Tower Of Babel

No long entry. Seems the rains have abated.

What am I doing later? Not yet fully decided. Depends on me, other people, family, friends. Have more than one option. May decide to tek een more than one. I’m not a lover of that Auld Lang Syne song that is played at midnight. It conjures up sadness and a feeling of depression in me. Makes me remember all the folks who have gone on ahead of us and ting. But, I don’t plan to allow it to get me down. Though I am a man who likes to plan ahead, I think today I’m going to just adopt a ‘go with the flow’ approach, so who knows?

Just want to let you all know I have enjoyed the interaction in the year gone by and wish for you all the very best in the coming year. May your hopes, dreams and aspirations come to fruition and last but by no means least, may you enjoy good health. Peace and love. Stay safe and remember to spend even a short moment quietly with the Almighty, He who governs and rules all.

I Forgot - Happy New Year my friends, family, bretherin, countrymen, et al!!! To all who flit by here, I wish y’all a year filled with love, health, happiness, success and peace!

Happy New year!!!

“And It is written
up in the book of life
that man shall endure forevermore”
(Damian and Steven Marley)

So we endure, but may we endure in fellowship, love, health and happiness…

oKEY dOKEY THEN - Y’ALL AIN’T HEARD mUCH fROM mE OF LATE HUH???
Well, I got me an IPOD for Christmas from the Mi-Master - aka Midas!!! So the music downloading obsession has only intensified, not lessened!

So far, I have my original rude girl dance hall CD, my ’70’s buck nekkid s.. mi now CD”, and to that, I have added Dance Hall Oldies I - with faves like:

She Love Me Now
Bandolero
Style and Fashion
Housecall
Puppet On A String
Everything I Own
Zunguzunguguzunguzeng

Then there’s Dance Hall Oldes Vol. II

Butterfly
Bam bam
Half Idiot
Don Dada
Dial My Number

Next is my Wikid mix - a truly wikid mix - mix up tings like:

It Is Written
Bodyguard (Steel pulse)
I Got your Man (Lady Saw)
Tease Me
Romie
Ting a ling a ling!

Aiyaiyai Papi - dis rude girl love a dance hall, I can’t tell yu a lie!!! But I also have some wicked feel good mix cds for the gym - songs like ” I’m A Believer”, “Love Shack”, “Shiny Happy People”,Etc.

Anyway, downloading can overtake your life - heed the warning y’hear!!!
In any event, since Midas loves music way more than me, this is no source of contention for us. He has truly loved sneaking/copping a listen to my playlists when I’m not looking - I’ve caught him a couple times, still!!!

Anyways!!!!! I digress from my original point - which is the hysterical way that our cultural music runs.

If you follow the lyrics to old time hits like “I’m Getting Married In the Morning“, etc, you’ll realize that the key motive is to just keep rhyming, and if you run into a spot where you can’t find an intelligible english word to rhyme - yu mek one up!!! Kinda like the title of this post!!! Y’know what ah mean???

Well nowadays music incorporate the same and more… One of my favorite lines from a new dance hall song is the embodiment of why I’m happily married!!!

Huh??? You ask - Midas, you be quiet, I heard you asking the same question!!!!

The line comes from “Pan Di River, Pan Di Bank” by none other than Elephant man!!! And the line is

“Real Bad Man nuh wear people pants…”

Okay… what the f… does this mean?

I’ve been pondering this question for days now, guys!!! Last night, Iwoke up at 4am as usual, with work stresses weighing heavily on my mind, and as daylight broke over my tossing and turning, I turned to thinking once again about what the heck Ele meant by this seemingly ambiguous line…

And this is where I give the big ups and kudos to my brilliant hubby!!! When I finally got tired of the tossing and turning, I got up at some super-ridiculous hour and woke him up, asking what he thought it meant…

Without a word of discontent, disorientation, annoyance, confusion or surprise, hubby replies without skipping not even one beat:

“Why would a bad man want to wear other people’s pants? How would his gun fit in his waist, if him don’t wear special pants?”

Huh, huh, y’see???? Makes sense, huh! Now that all my life’s questions have been answered, I can sleep tonite!!!

Truly - this love of arbitrary nonsense is why I LOVE dancehall - and this ability to sit and discuss nonsense for hours is why me and Midas are soulmates!!!

We find the same shit downright hysterical and can just sit at will and discuss it like it makes perfect sense - if yu want to see serious rubbish talk - yu catch Midas and one of his best buddies, JimmyZ, talking - HOURS, I tell you - you could sleep two, three nights and come back to find them arguing avidly about the same nonsensical, irrelevant, arbitrary, rubbish point! But truth be told, I love it!!!!

Generally, people take ourselves and life in general far too seriously. And if I am to be 100% true blue honest, I’ll admit that I am the misery in this relationship! Midas is hardly ever ruffled, much less pissed off! It is both his worst and his best trait - none of this shit is serious man - its all cool mate!!!

Truth is - that’s why we’ re always laughing, because he’s so easygoing and crazy,
I’m not necessarily easygoing, but I’m out of my mind insane, so we laugh non-stop!!!

Its all good!!!!

Well, last night (more like early this morn) driving home from Quad, I could hardly see to drive as rain was pelting the windscreen. We been having a cold front over Jamaica since Monday. Seems it naw move. If it stay dis way New Years Eve looking very wet. Then again, wet can be a good ting nuh true?! Apparently they having heavy rain in Portland and St. Mary with road blocks and ting.

Good little lime it was at Quad….. plenty dancing with Yamfoot and Princess P and of course, the mongrel Dawg….no me never dance wid him. Place was corked though, a bit too much so, as I am not a lover of being in niteclubs when they are that many people…too much squeeze up. Anyway, I enjoyed mislef.

Got up to more cloud and rain this morning. I could sleep a bit more, but there’s no headache on board. I had all of one VX and Pepsi. Rest of the spirit was water.

Unlike the rest of the bloggers who are either here on vacation or with Walker Kickstone and Co, I have work today. So while I here typing this feeling a bit tired, dem mussi jus ready to draw third gear in sleep! In fact, I’m expecting a transfer patient for admission from Mandeville this morning so this is not going to be any long post.

Doubt I will be doing any ‘Year In Review’ post tomorrow. There are enough things about 2004 that I wish not to happen again….particularly natural disasterwise. Do I have any resolutions? Yes. They are pretty simple and attainable. Have to recommence my walking, and some abdominals. Got to get mi foot into Portland to start a Dermi practice there. Need to do a course in chemical peeling. Much as I don’t like the cosmetic clientele that skin attracts, it has to be done. Anything else? I will see.

Anyway, just in case you don’t pass by here before, I hope 2005 is a good year for you all, filled with God’s richest blessings. However you welcome it, be it quietly at home, in church or on a dance floor with plenty juice on board, enjoy it and stay safe. I gone ’till such time.

One of them days people. Not a lot with which to liven up the blogs. I feel much more myself today as I slept well last night. I know I dreamed as well, but the details of same….not recorded in my neurons.

The British weather continues unabated here….last night was pretty chilly by Caribbean standards. I had to whip out the blanket and don a shirt while in the house….shirtless is my usual mode of attire when at home so you done know.

This morning, I have a funeral to attend at 10 at the UWI Chapel. It is Mr. H’s…the gentleman I pronounced last Tuesday. I will leave from there and head up by the hospital. We are having our Christmas/New Year’s luncheon today. More Chinese food. Lord, I have been on such a binge over the holidays that the thought of food is simply not appealing. I had soup for lunch and dinner last night as my GI tract needs to rest. I will have little to eat today.

Tonight a Quad move is planned. So, I guess I will need to get myself into enjoy mode as was the case over the weekend. As long as the music is good and the vibes ok, I should be alright.

What else happening? Not a lot. When I picked the Observer up off the driveway this morning I saw that the death toll from the Asian tidal wave has reached 60,000! I think that is easily one the most major natural disasters that I can recall in my lifetime. I guess we can only continue to offer prayers for the families of those who have lost loved ones and hope that an outbreak of cholera or typhoid fever does not occur….that will only put added stress on the medical services there. Ahhh, we really know not what the Lord has in store for us eh? Part of the mysteries of life I guess. Anyway, enough of me. Can’t bother to get into any deep thought today. You all take care of you and yours.

Well, what can I say? Sorry about the lack of posts for a while, but as I had much more stuff to do, blog posts were really not on my list of priorities.

Christmas Eve was probably the quietest of the days. See, after I linked Angry D and Yamfoot at Starapples for lunch the Thursday afternoon, the Dog and myself went for a few drinks at the bar at Hilton. That nite, was my high school class drink up which went down well also. Having made it home from that quite late, and waking up to go to work, I felt a bit frazzled on Christmas Eve, but it wasn’t a heavy work day. I must admit I never made it to midnight mass on Christmas Eve, tiredness got a hold of me. Having showered at ’bout 9:30 PM the slumber thing crept over me quickly.

Christmas day was good. Had a small dinner with some family and friends. Was a bit tiring also being the host and having some of the cooking responsibilities myself. There was ham, roast chicken, escovietched fish, Chinese roast pork from Canton, my shrimp pasta, gungo rice and peas, steamed vegetables and a tossed salad. Dessert was either Christmas pudding or sweet potato pudding (some had both!)

In the night a few bredrins passed by for drinks, so I never left the yard on Christmas day.

Boxing Day was spent lazily in the morning. I got up at about eight to season some boneless chicken thighs. You see, Jamdown Canadian was having a BBQ by his place in the afternoon. Having come to my yard for a lime in the past and had pasta, he and his wifey requested me to cook same to add to the menu. So, seasoned the fowl, cut up the vegetables and seasonings and after eating some breakfast, went back to bed for about an hour or so. There’s more if you wish
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No post yet this morning. Maybe later if time permits. Just want to wish all who may pass this way a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and GOD’S RICHEST BLESSINGS FOR 2005!! Have enjoyed interacting with you all during this year and look forward to more of the same as the New Year dawns.

….to give you to help fill your Crismas stocking! In other words….no big post. Now, last nite I baked the ham, turned out fine. While it was inna de oven and I was chatting to Yamfoot on line, guess who call? Nuh de Angry Dawg! I suppose he had plenty mongrels inna de hood to check. Anyhow, a bloggers lunch lime is planned for this afternoon. I’m not so sure if Princess P will be able to make it or Scratchie. However, this is definitely not the only link planned, so fear not. Hence, I’ll be able to put a face to the mutt finally and I’m sure it will be a pleasant encounter.

My presents are wrapped and ready to be delivered. One ting doah….the Santa that I have contracted to deliver my gifts won’t deliver until the gift from the recipient to moi is handed to him! Just joking my crew. That is not what gift giving at Xmas is about. If you get a present from someone who you did not expect, it does not behove you to go run out and get suppem for them and vice versa. Say a gracious thank you and spread some cheer. Of course its always nice to receive, but giving is very nice as well….especially to children and the less fortunate.

I’ve ben roped een to a Boxing Day BBQ. I have been requested to cook up my famous seafood pasta sans prawns. Apparently, there are a number of folks who will be attending who can’t eat shrimp! So, I will do it with fish only. Means I have to go dread the supermarket crowds today to get some ingredients!

So, only two days left for Xmas shopping…..y’all done yet? If not, you need to get with the programme. That’s all I’m giving you to put into your stocking. If it is the first likkle gift well then Merry Rass Christmas! HO HO HO. (Thats Santa D BTW!)

Why untitled?? Well, perhaps my mind lacks creativity at the moment and I simply can’t think up an appropriate title for this post. Satisfied? If I sound like I dishing out attitude, that is not the intention really.

Yesterday, I had Mr. H on my mind constantly. I was informed this morning, that it was over a year that Mr. H. had not been to see his Cardiologist! How can someone with the degree of heart disease that he had do this to themself? Triple bypass surgery is not no likkle fart surgery…anyway, let me not linger on that.

Apparently he wasn’t feeling well from the night before and really, he ought to have found himself to hospital. (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, read yesterday’s post.) I’m not saying that it may have changed the outcome, but he would have stood a much better chance there.

Just finished my tea, and I’m not wanting to hear the voice of any neighbour calling me to attend to anyone else who ent well. Reading through the Gleaner on line I came across an article that I’m going to link.

Now, we depend on the Police to protect us from the evildoers around us. But, come on, when dem start shoot after dem one anodda don’t you start to feel a bit uncomfortable? Sigh!!

Each day I lament more and more for my homeland. Is Christmas and I really should try to be of good cheer and not cuss nuh bad word…but really, we phucked big time in JA! I wonder what will come out of this investigation?

Last week, I had a patient in the clinic seeing. The lady had her two daughters with her. The older girl was seven and the younger about three. While I was attending to her she had the three year old with her and the seven year old was entertaining herself by singing and dancing… (well, whining is probably a better adjective….) Trus me, at seven years old, with them movements she was a gwaan wid, she could easily hold a work as a Go Go in any one of our popular night spots. Guess which song she was singing? Beenie Man’s “Pon bed, pon floor, against wall……!!” The pickney is only SEVEN!! To top it off, her Mother thought it cute!! I doh know bwoy. I just thought to myself…..is only a matter of time before she start to act on the words to said music.

I’m not a parent yet. But, as much as many of us may listen to this type of music, watch BET and MTV or locally RETV, we have to remember that children are influenced by all they hear and see around them. This sorta shit does nothing positive for their values. Just remember, there’s scarcely a music video now that doesn’t feature a bed scene (it would probably not be watched if there isn’t some sex involved)……so, make sure to guide your children accordingly. If they listening to/watching this stuff, you have to let them know that all they hearing on the radio and seeing on the TV is not the right way and is not always permissable. And, for those of you with teens, as anyone who been reading here long enough will know….I’m a disciple for safe sex and contraception. Teach dem ’bout the boots (condoms) people. Is not a matter of if dem having sex….is just a matter of when dem start! Stay deh think seh your likkle Johnny naw sample de wares as well.

Anyhow, enough of me and my morning thoughts. How de Crismas readiness coming along? Right now, the ham is thawing. Plan to put the pork into the oven tonight. Sorry Melody….I guess one of your relatives going get eaten soon.

And I doh know what a gwaan. Angry Dawg supposed to have landed from Monday nite…all now me cyaan hear nuh shout. Hopefully today. Later.

Hey, its been quite a while since my last post, huh? Tell you the truth, I’ve been pretty busy with work and stress, so haven’t been in the blogging mood, but one thing that has been brightening my weeks of late is a new discovery that has led to a rediscovery of something so wonderful, I feel compelled to share this…

To start, let me say that I am NOT a techie - I know only what I absolutely need to know on the computer in order to do what I absolutely need to do… and I find myself in recent years being absolutely stubbornly resolute about not wanting to learn things for myself that I feel should be the responsibility of others…

(Whatever - a post onto itself, as in car matters, fixing the computer, changing a high lightbulb, etc. - what are men for, if not to ‘handle’ shit??? As I said, a post onto itself, let me not digress…)

Of late, I have learned to download music for myself and make my own CD’s - a major accomplishment for me!!! I always felt Midas should do it for me - (still do, but whatever) , but I made my first two CD’s and I can’t tell you the joy it has brought me…

I made my first CD - a dance hall CD - seeing as this lesson was born out of making a cd for Midas’ sister to give as a wedding keepsake - something we said we’d do for her for her wedding - the fact that my first cd was a dance hall cd had Midas in stitches at the stark differences between his sister and me!

OK - I admit it - I am MB’s sister - We’re raunchy, down to earth and love a good dance hall tune! My cd comprises old and new faves - starting with ‘King of the Dance Hall’ - by Beenie Man, and going on to include my “Ele” - Elephant Man and old faves, like Buju, Barrington Levy (Here I Come, Too Experienced), Beres Hammond (If Love So Nice, Putting Up A Resistance) etc. - it boom, y’ear!!!! Never mind “Its A pity” by Tanya Stephens in the middle of it all - it wicked!!!! In fact, I plan to make MB a copy for his Christmas gift!!!

The other CD, now, is bone-weakening… I’m listening to it as we speak, and wow…

I was born in ‘68, so I am technically an ’80’s chick - and don’t get me wrong, I love the music of the ’80’s…

But I am also the youngest of 7 kids, so the music of the ’70’s is as personal to me as my own heartbeat…

I made a cd of my favorite ’70’s songs that keeps me inebriated with emotion and passion for life and a love of life that puts a smile on my face - man, I just can’t describe it…

‘Magnet and Steel’, ‘Always and Forever’, ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’, ‘Sexual Healing’, to name a few…

I plan to make copies for Ciya and Ambie - I think they’d appreciate it…

What music gets you going?

Hey, here’s a thought!!! Lets make a compilation cd of our favorites - it’ll be our gift to each other for the holidays - I can get about 18 songs on one cd - give me your two top faves and I’ll get it going - doesn’t matter the era - it’ll be our Caribbean Bloggers Greatest hits CD!!!!

Why not - music is the kiss of life, y’zimi!!! No matter what’s going on, it can make your day so much better… y’feelin’ mi?