Winter Blues Without the Blahs

[CeaBee]

Noice PZ, I really like John Legend's music too (and not so fond of monica's ). sounds like a nice vacation (and meking me miss home)

[MsExced]

Thanks Peasie, enjoy the report and pictures.

[Peasie]

Thanks CeaBee and Ms Exced.

Woke up early this morning and having my coffee now. One by one, my friends join me on the veranda as we sit facing the sea. It is overcast, warm, and there is a nice breeze. There is construction on the site next to our veranda and I hear the scrape scrape of cement and their comments about "rain a come, yuh nuh."

My friends are planning a trip to Harmony Hall and such. Me? I am hanging out here today just chillin. Miami friend has a driver, Ferdie, who met us at Mobay's airport, took us grocery shopping, took us to each night's performance and drove us home. So Ferdie will be picking up the gang shortly and I will just relax, read, and eat leftovers

Latah...

[Peasie]

For my breakfast of leftovers, I had pick-up saltfish on the last of the salad. For Gen, here's my breakfast...



See the little green bowl at the top? That has a piece of fresh aloe vera that I plan to put rub on my face shortly - no, I don't have a sun burn, but it is just good for the complexion. The grounds of the villa has aloe vera growing in abundance and we cut some this morning. Miss Lorna made a drink with aloe vera, grapefruit, papaya, and guava

[Peasie]

The beach today...

[SamChabs]

Love the report and DWL at the lifeguard....

Any pictures of Coco T? :swoon:

[Peasie]

Any pictures of Coco T? :swoon:

Oh yes. But I will have to post them later. One of my friends promised to send them to me.

[Peasie]

Just before I left the cottage, I took a few photos of the garden. My bedroom opened out to the back garden where the Jacuzzi was tucked in among palms and wonderful plants



What I particularly loved about this cottage was that it was old and charming and very homey



My bedroom opened up to the garden

[CeaBee]

any lizzad?

[Peasie]

any lizzad?

Not inside the house but definitely outside on the deck. I've made my peace with lizards. They are harmless and are more afraid of you than you are of them.

On the evenings on the veranda, flying insects were attracted to the lights and, of course, here comes croaking lizard for his meal. Those are spooky looking

Two of my friends were jittery around lizards. These were ladies from Miami and Houston so dem know bout

Colorado friend and I were like *shrug*

[Peasie]

I left Silver Sands on Tuesday morning for Kingston to visit with family for another five days. I caught the Knutsford Express from Glistening Waters near Falmouth. It was a comfortable ride and, including stopping in Ocho Rios, I arrived in Kingston three hours later. Bus was on time, clean, air-conditioned, and smoothly-driven. Rest area in Ochi was spotless

https://www.knutsfordexpress.com

I borrowed this image from the Internet so you can have an idea of the bus.

[Peasie]

On the bus ride, I noticed a lot of new moderate-income housing developments - all gated and all with solar water heater on the roofs and, of course, the ubiquitous water tanks. Interestingly along the drive from Falmouth to Ocho Rios I did not see not even one stand of sugar cane. I seem to remember a field or two of sugar cane through St. Ann.

All along the journey to Kingston there were several police pulling over drivers and checking documents. Throughout the drive I only saw one crazy overtaking antic with a taxi and it was as we entered Fern Gully where there was some road construction. Taxi man couldn't bother waiting on the flag man As for the penis sculptures along Fern Gully -- nowadays they have painted the tip of the penis a bright red. Seriously, does anyone ever buy those works of "art"?

From Ocho Rios through the hills of St. Ann I recalled several landmarks from my childhood when my parents would drive us to the North Coast. The level of the bauxite red mud lake in Ewarton looks awfully higher and closer to the road

Through Moneague and Linstead and along Flat Bridge, everything looked familiar. The roundabouts and signage were excellent and there were road crew planting ornamental trees and painting curbs.

And then we get to the highway leading into Kingston and then the hustle and bustle of my old home town

My cousin picked me up at the bus depot in New Kingston taking me to Avis on Merrick Avenue to pick up a car. From there I drove around to visit with my mother.

[Peasie]

Aahhhh. My beloved Kingston Everybody hustling and everybody impatient but everyone is busy working. Lots of customer service everywhere you go - Digicel, Flow, Scotiabank, supermarket, vendors. Of course the young men or boys who hustle to clean your windshield always have some words for you I am pleasant with them and, even though they are an annoyance sometimes, I respect the fact that they have to eke out a living like alla wi. Most of them just want to run joke as they clean my windshield. One of them propositioned me by asking me if I want a baby. My people yuhsi

I don't carry a lot of cash around with me. I have a Scotia bankcard and pay for everything that way.

I have a Digicel basic phone and, compared to what I pay in the U.S., talk is cheap. For example, I put J$1,000 on my Digicel when I arrived last week, call the U.S. every day, text too, and I still have over $J600 on my phone And EVERYONE has a cellie. Everyone. And they are on their phones ALL THE TIME. Lawd, a wah wi fine fi chat bout so?

[Peasie]

Lets talk about crime in Jamaica, shall we?

It is not just in Kingston as you know.

That's all I can bring myself to say at this point.

But here's what The Bad Crime has done to many folks in Jamaica.

• Everybody looks over their shoulder all the time
• People blame themselves when they become victims of crime, for e.g., they start sentences with, "If only mi did ..."
• I do not pretend to know the solution to the problem.
• People are so impatient and in a hurry all the time. It is like life is running away from them. Or else they think life is short.

My birth country doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to another generation of Jamaicans.

Jamaica is the land of paradoxes. We are a resourceful people yet we are wasteful. We are a loving people yet we hate. We are kind people yet we are self-centered. We are a strong people but we are weak.

Aye sah.

[RichD]

Lets talk about crime in Jamaica, shall we?

It is not just in Kingston as you know.

That's all I can bring myself to say at this point.

But here's what The Bad Crime has done to many folks in Jamaica.

• Everybody looks over their shoulder all the time
• People blame themselves when they become victims of crime, for e.g., they start sentences with, "If only mi did ..."
• I do not pretend to know the solution to the problem.
• People are so impatient and in a hurry all the time. It is like life is running away from them. Or else they think life is short.

My birth country doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to another generation of Jamaicans.

Jamaica is the land of paradoxes. We are a resourceful people yet we are wasteful. We are a loving people yet we hate. We are kind people yet we are self-centered. We are a strong people but we are weak.

Aye sah.

ah sah ...it hurt my heart