Tower Of Babel

Well it’s been a pretty eventful weekend thus far. Yesterday a group of my friends packed up and drove over to Frenchman’s Cove. As usual, that never fails to appeal to the senses. I took some photos as I wish to share the beauty of the place with my readers, particularly those from abroad, as I have mentioned it so often.

I got back home at about 7:30PM and had to get ready to attend a 95th Birthday celebration. That was enjoybale as well. Got home from that after midnight and pretty much conked out.

Then I woke up at 6AM still feeling as if I could sleep some more, however, I had to get my cup o tea early as Brazil and Germany were ready to kickoff in the World Cup finals.

My, my. At first my team was looking damn good but just couldn’t finish. They had about four openeings that just should have ended in goals but did not. I never gave up hope, I knew it would eventually come. Soon Ronaldo did the necessary in fine Brazilian style. So Brazil won the World Cup, just as I expected them to. Later I was chatting with a friend on Instant Messenger in England who didn’t rate Brazil at all. So we ended up spending about 15 minutes bad mouthing each other using some of the Caribbean’s most colourful expletives (He is from Trinidad.) When all that was ended, he had to admit that he was glad that he didn’t decide to bet that Brazil would lose the Cup to Germany. Anyhow, now that it’s over, it will be missed.

Having got my chores done early, my both bredrens, Mad Bull and Dr. Spanish, came up to see me. We tried to kill the summer heat with some Red Stripe Beers that I put into the freezer to get frigid. Not bad at all. Mad Bull also brought MBJr. with him. Those of you who read this blog regularly will be aware that he is my Godson. He becomes more adorable as the days pass, and he’s damn intellligent for his age.

He has grown to love my dogs, so I spent a long time running around outside playing with him and the dogs. He didn’t want to leave.

I got my practice changing a diaper (not a shitty one), it was fairly simple. I think as time passes the itch to procreate has started scratching me even more. Children are really gifts from God and represent rebirths of their parents. I had a Zoology Professor that told us that our major purpose in life as a species, is to get our genes into the next generation, and if we don’t do this then we have failed biologically. I don’t like failure, so I’ll have to start working on something concrete.

All in all, I’m feeling nice now despite the heat, but the day’s not over yet.

Watch out for my photos of Frenchman’s Cove, they are guranteed to satisfy. I wish I was back there right now……..

If it’s one thing you all probably know about me already, it’s that I love those weekends when I’m not on call to the hospital. This is one such weekend. Thank God It’s Friday! When I drive out of the hospital this evening, they shall not see my face again until Monday morning. Unfortunately, next week will I will be on call for the week again. Anyhow, let’s not dwell on that too much.

In my mind I have already started to think about what to do this weekend. Lime Cay is always a definite option. It seems as if Sundays are the better days for scenery, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it on Sunday so perhaps Saturday. I’ll see. This Sunday, the Portland Jerk festival is also on. Portland is one of my favourite spots to hang out because it is so lush and laid back. However, I know folks who have been to the Jerk Festival in the past. They say that it is always oversubscribed, lots of crowds, difficulty parking and they have in the past run out of Jerk after driving for an hour and a half to get there. So I will pass on that, crowds don’t appeal much to me anyway. The only event that I don’t mind going to that is crowded is football matches at the National Stadium.

Speaking of which, Sunday morning begins at 6AM with the Brazilians battling the Germans. I suspect that there will be a large carnival back in Rio should the Brazilians do what I want them to. The Third place playoff between Turkey and Korea should also make for good entertainment. That’s on Saturday. I’m going to end this post with a little anecdote. I haven’t given any for a while.

Yesterday, where I do my private work, a young male came to see me on account of genital warts in his perianal region. He told me that he did time in jail for one year and was released about 2 months ago. He says that he was charged for a crime which he did not do. (Who am I to make any judgement?) Apparently, while he was in prison, he was sexually molested (from the rear) and this is how he says he contracted the warts. I fully believed him.

I started to think about the patients that I have encountered over the years that have done time in prison. This took me back to a time when I was doing Internship at the Children’s hospital, ‘Busta’ as we call it. I had admitted a young child there on a duty day. While taking the history from the mother, I noted that she knew very little about the child. I asked her why it was that she seemed not to know much about the child. She told me that she had been released from jail the day before. She did eighteen months in ‘lockup’. I asked her what crime she was found guilty of. She told me that she had an argument with an old boyfriend, he was harrassing her for sex and she wasn’t giving in to him. He kept insisting. She got fed up and sank her knife into his belly. (You go girl!) She told me that she was charged ,”fi malicious oonding of one guy” (for malicious wounding of a man.) Well, after hearing that, I approached her with caution and nuff respect (plenty respect) as I had visions of her being related to the famous Bobbit woman from the U.S! Just the thought of it makes me want to shield the Family jewels from injury! Enjoy the upcoming weekend. Cheer for Brazil on Sunday.

Yesterday was a fairly long day for me. It started early with the glorious football match between Brazil and Turkey. Well, Ronaldo again did his country proud and scored just minutes into the second half. I must say that Brazil took a while to get into the game as they seemed to lack their usual flare in the first 20 minutes or so. Anyhow, it’s not flare that wins matches, it’s goals. They have made it to the finals and will be playing against the beer drinking Germans. I don’t have to remind you who my team to win is.

I got home in the evening after a pretty hectic day at work. Hell, it sems to be Murphy’s law, when the staffing is low, that’s when the patient load seems to be high, perhaps some sort of inverse relationship. Anyway, I plodded along and eventually cleared the load.

My boss made my day yesterday when she told me that I had obviously lost weight and how decent I was looking in my pants! Oh, she could have got me to do anything she wanted yesterday. Now, I know I’ve been reducing as I have changed my eating habits and I have been working on my abdominals. I can feel the difference in the waist of my pants, but it is always nice for someone else to comment and boost one’s confidence level. I’ll definitely keep it up.

After coming home form work, I had a meeting to attend which took up most of the night. It was at a friend’s new home, very nice place indeed. The VX flowed abundantly, so I feel a little bit woozy this morning, but I’ll survive. I got home at about midnight, feeling irie (good), hence no blog posting occurred.

Bad news for Jamaican football this morning. I see that Theodore Whitmore, one of our national players, has been charged with manslaughter for the death of ‘Shorty’ Malcolm. He died in a car accident last year after the two were driving home in Whitmore’s car after a World Cup qualifier. Malcolm was one our players also. Sad news indeed.

Yesterday, we were hit by the news of the suspicious death of ‘Safa’, a Jamaican psychic. Now, I had always considered him to be a fraud, but regardless of this, it does not make it acceptable for him to have been removed from life as we know it in this manner. I hope they will get to the bottom of it and find those responsible quickly.

Well my bredren Mad Bull has finally posted those excellent Lime Cay photos. If you’re interested, check out my yute Mad Bull.

I had a visit from one of my favourite ‘bredren’ patients today. This is the same one who had given me a bottle of Appleton VX about 2 months ago. I was happy to see him as usual. However, from he came and sat down in the chair, I could see that he was not his usual happy self, ready to get the medical stuff out of the way and then, ’shoot the shit’ with me as usually is the case. He looked a bit worried and he even appeared to have lost a little weight since I last saw him. He has Psoriasis (pronounced soriasis as the P is silent, like the W in wKen). So, I sent him to undress and look his skin over. He was doing far worse than the last time I saw him when his skin was almost clear. Hmph! I wasn’t happy and he really looked concerned. Anyhow, I told him to dress up and come back to the chair so I could finish talking with him.

He went on to tell me that he was having some problems with his brother who lied to the Police saying that he had hit him causing him bodily harm. Now, he denies this and I’m tempted to believe him, perhaps because we have such a great rapport as Doc. and Patient. (But then again, he could be telling the truth.) The long and short of it, is that he has to appear in court to answer the charge this week. Now, it’s well known to all Psoriasis patients, that an increase in stressors can cause the skin lesions to flare. Though we may not be able to explain this scientifically, I have seen it occur.

I managed to chat some male talk with him to get his mind off the problem for a while. I think I was successful. I told him to give me a call after the court case on Thursday. I even offered to buy him a drink after work, but he lives out of Kingston and it’s a fairly long drive home. He promised to accept the offer at a later date. We knocked fists and he left with the usual prescription.

If all my patients and I had this kind of rapport, then I would truly find Medicine a fun way to make a living. Alas, this is not always the case. I hope all works out for him with the court case, and that his Psoriasis will be improving the next time he comes to clinic. I guess that it’s just a reminder that life isn’t always “cool runnins” (easy going), it does have its problems every now and again. It’s how you are capable of cushioning yourself against them, when they come, that can make the difference.

Well, this morning, I was quite surprised to turn the TV on before I stepped into the shower, only to hear that the second half of Germany vs. Korea was just starting. I totally thought that the first semifinal match was tomorrow, hence I was taken aback. Well, unfortunately, Korea’s quest to make the finals was thwarted by the resilient Germans. Damn. I felt sorry for Korea as they were doing marvellously for themselves.

I will most definitely be watching my Brazilians in action against Turkey tomorrow. It should be a hell of a match. I guess the tempo builds up to the final on Sunday. Then all those of you who don’t give a fart about World Cup will be able to read my blog posts again.

Hey, it’s really hot here. Today, it was 32 Celsius in Jamaica, scorching! On account of this I put a Red Stripe Beer into the freezer when I got home from work. I flipped the cap after my dinner and used it to wash the food down. Do you know those beers that are so cold, that when you flip the cap off, it freezes for the most part? Yeah, one of those, damn good. Needless to say, I released one of those Earth shattering man sized belches that usually follows the rapid imbibition of beer. Felt great coming out. I’m really feeling at ease now and it’s starting to cool down as I feel the breeze coming off the hills near my home. Anyhow, I’m chatting too much, it’s time to hold a fresh (shower), so let me go bathe the sweat from my abdominal workout off as I’m starting to stink! Later.

Recently, I have tended to find myself doing some pretty deep thinking. Hence, my previous post about the afterlife. I have been thinking about the people who I regard as my friends. Family is excluded (and trust me, there are some family members that I have, though not many, who are less important to me than my friends.) I guess the reason why I have been thinking about this is a direct consequence of the downsizing of my family as a result of death and marriage/migration.

Here are some of my ideas about the people I consider bredrens (friends). People who you can call on when you need a helping hand or find yourself in a situation that you are unsure you can manage on your own. People that share your successes and failures, joys and sorrows, highs and lows. Folks that you can have a disagreement or argument with, tell them about dem RA$$ (curse them) and then 30 minutes later, you’re fine again. (At least that’s the male way to do it. I shan’t bother to get into the female way of arguing at all. Oops, let me not go there!) People who have shared in many of your life’s experiences, who know you from ‘way back when.’ People in whom you know that your secrets (and we all have some) are safe! People who you should not need to hesitate to grant a favour to if asked. If you’re unable to oblige, then the reason why you can’t grant the favour should be very good. There are many more, I’m sure, but these came to mind.

Now, many of these qualities can be found in family also, spouses and boyfriends/girlfriends. Actually, one of my feelings about finding a wife/husband, is that first you should aim to be true friends, perhaps before ‘falling in love’, if that does happen at all. I don’t feel that all married folks are ‘in love’, not that anything is wrong with this.

Anyway, let me stop, as I feel that I may start to get comments asking why I posted this. Well, it’s something that I’ve been thinking about. Maybe because I also feel that the time has come in my life for me to find me a wife (hey, that rhymes!) Anyway, as I’ve said before, nothing in life happens before the time and if you believe that God has planned our lives for us, then if it doesn’t happen, He must know why. Before I leave, let me just say a real BIG UP TO BREDRENS!! Actually, if God provides you with even one in this life, it’s a real treasure in my opinion.

I’m going to stop the deep thinking now and go hold a walk. Hey, the girls at work and my two bredrens have told me that they think my belly has reduced! Wicked my yute, gwaan work the abs yes! (Thumbs up guy, continue working those abs!) Later!

People, all I can say about the weather here now is that we are truly in Summer. The weather is just HOT! This is perfect beach weather so I already have my mind thinking forward to plans for next weekend as I will be off call for the WHOLE week coming. Some other sucker’s payoff for causing me to be on for the whole of this week. I really can’t complain though, as things haven’t been too bad with the calls at all.

Right now, I can see myself going to Frenchman’s Cove or Lime Cay next week Saturday and I can’t wait. All of you who read this blog must think that all I live for, is to lime and drink Appleton VX and Pepsi. Far from the truth. My philosophy in life is to live it to the fullest as we have no idea when our time will come. This is even more so when I saw my Mother leave this life, as we know it, as a relatively young woman. Hence, I make no apologies for my plans for R&R! I think I work hard enough to be able to enjoy the simple things in life.

Well, the World Cup is on a few days rest, but the semi-finals are slated for later this week, and the final on Sunday coming. That is also something to look forward to next weekend. I’m still with Brazil and hope that the Germans will get their walking papers as well. We just have to wait and see. I suspect if Korea was to win the Cup, their President would have to declare a National Holiday, and rightly so. When Jamaica qualified for the ‘98 World Cup, the day after the qualifying match was ‘gayly’ declared a Public Holiday by our Prime Minister “Percy”. I was away in England at the time, so it didn’t matter to me, though I was happy that we had qualified for the first time. Our luck wasn’t so good this time around, however. I think the Reggae Boyz have much work to do between now and 2006.

Last but not least, the other thing that I have to look forward to this week, is Payday, which I think should be Tuesday. I wonder if they have any surprises in store? I doubt it strongly, as the hospital seems to be barely functioning financially.

Anyway, all things considered, it seems as if the coming week should be one to enjoy, and I hope that all my readers will be able to say the same. Whatever you do in the coming week, LIVE IT UP TO RA$$!! (Enjoy it!) (I got this RA$$ icon from Mad Bull, I thought it quite innovative, so I’ve adpoted it. P.S. MB, you can hold a drink for the patent!)

Unfortunately, I am still on call. I can’t remember when last I have taken call for a whole week. It has really been quiet though (knocking wood) so I can’t complain. Because of this, I am a bit constrained. I just can’t relax as freely as when I’m not on duty.

Anyhow, last night I went to the 50th Anniversary celebration of Mad Bull’s parents. Mad Bull and I have been bredrens (friends) for about 23-25 years now, so I know his family quite well. As I may have mentioned before, I consider he and Dr. Spanish, the two ‘brothers’ that I never had. The occasion was quite enjoyable and I must say that it is a very admirable achievement on the part of his parents, to achieve 50 years of marriage. The food was good and the liquor at the event was not by any means in short supply. I did enjoy myself and the pager remained silent, no complaint on my part for that. (I was by no means drunk, I don’t get drunk. A little mellow maybe.)

On account of the celebrations, I got home after midnight and I am a bit tired today as I also watched the football match between Korea and Spain, till after 3AM this morning. Actually, for the most part the TV was watching me, but I was fully awake for the penalty shoot out, which made Korea win and progress to the semi-finals.

At 7Am I watched most of the match between Senegal and Turkey. Turkey is a good team, but their forwards seemed to lack what was needed to get the damn football into the goal after they created many goal scoring openings. The match eventually went on to extra time, and Turkey won and knocked Senegal out of the competition with one goal. Senegal did quite well for themselves, to have got as far as they did and I commend them.

I personally feel that we have entered into an era where World football is changing. The dominance by European nations is now going and Asia, Africa and the Caribbean (last but by no means least) are now beginning to make a mark on football. I hope in the next decade we will see even better things coming from these nations, including my home, Jamaica.

This afternoon, I was trying to catch up on a few winks, but this was not very successful. There is a house up the road from me that harbours some lowlife cockroaches! I often wonder if it’s not a drug house!? They are famous for playing the most disgusting music, LOUDLY!! The music sounded as if it was in my bedroom. Hence, I kept drifting off to sleep and being reawakened! I was so annoyed. You dare not say anything to these INSECTS as I know not what they are capable of. Maybe one day, I should call the Police on them!

I see where someone found my site by a very weird Google search, “hospital willing to for men testicle.” Hmm. I wonder what that person was looking for? Hope they found it. Anyhow, you can see that I am rambling along, so with that I’ll say bye and enjoy your night.

Well, I’m in seventh heaven. I actually overslept and missed most of the first half. When I woke up and turned on the TV, I heard the commentator say that England was in the lead by one goal! Shit, I exclaimed! But I knew there was hope and shortly before the end of the first half, Rivaldo was set up by Ronaldinho. So half time ended one all.

During half time I switched to Channel 20 (blues), and there was an irie (damn good) Brazilian flick taking place. Two lovely bronzed sexy body girls doing a number on a pretty well endowed guy! My, I saluted it at full mast! For a moment I truly envied the yute, but then, as my team had not failed me, I just thought to myself, gwaan my yute! (Go for it guy!) Hey, two girls on one guy, does it remind you of the final score?

Then the second half started, and just in the first five minutes, Ronaldinho scored number two for Brazil! I cursed some claats in celebration!! Then came the biggest flaw of the match. The referee gave Ronaldinho a very controversial a red card, most unwarranted, in my opinion. So he was hero in one breath and went off dejected, but smiling as usual, in another. Brazil played well for the rest of the half and guarded their lead well. The Brits did try to equalize, but alas, they were just too bloody impotent, despite the fact that they were playing against 10 men from Brazil. At full time, the Carnivalites started their celebration. Well, goodbye England, I certainly won’t miss you at all! Better luck next time!

Well, I’m as pleased as a pig in shit, my eyes are burning me now and I may be nodding off at work tomorrow, but it was worth it. Going to catch a few more winks now, maybe I’ll have sweet dreams about the two Brazilian chicks I saw in the porno flick. I certianly would have no complaints at all! BRAZIL, BRAZIL!!!!

This is a short entry as I want to watch the Brazil vs. England match tomorrow morning at 1:30AM. Hence, I’m not lingering. Had a nice evening at work today. I rapped well with the patients. The first one I had was a guy a couple years younger than I. After dealing with the skin problem we ended up chatting about premature ejaculation, which he said was a problem to him. Eventually, we ended up talking about things of a sexual nature for nearly 30 minutes. What can I tell you? MEN!! Anyway, he left as a happy patient.

Anyhow, this is supposed to be a ‘quickie’ as I really plan to watch this game. BRAZIL!! BRAZIL!! More time! P.S. If they win like I hope they do, I will have to put a short post up in the morning!!!!

You all must think I’m a very strange person as the topics on this site can change so frequently. Sometimes thoughts of a sexual nature, sports and sometimes spiritual things. Well, I guess my mind operates like this, what can I say?

In recent times, I have found myself thinking about life after death. Someting that those of us, who believe in some form of Supreme Being or Creator, hope to achieve when we depart from this life. Now, this Supreme Being can go by various names depending on your religion….. God, Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, Mohammed, Jah-Rastafari, etc. What I feel has got me to think about it, is the untimely passing of my dear Mother just over two years ago and the more recent passing of my Aunt. (For those of you who don’t know, my home has essentially been turned into a bachelor pad on account of death and marriage. The latter for my sister Rufie, who now lives in Boston.) Hence, in essence, I have ‘lost’ the three most influential women in my life, over a two year period. So now, it’s just my Daddy and I here.

I was very emotionally distressed by my Mother’s illness and subsequent departure, and frequently, I find myself thinking about her. I think back on the good times and try not to focus on the events in the last six months of her life, as it still can depress me if I really labour on it. But I often wonder where she is today. I know she is fine, as the few dreams that I have had about her, have always been pleasant (BTW MB, they are always in colour as well) That’s a side track, MB, knows that I’m referring to an old blog post of his. I actually had a dream about her 3 weeks after her death in which she told me I should stop worrying about her as she was fine! Is it that our loved ones who have passed on or ‘Crossed Over’ know that we worry about them and want to communicate with us?

MB and I were having a little discussion about the afterlife recently, he has slighty different views about it than I do. My feeling is that our spirits live, and that we become a spiritual being that is essentially capable of being anywhere in the Universe that we wish to be. Hence, the spirits of our loved ones mingle freely amongst us and guide us, they can see what we are up to including when we do things that make us falter. They look out for our best interests.

MB, on the other hand feels that they are alive spiritually, but they are up or out there somewhere, and we are here on Earth in the land of the living. Thus, he isn’t sure that he believes they can see the stuff that we are getting up to. Who knows which of us is right, maybe neither of us? What do you think?

I guess that what I am asking is that frequently asked question: What is the meaning of life and why are we here? The Religious among us will say that we are here to prepare for the next life. I feel that God’s intention was for us to be happy. But then, there are lots of people in this world who are unhappy and I dare say that if you are a believer, God will save all of us, happy or sad! As for me, I am Catholic by Baptism. However, I don’t support the Catholic Church on all it’s doctrines, in particular Confession and it’s stance regarding contraception. I also don’t think I fit into the role of what people refer to as a ‘good’ Catholic, whatever that is or means. I scarcely go to church, essentially weddings, funerals and christenings are what it takes to get me there. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not consider myself any heathen either, I’d like to feel that my actions towards others for the most part are good. Anyway, I think that all of us will have some sort of afterlife, and hopefully it will be pleasant, in that ‘better place’…….. where all our friends and relatives who have gone ahead and are taking part in that grand carnival above, are waiting to stretch out their hands towards us when our time comes.

I hope I haven’t depressed any of you, it was far from my intention. But I think about these things from time to time. Please share your views with me on this note. If any atheists read this feel free to comment also.

Well, I am now living for Friday to see the clash of Brazil and England. I’m still rooting for the South Americans, and are looking out for good things from them. Hasta la vista!