Looking Back to even before my time

Trinidad, pre-Independence – 1938. Absolutely fascinating. I notice behaviour was much more docile in public under the ‘colonial masters’ than now.

On the move again

Well, the Cyaptain (aka Captain Walker) is on the move again – from near London up to Carlisle, down to Wolverhampton, down to Plymouth then back up to Carlisle; all in one week. This country really big compared to a small ‘rock’. No pothole here boy! Calm dong.

I’m always amused when ‘rock-crawlers’ come over here and t’ink we go pick dem up in London Heathrow. Afta all, daize all dey know. An’ eef yuh doh pick dem up dey vex how yuh blank dem eh. Whuh yuh go do boy? Deeze ppl from a small heap so dey figure everyt’ing rong  dee corner nuh. Yuh ha’ tuh bear wid dem  eh. Tmro alone the Cyap will be doing about 220 miles. ‘ow much is dat? Like about 3.5 times the length of your fav rock nuh.

Herring under fur coat

INGREDIENTS: 2 thick salted herrings, 5 potatoes, 4 carrots, 3 beets, 1 small onion, 250 g mayonnaise, parsley and dill

1. Boil vegetables until they are fork tender. Boil eggs hard.
2. Peel skin from herrings, cut them along the spine, removing the bones. Cut herring meat into little pieces.
3. Grind potatoes, carrots and beets. Chop the onion.
4. On a big round  plate place a layer of potatoes (whole portion), then spread mayonnaise evenly on top in a thin layer.
5. Then make a layer of beets using 1/2 of the beets, then a layer 1/2 of the carrots,1/2 of the chopped onion and then– pieces of herring meat spreading mayonnaise evenly on top of each layer.
6. Place a layer of the remaining onion, a thin layer of mayonnaise,  then a layer of remaining carrots, a thin layer of mayonnaise and finally the remaining beets.
7. On top pour the remaining mayonnaise.
8. Let it soaked overnight.
9. Decorate the dish with chopped parsley and dill.
10. Serve as a salad in its own right, or as an accompaniment to a main meal.

Birmingham, England

 

 

Recently, Birmingham had its annual ‘Food Fair’ held in the city centre. Aside from the ‘usual’ foods of the world, (Caribbean means Jamaican by the way), there were some ‘novelty’ items like these burgers… hmm, curried goat burger, anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

Or how about ostrich burgers?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ukrainian woman, who speaks Russian, Ukrainian and English, drinking a Puerto Rican coconut served up by a Jamaican, in Birmingham, England… someone say ‘Cosmopolitan’?

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, The new Library of Birmingham - opening next week - is believed to be Europe's largest public library… is really ugly. One of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever seen.

 

 

That’s all, folks.

More on the animal behaviour

Well after posting Filthy animals and their clothing–stay away, please – and stating “All I know is that I see this sort of thing regularly nearly every time I use public transport. So – to my mind there is a good chance that people are putting their stink feet in shoes, on seats in public transport (such as trains, buses etc).”, some would have left thinking, “Oh he’s always rather dramatic. It can’t be that bad! Take him with a pinch of salt.”

Uh huh.. so I get on the train yesterday at 16:15 PM heading into London – and what do I see to my left as I sit down? Well, you look left and right, now! If you don’t see a foot in a shoe on a train seat, you’re either blind, or stupid.

The chap obliquely opposite to me, whose foot that is, got on the train about a minute after I did. Guess how long that foot remained there, just like that. Forty-seven minutes!! “What was he doing?” you wonder. The crossword – a favourite Brit pastime.

Hey, you gotta be doing something – in England especially, you can’t be doing nothing. Allowing your eyes to rove around a train carriage (other public transport), will get you labelled as a voyeur or paedophile or sumik – well that’s not openly stated, but it’s there. So what do the natives do on trains etc. They reach for a book or their mobile phones – cuz that takes eyes away from roving around. Yes – I know they do other things too like talk to each other but I’m not here to give you a full list.  [I should say that I am making generalisations based on my personal observations over 20 years of what I estimate to be over 50% of the natives]. So – doing a crossword and having your foot on the seat is the mark of being Brit – I’ve come to think. Hey calm down – you too come to conclusions based on your personal observations.

But I still don’t get it. I mean, would you walk around on the street where there may be crap, snot, mud and vermin and after that take your shoes onto your bed or settee (aka sofa)? Well I’m likely to think that if the Brits do what the do on trains etc., that a proportion of them do take filth into and onto their furniture. Or maybe I’m wrong – maybe they only do this sort of thing on public transport, because they can get away with it.

Well, some may be wondering what were my thoughts as this chap put his foot there. I was really rehearsing in my mind to say, “Could you please not put your foot there on the seat?” So why didn’t I get on with it? It’s called fear. I feared that such an ignorant person would react with hostility and cause me to apprehend immediate personal violence – or cause me actual bodily harm – or grievous bodily harm. No – getting assaulted is not something I’d relish in trying to make things better for this country. If British Rail wants to stop this sort of thing, it’s for them to get on with patrolling the trains more – but they won’t I imagine – cuz that’ll bring interpersonal violence to their people and it costs money to patrol trains – innit? [That photo is well pixelated but leaves sufficient detail to show why I said nothing.]

When I got home I changed my trousers immediately. I just could not stand the thought of what I’d been sitting on. Oh the trouser goes into the washing machine a bit later today.

Of Enid Blyton

On my recent jaunt in Scotland, I remembered Enid Blyton. Many children grew up reading her fantasy tales of fairies, pixies, and other ‘magic folk’ but also her tales of English countryside and rural descriptions. On my visit to the Scottish highlands, I came across heather, gorse and an actual stile, all of which are mentioned in her stories but which I had never actually identified before.

Here are the photos, 3 of heather, one of gorse, and 2 of the stile:

 

Scotland tallest freestanding structure to be destroyed

Scotland’s tallest free standing structure, the Inverkip power station’s tower, will be demolished tomorrow (28th July 2013) using explosives.

The chimney, at 236 m (778 feet) contains contains more than 1.4 million bricks and 20,000 tonnes of concrete,  and is the third tallest free-standing structure in the UK.

Although built in 1970, due to the soaring price of oil in the 1970s the station was never commercially operated - except in 1984 and 1985, as a result of coal shortages.

I was lucky enough to view it recently, while it existed. The height of the chimney is awesome.

Loch Awe in early morning

A panorama of a small bay off Loch Awe from Scotland. Compiled from several photos, the finished panorama is a modest 17.5 MB in size.

The Scotland trek

This took place between end of June to 9th July. Yes, some will have figured that the Cap and Jumbie were there at the same time. ‘Twas a life-changing experience. Enjoy some of the scenes below. But video and photographs cannot truly approximate the raw beauty and expanse of Scotland.

High-dynamic-range imaging

This view of the bridge over the River Clyde in the city of Glasgow was taken about 7 PM, while I was walking to a Chinese restaurant called Jimmy Chungs, for dinner.

To get the details of the sky, I switched my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (N7100) camera to HDR mode. Oddly enough, even though at 7 pm there is still bright sunshine, the dark contrast effect is because I was pointing the camera against the sun…

This is the same scene without the HDR mode.

“HDR methods provide higher dynamic range from the imaging process. Non-HDR cameras take pictures at one exposure level with a limited contrast range. This results in the loss of detail in bright or dark areas of a picture, depending on whether the camera had a low or high exposure setting. HDR compensates for this loss of detail by taking multiple pictures at different exposure levels and intelligently stitching them together to produce a picture that is representative in both dark and bright areas.”

Enjoy.

Some things about Scotland you may not know

The photo above is a panorama of the Scottish highlands, and lies on the way to Ben Lomond. It shows Loch Tulla in the valley. The Bridge of Orchy is under repairs.

The above shows a panorama of Loch Lomond at sunset. Loch Lomond is the largest body of fresh water in the UK, holding more volume than all the rivers and lakes of England and Wales combined… or so the guides said.

This photo shows the beginning of Loch Lomond, at Balloch. To the right rear of the building is a children’s play park and entrance to the hiking/cycling trails. The boat in the middle background is the Maid of the Loch, a paddle steamer that is currently being restored. Her ‘twin’ is the oldest steamer in active service, named after lawyer and writer Sir Walter Scott.

Loch Lomond is also known from a famous song, the chorus of which is very recognisable:

O ye'll tak' the high road, and Ah'll tak' the low (road)

And Ah'll be in Scotlan' afore ye

Fir me an' my true love will ne'er meet again

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomon'

Wemyss Bay in early sunrise.

It was only when I visited Scotland that I began to see the rich (and I do mean RICH) history of the Scottish people. Listed below are some famous Scots and their accomplishments:

1. James Young                       Inventor of Paraffin (kerosene)
2. James Young Simpson      Pioneer of Anaesthesia
3. Robert Liston                       Pioneering surgeon noted for speed in surgical procedures
4. George Forbes                   Scientist and inventor of carbon brushes for electrical motors (still used today)
5. Sir Walter Scott                   Lawyer and writer
6. David Hume                         Historian, writer and noted philosopher
7. Robert Burns                        Poet
8. John Logie Baird                 Inventor of television
9. John Boyd Dunlop               Inventor (independently) of the modern rubber tyre
10. Robert W Thompson           Inventor (independently) of the modern rubber tyre

A more complete but still partial list of famous Scots can be found here.

Scotland Photos

Had a recent trip to Scotland and thought I’d share some photos.

Travelogue 4

View from 16th floor of the Slavutych Hotel, Kyiv. The river is the Dnipro (also called Dnieper) River.

Travelogue 2

One of the pleasures of travelling, for me at least, is trying new foods from the various places I visit… the local cuisine can be daringly different or sometimes familiarly similar. The Ukrainian local cuisine is a blend of both, and at first glance is very healthy… similar to a Mediterranean one.

Cold and hot soups, filled with vegetables… meat dishes of various kinds, baked, fried, BBQ’d, boiled even (but since my heart attack, I avoid fried foods)… I took a fancy to two types of fish salad made by my friend’s mother.

In the first, to the far left, you can see decorations of black olives and potato chips… yes, the kind that comes out of a pack or a Pringle’s can. The one on the right is loaded with vegetables, corn, herbs etc. Both had different tastes, which made tucking in a real treat.

 

 

The dish to the right is  'pelmeni’ (Russian, in Ukrainian it is vareniki) which is like wontons… a thin flour wrapping filled with meat. This particular dish was pelmeni with mushrooms. To the far right is a cabbage salad. It was topped with lemon juice and was very tasty.

The best food is home prepared, in my opinion. I like the traditional flavours that come through, as opposed to the taste of  dishes from restaurants… though to be fair, even those are nothing to scoff at as I said in my last post.

Travelogue 1

Some time ago, I had undertaken a trip to Lugansk, Ukraine. Why, you may ask? It is after all, a somewhat offbeat place for a Trini of all nationalities, to find himself. Well, way back in 2007, I made a  Ukrainian pen friend (from some pen pal website I cannot recall now), who wanted to improve her English.

My friend is a PhD University lecturer in economics, and that reassured me a lot that I wasn’t being gypped into one of these fake ‘friendship/marriage’ sites where Russian women try to scam money out of unsuspecting Westerners. But she is a native Russian/Ukrainian speaker who, like many foreign students of English, struggles with understanding the oddness and quirks of the language.

Anyway, considering the airfare was affordable, and the trip is not so long via air (just over 4 hours) I thought I’d see what the Eastern part of the world was like… and explore what was previously behind the Iron Curtain. I felt a bit adventurous.

My friend lives in Lugansk, on the Eastern part of Ukraine. To get here, I took a flight from Birmingham, via Schiphol in Amsterdam and then to Borispol (Borispil in Ukrainian) Airport, then a train to Lugansk. It was my first experience in a ‘sleeper’ car and I immediately connected it with the train seen in the Harry Potter movies. You know, with the carriages having a corridor to walk through and enter into compartments, rather than the ‘regular’ trains.

Yes, it was marvellous fun! 15 hours on a train rocking me while I sleep… life was an exciting adventure at last… much nicer than experiencing a heart attack.

You can get hot water to make coffee, or tea on the train. I even got a souvenir cup holder engraved with the train company’s emblems.

Anyway, upon arriving next morning in Lugansk, we took a taxi to my friend’s home. Lugansk is not as well developed as the capital city of Ukraine, Kiev but definitely brought me back to some childhood memories of Trinidad.

Lugansk (or Luhansk in local spelling) has some nice places to visit. For example, I was impressed with the local BBQ stop called “Oh Barbecue” (Oh Mangal [Mangal is Russian for ‘grill]) which is a treat for the eyes and the tongue… conveniently located a mere 10  minutes walk from my friend’s flat.

The off menu dish included BBQ duck, which was a ‘had to try’ dish, merely because the close-minded Trinis only seem to know about curry duck. Boy, was I ever so pleasantly surprised. The taste, according to ‘Punks’, was like ‘heaven in my mouth’.  Only downside… no hot sauce (pepper sauce) and they bled me £8 for 5 ml of flipping Tabasco sauce… but only when I saw the bill after eating and could not regurgitate to return the damn thing.

Still, it was an experience to remember, not only for the Tabasco sauce, but also for the taste… and the overall cost for 2 persons was a lot less than the same meal in England.

That little round dish you see in the photo is black currant jam served with the BBQ duck… odd combination but it was marvellous. Note to my brother… get out of that Trini curry mind-set. Many foods are damn nice!

Next… some places I visited.

I eh able nuh!

Today’s Guardian has posted a second article on the CAL situation where Mohan Jaikaran, Vice-Chairman, is using his considerable ‘weight’ to force the airline to be his personal travel agency… [http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-05-10/cal%E2%80%88offers-luxury-seating-public-officials].

Now, after reading this article, two things jumped out at me and rendered me speechless.

The first is the statement by CAL CEO Rabindra Mooonan (my apologies, yesterday I erroneously wrote that it was George Nicholas III, who actually resigned in August 2011):

“Let me just make one thing clear. An upgrade is not sponsorship. “I am not aware of those directives. I am not supposed to be aware of these things, because they do not come to me.”

Not supposed to be aware? WTF!!

The second item was this statement issued by WIN, Jaikaran’s company:

“CAL would have benefited from over $2 million in promotions for WIN as a sponsor of its events, not just in T&T, but in North America, where WINTV has a huge viewing audience because of its Indian-niched programming.”

“It is curious that now that the national airline has supported WIN in Indian- niched events such as the broadcast of Divali Nagar and Chutney in the Park and the Mother’s Day show, that such a damaging report has been published.” 

Again, the sheer stupidity of this statement highlighted rendered me speechless, as I could not understand how WINTV ‘supporting’ CAL entitles WINTV to be exempt from reports of corruption. But that is just me, and my head aching at this point, I could only summon this one further thought: “I eh able nuh'!”

Travels

I leave today (in about 3 hours) to visit my pen friend in the Ukraine. I’m going to a place called Luhansk (alternative spelling Lugansk), which is about 800 km from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

I shall post some details of my trip as it happens.

Cannon Hill Park Birmingham

Bathing in dilute shit!

Hol’ yuh nose and get a bucket or supm if yuh plan to continue readin’ dis!!

Well, allyuh know I talk about how dee British nasty^{(1, 2, 3)}!  If dis doh convince yuh, nothing will.

Right. I jes wake up to a headline dat got me outta bed to write dis. I was on my HCD (Handheld Computing Device, for newbies), in meh bed when I came across an article that stated:

“Forty-six beaches have been labelled potential health hazards in a list of shame which includes some of Britain’s best-known seaside locations.

No-swimming signs may have to be erected under European rules unless they are cleaned up.

Sewage discharged into the sea is generating dangerous levels of bacteria and viruses, according to the Marine Conservation Society.”

Eh? Sewage?!! 46 beaches have been so affected! Read it here: Swim at your peril – in shit dat is.

Get dis – dis is not a new problem in dis country! I came to know about this problem about 15 years ago! It was always in the public domain.

The size of the problem may have reduced a bit, but in my opeenion no beach should offer the facility to bathe in dilute shit!!  And dat is what is being offered to us in several parts of the country. Well, not exactly in those words. But think of it – if there was  sign up stating “This beach offers bathing in shit diluted with sea water – enjoy”, I wonder how many would venture in to the water. There are bound to be a few who will do it just to be rebellious – I’m sure. However, I think most people would avoid the area.

BTW – please note that the practice of having a bath…like in a bathtub nuh – like dee English in particular are fond of – is an efficient way of washing shit out of, or from arong dee arsehole, and den spreading it arong to other parts of the body.. head, face, mouth etc. So – maybe shit concentrations in a few beaches may be much less. I don’t know. Look – I eh cyare!!

But eef you are a discerning type like me – who prefers showers – and eef yuh planning a trip ova dis side for dee summer, you may want to careful.

BTW - does anybody dong on dee Rock know what shit concentration levels in dee waters arong Maracas and Mayaro? Ah bettin dat dat information not in the public domain dong dey! Boy, allyuh eh even know what allyuh bathin’ in self… jeeezzzz!! Watch out for dat flotsam and jetsam eh. Geeeeddd!!

Scenes from Bristol

One of the Cap’s many adventures – Bristol! Lovely city.

Dis lady ran a Caribbean food shop. Cap enjoyed dee lady food three days running. Nah..nah.. no running belly. Take it easy. Real Jamaican curry goat, boy!. Real nice. Dat fella, immortalised to dee right, is Rajah Rammohun Roy. He was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule.	He is sometimes called the father of modern India. And he died in Bristol in 1833. See: Wikipedia.
Well Cap likes he shoppin centres eh, ah tell yuh.   I doh know, but statues also fascinate me. They tell a story – and not only immortalises persons but the values they stood for.