attention attention please

Sorry guys. This time I'm not setting the trend, I'm merely following the crowd!

See you there!

Sunday morning shock

I was on my way home from church on Sunday morning and stopped off to buy newspapers from a man at the side of the road. He was normal newspaper selling man, just on a corner, in a residential area, near a supermarket.

I was counting out my change, trying to get rid of as much silver as possible, when a lady came up to the car selling something. I wasn't really paying her attention, being too busy with the silver (earlish Sunday morning, holiday weekend, brain wasn't working too quick) and just kinda replied with a huh?

When I glanced up, I saw something bright red being shoved into the car. As I already mentioned, it was still earlish and my brain wasn't working too well so I had to do a double take. It was bright red, velvety, part of it was cup-like and there wasn't much of it. Just as I was processing this information, the woman yelled at me

'Is a man thang'

And indeed it was. Bright and early on a Sunday morning, she was trying to sell me a man thong with my Sunday newspaper.

I laughed too much to even find out how much it was before I drove off, leaving it behind.

(I've tried to find a photo online to match this post but haven't had any luck. Instead, I am debating stealing one from Cali-J ... )

Asking for advice...

I have a question for the men out there. When you see a woman driving down the road and you yell something along the lines of 'hey brownin, me like yuh, yuh know', what do you expect to happen?

Should I stop the car at the next available point, get out and come and talk to you? Or should I yell my number out as I drive by? Should I just ignore you? Or should I copy one of my friends who has taken to yelling something along the lines of 'me like yuh too - let me when you buy the diamond and I'll come check yuh' back at them?

Just wondering. Because you see, I was always taught it is rude to ignore someone who is talking to me. But at the same time, I really don't want to accidentally get into a relationship with a man who I met while he was sat at the side of the raod at 8:00 in the morning with his morning red stripe and spliff.

Ladies - have you got any alternative responses?!

Twice in one day!

I’ve been contemplating writing about this for a while and have been ummming and ahhhhing and have decided to finally post something on the topic of Transfigure. You see, I'm interested in politics. But disheartened with it all.

To start with, my problem is that I’m confused. I’m confused as to what really is going on. You see, as far as my law knowledge goes, if it is indeed a ‘gift’ then the PNP technically have done nothing wrong. Until we face issues of funding political parties and pass some legislation, then there is nothing to say that they can’t take gifts. However, yes they are on iffy ground taking a 'gift' just before a contract is renewed.

Of course, ideally we don’t want our politicians to owe anyone anything. But being realistic, unless they are funded from public funds, they are going to have to take money from the private sector.

We need to set up laws that say that all donations over X amounts need to be declared. That we can or cannot accept donations from foreign. That companies giving money can or cannot get state contracts.

But the other side that no one seems to be mentioning is that JLP has been campaigning big style for months now. Where is that money coming from? Is it just that they have better bank contacts that mean that nothing about their donations gets leaked?

I’m still confused though. I feel that having one party in power for so long isn’t good for democracy. They become settled and they feel they can get away with anything. A change is good, new ideas, shakes everyone up, prevents complacency. But at the same time, the JLP have done absolutely nothing to convince me to vote for them. They have not said a word about any policies they’d introduce. They say they’d spend more on education and health, but not said how or where it would come from. Instead, they seem happy to just go on allegations and accusals.

I hope that we deserve better. I have a dream that these elections will actually revolve around what is good for the nation, what they would do with power, how they would help us. Give us some concrete ideas rather than just ‘we’ll fix it.’ Because lots of bad things happen in Jamaica that need facing. But also, lots of good things happen in Jamaica. I’d love to hear the JLP say that we think PNP has done X badly and Y well so we will change X by doing this and we’ll keep Y.

I’ve registered to vote and my vote is up for grabs. I just hope that someone can convince me to vote for them using a positive reason, rather than relying on the cass cass.

Food glorious food

Now without wanting to sound like a hungry belly, I'm going to do a review of my food from the weekend because it was a good food weekend! And I'm having to put in some extra hours at the gym this week to make up for it...

Friday as you all know was lunch at coffee mill. Their frappes are heavenly and their smoked marlin bagels are out of this world. I just love that place, it is so calm and mellow depite being right in the middle of New Kingston. Shame about the parking though...

Friday night I kinda skipped food. Gin and Tonics and birthday cake provided all the sustenance that I needed! I was too busy talking and laughing to eat food, a great time was had by all. (Although looking back at the photos now, I didn't realise quite how precarious my new dress was on top - no wonder all the guys loved it!)

Saturday morning the man was at a golf tournament so I was required to smile sweetly at people which have pre-lunch drinks there. Then it was lunch with the girls at Restaurant East, our favourite lunch spot. It's a gorgeous Japanese restaurant with good service and great food. Although I had one misfortune - I enjoyed the food so much that I was unable to eat most of my dessert! Sushi, teryaki chicken... mmmmm

Saturday evening I was supposed to go to a friend's birthday party, but I skipped it... stayed in bed instead... (and someone needs to tell me how to use iconthingys in blogger as I wanted to put in a nice wink!) Apparently the jerk there was excellent though!

Sunday I was taken to Cafe Aubergine for lunch. Although they have just opened a branch in Kingston, we decided that it was a good day for a drive out so headed out of town - it's in Monegue on the way to Ochi, the drive takes just over an hour. The hills were looking good and the trucks weren't on the road so it was a good journey. And it was totally worth it. The food was excellent - stuffed crabs, salmon in dill sauce and lemon mousse with a really nice bottle of chardonnay...mmm.... The only problem was staying awake on the drive home!

And the weekend was finished with homemade melted cheese on toast - perfect sunday evening food!

So now I'm looking forward to the Kingston Restaurant Week which is coming soon, an excellent opportunity to try out all those places you've been meaning to go but haven't quite made it to yet!

It's my birthday...

... so a very bad for me coffee was in order at lunchtime. Decided to save the alcohol until this evening but in the meanwhile, this drink on the right hit the spot!

I got one of those forwards today about your personality based on the month of your birth. Apparently, someone born in october...

Loves to chat (I think most people who know me would agree with that!)
Loves those who love them (Of course!)
Loves to takes things at the center (Not sure what that means)
Has inner and physical beauty (Glad that's been recognised!)
Lies but doesn't pretend (Hmm, white lies or proper lies?)
Gets angry often (Not really)
Treats friends importantly (Definitely)
Brave and fearless (Er, no, I'm a scaredy cat)
Always making friends (yup)
Easily hurt but recovers easily (Yes, I tend to get upset and then get over it quick)
Daydreamer (Sorry, didn't read that, my head was in the clouds)
Opinionated (Of course as I am always right!)
Does not care to control emotions (Hmm, not quite - I care to, I'm just not good at it)
Unpredictable (Nah)
Extremely smart (I wish!)
but definitely the hottest AND sexiest of them all! (Well, I'd agree with this one... but every month ended with it!!)

Not Christmas yet!!!

My computer is behaving rather strangely at the moment. Well, actually I lie. It’s not my computer that’s behaving odd, it’s other peoples. My office computer is just behaving dead. Apparently it is being fixed today … I am waiting anxiously. So in the meanwhile, I am forced to wander around the office, grabbing anyone else’s when they step outside for more than 2 minutes. And the one that I was on this morning was being rather odd.

I tend to be in early in the mornings as I like to make myself a hot drink and read the newspapers online before everyone else arrives and the day starts. I did that this morning and was dismayed to see every single blog and newspaper site that I looked at was talking about Christmas! I got upset – it is way too early to think about Christmas. After all, we haven’t even had my birthday yet (which is October 6 i.e. tomorrow!!!).

After huffing and puffing and trying more sites, it finally dawned on me. I’d seen all of these stories before. In fact, they were all old news. And when I finally let the coffee sink in and rubbed my eyes, I realized why. All of the pages were dated 23 December 2005.

I am now slightly concerned by how long it took me to work that one out.

Stories from the past

This post is the fault of island spice - another addition to the caribbean blogger family.

I had this 'boyfriend' once. Fortunately I didn't have him for too long. I quickly learnt his very strange ways. He was one of those short-term guys you get involved with after a long-term relationship, you know the type - someone who is so different from the ex (and hence you soon realise sooo wrong for you).

Anyway, I don't know what I did to this guy. But he decided that it would be good to fall madly in love with me in a very short length of time. He decided that we had a cosmic connection and the stars meant us to be together.

And about the time he said this, I was trying to figure out how to get away from him... So I broke it to him as kindly as possible, we were not meant to be together. It wasn't working. And I wanted out.

At which point he got rather upset. And started to try and pile guilt on me. Apparently he has been thinking that we should get married (hell, I'd known him for 2 months!!!) and I was just running away from the strength of my feelings for him.

When I pointed out that this was in no way the case, he eventually gave up and left with the parting line of 'I think you need to see a psychologist to help you sort out your inability to truely find love and to give of yourself.'

Obviously if I wasn't in love with him, I was mad.

Well I have to say that if that was the case, I'm happily mad until this very day!