The Fastest Man In The World

There's absolutely no doubt.  Could there be?  In the 100 meter dash finals of the 2012 Olympic games in London, Usain Bolt proved again tonight that, even when everything doesn't go perfectly, he still can blow everyone else out of the water!

And let's not forget Yohan Blake's stellar performance as well.  Sadly, Asafa Powell didn't get to show his chops in the final, robbing Jamaica of the perfect 1, 2, 3.  But still...

... how proud am I of our boys tonight?!

*Nice present for Jamaica's 50th Independence celebration tomorrow, don't you think? :)

Gotta Get It Wherever You Find It!

We're Number Two!

National Geographic lists Jamaica's national dish, Ackee and Saltfish (yum!) as number 2 on its Top Ten National Dishes list!  Second only to the U.S. hamburger, in their opinion.  I would venture to disagree! 

The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I've seen all the books appear over the past few years, but have always resisted buying them.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because I tend to avoid most anything hinting at "literature" or afrocentric or that everybody tells me I should be buying.

What a fool!

Having taken a half-day from work - complete aversion to work today combined with an overabundance of comp time/time-in-lieu not yet taken - I ended up watching the movie I'd recorded from the BBC onto my DVR a couple of weeks ago.

As you can see, this has motivated me to write a blog post for the first time in a month.  And why?  Because my experience was so fantastic, so amazing, I think everyone should know about this.  This wonderful movie was funny, engrossing, empowering, touching, and flat out beautiful.

I guess it should be no surprise really.  With a director like Anthony Minghella, of The English Patient and Cold Mountain fame, there was little chance that this film wouldn't work.  Add in a screenplay co-written by he and Richard Curtis, of Four Weddings and A Funeral (see earlier post) and Bridget Jones' Diary, and you have a wonderful script.  Round all this off with the acting chops of some fantastic actors and cinematography actually shot in the true location (!), and you have a film where everything rings true.  I laughed.  I shed real tears.  And... now I want to go to Botswana.

 But first, I need to read the books.

To Be Loved That Way

I'm watching Four Weddings and a Funeral for what must be the seventh or eighth time and I'm still in love with it, for so many reasons.

1. Hugh Grant in the early 90's was the ultimate leading man.  What was there not to like?  Cute British guy, slightly bumbling like we all (American girls) imagined cute British boys to be.  And that accent!  This was before the "incident" of course.
2. Romance, romance, romance.
3. With English accents!
4. Even though I can't stand her now (she's the worst part of the movie for me), Andie McDowell was one of my first role models for the whole American girl living abroad idea.
5. I love the idea of such a disparate but fun group of friends.  
6. Gorgeous wedding locations - village churches, Scottish castles... loved them all.
7. Weddings.  Like so many other girls, I still wish it would happen for me.
8. It's actually been awhile since I last watched it and doing it for the first time while living in Ireland gives it a whole other resonance.  There's actually a sense of familiarity now for the landscapes, the city locations, the characterizations.  And, yes, the accents!  Less exotic, but fun in a different way.
9. Great soundtrack.  I especially like Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet.  Mostly because of it's fantastic cover and co-starring role in another of my favorite movies, Love Actually.  Again with the Hugh Grant!
10. Finally, what for me is one of the most poignant scenes of any movie I've seen.  Matthew's reading of W.H. Auden's poem, Funeral Blues, at Gareth's funeral.  Isn't that what we all want, to be loved like that?

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

"Stop All The Clocks"

Turophilia

I can't believe this country has yet to discover the joy that is fake orange cheese.  For a nation built on the back of agriculture and with such a strong dairy background, you'd think they'd have made the wonder-filled leap to virtual cheesiness by now.

Boxes of Cheez-Its and tubs of Utz cheese balls?  Nope, not a bit.  True Vermont sharp cheddar cheese?  Nowhere to be found and, to be frank, "mature" cheddar is just not the same.  And my most immediate frustration at the grocery store today....Why, oh why can I not find any cheddar-flavored rice cakes??  Caramel, triple berry yoghurt flavor, organic hazelnut and chocolate, it's all there.  But no cheesey goodness.

Really Irish people, there's no reason to fear the fake cheese.  Embrace the chemically formulated goodness!

Day One

The theme for today is Family and (locally sourced) Food.

Happily spent a couple of hours letting my dad name and give the back story for virtually every tree and flowering stake in his yard.  In the process have eaten a not quite ripe cherry, and a young guava and orange, picked limes and ackees, and helped cut a banana bunch from on of the many trees with my dad's trusty machete.  Who knew you had to let the "hands" drain after you cut them from the bunch? 

The trip to the outdoor farm market was only slightly less adventurous.  It would have made a fantastic picture.  Too bad I stupidly forgot my camera.  I'll have to try to make it back there again. before I leave.

It's A Wonderful Life

April 21 - flights booked to Jamaica for family reunion.  Looking forward to hanging out with my dad for a couple of weeks and seeing my 93 year old grandmother.

June 29 - pull an allnighter to pack, all the while ranting back and forth with sister and a duo of cousins re crazy, last minute family drama.  Thank God for the chance to vent or my head might just have blown off.

June 30 12:45 p.m. - British Airways flight delayed 90 minutes due to minor technical difficulties.  On the plus side, find out that crowding has bumped me to Business Class.  Nice!

June 30 1:45 p.m. - board flight that leaves less late than expected.

June 30 1:50 p.m. - am offered champagne by nice waiter steward.  Am good and take juice instead. 

June 30 2:15 p.m. - because my Business Class seat cubicle just isn't perfect enough, I switch from aisle seat next to someone else to empty middle double seat.  Now that's the ticket!

June 30 2:25 p.m. - first round of alcohol cart makes it's pass.  It order a Kir Royale 'cause I'm smooth like that.

June 30 2:30 p.m. - already am stretched out on reclining seat with free socks, puffy blanket, and movie previews playing out on my private video screen.

June 30 2:40 p.m. - have just given my 4-course meal order and am contemplating the extensive wine list. 

June 30 3:00 p.m. - I give the salad a 3/10, but the smoked sea trout with horseradish creme fraiche is definitely an 8.

June 30 3:10 p.m. - apparently I do not drink anywhere near the rate of the Brits either.  I'm still only halfway through my Kir Royale AND my Bordeaux, and the stewards have come by to ask me if I need a refill twice already!

June 30 3:35 p.m. - grilled beef is slightly tough but the ragout with buttered leeks and wilted spinach make it still quite tasty.

June 30 3:50 p.m. - these stewards are the most efficient ever!  Let me digest a bit before you bring the next course, why don't you?  I'll have to save the Baileys till later. 

June 30 5:00 p.m. - 2 glasses of wine, a Kir Royale and a Baileys have me quite mellow.  The movie's pretty good too.  How To Train Your Dragon: 4.5/5 stars.  Time for my nap now.

June 30 6:40 p.m. - am wide awake again.  Weird.  Is this all the sleep I'm going to get?  Maybe I should get back to the drinking.

June 30 8:45 p.m. - Up In The Air was both poignant and sad.  Does it say I'm cynical that I guessed George Clooney's love interest was married the whole time?

June 30 10:00 p.m. - "afternoon tea" on board involves finger sandwiches and scones with jam and clotted cream.  If only I could travel this way all the time!

June 30 10:30 p.m. - am ready to disembark.  What are the odds of a similar glimpse of the high life on my way back?  Sadly, probably not that high.  But hey, no time to dwell.  Jamaica here I come!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday Pearls

You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
- Desmond Tutu

Family is a haven in a heartless world.
- Christopher Lasch

Spring Has Sprung!

Sexy open-toed sandals, a pretty patterned top and my new "boyfriend" jeans were the wardrobe of the day today as I lounged on the river balcony of the French wine bar with a friend enjoying a lovely dessert and a sparkling drink under a cloudless blue sky.

17 gorgeous degrees Celsius (63 F) after our bitter winter made this just a gorgeous day. I even had to take off my light jacket because it was too warm.

It was niiiice and, as a result, I'm feeling pretty full of myself as you can tell :-) Watch out, the sap it is arising!

Baby Love

Babies is a documentary film that followed four babies from across the globe for the first two years of their lives.

Just saw the trailer and all the oxytocin in my brain stood up and sang "hallelujah!"

I have GOT to see this movie! Why, oh why do we have to wait till May?

Sun Holiday - Cheap and Cheerful!

I love Portugal. Love it, LOVE IT!

Sigh... this is actually kind of a hard admission for me to make because Portugal has been my travel bugbear for years. The one western european country I'd never been to. Ever since - gulp, I'll admit it - I was kicked out of there years ago.

Yes, I was expelled from a foreign country! Sigh again, I can hear my friends shrieking with laughter right now. This is an old story, one they've heard before.

Short story, sweet... 19 year old girl enjoying semester abroad in Scotland makes plans for Spring Break with friends in Portugal. Neither she nor travel agent (this was *shudder* decades ago... remember travel agents?) think to check on whether someone traveling on a Jamaican passport would need a visa. The border agents at the Portugal airport were happy to enlighten me and not at all dismayed by my buckets of tears.

But, all things work together for good. Because I was deported back to London, I got to meet cousins who'd been estranged from the family and triggered a cascade of family reunions. Now it's just a funny story from my college days and a cautionary tale to always, always check the details!

Anyway, enough with the distractions. Here's what you're really here for. Pictures! I just got back a week ago from 7 days in Lisbon and the Algarve coast (Lagos and Faro) where I took over 300 of the darned things. There was a bounty of really great ones to choose from, but I chose only a handful of the best to subject you to. You can thank me later.

One of Lisbon's main squares - Rossio aka Praca Dom Pedro IV

Approaching one of Lisbon's main scenic lookouts, the Miradoura Santa Luzia

Amazing tile work in the Palacio Nacional da Sintra. Sintra was the summer retreat of Portugal's kings and aristocracy. Gorgeous architecture and colors, like a Disney fairytale town.

Fonte Mourisca (Arab Fountain) on the outskirts of Sintra, where many of the locals come for fresh spring drinking water

Church of Santa Maria on the long uphill hike to the Castelo dos Mouros that overlooks Sintra

Inside the church at the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in Belem, a suburb of Lisbon

Sentry outpost at the Torre de Belem, an offshore fortress built in the 1500's

One of Lisbon's trams climbing the hill from the Baixa to the Bairro Alto neighborhoods

Street art along the tram line - too beautiful to just call it graffiti

Street in Lagos, a town in the Algarve coastal region

Huh?? Art installation in the entryway to Lagos' fortress museum

House detail in Lagos

Cliff detail at the Ponta da Piedade cliffs outside Lagos

These trees are all over the place. I wonder what they are?

Cliff detail at the Punta da Piedade beach outside Lagos. Beautiful place!

Punta da Piedade beach

Faro is usually only a quick stop for people flying into the Algarve and then moving on somewhere else, but it's worth a day's look in it's own right. This was a beautiful little corner inside the walls of the Cidade Velha (historic old town)

Almost tropical scene on the walk around the city walls of the Cidade Velha of Faro

More views along the walls of the Cidade Velha

They certainly know how to set the stage here. Who could resist taking a picture of this scene?

Just inside the main gate (Arco da Vila) of the Cidade Velha

Street scene in the center of Faro

Did I mention that I fell in love with all the colors? Oh, and the music. And the amazing (and amazingly cheap) food! I almost overdosed on fresh seafood. Not to mention the port wine. This place is definitely on my "must return" list.

U2 - Irie!

I'm a big fan of U2. HUGE. Longstanding. Committed and not deterred by the "pooh pooh the native son" attitude that seems present so much over here. If I hear one more person say that their "friend" has a "friend" who kinda knows Bono and thinks he's an arrogant langer, I'll get violent.

Anyway, that was just to set the stage. You all know :-) that I'm originally from Jamaica and quite proud of my heritage. Living in Ireland has raised interesting parallels to life and culture over there, so in some ways adjusting to life here hasn't been quite as strange as it could have been.



OK, stage fully set. Well, except to tell you that, along with my U2 fan-buddy from the states (we first got into the band together in college oh so many decades ago!), I went to see them for 2 of their shows in Dublin this summer. Woohoo!!!!

U2 has just opened the U.S. leg of their tour (and, yes, my friend also has tickets to see a show over there as well!) and gave an interview with Chris Cuomo of ABC News.

Back Stage With U2

All I can say is, you've got to watch the video in it's entirety to truly get why I now love them even more :-) Great minds do think alike!

Celebration

Image by Camera Slayer via Flickr

Happy, Happy Fourth of July everyone! 

Here's to kicking some British butt and defeating the invading aliens at the very last minute.  Oh... wait, that last part was fictional, wasn't it?  Oh well, I say anything that involves Will Smith deserves celebrating.

Enjoy your grilled burgers (well done with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and ketchup), bucket of beer, and lazing around in the sun.  Now, if only I had some sparklers!

Fine, Truly Fine

You know it when you have one of those days. Before, you were languishing in the doldrums of "sorta okay" and "grand". Nothing too drastically out of place. Except for the persistent doubts about "do I truly know what I'm doing?" and "am I really helping anybody?"

One of the major perils of being a psychologist, I guess any similar health profession, is the self-questioning, the self-doubt. And the comparing. Even when you know the TV and the literary and the memoir psychologists don't reflect the reality of the day in, day out drudgery that can be your professional life, it's still hard to convince yourself a lot of the times that somebody else, anybody else, couldn't do a heck of a lot better.

And even though you know, after almost 15 years doing this, that this is just part of the rhythm of the ups and downs of what you do, you still get caught up in it.

People come to you in pain, expecting that you have all the answers, and get pissed or sad or hopeless when you don't spoon feed the miracle cure to them. You know this is how things work. You know it.

Then, when you least expect it, you have that day. When all the floundering you've been doing, trying to figure out what the heck your next step is, resolves into something resembling clarity and you remember that there actually is some substance to the facade you play out every day. The day that client walks in and you have that session where, even though you're only at the start of things, magic happens. You click. He or she connects. You're riding the flow of the emotional energy between you and you can almost see them lifted up. And it's a beautiful thing - enlightening, emotional, spiritual even.

That was today. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last, but I needed it... to remind me why I do this and that it's okay to keep on doing this. Today was beautiful even in the midst of its flaws. A fine blessing indeed.

Paradise Found

Sunshine filtering through the trees, splashing on the redwood deck. Hanging baskets of orchids and poinsettias in tubs beneath palm and fruit trees swaying in the breeze. Water trickling musically in the new fountain off the front deck while the wind coaxes impromptu melodies from hidden chimes. Dog snoozing on the newly cleaned carpets, back legs twitching in happy dreams. Niece and nephew cuddling with me on the couch, manic grin on T's face, A's curly braids jiggling as she happily tells the story of her day. Sis and BIL snogging in the kitchen. Me soaking it all in.

Home Again

I don't think I told you (my lack of Internet is still getting in the way of anything but the most basic blogging - this update is via iPhone), but I just arrived home to the Triangle (NC) for a friend's wedding and general having of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing loads of friends (I've had to resort to writing out my schedule 'cause it's packed full!), a quick jaunt to Miami to see family, and taking care of a few errands.

I got here Friday afternoon and the wedding was yesterday at Fearrington House in Chapel Hill. It was beautiful, but relaxed and fun. A total success! Weeell, except for the grooms's aunt tripping and dislocating her shoulder, but aside from that....!

Today I get to see my church family at CHBC and lounge around at Weaver Street in Carrboro, before meeting up with my cousin and her daughter later this evening.

I LOVE vacation! :-)

Out of context

Ok, I was mad. Wait, I'm still mad. I'm so freakin' angry I could spit! But (because I don't have access to the web much... and whose fault is that?!), my Eircom rant went out without me having had a chance to blog earlier about all the cool things that have happened lately.

In the space of a week at the beginning of April, three great events occurred which made me very pleased with life. First, I passed my Irish driving test with flying colo(u)rs. Woohoo!! Then, the next day, I moved into my new apartment. Not quite enough space for my clothes (or my shoes), but it did prompt me to give away all the stuff that doesn't fit anymore, which is probably also a good thing. It's a great apartment and, despite the above mentioned drama, I'm glad I did it. I'm now right in the city and can walk to the gym, salsa classes, shopping (that I don't have space for), the English Market, etc.

Third, on Monday the 6th, the UNC-Chapel Hill Tar Heels male college basketball team showed why they're a DYNASTY and won the NCAA national championship. GO HEELS!!!!!

All in all, loads of good things happening lately. Including an upcoming trip home to the states for a friend's wedding and general having of fun :-)

Doesn't mean I'm not still pissed though.

Oh Happy Day!

A four day holiday weekend centered around catching up on my reading, TV, and snacking.

Salsa dancing and some intense socializing at a great party on the weekend that, best of all, was held just around the corner from me so no lengthy trek home.

An actual date on Friday night that scored a 9 out of 10.

Lots of quality time in my pajamas and with comfort food.

But the ultimate topper was today's easy-peasy presale where I got U2 tickets for the Dublin concerts in the least stressful and most carefree interaction I've ever had with Ticketmaster!

Ahhh, now how else to loaf away my day?