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 Conkies were originally made to commemorate the old British colonial celebration of Guy Fawkes Day (Nov 5th).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

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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.