My real birthday..

My real birthday was this week and most of my real friends forgot it. My x-friend called me last weekend and reminded me that the day was coming up so I went on facebook and removed my birthday details to see who the real friends were. Lets just say if my real friends called or wrote on my crackbook for my birthday I would have exactly 3 whole friends. Even the girl who reminded me that it was coming up forgot to call, well she did call on the day but she was complaining about something as usual then she called back the day after and apologized for forgetting.

Sad eh? my fake bday in January was 100 times better. wingman tried to hold another barbecue for my bday but I passed cause that is too much attention for little ole me. Last year I went to a friend's house for her birthday drink up.. now that was the definition of sad. I wish I could put to words what went wrong with her night but it all sounds so mean and depressing in my head.

So what am I doing with myself, this is the first weekend I have off in a long time.. I think I'll go to a beach with preggz and get some sun on my pale ass.. hopefully the place will be empty and I can skinny dip too lol. I think your comments have been alluding to the fact that you want to hear about preggerz? Well the bun is slowly baking in her oven, lol she's not doing too well with the morning sickness though.. lol and yeah the milk has arrived. There is no milk yet but she moved up a cup size or two.. no complaints here :D

Life updates

The commenters have gotten bold and demanded an update on my life. Who knew I was so interesting? lol let's get started. On Thursday I apparently left a large window open in my apartment and when I came home from work there was ash everywhere. I looked outside to see if I could identify the fire but there was none, it was a bit puzzling. After sweeping and vacuuming I closed up all the windows and left for work on Friday and yet still ash(a lot less this time) found its way back into my place by the time I reached home. The Friday night news cleared it all up, there was a large bush fire in Jacks Hill that I was totally oblivious to. Yup it is fire season once again for the hills of St. Andrew, every year around this time Jacks hill and its surroundings blaze up.

I didn't walk with my camera today but if I did you would have seen this same hill naked with a layer of black. These pictures were actually taken back in '07 after hurricane Dean I think, if you look closely you can see the twigs(or trees) on the hill are all broken, well now they are burnt off. I am amazed by the size of the fire and how it completely missed me, normally when there are fires in the hills I can spot them at night but over the past couple of days most of this hill went and I didn't have a clue.

The pictures above were actually taken from my (only) favorite and most hated walking(or climbing) hill. It is soooo steep but us Kingstonians seem to love to park our cars at the bottom and make the 20-30 minute walk up. I have it in my to do list to walk with my new camera to get better pics of the trek up.

Boring eh? on to other topics.. how are y'all surviving the economic downturn, recession, depression, ...? I see a lot of other Jamaican bloggers writing about the jobs being slashed.. *sigh* I am no stranger to this, my company has been slashing since I've joined a couple years back and I am glad I have survived thus far.

The last time I checked interest rates were dropping on the world markets but some how Jamaica is busy hiking their rates, good for local investors bad for borrowers. I had the deposit for my house invested[legitimately] before they raised the interest rates and the monthly interest could cover all my expenses(rent, food,car,...) easily. I would be living on easy street now if I didn't take all that money and give to my attorney as payment for my condo and moved myself to the other side of the fence to a world of debt.

I have a theory on how the Jamaican economy reached this state. Bear with me, this isn't really my subject.
- 1. mortgage crisis causes credit lines to tighten. the movers and shakers on the world markets drop interest rates to stimulate the economies.
- 2. Jamaican investment houses make a run USD currency to pay off their investments to avoid margin calls.
- 3. The value of the Jamaican dollar drops fast due to item 2.
- 4. The BOJ tries to stem the devaluation by raising interest rates to mop up liquidity and encourage the people to keep their JMD investments. really who can turn down 20+% rates?
- 5. Borrowers get the shaft. I hear my coworkers and friends cussing about their loan payments increasing due to item 4.

Who knows whats going on? I hope I was close. Anyway my stock portfolio lol sucks. It has lost more than 1/2 its value. I have written it off for now, I am in no immediate need for the cash so I guess they can sit there and lets hope they will revalue eventually. Under my mattress is looking attractive now.

BIM contd.

It is official, I love Barbados. The photo on the left there is a piece of their parliament building in the capital Bridgetown. Things seem to just work in Barbados, the people are patient on the road[damned Jamaican traffic and road rage], they don't litter and they are a generally disciplined set of people. Discipline goes a far way, it pains me to see how people in Jamaica disregard it and are slowly destroying themselves. Tourists walked the streets[all hours of the night] without someone tagging them trying to sell them stuff, I watched the news and there was no murders. The general mood was just laid back. I have been to many countries in the Caribbean but this was the first to have left such a good impression on me.

One thing to note was the food and its abundance. All the towns I went to had hundreds of food places scattered everywhere, the options and variety were endless. I passed to many Cefettes not to try them so one day I passed by to see what all the hype was. Am I missing something? their food was horrible, why is it so popular? blacklisted, do not go there. Also another question, do you see what is on the catch of the day menu in that first picture above? Can someone tell me why they are catching flipper and his friends and grilling them up? I wasn't brave enough to try that dish.. my conscience probably wouldn't let me sleep after that.

The photos above are from Broad St. and the waterfront in Bridgetown. I totally tourist out that trip to Bridgetown snapping pics every chance I got, it was a shame I got there as the sun was going down and didn't have much time to linger as I had to bus it back to the hotel to get ready to go out later that night. Bridgetown seems like it would be fun after dark but then we passed by Oistens and the gap later on that night and there it was the place to be. I couldn't stay though I had an early flight out in the morning.

I need to find myself back there in the near future. Barbados was pretty expensive.. but fun. I am definitely more relaxed from 'working' a bit in Barbados, hopefully it won't wear off soon as I am slapped back to the harsh reality here at home.

To the left is Grantly Adams international airport which is pretty good for such a small island. lol I have been in airports before that consisted of a single small room with everything in it, baggage claim, customs, immigration and departure but I shall not name the country.

My first birthday in Barbados

The water looks so nice eh? It's a shame I haven't even stuck my toe in yet and I've been here for the past couple of days. I did make the effort to get back to the hotel early today and with the last few rays of sunlight hitting my face I threw myself into the Atlantic ocean. There are gorgeous beaches everywhere, you can't escape them, there was no way I was coming back to Jamaica without trying one out. Anyway I'll be here for a couple more days hopefully I can squeeze something more into my busy schedule.

So yesterday I did something I promised myself I would never do again in Jamaica, I went to TGIF to celebrate my birthday. After going to TGIF for my and a lot of my friends birthdays I decided to strike any such future endeavors from my datebook but the girls from the office over here decided that they were going to do TGIF and it was going to be my birthday today. *sigh* I went ahead and got my ice cream and a bunch of random people singing happy birthday to me. So I can now say I came to Barbados and celebrated my birthday and I have the photos to prove it! lol those pics aren't going to see the light of day though :p

A bit off topic but I don't think I would put this up in a post by itself but it's worth mentioning somewhere. So we all know they accepted my bid for the last condo I went to look at, that was step 1. Many steps and weeks later I signed the sales agreement just before I left the island and my bank should have sent the 15% deposit to my attorney yesterday. Also my mortgage company called me yesterday to tell me the process is complete and I can collect the documentation to have the sale proceed. yup.. I'm on the final leg to being a home owner. I can't wait to get back so I can wrap up business.

The final nail in the coffin

Day two 2009.

She calls me to wake me up at 6am so she can come by and pick me up so we can go walking up the hill I hate so much, mountain spring. This was the first time I was seeing or talking to her since I found out that the other girl that she wasn't too fond of was preggers for me. How to break it to her? I had about 30minutes of hill climbing ahead of me to try and figure it out, nada. On the way back down I wrecked my brain trying to figure out how to slip it in the conversation and luckily for me close to the bottom a guy was walking up carrying a little baby. This was the sign I was not looking for so I just lifted the hammer and started putting in the nails

me: I called back xyz yesterday.
her: of course you did, what did she want?
me: she was calling to let me know she was pregnant.
her: for who?
me: me
her: *jaw drops open and she walks off in silence*

I picked a good time(if any ever existed), we were almost back to her car. Now for the awkward silence as I drove us back to my house. I normally leave upset girls to sort out their feelings so I didn't try to say anything her after she walked off but on the 4 minute ride back home I peeped over at her and noticed she was busy deleting every trace of me from her mobile phone. Yup I could have seen this coming from a mile away, anyway she confirmed my suspicions that this will be our last encounter when she patted me on the shoulder and said 'good luck' before driving off without hesitation.

The magic word

Day one 2009.

I came home this morning around 1am with a friend, it was the first time she was staying over. She cuddled up to me in bed pretty quickly and we were off to sleep. In the morning we went to her church to start the year off right, it was my first time back in a roman catholic church since prep school.

While she was at my place she was all over me. 2009 was going well so far, a potential girlfriend in my lap telling me all the dirty things she wanted to do with me. What magic words could possibly stop anything happening between us? The phone rang a bit but I didn't answer. I returned the calls after she left and heard the last thing I expected "I'm pregnant".

She forgot her heels when she left, I should see her tomorrow. How do I tell her?

Winter solstice

So today was the shortest day in the year for those of us up here in the northern hemisphere, did anyone notice? The winter storms seem to be pretty bad in the states but the weather here is a nice cool 80 degrees here in Jamaica, I love this weather.

So what have y'all been up to? I went Christmas shopping yesterday and bought exactly one gift. I guess lots of family and friends this year will be disappointed as usual. I have a problem with buying gifts, if I don't know what someone wants or will appreciate they will end up getting nothing. That is much safer than buying them something that never gets used or thrown out.

Anyway is it just me or did Christmas skip Jamaica this year? Not many people have up the usual decorations and the traffic is not there. There isn't much Christmas music on the radio either, if it wasn't for my stash of Christmas mp3s it would just be like any other time of the year. One noticeable difference is the amount of people shopping at pricesmart though, that store is cleaning up this year.

This is a bit off subject but re the love life conversation started out in the comments. I am currently at a crossroads and the outcome may have long lasting effects, all I can say is stay tuned lol

oh the pain..

• Day 1 (Monday) there was a slight discomfort while eating lunch.
• Day 2 there is no question about it, something wrong with my throat. There was also signs of a fever but I didn't have a thermometer to prove it.
  
• Day 3 I woke up and decide to take a peep in the mirror and see what was going on. My left tonsil was the size of a golf ball. I tried to have breakfast, too painful. I threw up my white flag and decided it was time to go to the doctor.

There was too much to do at work that morning so it got pushed back. The afternoon was jam packed as well so it didn't happen either but for the last hour of the work day I made a trip up to the data center and had to stand up and I was dieing after 20 minutes, my entire body ached.

Day 4, I refused to go to work and suffer through another day so I stayed in a bit and went to the doctor. I'm in between doctors now, I haven't been able to find a doctor I like so I tried a new one. One letter, F. I don't like her. She was old, she had a thick African accent, I could actually read her hand writing and she tried to sweet talk me too much. She wrote me up for two days off work, gave me a prescription and I was out of there. I filled her prescription that contained vitamin C supplements, anti-histamine, antibiotics and 3 days worth of pain killers. I went home took my meds and nothing happened. Didn't feel any better, didn't feel drowsy and I was still miserable. When night came I walked across to the pharmacy showed them what the doctor gave me and asked them for some pain killers that will knock me out, enter Panadol PM. This always does the trick for me.. maybe coz I only take them every other year or so.

Day 5->6 the pain was still very much there and I can barely talk by this point in time. I am so drugged up that I have no problem staying home all day and doing nothing. The nights are even more terrible, I had a fever so bad that I woke up and was soaked like somebody threw a bucket of water on me. I figured that ice cream would help so I walked over to the supermarket and bought a carton of my fav (fyi Edy's butter pecan) but to my surprise my throat wasn't having it, something in the ice cream burns my throat and my gums are also sensitive now so the pecans and them not going to work out.

Day 7, Today, I woke up the left tonsil doesn't look as swollen as before but now my gums hurt even more. Today is the day to be sick, I was going up to the parents for lunch and my sister[specialized in internal medicine] was in town as well so I would see her as well. Of course she doesn't come to lunch by herself she brings along her bf(also a medical doctor) and her good friend(also a doctor). So when they started to talk to me and realize things were horribly wrong she went for a flashlight, took 1 look and was horrified. She called her panel of doctors and all of them were looking down my mouth and then went into a discussion on my current line of treatment. Three doctors trying to fix me for free, now that's what I call proper health care and they all agreed that the first doctor could have done a much better job with the drugs she prescribed.

I can still barely talk now but I am about to start this new set of antibiotics and painkillers my sister's friend prescribed for me. I have to go back to work tomorrow, hopefully this new line of treatment will fix the tonsillitis.

it's still happening

Well the power company is still messing with me but I during my recent time off at home have noticed a trend. The voltage mainly spikes in the afternoon between 1 and 5pm. I don't know if I should even bother reporting the issue again, I just need to sit it out for a few more months and then I am outa here. In the mean time my refrigerator is spending so much time off that I am seeing around a 30% drop in my electricity bill. It doesn't seem to affect the food in there though so its a good thing I guess. This will make up for all the fuses I have been buying to fix my speakers.

Yes that many fuses + more have blown. Once I took up the camera I got trigger happy with the natural light and took some other photos of my ip power 9212 remote power and sensor boxes. A few years ago I hunted the internet high and low for them and placed my order at the first sign of them. I had grand visions of home automation with a computer sensing and controlling power around my apartment. They have yet to be used like so much of the other tech I have bought. I still have grand visions using x10 though.

a time to catch up

Where does the time go? I took this week off to catch a breath and it's almost Thursday already! not to mention it's almost December.. but the year just started. I have observed that as I get older my perception of time speeds up. *sigh* I just googled it and apparently I am not the only one. I haven't read that article though, it looks pretty depressing for me to stop and read now, it will probably change the whole tone of this post. So what have I been up to? time to make another list

• I got myself a 22" wide screen LCD for my computer and it's officially larger and much prettier than my 21" regular tv that I am now ignoring for several reasons. This larger monitor is great for editing photos and watching HD video :D
  
• I went to the UWI to get information on their post graduate degrees. All the kids there look so young and it's only been 4 years since I've left that campus :-(. I am looking forward to going back to school again, it should be interesting trying to fit classes, exams and projects into my busy work schedule. yay!
• I got a call from a guy in my section on Monday, he just came back from vacation and got his walking papers from our HOD. So my section now has 4 members.. I am not looking forward to that extra work. I like my work though, I hope they keep me.
• It's all gravy. 11 months ago I made a resolution to spend more. I checked my finance app and I have spent a bit more than the same period last year but I am still way ahead of my end of year savings target.. so far ahead I can cut a check and pay for my post graduate degree in full and still be within my budget. I guess I can mark that down as a failed resolution.
• I viewed a townhouse in New Kingston and an apartment in Kingston 8. I loved the location for the New Kingston place but the 18yo place left a lot to be desired in terms of maintenance, if a next real estate agent says bachelor pad I will know to lower my expectations. The uptown apartment was absolutely gorgeous! It's not in my ideal area[right in the middle of things] but I made an offer a little shy of the asking price, I hope I don't get it. I don't know whats wrong with me, I want to hold out until I can find the ideal place in the perfect area.

Let's hope I get some rest and post some more before I go back to the rat race.

Worked to death

I overnighted at Breezes Montego bay last week and I was a bit disappointed. This was my first time staying at an all inclusive hotel and after my 4 hour drive up the only thing I could get was a beef cheeseburger with fries or a hot dog? come on now. I got the food and went to the bar for a drink and was called over by one of the trainee managers who tried to pick me up to take pictures for her. I would have said that she had some big cojones to fraternize with the guests but it would seem all the staff was that way.

One thing I noticed at the outside bar was all the bees. I took a walk around the property and there was so many bees, apparently they were attracted to all the soda machines. You had to fight the bees to get to the machine and when I actually got a cup it was full of dead bee parts. The bees needed to chill from all the work, they were at a "luxury" resort. I did the same though, I dragged my ass out of bed at 11pm and drove to the middle of the city to put in a few hours of work. sux eh? my work patterns are so odd.

Power issues

JPS is messing with me. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that food came out of my microwave and it was still cold, my fridge guard was chipping out and the fuses started to blow in my speaker set. I found all this strange until one day I came home to my hot apartment to turn on the fan and it was barely spinning. I ran for my multimeter and it gave me 80 to 90v and it all started to make sense.

Since I am all about going green the term brown out has mostly lost its meaning since the florescent lights are either on or off and they don't get brown under a low voltage supply like I had been receiving. It still left the mystery as to why the 3amp fuses in my speakers where blowing but one day last weekend I plugged in my multimeter and caught jps giving me power at 150v sustained.

As far as I am concerned my supply voltage should be 115v +/-5v and anything else is unacceptable. 80 to 150v a deviation of 35v is enough to destroy anything worth having and that's what JPS has started to do. When the voltage got too low my DSL modem would drop out and I would lose internet service. On the flip side when the power was at 150v the 15v, 1amp, linear power supply primary coil burnt out.

Pretty much anything with an unfused coil facing jps faced certain doom as a second set of speakers in my bedroom died as well. That was the last straw, I took it apart as pictured to the left and cut off the dead transformer and fed the amplifier circuit with a rectified power supply I built 13 years ago(I'm so proud). This one has a significantly larger primary coil so it should withstand any further surges until I can find a suitably rated switched mode power supply for it as I have already done for my DSL modem. FYI if anybody actually read this far I majored in electronics for my undergrad degree.

Tastes like chicken?

What the hell is wrong with these lizards? I have no real problem living with them but they have crossed the line.

Saturday night I stepped into my kitchen and heard no end of commotion somewhere in the room. After some investigation I realized the lizard that normally lives under my fridge was in the garbage bag I placed on the ground pending the arrival of the garbage truck. It was eating my left overs so I quickly identified where it was in the bag and just stepped on it through the bag *splat*.

I thought that was the last of those buggers in my kitchen for now but some night later on this week I stepped into my kitchen to do the dishes and saw a single lone chicken bone in the middle of the counter, someone tried to help themself to a snack before I could clean up. Needless to say the lizard pictured above soon came into view as he tried to make his escape. Look at it, he is still licking his lips. I went for my camera and bug spray and now he is no more. Lizards be warned.