2012 - The Aftermath

So it's the last day of the year, and it has been quite a year for me. I know there's been little to no activity on my blog, but there has been quite a lot going on for me that I haven't posted about.

This year, my younger son did SEA and passed for his first choice of QRC...
This year, my older son also transferred into QRC...
This year, we found out that my younger son had cancer...

The cancer diagnosis is one that affected everyone in our family and one that I have been meaning to write about for quite a while now, but it never seemed to be the right time.

As my son starts his 8th and FINAL (Woot! Woot!) cycle of chemotherapy this week, and as the year comes to an end, the timing seems to be right.

In May of this year, after numerous doctor visits, a CT scan revealed a tumour on my son's lung. To say this was unexpected would be an understatement. The last thing we expected to hear were the words tumour/cancer.

My son underwent two biopsies to confirm the type of cancer he had as the results were inconclusive. His samples eventually made their way to Miami where he was diagnosed with B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

 

He was admitted to Mt. Hope Children's Hospital - JBF Unit, while we waited on his results and while the did additional tests such as echocardiograms, X-rays and another CT scan. He spent three weeks at Mt. Hope as his doctors were wary of the position of the tumour near his heart and lungs.

My son absolutely hated being in hospital being poked and prodded, as he missed his last days of school, the excitement of last day and not being around his family.
Passing for his first choice was one of the only things that cheered him up while he was in hospital. While he missed his school orientation, the school made special provision for him when he came out of hospital, and he got a tour of the school with the vice-principal, which he loved.

His treatment involved 8 cycles of what the doctors called "intense chemotherapy". His protocol requires him to get chemo for 5 days straight. So for 5 days straight, every 21 days, he is hooked up to a machine that administers his chemo drugs.

Thankfully, he has had little side effects. He has lost his hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, but has had none of the other side effects of chemo like nausea, vomiting, fever.

He had to put in a portacath which is the better/easier way to administer the chemo than an IV. He has had to go under anesthetic over 10 times, for his biopsies, portacath surgery, lumbar punctures and bone marrow tests.

When his 5 days of chemo is over, he also has to go to the hospital on a daily basis for blood tests to be run and to get his shot which boosts his white blood cell counts, that the chemo kills.

He is now on his LAST cycle, and we are all excited for the all day, all night hospital stays to be over. Once his cycle is over a PET scan is the next step to see the status of the tumour, if it is still there, and then his doctors will let us know where we go from there.

We have had a good experience with Mt. Hope where he did all of his treatment for free, there have been some hiccups here and there, but for the most part it has been a positive experience.

I have had tremendous support from my family and friends (who have kept me sane when people around me were acting crazy) and I would like to say thanks to them all. Not gonna get all mushy here, you all know yourselves ;)

So that has been my 2012 in a nutshell.
Happy New Year to all my readers, wishing you all the best an hopefully more blog posts from me in 2013 :)

Bond, James Bond - Skyfall Premiere

When last did you get all dolled up in a cocktail dress, heels and a clutch to go see a movie? For me it would be never.

While I am not a fan *gasp* of the whole James Bond series, I know it is akin to blasphemy for some, my husband is a HUGE fan, so I eagerly accepted the invite to attend the Skyfall: Cocktail Reception & Screening plus it was for a great cause as well.

The movie itself was just okay, there were some great action scenes, but the storyline was very meh, in my opinion.



The event is dubbed “An Evening of Bond”and will be hosted at the Digicel IMAX Theatre at One Woodbrook Place.It will include a gala cocktail reception, giveaways and a silentauction where all funds raised by this event will gotowards the Rotary Club of Port-of-Spain’s Signature Project for 2012-2013: theconstruction and commissioning of the Sea Lots Children's Learningand Activity Centre. 

Over the last fifty-seven years, the Rotary Club of Port of Spain andits partner organizations have been involved in numerous charitable, relief andphilanthropic programmes and provided humanitarian services to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.The Club's primary focus has always been to provide financial andorganizational support to institutions responsible for the welfare ofdifferently-abled and disadvantaged persons, in particular children, within butnot limited to Port-of-Spain and its environs.

The organization continuously strives to raise funds and executeprojects to assist a range of institutions and organizations – among them thePrincess Elizabeth Centre, Goodwill Industries International, ESHE’S LearningCentre, the Mt. Hope Children’s Hospital and the Gordon Home for the Aged–  most of which mirror the Club’s effortto maintain the overall welfare of children in T&T.  This latest project of the Club for thechildren of Sea Lots is geared towards assisting over 700 children in thecommunity, providing a conducive and appropriate environment tofoster their holistic development in areas such as academia, culture, socialdevelopment and general health and wellness. Mr. Trevor Chan Pak, RCPOSPresident remarked, “We are extremely honoured to host this signature fundraiserunder the patronage of the UK High Commission and the corporate support of our titlesponsor Trinity Exploration & Production. We look forward to an elegantevening with some fun surprises and great support for the project”.  


We got there just about 7:30pm and were able to grab a couple of drinks from the bar area before we waited to go into the IMAX theatre. I saw Soca Star Swappi, former West Indies cricketer Dinanath Ramnarine among other socialites in the crowd.

Going into the theatre we were given complimentary popcorn as well as a bottle of water and after a brief introduction by British High Commissioner Arthur Snell and Mr. Trevor Chan Pak, Rotary Club President, we viewed a short film on the plan for the Sea Lots Children's Learning and Activity Centre.

The Learning & Activity Centre will be constructed on an existing derelict playpark in the area and will feature an upgraded mobile learning resource centre. The centre will cater to children of all ages within the Sea Lots cachement area.

I think this is a great initiative by the Rotary Club, and I look forward to seeing the final project.

Jazz on the Greens - The Aftermath

When: Saturday 24th March 2012
Where: WASA Grounds, St. Joseph
Cost: $250 advance $300 door

While this was not my first Jazz on the Greens, (I went back in 2008 when it was held in UWI), this would be the first year attending with my friends, and we decided to make it part of my birthday celebrations.

Venue: 
Getting to Jazz was really easy, it took me less than 15 minutes and I made a stop for ice. Parking was a breeze, and was within walking distance of the venue, literally around the corner from where we parked.
We walked with our own chairs but there were lots of chairs available for patrons. Some persons also walked with blankets to sit on the ground. It was cool, and and setting sun made way for a lovely evening.

Food & Drinks:

I absolutely love the picnic style for Jazz.

My crew planned, and walked with our own food and drinks. We had bottles of wine, bacon wrapped sausages (yummy!), meatballs, cheese, fruits and so much more. We had enough food and snacks to feed double the number of us that actually went to the Jazz. LOL. We also had samples of the Soldanza products, and I had some of the Angostura cocktails as well.

There was also food and drink on sale.

Entertainment:

I will admit to not being the biggest of jazz lovers. I'm a soca girl through and through. But I enjoyed every single performance at Jazz on the Greens. I missed the first performer, Carlton Alexander and the Coalpot Band.

Llettesha Sylvester performed some R&B favorites including Adele, Chrisette Michell and Alicia Keys and ended her set with one of my favourite Jill Scott tunes "One is the Magic Number". LOVED her performance and the performances only got better from there.

The Clifford Charles Quintent did an instrumental set which included Machel Montano and Kerwin Du Bois, and he encouraged patrons to come out of their seats to enjoy the music. People in the crowd actually took out rags and started to wave.

Michele Henderson was up next and WOW, her voice is absolutely amazing! Michele (pronounced Mick-elle) is the Cultural Ambassador from Dominica, and with that performance we could see why as she had the crowd entertained from start to finish. She also demonstrated her skills on the flute
and had the entire crowd enthralled during her performance. She was backed up by Trinidad's very own Dean Williams, Michael Low Chew Tung and Modupe Onilu.

Shortly after Michele's performance we left the venue and made our way home.

While the crowd at Jazz was more on the mature side, there were also younger persons, and in some instances people who brought their kids along. Jazz was, hands down, one of the best non-Carnival events I've been to for the year.

I would give it 4 bebops out of 5.

My Hyatt Staycation aka The Birthday Weekend

This weekend for my birthday, I decided to spend a day at the Hyatt. The service was fantastic from start to finish! Enjoyed every minute of it :)

Checking in

Relaxation...

View from my room

Free tickets to Movietowne came as part of the package

Yummy sushi

A.M. Bush - The Aftermath

Date: Carnival Saturday 2012
Location: Chaguaramas
Cost: $450

 I really didn't want to write this review eh.
Cause this J'ouvert party was DE WORSE!
The end.










Nah...ah lie.
It wasn't really.

I really didn't want to write this review because of how BESS this J'ouvert party was. It was so bess that I fraid it will be over subscribed next year.

I have only ever played J'ouvert once in my life and that was way back when I was 15 years old...and I hated it. I hated the darkness, the cold, the mud/paint etc. And I never tried it again after that.

So what made me do a J'ouvert party? Friends nah. All of us were supposed to play mas together in Bliss, but then some of us changed bands to K2K/Fantasy etc. So we decided this would be the one event that all of us could meet and lime in.

Fast forward to Saturday morning, we packed away our cameras and phones in ziplock bags and car pooled our way to Chaguaramas where we parked by Samaan Park and were shuttled to the 'secret location'.

From the time we jumped on the shuttle, the vibes started. The maxis was playing soca at the highest decibels and people was wining in the maxi.

As the shuttles stopped and we jumped out the maxi, we spotted our crew one time and after all the hug up and greetings, the ting start one time. When Machel sang Vibes Cyar Done this year, I think he sang it for this party. Cause form the time we got there to the time we left it was nuff vibes.

Oh gosh you here too?!

So how the J'ouvert party works is this, we party and wine dong low in the secret location until the sun comes up, then we head out onto the road. Basically that's it. While waiting for day break, is level cho wine, drinks and paint.

Chipping outta de bush

1. Drinks
I eh know bout the alcohol, I think Single Barrel ran out and my friends had to drink Black Label  instead. Being the designated driver I had coke and juice, except for the shot of Patron from a fellow partygoer.

2.Breakfast
Once we made it out of the secret location, we had sandwiches to eat. Hops and saltfish, and hops and something else that I cannot remember now. The saltfish was bess and they weren't limiting you really to how many you could take. Some of us *cough* had at least two.

3. Paint
You get your paint in some of those small BlueWaters bottles. We started off with black, then came orange, red and blue. And every man jack who pass through our group had to get paint.

4. Buckets
At some point in time, just before we started heading out of the bush, someone came and dropped off empty Ozone soap powder buckets. People had buckets on dey head, used it as a receptacle for their drinks, used it to hold their drinks and to hold larger quantities of paint.

BUCKET!!

5. Music
BESS! I had no complaints with the music, except for one moment when we were heading out on the road and I heard Rihanna singing bout finding love in a hopeless place, when all people wanted was to cho wine all over de place.
We also had honorary Trini, Beenie Man in attendance as well as, straight off his Groovy and Power Soca Monarch win, Machel Montano. They entertained us with a medley of both their songs on the way out of the bush.

6. Bathrooms
The theme for Caesar's Army was "Me Tarzan, Me Jane" and due to the long lines to use the porta potties, when nature called, we really had to go "Me Jane and utilise the surrounding bushes.

Kudos to Caesar's Army for having a cleanup crew, so as we moved off, they were picking up empty bottles of paint, used cups etc so the venue was left clean.

Overall Caesar's Army A.M. Bush J'ouvert gets 6 cho wine out of 5 for me. It was EPIC!

De jabjab fork cho wine all on de pole

LIME 2012 - The 10 point (or less) Review

Date: Wednesday 15th February 2011
Location: Hyatt Regency
Cost: Regular - US$200 VIP - US$300

After my first LIME experience in 2011, this was one of my most anticipated fetes for Carnival 2012. It took many months of agonising over what to wear, before I finally decided and made myself a simple dress and clutch the night before! Unlike last year, there would be no outfit changes (yes, my crew and I did outfit changes last year) so I wouldn't need to have a second outfit ready.


1. Food

The Far East tent was serving shrimp, salmon and noodles. The shrimp was FANTASTIC, the lines were not. I was also able to enjoy a yummy corn soup while waiting in the Far East line. There was food at all the tents from the time we got there to the time wee left. We even had a second serving of shrimp later in the night.

Shrimp and salmon from the Far East tent

2. Bars

No wait at all at any of the bars. LOVED the addition of the bar in the food area this year. I had less walking to do than last year fersure.

I had daiquiris from the Angostura Cocktail bar, a shot of Patron (yummy!) and some of the tequila soaked saltprunes as well. Oh, in addition to a Lime Time cocktail when I came in.

Yummy daiquiris

3. Entertainment

In the food area there was also entertainment by Explainer and Denyse Plummer, the latter of whom was well received. 

We missed Nadia and Sass, heard them when we were coming in. After we ate, we headed to stage side and caught some of Karma's performance. I'm not a big fan of Karma though and we took the opportunity to take in the rest of the venue. 

Even though I had seen Kes the Band in the two other fetes that I went to for the season, I still really enjoyed his set. 

Kees performing Stress Away

JW and Blaze entertained us with their Soca Monarch selection "We Time" which I like, thought they would have also performed their past Road March hit "Palance", but they didn't.

I was waiting for the entire night to hear my boy Iwer George perform, but my peeps were tired and we left. Just as we were heading out though, I heard the strains of Iwer as he took the stage :(

4. Crowd

The fete felt a lot more crowded than it was last year and it is definitely a more mature crowd, and everyone came out to have a good time. 

I found that this year more people adhered to the dresscode of white with a touch of lime, but there were still folks who I guess wanted to 'stand out' so they wore whatever they felt like. I also think that the entertainment should stick to the dresscode as well. Only Kes the Band, JW and Blaze did this. (Granted I did not see SASS perform)

5. Bathrooms

I used the bathroom facilities in the hotel which were really clean and well maintained (after all, it is the Hyatt)

6. Ambiance

Nothing, absolutely nothing beats the Hyatt for ambiance. This fete has the perfect location and setting and makes you feel special from the time you walk in. Best fete location in my opinion.

So there you have it, in less than 10 points, the LIME 2012 review. Good fete in a great location, let's hope it doesn't get too much bigger next year.

Beauty is Pain - The Eyelash Aftermath

My friends all know that I am a firm believer in the whole "beauty is pain" thing. Well this Carnival certainly tested that.

I had my eyelashes done on the Tuesday before Carnival. It was my first time doing individual lashes, as I usually do the eyelash strips. Everything was fine except for a few lashes that fell out in during the week.

Fast forward less than a week later to Carnival Monday and the eyelashes on my right eye aren't all there, and I couldn't get to the girl before to have her fix them for me. So I decided to pluck out the eyelashes one by one. Cool.

Went to put on my makeup now and told my friends and family who were in the house "Hmmm...my eyes a bit cloudy boy." Thinking it may have been my contacts, I went, rinsed them over and put them back in but same thing, cloudy eye. Small ting, I figured it would clear up on its own, I made sure to walk with my re-wetting drops for my contact lens.

Met the band and everything was fine, but as the day progressed, my eye got steadily cloudier and kept tearing up. It felt as if there was a file in front my eyes. Just before we crossed the stage, I asked Saucy how the eye looked and she said it looked swollen. I told my peeps that I would go home (St. James) after we crossed the stage and wash my face and flush my eyes out.

After we crossed the stage, I did just that. I was fortunate to get a taxi that dropped me straight in front my door (for an exorbitant price of $70, but I was desperate and my eye was getting worse). 

I got home, washed my face, flushed my eye and no improvement. So I said ok, I'll take a lil rest and see what happens. I took a small nap, woke up and still no improvement. And this point in time, I was starting to get a lil panicky and the eye had now started to feel like there was gravel in it.

My hubby had cut his day short in YUMA to come home and take care of me. We tried eye drops in the eye which burn like if he put pepper sauce in my eye. After going to the drugstore and getting some eye wash, I washed the eye and fell asleep. Waking up this time there was still no improvement and I went into extreme hysterics thinking I was going blind and demanding that my hubby Google my symptoms and/or/also call St. Clair Medical to find out how much was the cost of a visit there.

I eventually ended up in the emergency room at St. Clair Medical at about 6:00pm on Carnival Monday night. After examining me the doctor on duty determined that the glue from the eyelashes had landed on my eyeball and I had an allergic reaction it it. My eye was doused with saline to flush out whatever was in it and they put in some drops that numbed the eye and eased up the pain. I also got a prescription from the doctor on duty which we were unable to fill at three different drugstores as it had been "discontinued for the past 3-5 years" :|

The pharmacist at Superpharm gave me two alternatives to use as well as some allergy medication. I went home, took the meds, and by 3:00am Carnival Tuesday morning, I had my eyesight back! Needless to say I was extremely happy that I would be able to make it out on the road in my super fabulous costume later that morning.

So yes, beauty is pain, but meen want to ever experience that kinda pain again, and I'll stick to my adhesive strips in the future :)

Soca Monarch Semi-Finals Aftermath - The CNC Edition

After watching the Semi Finals of the International Soca Monarch competition last night, and cracking up with my peeps on Facebook, I thought it may be a good idea to jot down some thoughts that the organisers, entertainers and CNC3 should take note of for next year.

*unfolds paper with list*

Organisers
1. Never ever again have CNC air this show. Whether it be delayed or not. NEVER. Find someone else to give/sell the rights to.

2. Stop picking "entertainers" (I use this term loosely here) just to make up a list. More than HALF the people who were there, should not have been. (Not calling any names this time).

3. Stop the farce of having people draw for positions. Just tell them the day and start time so they know what day to show up.

4. Never ever again, cut off the Mighty Shadow. EVER. Penalise him if need be, but don't cut him off. That is just damn disrespectful to a performer of his caliber.

CNC
1. There's a little something called branding.This was supposed to be in International show! Hang up a little banner with your name/logo/something so people when they tune in will see who airing the show...or maybe you all were too shame.

2. Hosts should know what going on.
They should know who coming up next without having to look at a mash up fold up piece of paper.
They should look like they have proper credentials and not be in front a fence looking like they didn't get their media passes.
They should have an accent that I can identify with as a Trinidadian watching the show.
They should not get distracted by half naked performers Lil Kim inspired outfits. (im just saying)

And finally...

ENTERTAINERS

1. Stop using the following phrases immediately:
"Low"
"Gimme a one drop"
"Anybody from [insert country/city here]"
"Lemme see yuh hand in de air!" and/or "Put yuh two hand in de air"

2. Stop shouting. Sing.

3. Stop singing over tracks. Just sing.

4. Use your backup dancers and props wisely. Sometimes they are really unnecessary. You don't need folding tables from Pricesmart for the girls to wine up on unless your song is about shopping by Pricesmart. (Remember the year Benjai placed third in the finals with NO props?)

5. Pay those winer girls and backup dancers well for embarrassing themselves so soundly in front of thousands.

and most importantly entertainers...

6. STOP TOTING. Nobody came to see or hear you tote. Nobody care. All we want to do is enjoy your performance and wine down low.

K2K for Carnival 2K12!

So it is official! I have jumped ship!
I am no longer in Bliss, my costume has been sold and I am now playing mas with K2K.

K2K launched at Saute Trinbago and from the time I laid my eyes on the gorgoues aubergine skirt of Saraswati I, I fell head over heels in love. I went along with my girlfriends to register and now I am over excited for Carnival 2012!

K2K Alliance & Partners Inc. was founded by twin sisters, Kathy and Karen Norman on January 1st, 2010. At its core, the Company acts as a medium to explore creative work, specifically Carnival “mas” design. K2K embraces artists, performers and craftspeople that share our dream that the mas-man is a storyteller and the masquerader is the actor who brings the story to life.

 You can read more about K2K here.

What Devon Matthews Do?

I want to know what it is Devon Matthews do to the Soca Bigwigs. Seriously.

For Carnival 2012, Devon Matthews has SEVEN soca songs that I know about. And of that seven, I like about six nd a half of them. But yet, Devon nowhere to be seen in the list of semi-finalists of the Groovy or Power Soca Monarch competition.

What happened?
He didn't enter?
He choose the wrong songs?
The Soca Monarch people have something against him?
He didn't pay his mafia dues?
What going on?

And what makes it even more perplexing to me, if the fact that I seeing names like...Lima Calbio? Gary Cornder? Prestan Andries? Who are they? What they singing? Now I'm not hating and saying they don't deserve to be there eh, well maybe I am, but if they there, Devon could more than be there. That's all I'm saying.

For those of you who do not know who Devon Matthews is or what he singing, take a listen to the songs posted below and tell me if you haven't heard them on the radio and/or found yourself singing along to them and/or if you won;t be jamming on the road to them when they get played.

Devon boy, send me an email and tell me what you do them nah. I promise I won't tell anybody.

Bottle

Push It

Take It Off

Gimme De Wine

Roll

All Night

Jam On De Pavement

P.S. Devon Matthews is not my family or friend, I have never even met the man. I just think he is an artist who has consistently produced good work and has been overlooked time and time again.

Yeah! - The 10 point (or less) review

Well since allyuh enjoyed the condensed 10point review that last time I figure I'll do a next one.

So at the 99th hour... I ended up with a Hyper Inclusive ticket to Island People's Yeah! at O2 Park. (Remember I said I wasn't going anywhere else for the rest of the season right?). Chanting my usual mantra of "But I have NOTHING to wear!" I headed to Yufe's Saturday morning, channelled my inner Anya and created a fab mini dress a mere two hours before the fete! And hear nah...de dress look pretty decent if I do say so myself and I do *pats self on back*

This was another fete that I decided not to walk with my camera. But this time though, it was because I couldn't find the cable for my camera to transfer my pics and the camera have no more room.

Okay, here's the 10 point review.

1. Layout
I can only speak for the layout in the Hyper Inclusive as I did not venture in the Inclusive side of the fete. The layout was good. My only observation was the main bar on the slope could be dangerous if navigating with heels and some drinks in yuh head. The elevated sponsor area gave a great view of the stage and the crowd.

2. Food
I had a plate (or two, maybe three, I wasn't counting) of the sushi and that was really good. Best dish of the night. I also tried Flair Restaurant's beef, with the pineapple salsa...yummy! I also did take a taste of the stewed oxtail from Mango's and that was tasty as well.

3. Drink
Now I am not a drinker by any means. My usual fete drink of choice is Coke on the rocks, I MAY have the occasional vodka and orange juice or Bailey's and das about it. However, the people at Fair Restaurant inveigled me into trying a drink of theirs called "Canal Water". I ended up having about 6 of those sample cups of canal water. Hear nah...dat was the best drink of the night oui!

4. Performances
Denise Belfon - a bit tedious.

JW and Blaze - I love me some JW and Blaze, and to me they brought the low key vibe up a few notches. (JW and Blaze ah waiting for the Power Soca song...allyuh stickin! )

Kes the Band -  Enjoyed his performance from start to finish! He has a great repertoire this year, he sang my favorite song from him this year "Stress Away", but all of his songs got a reaction from the crowd.

Swappi -  I love love love Swappi! He sang the tune that brings out my inner jammette, Bubble on a DJ, as well as 4D Gyal and Bucket. I love them ALL!

Machel Montano - I think Machel could give his girls a rest and bring back the Powerpuff girls yes. His dancers did give their usual energetic performance though. Machel seems intent on pushing "Pump Yuh Flag" for Road March, for me though...it kinda meh. I am certainly not feeling it. Machel I think you should go with Revelling as your Road March pic.

Patrice to me was underwhelming, loved her catsuit, did not like her dancers though...I could do without them. And was it just me or did Patrice forget the words to "I Am Soca"?

Enjoyed Farmer Nappy's performance.

5. Crowd - The crowd was REAL low key for the most part. Especially when it came to the newer songs, it seems to me that they were unfamiliar as they were more responsive to songs from previous years. The vibes were me and my crew were liming was real hype though. We had a time.

6. Bathrooms - Up to now I eh find the Hyper Inclusive bathrooms eh IP. The cleaning staff  send meh ALL OVER de place. I ended up using the facilities in the Inclusive area and that was up to par.

Other than a small incident with one of the security guards, I enjoyed this fete, and overall I would give this fete 4 wine out of 5.

Soca in Moka 13 - The 10point review

Who: Soca in Moka
What: All-Inclusive
Where: Trinity College, Moka. Maraval
When: Sunday 8th January 2012
Cost: $600 (last year $550)


I told Saucy that I wasn't going to be doing any review this year yuh know. I went to Moka with my two hand swinging...no camera, no Blackberry, nothing, which I thought was a good idea given all the rain and thing. But wouldn't you know it...this would be the year Moka made some changes to their layout...Steups.

Anyhoo...I still don't really feel like doing a full review, so here is Soca in Moka in 10 points (or less) :

1. Layout - The most popular food has always been the Chinese food, this year that booth was elevated (dem stairs was lil rickety eh Moka fix dat nah) and was under two tents this year. That did not make the lines any shorter. Line. for. days!

Uncle Max booth was also elevated, not that he was in there for any length of time, cause he's a man like to be in the middle of the crowd with his security jostling paying patrons.

2. Roy Cape - Blaxx cut his ras and say he was going to talk less, but didn't, they now have Ricardo Dru on the frontline, he wasn't too bad and Rita Jones is an even bigger dragalicious mess than she was last year. (Matter of fact that's an insult to the drag queens I've seen yes. My apologies queens!) She needs an intervention ASAP! Somebody...anybody...PLEASE HELP HER! Yes Roy Cape, ah glad allyuh realise people wasn't feeling allyuh non-soca set and allyuh went back to the soca.

3. Kerwin Du Bois - Bachannalist. Big Tune. My choice for Groovy Soca Monarch HANDS DOWN! (Sorry Mr. Fete, but I'm a bachannalist to meh heart, just read de blog to see why)

4. Dil-E-Nadan - *yawn* unimpressed for a second or is it third (?) year running. The best part of DEN's performance was when Ronnie Mc Intosh came out and mash up de place.

5. Ronnie Mc Intosh - Yes, his performance was so good he get his own bullet point here! Ronnie performed  How It Go Look, Ent and On The Road in his trademark fedora and a white track suit and MASH UP DE PLACE! Like it was 1998 all over again oui! From front to back and all the side of the fete was jumping up with dey umbrellas in the air. Well done Ronnie!

6. Rain - This was the first year EVER in my 12 years of going to this fete that rain fell. When we got the fete around 5:45pm, the place was good empty eh. So I say well yes, people eh coming this year ah go have room to move. Eh heh? Well look how by 8:00pm place pack like is nobody business, people come with dey umbrellas to the fete (not me eh) and jamming, jumping and wininig with dey umbrella in hand. I party in  de rain and dat made the fete even sweeter for me. Mind you on Monday I reach to work feeling lil sniffly and real mash up eh.

So das it really, Soca in Moka in 10 points or less. My low point for the night was losing a gorgeous bling ring my mom bought me for Christmas :( I took it off in the Andy Loos to wash my hands and forgot it by the sink, time I realised and went back, some bandit done ninja the damn ring. Bastards.

Soca in Moka is the only fete I have planned/budgeted to go to. If anything else drop in my lap though *hint hint* I'll be ready and more than willing to go!

(Photo: Triniscene.com)