Today's P.S.A - No need to thank me

don't bother trying to get me on the mobile for a few days

This week's Bajanism - Duppy

Pronunciation: \ˈdʌpɪ\

Function : noun

Plural: Duppies

Etymology: Caribbean: Barbados, Jamaica, EC

Definition:

1: a spirit or ghost

2: Duppy folklore originates from West Africa. A duppy can be either the manifestation (in human or animal form) of the soul of a dead person, or a malevolent supernatural being. In Obeah, a person is believed to possess two souls - a good soul and an earthly soul. In death, the good soul goes to heaven to be judged by God, while the earthly spirit remains for three days in the coffin with the body, where it may escape if proper precautions are not taken, and appear as a duppy.

Chasing waves and Yacht spotting - Day 1

Today began pretty much as usual, woke up around 6a.m and was out searching for a spot to 'wet run' my new BZ PRO HUBB 41.5 (TAN-TARAN-TA-TA-TA-TAAAAAA) and trolled everywhere on the south coast until I got back to ol' reliable silver sands beach, it was ok, a bit messy at times, plus there was that run in with a small stingray/mantaray jumping out of the water(personal reference here), but i stuck it out for the entire morning as THE BOARD FUCKING ROCKED!, seriously, carving around tourists (or 'tourisms' as I like to call them) left right and centre.

Around 11.30 I decided to fuck off to find something to eat, and while I happened to do so I got a tip-off that the west/north coast was the place to be. Change of plans. I made a bee-line for my favorite west coast break, a place called tropicana, it's a sweet reef break that can be like riding on a sheet of glass.

On the way there, I happened to spot this thing in at the port, apparently it belongs to Paul Allen of microsoft fame and it's f-ing huge, (wikiworldorder article here.)

Here are a few pictures of it I pilfered off the net that also happen to be in good ol' bim.

and yes, that is a yacht inside of the yacht.

:-| anyhoo,

so I got to tropicana and it was mediocre at best, so I f-ed off again to head to one of our more infamous breaks at a place called "duppies".

interjection: Anyone that has ever surfed in Barbados has heard of duppies, and so I feel it's my duty to provide you with a summative description of said location; *ahem*

• 20'+ waves - check
• secluded desolate location - check
• cliff descent for water entry - check
  
• 1/4 mile paddle to the take-off point - check
• riptides - check
• crazy jackass living near the edge of the cliff that randomly dumps dead chickens off the cliff - check
  
• abundance of carnivorous sealife - check

And by carnivorous sealife I mean sharks.

end interjection

today was no exception, sans 20' breakers, but I estimated 12-14' for sure, and for the first 1/8 mile out looked like a washing machine on agitate. I'll update with the pictures I took on my phone to corroborate this. Needless to say, I suffered a severe case of the 'yellow belly' and was forced to sit that session out and made do with having to watch all 3 nutters surfers that dared to enter the water.

Endtroducing...............

Yes! so I've finally gotten a new sponge to replace my other cracked, decrepit BZ. It was a faithful old board, don't think it's ever let me down, but, I decided it was about time for a change when I was dropping in about a month ago and it had so much flex that it put me through the heavy wash cycle. Onto bigger and better things it's a BZ again, but this time it's a pro board (oooooooh, aaaaaaaah) and pretty sweet if I say so myself. have a look at it here. I'll go more into the test drive shenanigans in the next post hopefully after this tryptophania has worn ozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

AUUUUUGGGGHHH!!

I promised myself that I wouldn't post anything Tiger Woods related since his, erm, fiasco but this jewel was the straw that broke the camel's back.

'Twas the night before Christmas

Merry christmas to all and sundry from the house of T

The liver is evil.....and must be punished

Ooop, entries for december will be a bit slight, I've got some long time family friends in from the UK[aaaaaaaii] and my days tend to go along the lines of;

wake up --> beach --> boozing --> lather --> rinse --> repeat


damn you to hell drinks free events.

My God....

Only the good die young

This post is dedicated to the memory of one of the greatest people I've had the pleasure of meeting;

Mr. Matthew Maharaj, a brilliant mathematician, musician, singer. Too great to be forgotten

Only the good die young,
All the evil seem to live forever,
Only the good die young,
All the evil seem to live forever,
Only the good die young,
Only the good die young

This week's Bajanism - Bariffle

Pronunciation: \ˈbə-rif-fu̇l\

Function: noun

Synonyms: copius, alot

Etymology: Caribbean: Barbados

Definition:

1: a full or more than adequate amount or supply

2: the quality or state of being copious

WTF?!

Now, this is one of those times when I sit and think to myself, self, If I chanced to step outside at 2.00a.m. for a cigarette break and I looked up and this is what I saw, what would really be my next move?

The picture above has not been edited or photoshopped in any way. It's what norweigan soldiers chanced to come across last night when they so ventured out.

yep. There's a damn good reason why these things don't happen over the Caribbean

Paging Captain Kirk

AAhhhhh..... Richard Branson unveiled virgin galactic's production spaceliner yesterday, amidst puddles of drool from trekkies the world over.

I'm also that much closer, 小, to catching up with that lucky bastard james may. I just need to round up $200,000 for the ticket

No matter what happens today.............

.....the sun will still rise tomorrow.

I was told that once by a Lecturer, the fact that while he was telling me this his brain was cruising along at 37,000ft on Air Jamaica flight 420 with the seat fully reclined is beside the point. It's just one of those things that seems to have stuck in my mind ever since, and seeing as today's been a particularly shite day, I think it's quite fitting.

I ♥ transitive pictograph verbalisations.

I've always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the lack of respect that construction students (or prospectives) receive from the general population. Whenever I mention my field of choice they just look at me and say something like "What?" or "..oh...I see, I didn't even know there was a degree for that, is it new?", (feel free to add your own condescending inflection there.)

Sadly, It's not even necessarily a sentiment that's limited to the caribbean. But, what really annoys me about it is that government, the ministry of education in particular, seems to adopt the attitude that anyone not pursuing a degree in medicine, law and/or politics (like we need any more of those!) as a 3rd class candidate when it comes to funding.

Yet, when someone visits a country for the first time, what's the first thing that might allude to that country's status in the pecking order?? the buildings and infrastructure of course!!

So why in the sweet name of Jeebus would Government treat those responsible for the production of the above like bottom feeders? then they bitch and complain about construction standards and the like. Idiots.

This week's Bajanism - Pooshark

Pronunciation: \ˈpü-ˈshärk\

Function: verb

Synonyms: Skylark

Etymology: Caribbean

Definition:

1: to dilly-dally or engage in general tomfoolery.

2: that elusive nugget of poo that will not flush down the toilet, no matter how many repeat flushes occur.

Better late than never

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all illegal immigrants americans

Batting 100

Here we go again

A 'special delivery' Bajanism - How to make conkies

--as sourced via Justbajan.com--

Bajan Conkies

Conkies, are a corn based Barbadian delicacy, traditionally made during the month of November, celebrating independence (Nov 30th). Conkies were originally made to commemorate the old British colonial celebration of Guy Fawkes Day (Nov 5th). This is a laborious recipe, but the results are worth it.

Ingredients

2 cups corn flour
1/2 cup flour
3/4 lb finely grated pumpkin
6 oz margarine/shortening melted
1/2 lb sweet potato (optional)
3 cups grated coconut
1 egg
1 tsp salt
4 oz raisins (optional)
3/4 lb brown sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp spice
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp almond essence

*Banana, Plantain or Fig leaves (singed over fire) *

• Leaves can be substituted all together with wax paper or foil paper; however, your conkies won't taste as good.

Preparing Leaves

• Banana leaves are used to wrap the conkie mixture, therefore you need leaves that aren't shredded. Strip leaves from stalk with a sharp knife. Leaves are very delicate and tear easily. To use them in your recipe, you must make them pliable by briefly singeing them over an open flame. If your leaves start to curl up, that means you had them on the flame too long. If your leaves spontaneously combust, that means you were using old, dried up leaves. Please use green leaves! Tear your singed leaves into individual squares to wrap your conkies in. Many recipes recommend 8" x 8" squares, but they can be bigger depending on how big you want your conkies to be. Cut the leaves into pieces that you can comfortably wrap the conkies in.

Method

• Combine grated coconut, sweet potato & pumpkin.
• Mix in sugar, spices, flour, corn flour, salt and raisins.
• Beat Egg and add to mixture
• Add milk, margarine and almond essence.
• Mix ingredients well. Mixture should be thick and drop slowly from a spoon.
• Place 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons in the centre of each banana leaf square.

• Fold the banana leaf neatly around the mixture. Be careful not to tear the leaf, else the mixture will leak.
•Steam conkies over rack of boiling water in a large saucepan or steamer until firm to the touch.

and voila!!

Happy Independence day!!

I pledge allegiance to my country Barbados
and to my flag,
To uphold and defend their honour,
and by my living to do credit
to my nation, wherever I go.

The Barbados Landship

Tag! you're it!

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This week's Bajan(ism) - Jackie opel

This may have been before my time, but from the way I've heard older folks continually yammering about him, I figure he must've been something pretty special.

Born Dalton Sinclair Bishop in Bridgetown, Barbados, Jackie Opel (1938–1970) possessed a rich, powerful voice with a high octave range. He was known as the Jackie Wilson of Jamaica, and was a gifted dancer.

In the early 1960s, he was discovered by Byron Lee, the band master of the Dragonaires, who brought him to Jamaica. There, he started performing with the Skatalites as one of their lead singers. He recorded as a solo artist first on Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label, and afterwards on Justin Yap's Top Deck label and Edward Seaga's Wirl label. His styles included ska, R&B, soul, gospel, and calypso. He is credited with inventing spouge music, a fusion of ska, calypso, and R&B music. Opel performed duos with Doreen Schaffer and Hortense Ellis, and in 1964 was backed by Wailers Bob Marley and Peter Tosh on "Mill Man."

Opel eventually moved to Trinidad and then back to Barbados. On 8 March 1970, he died in a car crash in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Pipeline news

new developments over here at the house of T. Updates to follow.

The little Joys of Island life

I found the photo above on a surf photographers forum by someone posting as tarikbrowne (his photos are awesome!). It's a shot of my favorite break on the south coast called 'freights bay', it's a left reef-break that rarely gets above 6' - 7' but when it does break, it's usually a very clean wave, which suits my basic level skills perfectly.

I ended up spending the entire morning last Sunday out there. I didn't plan for it to end up that way, and nothing spectacular in surf terms, maybe only waist high. But, it just was a really nice morning, clear sky, clearer water and the occasional turtle popping up for air. So it just panned out that whenever I decided that it was time to head in, a nice set would roll through and I'd say to myself "...just one more"

Anytime I travel for extended periods it's things like this I miss the most, coincidentally, it also happens to be one of the many reasons I love Barbados that much more.

N.B. If anyone could give me a site for Tarikbrowne so I could link to it that'd be great

Recognition!!

Jesus Christ! I think I've just been paraphrased in another local blog 'The Bajan Reporter' (link here), It's really only the last two lines, nothing to phone home about, but I was quite surprised to see it on one of my frequent internet traipsings.

This week's Bajanism - Stede Bonnet

Given that independence is right around the corner, and I'm way behind on my promise of posting "all things bajan" I've decided that this week's bajanism should take the form of an outline of an infamous historical bajan by the name of Stede Bonnet. I've also decided that I shouldn't wrack my brains to write a summative biography when the wikiworldorder's write-up would suffice, so without any further ado.........

Stede Bonnet (c. 1688 – December 10, 1718) was an early 18th-century Barbadian pirate, sometimes called "the gentleman pirate"because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his father's death in 1694. In 1709, he married Mary Allamby, and engaged in some level of militia service. Because of marital problems, and despite his lack of sailing experience, Bonnet decided to turn to piracy in the summer of 1717. He bought a sailing vessel, named it Revenge, and traveled with his paid crew along the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States, capturing other vessels and burning other Barbadian ships.

Bonnet set sail for Nassau, Bahamas, but he was seriously wounded en route during an encounter with a Spanish warship. After arriving in Nassau, Bonnet met Edward Teach, the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Incapable of leading his crew, Bonnet temporarily ceded his ship's command to Blackbeard. Before separating in December 1717, Blackbeard and Bonnet plundered and captured merchant ships along the East Coast. After Bonnet failed to capture the Protestant Caesar, his crew abandoned him to join Blackbeard aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge. Bonnet stayed on Blackbeard's ship as a guest, and did not command a crew again until summer 1718, when he was pardoned by North Carolina governor Charles Eden and received clearance to go privateering against Spanish shipping. Bonnet was tempted to resume his piracy, but did not want to lose his pardon, so he adopted the alias "Captain Thomas" and changed his ship's name to Royal James. He had returned to piracy by July 1718.

In August 1718, Bonnet anchored the Royal James on an estuary of the Cape Fear River to repair and careen the ship. In late August and September, Colonel William Rhett, with the authorization of South Carolina governor Robert Johnson, led a naval expedition against pirates on the river. Rhett and Bonnet's men fought each other for hours, but the outnumbered pirates ultimately surrendered. Rhett arrested the pirates and brought them to Charleston in early October. Bonnet escaped on October 24, but was recaptured on Sullivan's Island. On November 10, Bonnet was brought to trial and charged with two acts of piracy. Judge Nicholas Trott sentenced Bonnet to death. Bonnet wrote to Governor Johnson to ask for clemency, but Johnson endorsed the judge's decision, and Bonnet was hanged in Charleston on December 10, 1718.

P.S. - Bonnet's legacy can be seen to this day through his descendants who still carry his name (with the addition of another 't' at the end) and more interestingly, still occupy his original 'stomping ground' as it were.

On a much lighter note......

In other news an airline toilet jams, bringing the flight to it's knees. Everybody's favourite leader at the house of T intervenes to quell spiralling cases of football fever. Something fishy's going on in the congo (nothing new). And Lil' Kim has banned DPRK television stations from showing world cup matches unless they win, oh well, there's always 2014.

There's a special place in hell reserved for bankers..........

John Mortlock
1755 - 1816
"Master of the Town of Cambridge"
Draper, Banker, MP, Recorder and thirteen times Mayor.
"That which you call corruption, I call influence"

Seeing this article this morning has made me sick to my stomach. It also stinks to high heaven of the shit that the blue-collar/working class/small man has to swallow on a daily basis.

I don't know what I was ever thinking, could I have honestly ever fooled myself into believing that at some point, by some wild stretch of the imagination that banking institutions could possibly made to pay for their injustice? I must've been crazy.

To give the reader a bit more insight into what I'm ranting about, I'll expand a bit. Take for example, yours truly, happily minding his own business, and who just happened to make a purchase that runs him into an overdraft scenario. WHACK!! the bank imposes a £25 charge immediately as a monthly charge for running into an overdraft. This charge is the same regardless of the overdraft amount, be it £0.01 or £100. To take it one step further they then impose a £15 per day charge for every day that the overdraft amount is not repaid.

If you think that's where the story ends, here's where it really starts to get interesting. If the overdraft amount is repaid, the amount due is not deducted from the holder's account until the end of the month, the daily charges will stop accruing, but the amount due to the bank is not debited until the end of the month as stipulated in their fine print. Therefore, giving the account holder the impression that there are more funds available than the true figure, which, as I so rudely found out, could then be deducted and send the account holder into another overdraft scenario.

Those fucking bastards. Furthermore, those terms which are put forward by whichever poison institution the individual picks could well have been written in stone tablets as though handed down by God via the lord Jesus himself then spell-checked by the devil. i.e NON-NEGOTIABLE. By what stretch of the imagination could this ever be fair??

A little birdie once told me that the banks could care less about the middle class and smaller accounts. But, the Beeb article has said --

"Research by the OFT published last year found banks earned around a third of their retail revenues from unarranged overdraft charges that were "difficult to understand, not transparent, and not subject to effective consumer control".

If I ever get around to making heads or tails of this 2008 Lloyds report I can make a better analysis of that, there's also this research paper by the OFT that initial glances seem to suggest that (if indeed the interview strata is 'random') they are a considerable source of income for the banks. This research also supports my own experiences as a consumer, take for example 64% of interviewees have never switched their current account provider. NEVER. Your wife/gf wil drag you around for 8-hours to find that pair of minolos at at 5% off, but NEVER even think of switching from a provider only too willing to pull down your pants at the slightest chance.

I am thoroughly disgusted, and just to rub salt in the wound, I'm sure that those responsible in passing the judgement have probably never even seen their accounts dip below 7-figures far less being faced with unfair charges.

It looks like I'll just have to suck it up. The Mortlocks and Ruperts have won. There is no justice for the small fry. I've cancelled the overdraft facility that I never asked for in the first place. I'm looking for another account provider and I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that I'll never be able to recoup the pound of flesh that was so maliciously carved from my back by Lloyds tsb.

"If the law supposes that… the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience."
- Mr. Bumble (Oliver Twist)

Bahia 2010 or bust!

So I'm planning a trip to brazil for 2010, nothing big, and still 90% conceptual right now, but my capoeira professor from london's going home for a month or so and he wants me to train for a bit.

There are currently 3 options that I know of right now and that's;

1. OPTION 1 - direct flight to miami, then direct to Bahia - this is probably the most comfortable option (and expensive!) but surveying has turned me into a bit of a cheapskate, plus I don't see why I should have to suffer the indignity of grovelling to the US gov't for a visa to transit in a fucking airport, (really now!, why the fuck should I need to pay $200.00 US for a visa when technically I'm going to be on international territory??) no wonder they're disliked.
2. OPTION 2 - *heh heh* bum a cheap flight to Guyana and travel overland to Bahia.
   

ಠ_ಠ


yes, seriously

there's a number of things that could go wrong there and when I mentioned this option to a guy in my local capoeira class he just stared at me as if I had just made an indecent proposal regarding his mother. Needless to say after a few choice bajan 4-letter words I realised that was a really, really REALLY bad idea.

1. OPTION 3 - Take a flight to Caracas via Trinidad, overnight in Caracas, on to Sao Paulo then last stop Bahia, Salvador, total trip time 34 hours. Jesus Christ on a trike 34 HOURS!!

Anyway, I'm not particularly comfortable with the idea of traveling through Venezuela (or over the amazon for that matter!!) but I guess it's a means to an end and everyone I know that's gone to Bahia for capoeira has had a blast. So I guess that's it then, unless someone reading this has a more sensible option..............hmm, are people reading this??



*UPDATE*

1. OPTION 4 - I've found another possibility that seems to be the cheapest but involves me flying to Guyana via liat then taking another rinkydink dash-8 type plane to belem and then I can pick up a flight to Salvador. Right now seems to be my preferred option as it's also only about 11 hours in total, but I must say that the prospect of flying over 700km of thick jungle in a questionably maintained aircraft especially after this incident leaves much to be desired by "the I".
   

Back in the game

I had intended to do alot more posting for November given that independence is coming up and all, but deadlines at work have been crucifying me so posting has been limited. Expect more bajanisms than usual this month.

miscellaneous

Other hilarious shenanigans in the world news today include, (but are not limited to), a bushpig committing suicide by throwing itself infront of a plane, the greatest boxer of my lifetime not flattening his interviewer in one swipe of his mighty hams fists and a small side of locally flavoured poetic justice, served just the way I like it.

Who says bajans aren't good at sports??

Take a good look folks, yes, that's the 2009 segway polo world cup champions from our very own little rock. I shit you not! there's an association and everything!

stumbled onto this odd fact just perusing the web as I tend to do. So I feel as though I must offer my congratulations, even if it's a bit of a naff sport.

It's a bashment ship ;-)

those were the words of captain sawyer.

Not much to mention usually happens here in terms of local news, but this story was a bit too funny to pass up.

random

random post, but I found this hilarious!!

This week's bajanism - Skylark

Pronunciation: \ˈskī-ˌlärk\

Function: verb

Etymology: Caribbean

Definition:

1: contrary to popular belief, the skylark is not a small passerine bird species, but, to engage in general tomfoolery, much to the displeasure of at least one party involved.

It's your civic duty........

*snicker*, .........duty haha.

Today's pat on the back goes out to Simmons electrical HQ over in St. Philip. They're an electrical contractor here in bimshire that've been in business for some time now and their managing director Mr. Allan Simmons has seen fit to purchase a 20' x 30' flag for hoisting outside their offices. I for one would like to re-iterate Mr. Simmons' sentiment on how proud that specific action makes me feel to be 'A bajan', too few locals show a sense of pride in their country (or fail to display such emotions) something that I try to actively encourage.

We've done a helluvalot given what we've got to work with and I feel we as a people need to stand up and reaffirm ourselves as Barbadians and not be scared to make it known to everyone else. Way too many times I've seen others my age willingly to affiliate themselves with other caribbean nations or the good ol' USA and adopt these silly accents, I say fuck 'em.

I, personally, identify with my Barbadian heritage first, then as a member of the caribbean nation second.

Again?!?!

the quest for knowledge into the very fabric of our universe seems to have hit a snag once again, it seems that tweety couldn't hold onto his lunch long enough. dammit

Take Heart!! (and notes)

*drumroll* and now....live from the country that gave you karaoke, D1 drift and jumping robots I bring to you....................YUKIO HATOYAMA! *crowd roar*

Ha! Japan's PM doubles as a singing sensation. Oh well, it could be worse........... our own previous PM doubled as an alcoholic.

Are you kidding me?

witfh

Bitter much?

here we have a gymnast whining about why she hadn't received a letter of congratulations from Gordon Brown like Jenson Button did. Well, sweetheart, maybe when you can pull 154,000,000 viewers he'll get back to you. There's my 0.02p

I dunno Jiang, just shade it a different colour.....

Got to love Chinese problem solving.

The Kashmir valley seems to be one of those prime property locations hotly contested for by both the Indians and the Pakistanis so if you need to produce a new map what do you do to not piss off anybody by showing favoritism? simple, make one up

Culture shock

Over here in the west it never ceases to amaze me that people operate comfortably from within the confines of their little boxes, completely oblivious to what goes on outside.

Take for example, This article from the Saudi gazette, which reminds me of the things we take for granted, and just how different things can be merely 1/4 way around the world.

Here we have a young girl 'minding her own business', bums a ride with a guy only to end up getting raped by him and 4 others and impregnated. I'd like to know where the follow-up article is on what happened to the guys, the article makes no mention, but, given the 'innocent' party in the incident ended up receiving 100 lashes and a year in prison, I'd like to believe that they all were treated to the proverbial 'long drop with a short stop' courtesy of the Saudi courts.


*N.B - my use of parentheses in relation to her minding her bidness serves as a reminder to the fact that she may not be entirely innocent in the situation. She could've possibly been engaged in the world's oldest profession, who knows?
Not in Saudi you say? stranger things have happened

Genographic project Update #1

A few months ago I had mentioned that I took part in this project. Well, I've recently been updated on the status, and true to form, the bajans have managed to supremely cock up the process insomuch as that the results will now be ready (won't hold my breath for this) at the end of November. 2 months after the anticipated date.

More to come soon.

Big bang day pt.2

Yep, provided everything goes as planned, we'll be smashing protons in mere months

I'll have the first option Pat............

L.A. lewis does it again

the #1 solution to #2 odours!!

Aaaaaaahh, I would've loved to see Billy Mays flogging this one.......

"BILLY MAYS HERE, JUST A DROP IS ALL YOU NEED TO BE RID OF THOSE BATHROOM SMELLS!!! STINKY TOILET?? BAM! JUST ONE DROP AND YOUR POOP WILL SMELL NO MORE........BUT WAIT!! DON'T FORGET IT'S NOW AVAILABLE TO YOU IN BARBADOS!!!"

P.S. -I'd try it out but I'm waiting for mass production on those pills that make my bowel movements smell like fresh baked cinnamon buns

*UPDATE*

Someone's managed to procure our very own bottle of 'just a drop' here at the house of T. Review to follow soon

Lest we forget...............

God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far-flung battle line--
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies--
The Captains and the Kings depart--
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away--
On dune and headland sinks the fire--
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard--
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.

- Recessional by Rudyard Kipling

Sweet mother of Jeebus!!

Everyone's favorite leader over here at the house of T paid a diplomatic visit to senor Chavez a few weeks back, and I nearly shot my coffee through my nose when I saw that pic (above) I found over on the times. I'm sure Mr. Panetta was kicking himself over opportunities lost for an inconvenient 'accident'.

Meanwhile, over at my house we only wanted to know if Chavez was driving, and Muammar was riding shotgun, who the f@ck was going to get in the backseat?

Good news, Bad news & stale news

First the stale news (I tell ya', there's nothing worse, But anyway), hot on the heels of those clever Japanese, NASA has bombed crashed a wmd stage rocket into a crater on the moon's surface last week in order to detect residual water within close proximity to the surface.

The good news is, the moon is still in one piece. The bad news, however, is that absolutely fuck-all happened, that's right, not even a lunar fart. But hey, such things tend to happen in research and I'm sure they'll get it right next time

:-|

If I were an american taxpayer I'd be pretty pissed though.

This week's bajanism

*n.b. - This week's bajanism takes not the form of a select word extracted from the bajan vernacular (my brain just broke into sweat coming up with that one), but, comes in the ever popular form of "Ya know ya is a bajan when...", It's been inspired by those little things peculiar to bajans that we don't necessarily think of until they're pointed out by someone unfamiliar with the customs. so without further ado, i bring to you:-

"Ya know ya is a bajan when yuh forhead does tek up 1/3 of yuh face space"

All over the world today, keyboards are smoking..

busy day today. Bloggers must be going nuts trying to get everything down.

I, however, will have to do a retrospective review, as I'm trying to conclude the interim valuation dance of death with a bi-polar honey badger.

I, Carnivore

I told you so.

I fail to understand why every tom, dick and harry would choose have their lives/lifestyles dictated to them by every other celebrity and/or marketing department in existence. Here we have another shining example of scientific discovery in direct contradiction of previous schools of thought. All those hippies/vegetarians/rastafarians that professed to me the endless virtues of soy shall now be helping themselves to a double serving of humble pie, with cream.

I on the other hand have always taken the view that I eat what I want, when I want, without regret and woe betide the man/woman/child that gets between me and my mignon. I'll even step out on a limb here and go so far as to say "If God didn't want us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of such tasty meat?"

中华人民共和国 turns 60

Forget what the mainstream media says. China is awesome. If you're 28, single and straight, there aren't many other places on the planet that compare. So I see fit enter this post in acknowledgement of their anniversary birthday independence or... whatever

HAHAHA!

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

LOL, Barack Obama is a robot. But seriously, see if you can spot our very own David Thompson in the mix.

Pardon my paranoia

right, so I've always tended to be hesitant in believing what I see on tv, but I've stumbled onto this rabbit hole via a friend's facebook posting this morning and, true or not, it raises a very important issue, that of propaganda that we the masses are being fed by news agencies. It's a video that was apparently leaked to joe public sometime last month. (dont quote me on that)
Just a quick browse over this Charles Jaco's website gives me the impression that this guy's only too happy to fabricate embellish a story for a little exposure.

Recent years have seen me advocating the benefits of never taking a story at face value by going out there and always finding out for yourself. I think that the 'on location' footage above more than reinforces that necessity.
Even more disturbing about the questions that the video raises are indications in this website that seem to suggest PSYOPS involvement and pentagon 'influence' in media broadcasts at that time. It's all the makings of a riveting novel methinks.

ALL HAIL!! the might of the british empire!!

Just think, they ruled 1/4 of the world at one point.

Oh!,'Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya', You so craazay!!

photo: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8272081.stm

Jesus, that's a long honorific.

yep Quaddaffi's in action, again. That's why we love you so at the house of T

................notes on living your life

Before i start this post I need to set a few things straight. It stems from a post I read over on knife tricks, which in turn was written as a review of V.S. Naipaul's A bend in the river that happens to highlight relevant points.

That'll do nicely.........

Congratulations are in order for local phenomenon Ryan Braithwaite Braffit (this is bajanisms after all).
Now I'm not normally one to get emotionally entwined with the hoo-ha associated with these types of celebrations, but, I will make an exception this time because of the 'obeah' effect that his performance had on a few notable bajans.

For instance we have C.O.W Williams who was overheard saying, "Man, ryan tek all of the pain out of my heart that the West Indies cricket team gimme."

I second that sentiment C.O.W....... wholeheartedly.

The icing on the cake for me, though, came when another popular local businessman, Ralph "Bruggadung" Johnson nearly broke down on camera with joy (?) at welcoming his fellow bajan home.(see below).



All in all, it was a welcome home entirely commensurate with the performance that he put down in Germany. I also thought he did quite well, given that he stepped off an 8-hour flight only to be whisked off on a 6-hour motorcade and presentation culminating in being forced to sit and listen to the likes of the rt. hon. David Thompson yammering for almost an entire hour.

I do have one question for 'Bruggadung' though, where the f@ck is "Bee-jing"?

THE END OF THE WORLD IS UPON US!!!!!

Ok, so maybe it's not the world you were thinking about, but still, it is pretty big news to most of us in construction.

I remember in the not too distant past a young lad was attracted by the bright lights of Dubai and the tales that his friends spun of streets lined with gold (well, maybe not the streets, but the ironmongery at least) and he would salivate anytime someone merely mentioned the term 'Burj', but then, wonder of wonders! opportunity knocked for our young QS and he went for a week, and what a miserable week it was!, strip-searched in customs as though he were a common criminal, and forced to learn what it means to be a non-arab in an arab's world. and let me tell ya' brother, it sucks!

Sure every analyst within the industry today says in the news "Oh! Well we've always known Dubai's development was going to be unsustainable", puh-leeze, didn't stop you from singing along at the top of your lungs when the music was still playing. I specifically remember the O'Dolan guy in a special on the beeb (or channel 4) ranting about how he and 2 other investors jumped in on the deal, bought a few islands and were poised to make a killing. poor fella.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I would've done any better had I been in their shoes, but God knows I'm certainly glad it's not me and the only thing that's left after the bloodbath is a collection of 'buy-to-let-ers" with more white elephants than you can shake a stick at, and nothing but "woe is me" in their mouths.

Not to mention one less surveyor at risk of developing a stress-induced aneurysm.

Monkey see, monkey do.

found a video this morning that showcases a few other parallels between man and primate.

These little bastards are the same variety that can be found most mornings at my house, tormenting the dogs, stealing fruit, pelting me and the neighbours as well as generally causing a fracas. Anyone that's actually ever sat and watched monkeys will agree that after about 5 minutes it starts to look like a little man in a suit with a funny gait.

That being said, watching this video could almost be any of the local weekend parties, and if i could, I'd tag myself, as well as a few others I can think of that are guilty of such behaviour.

They eat dolphin in Barbados......... don't they?

Today's post has been inspired by a friend of mine that traveled quite some distance to visit our beautiful island ;-) and after she was taken out to sample *ahem* our fine local cuisine, she said something that made me laugh a bit, it was along the lines of;

"what?! you eat dolphin, and you give us all that hassle?!"

Now, all my life growing up, I've been groomed into the automatic response to that statement by saying, "No, not flipper....the ugly one, yeah, mahi-mahi" (Some local restaurants have taken it one step further by ever so thoughtfully reproducing a small photo of said mahi-mahi next to the menu listing.) but it wasn't until she said that, that it really made me think about how you never seem to notice and/or appreciate some things until they are pointed out by someone completely new to the experience.

That in itself, has helped me to discover a new passion for preserving and passing on all aspects of barbadian culture that seemed to have been lost on a majority of those in my generation. And if nobody else teams up and makes the effort, then we lose the sense of who we are as an autonomous people.

5 8 things I've learned since I started this blog

here's a little shortlist of a few new things I've discovered about myself;

1. I have completion issues
2. I'm a bit of a grammar nazi, which is strange, seeing as how my blog is liberally sprinkled with instances Of Random CapitaLisation as well as incorrect usages of apostrophes.
   
3. Anthony winkler, I'm not. My writing needs ALOT more work.
4. I'm passive aggressive (that's the bajan in me)
   
5. I'm still finding my style
6. My critical analysis 'skillz' need work
7. I use way too many parentheses
8. I've got 'completion issues'
   

This week's Bajanism - Manjack

Pronunciation: \ˈman-ˈjak\

Function: noun

Etymology: Caribbean

Definition:

1: glance pitch, a form of bitumen-rich asphalt found in theScotland District of Barbados and in Vistabella, Trinidad

-thankyou Wikiworldorder

bah!

God knows how often I've wished this would work.

8 monkeys

Put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which, obviously irritates them. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him senseless. Soon thereafter, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.

One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders to himself, "...why the hell are none of the other monkeys going for those bananas?". But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.

All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat the bejesus out of him. He has no idea why this is, but, he's not going to take the chance and re-attempt to climb the ladder.

A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him.

This extends to include the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey.

One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

This is a popular floating internet story that kind of puts policies (be they the ones set out within an office or legislative) into perspective.

At Last!

Proof!

guess who rolls in at lucky number 7 in this latest investigation by Laura Whately of 'which?', now I just need to wait and see what the outcome of the ruling is so that I can possibly get that pound of flesh returned to me.

This week's bajanism - Poppit

note:- This week's bajanism holds a special place in my heart, particularly because it's mere mention is enough to carry me back to days gone by when I would be jumping up and down on my parents' bed, only to hear my mother saying, "You! Wha you think you doin? get offa that bed ya poppit!!", therefore, I bring to you, this week's bajanism :- Poppit

Pronunciation: \ˈpä-pɪtˈ\

Function: noun

Etymology: Caribbean

Definition:

1: usually offensive : a person affected with extreme mental retardation
2 : a foolish or stupid person

how's that saying go about things in life and free, again??

doink

no, not that one. I mean the one that goes "nothing in this life is free"

A eulogy to celebrate the life and times of a dear friend - Swiss Banking

An untimely death, I'm sure he will be mourned by all.

God works in mysterious ways. Swiss Banking and I were sitting at Backo’s Pub just six months ago. We were having a few beers, which we did every Saturday afternoon together, talking about sports, politics and our lives. Then the subject of death came up.

As Swiss Banking normally did, he joked around about his own mortality. He said something that will stay in my mind for a long time. He said, you know what?, I probably won’t make it much longer. I’ve lived too much, too hard. The Team America World Police and their IRS will surely try to get me. Six months later, here we are, minus one. Swiss Banking gone from our lives suffocated by litigation. I still can’t believe he is gone.

I remember feeling so comfortable around him. I had never experienced that before with other friends. I felt like I could tell him anything, like he was the brother I never had. For the first time, there was a consistent figure in my life, which I could turn to for keeping my private affairs private.

To his family, Credit Suisse, ABN Amro, Bordier & Cie, and little Zurich Cantonal, I love you as if you were my own. In many ways you are. I want you to know that my family and I will be there for you in this difficult time. We will help ease the suffering that you are going through.

Swiss banking, I loved you. I'll miss you. Your family is in good hands. God bless.

*Built from a sample framework @ eulogyspeeches.net