Tower Of Babel

Well, happy Wednesday to you. It has been raining here since yesterday afternoon. Some front or trough over the country. Major downpour we had in the afternoon, caught me on the road on the way from lunch…streets were like rivers. No problem to me, as long as it nuh name hurric….

Nutten great to share today. Two news items caught my eye in today’s Gleaner. First one is about weight of baggage when you flying with our national carrier Air Jamaica. Effective early next month, there will be stricter baggage weight regulations imposed on passengers. So, no longer will you be able to carry the whole house weh Auntie inna foreign waan send back to yard. I think I mentioned once on a return trip from Ft. Lauderdale, the lady in front of me at check in had three massive suitcases…bursting at the seams. They were so under pressure that they were being held together by duct tape wrapped all around them. Guy at check in asks her how many pieces she is checking in…two…both of which were well overweight. He then asked her about the third bag which she quite calmly informed the yute was her carry on. Yute asks her to lift it on the scale. “Oh, I will need a porter to lift it for me!” (Eehm…nuh hand luggage you seh it name!? ) Eventually, after struggling for a while, she gets it on the scale…it only weighs 96 pounds! Roight! Lady paid suppem like $400 US for overweight charges in total.

Another time, I was seated in the plane on my way to visit mi sister inna Maryland. On comes a man with his carry on….he is trying to lift it to get it into one of the overhead compartments. Man haffi a tek deep breath and ting before him lift de bag. Then, he reaches shoulder height with it, and like a weightlifter who is trying to clean and jerk weights, him haffi stop for a few seconds before him get the bag above him head. The rude bwoy who is in the seat next to me says, “Rahtid, if dat drop and lick you inna you head, you fart!”

Still, I not bashing folks on southbound caribbean flights from North America and the UK. When you peeps up so sending tings fe you, is just their way of trying to share a bit of improved living with you, particularly when they have family in ‘country’ who lef back a yard, nuh true? That is simply one of the good things about Caribbean folks..we tend to look after our people. Agreed? Anyway, careful when you a pack de suitcase still….you doh waan shame tek you when you reach the check een counter, zimi?

The other bit of news hails from the world of local sport…football (soccer) to be exact. Now that I mention, Mad Bull my yute, me miss dem days when we used to go stadium and tek een the Reggae Boyz while we sip some Red Stripe and ting! Anyway….Yeah, the football match I’m referring to was played by my alma mater…the Blue and Whiters of North Sreet! Can you imagine…. 8:0 in our favour? For a moment I was wondering if is a basketball score dat!? Congrats to the yutes and keep the STGC flag flying high…. ‘oer Kingston’s fairest meadow….’neath the tall cathedrals shadow….Lo, St. George’s oer her children, watches day and night! You’ll have to pardon me, that was just a few lines from the ‘College Song’ that we sing at graduation, and I rather like it. Just came into my head all of a sudden. Memba it Scratchie and MB?

That’s about it for now. Let me go head to the shower on this rather wet and grey morning…as always, there is work to be done. Respec to all crew.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2005 at 9:13 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.