D’Krewe 2010 Review – Carnival Tuesday

CARNIVAL TUESDAY

I got up at 4:30am despite my intention of waking up at half 5.

The time to meet the band was 11:00am. After having a bath and hastily shaving my legs, I made my way to my makeup artist, Rachiel in the living room. :)

Aunty Rachiel does my makeup for me every year and this year was no different. I had to wait for my sister in law who was getting ready to meet her band for 6:30am. While waiting I had breakfast of a ham sandwich and a hot cup of tea courtesy my mummy :)

The usual “leaving the house chaos Carnival Tuesday morning” took place, with the eleven or so of us getting dressed, adjusting costumes, putting on backpacks, being sprayed with sunscreen, grabbing bags and cups, picking up vex money and hiding keys in the flowerpot under the sink.

I was the last to get ready, and had to be laced up into my corset. After being laced up I could not breathe or bend, so my husband had to help me into my socks and then into my boots. I put on my headpiece and was ready to go!

I got to the band, and the band was looking really good!

Unfortunately in the haste to leave the house, I left my arm twisties at home, I ended up getting one from the mas camp. I was happy.

The band made their way down to Ariapita Avenue, the costumes looking nice, the music sounding good. We arrived at the first judging point at Adam Smith Square.

My section which was undoubtedly the best section in the band was second to last in the line up which didn’t bother me one bit, cause I does only be in my section to cross the stage anyways.

My only problem with the band on Tuesday was the actual lineup in terms of the colours, I found that the colours were too close in some instances. Like Hawk, Riptide and Desert. Anyhoo.

We crossed Adam Smith and made our way to Victoria Square. As usual, there were no judges at this judging point when we arrived and there was also no spectator control. We then slowly made our way to Independence Square.

After crossing Adam Smith, I attempted to get a drink by the bar. This proved to be unsuccessful. There were too many people and not enough bar. The one bar truck which was way too tall for my 5’4” was always crowded and jammed with people. I bought drinks (Coke, juice, water) for most of the day to save myself the stress and jostling.

On the way to Independence Square I found that the band was moving way too slowly so I walked ahead to see what was the holdup. There was nothing. The band was just strolling down the road and taking their time. I left the band and walked downtown to see some other bands and wait for my band.

After crossing the stage just after 1:00pm, we made our way up Frederick Street and I was wondering what was going on with lunch as no announcement was made and in the letter I got, I didn’t read anything about a lunch stop. I saw the bandleader (he didn’t need a tag like some others) and asked him about lunch. He told me the band was stopping on Hart Street so that is where I went.

I was one of the first people to arrive to get lunch and was able to find a nice cool spot on a bench in Woodford Square. The lunch was rice, plantain (my favourite!), potato salad and a HUGE slab of fish. The food was tasty and my only complaint would be gravy. I like my food wet. Maybe some peas in a cup on he side would have helped.

After lunch I got a call from my mum and dad, they were on Independence Square, so after using the Wee Wee truck to freshen up, I went looking for the parents. Mac Farlane looked really nice in their full costume.

I headed back to my band on Frederick Street, where we then proceeded to Charlotte Street and settled in for a LONG wait. D’Krewe crossed the Savannah space/stage at approximately half past 8, after spending some 4 hours on Charlotte Street. I did not stay with the band during this wait though, but went to meet my sons who were waiting for me up by the Savannah. I chilled with them a bit, walked along and saw some other family and friends and then bounced up the parents in MAc Farlane yet again, as they were a few bands behind us waiting to cross.

Now the four hour wait wasn’t so bad for me, as I sat right on the pavement just in front of NAPA and got to see Trini Revellers, Legacy, Genesis, Ronnie and Caro, All Stars, We International, Showtime, some traditional mas, as well as some other random bands I had never heard of with some dubious looking costumes.

After we crossed the stage, I waited for Mac Farlane and chipped home with the parents sometime after 9:00pm, my latest Carnival Tuesday in REAL years!

Overall I had a great time with D’Krewe. Some of the things that I think D’Krewe should look at improving on are: the number of and the height of the bars and the number of people actually making the snocones, one man is just not enough by any stretch of the imagination.

Again, I must say MUCH thanks to Carnival Kris (MUAH!), thanks to Angeli for accommodating me at the last minute and a big thanks to that band that didn’t want me or my money cause if it wasn’t for them I would not have had the opportunity to play in the BEST Carnival costume EVER! Yes, ever!

This was one of my favourite costumes…Loved it, loved it, loved it!

It needed no adjustments and was the same as the prototype and was SUPER comfy.

Who would have thought that after such a disastrous Carnival Sunday, that my Carnival would have turned out so great?

D'Krewe 2010 Review

This is my review of D'Krewe.

Now after the series of unfortunate incidents on Carnival Sunday night (read the 3 posts before this one if yuh lost), I had to go find a costume. I visited Ronnie and Caro and Legacy/Jhalwa looking for a costume on Carnival Sunday night and came up with salt, so I went home feeling just a tad bit plenty depressed.

Having just about resigned myself to not playing mas, I visited Trinidad Carnival Diary to vent and share my story on the chat box. It was while chatting there I got a bbm from Saucy who wanted to know if I wanted a costume in D'Krewe, specifically Kindred Spirit (hell yeah!).

Long story short, Carnival Kris who is also on the blog, hooked me the heck up and I got a call saying to get my ass to the mascamp, which was right around the corner from me.

Twenty minutes and $2500 later, I had collected my Kindred Spirit costume! WOOT!WOOT!!

(Of course, being me, I had to ask if the frontline was still available).

I then hastily made my way to Samaroo's to get some material to cover my corset. Unfortunately, at 10minutes to midnight Samaroo's was closed, but no biggie, I figured I would figure something out.

Costume collection: A breeze!!

Carnival Monday

D'Krewe gave us about 4 yards of material, which I spent a few minutes on Monday morning turning into a tunic trimming it out with some braid and gems.

I paired my tunic with blue boy shorts from a couple years before and a top underneath it.

I also made a matching bag from some silver material that I had purchased previously and sprayed my white knee high boots silver.

I think the overall look was really cute, if I do say so myself...and I do. :)

The band was scheduled to meet at 11:00am (I think) and I left home just around that time and walked around the corner to meet the band on Pole Carew Street.

Now this would be my first time playing mas by myself, as I usually play with at least one or two family members. Even though I didn't really know anyone who would be playing, I was thinking it would be a fun experience, no worries.

As I got to Pole Carew Street a guy in the band watched me and told me I looked so regal. (HA! Ah tell yuh ah was looking good!) That started me off on a good note. The band moved off about 1/2 hour after I got there. While waiting I had a snocone from the snocone truck and of course I must have my Coke on the rocks!

We were moving slowly down Pole Carew heading to Ariapita so I took the opportunity to walk forward a bit to see what was up. Up to the front of the band just behind the King costume I saw the Kindred Spirit Individual and had a serious case of "why dat wasn't me!?!?!" :( That costume was fantastic, I dunno why the person didn't come out on Tuesday...dey could well give me the thing to parade for them! Anyhoo...

We were right behind Dream Team's Gems of the World, who was waiting for Island People to pass. I ended up walking through IP on the avenue looking for anyone I may know and did see a couple friends and took some pics. IP looked really good (but smaller than usual) on Monday. Loved the cloth they got, loved what the ladies did with them!

I also saw Mac Farlane on the road and got to see my mum and dad in their crocus bag Monday outfits. The Mac Farlane peeps real get on with the cloth too! All kinda fancy ting! And if yuh see dem palance papayo! Mac Farlane peeps get the prize for Most Coordinated Palance, they should rename them Mac Parlance...nobody would think that was an "ole people band" if they saw them.

We hit and crossed Adam Smith and Ariapita (no judges there, why?) and made our way to Independence Square. I stayed with the band, for most of the day. My brother and sister in law left the band they played with to come check me when we were on Park Street. I saw one of my girlfriends from the bank in the band and took a chip with her for a while.

We got an afternoon snack of a chicken sandwich which was tasty enough, just before we hit downtown. After we crossed the downtown judging point, I waited to see Mar Farlane (and the parents) who had done some kinda magic and were now behind us.

After meeting up with my parents, i decided that I would cut my Monday short (it was about half 4) and head home. We jumped into a taxi on South Quay and headed to St. James.

Carnival Monday: Not bad at all! 6.5 palance out of 10.

The Spice Saga Pt.1 - Costume Collection

I was extremely excited when I saw that costume collection for my section was on the Wednesday before Carnival, no collecting costume on Carnival Friday for me!

Costume on the Spice Carnival website

Wednesday

When I got to the Hilton just after 4:30pm, I was met by Mr. Rocky himself who gave me a number and told me to have a seat to wait to pay for the costume via Linx. After waiting no more than 5minutes I went up to pay for my costume. When it was time to swipe, my husband (who was paying for my costume :D ) was unable to get through, as the machine registered an error with the transaction.

Unfortunately, because I had to get back to the office I could not wait around while they sorted out their issues with the bank and I left. Rocky told my husband that I could come back the next day to collect no problem.

Thursday
Got back to Spice shortly after 12noon to collect my costume, this time with my brother who had to exchange his boardshorts in Adulis. Everything went smoothly, I gave them my cash and was then told to proceed to the next stop. The next stop is where the girl checks your receipt, makes uneccessary small talk, then directs you to collect your costume.

When I got my headpiece the first thing I asked the young lady who handed it to me was if this was the right headpiece. She said yes. I told her the feathers look very dull and grey, and she said yes, a lot of people are saying that. On a second look however, she noticed that I wasregisteredfor a frontline costume and NOT a backline.
I thought *whew* let dem backline BABES deal with that! Lo and behold, the extremely helpful young lady brings out the frontline headpiece and it's the same dull dirty grey looking feathers.



I got the box with my costume pieces which the young lady went through with me. Bra, belt (SKIMPY! and had to be exchanged, this was done with no fuss on the spot), arm. leg, neck (which was pretty lame) pieces. The thong I had ordered was not in the box and I got this exchanged on the spot as well, although this seemed to be a different colour to the bra, but no biggie cause it would be covered up by my belt anyways.



I then collected my backpack.



The same dull grey blue dirty looking feathers greeted me on my backpack. I was NOT impressed. My brother thought they looked dull but passable, but what do men know?

This was the costume I registered for in October last year.
This was the costume that I had obsessed about for weeks on end.
This was the costume that I done a wallpaper collage for as my desktop wallpaper.
This was the costume I had planned all my accessories, boots, bag, etc around. and they hand me this backpack, with these dull ass washed out dirty looking feathers.

Close up of the feathers on my backpack

So after I got my adjustments (gems fell off my bra and leg piece), got the ribbon for my backpack, I go to the next station to get my stuff checked and collect my goodie bag.

At this point I ask the lady who I later found out was the bandleader, Anya's mother, if she found that the feathers looked dirty.

She looked at me and said, "No they look fine, they do not look dirty to me, it is supposed to represent the sea you know."

I say "This does not look like what was on the website."

She says "It looks fine to me. The designer herself went to China and picked those feathers."

I then see Anya and ask her, "Anya don;t these feathers lok dirty to you?" Anya says no, they look fine.

Because my brother and 4 year old niece with me and we had already been there for close to an hour, I took the costume and went home.

After getting home, and taking the backpack out of the car, I notice that the backpack looks unfinished, as there are white spaces where it should be covered. I go to the computer and pull up the costume and of course, my feathers are not drain water blue, but a rich vibrant blue. At this point I feel so disappointed, people are texting and messaging me to find out how the costume is and I just tell them "Meh."
I took pictures of the backpack, costume pieces, and went ahead with finishing up my boots on time.

A little later that evening I took my entire costume back up to have it exchanged as I was really unhappy about how the costume had turned out.
On the way there with my mom I decided to keep the costume and just add the usual Afro Chic flair. I had already planned to buy gems to bling out the feathers and backpack anyways and hopefully that could give the costume a lil summin summin.

I ended up just exchanging my backpack for a completed one, this was done with no hassle and after that I made my way to Tulip to get some bling. Bling purchased, I was a lot happier when I got home, went ahead and finished off my boot orders.

Friday
Friday morning comes and I wake up thinking, you know what Afro...you work hard hard hard, you pay for dis! So I decided to call someone at Spice to find out if I can switch my section.

I call the Spice number that I was given by Hilton and ask to speak with either Anya or Rocky. Lucky me I got the bandleader herself on the phone. I explained the situation to Anya and reminded her that I had spoken to her about the feathers when I collected the costume the day before.

Costume at the band launch

Anya explained that the costume on the website had been 'enhanced' which is why the feathers were a different colour. I asked if I could exchange my section, as I did want to play mas, just no longer in that section. Anya told me that was not an option, Spice does not switch sections. I told her then if that was the case I would like to get a refund on my costume as I did not get what was advertised. Anya then responded, "I doh handle dat. "
I asked, "Aren't YOU the bandleader, who else would handle it?"

She replied, "I doh handle dat, you could go up to Hilton and talk to Rocky, he up there now."

I said fine and hung up the phone.

At this point I was pissed off by her attitude and dismissive tone when she spoke to me and the fact that they were no willing to admit that an error had been made and own up to it.
It should be noted that before this I was just taking things real calm and trying not to go Hulk on people. I eh raise my voice or cuss or carry on. Yet.

I decided that after work I would carry back my costume and go "talk to Rocky." and this is when the real drama started...

PALANCE FOR DE ROAD!!!

Happy Carnival Monday to all!

Have a safe one and be sure to look out for my Spice - Costume Collection saga (yes,saga!), which ended with me playing with D'Krewe on Monday and Tuesday!

My Soca Pick of the Week - Week 5

Not of of my faves, but the hubby loves this song.

My Soca Pick of the Week - Week 4

This song just real. I sure plenty people feel like this for Carnival.
I hope they place high in Soca Monarch.

It Pays To Be Sober

Well by now everybody done know the Breathalyser law is in effect, and blogger wuzdescene wrote about her near-breathalyser experience recently.

Being a loyal Coke on the rocks drinker, this didn't faze me one bit, I know I was safe. Plus I wasn't planning to go much fetes anyhoo.

Lo and behold I recently found out that because of my sobriety notoriety I was volunteered for the position of designated driver. My fellow party animals have volunteered to pay half the cost of my ticket to Bacchanal Wednesday and Brian Lara's fete.
Not a bad deal I think.

So you could look out for those two fete reviews to come :)

Flikr photo from Jon Vitale

My Soca Pick of the Week - Week 2

This song is by far my FAVORITE song of the season, they MASH UP DE PLACE in Moka last Sunday.
I real liking this song for Soca Monarch!

Soca in Moka 11 - The Aftermath

Who: Soca in Moka
What: All-Inclusive
Where: Trinity College
When: Sunday 3rd January 2010
How much: $500 (last year: $475.00)

Well yes...

Allyuh believe dis is Soca in Moka 11?!?

Allyuh believe is a DECADE now I going to this fete?!

Allyuh eh find I should at least get a free ticket or exclusive parking or a free glow stick or something for patronising this fete so long? Lemme see if I could call and organise a lil space in Form 1 for meh chile yes.

Anyhoo...Soca in Moka 2010.

Now it doh even make sense to ask me, "You going Soca in Moka?" Cause all I will do is watch yuh cuteye and steups. Asking me if I going Moka is like asking me if I playing mas, cause my answer will ALWAYS BE "God spare life, yes."

Alright, so de ting start.

After a leisurely day spent getting the boys ready for school the next day, colouring my hair and making one pair of earrings, I was scrambling to get ready and eventually left the house at half 6. There went my plan to reach earlyish.

Passing through Santa Cruz, I got to Moka in no time at all really (by the way whoever is the representative for that area, allyuh need to put some lights up there please eh), and by 7:00pm I was making my into the venue where Dil-E-Nadan was already on stage, and the place was already packed!

Btw, it was on my way to the venue when I realise that I completely forgot to pack my camera. (blame that on my new Blackberry Curve that I got for Christmas, which btw takes awful night photos).

Dil-E-Nadan feat. Raymond Ramnarine, Derrick Seales and Candy Hoyte

Honestly if I had never been to this fete before and saw that the line up included Dil-E-Nadan, I would not have gone. That being said, I thought the band sounded a little too loud and they had too much people on stage like it was a rap concert or something. Too much people jostling for attention.

The fete patrons seemed to be into the performance which included soca, disco (huh?) and some chutney. I thought they spent too much time on stage which later affected the other bands who were scheduled to perform.

By the way, what was going on with that fella in that silver jacket? Jeezan.

Dil-E-Nadan gets 3 palance out of 5

Roy Cape All Stars feat. Blaxx, Olatunji Yearwood and Rita Jones

Yeah, you read it right, Rita Jones is back with Roy Cape All Stars, and boy is she is back with a bang! Now yuh girl (me, that is) was wearing her lil coloured contacts and wasn't seeing too clearly from far nah. When I hear Roy Cape was next I made my way to the front, only to see some stripper on stage with the band, only to realise is not a stripper but is Rita Jones!

Well I nearly dead, cause Rita was looking like she started getting dressed and then clean forget to finish getting dressed and fly out the house! Well is now self I blue vex with myself for not having my camera eh, and I was halfway glad and thanking the Lord above that I was wearing meh coloured contacts and couldn't see too well.

This is an open plea to whoever is Rita stylist/friend/bandmate/fellow Murray Street worker/whatever, put ah hand and help her out please. I not even going to talk bout the ashy looking armpits. *shudder*

Back to the rest of the band now.

Roy Cape sound REAL good.

Even doh Blaxx like to kill us with talk, he sing his tunes, new and old and had the place jumping. When next you see Roy Cape look out for the jazz version of Tusty...it bad!! His new tune Zombie (not Jumbie) was well received by the audience.

Despite the loss of his mom in December, Olatunji was usual energetic self, doing splits, and had the crowd moving. Other than the distraction of their female frontline singer Roy Cape was by far the BEST band of the night.

Roy Cape All Stars gets 4 palance out of 5.

The Iwer and TC Show

Roy Cape was joined by what was said to be the "Iwer and TC Show".

I am not even going to say discuss/describe Iwer performance. Just remember the last time yuh see Iwer perform, whether it was last week, last year, 5 years ago or even 10 years ago and is the same exact ting. Except this time, the crowd wasn't having any of it. Bathrooms were packed and by the time they finished their set the place was empty. They run real people.

The Iwer and TC show get no palance from me

Kes the Band feat. Kees Diffentaller and Nadia Batson

Wait nah, who is dat come out on the stage with Kees? Remember ah tell allyuh bout the contacts eh, so I had to blink couple times to focus. If allyuh see Nadia! My girl went and lost some weight and looking like a different person! All her face looking different! She looking even better than before. Nadia I was real digging them glove thingies yuh was rocking. The style could be a lil better, but yuh looking real good...keep it up.

Kes the Band didn't start off too well I find, like they was tired or didn't practice the set well, cause they was missing a lil something something. Usually their repertoire is clean and well executed, but that didn't happen. They did their back-in-times set which the crowd enjoyed immensely. And Kes didn't even take off his jersey!

Kes the Band gets 3 palance out of 5

Shal Marshall feat. Screws

Shal did Gyal Farm and then the "Police" song he has on the Palance riddim, which I did not like but is starting to grow on me. I think everyone was wondering "who the heck is that dude in the back jumping around?" That's Screws people, he has a couple lines on the track.

Shal gets 2 palance for warming up the crowd

Moving right along, cause when I hear de palance riddim is only one tune I really want to hear and that is by...

JW and Blaze

This was the moment I had been waiting for whole night!

By far far FAR my favorite tune for the Carnival 2010 season, JW and Blaze came out to perform Palance and did exactly what the song said...they palanced and mash up de place.

Watch out for this tune for Soca Monarch 2010. I eh want to say Road March yet because the song REAL fast and my ass out of breath afterwards, den remember too it have the mafia and all dat to study.

JW and Blaze get 4.5 palance out of 5

FOOD

Well after 10 years of going to this fete I could tell yuh what it does have eh, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how yuh look at it.

Usual fare of Carol's corn soup, outstanding oysters, beautiful bake and shark, heavenly Haagen Das, crab stuffed dumplings, with the main meal of Trinidad creole and Chinese. The only thing I had was the crab stuffed dumplings which were fantastic! I also had a taste of ribs which was just okay.

3 burps out of 5

BAR

The service by B.A.R.S. this year was just aite. Not horrible but not outstanding. I did hear of some instances of Black and White being mixed with Johnny Walker, as well as no coconut water. My staple of Coke on the rocks was decent and always flowing.

2.5 ice cubes out of 5

BATHROOMS

Andy Loos baby!

Running water, flushing toilets, soap and cream, pantyshields, tissue and mirrors!

My only complaint would be the long lines and this could be easily resolved if the Andy Loos which only had one toilet but three urinals (huh?) in the ladies area were switched out for the Andy Loos with the three toilets.

4.5 flushes out of 5

EYE FOOD

Eye food for the men: The usual, is Trinidad yuh know.

Eye food for the women: This fete was like a quarry boy, only stones! I find this year had more men than women. I sure real men steups in dat fete.

Even though it had all dem men though, the gape wasn't all that great.

3 cross eye out of 5

Overall Soca In Moka was a great fete as per usual and yes, God spare life, I will be going again next year.

That's it for this Party Animal...looks like I'll be getting a lot of sleep this season.

This was my only planned fete for the season and in this recession, I only going where I getting comps. So if yuh have any yuh want to share, email meh nah, afro.chic@hotmail.com ;)

EDITED TO ADD:

Here are a few pics from photographer David Wears' Soca in Moka album on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=367933&id=609810286

My Soca Pick of the Week - Week 1

The song is labelled as Wine Low, and it's by 3Suns on the Stush Riddim.
Let me know if yuh feeling this one.

The Bachannal Start From Today!

My first fete of the season is my usual first fete, Soca in Moka. This takes place tonight at the Trinity College Grounds, Moka, Maraval.


I cannot believe that this will be my 10th time attending this fete!

Stay tuned during the week for my review of tonight's party. In the meantime, you can read a few of my previous reviews of this fete here:

Soca In Moka 10

Soca In Moka 9

Soca In Moka 8

Resurrection:The Mas - The Aftermath

Usually nothing can get me out of my sweet comfy bed early on a Sunday morning, but with Brain Mac Farlane's launch scheduled to be held in Tobago (which I had been eagerly looking forward to all week), I made sure to get up, get dressed and was out of the house by 6:15am and on my way to the airport.

After a minor mix up with my photographer's (hubby) name, we checked in, boarded the plane and started our journey.

Almost immediately on landing, we were whisked off in the chartered coaches to Pigeon Point Heritage Park where we had some light refreshments of coconut water, fruit and vegetable quiche.

With our bellies filled the rest of the festivities began with the bele dancers and drummers making their way to the pier, and the media to the awaiting boats where we were told we would be ferried over to the Buccoo Reef sandbar.

The boat ride was nice, smooth sailing under the warmth of the sun.

As we approached what appeared to be an outcropping of rocks, the boats began to slow and as we got even closer, we saw something gold glittering in the sun among the rocks.

As we got even closer, it seemed as though the rocks began moving.

Closer still and we realise that it is not rocks but people in costumes lying down on the sandbar.

Very close the sandbar now and a drum beat rings out over the ocean and a jab jab gets up and cracks his whip in the air. *CRACK*

*CRACK*

The drum beat gets faster now and more of the 'rocks' begin to reveal themselves.

We see a gold sequined bat, baby dolls, pierrot grenades, minstrels, sailors and a midnight robber (Mac Farlane) in the mix all decked off in varying shades of bronze, gold and cream.

The drum beat break out into a full riddim section now and all hell breaks loose on the sandbar and is level jamming!

The media go paparazzi on us and start taking pictures like crazy! (Myself included)

While all the jamming is happening on the sandbar the intrepid cameraman and his accompanying reporter Roger Dwarika, who were on our boat, jump into the water to be part of the action!

Dat is journalism for yuh money...go where de story is!

After getting their shots (and nearly getting left back as the performance was finished), they get back on the boat and all the boats headed back to the Pigeon Point jetty, and everyone is talking about how amazing the experience was.

There was a bit of a mixup when we got back to Pigeon Point as we were supposed to have been taken to Buccoo. So we jumped back on the boat that took us to Buccoo and the villa where, according to the itinerary, we would get some refreshments, see the costumes and get the opportunity to speak with the man himself, Brian Mac Farlane.

As we appraoched the villa, someone said that this was the very same villa that the Real World/Road Rules MTV people used for The Gauntlet 2 which was filmed in Tobago.

We were greeted with at the entrance of the villa to some delicious fruit and rum punches, pan music and the trademark Mac Farlane framed prints of his costumes.

The food provided was extremely tasty and we had a wide array to choose from including samosas, stuffed crab shells, shrimp, fried plantain (one of my faves), kibbi and so much more. At this point in time and because of the mix up with the boats that occured earlier we were running behind schedule.

When all of the coaches arrived at the villa, Mac Farlane took the opportunity to address his audience. He spoke of his reasons behind selecting Buccoo Reef for the staging of his presentation as the destruciton of the reef symbolised the destruction of the mas, hence the need for the ressurection of the mas.

Mac Farlane also took the opportunity to thank the persons involved, including his brother Jeffery, who allowed him use of the Pigeon Point Heritage Park, the Buccoo Reef at no extra cost, as well as the owner of the villa Keith, who he also presented with a token of appreciation.

At this point in time we were running WAY behind schedule and hastily made our way to the awaiting coaches to be shuttled back to the airport and head back to Trinidad.

I did take the opportunity to purchase the requisite red mango/tambran/pawpaw balls ans sugarcake, which btw is now a hefty $8 each! More on that robbery a next time.

The plane was noticeably missing journalists as I think some ofthem took the opportunity to extend their half day to a full one in Tobago.

Kudos to the Mango Media team who organised the entire day!

Overall, this launch was one of THE BEST launches I have ever been to, form amazing start to amazing finish, and I am already looking forward to see what he comes up with next year!