Soca in Moka 15 - The 10point (or less) review

Who: Soca in Moka

What: All-Inclusive

Where: Trinity College, Moka. Maraval

When: Sunday 8th January 2012

Cost: $700 (last year $650, scalper price $1400)

Another year, another Soca in Moka fete.

I think I could review this fete without going to it yes, which could either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how yuh look at it. With tickets in hand we left home and made our annual pilgrimage to Moka. The traffic situation this year was a lot better this year, I remember the traffic being ridiculous last year.

1. Bands

Soca in Moka switched up their line up this year, with the exclusion of Kes the Band and the inclusion of The Asylum Vikings. They kept Roy Cape and Dil-e-Nadan, who was on stage when we got there. 

Dil-e-Nadan, surprisingly, were very good. Their sound was much improved than the last time I regretted hearing them. 5 Star Akil performed with them and I must say I was a bit underwhelmed by his overall performance for this fabulous song.

Roy Cape was good, their guest artistes line up didn’t leave much time for me to enjoy Blaxx and the new addition Ricardo Dru.  Lyrikal and Saucy were good. Kerwin Du Bois was the best performer for the night while Mr. Killa was the ultimate entertainer of the night!

The Asylum Vikings were very good as well. I enjoyed seeing them as its been a long while since I’ve seen the band perform. I love Bunji and FayeAnn’s rapport on stage. Faye Ann ah love yuh Rebel jersey!

2. Mr. Killa

Take win Mr. Killa! Although his performance was very brief and he brought no Rolly Polly’s up on stage, he had the crowd entranced from start to finish!

3. Kerwin Du Bois
Kerwin had about a bousand tunes this year and he was told due to time constraints he could only sing 2, he sang 5, most of them acapella and had the crowd begging for more. Kerwin I feel you need your own band now yes.

4. Food

The usual fare with the usual lines. It was pretty congested in the food areas this year. I only had the opportunity to sample the corn soup and seafood appetizers. There was a new item…the rum soaked fruit which seemed to be a hit.

5. Bar

This year I’m switching things up with my drinks and trying something new. No more Coke on the rocks, I’m doing OJ on the rocks or straight coconut water! The bar area, similar to the food area was a bit congested again, esp the bar closet to the backstage area, but once you going to the same bartender they get to know your drink preference and fix you up nice and fast.

6. The Crowd

It’s like Farmer Nappy song says “That’s ma famalayyyy!"

There are people you see in Moka year after year and this year was no different, is like a big reunion of people you see only at Carnival time...LOL. 

So that's the review...in 10 points or less. Overall, Moka gets 8 wines out of 10. 

Top Ten Moments of 2013

In no particular order (but I did save the best for last!)

10. I finally passed  my Math course at COSTAATT!

9. I will be graduating by September 2014! 

8. My Carnival  was fantastic - from Pan to AM Bush to K2K to Las Lap

7. I turned 35
6. I celebrated 15 years of being married (yes, I know yuh working de maths)
5. I officially became the mother of two teenage boys
4. Worked on a great project called Milk-a-thon which benefitted children's homes.
3. We had a fantastic Old Years lime this year (complete with a theme and photo booth)
2. My son completed his last round of chemo in early January...
1. And he was given a clean bill of health in July!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

ICT Innovations In Mas (I3M) Project

For the last few weeks, I have been attending training as part of the I3M project. 

What is the I3M Project?

The proposed project seeks to contribute strengthening and promoting economic growth in the micro; small and medium size businesses in the Masquerade sector. To facilitate increased economic participation of MSMEs in the masquerade sector in the global business of Carnival, the project will equip these enterprises with skills and capacity as well as access to ICT solutions including a web-based platform, the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival HUB as a mechanism for improving and expanding business processes, business models and market reach and strengthening competitiveness.

You can read more about it HERE.

The training is held at the TTSCI's offices and so far it has been really informative. The first part of training was conducted by NEDCO and covering: Inventory Management, Financial Management, Writing a Business Plan.

The second part of the training was conducted by exporTT, and this covered: Fundamentals of Exporting, Formulating an Export Plan, Market Access-Exploring your International Opportunities and we are ending this month's training with Value Chain and Quality Standards for the Masquerade Industry.

Some of the best sessions have been those where the trainer catered the session to specifically address the needs of the masquerade industry and not just the generic by the book information.

To my surprise, Boots by Afro Chic was even featured in one of the presenter's sessions as an example of promoting your business on social media!

I'm really looking forward to the last session, and implementing some of what I've learned over the last two months.

Kicking Cancer's Ass!

"I cannot do the biopsy, there is nothing there"
Those were the words of my son's surgeon when he went in last week to get a sample to biopsy of the 'mass' that they had seen on his PET scan. 

The only thing I did not do was a backflip and shout WOOT! WOOT! in the waiting room of the operating theatre.

My son had a very invasive surgery done called a thoracotomy to come to this conclusion, but he is now at home recovering. 

He has a 10 year follow up programme. For the first year when re-occurrence is highest, he has to go to this oncologist every month and do a CT scan every 6 months. In the second year, he has to go every other month, third year every three months and so on. So he will be a man of 22 when his follow up is completed.

Needless to say our family is extremely happy, and can;t wait to have him back to 100%!

Writer's Block

It has been WAY too long since last I penned an update. And as I check my blogging stats in my dashboard I am shocked to see that I have a total of 7 posts in drafts, waiting to be completed and published. And every so often I bouncing up someone who asking me "What appen to your blog?" *sigh*

I can't say I've been busy with my son and his cancer, even though I kinda have been. 
I can't say I've been busy since I resumed my classes at COSTAATT, but I kinda have been.
I can't say I've been busy at work self, that would definitely not be true.

And is not that things not happening with me, real things going on. Is school, is hospital, is PTA,  is triathlon...all kinda thing! I just have not felt like writing. Plain and simple. Plus it so easy to just snap a pic now and upload it instead of the sitting down to blog. 

Look it's band launch time again and I now realise I eh even post my reviews from last year self! SMH.

While I missed most of the band launches last year for personal reasons, this year I hope not miss any, and will definitely be putting in my two cents of the costumes and options for Carnival 2014!

Anyhoo, hopefully this post is a sign I'm over the lil writer's block and will be blogging more frequently for the rest of this year.

Carnival Tuesday with K2K - The Aftermath

So in my last post I left the band early on Monday as I had a couple things to finish up on Carnival Monday. Two of those things included blinging out my drinks cup and re-fashioning my jeweled tam that I wasn't wearing, into a bag to hold my stuff. Turned out pretty well I thought.

The band looked even more FAB on Tuesday. From the women to the men everyone looked great.

On Tuesday we met the band for 7:00am and moved off within the hour making our way to the first judging point at Adam Smith Square. As we approached Adam Smith, we slowed down and eventually came to a stop while our individuals we fitted with their wings, I must say our individuals looked GORGEOUS!! I felt the slightest twinge of envy as I wanted to do an individual with K2K this year, but circumstances were not in my favour. 

After the holdup, we continued to the judging point and this is where things became a bit confusing. It was just before the judging point that our bandleaders, Karen and Kathy, were telling us the way in which they wanted us to cross the stage (we did not cross section by section). I think this should have been communicated beforehand, maybe when we collected out costumes a nice lil diagram or explanation would have helped maqueraders. We crossed this way at 3 of the judging points and honestly I think this is what may have lost us points (which is why we didn't place first in the medium band category...either that or they just damn tief!), but who knows? Anyhoo...

After we hit Adam Smith we then steadily made our way to Victoria and Independence Square. Everywhere we walked we were constantly stopped and asked what band this was. If this was Mac Farlane (scoff), I was even asked if Minshall came back (double scoff).

After we crossed Independence Square I took the opportunity to have lunch in the maxi and the band went to the Piccadilly judging point. It was here when we started to slow down as we headed to the Savannah stage.

I took the opportunity (as I usually do) to walk to the Savannah to meet my sons who were waiting to see me after we crossed the stage. After I met them and posed for more pics and answered people's questions "What band is this?" "Where is K2K?" I eventually said goodbye to my sons and headed into the Savannah to wait for the band to cross the stage.

Some 5 hours or so later...around 8 or 9pm I think, we FINALLY made it to the stage! Even though we had waited for hours upon hours, there is nothing to beat that crossing the stage feeling. NOTHING!

When I eventually made it home I was so tired I just unzipped my dress and flung it on the floor where it stayed til the next morning.

Overall I think the band improved by leaps and bounds this year.

BAR
I had no problem at all with getting drinks at the bar. From the time the bartender saw my bling cup he knew my drink of choice.

FOOD
The food we received was plentiful and tasty. On Tuesday we had the option of chinese or pizza. I think I would still have preferred a lunch stop, to the walking and eating, but I was fine with eating on the buses.

COOL DOWN MAXIS
I LOVED the cool down maxis. I think there should be more honestly, LOL. Taking a rest on the ac in the maxis were lovely. I had to adjust my costume at some point and was able to use the maxis to do that.


WEE WEE TRUCK
For the first time in my Carnival life, I used a wee wee truck on the road! The wee wee trucks were kept very clean. Tackling the bathrooms was a bit tricky because of the length of the dress and the unsnapping of the undergarments etc. but was able to use them and keep my costume intact. LOL.

ROAD MANAGEMENT
Other than the hiccup with the truck license on Monday, and the intolerable unavoidable wait at the Savannah, I think the road management this year was WAY better than last year, when there was little to no management at all. 

I would give K2K an 8 out of 10 for my overall experience, and I can't wait to see their presentation for 2014!

Carnival Monday with K2K - The Aftermath

Hmmm..is so long I eh do a blog post...it feeling weird...where to start, where to start? Well lemme start by wishing everybody a Happy Carnival! Hope it was a safe and enjoyable one.

Right. So despite their problems in their first year, I choose once again to play mas with K2K Alliance and Partners. There is no need to say how gorgeous the costumes were, that is understood.

Costume Selection and Registration
When I saw the costumes at the launch, I immediately picked my section. The pink section (Skeptic). Upon further examination at the mas camp and photos, I then decided no, I playing in the black and white section (Knowledge). And what happens when you take too long to decided on your section? Well naturally other sections catch your eye and then I said, nah, I playing in the green section (Conformist).

With 2 weeks or so to go before Carnival I finally made it to the mascamp to pick my section. By this time I had finally decided on the red section, Victory. When I got there I told Mrs. Norman that I wanted to register for the red section to which she said that unfortunately they had no pieces for me to try on in that section yet, but I could try on the other sections.

Excuse me?
TRY ON? 
You mean like BEFORE I get it? 
You heard right. Persons were allowed to try on the costumes they were interested in before they registered for it!

I tried on Skeptic, FanFare, Dreamer and Challenger.
From the time I tried on Dreamer, that was it! Love at first wear! Plus it was my favourite colour too. After trying on, I went and signed up and paid my downpayment. Past masqueraders also received a $300 discount. The entire process including trying on of the costumes took about an hour.

Costume Collection
I collected my costume on Carnival Thursday and was in and out of the mas camp in 20 minutes. My costume was even more gorgeous than I remembered, and it was exactly, if not better than the prototype. I was very happy with the complimentary goody bag that we received.

Carnival Monday
The band was scheduled to meet at 10:00 am on Monday. We got to the meeting point just about that time and the persons waiting looked beautiful in their tailored jackets.

We did not moved off until about half 11 though as there was an issue with the bar truck not having the right permit, and the Transport commissioner was not allowing the truck to move off until it was sorted out. The issue was eventually resolved and the band moved off.

It was smooth sailing on Monday and we hit all the judging points, Adam Smith Square, Victoria Square, Independence Square and the Queen's Park Savannah stage. We also crossed both the Coca-Cola and Synergy mini stages on Ariapita Avenue. 

We had no official lunch stop on Monday and ate on the road as we headed to Independence Square. Apparently trucks cannot be taken off the road without jeopardising their position in the route (I think R.E.A.C.T has to get involved or something so, if this happens), so our music trucks went ahead while the drinks truck and food van stopped. This almost made us miss crossing the stage downtown, but thankfully most of the masqueraders made it back to the band as our music trucks reached the stage.

While the band made its way to the Savannah, I choose instead to head home with my mom and aunt, as my aunt wasn't feeling well at the time. And I don't ever mind finishing off my day early on Monday as the day on Tuesday is longer. Plus I almost always have things to do with my costume. This year that included doing my boots, bag and adjusting the length of my dress so it wouldn't drag on the ground.

Monday ended well and I was left looking forward to Tuesday.

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 :)