Tower Of Babel

So while I was off-island, some promoter put on a dance that they called the “Twisted Foam Party”. The pictures are up on the PartySurfers site. To me, these foam parties look like they could be a lot of fun! After all, based on the pictures, it looks like people there might get up to a bit more than the usual madness and mayhem and I am into that sort of thing just as much as the next guy. Still, I have never been to a foam party before.

My caption : “Donna, what you doing under there? Donna… Donna!“.

At the same time, I am of the conclusion that I should probably consider foam parties to be a single-people sort of event. Look pon the picture above! When you combine alcohol and foam, thats the kind of madness that goes on! Imagine say you leave your girl in the foam pit and gone to replenish your drink and when you come back, you see a bredrin a carry on like that behind her! No star!

It goes the same if you are the girlfriend too, I suppose… you climb out of the pit to go to the bathroom and when you come back, you see your man a grind pon another dawta with an expression pon his face like the one the guy above is wearing…. Talk the truth… you wouldn’t get on bad?

Have you ever been to a foam party before? Tell us what and what did gwaan there nuh? Anyway, some rain ah drop, lightning ah flash and thunder ah roll! I don’t want to take the chance of getting my motherboard fried (as in lightning strike pon the telephone line or on the electricity line), so I-an-I ah go logoff now… TTYL.

One of the things I was glad for on my recent trip to Jamdown (a nickname we call Jamaica) was that it gave me the opportunity to nyam some irie mangoes!

Several Bombay, East Indian and Julie mangoes were devoured and trust me, no quarter was shown to them! Bwoy, I feel like I haven’t had any good mangoes since that beast Hurricane Ivan passed through. Ivan seems to have knocked the mango trees here in Cayman back on their asses, so that I have not seen many on sale, and I have complained elsewhere about the mangoes that are imported from Brazil, Chile and elsewhere… they look good, but looks isn’t everything, trust me!

Above is a picture of a mango tree that I could see from my Mamacita’s verandah. It was tempting me to commit praedial larceny, rasta!

Click on the picture above if you want a better view of all that can be seen from Mom’s verandah nuh?…

Some people seem to feel that Jamaica’s new Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller is planning to call elections. Certainly the Opposition seems to believe the story, because they issued a challenge to her, saying she was to ‘Put some action where her mouth is!’. Portia, however, said she was not yet ready to bring it on!

Still, I noticed that some extensive road work was being done at the bottom of a road I use to visit my Mamacita… (when I say ‘extensive’, I am doing so relative to other road repairs which have been effected at that site previously)

This road is notorious for flooding out when it rains and that section of the road always has gaping holes, ready to destroy and devour the front end of your car! Usually, when the road is being fixed they just come and throw a little asphalt into the ‘craters’, roll it a bit and call it a day. Now I see them constructing a little gully! They are even laying bricks for it!

This time, when they re-asphalt the road, maybe the water will have somewhere to run off when it rains!

Road work in Jamaica usually suggests an election is in the offing still, you know… I wonder… JLP massive, I suggest that you be like the smart bridesmaids in the bible story… keep your lamps trimmed and at the ready, rude bwoys!

Well, yet another week has begun and this one makes the end of July creep (rather quickly) upon us. By the time my birthday comes in September, it means that the year is winding down. I doh know ’bout you, but time seemed to fly much more slowly when I was a yute. And is it only me, or is the heat today scorching?

Anyway, with that preamble, again I been a a bit in absentia. Probably because I had a lot of social activities weekend gone and did not feel in the blog mood….and I can’t say I really am at the moment either. Perhaps the reason why I am here is that I had some calaloo soup for lunch and I went a bit overboard and need to assume the erect posture (no, not that type of erect posture) for a thirty minutes or so. Anyhow, lunch was good. Topped it off with a very cold glass of coconut water, which is refreshing in this heat we are having.

I found that I woke up with my mind drifting on some stuff this morning….not stuff that is major, but it had me a bit distracted and it slowed down my getting ready to go to work this morning. When I was driving through the hospital gate, one of my favourite mood songs….(which can make me very happy or sad and pensive depending on what may be happening to me on this road called life…..) “Time to say Goodbye”…….came on the radio. I’m not sure who sings it, but it starts with a female with a beautiful voice and then a man joins in in the second verse. For those of you who listened to Michael Anthony Cuffe’s show on KLAS FM, he used to play it at the end of his show. Now, don’t feel that I was a fan of that show. Actually, it was my dear Mother who was, and prior to her passing she used to drive a Toyota Camry…deportee with the basic radio. KLAS was the only FM station she could get on that radio and I had often offered to upgrade it for her. She refused everytime saying what she got on KLAS was more than adequate. When she departed this life, for about a year I couldn’t hear that song without my eyes tearing up. Now, it is different. Time heals…better than any medicine.

So, when I heard it starting this morning, I drove my car to the spot where I normally park under a tree and I just sat there until it was over some four minutes later….despite beaing already late…screw that. It helped to uplift my spirit and I felt a bit more positive. In addition, I smiled even a bit more when I arrived on the ward to see my boss. She is offically back from leave as of today, and a sight for my sore eyes, if no one else’s. So now I got backative when I have any doubts. Trust me, no matter how experienced you are in medicine, it always helps to have someone else around when there may be queries regarding patient management.

So, overall, where is all this leading? Not sure really, just here a type to rass. Does it make me feel ‘better’ having blogged about my mood? No, I wouldn’t say so. I am not one of those who write in cyberspace in order to get ‘catharsis’ shall I call it? Anyway, whatever it is I am here doing, I hope I haven’t bored you all to death. Belly not feeling as gravid as it did when I started writing…..so let me get outta here. Oh, BTW, I am not 100% sure about this planned blog link on Wednesday, I have another engagement that I am trying to not go to (not to facilitate the blogger link….I really just don’t feel like going to that other meeting), and I will be on call. But I will see. Time will tell. As the title indicated, just some thoughts….nutten special.

Congrats, Zuleyka! Irie dress too!

So, did you watch the Miss Universe pageant last night? You did? So what did you think? Me, I did quite well with my picks, didn’t I? I did select quite a few ladies from the different regions who made it into the top ten, namely Miss T&T, Miss Canada, Miss USA, Miss Paraguay, and Miss Puerto Rico.

Kenisha should have been there, IMHO!

I didn’t quite agree with the top five still, after all, only Miss Paraguay and Miss Puerto Rico made it there from among the women I selected! I think Miss T&T should have been in the top five, but since I am only an unofficial judge, who gives a rat’s ass what I think, nuh true?

Anyway, my congratulations go out to Miss Puerto Rico, Miss Japan, Miss Switzerland, Miss Paraguay, Miss Paraguay and Miss USA. Big up to all of them, you done know!

OK, I have decided to try my hand at the writing of a short story in sixty words or less…

They lay in bed, she asleep. He smoking a cigarette while lusting after her naked womanhood. What a body she had he thought, for a woman of twenty four. Thinking about the passionate lovemaking they just finished, made his manhood start to harden again. He stroked his beard, smiling….. If only he knew…she was really only fourteen! Liar!

Sorry if I seem to have sex on the brain!

Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow evening. TGIF when it arrives.

Well, weekend done and yet anodda week of work is here. Must say that I looking forward to the end of this one as my boss will be back next week, meaning that there will be less crosses for my rather broad back to bear, and I not on call Friday/Saturday dis week. Anyway, wah dis haffi do wid darkness? Not a rass really, but when it comes to what is written here, I rule!

Anyway, on Saturday evening at about 4:15 PM, I was chilling in my boxers in my bed, propped up on two pillows, fan keeping my family jewels cool while switching channels with the trusty remote in my hand. All was cool, I had finished my chores for the day and was relaxing a bit before I would head to the kitchen to cook up some pork chops that had already been seasoned from the day before, when poof…..fan stop blow, TV screen inna blackness! Me cuss two blurdcleat as I realize we having a power cut. Well, I assumed that perhaps in a twenty minutes or so things would be back from darkness. Nope. Luckily, as you may be well aware, days dem long now, so it was still very much daylight outside. I decided to make use of the ambient light coming through the windows to cook up the swine, as it looked like light was not guranteed, and I wasn’t going to mek gas tek up mi belly. So, I got cooking.

‘Bout half way through my cooking, the cell rings….is one o mi bredrin….”My yute, you have light?” “Not a rass rude bwoy. Deh yah a cook some dinner before it get dark!” “Oh, you have a gas stove as well as electric nuh?” “You know ’bout.” “Well hear wah, I was not too far from you fixing a sistren computer, but friggin light gone….so you dun know. You have any lika at you yard?” “You know the answer to that my yute and you free to rope een.” “OK, ’bout fifteen minutes.”

By the time my bredrin arrived, dinner did jus done cook and we flexed in front of the fish tank on the patio. Still, no electricity. I fixed a beverage for us both and we both knock glasses and shoot the breeze. By the time we are finishing our second drink, night is starting to fall and the gas was a roll ’round in mi belly. I asked mi bredrin how him stay for some dinner and when I tell him what is on offer he smiles. Now the plan was that I would couple the chops with some of the leftover fried rice from Friday’s dinner. But heating up that shyte with no current to run a microwave entails work. Haffi put de rice inna one frying pan and light gas stove again to rahtid! Anyway, did what had to be done, buss open a can of corn and we ate dinner by candle light. We both commented that all that was needed to make it a wikid affair was some chicas.

We soon learn from a couple phone calls that most, if not all the country is without electricity!? A wah de rass a gwaan doh eeh? Only time I can recall suppem like that taking place is when our Light and Power peeps shut down the national grid as a safety measure when hurricane bloodcleat breeze a blow!

At about 8:30 the dogs start barking and the driveway gets lit up by the headlights of a car that I don’t recognize and it parks. “A who dat?”, I ask. The voice of one of my Pop’s bredrin replies, “Is me, doh fret.” Jokingly I reply, “Oh, cause I have the Glock right here pon cock!” We all have a good laugh. I let him in and he decided he would have a Red Stripe. He tells us he is coming from Old Harbour and he saw nothing looking like lights on his way here……..this not sounding good at all. He has heard that the whole country has been plunged into the dark ages!

Soon Daddy emerges from his room and decides he will have a Johnnie Walker and we end up having a nice man lime with lika, camraderie, laughs and many adjectives of the four (or more) letter kind! At 9:30 still in the darkness, I go for the little battery operated radio….bought two years ago when Ivan the Terrible was due to blow our way. Eventually, I manage to tune een to the 10 PM news on RJR. They confirm that the whole nation is screwed….and JPS, the electricity people ‘DO NOT KNOW’ what has caused it! Anyway, the news reported that restoration had begun but it could take another twelve hours to have all the country back from darkness. At about 10:30 PM, am getting some ice outta de deep freeze to make another round of drinks when there is a flicker and another, then the power is restored. All in all, it was a good Saturday night despite not having one of the basic utilities.

I see that our Prime Minister, Sister P, has ordered an investigation into the situation. I agree, someone needs to say something. BTW, I not sure about you, but I been seeing where many people doh seem to be as thrilled with Portia as they were when she took over office from PJ some months back…..I guess time will tell.

Anyhow, as I have electricity at the moment, the compi clock is telling me that the throne, shower and work yowing me up. So, mek me go do what a man has to. Have a good week, hopefully not in any unplanned darkness….as the Lord said, “Let there be light.”

Yes, the title might have turned you off a bit, but no, you don’t have to worry, as no noxious fumes are lurking. Basically, I haven’t got much in terms of bloggage to release, so I kinda just farting ’bout the place. It has been a number of days since I wrote anything and I don’t want anyone to think I have encountered any misfortune. Cool?

The summer heat is on in earnest, I have actually had to retire at nights with the fan (something which I don’t like, as it makes me stuffy) and then get up later in the night to switch it off when it is cooler. Earlier in the week, we had a power cut at about 9 PM…Tuesday night that was. After about twenty minutes, I called our Light and Power company (which is up for sale btw, if you have some money) to report it, jus in case it was due to some fart like an eediat who was speeding on Long Lane and getting outta control and licking down a utility pole…..which does happen every so often. Anyway, when they did eventually answer…it took me three calls to get a response….the yute who answered (quite decent sounding on the line as well)….told me that the outage was due to ‘emergency load shedding’. Apparently they simply could not cope with the demand as too many people were flexing in AC. Also took the opportunity to report that the sodium vapour lamp (street light) at our corner had been non-functional for the past two weeks or so. Makes the corner well dark, and since tief inna de area, we really don’t need to have the entrance to the gully darkened. Power came back in about another thirty minutes, so I suppose it could have been worse.

In the world of sport, there is still nuff tekking place regarding the Zidane butt….or should that be head? There is even the possibility of a lawyer trying to get the WC Final replayed. Interesting. I guess in time we will see what comes outta dis.

On the local scene, I heard that the Deacon and two teen yutes were charged earlier this week wid some fifty odd counts relating to the rape on tape of that young girl. I hope all concerned are given the full penalty of the law.

Anything else to report? Well, apart from that it is TGIF time (and I AM on call this weekend as well as we are going through the period where we are short staffed), I guess I will stop letting off gas and tell you to simply enjoy the weekend. ‘Till next time.

When I was about nine, my family moved to Orange Grove, a nice little community situated in the foothills of Stony Hill. There I met Maurice, who was a year older than I was. He became my best friend and we hung out together until he moved away from Jamaica to New York.

When I was in about fourth form, Maurice came back to Jamaica for a vacation. He had changed, lots! He was now into drugs, rock & roll, hard liquor, fighting at the drop of a hat, and fast chicks! He did try to pass on his interests to me, and he was successful with some of them, I won’t say which!

Suffice it to say that I don’t do drugs. This post is about rock though. At the time, Maurice had me listening to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Kiss. He introduced me to rock and roll, and for the most part, I liked that style of music. I still like it, though not necessarily the way-out-on-the-edge hard stuff.

After Maurice left Jamaica again, I hardly came across any rock music, except through another of my friends, Crazy Eddie. Still, Crazy Eddie lived much further away from me than Maurice did, (Maurice lived and vacationed right next door) and I didn’t really like the bands Crazy Eddie would listen to. Over the years, rock & roll sort of faded out for me, because Jamaica is not a place where that sort of music is played. I am actually sorry about that, because I think its better that one be exposed to a broad spectrum of music, you know?

Here in Cayman, however, there is a much more cosmopolitan population, and the people who live here listen to all manner of music. There is sufficient demand for some types that people have seen a good business opportunity and have launched radio stations geared towards listeners interested in specific genres, like country, Reggae/Reggaeton and hip hop, and now, rock music!

Yes, people, Cayman now has their very own Rock Music station, Cayrock. They had a launch party recently. Of course, the party was held at the Hard Rock Cafe in George Town and they had a local rock band called Ratskyn there to play. Was I there? No, CayRock didn’t see fit to invite me, but luckily PartySurfers.ky was on hand to give us pictures and a write up of the event, which I only store on my server because PartySurfers may get rid of it soon.

Anyway, while I am not as gung ho about rock as I was back then, I still like it and so I welcome Cayrock to the Cayman airwaves. I am glad that MBJr. will have a much wider array of choices for his musical entertainment than I did. I think thats pretty cool.

Well, I rather enjoyed yesterday’s World Cup final. Why so? Well, it was a good game of ball between two experienced teams, though as I had mentioned before, I never had a particular liking for either of the sides. As the game progressed however, I found myself wanting Italy to win….even though for most of the match, the French had the better play. When it went to extra time, the most memorable event was the sending off of Zidane. I can only say that him head did tek him…..the headbuck into the chest of the Italian player seemed most hooliganish. What a way to close out a great career….to be sent off in a World Cup final for something like that. He deserved it. From then on, I suddenly felt that it was the beginning of the end for France. Congrats to Italy.

Now that the football has ended, I will be seen in front of the tele less often, as I really don’t spend much time watching TV. Perhaps I will blog a bit more frequently, but that is by no means a promise.

Friday night a couple of my crew came up for lika. We were out on the newly pained patio within the walls. All was well, except that at the moment, there was no music to speak of. The CD player and CDs have not yet been replaced. So, a little radio on FM had to suffice. Once the drinks were flowing and the conversations got going wid a few colourful adjectives and nouns, all was well.

About three weeks back I bought four Clown Loaches for my fish tank. Paid all of Ja. $750 each for them at about an inch and a half long. Would you believe is only one left? I have no idea wtf has happened to result in three of them dying. They all looked healthy when bought. Unfortunately, I really don’t seem to have luck with these rather pretty fish as I have had others kick the bucket belly up before. Anyway, the last one seems to be holding its own. Hopefully it will get to a reasonable size.

Doh know ’bout you, but I could use along weekend soon. However, July is a long month and there are no holidays inna it to rahtid! Will have to wait for August….speaking of which…the year seems to be running away faster than Asafa Powell is doing at the 100 metres to rass.

And this is the response of the founder of the church to the handling of the rape of the teen girl in a vehicle which was being driven by that deacon! A wah a gwaan doh eeh?

Anyhow, dats de lick for now. Sorry if it seems a bit lame. So it go. Time to get ready for that which pays the bill$! Easy.