Blah, Bloh, Blog

Good Heavens!

Abeni. Dorna. You HAVE to check out this priest pin-up calendar!. OMG! Hot, sexy priests!!!



I am so going to hell.......

Posted by YingYang at 2:43 PM 5 comments   

Whew!

I'm baaaaccckk.

Well. What to say. Emily was a real beotch! Definitely not like Ivan but thanks to her my tarped roof is back to post-Ivan status. Steupps!

I went over to my Mum's house yesterday evening to ride out the storm, which took its cool time getting here. Thanks to Mr YY who stayed at our house, online and with cable TV, we got frequent updates on the storm's progress. Of course, updates from the radio were, to say the least, totally effing non-existent. Earlier in the evening some idiot announcers were reporting that the storm was downgraded (it was the hurricane warning that was downgraded!), then when the storm re-intensified and became a hurricane finally it took them about 1 and a half hours to provide THAT info. For the most part people were calm and heeded the police officials warnings to stay indoors.

The winds picked up sharply by 12:30am. By 1:30am hunger struck so there we were cooking mincemeat and spaghetti and drinking red wine; the power was still on. By 2:30 the wind was going at it full strength - power was off. The eye went over about 3am - that would be when I fell asleep. In terms of terror and fright, Emily wasn't Ivan.

Woke up this morning and a neighbourhood damage assessment from my Mum's verandah - minimal from what I can see. At our home however, we lost our previously well-secured tarps, and the bedrooms are flooded. Hasty repairs are ongoing as we must bring Toddler YY home this evening before the curfew (7pm-7am) and we must get some part of the house at least partially covered.

And we hear there's a system out there in the Atlantic *sigh*

Anyways, the radio is reporting the north of the island has been hit much worse than the south where we are. 200+ houses damaged in Carriacou; one man dead in St Andrew's when his house got engulfed in a landslide. Thankfully telephones are working. Power and water are out but expected to be restored today or early tomorrow. The sun just came out. Guess I got to go to work tomorrow!

Talk to you guys soon. Your thoughts have been much appreciated.

Posted by YingYang at 2:28 PM 4 comments   

Toodles!

Hey folks. At work for the next 1/2 hour or so. I packed my evacuation bags and dispatched Toddler YingYang off to her granny. Will be checking in if I can.
Laters.
___
ps: Abeni, keeping an eye out for you guys in SVG as well!

Posted by YingYang at 12:14 PM 2 comments   

Emily

As of 11am this morning we were placed on hurricane watch:

WTNT35 KNHC 121743
TCPAT5
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM EMILY INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 7A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
2 PM AST TUE JUL 12 2005

...EMILY CONTINUES RAPIDLY WESTWARD...

A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR BARBADOS...GRENADA...THE
GRENADINES...ST. VINCENT...AND ST. LUCIA. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS
THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA WITHIN
36 HOURS. A HURRICANE WARNING WILL LIKELY BE REQUIRED FOR ALL OR
PART OF THE WATCH AREA LATER THIS AFTERNOON.

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE ISLAND OF TOBAGO.
A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE
POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA WITHIN 36 HOURS.

INTERESTS ELSEWHERE IN THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN SHOULD MONITOR THE
PROGRESS OF EMILY.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE MONITOR
PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 2 PM AST...1800Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM EMILY WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 11.1 NORTH... LONGITUDE 51.9 WEST OR ABOUT
530 MILES... 850 KM... EAST-SOUTHEAST OF BARBADOS.

EMILY IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 20 MPH ...32 KM/HR. A TURN TO
THE WEST-NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THE
FORECAST TRACK...THE CENTER OF EMILY WILL BE REACHING THE WINDWARD
ISLANDS LATE WEDNESDAY.

More info at The National Hurricane Center.

I cannot explain the slow, creeping fingers of under-lying fear that is beginning to permeate my office. One of our admin assistants is literally shaking while the poor thing tries to type letters.

One of the workers here mentioned to me that his mother refuses to believe the warnings. She thinks it is totally impossible for "Ivan" to happen again. She literally has her fingers in her ears, humming "La La La La La" loudly to block out any weather talk.

Will be back in touch soon; storm-blogging all the way!

Posted by YingYang at 2:47 PM 1 comments   

Start the week off

Omarion wants you to pray for him following the bombings in London, as he was in the UK at the time.

Asked why anyone should pray for him, Gilmore said, "He wasn't hurt or anything, but just the fact that he was there and all that."

Hey Omarion? Umm.... I don't know a nice way to say this so I'm just going to break it down rough for you. EFF OFF! Oh, and your music SUCKS!

Anywhoo, at work we have been put on Tropical Depression #5 Alert. Boss wants to us to exercise our preparedness "drill", that is assuming it is only a drill. *sigh* We'll know by this afternoon whether TD5 becomes TS Emily. And wouldn't you know - I don't have one damn can of sardines in the pantry. @*#(^~#%!

That's all for now folks.
Toodles.

Posted by YingYang at 9:15 AM 0 comments   

PostSecret

Oh yes... I'm on a blogging spree today.

Came across this site - PostSecret.

"You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each
secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy,
belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood
humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared
it with anyone before."

You would think that the site would be crammed with total crap from drunk frat boys or similar, but the entries are surprisingly touching. I guess what it boils down to is that we all just need someone to tell our secrets to.



This one made tears come to my eyes. (No, I'm not sick. Its just something about that situation that is so sad.)

Good weekend all. Prayers and thoughts with JA, Cuba, FL.

Posted by YingYang at 3:45 PM 1 comments   

Disgusting

Shit like this makes my blood boil! Grandfather Charged In Rape of Toddler.

Even more sobering is the knowledge that paedophelia, child molestation, rape and incest is VERY common in the West Indies, and yet it is one of those things that everyone ignores and pretends isn't happening. Sickening!

Posted by YingYang at 11:13 AM 0 comments   

Terrorists..... and hurricanes.... again.

There are many days when a quick glance at the news headlines makes you glad you live in the relative safety of the tiny, insignificant Caribbean. Today is one of those days.

London rocked by terror attacks. I hope my UK relatives and friends are OK although I don't think any of them live or work in the Greater London area. Our thought and prayers are with the British people.

Ironically, last night I was having a discussion with Mr YingYang about planning a family trip to the UK for the 2012 Olympics. Unlike me, he has actually lived in the UK while going to college. And unlike me he didn't share my enthusiasm for the Olympic Trip of A Lifetime. Why? In his own words "[England] have more bombings than anything else. I go go dey during Olympics???"

Guess he knew something we didn't.
-----

Meanwhile Jamaica braces for Hurricane Dennis. I think I speak for many Grenadians when I say our thoughts are with the Jamaicans at this time. But - and this is a but that might offend - frankly we are glad it isn't us! Yup. Anyone else except us. We can't really deal with no hurricane talk right now. I swear if Grenada is being threatened by anything larger than a tropical depression there will be mass panic and chaos islandwide. It's particularly unsettling to know that Dennis is the rainy mess that went over us a few days ago.

I try not to consider this: We're only a month into the 2005 hurricane season and we're on the 4th named storm.

Allyuh, if anyting happen to Grenada, jus' send food! Dis time ah doh t'ink Mr Manning or Mr Arthur go help us much seeing as how we P.M. pissing them off straight (PetroCaribe and cricket respectively).

Posted by YingYang at 10:04 AM 0 comments