Category Archives: Memories

“So what do you do for fun?”

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Today is a holiday here in Grenada. As I was driving home from the office this evening, I saw my neighbour dressed up and about to leave home. She had some dishes in her hand. I imagined she and her spouse were going to a friend’s home, to be joined by other friends. I silently asked myself why had I been at work, when I no longer work in a hotel, but in the financial sector, which operates Monday to Friday from 8 to 4? It reminded me of a recent conversation which had got me seriously thinking.

A few Sundays ago, I was out to lunch with a friend from overseas and her friend who lives here. As it was a few years since I had seen her, we were catching up on what each other had been doing in the intervening years. Naturally, that included whether there were any developments in the romantic arena. “Nope….no boyfriend,” I reported. Why? Well, mostly because I have always been in work situations where I work many hours, even on weekend and holidays.

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What Makes Living In Grenada Great!

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**Yamfoot’s note** I originally wrote this article in 2015 for a website, which then had some technical issues so it is no longer available there. I thought I should re-produce it on my blog.

At the end of the article, I will add some updated notes.

“How could you leave big big Jamaica and go and live in one of those small islands?” Grenada, the small island I chose, measures just 12 miles west to east and 21 miles north to south. In 1997, this Jamaican added to Grenada’s population of approximately one hundred or so thousand people at the time. Originally intending to spend two years then move on, 18 years later, Grenada is still captivating and feels like home.

Here are five reasons why living in Grenada is great.

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My 52nd birthday

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NB. Click on links to view videos

Today is my birthday! Always excited to see the #Twitter greeting.

I’d had initial plans to check into a guest house in Western Grenada Sunday and stay till today, but they quoted more than I thought I should pay. Then a second option came up and I decided not to do that. Yesterday I drove up that side and came back to my flat, all in quick time. Twenty-one x 12 miles enables that.

What should I do on my birthday then? I decided to make no plans, except for the 1 pm physiotherapy appointment. One of the best ways for me to spend a day is not to have a schedule. I value freedom.

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I met author Marlon James….. the man of my dreams

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My dream stock just got richer. I dreamt about Marlon James last night. In case you have been under a rock, Marlon James is a Jamaican author who won the Man Booker prize. (Let Google be your friend.)

Turns out that he had been living in Grenada for many years, in an apartment building (a proper one….not like what Grenadians call apartment which is a flat in Jamaican language) near to a good friend of mind. So of course, budding writer that I am, I struck up a conversation with him. He was affable….easily met.

Marlon James (source: Global Voices)

Marlon James (source: Global Voices)

His locks were longer than they are in real life.  I told him I didn’t like them. He eventually gave me a key to his apartment and said he was going away. When I thought he had left, I went in to do stuff for him and saw a ton of locks in the kitchen garbage bin. I smiled. Someone valued my opinion.

I then went next door to my friend’s apartment and there he was, having just sat down for a cup of coffee. At the empty place setting, there was a cup for me too. Sweet!

 

We got to talking eventually about the writing that I do (not much :() and he said he would help me. Yay! There’s the pot of gold that I wished for when I saw the rainbow yesterday.

I confessed to him that I had looked at snippets of A Brief History of Seven Killings and that I would not be able to manage that, but that I intend to read the others one day. In real life, part of my #50To50 list includes reading more.

There needs to be some system where during dreams, it video tapes the fascinating events one’s subconscious is churning out. Of course, some of the footage would have to be deleted :). But in general, I have excitement when I close my eyes.

Part 2 of my dream had me ended up in a toasty warm cottage in Sweden about 1 hour from Stockholm. That’s another story.

#Dream last night was so real, it’s uncanny!

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Haagen Daz, carrot cake, chocolate cake, groundnut cake…..they all must have contributed to the very vivid dream I had last night.

Vignettte 1

Happened to pass by outside of a media personality’s house. She was dressed up and so was her daughter (Right before I had gone to bed, I had strolled through my Instagram feed and saw a picture of her at NDTC). Although in real life, I don’t know her except on Social Media, we had a nice chat. Then I had somewhere to get to, so I left after a few minutes.

Vignette 2

Saw a girl who was a year above me at secondary school. In real life she is married. In the dream, she introduced me to her husband and a son. I don’t know if she has a son in real life. When she was introducing me, she said “this is my son….we have two helpers, one for him and one for us.” She said it again during the conversation, which took place at a dining table. I got the impression that the teen was messy (like….duh….weren’t we all?). I left her because I had somewhere to go. (“I have things to do!”)

Vignette 3

This was the scariest part, but in a way, I knew it was going to be ok in the end (just like how I think about things in life..so me doh worry.).  So I am driving and I see two roads. I take the one I think will get me there without traffic. I thought I had hit a gold mine when after passing some houses and no car, there was nice smooth Obama-like roads!  Then the road turned into dirt. What that????? It was descending, I was driving fast, and it appeared that there was nowhere on either side for me to run off to. i.e. either precipice or water on either side. Me doh remember.

When the road descended into a dark place like a cave, still on a dirt road, I had to stop and did. I got out and went to the edge and looked down. There was Dr Carolyn Gomes in a yellow hard hat with a lot of other peeps down below. Looked like they were excavating. Maybe they were in a gold mine??? 🙂 They were about to help me with ropes and such the like, when I woke up.

(Don’t ask. Story of my dreams. Very vivid. Very colourful.)

RIP #JohnnyKemp (Nostalgia Nassau Post)

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Just read online that Johnny Kemp died in Jamaica. Immediately, my mind flashed back to my days living in the Bahamas. I was there when the song “Just Got Paid” came out. We used to go to a club called Club Waterloo and the house band played the song often (and I liked the drummer :)). It was also on heavy rotation on the radio stations.

I’ve posted before how hearing certain songs takes me back…..way back. “Just Got Paid” took me back to 1988, in a great club on East Bay Street with friends who I am still friends with today. All these years I never knew he was Bahamian. So that explains why it was played so often.

RIP Johnny Kemp. It’s Friday night.

 

Where were you when you heard this #song?

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I was driving home a few nights ago, listening to The Soul of Grenada when this song came on. Within a nano second, I flashed back to a house party I had gone to, about 32 years ago (I’m not THAT old though!) as a teenager. The image of the shades-of-brown striped shirt with gold lines (hey….it was the early 80’s!!), the tan coloured pants and the high heeled thong slippers (not so good for dancing) I was wearing was vivid in my mind. I even remember who I was dancing with too! -_-

Then I started wondering……..am I getting old? You know they say that the older you get, the more your short term memory diminishes while you have vivid memories of looooooooooooooooong ago.  Le Sigh  🙁

So, where were you when you heard this song? Can you remember?