A BIG DAMP SQUID

No, I have not completed the task that has been keeping me away from writing on public and other issues, but after the big damp squid last night, I just can't help myself. My fingers are a law unto themselves!

Thew squid is of course the nationwide broadcast made by prime minister Bruce Golding in the wake of his sudden (but welcome) resignation.

Ever since it became known that the PM was not running again as JLP leader at the conference due in November and therefore a new leader and by implication, Prime Minister would have to be found, a lot of idiots have been jumping up and down calling for him to tell them why he was resigning.(Amazingly, these are the same people who had been loudest in calling for his resignation when the scandals about his handling of the Dudus affair were exposed!) At the same time, the same people (I have no doubt) have been spreading rumours that the reason for his resignation is because he is about to be indited by the US government and his extradition sought. Then they have put out the word that if he did not confirm this in the nationwide broadcast, then he was not speaking the truth.

Yawn.

Politicians are sometimes so stupid and immature and they really seem to take those to whom they direct their propaganda, for fools.

The defense by Golding of his chief Don Dudus was disgraceful and his resignation, because of his handling of the issue was overdue. This is not just my opinion, but the opinion of some 80% of the persons polled in a recent survey done by the party that Mr. Golding himself leads. This is why he is seen as  liability to the party which was doomed to become Jamaica's first and only one term  government since independence, if Golding remained as leader. That is why Golding could command no respect in the party and had to step aside.

Last night he was arrogant enough to reiterate the nonsense that he had only stood up for Dudus because his constitutional rights were infringed. He still has not come to terms with the fact that he cannot sell that one since he has never ever had an ear for the constitutional rights of others who had been extradited before Dudus.

Jamaican politics. Yawn. In my book, either Holeness or Shaw would make good successors and the upcoming election  is threatening to be be quite boring as the PNP has said that their strategy remains the same as whomever takes up the mantle will remain tainted by the Dudus affair. Pathetic. It f that is all they can find as an election strategy? We may as well all go to sleep for now.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Being caught with your two best selling publications not available puts a great strain on one. So here I am doing the 6th Edition of the Original Dancehall Dictionary and the 3rd Edition of Tour Jamaica at the same time in an effort to have them back on the shelves before the end of the year and the winter tourist season.

No wonder I don't have the time to blog these days.

Revisiting Big Dunn

According to my bible, if you can drive don't ride and if you can ride don't walk. So when Charles aka Ayatollah called at 5am to say he was sending a support vehicle for me on Sunday 9th September, to follow me up to Stony Hill and I saw bicycles packed up inside when it arrived, I packed mine in too.

But Charles was not as weak willed for after we picked up Chuck and we all were driving up to Stony Hill we saw him and Theresa struggling up Long Lane. But Theresa being smart, jumped into Charles 1st vehicle as it arrived (ours was already packed up with sensible people!) but stubborn Charles refused to be bribed and struggled all the way up the steep hill in the early morning all by himself.

All power to him.

Of course, all this excitement was in preparation for a return ride with the Fun and Thrills group to the wonderful, refreshing waterfall known as Big Dunn aka Fish Dunn, just outside of Buff Bay, Portland.

The ride to Castleton Gardens was easy as it was downhill all the way and there, we had delicious, boiled corn and janga soup. It was there that the main group of riders which had left the headquarters later, joined us.

Super athlete Andrew and daughter Paris

The greatest athlete on this trip was 8-year-old Paris Smellie, Andrew's daughter. Andrew had driven
to Agualta Vale then unloaded her bicycle which she rode from there past Annotto Bay while her super athlete dad jogged protectively behind her. 

They kept that up to the border of St. Mary and Portland (Dover district in St. Mary and Windsor district in Portland) where it started to rain. I personally welcomed the rain for what always defeats me on those long rides is the blaring sun.

As soon as the rain stopped, Paris was back on her bicycle and Andrew back to his jogging all the way to Buff Bay.

Along the way I had seen members of the Portland Cycling Club heading west, but just outside of Buff Bay some passed me on a hill while one or two others of the team followed, doing Orrel's regular job, that of helping weak female riders by riding behind them and pushing them up the hill with one hand.

Members of Porland Cycling Club- a Patricia Marie Summons photo

In Buff Bay they told me they are the top riding club in Jamaica, having recently won the championship and that one of their members, Oneal Samuel's rides with BMW in Atlanta, Georgia while two of their members are now in training for the Caribbean championship meet next month.

When one showed me his wheels which cost US$5000 each, I finally realized what a little leaguer I was! I can see why they would be a top riding club however as their regular training routine involves riding east from Portland to Kingston and back home via Junction taking an average of seven hours to do that rotation.

Wow.

They rode with us and had breakfast with us at a cricket field just beyond Crystal Springs. About two minutes before that, I had kept to my resolve to stop riding as soon as we started the steep ascent to the intersection. However, after breakfast, I realized that what I remembered to be a steep climb was a mere slope as the really steep section starts after the intersection going towards Bybrook.

It was a marvelous day. Someone had tied three knotted ropes on trees at the top of the falls and allowed them to fall over the gigantic rocks for adventurers to climb up on and jump into the deep, clear, refreshing water below.

Several of our macho men tried but gave up in frustration until Johan accomplished what had seemed to be the impossible. Seeing that it was doable, Andrew and Howie persevered until they succeeded too.

Fun and Thrills riders frolic at Big Dunn aka Fish Dunn, Portland

While on our first visit there, Chuck had been the only one to "chuck" off the gigantic rocks into the deep water below, this time numerous fellows did and was joined by Sasheena who represented the women.

It was a great day as the weather was excellent for riding, the water refreshing and not too cold, the breakfast delicious and the camaraderie wonderful. The only regret is that we had mistimed our return visit as the apples which were ripe and in abundance on the first trip, were absent this time.


What the heck, you can't always have it all!

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?