Life: Osama and Wills and Kate

Who would have imagined that this Bank Holiday weekend would be punctuated by such contrasting events? I was unashamedly moved to tears by the Royal wedding on Friday. The dress was perfection and the obvious affection between the couple was heartwarming to witness. I understood that feeling of jubilation and British-ness that the crowds that lined the street felt. Now on the last day of this long weekend we’re greeted by the news that Osama Bin Laden, number one on the most wanted list, has been found and killed. Full details are still to be given but with President Obama confirming the news, the vivid memories of 9/11 come to mind. As I type there are celebratations happening outside the White House and where the twin towers once stood.

I could not have fathomed then that it would take 10 years to find the world’s number one terrorist. Thousands of deaths, deployments, battles, security alerts, negotiations and intelligence manuevers later this day has arrived leaving mixed feelings. Questions like – what would it been like if he had been captured and tried in a court of law? – are the ones that I ponder. And has President Obama just inadvertently won the upcoming election??

So in the space of four days the world finds itself glued to its TV screens and internet for two starkly different events. A marriage and death. Both unforgettable moments in history but come tomorrow the reality for most of us is that nothing has really changed. That is the real circle of life eh?

Life: Me. Now.

 

1. Talk about playing with my emotions. They say Mad Men is coming back for a fifth season, giving me a burst of happiness, them they cut off my legs with a few buts. Like: not until March 2012, possibly no involvement from creator, shorter episodes and the loss of one or two main characters… like Joan. What?! Listen as a fan who has been anticipating seeing how this show ends I would rather they just leave it at 4 seasons than give us disastrous final one. Why AMC? Why?!

2.Soca performer Bunji Garlin cut off his locks. The world did not end and he looks hotter than hot. Dare I say younger? And his barber is an artist. Look at that fade and his beard? Loving it.

3. I have been getting a little too excited over the glimpses of sunshine in London. It has been short and sweet and making me fiend for Spring time. But its time to exhale and calm down a bit. Today and tomorrow’s predicted rain has brought me back to reality. I live in London.

4. Tweeted and Facebooked my encounter with Idris Elba on Sunday and finally had to admit that I am a groupie. Five seconds after I had squealed, ran around in a complete circle and watched his fine being make a hasty retreat, I was on my phone tweeting away. I should have stayed calm, gave him that dazzling smile and asked sweetly for a picture but alas I am just not that refined. Pure fandom took over. Maybe I will have more control next time? I live in hope

5. So I am officially in search of 3.o. My second car has gone to scrap heap heaven and London tube maps and TFL have become my constant companions, again. Its amazing where you can go with car in ten minutes that takes triple the time with public transport. Irritating but a prime example of when life gives you lemons, its time to make lemonade.

6. Settling back into life after a few ‘grenades’ went off around me and in the process learning some valuable lessons about life. I used to say that nothing surprises me anymore. Well you will never, ever hear me say those four words again.

7. Which? has once again solidified my love for them. Yesterday they launched a super complaint against debit and credit card charges. Funny enough in Feb when I was looking for flights to Paris is when I experienced first hand these ridiculous card charges. For one ticket there is a different charge depending on which card you use. What made me laugh was the fact the visa electron cards are now the one which incurs the least expense. Why is it funny? I remember when I had that debit card years ago that it was not accepted by anyone, especially online. Now its the card of choice. Hilarious! Thank goodness for consumer watchdogs.

8. Libya. As I tweeted the night of the first air raid, no 100 page document, impassioned speech by leaders or defiant denials will convince me that this not just about securing this country’s oil supply. The West just wants to make sure they are on side with whoever is in charge. Oil is the sole reason they have put up with Colonel Gaddafi for the last few decades anyway. And President Obama here is one more thing to add to the list for the upcoming election fight. I am pretty much ignoring the Libya stories now. Japan still needs our help.

9. Men are from Mars and women live on the gorgeous planet of Venus – my take on the famous saying and one that I now believe in 200%. It actually helps to start from this point and just see every conversation, act, moment you have with the opposite sex in this way. This is what every single relationship self-help book is about. So save your money and just accept the fact that men and women just see life in opposing fashions. Some how, in some deep biological, spiritual manner some of us manage to fall in love and make it work despite all the differences. That is a beautiful thing to see. Whether or not I will ever get there is still in limbo.

 10. I have become that person who starts a book and never finishes it. I’ve become that writer who wants to write but never actually composes the first line. I am letting the very things that make me …me, that deep, creative, word- obsessed part of me be sucked up but the rigors of adulthood. Yes I have more do but I need to find that time however hard it might be. That is the girl who started this blog. I am on a mission to find her become that person again

11. One of my favorite columnists Lucy Mangan (from the amazing Stylist magazine) does a good job of summing up my conclusions on writing and relationships – http://www.stylist.co.uk/people/article/1096/%22all-romantic-notions-are-based-on-lies  Please check out this great free style mag.

12. Officially I have agreed to disagree with everyone on the topic of Chris Brown. For the record I like a lot of his songs. I did before the Rhianna abuse tragedy and I have afterwards. I am also a person who likes to forgive and give people a second chance – we are after all just humans. But I am adamant about the fact that I do not think he has truly dealt with his anger issues or genuinely dealt with what he did. He like so many other people have made excuses as to why he beat her up. From the day it happened he has been carrying on like normal (jet skiing, holidaying, etc) and just doing the minimum of what the court ordered and saying his PR wrote for him. Yes Rhianna aided this by going back to him for a while and acting like the ‘incident’ was just a glitch. I am in the camp that even if she was the demon/man tempter/wicked woman people paint her as he had no right to punch and bite and beat her up then run away. I feel sorry for them both as they have come from homes where this behaviour was the norm and really need therapy to not keep repeating their parents mistakes. His album Fame is no. 1 and his talent is being praised but I beleive that the GMA incident proves my belief that Chris and the people around him have not dealt with his anger and its source. Remember you heard me say, this is not the last time he is going the strike out and one day his actions will have even worst recuperations. This is the praise of fame and the same ‘ole’ tale for child stars like the Lohans and the Miley Cypruses and the Chris Browns, they just do what they have to stay on top but don’t get the real help and guidance that they need.

Music: Tricked by a voice

I only listen to the radio when I am driving. It’s mostly Choice FM for the new music and Magic for nostalgia. Therefore I can wholeheartedly blame Choice for my knowledge of some truly insipid songs. Take for instance a conversation I had with my cousin while I was in Trinidad:

Me: “I know who Nikki Minaj is what I couldn’t tell you what she sings.”

Cousin: “Really? You must have heard something.”

Me: “Nah. I know she does a verse on Kanye’s new song and Drake’s I think.”

Cousin starts singing the chorus from a Minaj song.

Me: “Dammit! I do know that song!” (Then I start to sing with her)

Yes my ever increasing cache of pointless knowledge is now stretching to modern RnB and Hip Hop.

Well here comes the trickery story…. Driving home one night a ballad streams through my speakers and I say out loud to myself

“R Kelly has a new song?”

I haven’t heard anything from the notorious Mr Kelly since seeing him at the World Cup opening ceremony and that ‘unforgettable’ Gorrilla song.  So imagine my surprise hearing him sing how ‘we never should have did it.’ It was his inflictions and lyrics and I liked it. Operation ‘I must have that song began’ but the internet and friends could not help me find R’s new song. The investigation continued and to my disappointment I realised how embarassingly wrong I was. I had been fooled by the young man I had mocked for most of 2010 as the fake R Kelly wannabe. The modern day version of the sex me guy –  I had completely fallen hard for one of his songs. Wondering who I’m talking about? Trey Songz and his song’ Can’t be Friends’

Sesame Street Retrospective

I have a plan for my children. Somehow, some way, I have to compile the most Sesame Street DVDs and footage from the 1970s and 1980s I can find. Then bombard the first couple of years of their lives with it. It maybe information overload but like me they will be able to count and spell and sing nursery rhymes long before nursery school. Yes I appreciate that there are some great shows today on Children’s Television but all I have seen still do not live up to Sesame Street. Not the Elmo-centric fluff version of today but the Jim Henson years. At home in Trinidad it was 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday. Ahhh the good ‘ole’ days!

Through the beauty of Youtube I have compiled a few of the classics. Music, skits and lessons interwined! Doing the research I finally realised why I always have a song in my head and can make up a tune for any phrase! Lol. My so called madness suddenly has a root. Time to start making that SS time capsule for my future babies

Enjoy!

Telephone Rock

There’s a hole in the Bucket

Fat Cat Hat Sat

Orange sings Carmen

Alligator King

Grover the Waiter!

Yakety Yak!

The 10 song

Great top ten SS songs compilation:

Clash Of the Titans

Obsessive rewatching of movies is as satisfying as a heaping bowl of ice cream. You want more, you appreciate every bite and you know exactly what you’re getting. 1981′s Clash of the Titans is one of those that has to be watched over and over again. The retro computer graphics, Medusa and actors in smedium clothes all adds to the kitsch. Not to mention the memorable performances from Burgess Meredith, Harry Hamlin and Laurence Olivier. It is a such a fun retelling of a classic Greek mythology.
So how could I resist the remake? Even if it scores one star out of five or is terribly over done…I HAVE to see it.
The trailer:

Distractions

More stamps in the passport.

Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or in modern usage, to travel and to explore the world.


It used to be Virginia, then it was Paris, now it is California. This latest fixation could well be linked to the Oscars. I am ready to start my annual all night vigil. I have been dreaming about Gabourey Sidibe and awards shows lately and overdosing on movies when I am not job hunting, so it could be the reason. Then again it could be that I have never visited before.    The problem with wanderlust is that every new holiday feeds the habit. Spain in December was beautiful but as soon as the plane landed on Christmas eve, my mind was already churning over the next possible trip. I wonder often if it will dissipate as I get older and have more responsibilities. Will I taking my children on planes, trains and automobiles to new corners of the world? I think its an expensive side-effect of having such an active imagination. But the downside is a feeling of never really being satisfied where you are. So alongside the lists in my head, on the ipod and in my diary I am always dreaming of the new places I could visit. California may not be too far away…

Blogging when I should not be…

…but isn’t that the best time? Who knows what will come out of my mouth (via my hand) while my hormones are in disarray. So here’s a list of the random things going through my mind today:

• Leighton Meester’s shoes (see pics attached)
• Men who talk to Goats
• Nurofen
• Ledisi singing ‘The Man I love’.
• Internships
• Teeline shorthand
• Babies
• The guy I sat next to at church on Sabbath. He seemed sad and I wish I had plucked up the courage to speak to him.
• Costco
• Crazy voicemails left by psychos
• Jason and Sam in General Hospital
• Tithing
• I don’t feel like studying today!
• My empty bank account
• I haven’t been to the cinema in yonks!
• Why oh why did I look? I know I should not have now that image is burned into my brain.
• Hmmm chocolate.
• What should I wear?
• Legends of the Fall
• Crematorium article
• Now magazine
• Flights to Malaga are how much??
• John Mayer’s ‘Dreaming with a broken heart.’ Ever had a dream like that?
• Cat in a hot tin roof starts December 1st
• Vege Lasagne
• Pain!
• I love how my hair looks.
• The post office and a drop off done in 15 minutes. I love you 2.0
• Random quotes from ‘Dancehall Queen’.
• I can go an entire day without looking at my phones. Hmmm maybe its time for a blackberry. At least there are other things I can use it for.
• Nobody cooks like my Mummy.
• The Wire 100 Greatest Quotes…oh You tube you have acquired a new addict.
• Maxwell. Who didn’t go see him last week?
• Two more months to go.
• Is Roy dead on Corrie?
• I need to read The Silent Man. I feel like I know John Wells personally now.

Seriously I can go on and on and on. My brain never shuts off. Can’t wait to read this back in a few days!

The Overdue Trinidad post…

While I ate at the Breakfast Shed (I had just come off of the San’Do to POS water taxi) I watched the improvements being made on the rush job of preparations for the summit. The steps were being paved at the Breakfast shed as garbage littered the fountain nearby. I could not help but feel that this was an analogy for all Trinidad itself. Never getting it right the first time. Rush jobs or long drawn out affairs, things are never done in the right time!

The flyover I watched being built in 2006 still had a frenzy of activity in 2009. It was still not completed! Newspapers let me know that it had taken five years to finish and I was ‘lucky’ enough to be present to see its completion.

I squealed that sunday night we drove over it but as my cousin exclaimed,

“Well that was short!”

It was only a few minutes and I partially understood why during the first few days motorists had parked on the shoulder and preceded to have a lime, drinks included! The police soon stopped this foolishness of course but they should have expected it. Its a fact that Trinbagonians will use any reason to have a fete!

The general news when I was there centred around the activities of UNC and ‘Ramjack’; the backlash from the Summit and the President’s appointment of the Integrity Commission. The latter turned into a complete farce. The UNC accused the President of not seeking their input, even though he did send a letter asking just that! The day after the swearing in of the commission, one member resigned as he did not get the position he has been promised. Another members integrity (lol) was questioned because of his job so he also resigned. Mind you President Maxwell was on his weeks long holiday break out of the country during all the fracas!

All in all political dramas at its best (or arguably its worst).

I have always loved the 7pm news broadcast! Though 24 hour world news exists on cable it is still the same time at night to get the breakdown of Trinidad news. You hear the volume go up on televisions around the street. The editing and production still need help but it made me happy how much it has improved.

I spent my days at home watching NCC4 which plays old TTT clips. The old plays and music videos were excellent and great for reminiscing. Watching the plays from the 70s and 80s fuelled my desire to write. I got a taste of new Trinidad and WI television as well as the old.

Home is home. It is parts satisfying as well as infuriating. It see the huge changes but recognise the things that have remained constant. One blog post is not enough to capture it all.

The Unspoken.

A Poet I am not but sometimes I feel inspired to string some words together and call it a poem. About four years ago I was writing one almost every week. I was looking through that old notebook in Trinidad and decided after all these years that I actually like this one. The subject matter is very transparent:

He knows nothing of the journey in my mind.

Those walks I take with him to places unexplored.

He knows nothing of the scorch his presence leaves on my skin,

Through words alone, his voice telling tales of innocence that enter my ears like a sonnet.

He wants nothing from me though I desire chapters with no summaries.

We walk these different roads as I dream of a point where our paths entwine and it becomes wide enough for two.

He knows nothing.

And I envy that ignorance as it is bereft of these desires and unopened expressions.

Feeling all of this is deafening,

I wish I knew nothing as well.