Richmond Ride

In actual fact we spent around 45 minutes there lyming and not only because we were enjoying the food and camaraderie but also because Howie, who never disappoints when it comes to punctures, had his fifth in two weeks but  expertly dealt with the problem while we waited.      Jamaica is such an absolutely beautiful country that sometimes when we journey out into the country and are overcome by the sheer peace and tranquility, we tend to forget that we actually exist in the country which is one of the top five murders capitals in the world. So ofttimes we relax out vigilance which could easily lead to us becoming victims of crimes of opportunity. Crimes of opportunity are defined as those "..... committed without planning but simply carried out because a potential perpetrator sees and seizes the opportunity to commit a crime".

Howie the puncture expert

Sharon, the "almost victim"

     I was seriously be reminded of these facts yesterday as Fun &Thrills members set out enjoy a great day at a river at Richmond in St. Mary. 

We actually set out in time and were at Stony Hill by 6.30 am where we waited until we were encouraged by organizer extraordinaire Ayatollah to take our rest break at Golden Spring where Shamira was waiting to join  us.

After that it was great, easy riding along the heavily shaded, lush and curvy Junction Road as we headed hungrily to Castleton gardens where the best janga and cow skin soup and boiled corn is sold and is always ready and waiting.

It was on the way to Westmorland bridge, that wide 185 metre bridge built between 2012 -2013 by China engineering at Chovey to replace the one destroyed by hurricane some years before, that I was reminded how easy it is to become a victim of a crime of opportunity.

As I rode slowly up one of the many hills along the Junction road, I heard Sharon calling to me and the story she had to tell  when she caught up was really frightening.

She had been riding alone with new rider Ashawri and as they passed a white van with two men aboard,she overhead them talking about kidnapping someone.

Shortly afterwards the same van passed them, slowed down and moved over to the left bank so that Ashawri who was ahead of her, would have been banked as she approached . So Sharon called out to her telling her to overtake on  the outside. As Sharon approached, the man on the passenger side opened his door and invited her to get in but she too took a wide berth and seeing me ahead, called out for me to wait on them at which point the van drove away.

The fact is however, had they had a weapon, they could easily have ordered, not invited,  Sharon in to the vehicle and with no support vehicles around, they would have got away without problem. Thank heavens nothing like that happened yesterday but we have to remain cognizant of where we live and our support  drivers need to be more supportive, especially of the women riders.

Apart from that it was another great outing for those of us who love to discover Jamaica via our bicycles.

I have certainly never been to Richmond and only knew of it as the place where "elite" prisoners are held.

Having heard about the series of hills once one crossed over the Westmorland bridge to head west our destination, I had long decided that I would stop riding as soon as we reached the foot of the first hill and as always I kept my promise to myself, jumping into Charles Simpsons' vehicle which was being driven by Gayle. To my delight, not only was I greeted by cool, most welcome A/c but there was even a cooler with ice water in the vehicle. Not one to suffer unnecessarily too was Charles himself who soon joined us.

We journeyed slowly through some of the most beautiful countryside with green rolling hills to the south and the blue Caribbean sea visible on the n northern side, through verdant and uniquely named districts such as Bromley, Clonmel an Alleppo and you could see the fabulous houses perched on the hillsides around Highgate as wee approached.

The final hill to Highgate was really challenging and I could see why those who insisted on riding all the way, bypassed that hill by turning off at Alleppo.

Unfortunately we did not know they were going to do this so waited in Highgate for about an hour before Simpson decided to drive back to see what happened to them. It was only then he learnt from a villager that they had turned off.

By then we had been joined by another vehicle of non riders, and Pat who had not been riding because she had suffered  injury to her ribs on a previous fall, decided to join Simpson and I on the all downhill 2 km hide to Richmond.

When we got there, just about everyone else was  seated and waiting on us and the Ayatollah to start eating as the food and servers were ready and waiting.

The food was not as good as at Old Harbour  Bay and I cannot recall seeing more dour faced server for years but Kim insists that most of the persons serving in the canteens she has eaten at, have been miserable looking! I wonder why?

 We didn't let her bother us as we shared stories about the trip over and it turns out the road the others had taken was narrower and terrible causing the Ayatollah to lose his balance at one point and JuJu to complain about the toll it had taken on the vehicles. Howie of course who relishes off road riding (read bad, potholed,  unpaved tracks tracks with grass growing in the middle!) thought it was wonderful.

After brunch, we headed to the river which was grossly oversold by the Ayatollah who had  claimed we were going to a place where five rivers converged and you could dive off safely.

Where we ended up was under an unsafe looking bridge and swimming in  water below where some people were washing upstream, but what the heck, we were hot and tired and had a wonderful time.

Not long after, Maurice who deserves to get an OJ next year for  ri-biing, (riding back from wherever we go) took off and although no one else volunteered  to accompany him, insisted he would ride back to Westmorland bridge anyway. Later when  Pat called him he was at Castleton gardens!

 We were the first to leave with Stevie driving Howie's vehicle and as we started on the Junction road the rain started to pour but that did not prevent  us from stopping to get some more of the delicious soup with curb service to boot.

It was not until we started to ascend from Golden Spring to Stony Hill that we found Maurice and prevailed on him to join us in the vehicle and that is when we discovered that he had ridden so fast that he had out ridden the rain and was as dry as ever.


Big up Mr. RIBI.

TOTALITARIANISM RESURRECTED?

I thought totalitarianism was decisively defeated with with the overthrow of Pol Pot in 1979 but clearly some of the crumbs were blown in the wind to Jamaica landed on  representatives Dayton Campbell and Richard Parchment.

For what else could explain their attempt to have government pursue those who use a legal product in the privacy of their own home?  Not even James Otis' internationally accepted  philosophy that "A man's home is his castle' seems good enough for these legislators!

I have not smoked for many years and have absolutely no desire to again be tied to that product, but what possible leg can these men stand on in trying to outlaw the use of a legal product in the privacy of ones home? And what would be the next step, the establishment of a  special police squad to go into people's homes to see if the water they drink has the correct  ph balance or that parents only feed their kids on healthy foods (defined by them of course!)?

Anyway, since I maintain that the glass is always half full, these gentlemen have  probably done the nation a good deed by reminding us of the words of the great Desmond Tutu himself that "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Thank God for those members of the special select committee reviewing the Tobacco Control regulations  who stood firm against the dangerous position proposed by Parchment and Campbell in  the house of parliament recently.

No goats there!

I think that Charles Williams, aka Ayatollah, is just about the best organizer in Jamaica. No if's, no buts about it, for to have carried out the feat of organizing a walk/ride from Kingston to Old Harbour bay for around over 80 people with great and more than enough food and then the boat trip to Goat island without a hitch, took more than ordinary organizing skills.

The great Ayatollah himself

Take a bow Charles and I even forgive you for crashing into me and giving me my first riding scars for 2013!

 It wasn't his fault entirely though. In fact, it probably happened because I was ungrateful for didn't the good book say ingratitude is worse than witchcraft?

I am of course talking about the memorable visit to Little Goat Island by the F&T posse and friends who "walk the hill” on Sunday October 6^th 2013.

I was actually the last rider to leave Kingston as the Ayatollah had asked Winnie to bring in his panel van to help transport back bikes and riders. Winnie, who lives in Linstead, does not know his way around town too well, so I had to wait till he came to my house then take him to Sean's to get Gary to drive the vehicle. By the time we got ready to ride out, it was almost 6.30 am. 

By then, we saw no one from F&T until we got to Dunrobin Avenue where Orrel, Johann, Nicole Brown, Alrick and Maurice were waiting on us. In no time however I couldn't even see their tail lights, but Sean stayed with me and I discovered why quite soon, as he was not feeling well and had to go into the support vehicle. So I continued riding alone, happy anyway since I was going at my own pace with great Sunday music coming from my earphones.  

When I got into Jose Marti, I saw Ayatollah, Barry, Fatman and a couple other riders and support drivers but didn’t want to break my momentum so did not stop. It was not until Ayatollah crashed into me further on that I heard they had been waiting on me on his insistence, hence my comment about ingratitude!

Actually, I was partially to blame for the crash for riding along the highway between Jose Marti and the train line, I thought I heard my keys fall and not realizing anyone was close behind me, stopped and dismounted. It was only then that I saw the Ayatollah barreling towards me at about 90 mp and with no escape, I had to accept my fate. 

When I did manage to overcome the pain in my knee and get up, I went searching for my keys but recalled that I might have put them in the bag in the support vehicle and there I found them. That crash had therefore been totally unnecessary but having once lost those same keys on a ride along the Junction Road and not realizing it till Michael found them, I was not taking any chances. 

All is well that ends well for I did manage to ride into Old Harbour under the watchful eyes of Winnie Charles and Fatman at various legs of the journey.

At Old Harbour I decided to join the walkers who were all gathered there and loaned my bike and gear to Lisa (Larry's sister) however, after plodding for about a mile in the sun and seeing support drivers driving by and enjoying great air condition, I could not resist, so joined Bobo in Betty's vehicle. We saw Betty White further on and she too opted for A/c over the pelting sun as did Daniel Morrison. 

The long, winding breakfast line

By the time we got to old Harbour Bay, just about everyone had arrived, the grace had been said, a long line for breakfast was in place and some people were even playing dominoes already.

Luckily , I had met the owner of the place on Tuesday when we had gone down to make final arrangements. so I was able to bandoolo him into getting me some breakfast without having to join the long line,to the chagrin of many of my friends who though starving too, had to wait patiently!

The food was great though and well worth the wait I would think.

The trip over to the island was well organized with three boats adequately equipped with life jackets and carrying between 8-12 passengers, pulling out like clockwork to take the eager passengers quickly and safely over.

Little Goat island is no Lime Cay.

It has very little white sand which is quite coarse anyway and while the water is pleasant, it tends to be cloudy (read polluted) and the bottom is mucky and clayey, not sandy as at good beaches. 

It seems the trip I made to goat island many years ago was to Big Goat island as I recall a nice beach with a reef where we had gone spear fishing. 

So this time I opted to return on the 2nd boat going back to try and get in some dominoes on the mainland before the impatient one returned to say "we have to leave now."

As we headed out, we saw Stefan, Penny and family going over in a boat and it was wonderful to see them as it proves that they have not abandoned us although they have migrated to Mobay! In fact, Stefan told me later that he is organizing ride in the west for us and I am sure he will be held to it.

Dominic the great domino player

You know, although Alrick insists that he is not a domino player, we certainly held our own against Stanford and Chris (support drivers) and in fact, the closest we came to getting 6 love was when Dominic nagged me into giving him a game and he and Chris took us to 5 love. I had to remind him that his birthday was coming up soon and he would not get a present if he gave me 6 love, to save the day. lol

Anyway it was a very nice day although I think the beach by Old Harbour bay is one of the worse kept fishing beaches in Jamaica. It so bad that on entering the boat, some people did not even want the water to touch them.

According to Grace, one person at the market,

The water is really dirty there!

on seeing a Chinese couple among our group, entreated them to quickly take over the place as the black people were keeping it so nasty that even maggots were running wild on the beach. 

That is a profound statement and although I don’t know how widely held that sentiment is in the area since the Tuesday before, the people who I spoke to all claimed they were against the Chinese takeover, but I am now having second thoughts after seeing how we have polluted the area!

By the way, Maurice and Johann lived up to the MTR label by riding off in the blazing sun. They seemed to have had some luck though, for when we got to Kingston at 2.30 pm, it was very overcast and Maurice had already reached Kings House gate and was riding alone as by then Johann had turned off to go home. Incidentally, Johann says he is training to ride for the first time in the Jamaica Cycling Association's annual Kingston to Negril ride this year and I have no doubt that if he does not win, he will at least come in the top 5.

Go deh Johann.

And no, there are no goats on Little Goat Island, just this one about to take the boat over!

Some photos purloined from David's collection.

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.