On games

I generally don’t watch the olympics – if there is a Trinidadian or a Canadian who is favored to win a particular event, I’ll probably watch it, but in general, it’s just not my thing. There are very few televised sports that I would watch, and not religiously; basketball – any team, but I do like the Lakers and I have a special place in my heart for the Raptors, cricket – when the West Indies is playing, and soccer – when Trinidad is playing. I am sometimes forced to watch hockey because my son loves it, but I can’t say I enjoy it!

What I really enjoy playing though, is all fours, actually, cards in general. My mom taught my 7 year old to play a tonne of card games, and now he’s a bit obsessed! All I kept hearing was my mom telling my son, “your mother looooves to play cards, so I guess you would to!”

Anyway, my point here is that the 2010 winter olympics starts Friday, and I’m going to watch the opening only because it’s being held in Canada this year. My 7 year old is excited. And this is as “olympic-spirit-ish” as I can get!

On mice and other pets

So. I got a lot of advice on how to get rid of the mice – I liked the cat idea because even if they do die its still a very natural occurrence (and I won’t feel like a murderer!), but I just can’t do pets, especially cats because they seem like they have too much attitude. I also attempted to use snake poo to keep them away but the guy at the pet store didn’t really want to give me any snake poo and he also said that in his “professional opinion”, that method would not work. I gave about 5 seconds of thought to using sticky strips to get them, because, they’ll get stuck and then what? Anyway. There it is… we called in the exterminator, sadly, and now I am a little depressed because I do feel like a murderer!

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like them, I just don’t want to kill poor innocent beings – yeah, spiders and ants too – many of them pick up residence here, much to Sid’s chagrin. I am also not a tree-hugging, vegetarian type – I just don’t like unnecessary cruelty to any living beings.

When I was younger we had dogs and fish and birds… really! The dogs were always guard dogs and not really the kinds you play with, but my grandparents took really great care of them and we always treated them with kindness. After we stopped living with my grandparents, we tried to get a dog, but for some reason they always died after a few weeks, then the last one we had, “bengi”, died when he was a teeny, tiny cute little pup and we gave up on trying to get a dog – I think we were all traumatized. Then, when I was 18, I lived by my aunt for a while and they had the cutest little rottweiler, every time I came home from school he would sit on my shoe and pull at my laces, until one day I came home to discover that he was hit by a car and died.

I really, truly hoped that the mice would just exit the garage the way they came in! What would you guys do?

Indeed there are no guarantees in life

It’s the first time in MONTHS that I am spending a second night away from my kids (well, I had the little one last night, but all he did was sleep, so I am not really counting it) and I feel really strange without their presence.

So, Rating/Shoveling guy is making dinner – no, not to cheer me up – because he’s hungry and we do not have satisfactory food.

Rating/Shoveling guy: You need more rice?

Aunty Sid: No, this is enough

Rating/Shoveling guy: What about shaz?

Aunty Sid: She’s not going to eat rice if there is roti

Rating/Shoveling guy: But she may eat roti and rice

Aunty Sid: No, she won’t

Rating/Shoveling guy: Guarantee?

Aunty Sid: No. There are no guarantees in life.

She’s right on both accounts, that aunty sid is a smarty pants. If there’s fresh dhalpourie, you can be pretty much guaranteed that I won’t be eating anything else!

Surely nothing says “love” like a blog post then linked on facebook

While eating my breakfast at work and chatting on gmail chat working very hard, on work-related matters and such…

me: chocolate croissant… yummy!!

friend: steups
curry duck and rice and dhal

me: lol
yeah
damn
that sounds good!

friend:
well it will be
i am going to eat that

me: i could easily eat that for breakfast

friend: heheh missing trinidad eh

me: sigh :(

—— time lapse (perhaps we were actually working!) —-

me: i gonna blog this conversation one day when I have nothing to talk about

friend: yaaaaah i wlll be on your blog
and a celebrity

me: dummy

friend: donkey
when i read you blog today and i saw you reference the name natalia
i get excited for a moment and thought you were referring to me

me: LOL

friend: then i realized you weren’t :(

me: well, I THOUGHT of you… if that matters
she’s a client of mine

friend: still sad

me: aww
ok, i will blog about u
just for you

friend: hehhee yeahhhhh

me: it’ll be very special and you’ll feel all warm and fuzzy inside

friend: i will post that link all on facebook and thing

me: ah, very nice u know it ain’t official unless posted on facebook!

friend: i know!!!

me: right

My friend, Natalia (as I think she wanted her name mentioned in nice big, bold, blingy letters, although she’ll have to settle for regular, black, Trebuchet MS font), was one of my best friends in high school, whose fondest memories of me apparently are of the times I would steal her lunch! Although funnily enough, my fondest memories of her are the times that she lovingly shared her lunch with me!

What’s amazing is that we lost communication with each other for years – for years I really didn’t know her and she didn’t know me – but recently we were lucky enough to be able to reconnect and it’s almost as if no time passed.

You know, the most remarkable thing that’s happened to me in the past year is that I’ve discovered that real friendships and true love is timeless, never forgotten, can survive pretty much anything, and is worth every bit of hurt and pain and frustration that comes along with it. Some things can really never be lost.

The thing about Trinidad

Trinidad, although very beautiful and overwhelmingly “home”, was sadly not the same place I knew growing up. I felt strangely disturbed by how damaged everything seemed – even though the country has progressed an amazing amount, even though there is no shortage of shops, or impressive buildings, or luxurious homes, or, you know, “stuff” – I missed a lot it’s naturalness! For example, we went to 2 different beaches while we were there, only for a very short time, but both seemed so very mutilated, or timeworn, or maybe because I had not been there in 9 years, I had the opportunity to really notice the effects of our ill-treatment of this planet.

Also, I feel like I need to have a disclaimer on my photos from Trinidad – the true story is that my family were solely responsible for the awesomeness of the vacation, they were nothing short of spectacular to us, and are the reason that my kids tell me every single day that they wish they could live in Trinidad! (I really cannot thank them enough for everything!) However, it’s not the safest place to live… at every family event, there was security personnel at the gate… we were not allowed to venture anywhere without company… gates were locked at all times… after dark was not a time to be out alone… things that I take for granted everyday, like going to the drug store by myself at midnight, I could not even dream of doing over there.

This visit has been both euphoric and traumatic for me, all at once, to the extent that I still feel like I am “recovering”, or something like that.

I saw friends that I had not seen in almost 13 years, and it was wonderful to meet up and chat like we didn’t miss a beat, like high school ended yesterday and we met up over lunch to reminisce. It was almost crushingly sad to not see others who were very integral to my life back when I lived in Trinidad, as in my mind it is sometimes hard to differentiate between the land and my past life there.

What I know for sure is that I must, at some point in my life, God willing, live on an ocean-front, because there surely is nothing better than sitting on the sand early in the morning and watching the sun rise over the ocean.