Monday, February 27, 2012

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.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

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 :)