The weather outside is frightful, but I find it so delightful!!

Today is day 412 of the Big Freeze TM... or so they'd have you believe they way they're carrying on.

A few inches of snow have fallen in the UK over the past few weeks. It's caused some inconvenience across the country, but according to all the 24 hour news channels, we're losing billions in lost hours and people are dropping like flies. We've been encouraged to stay indoors for fear of freezing to death in our cars. People haven't been going in to work, airports have been closed, entire towns have been cut off from the rest of the world. There was a report about some New Year's Eve (Ol' Year's Night, to thee and me) partygoers who were stranded in their hilltop pub for three days. Talk about the party that would never end! Not surprisingly, that pub landlord is now selling up. Bless him!

People have put the cost to the economy in the billions of pounds. A&Es around the country have been swamped with little old ladies with broken wrists sustained while taking their terriers for walkies, students with shattered ankles sustained after falling off of homemade snowboards and middle aged-men with torn tendons sustained while running through the snow to get make sure they really did lock the car before they came inside. Cost to the NHS? Who knows? All we know is that it's been an absolute TRAGEDY for the country. Disaster! Anarchy! Catastrophe!! Or so they'd have us believe. 24 Hour news channels (Sky, I'm looking at you!) are the bane of our modern-day existence. They take any little event and blow it up. So a few inches of snow have somehow morphed into "The Big Freeze".

It started snowing a few days before Christmas. It was interesting at first, nay even a bit exciting. I mean it very rarely snows in the UK. And when it does, it doesn't stick. So the fact that it was sticking made the place look all lovely and Christmassy. People were making snowmen, familes went sledding together, and every twat with a mobile phone camera became a wildlife photographer- as evidenced by the pictures being sent in to various news programmes.

Yeah, the roads were a bit icy, but you just drove more carefully. Yes the sidewalks were more slippery, but you just put on some sensible shoes and watched your step. Yes your car was covered in frost and snow in the mornings, but you factored that in and took the extra five minutes scraping it off and spraying on the de-icer. No big whup. But there is a tendency for people to go beserk and act like the four horsemen of the apocalypse are saddling up and punching co-ordinates into the sat-nav!

Schools were closed because teachers couldn't get in to teach the little darlings. This meant that parents had to be off work to stay home with their kids. This then meant that wherever the parents worked, had to do without them for a few days. Twas a vicious cycle. Sigh.

I myself had a snow-related adventure last week, when my car skidded into a curb when I turned the corner into my estate. Then I almost died when I went into town to go to the market and the butcher's. I swore my limbs were going to fall off. But I survived. Made it home to catch an episode of Judge Judy, slip into my Crocs and guzzle some tea.

However, in some parts, there have been reports of supermarkets running out of bread and milk as people stockpile supplies. Some stores have sold out of duvets, which begs the question, what were people sleeping with before? A nice thin cotton sheet? And when I did my shopping last week, I noticed that the shelves were completely bare of salt and all its derivatives- rock salt, sea salt, table salt. One store even reported running out of condoms! Well, if you're stuck indoors, might as well shag the hours away, eh? Generate heat and all that...

I guess I should count myself among the lucky ones though. I don't work and don't have any kids so I could afford to just sit on my window seat and watch the flakes fall. My sister wasn't so lucky last week though. She flew back from Trinidad for the start of the new term. She was supposed to land at Gatwick then fly up to Manchester, where I'd pick her up and drop her off at her place. But The Big Freeze showed no mercy. Gatwick airport was closed, so they were diverted to Stanstead, from where they were bussed to Gatwick. Of course there were no flights leaving there and there was no guarantee of a flight the next day or the day after, and nary a hotel room to be had. So she took a taxi to London Euston (cost £125!) and a train to Liverpool (cost £43!) and finally arrived at her flat nearly twelve hours after landing in London that morning. The poor lamb.

But at least it meant I didn't have to go out and pick her up. ;) Someone did ask the very important question though- is the NHS going to be able to cope with the inevitable increase in births nine months from now? I know I am waiting with bated breath. For now though, I shall sit here in fuzzy socks and dressing gown, sipping on tea and feeling smug.

It comes but once a year...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

Just thought I'd share my favourite Christmas song, which I only heard during my first year in England. It's a very happy Christmas song, and while it isn't a patch on the best soca parang tune to be heard, it's pretty awesome!

So here it is (you'll see why this is funny once you watch the video)...

We're only human after all

Tiger Woods has been boning down. Like, constantly. So what, I hear you cry? Well, problem is, he's married with two kids. Yessss... And he wasn't boning down with his wife.

Oh no!

As strong as my feelings are on adultery- my husband is very clear on this, and there is a 'bail' fund in case he ever gets caught in the act and I stab him and beat the crap out of her. But he isn't the cheating type, so I think I'll buy some Louboutins with the fund- but I digress. As strong as my feelings are on adultery, I'm finding it very hard to sum up any sort of emotion about this.

What is wrong with me??

I mean, am I so cold hearted that I cannot feel anything for the young, gorgeous woman, whose uber-rich semi-attractive husband had A LOT of sex with women who looked just like her? I mean, if she divorces him, she walks away with a cool $300 mil and will most likely be snapped up by some other self-absorbed rich dude. And he will be free to shag whomever he likes. Is that such a horrible thing?

Ok, so the man had some sex. And she is humiliated and hurt. But I find the whole situation so ludicrous that I'm really not arsed. I can understand how she must be feeling. I mean, I've been cheated on in the past. It was almost ten years ago, but finding out isn't at all a nice feeling. And it's probably a jillion times worse when it happens in public like this. So I do feel kind of bad for her. But I think that's where it stops.

I have no emotional investment in Tiger Woods. He doesn't factor into my life in any way. I mean, yes I remember watching that Masters tournament and the interview on Oprah afterwards. And even then I didn't watch the whole tournament. Just the final day, when it was clear that something special was going to happen. The thing is, golf is one of the dullest sports on the planet, a title also shared by snooker, curling, badminton and darts. So I am not really bothered by Tiger's achievements.

I think it also has something to do with the fact that I think he's full of shit. A fact that has only been compounded by his response to this whole malarkey. Instead of admitting right off the bat that he'd been caught with his trousers round his ankles and making the wrong sort of hole in one, he issued two completely lame-ass statements. Steups. I'm getting all riled up just thinking about it. It's taking me back to the 'cablinasian' bollocks he spouted on Oprah all those years ago. Yer man is mixed. Ok, yes. His mama's Thai and his dad is black. Instead of just saying that, he invents this ridiculous word and probably heard my eyes rolling all the way from my gran's living room in Trinidad.

So now I couldn't really care less what he gets up to. His wife and kids will be generously provided for, whatever the outcome of this so I don't think they need my sympathy. He wasn't beating the crap out of her or anything. Just being immensely stupid.

Steups. I'm over it.

More than a feeling...again!

Oh my. Looks like old feelings are bubbling up and up and up!


We Need a Resolution


I went to Spain for the first part of my year abroad. My lecturer arranged for me to work at the Camara de Comercio in a town called Soria, Spain which is two hours north of Madrid. I also worked at a languages academy, teaching English of course. I lived in a flat with a couple who were nice enough, I guess. He was wicked old and she was young and hot. I'm just glad I never heard them boning down. His name was Manuel, and I forget what she was called, but she made some deelishis empanadas. Anyway, my days were spent at the Camara, and my evenings at the languages school. I had a couple friends there and was mostly enjoying it (apart from being always mistaken for a prostitute. But that's for another day), but I really missed my black posse back in Preston.

So I arranged to fly back for a long weekend to get my Browns fix. Browns was an R&B/ Hip Hop club in Preston. It wasn't brilliant, but it succeeded because it was the ONLY R&B/ Hip Hop club in Preston. So chances are if you were black, you'd spend some portion of your weekend there. In my second and final year at uni, we fecking owned Browns. We had our own corner. There were girls who were actually afraid of us. Anyway, I was glad to be back, talking shit with my crew and all that. I hung out with my black posse and my mate G. Good times! It was also during this time that Aaliyah AND Michael Jackson released their new albums. I'd heard We Need A Resolution at some point, and really liked it so I bought it. And of course I bought the MJ. D'uh!

So after a weekend of throwing some serious shapes around Preston, and rocking the only weave I've ever worn, I flew back to Madrid and got on a bus to Soria, with my Aaliyah and MJ CDs. This is the first track on the album, and it just blew me away. I was always an Aaliyah fan. I love her voice. It's so pure and sweet and is just perfect, the way it just kind of floats over the melody and lyrics is just brilliant. It just moves effortlessly up and down the register and gives me goosebumps. The other song I love on the record is More Than A Woman. But Resolution is the song I played over and over again. I don't think I slept on the wrong side, but I felt like I most def needed a Resolution, especially as I fancied the arse of Alejandro at the Camara and was too much of a douche to make a move. I didn't speak my heart. I bit my tongue. Plus, he had a girlfriend.


I'd have this song on repeat, just singing it over and over and over and over. I'd take the CD down to Oui & Yes (the languages place) and put it on while I ate pizza and planned my lessons and made materials. I'd play it in the mornings while I was getting ready for work. I'd play it when I came in during siesta to get ready for my afternoon classes. I'd play it while I was laying on my bed devouring any English magazines or newspapers I'd gotten my hands on. I also read Spanish Cosmo, which is actually pretty good! I just played it damn near all the time. And when I saw the video? DAMN!! I just loved it. She looked SOOO gorgeous, it made me love the song even more. Sigh! Even seeing the video now makes my pores raise. She just looks stunning.

Aaliyah died later on that year I think. I remember I was back in Trinidad at the time, and my dad was all distraught because he thought it was Lil Kim that died. Don't ask.

It makes me sad that this amazing singer is no longer here. Timbaland lost his muse and to fill the void has resorted to working with Justin Timbertesticles and Nelly Furtado. I sometimes wonder if Aaliyah was still alive, if Rhianna would be as big as she is now. A bit random, I know, but my mind sometimes works that way.

Oh, and Alejandro and I did have a little thing in Seville the following year. Turned out he was quite taken with the black girl after all!

But it also turned out he had a tiny penis.

Oh my!

Those boots should be made for walking your own route!

I walk from the train station to the office every morning. It's about ten minutes' walk, so not too far. I walk fairly quickly, mostly because I'm tall but also because I'm usually starving and can't wait to get to work so I can have my porridge.

So I try to make it there as quickly as possible, but I still like to make sure I walk enough of a distance to get the old heart rate pumping. Lately I've noticed this lady has been trying to outwalk me. She takes a different route, but we always converge at a point and walk the last few hundred feet 'together'. When we get off the train, she practically runs to get ahead of me and walks as fast as her little legs will carry her.

I noticed she was a little disappointed last week, when we came back out onto the main road, I was WELL ahead of her. I noticed this because I turned around to have a look. Admittedly, I walked that little bit faster, just because.

This morning, she bloody followed me. She took the route I always take. It vexed me so. I felt like turning around and going "What the fuck are you playing at bitch? You want some of the black girl?"

I don't know why I felt so strongly about it, or why I felt so competitive towards her. But all I knew is that I would have broken out into a sprint, if I felt like she was going to beat me.

I need help.

More than a feeling Pt 2

Today was a horrible day, weather wise. It rained this morning on my way to work (I work now. Did I forget to say?) and it rained on my way home. My feet are soaked and my hands are still kind of numb. But I had on my iPod on the train on my way back, and a song came on that made me smile.

Superman Lovers- Starlight


I had heard this song once before I went to France, somewhere in the background somewhere. I liked it but never really thought about it again. But one night everyone decided to go to the opening night of this club. It was me and the Irish and our French friend David. David drove and took me and my Irish dudes Des and Paul. We were going to meet everyone else there. There was this club called 'Pop Plage' that a lot of students went to and it had just been renovated. So as the Irish were students and I worked at a college, we thought it would be very appropriate for us to go there on its opening night. David had a job...a proper job. Not like me who was just a douchebag on placement.

Anyway, we go to Pop Plage, and it is TEEMING with people. I clock quite a few students from the college I worked at...the same students who hated me for being their age, but not having to go to class and having my own office. Plus I was black. Still am. Anyway, they were giving me evils because I rocked up there looking fucking awesome with my Irish posse, looking like I run tings. Obviously. They were playing some generic pop, you know, chart shit, but we danced and danced. And somehow we ended up on the podium.

There was a podium. There was a cage. Me and Des were in the cage. And then this song came on. The one part I remember of that night, is of me sandwiched between Paul and Des, laughing and dancing and grinding and jumping and screaming and just fucking OWNING Pop Plage and basically giving all them girls who were hating on me, the finger. It was awesome. I love the way the verses are lower down on the scale, then in the chorus, he kind of explodes into "Starlight!" It's just a great song.

I don't remember any other part of that night. But whenever I hear that song, I just feel happy and carefree again. And it makes me so very happy.

More than a feeling

I love music. I don't remember if I always loved it, but for at least the past sixteen years, I've LOVED it. I remember hating music when I was forced to take piano lessons and being very happy when I was allowed to quit (a decision I obviously regret now). But I have always enjoyed a nice song and I really enjoy singing.

And I have come to realise just how many of my memories are intrinsically tied in to songs. I hear a certain song, and the period of time in which that song took centre stage comes rushing back to mind. A lot of the time it makes me very happy and very rarely it makes me sad.

Girlfriend by Alicia Keys


When I hear this song, it reminds me of the time I lived in France. It was very early 2002 and I had gone to Annecy in France for the second part of my year abroad. I was living in Centre Residence d'Evires (Evires for short) and working at IPAC (IPAC Annecy, bonjour.) It was a fairly idyllic time. It took me a while to socialise, but eventually I became really good friends with the Irish colony living in my building. They were the only acceptable people to hang out with. All the French people who lived there all appeared to be societal rejects, but that's for another day.

Alicia Keys had just released her first album but I was still immune to her apparently sizeable charms, even though Fallin' had already become the song of choice for talent show auditionees across the world. I myself preferred India.Arie and was loving 'Brown Skin' in a big way. So Paul, one of the Irish, lent me his bootleg version of 'Songs in A minor'. Girlfriend was the first 'proper' song on the album since the first track was an Intro.

I would play this CD a lot, especially on a Saturday morning as I was getting ready to go into town to knock about. So the first piano chords of this song always reminds me of coming in from the shower and picking out my clothes. I'd then sing along while I was getting dressed and feel pretty happy. I liked the way the piano sounded so jazzy, then it suddenly switched to a thumping drum machine and her voice comes in and it sounds slightly out of time "Maybe silly, for me to feel this way about you and her." I loved the lyrics and the backing vocal, and I especially loved chiming in on the chorus "I think I'm jealous of your girlfriend, although she's just a girl that is your friend." I'm sure the girl in the room next to me was dead annoyed but I couldn't help it. The lyrics were simple yet they really made sense and even though I was single and had never before experienced the feelings she was talking about, I was often the girl-friend the girlfriends were jealous about.

I'd then fast forward to Butterflies.


This song has such a 'sing-a-long' quality to it, I simply couldn't resist. Sigh! I loved the simplicity of the production. Just her and the piano. Then the backing track comes in near the end. It's so melodic and so pretty. I hear it, and I'm taken back to night time in Evires. I'd play that song in the evening, mostly because I found it very soothing and I enjoyed hearing it as I lay in bed reading or just staring into space wishing that Cute French Guy (who did indeed give me butterflies) would stop being so nice to me and ravage me behind the ugly building that housed IPAC.

D'Angelo- Playa Playa


This song is from Voodoo, the only D'Angelo album I own but one of my absolute favourites. I also borrowed this from Irish Paul and simply fell in love with it. This is the first song on the album and I love how it starts with the ambient noise. Then the instruments kick in in a sort of disjointed fashion and it all sounds so old school. I loves it! I'd also play this on Saturday mornings, usually just after I woke up and before I went for a shower. I'd do what I imagined to be a super cool dance, looking as 'edgy' and hip as I could. And I just loved singing along to it. I like the way the vocal sounds a bit out of time with the music and the way he pronounces the words, not drawing out the syllables or anything. It just sounded cool. I particularly remember one morning when it was super-cloudy and I was wondering whether I should even bother going into town. I was standing by the window of my room looking out, and singing the song in a somewhat distracted way, when the chorus finally comes and I just about burst into song. Good times.


R. Kelly- Spendin' Money



We used to have parties in the basement of our halls. In my halls there were the Irish, a couple English, an American, two Belgian, an Uruguyan and loads of French. In the other halls up the road (Pre St Jean), there were Irish, other Belgians and other people whose existence I'm not that bothered about at this point. We mostly only socialised with the Irish. So anyway, we'd often organise these parties in our basement and Paul used to DJ. I'd heard this song somewhere before and never knew who sang it. But I knew that I liked it. And then one night, Paul played it and it made me so happy. I was dancing with my friend Des (Irish Justin Timberlake type) and we were just having so much fun and it was one of the best times of my life. I especially love the part near the end when he goes "I need you baby, to share this good life. I need you baby, it's true. All that I do, I do for you." I can't really explain why I love it so much, but of course I borrowed that bad boy from Paul and played that A LOT! My room wasn't massive and once you factored in the bed and the desk it didn't really leave a lot of room for dancing. But I think I made it work. When I hear this song now, it brings a smile to my face and makes me think of a simpler time, when life was super easy and we really didn't have any hassles.


Ah, if only!