Howie!

I certainly had a wonderful time and while the heroes insist that they did too, my non -masochistic outlook makes it impossible for me to understand how people can have fun torturing themselves that way! I understand that when Howie arrived he declared that he would never ride again....till the next day.

I never saw Maurice, Michael or Alrick at all since they left early next morning but I understand that Alrick never finished the ride as after the misfortune of 3 punctures, he ran out of spare tubes. Michael owes me US$500 for he had said he would catch and pass us the St. Ann riders, but I guess that money is dead!

My new resolution is not to ride more than 30 miles again for the unrelenting sun and the pain in the neck demolishes my idea of fun.....different strokes for different folks.

The next day was absolutely wonderful, beach, breakfast then check out....... the best part was of course the lyme at Lymings in Walkerswood where we stopped for food....great jerk pork and there we saw Sharlene and Damit cooling out. Surprise, surprise, Damit had also ridden from Kingston and he tells me he was the last to arrive, reaching his bed at around 11pm.

Well such it is till the next great adventure Fun and thrills style...........

For photographs see Facebook.

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was one of my most memorable and enjoyable Christmases in recent memory, or more to the point, since my entire immediate family left for foreign shores.

 Before this year, I spent most of my chrismases having dinner with my late best friend Hilma Walker, who being a flight attendant, never failed to put on a big do whenever she was in Jamaica. After that we would head up to the Lynches for an afternoon of boozing and camaradie.

When she wasn't around, I usually spent the entire day with my close friend, Miss Rites and family (Lynches).This Christmas was very different and far healthier.

You know, although I have lived in Jamaica for 61 of my 64 years and have heard of carol singing at Christmas, I have never experienced it before either as a participant or as a member of the audience. 

You see, since crime climbed out of control, most people would not dare to continue that wonderful Christmas tradition.

 This year though,  I spent Christmas with my friend Audley and Marcia Nain and their daughters at their home in Lauristan, Spanish Town. 

When people hear of Spanish Town, they often conjure up images of violence, but I am here to tell you that I discovered with some degree of awe that Marcia and Audley do not lock up their home until they go to bed at night.

I digress however. 

Audley is the dynamic president of Lauristan Citizens Associastion and being a great singer himself ( his daughter Kim is a rising star with lots of music videos on Utube. Look out for her).

Audley defied the norm in the society and started up carol singing last Christmas in his community. 

This year we got up at 5 am (since it has been ultra cold this Christmas, I had on two sweaters) and set out with Audley on the bull horn, singing carols on top of his voice and waking up the neighbourhood wishing them Merry Christmas. We were slowly joined by other shivering members of the community until we got to the community Centre around 7am.

There they had a Christmas tree and huge pots were boiling away as some citizens were preparing breakfast. Others who did not like to wake up early brought food . After a small concert and the exchange of gifts pixie style I had the most delicious turned corn meal and barbecue pork with a slice of roasted breadfruit and mackerel. Had I been greedy, there was also yam, banana , ackee and satfish, callaloo and sandwiches. But being a small eater, I finished off with a couple cups of real country hot chocolate and some Christmas cake.

At around noon about nine of us went over to Juniors house to travel together to Aunt Nessa in Mandeville for Christmas dinner. Aunt Nessa is Audley's aunt who is returning resident living in a huge house in Mandeville. Junior is Audley's young brother and he is otherwise known as Bishop Rohan Edwards who has made quite a name for himself organising the 10 thousand man march against violence and other national activities. His son Jermain Edwards is a famous gospel artist who tours quite a lot and has made quite a name for himself in the gospel music world.

After a long wait we eventually set out just before 2 pm and reached aunt Nessa around 3pm. They had been waiting so long for us that it was straight into dinner, excellent food, then dominoes. I must say I have never beaten up a ' man of the cloth ' before but Junior and his partner, a guy from Boston, got two six loves. We got none. After a wonderful afternoon, Jermain who drives a Benz, had to return home on a wrecker for the benz had mechanical problems. We left later and returned to Spanish Town safely around 9pm.

On Sunday morning, I came over to Kingston after breakfast and did pass the indomitable Fun and Thrills riders at Ferry, as they had ridden over to Hellishire for breakfast and were just coming home.

 I relished my air condition and after shouting out to them and seeing them sweating away in the hot sun!

On Sunday afternoon I headed back to Spanish Town for a dominoe party and spent the night there. On Monday which was also a holiday, we resumed playing around 1pm.

 

I tell you it was an absolutely wonderful weekend and either I am becoming very good at dominoes or everyone else is regressing, for although I dropped two six loves over the period, I got none. Just one technical.

I am quite proud of myself actually!

Link; https://youtu.be/L3sgIci5ffs

Yes to A Final Court of Appeal in Jamaica

Ever since "Dudusgate", I have been having a problem with Bruce Golding remaining as prime minister, but I must say I am with him in his most recent suggestion that Jamaica opts for its own final court of appeal to replace the Privy Council, rather than going ahead with the Caribbean Court of Appeal.

You see, as far as any form of Caribbean unity is concerned, I have long ago agreed with the results of the federation in 1961 when Jamaicans voted to go it alone rather than federating with the other islands of the former British West Indies. Therefore I have always resented the attempts by especially the PNP government to reverse that decision via the back door. You see, I am very aware that the people in the other islands just do not like us and each time our government does something with them, it usually proves to be nothing but a very costly "suck up" to the other islands.

An example of some costly suck ups are Caricom and the fiasco of the cricket world cup some years ago. As to the Caricom, every other nation in the group seems to have benefited from it except us. But that's understandable, for do you see the type of resistance they put up whenever we try to get our products into their territories? Check the "patty " issue the other day. Trinidad fought tooth and nail to try and keep out our patties even implying that they were being manufactured under insanitary conditions. But our supermarkets and stores are over flowing with Trinidadian goods. When the "patty" issue arose, I publicly called on Jamaicans to boycott Trinidadian goods, but I may as well have said so in my bathroom for Jamaicans ! Even when the Trinidadian prime minister dissed us all after hurricane Nicole, we resisted the loud calls to boycott their products.

Anyway back to this Caribbean Court of Justice, (which was just another case of former prime minister PJ Patterson putting the interest of the other island above ours, for although our courts are sadly lacking funds to keep them going, he refused to attend to those pressing problems while going ahead to to borrow funds to set up that white elephant.). We put up US$33 million of the US$100 million cost of the court, but guess what, they did not even appoint one Jamaican to the court while appointing two Guyanese. And if you think they have superior intellectuals to us, look who they rejected....... the former head of the law faculty based in Barbados, a Jamaican who has been key into the training lawyers in all the territories and also our former President of the Court of Appeal. I don't see how any Jamaican with an ounce of self respect could continue to support these regional bodies.

Yes by all means lets leave the Privy Council for after almost 50 years, we should be more than capable of handling our own affairs so lets get to it.

I hope we will be having a referendum on the matter soon . We need to be vigilant however that the judges to be appointed to the final court of appeal are protected from any form of political intereference or pressure and this should be entrenched in the Constitution.

A Bleak Furture Indeed

Hooray, Shahine Robinson is now the member of parliament for North East St. Ann! Big deal. What a farce.

For those who follow Jamaican politics, the constitution demands that persons seeking to become members of parliament, must have not sworn allegiance to any other country and I think that is how it should be. I also disagree with the privileges given under the Constitution to Commonwealth citizens, but that is an entirely different topic.

So back to the issue at hand. When the PNP which had been in power for 18 year and who considered it their right to be government and never opposition, lost the election in 2007, they grabbed at the dual citizenship straw citing the fact that several elected members of parliament on the Jamaica Labour Party side were US citizens. The hilarity of the matter is however that in their haste to grab power via the courts and through the back door, they forget to check if they too had persons similarly disqualified on their side. And they do. But that's also another matter and I have commented on it many times in previous blogs.

What is especially disgusting about the Shahine Robinson affair, is that instead of just being honest and allow a bi-election, she went to court claiming she was not an American citizen. Worse, when the courts ousted her she even had the nerve to appeal it and went back into Parliament and happily fought the suit brought by the PNP until they brought actual proof to show that she was indeed a citizen. Bill Clinton would have been proud to have her as an ally, for whereas most politicians are experienced and convincing liars, the barefaced ones are not that prevalent. Well we really don't have to go to the USA of A to find barefaced liars, for the late Michael Manley was the doyen of that genre. So he too would have been proud to have a Shahine on his side.

But Michael Manley died a long time ago and the JLP, seeing how disgusted Jamaicans had become with corruption and sleaze, did promise when they were campaigning, to bring back integrity and decently to politics.Well if decency and integrity in politics is running someone like Shahine Robinson after her barefaced and disgraceful actions which have led the country to waste a $20 million that we can ill afford on an bi-election, then the future for this poor country looks bleak indeed.

He defended a woman!!!!!

I couldn't believe the news. K. D. Knight, former Minister of Security and current Opposition senator in Jamaica , is reported to have actually defended a woman! Wow. How absolutely earth shattering!

My astonishment comes from the fact that over the years, Mr. Knight often made the news for verbally abusing women. The first and probably the most colourful report had to do with a confrontation with a fellow Minister, now Leader of the Opposition Portia Simpson Miller who he is reported to have told some very unflattering and colourful words in the precincts of parliament.

Another lady who is reported to have been often verbally abused by the goodly gentleman, is the leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne. So disgusting did these bouts of abuse become that he was actually suspended from the senate not so long ago.
Now, the director of Public Prosecution Ms. Paula Llwewelyn has been the latest recipient.

What is it that Mr. Knight has against powerful women or is that he just hates women? Do they make him feel inferior? One has to wonder about these things since I have never seen a report of him verbally abusing men.

Anyway, is December 2010 to be the period when Knight is about to make a turn for the better? For according to a news report, he was in court yesterday defending RM Pusey who is presiding at the Kern Spencer trail where Knight himself is a defence counsel!

The prosecution had asked for Pusey to be removed on the grounds that she is demonstrating bias and guess who jumped to her immediate defence although she is not his client? None other than K.D Knight in shining armour himself!

I guess he really does not have a deep hatred for women. But wait, could there be another reason?????

LOL.