just less than 24 hours left

I'm not even going to attempt to recount the last couple of days now. Suffice to say that I have hired three large Jamaican men to haul my ass onto the plane going home, and Kory will ensure that I STAY on the plane once they get me on it.

Best two weeks of my entire life.

AND my wonderful son in law has dug my car out from under the blizzard drifts before I got home!!! Too right. I am a very lucky girl.

See you soon

tues/wed/thurs

Tues: Up late last night carousing and up early for breakfast with our much enlarged crew. Rod & Collette's son Brandon is hilarious. Quite the kid. Everyone was off to the beach but I wanted to get the rest of the pics posted so I was working on the netbook and the magic bailey's and java arrived. Have said how much I love this place? I know that it's my first real vacation and a bit posh - I really must do this every year if I can. Anyway, around lunch time Rod & Brandon showed up and I was still plugging away when I realized the magic java had surreptitiously kept me from the beach all morning so I packed up the gear and headed for the beach.
What a blast - everyone had frosties, we parked ourselves between the beach bar and the ocean. Snorkeling and singing paddling in the ocean and catching some rays - I missed the beach party at lunch time - and it was Bs turn to be miss drunky pants. Julie and I went and got our hair braided. There's a story. We both got two rows of braids on the underside of the back so it's only partly touristy. But let me tell you - man is it cooler and since I have lost all control of my hair I certainly appreciate it. I've started to take pictures of the men who want to be my "Jamaican boyfriend", this place sure is good for the ego - buffet. The beach is the most common place with all the local guys running boats for snorkeling and sight seeing, and the seadoos and parasailing. You hear the stories but the reality is so much MORE. Decisions decisions ;)
We all got dressed for supper and went to the Michael Jackson show outside the Colliseum. There was a pretty long wait, but ultimately worth it. My pics are crap though because we were to far for my camera. C'est la vie. Popped into the disco after the show - deja vu - images from the candy cane 30 years ago. too funny and a good time.

Wed: Lots of sun yesterday, and most of the crew is going on the tour to Ochos Rios to see the dolphins and Dunns River falls. Instead of going on the booze cruise catamaran A local fisherman took me all over Bloody Bay - where our resort is and up 7 mile beach. Being out on the open ocean was tremendous. The sea swell wasn't too great when we left but it was getting fair choppy on our return. We were out for about 5 hours up and down the coastline, then we cut over to the island where we had live lobsters cracked and grilled over an open fire with chunks of garlic and melted butter - to absolutely die for.Got some GREAT SHOTS - too rough to snorkel the reef today though. One of the smaller catamarans some tourists had out tipped right over and dumped the couple in the drink right by the island so the guys hauled them in and grounded the boat and called for someone to pick them up and take the boat back. The girl was pretty banged up - bruises, and a couple of cuts on her face - but will be okay once she's not so shocky. Off the resort for the evening adventuring in Orange Bay, Green Island, Prospect with a local - met HUGE numbers of people and went to the Cliffs Happy Wednesday Party - outdoor bar for locals, dj's dance music and a great freaking time though \I did not see another Caucasian anywhere, and yet I fit right in.

Thurs: got back to the resort around 10 am, quick change and we all hit negril town for shopextravaganza, a stop at Charlie's bar and the crafty market and then on to Margueritaville for food and a dip in the ocean. More great sunset shots. More later.

not so manic monday

Sun Day 8
Goodbye hello bittersweet day Biff Minda and Super Dave were to be leaving before lunch and Rod Collette Brandon, "Not Ernie" and Julie and their English friends were to arrive around supper. Unfortunately for those living in Saskabush one of the worst snow laden storms in over 10 years (some say 40) decided to interfere in travel plans. Horizontal winds up to 60k with snow and a snowfall of what looks to be 3 feet or so lashed the prairies and flights were delayed for 18+ hours.Not a great thing for those waiting to escape the tundra flatlands and almost worse for our friends waiting to leave. First it was "delayed" so I thought they crew were off to watch the Jets game - only to find out after waiting with no room (already checked out) that the flight wouldn't be leaving until the next bloody day. It took until after 5 to get them back into a room again so they had somewhere to sleep until their early morning 6:30am trip back to Montego Bay and the airport, so they could fly out around 10:30 or so. Apparently, the lines etc at customs on your way OUT take a lot of even island time.
So I spent the afternoon in the pool- blissfully unaware of the change in plans, hanging with the Brit crew and happily met up with Kory, \Bren, Minda & Dave at supper in the garden.Sure it was great they got a few extra hours in paradise but that's really frustrating once you've psyched yourself up to leave and then spend 8 hours with delays and vagaries messing up your plans. Then Minda didn't even get a last serving of green (pistachio) ice cream.- Boo. They headed off to early siesta since they had to be up before dawn to fly home, and |Bren & Kory and I had a few cocktails in the lounge, and it was naptime for them as well. I had a few drinks with Steph and Stew, and Liverpool Dave then wandered down to the beach party. Munchy bits, jerk chicken, dancing in the sand and some great singing with the torchlight reflecting of the water and the live reggae band echoing across the bay. I danced and played on the beach until the magic hour and two stepped my way up the beach to my place. Slept like the proverbial log, or a drunken monkey. Which by the way, is a tasty frosty poolside treat.


Mon dawned hot and lovely. It's my dotter's 30th bday, Robbie Burns day, and Abigail's born day too - all rolled into one. To top it off Regina had a snow day with schools and even the University closed because of the amount of snow that was dumped yesterday and overnight. I slept in until 7am so I missed saying goodbye, grabbed some shopping goods that Kory hauled back to their room last night for me, and it was off to another delicious breakfast.We found out that the flight from |Regina with our other friends had left around 3:30 am, so we adjourned to the pool to await their arrival shortly after lunch. Hanging with the crowd from Wisconsin and Yanike & Lunick pouring like there's no tomorrow we were fairly drunky pantsed by the time the magic bus rolled in. While they were finding their rooms and strippiong out of the travel gear I got a chance to sing happy birthday to Amanda and say hi to the kidlets and get the down low on her birthday party which I am sad to have missed. Then it was back to the pool for some more hilarity, where we also met Kory & Brenda's neighbours from 3 doors down in Regina. Such a tiny world. So now I;m dressed for supper at the steakhouse at 9, and we're all meeting back at the lounge around 8 for pre dinner cocktails. Gives everyone a chance to freshen up and maybe have a wee rest before the welcome celebration REALLY kicks in;) There will be 11 of us for supper this evening, then maybe take in the floor show.

I am so unbelievably happy that I did not have to go home today. I just hope Minda and Dave got home in one piece and have enough time to get their work done before Friday, because they are going to Miami for the Pro Bowl.

can you say reggae beach party?

I can - Cya later.

xxoo

3 for 1: a looong weekend in paradise

Thursday.
Note: The sun goes down here at about 6pm every night - which you'd think I'd be used to, but for some reason my body is sure that because it's summer here the evening is still young and I still want to go play in the ocean ;) I don't because all my safety conscious friends told me not to.I still want to though. The pool's out because they close at 6 as well for the same reason. On the other hand my bathtub is HUGE deep and I can soak right up to my chinny chin chin.

Anyway, Thursday was pretty chill after Margueritaville as you could tell from the crackbook pics, EVERYBODY had a good time, and several peeps needed some recuperation time including Carey and |Beth our new friends from Illinois (though he did take part in the sexiest Canadian contest). Having crashed early the night before I was awake at 4am, managed to go back to sleep until 6 but after that I was awake and rarin' to go. So I wandered down to the beach and welcomed the dawn with a smoke and a swim in the ocean, which is warmer than the pool, talked to the fishermen on the beach and then had a shower and headed for brekky laptop in tow.
By 8 I was comfortably ensconced in a nicely padded overlarge wicker arm chair on the breeze way going through pics to get them posted and voila, a coffee and Bailey's with some rum cream was deposited at my table. The bar isn't open so till 10am, so I was quite pleasantly surprised to see Yanike smile and tell me shhhh, she made it for me special... the service is truly top notch here. I did get most of the pics processed by the time Dean showed up for breakfast.Then it was off to the pool. Such a hard life ... I know.

Played in the pool with Kory Bren, Minda and Super Dave, the woop woop twins and Sally-Anna until siesta time then spent the siesta part of the afternoon getting the pics actually posted and talked via video with Amanda for about half an hour. Reservations for supper at Luigi's which is pasta at noon and Brazilian in the evening. I thought the lamb and the pork were delish but Bren says they don't even come close to real Brazilian food. AND I tried some black bean with rice - and found that they weren't so bad after all, for some reason I had the idea that they were the same consistency as kidney beans - not. Learn something new every day.
We spent the rest of the evening kicking back, watching a bit of the show and making plans for Minda and Dave's last 2 days over waaay too many mai tais and mudslides.


Friday - Rick's Cafe
As a creature of habit and order (insert guffaw here) I was up early however around 1am the night before I heard the chain in the bathtub rattling. Like a person would rattle it. Yet I knew there was no one else here. Trusting to the better side of valour I got up and closed the bathroom door not wanting to have to deal with something I might not want to deal with until morning. About and hour later I heard a scrabble, a sort of swishy thud and some crash boom bang. From the bathroom. I stayed in bed. When I got up in the morning the towels from the towel bar were in the tub along with the conditioner and shampoo, which had obviously been knocked over by the falling towels. I can only assume that a gecko had gotten into the bathroom and was exploring causing the towel fall etc. as there are no visible openings large enough for anything else to get through. I checked. Which is too bad because I've been trying to find a gecko to get some pictures.

Morning puja to great Ra completed I enjoyed breakfast on the patio and another song with the line cooks. The staff here break into random song whenever the mood strikes them and I love it. Got everything together for my shopping trip and our afternoon at Rick's Cafe. Doc took Brenda and I to the Sun outlet where I actually found a jamaican sundress that FIT me for under 15 bucks (impressed), then we stopped and picked up some spices and I got confused about Jamaican dollars much to Doc's amusement, and then he took us to a lady in the craft market that makes rasta hats. I described how much hair roberto had and she is making me an extra large one for next thursday. Terrific! It really is too bad about the weight limit on my luggage - I could have spent the day in that market.

Then it was off to Rick's to meet Kory Minda and Super Dave. When we got there the doorman was expecting us and to our delight we had rented the big cabana by the jumping cliff for the day which came with bottle service, snacks and 5 red stripe in a bucket for $14 US as well as $4 guinness and our own waitress named "baby girl". I had quite the frolic with my camera, you could see the lighthouse from Rick's bandstand and we spent the day chatting up the jumpers and Carolyn & Tom from Ontario (also at the RIU). I tried some "ting" a fruit juice primarily made of grapefruit and I believe we should be importing that stuff. We took a dip in the cliffside pool and watched the glass bottomed boats and catamarans dock to watch the sunset as the cliff divers went about their daily entertainment. Kory jumped, but unfortunately the ladder to get back on the landing has a broken rung so even if I did jump into the ocean, there was no bloody way my knee would have gotten me back out of it. Maybe next year.

The sunset was marred by clouds, yet we had a complete blast and headed home around 8:30. Turkey dinner was waiting in the Garden Restaurant when we arrived. We moved to the Coliseum to watch some of the reggae show. I had a few cocktails in the lounge before we headed before bed while Minda & Dave, and Carey & Beth headed off to the disco.

Sat.
For Minda and Super Dave's last day we opened and closed the pool bar - well I left 2 hours early when the torrential downpour began and I was scooching the laptop bag to higher ground. Made friends with sweater Bob and shaky, saw the lovely Sally & Anna off. Carey and Beth left at lunch which Brenda and Kory brought poolside (they are so great to us). Jamaican curry patties, curry chicken and fresh killed and cooked lobster from just down the beach.The closers headed for a rest before our reservation at Shadows while I uploaded pictures but missed Amanda when I tried to message her, and made friends with a bunch of Brits from Manchester, Lincoln, Lancashire, Liverpool and Wales. Great blokes all.

Supper with Dave at Shadows, the other three were not making the reservation for 5 and |Dave and I were ravenous. Tasty tasty treats! Dave was back to his place after supper and I joined Sue and I want to say Len, but may be mistaken, along with Sxxx and Stew, Maz Nigel, Al, and xxxx damn another one I've forgotten. They're here till Monday and have invited me to come to England. Minda & Dave have been an absolute riot and I will be sad to see them leave, however the shiny side up is that 7 of our other friends will be here 6 hours after they're gone. Brenda wants us to dress up with makeup and everything for pictures in the am - so we'll see how that goes;)
I Tomorrow looks to be another wonderful day in paradise. Ja mon.

and now it's time for another scrumptious breakfast on the p[atio under the palms.
Love y'all

wasted away again in Margueritaville

Tuesday was long and glorious and hot and juicy with no siesta. Up at 7 for a dip in the ocean, then brekky with the crew while I sang a duet with the chef on the breakfast line (killing me softly) and off to the pool bar until 2 or so. New friends Carey & Beth have now been consecrated honorary Canucks because they can keep up. Carey says it's because his cologne is called Canadian Mist and it attracts us - though we have explained that as the obnoxious American at the pool bar he was attracted to us polite Canadians, HUGE roar at the bar when we explained that we were from the city that rhymed with fun - especially from the Aussies and Netherlanders. They were still laughing at the tonight.
Did a bit of net stuff and still haven't managed to catch the dotter online when I was. The people here are so great that when Minda went to buy a phone card to call her kids - the girl at the desk gave Minda her cell phone and told her to use it. The girls cleaning my room have left flowers and towel sculpture everyday, and thes has been nothing but smiles from the staff, They sing ALOT - at the bar, on the cookline, doing landscaping, and are constantly asking the guests to sing along - good bad or indifferent all voices are welcome. The bartenders in the lobby lounge were making patrons sing for drinks Tuesday - what a riot! Instant karaoke.
Kory |Brenda and I went to Shadow's, the steakhouse here - after swilling some scotch - my steak was exactly as ordered with fresh bread and humongous prawns in hot sauce,,,, then it was off to the circus show with Minda Dave Carey and Beth. Many maitais later I was wandering back home when the BT at the lounge bar stopped me to sing to me = hilarious. With a blue mountain coffee and Bailey's it was time to crash.

Wed morning - for reasons unknown to me, my alarm clock went off at 6am. WTF - I smacked the clock and the next thing I knew it was 10am. Trucked quickly through my ablutions and met the peeps in the lobby so I could meet our driver Doc. Then off to Luigi's for continental breakfast while Kory and Brenda did some shoe and cigar shopping (bren's flipflops had cracked while we were at the airport and her secondary pair weren't cutting it with the amount of walking we were doing). Off to the ocean for another swim for me and then met Carey & Beth at 2 so Doc could drive us to Jimmy Buffet's Margueritaville. What a gong show - singing on the beach, gigantic inner tube trampolines out in the ocean, and water so clear you could count the hairs on your toes if you had any.
Kory had all the waitresses smiling and our participation in the beach party shenanigans resulted in shots all around for the Canadian contingent. Trevor, Doc's friend joined us and chased the peanut man down on the beach for us. Great tuneage, some dancing a wicked funny contest for the sexiest Canadian man there and a live reggae band with sand dancing. They also had a fire eater who walked/laid on hunks of broken glass while carrying or being walked upon by a few of the other ladies there.
Having reached the point where everyone had achieved drumky pants status, Doc and Trevor returned us to the RIU and we all went for supper. MMMM roast turkey, smashed tatoes, chicken ragout and tilapi.
9:30 and I am done in.
Catch you in a couple of days. Still no sunburns or falling down and my feet have NOT swollen up at all from the humidity. YAY!!!!
Tomorrow is a resort day with Rick's on Friday and a trip into the back country on |Saturday with Doc.
Love y'all.

Day 2

Monday
We decided today was resort day to get to know where everything was. Up early and wandering around. We all met in the lounge for breakfast - oh my god. Shirred eggs and rolled salmon, french toast or croisants, bacon, omelettes - take your pick.... and salady stuff to make me happy. With Blue Mountain coffee - I'm in love. Tried to egt on the net - wireless worked but the battery died right away??? Whwn I got back to the room I found that though the charger WAS plugged in the connection between the adapter box and the wire to the pc wasn't - so it had been running on battery all night long. Reconnected and plugged in - to try again later,

Then it was off to open the pool bar -> Mai Tais, Miami Vices and Mango Daquaris - until noonish and it was off to the jerk chicken/crry seafood rice and we girls made a picnic of it on the beach. I was getting a little pink so I headed for a short siesta and sorted through the pics. 4 oclock sow me in the ocean ... I could live here. and off to lounge to find the rest of the degenerates for more blue mountain and Bailey's. We have apparently made some friends as most of the staff stopped to say hi and we gathered more than a few hugs. We lost Minda and Dave - they ended up at the pool bar all afternoon and finally caught up with us at 7 when we headed out for supper. Got some carving pics for Murray and supper was divine. Roast lamb, grilled turkey, curried chicken and more catfish, saefood gnocci, greens and tomatoes, and no room for dessert ;)

The Colliseum bar was our next destination - got the wireless working but crackbook would not upload the pics so I'll have to try again in the am. Left some messages for those at home and sat back to enjoy live reggae, contortionists, fire eaters, gymnasts, trapeze artists and some really terrific juigglers. Many Mai Tais and several new friends later it was time to wander back to the digs to catch some shut eye. Sounds like we'll be doing Margueritaville on Wednesday for their Reggae night.

Tomorrow it'll be upload, brekky, ocean, poolbar, siesta and then whatever comes our way.

It seems that island time was my time all along. Miss y'all but am I having a phenomenal time? Yes, yes I am.

The rum's done so it's Nighty night.

Jamaica adventure YES!!!

Wow.

What an adventure. I only have to breathe to know that I am in a completely foreign country. Redolent with the scent of green growth, the humidity seasons every breath with life.

The fkight left on time, was just a little bumpy over the jet stream, and arrived early. Unforunately CanJet doesn't have a liquor license for Regina so it was a dry flight, not quite up to expectations, and our "meal" such as it was consisted of a bruised apple, 2 chocolate chip cookies and some kind of turkey swiss bun which would have been greatly improved with any kind of condiment. Ah well, minor setbacks. Where I had been warned that the trek from the plane to customs was around 4 blocks, we landed on the other side of the airport so it was much shorter (thank you 100 little gods) Customs and immigration were quick and our luggage was already on its way in once we were through.
Smiles everywhere smiles. Most genuine, some just a part of the job, but an overwhelming sense of welcome and strangely, of coming home?

iT IS SUMMER HERE. Winter for the island but certainly summer for me.

We left the terminal and right outside the door is a Jimmy Buffet's where we all bought several beer to take with us on the bus ride to NEGRIL. I had foreign import Guinness - damn tasty, and a cigarette, the bus was loaded and off we went. The 90 nminute trip seemed much less. We stopped halfway so we could all pick up some more bevvies and chat with some loacals and it was back on the bus.
It gets darl really fast here - and the sun set while were driving thro0ugh the hills. Rain was pouring in buckets. Goats dotting the hillsides, new homes alongside shanties, and boneyards regularly interspersed all along the highway. Little houses perched up in the hills like birds nests one one side and the ocean rolling along on the other. WOW.

The pictures of the RIU simply don't do it justice. all open air and lofty ceiligs -big spaces, unbelievably helpful staff. I almost lost my passport etc on the bus because it fell out of my side pocket in the bag, but I didn't - so it's all good.
My room is lovely, a huge king size bed, nice and soft with crispy sheets and lots of pillows, and nice deep tub, big fans and air conditioing facing a garden where the frogs are singing to me right now. It's quite the jaunt from the main building - about a block and a half, but on the ther hand, the beach is right outside the front door, with rows and rows of lounges ghosting the darkness echoing the music of the ocean as it rolls into shore. Swimming tomorrow first thing.

After finding our rooms we were handed nore rum punch when we went back to the main building and starving from the travel it was off to the buffet. Ye gods and little fishes I'm in heaven. For supper I decided to sample a took a little of a lot of the dishes offered. I had oysters on the half shell, scallops and catfish, baked chicken, grilled pork and some duck with a tart and not too sweet orange sauce. Fresh crispy salad with 3 kinds of cheese, shrimp, pickled mushrooms, red onion, and stuffed grilled tomatoe.deviled eggs and red beans and rice. And a small slice of killer super moist deep chocolate cake. I think I only made it through half the buffet. There wasn't a single thing I didn't thoroughly enjoy.
After supper, we adjourned to the open air lounge and watched the deluge over cocktails and just chilled. MMMMM blue mountain coffee and Baileys - found a favorite. By 10:30 or so we were all starting to fade so it was off to unpack and crash.

Man would you have laughed at me when I accidentally turned off all the power in my room. However, I grabbed the flkashlight from my backpack, found the breaker panel and had everything to rights in about 10 minutes. Having organized myself, set up the safe and stashed the big camera, ID and cash, I then tried to set the alarm clock. It took a bit of finagling, but it's ready to go now.
Tomorrow has been designated resort day so we can figure out where everything is. We have been assured it only rains at night and it is supposed to be 28 or 29C tomorrow. So it's brekky at 8 and then into the ocean for me. Meeting at the pool bar at 10am and we'll see how the day progresses. No net in the rooms, so I'll post during siesta time tomorrow afternoon.

If the rest of my stay is anywhere close to the wonder of today, it will have been worth every jot and tittle it took to get me here.

Jah mon.

.... and today has been better so far pics on crackbook

13 hours and 19 minutes

goodbyes have been said, flight confirmed - on time as scheduled. Laundry done, though the room is a disaster from the sewing marathon. Swing dress, hip wrap, flower dress done and packed. Actually everything is packed except the shift I`m working on now - collar hem and sleeve facing left.

Hair is summery, toes are painted and crystaled, and just polish left for the fingers.

love all yàll.

next post from the island

down to the wire

in 3 days from right now I will be in Montego Bay. With or without the last sewing project completed. I was just looking at my to do list and though the older items are gone I seem to keep adding more crap. I finally found some bottles that should work for smaller amounts of shampoo etc - and I've taken out a sundress and a heavier pair of capris but I'm still edging the weight allowance for checked baggage... sheesh.

Electronics are charged and packed, US$ purchased, passport and ID ready. I do have to print out a copy of my new tickets though because yesterday I realized they had me listed as Mr. not Ms. Apparently it is important when traveling to other countries that your tickets match your passport.

Pixx added some glorious sun streaks to my hair last night and gave me an awesome padi - still have to do my manicure but that's something to do in the middle of the night Saturday when I can't sleep because i AM so exciTed!!!

So I have one sewing project left, drop off bday cards and present for Viv tomorrow, pick up a present for my daughter who will turn 30, and her partner who's 36? this year - while I'm gone. Drop off Kory's USB DVD - wash my hair, go for a last fake bake, shave the legs for the smooth beachy look, see the boy on Saturday for coffee and meet the dude I'm picking up the rasta hat for. Hug the grands, call my dad, and then Chris will be here to pick me up at 5:45 am on Sunday.

Holy crap - better get going.

9 more sleeps

Like the proverbial kid in a candy store I am so excited at times I am sure I am faster than the speed of light. I still am not done the sewing but I believe I have everything else ready to go except to purchase a pair of jeans, get my tickets, and finishe testing the electronica.

The fridge is fixed, the plumber is coming to fix the leaky pipe next week and hopefully the car will start tomorrow.

Off to sewing land now.

a new decade

Wow. In 20 10 I will have my first real vacation ever. My health will continue to improve. My kids will be happier. My friends will be many. My flat mate will be able to do some creative work. My grandkids will love me. My job is still interesting to go to and I may yet learn to sleep at nightime.

Happy New Years!