u planning on going to Sumfest next year...or at least being on the island at that time??? i want to go next year but Dee doesn't think she can make it next summer. so i have no concrete plans yet...if i know you or JC or someone will be around i'd go alone....

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Okay here goes again.
Upper Middle - Tia
Lower Middle JC
Left-DWI
Right - Debbie

aww hell Tia...loved the ele clip...watchin the head in front of you boppin away!! f@%k i'm upset i couldn't make it!

got any Baby Cham fi mi???

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ele's performance pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/v/MNBwkwbWAJU

i'm pretty sure i'll be going to sumfest from now on lillith. come alone and go back to the gloriana. that's where i'll be. if you go then i'll have someone to keep me company when oliver is at work. i have several clips, but i'm not sure if i recorded baby cham. he'd just be a speck on the screen anyways lol. his performance was great too.


you know us pretty well jamaica miss. you got all 4 correct!

Baby Cham is my man!!!

if i know you are going, i swear i'd be there for sure!! i'd probably go a few days before you so i could go to Starfish to see my 'friends' and let them know i was in di area...then catch a ride (somehow) to Gloriana and spend the rest of the vacation there. i've done it before!!

i won't make any plans then to go earlier so hopefully and FINALLY we could meet up!!!

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OMG I wanna cry just watching those clips! Too many memories! Mostly of me grindin up on that fine man

I have to say Sumfest was the coolest experience I've ever had and will definitely be trying for it again next year.

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Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

haven't gotten around to mentioning that tall drink of wata you were with at sumfest jc. i'll leave that up to you and your trip report when you're feeling better.

ok lillith, i'm looking forward to seeing you next july for sumfest!

But of course I'm thinking about going to Sumfest next year! I didn't get a chance to go. it sure could be a plan!


wonderful report so far Tia, much enjoying!!!! dwelling's soon coming......Jamaica style..lol!!!

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My anti-depressant: JAMAICA!!!

so we're all at sumfest and enjoying ourselves. oliver has a group of friends there and we park ourselves next to them. as soon as someone decides to get something to drink oliver goes with and ends up taking care of our drinks for the night. jc and debbie both keep saying that he's such a sweetheart. oliver has a blast at sumfest and we're all quite entertained watching him jumping around and dancing. he even kept an eye out for jc. he was wonderful!

the night wears on and i become painfully aware that even though i'm in comfy shoes, my feet are killing me. by 3am i am no longer enjoying myself in spite of the awesome performances. i really wanted to see the clash between bounty killer and beenie man, and so did the tens of thousands of other people at sumfest. oliver is having a great time but he can tell i'm hurting. as you can see from my video clips, ele gives a fantastic performance just as expected. then capleton comes on stage and i notice that everyone is just talking and walking around. they're basically ignoring him. and i remember from last year that he was the last act of the night and everyone left in the middle of it to avoid traffic! so i ask oliver why no one is paying attention to him and he says that he teaches too much. i feel kinda bad for him.

dawn is breaking and here comes beenie man. every single person at the venue is going crazy! ...and he had a few things to say in response to bounty killer's comments earlier that night. he wraps things up and it's 5:30am. we head out of the venue and my feet are hurting so bad that i have to make a concerted effort to walk. i have to think about and control every step i make. all i wanna do is peel my clothes off and jump straight to bed. when we finally make it back to the gloriana i do just that, and laying down felt sooooo good!

we don't to go sleep right away. oliver puts his arm around me and we talk until both of us nod off.

what a great way to end a great night!

hey dwell! good to see ya. you better finish your trip report looong before you head back at new years! lol

it's friday. jc gives us a call around 1pm and her timing was impeccable. both of us were dead asleep and oliver is supposed to get going for work. she says that they'll be heading to the strip this afternoon and i tell them to come on by my room. oliver leaves and i just putz around the room for a few hours. when i finally get the gumption to leave i open up my door and i'm startled to see jc and debbie sitting in my verandah as if they'd been there all day. lol

jc treats us to a blended fruit punch and i arrange for a ride back to the ritz carlton. my stupid digicel phone won't let me make any calls so i have to buy a phone card to use in the hotel. i call the front desk and tell them i need the switchboard. she asks what kind of phone card i have and when i look at the card i see that it's title is in patois. so, in my very best patois pronounciation i say, "oliver's farrin cyaad." no sooner that i say that here's jc, debbie, and the front desk clerk all laughing at me like i'm a bloomin' eediat! i bet oliver samuels woulda like it though. it was his phone cyaad.

marie picks us up and she takes us to her house in flankers. for anyone who doesn't know, the road up to flankers is busted up and effin' steep! i don't think i could walk up that hill even if my very life depended on it. there's a fantastic view of the sunset from there. and horace (aka bigga: my driver back in october) shows us the various fruit trees on his property.

wahoo, here's your ackee! i took this pic because of that cute lizard who was trying to run away from me.

and i got your guineps too!


i've never had a guinep before. jamaica miss gave me one a few years back but i had no idea what to do with it. i stuck it in my bag and before i had a chance to figure out how to eat it had squished and got my digital camera all sticky. but now i had horace here to show me how to eat it. he sent his son mario up the tree to grab a some for all of us. horace told me to crack it, suck the pulp off the seed, and spit the seed out. YUM! that stuff is awesome!

on our way back down that bumpy hill we stop to gush over a beautiful baby girl. then we stop at a jerk shack before heading the rest of the way out to the ritz. it's dark by the time we put on our swimsuits and go for a swim. but the water felt wonderfully warm. all too soon, it's time for me to catch a ride back to the gloriana. here are some pics i took that night:




this last pic didn't rotate properly so i had to use the thumbnail.

it's my last night. (at least, it's what i THOUGHT was my last night, lol.) oliver comes in from work and i have some jerk chicken for him. now, he's said in the past that he doesn't eat pork. and i've told him that i am filipino, and that filipinos love them some pork. the conversation never went much further than that. but tonight was the night that this conversation would take an interesting turn. he finishes what he wants from his chicken and puts the rest in the fridge and he sees another foil package in there. he says to me, "what's that?" and i say, "it's jerk pork." and he says, "you ate that?" and i say, "yeah." and he says, "I WILL NOT PARTAKE OF YOUR LIPS TONIGHT!" whoa! what? did he just use the words "partake" and "lips" in the same sentence? (i guess i better not tell him i had some earlier that week too.) lolololol

he continues to explain how much he abhors pork and that he doesn't want me to eat it around him....labba labba labba. now, i've heard that a lot of jamaicans don't eat pork, but i have a point that i need to make. so i said, "wait a minute...where does all of this come from?" he goes on to tell me about it being unclean. just what i expected him to say (he was raised in an adventist household). so then i say, "but you do eat conch, shrimp, crab, etc." and he says, "yeah." um, the bible goes into explicit detail of what is okay to eat and what isn't. it didn't just say, "don't eat pork." so i ask him, what about the rest of the rules? and he simply says, "i'm working on it." hmmm, ok. well, the day i quit eating pork i'm also going to quit the shellfish and whatever else the bible says shouldn't be eaten.

we stay up really late and his sister comes over after work to pick up some things. we're all standing in the parking lot chatting. then we head back to our room. it feels like we haven't slept for more than a few minutes and i hear jc and debbie at our door. they came to say goodbye to us before they head into negril for the day. after they leave, i am really depressed. i'm laying in bed crying and oliver is doing his best to comfort me. he helps me with the last few things i need to pack and carries my heavy suitcase upstairs so i can check out. i don't have to get to the airport for another 6 hrs so i have the whole day to kill before leaving. but he has to work, so we hug and kiss goodbye and he's on his way. i start crying again and go downstairs to sulk.

i spend a few hours at the pool. eat my leftover jerk pork (lol) got acquainted with wandabeinjamaica! and hang out with some puerto ricans for a few hours. then marie comes back from taking jc and debbie to negril and we run around for awhile. now, i've been craving conch soup all week long and it's looking like now's the time for me to try it. horace and marie take me to white house to get some of this long-awaited soup only now, i feel sick to my stomach and i don't want it anymore. i settle for a ting and we drive around some more. i go back to the pork pit hoping to pick up the jah cure t-shirt i was promised earlier in the week but the woman who has it is no where to be found. now i regret not coming for it yesterday. but marie tells me not to worry. her neighbor is jah cure's mom and she wants to take me to meet her the next time i come back. and since jomo is his cousin and kels says she can give me a t-shirt i'm not worried about it anymore.

eventually, it's time for me to head to the airport. i say goodbye to the people i've befriended at the gloriana and horace packs up the car.

here's a pic of me with o'neil. he works at the gloriana and since i've been there 3 times we've become friends.


this pic doesn't do him justice. he's really cute!

horace and marie drop me off at the airport with big hugs and prayers for a safe journey home. but....that's not where the story ends!

i check in and i'm told that my flight has been delayed until 2:40am. i'm like, "fo' real? bet! i'm going out tonight!" i gather a change of clothes from my suitcase. i'm having a good time flirting with the guys who search my luggage and another guy in the back room sticks his head out of the hole in the wall where the checked luggage disappears to and he's winking and smiling at me too. then i hear someone say, "lurissa!" it's the same chick who's always there watching me cry as i check in during all my other trips. "what? no tears this time?" she says. and i tell her i just got an extension and that i'm happy about it. marie is shocked that i'm not leaving yet and she comes back to the airport to drop me off at the gloriana. i'm strutting back to the front desk with a big smile on my face and the same young lady who laughed at my attempt to say "oliver's farrin cyaad" takes one look at me and laughs again, asking me what happened. i put my bags behind the desk again and i call the puerto ricans and tell them about the delayed flight. they invite me to chill with them until i'm ready to go out. later on that night i head to margaritaville and enjoy dancing with a fella until it's time for me to head back to the airport at 2am. only, stupid me doesn't think to call ahead. so i'm dropped off at the airport again and i find out the flight has been delayed AGAIN until 8am! mind you, it's the middle of the night. all the shops are closed, and there's no doggone air-conditioning at the airport! a lot of people are irate. some have already laid down on the floor to sleep. others are walking around trying to see if they can break into a water cooler to get some bottled water. the worry-free reps are there to answer our questions and they are assuring us that they are going to track down some cases of bottled water for us.

i am hot and sweaty from the wine session at the nightclub so i park myself under a fan and try to get some rest. at around 4am, here somes a rep. handing me a bottle of water. i am so sleepy, i'm delirious. but i can't sleep because i can't get comfortable. my head keeps bobbing forward. is it possible to be bored, restless, and sleepy all at the same time?

at 6am, the airport starts waking up and the shops are opening. at 7am, the worry-free reps are handing out vouchers for us to get something to eat. our plane finally lets us board and i'm telling you, as soon as we all finish our food, we are all knocked out! i wake up toward the end of the flight and notice that i've managed to somehow spill orange soda on my customs form. fortunately, the customs officer who collects the forms has a good sense of humor about the big orange blob in the middle of the form. lol

when i clear customs and start walking out of the terminal, there's jomo looking out for me. he yells, "tia!" and grabs my bags and puts them in the jeep for me. kels brings me up to date on the events of the week: my car drama, the house selling, the storm, 500,000 people without power, the tree falling in the spot where my car used to be. wow. it's been a busy week for the both of us! she said that jomo washed my car for me and when we pull up to the house, there's my baby all shiny and purty.

we're hungry and jomo makes us some egg sandwiches. i show kels my scrapbooks and my dvd from the bogue villa trip. after chillin' for awhile, i'm ready to hit the road and come back to my hyper little boy. my sister has been sending me text messages all day asking when am i coming back and that she sold my son since i was taking so long.

i think all these unanticipated incidents has really helped take my mind off being depressed and sad about leaving jamaica. i'm usually in a major funk for a long time but i'm not feeling that at all. i'm missing oliver of course, but other than that it's business as usual.

next trip is slated for october or december. i'd really like to go back for the jomo wedding reception though.

ok jc, your turn! can't wait to see your pics.

Wow, Tia. Great report. I look forward to your reports every time. I feel for you as I know what you are going through with the leaving part. Tia & JC, you look beautiful, as usual.

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If you've never stared off in the distance, then your life is a shame...

thanks kels. i'm counting on worry-free to sponsor my next trip since they messed up my departure. i really wasn't all that mad about staying in jamaica longer- just at having to stay at the airport all those hours. if i woulda known i had the whole night i would've like to go to sumfest again.

LOLOL!!! the melons are the best part ain't they? i have another melon picture that i'll post soon.