Ok, like I totally decided it was time for a sex and the cityesque posting. I’m kinda like writing loads of really serious and big-worded stuff at the moment in my office and so I feel that my brain cells have like totally melted down and all that will come out is like cute and pink thoughts.
But once again I am discovering I am old – I can’t keep up speaking like that for more than 2 seconds! What a change from the days when my friends and I could quote the entire film ‘Clueless’ to each other.
But on a light and fluffy note, I am having a problem. I might be going to a party tomorrow night. Why is that a problem? Because if I go, I’ll be going with the man (which I guess might mean he really is my man rather than the man – but that’s a whole other story…) and at this party will also be his ex-wife. And all their shared friends. Who I haven’t met before.
So what is the problem? Obviously, it’s what do I wear?!
Being a typical girl, I asked my friends for assistance and they have split into 2 camps.
Camp 1 – go for the sophisticated look. Clever, composed and classy.
Camp 2 – go for the hot and sexy look.
What do you reckon??
June 29, 2006
On Friday night, the girls decided to go out. A group of mainly single girls who have taken a decision to be proactive. We’ve realised that we all spend a lot of time complaining about how none of us can find Mr Right (or for several people, even a Mr Right Now would do!), so we made a decision to be more proactive. We all called our male friends and did research – where do guys tend go on a Friday night after work. From our different sources, 4 places kept coming up, so we set out on Friday to find out if this is really the case.
We drove into the first place at around 6pm – Carlos Cafe. Now this place is near lots of offices so we thought it would be a good after work place. I’d also been later in the evening before and hadn’t seen anything exciting! Well, that source was wrong. Not a single person was in the place!
The second place on the list was Christophers so off we went. Now Christophers is somewhere I frequent quite frequently and hadn’t seen anyone in the target age range (hey, we’re looking between 26 – 36, a fairly wide range we thought!) but i thought maybe they were near the back and I was at the front usually…. Well, there was a group of men in that age range, but they were all surrounded by girls about 5 – 10 years younger than us, all slim, brown skinned girls with long curly hair who were giggling aimlessly at their every comment. There was no way we could complete with that!
We decided to miss place number 3 on the list – Peppers. That decision was taken based on the experience we had last time some of us went there. We couldn’t face the overly friendly man again!
So that left place number 4 on the list – Up on the Roof. So we headed up the steps and onto the roof above New Kingston. And into a foreign world. Yes, there were people there. Yes, there were youngish men there. However, not one of them was Jamaican. We appeared to have found the place were all foreigners hang out in the city. And although we have nothing against foreigners, we were hoping for men who intend on being in Jamaica for longer than a 6 month contract.
So that was that. No luck at all. So if anyone out there has any suggestions, please let me know… In the meanwhile, I’ll just continue to enjoy myself with my get over man!
May 2, 2006
I did it! I survivied carnival! And I had a blast!
Got there in the morning for the start, covered in glitter and sun-tan cream. There were 8 of us girls jumping together, a good fun group to be with. Enough of us to take it in turns heading to the drinks truck whenever necessary! And we were in a good band – nice security and marshalls and very nice food – they brought round things including salmon rolls as the day went on!
I must have been enjoying myself and slightly drunk – my brother took the photo of me above and I was looking for him but didn’t see him… hmmm.
We danced up a storm all morning in the blazing sun hot…. and then the rains came down. Heavy rain. Soaked to the skin rain. So we danced harder to keep ourselves going! And jumped in puddles. And had water fights with random men from Trinidad. Posed for photos with a group of bystanders who were from Georgia and Turkey. Had more drinks. Danced with anyone we recognised on the side. Danced with anyone we thought was cute. Tried to avoid the TV cameras (apparently not entirely successfully). All good fun!
And the gym paid off – I kept going all the way to the end! However, I am now paying for it – 6 hours of walking / dancing in wet trainers means that I have developed blisters under my toe nails – not fun! So I am now limping around my office. And, despite many hair washes and scrubs in the shower, I still have glitter on me.
But I’ll do it again! And next year, we are in full costume – after seeing the size of some people who were in bikinis this year, I feel very slim and cute! Also, if it rains, I might as well have on a swimsuit!
April 26, 2006
Firstly – the press meeting is over. It went well – watch out for me on TV tonight! I hope I managed to look interested all this time…. And yes, as usual things came together, but it was a little too close for my liking at times. Secondly, I have just looked for something on the Caricom website. And while I was on it, I checked the list of upcoming Caricom events to see if there was anything I should know about. And I was interested to note that from March 27 to 29, in Trinidad and Tobago, there will be the Second Special Meeting on Red Kidney Beans. Now, I am wondering – what is this meeting about? Are we going to be looking at special directives about the kidney bean? I hope we are not going to become like the EU where everything has to be standardised as that would mean the end of Red Peas in Jamaica and no more rice and peas… rice and red kidney beans just doesn’t sound the same to me. Or maybe it is to outlaw cruelty to the beans – I am sure that I am not the only child who grew up in the Caribbean who had to grow beans in a jar with newspapers, and then threw them in the bin as soon as the science project was over? Now that is cruelty to the poor bean! Thirdly, I went to Dipsomania on Friday night. This was a carnival party with loads of live acts. And wow, it was good! Danced all night, enjoyed the drink (a friend agreed to drive!), Machel Montano was excellent and there was an excellent vibe. Only bad point was someone tried to pickpocket me – fortunately I felt them take my phone so grabbed them and started to cause a fuss. They decided that the odds weren’t good so told me I’d dropped it on the floor and then ran. People present at the party included Mark Shields. For those of you who don’t know, Mark Shields is the British guy currently working for the Jamaican police force, one of those ‘wonder-cops’ brought in to solve everything. I thought about it, but decided against informing him about my security issue in the middle of the party! But after Friday night, I am now well in the mood for carnival – bring it on!
March 28, 2006
Friday night. Picture the scene. Out with my friends, looking cute (!) and we enter our usual haunt. Now I knew that there was a chance that the ex would be there, and I also knew that there was a chance that the get over man would be there (they are friends – d’oh!)… However, I had not got as far as putting these 2 things together and making the connection…
So we walked in and straight infront of me I saw the ex. Playing dominos. Against the get over man. Oops. So I had to go over and say hi to the ex (I’m a nice girl – I am well mannered and polite!). And smile sweetly at everyone else at the table. And walk away… quickly! Fortunately the get over man has some tact and behaved himself so hopefully the ex is none the wiser*. But I am proud of myself – I managed to have a nice and friendly conversation with the ex later in the evening and left and was still happy. I must be getting over him! A weekend in New York will complete the cure nicely.
Anyway, we decided that a change of venue was needed so headed to another bar and were sat down, having a nice time. And then the boat man found us. Now I thought that the boat man was a friend… but he was being a bit too friendly – I’m hoping that excess alcohol is to blame. When he left us, my friends and I sat down and worked something out – Jamaican rich older men must like blondes! Prior to the change of hair colour, I was unharassed by them and now I can’t move without finding one! Oh well, if it gets too much, I could always become a red head or something!
* Am deliberately trying not to have the ex find out about get over man as he would be annoyed and don’t want to hurt him at the moment. If things get any more serious then yes, I’ll tell him. But not otherwise. Which does limit options when going out with get over man – Kingston is so small that if we go anywhere, am sure we’d see someone we know who would report back!
March 13, 2006
I am still going to the gym – it’s been nearly 2 months and I am still persevering. And what’s more, I have now increased to 3 my trips per week. I have this theory that it is best to start easy and build up so I am proud of my 3 trips. And it is starting to make a difference – I saw a friend yesterday who I hadn’t seen for a couple of months and he turned to my friend and asked if I was losing weight – he got a big hug in response!
But I am still not a gym bunny yet… and I doubt if I ever will be. You know the gym bunny – the girls who go EVERY day. The girls who know every instructor and vast quantities of information about them. The ones who always bounce in the gym and never break a sweat.
I got stuck behind one in a class yesterday. I was doing well, holding my own. I was following most of the instructions… just inserting the occassional step instead of bounce but good none the less. Until I got distracted by gym bunny infront of me. She was not really following the instructor… because she as making everything harder. Now that’s just not fair. I’m struggling to keep bouncing etc and she is adding in extra high kicks and jumps. She should be banned for making the rest of us fell inadequate. Humph.
But it is all worth it – I went and ordered my carnival outfit yesterday!!! Ok, so I am only going for the t-shirt option but the shorts are short enough that I wouldn’t have dared a few months ago! And I feel I will have the energy now to jump and wine all the way with the Frenchmen’s crew… with the help of lots of drinks… and to get me in the mood, I have found a soca station on the internet so I am very cheerful in the office today!
March 9, 2006
I am realising that the tone of this blog has changed recently. I am becoming a bit of a single girl writer – writing about men and hair and sunbathing. However, I have decided that that is probably wiser than the alternatives – such as writing about work or politics. Maybe when the cabinet reshuffle has taken place and we all know what is going on, I’ll start back my stories of the Ministry. But in the meanwhile, it will have to be more stories of being single in Kingston!
Friday night, went on a girls night. Just three of us, a small and select group. Passed by a friend’s party and then headed out to a bar, Peppers to be precise. Now, we are all single girls who make an effort at most things we do – we work hard, try and get promotions, look after ourselves, study hard (when necessary!) etc. So we decided that if we want to not be single all our lives, then we have to work at that as well.
So we took the first important step. Instead of following our usual habit of sitting around a table and chatting to each other all night, we decided to sit at the bar. And make eye contact with suitable looking men.
Suitable looking group of men #1. We thought they were making eye contact with us. They were smiling in our direction. We were feeling good. Until we realised that there was aTV above our heads which was showing the West Indies on their way to winning a match. As that is such an unusual thing, we knew that there was no hope in breaking their attention that evening.
Suitable looking group of men #2. Well, they were suitable looking (one in particular…) until we realised that he never took his left hand out of his pocket while talking to us. Hmmm, hiding a wedding ring? Time to move on.
Suitable looking group of men #3. We were doing well on this one. They headed over. They were talking and laughing with us. And they kept coming closer. And closer. Until it was literally the case of having to shove them out of our faces. And the music wasn’t even loud. Sorry guys – I like to know you at least a little before I start to feel parts of you in that close contact with me!
We decided that after three attempts we needed to head off. We’ll have to try again next week – we just need a better location!
But in the meanwhile, my ‘get over him’ man is working very nicely!
March 7, 2006
This is my current desktop background – can you tell that I am getting excited?
However, the friend I am meeting there is going to be annoyed with me. She told me specifically that I am not to be too tanned when I see her. Apparently she is in the middle of snow at the moment and feels that her skin tone matches what’s outside and that standing beside someone brown will make her feel bad. Oops.
I was doing well – I was spending all my time indoors and hence was developing a nice pale colour myself. But all of that has now changed due to one evening at Christophers…
Ash Wednesday is a public holiday in Jamaica (how we love the Christian influence on our country!). So Tuesday was like a Friday for us so I went out for drinks with 2 friends. While out, they saw this guy they vaguely knew so we went over and said hi and got chattting. Apparently this nice older guy enjoyed our company (see, being educated and able to talk about a variety of issues can be useful!) and hence invited us to join him on his boat the following day. He was talking the media out to follow a sailing race in the habour and wanted us to go to.
So off we went and enjoyed the life of the others for a few hours. And we enjoyed it. And if anyone watched CVM sports last night and saw the footage of the race and noticed the camera man zoom in on 2 girls in bikinis on the front of a boat… that was me! And we’re received an invitation to return and enjoy ourselves some more. Excellent.
But now I am paying for it – my back is very sunburnt! But the rest of me is looking nice and brown and healthy again.
March 3, 2006
I haven’t posted recently for 3 reasons:
1. I tried this weekend but blogger kept eating my posts
2. The internet has been miserable and not working for me – but the technician says everything is fine now….
3. I haven’t really felt like it
I did go to Jazz and Blues, and I am sure that some of the performances were excellent. However, my ability to enjoy them would have been vastly helped by not spending the weekend in a foul mood arguing with the bf. You know when things aren’t going too well and you think that a weekend out of town will help… but in reality it just makes everything come to a head?
So, moral of the story is that I am now a single girl in Kingston. On the positive side, to quote a friend apparently I ‘don’t have a tree in my face’, which means I should be able to find someone else! And yes, I know it is for the best in the long-run etc, not meant to be, better to know now rather than later, and all the rest of it.
But it still hurts like hell. Because, worst of all, he’s one of the nicest people I know which means that I can’t just hate him, curse him, plan nasty revenge etc and get over it. Instead, I have to just try and remind myself that it is the right thing and that, in time, I’ll stop crying and eating chocolate.
February 6, 2006
Hey Everyone
Sorry – got sidetracked by a lack of the internet… and too much to do at work so coming home too late with no desire to look at a computer. But all is good.
However, you are not getting a proper post now because…. I’M GOING TO JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My boss has warned me not to be ‘ill’ but as soon as I can escape from work, I’m in my car and on my way up there. So I need to go and pack now – need to find my warm clothes and comfortable shoes!
Have a great weekend … I’ll let you know all about it next week – as long as the internet comes back!
January 26, 2006
This is my current desktop background – can you tell that I am getting excited?
