The Mad Bull’s Blog, Version 3

Today is December 31st. The last day of the year, and what a year it was! My God! Let me take you all on a short journey looking back at the year. First, the year began with me searching for and finding a job here in Grand Cayman. I left my job at the company I worked with in Jamaica and migrated. This was something I had planned to do for awhile, and which Natty and I looked forward to, so it was a good thing.

At the same time, preparing for my impending departure from the company I used to work for and for leaving the country in the early part of the year was causing Natty and I lots of stress. I didn’t really document much of what was going on in this sphere in my blog, but trust me, it was a stressful period, with a lot of stuff going on in my life, both at the workplace and at home. This all took place in the first quarter of the year.

Finally we all moved. When we got here, there were a fair number of issues with the house we had rented prior to getting here. After about three weeks, things came to a head when the pipes in the bathroom downstairs developed a major leak and flooded the house out. We decided to move, and we had to find somewhere really quickly. Luckily things worked out. We found a great place, we didn’t have much to move and all went smoothly with that.

we had a period of a couple of months of relative relaxation, which allowed us to gather our reserves for the tests that were to come later in the year. In that more relaxed intervening period, we entertained my parents-in-law, and we had a really good time during their visit. There was a lot of fun things going on. We went to the beach a lot, we went to great restaurants, we went out to the movies, we had fun exploring the place, we visited with friends alot and we had loads of fun. This idyllic period consumed the second quarter of the year.

Towards the end of Natty’s parents’ stay, M’Buthelezi came to stay with us too as she also migrated to Grand Cayman. Following quickly upon M’Buthelezi’s heels was Hurricane Ivan! Indeed, I have joshed M’Buthelezi and told her that Ivan went to Jamaica looking for her, and not finding her there, he came to Cayman looking for her!

What a test Hurricane Ivan was! I won’t go into it too deeply now, hell, my blog has somewhat documented the day-to-day problems which we faced, but suffice it to say that our lives were turned upside-fucking-down, and to date it still isn’t one hundred percent back to normal. No electricity or water for extended periods of time, no school for MBJr. for a couple of months, no television or internet access (at home) from the time of the the storm up till now…

Following on from Ivan, Grand Cayman was rocked by the strongest earthquake in the Caribbean in many years. Although no one was hurt and no major damage to infrastructure occurred, it served as a heads up. One thing that we had not left behind from Yard was earthquakes, with all the problems which are attendant with that, and which have been brought into sharper relief by the Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.

I have to note that we got off lucky with Ivan still, as a lot of people were in a much worse situation than we were due to Ivan. Also, here at the end of the year we see other people halfway across the world who have gone through a disaster that makes our hurricane look like it was just a little drizzle, so I won’t complain too much… Check them out: 160,000 dead and climbing! Millions displaced and homeless! Probably much worse damage to infrastructure too!

Shit, if that had occurred here, possibly the Cayman Islands would be wiped out! While I am sure that Jamaica would fare better than Cayman, nuff nuff people would die there too! It is now a bit of a concern to Natty and I that we might face something like this too, as we have people here jumping to remind us that this type of an occurrence here in the Caribbean is not impossible either!

To say that it has been a momentous year would be a real understatement! We are definitely living in interesting times! Some good things happened during the year, but I probably won’t be alone in saying that some pretty awful stuff occurred too. Thats why I posted that picture above, which is my current desktop background. That sunset seems appropriate to this time now… it represents the sun setting for the final time on 2004. 2004 is dead, long live 2005! Let us hope that the new year will be much more irie than this one, bwoy!

As the New Year approaches, many will also have turned their minds towards goals that they would like to accomplish and will be making resolutions about things they would like to change.

I guess the Bull is not really that much different from those around him. He too has been engaging in this type of activity. Of course, if you really want to achieve goals, they must be specific and measurable, so I have tried to add a measure of specificity to the goals I’ve set. I didn’t bother to include the specifics here though. Here are some of my resolutions for 2005. See you next year.

• Save some money / make more money.
• Lose weight / Get some Exercise - lead a healthier lifestyle
• Enjoy life. It is short, and not to be wasted.
• Oh, and reload this rass PC, so that it’ll recognise the USB port once more

Happy New Year, people!

Tags: Events //