Bats in the belfry.

No denying it has been a while since I posetd an entry on here but sometimes the spirit just isn’t in the mood to move me. Actually, to be frank, I haven’t been in a particularly great mood since my Toronto trip. Sometimes living on a small island can provide enormous amusement and at other times the stupidities and annoyances of everyday life can really get to me. The past month or so has fallen into the latter category.

The daily horror of watching how democracy has managed to result in this country having a government that seems hell bent on spending money on as many non-revenue generating activities as possible is not onc that I find easy to endure. I wonder if there is such a concept as Idiocracy? The sad thing is that there aren’t any good replacements visible on the other side and even then they would be to busy fighting like children to accomplish much. At least it provides rich fodder for the local media and my programme in particular. I have uploaded a few to youtube should anyone be interested ( search for ieTV One on One).

I am getting increasingly used to the two new omnipresent inorganic additions to my life.  My glasses no longer make me feel seasick when I walk around with them on. I think glasses are somehow evil as I find I actually need them for a lot of basic things I used to do quite happily without them. They go on as I wake up ( so I can check the news and email on my iPod Touch) and only come off  if I am driving or not dealing with reading or computer screens. It must be part of a vast ( and aren’t they always) global ( as always) conspiracy on the part of eyeglass makers. I am also still enjoying my Toshiba M800 laptop and, were it not for having to use **shudder** Windows I might actually love it. It points out how a clean user interface can make all the diference. Windows feels like an OS that was designed by committee – and a committee of  not very smart people with no taste. Still, when the vagaries of the OS drive me to distraction I just look at her lovely pinstriped crimson exterior and I calm down.

“So you think you can dance” is about to start on Fox/CTV so that’s the end of this entry…more to follow.

American Idol finals this week.

Guess who I want to win? Adam Lambert… based on Mad World and Ring of Fire alone.

Know me through food.

Never being one to turn down a challenge I shall now respond to a similar entry that my pal Milo posted on his blog answering questions about food.

1. Can you cook?

Hell yes!

2. Do you like to cook?

It is one of the great joys in my life.

3. What do you eat for breakfast?

Two coffees and 4 cigarettes…though I realize that is technically not eating.

4. When, where and how do you eat on weekdays?

Always in the office at my desk ofr in the newsroom. What I eat depends on if I have leftovers from dinner the night before. If I don’t have that option I buy creole food from Monix next to work.

5. When, where and how do you eat on weekends?

Same as weekdays but on Sunday I usually make a lunch to take with me to work.

6. How often do you eat in a restaurant?

Very seldom as I find it much easier to cook at home.

7. How often do you order delivery/take-out?

Hardly ever.

8. Buffet, take-out or sit-down restaurant?

Sit-down I guess.

9. What are your signature dishes?

Caesar salad with my yummy dressing, braised pork tenderloin in dijon, fettucine in a creamy morel sauce.

10. Have you ever cooked for more than six people?

I once ran a restaurant so the answer is a resounding yes and tonight I will be helping Alvin out for his nephew’s birthday by cooking for 50.

11. Do you cook every day?

Usually I do.

12. Have you ever tried recipes from blogs?

I have never followed a recipe in my life. All I have to do is see or taste something and I can deconstruct it and make my own version of it.

13. Do you cook totally differently compared to your mother/parents?

I most certainly hope so. My biological father is a good cook but never ventures into the realms of haute cuisine in which I frequently like to frolic.

14. Are you a vegetarian or could you imagine being one?

I went a year without eating anything with a face but I have to confess a taste for steak tartar and anything that came from a pig.

15. What would you like to cook which you haven’t dared to make yet?

I would love to make a cassoulet but the ingredients are key and not available here I also don’t have the patience to spend a day making it.

16. Do you prefer cooking or baking?

I loathe baking because it is all about exactitude and following a recipe.

17. Home-made or store-bought?

Home-made without question..

18. What was your biggest cooking disaster?

I don’t actually think I ever had one but I vaguely recall an unimpressive attempt at chicken mole when I was a teenager ( I used milk chocolate.)

19. What is your number one comfort food?

Soft boiled eggs in an egg cup served with buttered toast soldiers.

20. If you were on a deserted island, what one food would you want to have with you?

Rappini. 

21. What is your biggest weakness when it comes to food?

Anything spicy and especially anything Vietnamese and spicy. Also fresh oysters ( once devoured 5 dozen at a sitting).

22. What food can you absolutely not eat?

I know this is not a common food but in Trinidad people eat pickled chicken’s feet which I find beyond the pale..

23. What is the most decadent dish you’ve had?

Maigret of duck served with a massive helping of sauteed foie gras in the South of France. I still dream about it.

24. What is your favourite type of food?

Vietnamese hands down. Something about the freshness of the ingredients, the zing and the aroma.

25. What is your favourite dish?

Mashed parsnips with gobs of butter.

26. If you could go to any restaurant you wanted, which one would it be?

None spring immediately to mind but if Bourdain were actually in his Le Halles restaurant I would love to be there and meet him. Otherwise I have a soft spot for Bistro de Paris in Bonaire.

27. Are you a soup or salad person?

Salad.

28. What is the most impressive dinner you’ve ever made?

I never cook to impress. I cook to make people happy.

29. Do you know what vichyssoise is?

I make it every now and then…it is the happy soupy marriage of potato, leeks and cream served chilled. A wonderful summer dish so thank you France.

30. Can you name at least three TV cooking personalities?

Surely you jest.

31. Who is your favourite TV cook?

Anthony Bourdain but I adore Nigella in all her voluptuousness.

 

The joys of doing nothing

I didn’t really plan to upload an entry tonight but what the hell. Had a day off today and did basically nothing except watch TV and go to the supermarket. The thing is I am never bored being by myself and actually enjoy it. This seems to be an unusual thing for most young people but since I am addicted to TED and Fora.tv I can be at home and learn new things. How can one ever be bored learning new things from the comfort of home?

Rob called around 7 to ask if I had eaten and he suggested we go for dinner somewhere. I love my own cooking but Rob is excellent company so I said yes.  He picked me up in Cascade and we considered investigating if the new Carlton Savannah in my area was open and had a restaurant but other than a brief veer towards the hotel we kept driving to the Savannah. Then Rob suggested Tamnak Thai ..which I have blogged about previously..but I thought things might have improved. As we got there we decided to go to Apsara ( Indian) instead which is located downstairs. I have never escaped Apsara without feeling I would throw up and on one occassion I almost did so in the restaurant over the meal but I thought what the hell…you never know. We went in, ordered and ate and it really was OK. Not great but OK. I managed to make it home before that weird queasy Apsara feeling swept over me. There must be some combination of the spices, too much coconut milk or oil that does it but I think I will wait at least another year before eating there again.

As I go, and because I am using Vista on my Portege ( not my beloved OS X) to type this I  have a few questions for Senor Gates and his MicroCrap team.

• Why does the effing thing run so slow?
• Why is everything not integrated like it is in OS X? Honestly I should be able to drag something from one application to another…but I can’t.
• Why do you not include an antivirus?  I am happy with Kaspersky ( love those Russians) but seriously ..you know your OS is a virus magnet…protect your customers.
• Why can I not zoom in on any window like I can in OS X? Sometime I want to see things closer and all I have to do in OS X ixs hold the CTRL key and double finger slide on the trackpad.
• You are a bigger company than Apple why do you not include a suite of applications like iLife so I can edit photos etc? And don’t get me started on stupid Windows Media Centre. |It is a steaming pile of crap.
• Your lame widgets are a sorry excuse for OS X’s dashboard…why did you even bother with them when they suck system resources? 
• Aero? You were kidding right? It is not even close to Apple’s interface…it is sad.
• Did you watch the clip of Steve Jobs saying you have no imagination as a company? Seriously…you don’t!

Finally

The prodigal blogger returns from the abyss to blog again. To be perfectly honest I have been getting my online expression fix via facebook and experimenting with Twitter. Regarding the latter I am still not sure if it is an expression of pure ego or something useful since there really is only so much expressing one can do in 140 characters. It certainly is fun to follow on my iPod Touch when I am near a wireless network ( which is most of the time). Anyone interested in my sporadic twittering can follow me @globewriter.

Toronto was relaxing and pleasant thugh the trauma of leaving my parents to return to work in Trinidad was very difficult and moreso because neither is in the best of health right now. I try not to think about it but aging parents is a fact of life just as is my inevitable creep towards the graveyard.

Trinidad has been the usual mess of silliness and incompetence. I missed the Summit of the Americas which resulted in…anyone? …anyone? Absolutely nothing is correct! All we are left with is a PM with an even bigger ego, an undisclosed expenditure but probably well over $100 million US and the prospect of a similar expenditure for the equally useless and irrelevant Commonwealth Heads meeting in November. Ah well, it is only our money and it is not like the world is in a recession or anything because the PM says it is just a “blip” and he knows better than anyone else after all.

The most bizzarre development is the opening of a highway interchange to alleviate traffic problems for those heading south. It is a simple swerving overhead highway section with nothing even remotely impressive or extrordinary about it but it has become something of a magnet for locals. Believe it or not people park on the shoulder of the elevated section for picture taking, having drinks and generally just hanging out. In any other place the police would stop such odd behaviour but when our crew went up a few days after it was open lo and behold the PM and his entourage pulled up and parked on the shoulder so he could have a gander at the view and engage in an impromptu meet and greet. They can talk all they want about this country working towards developed country status ( whatever that means) but when it comes down to it the average mentaility here is actually very much third world.

And finally, I am actually loving my Toshiba Portege and think she is the cutest laptop anywhere and oh so portable. I just wish Windows were not such a dog’s breakfast of bad interface and usability issues. I don’t have Windows Stockholm Syndrome but damn OS X is miles ahead of this pile of unimaginative coding.

The Dark side from Toronto

A long time since my last post and this will not be the real post. In Toronto now and enjoying the wonderful weather and the peace and quiet. Ironic really since I have access to so much more in the way of culture here and yet it waits for me to find it and does not present itself in my face. I was standing on the street outside my folk’s house a moment ago and I was struck by the absence of noise of any sort. No dogs barking, no  distant thumping of speakers, no people shouting..just blessed peace and quiet. I had to leave the Caribbean to get to a place of peace – who knew?

Trinidad is anything but a place of peace right now with the Summit of the Americas taking place. I left knowing that had I not the place I live and the place I work would be under lockdown because the government decided that citizens are a nuisance and their free movement was a hindrance to visitors. If this were the G20 or something I might not have minded so much but the SOA is a talk shop from which absolutely nothing  of substance has ever emerged. To be frank it is another ego boosting enterprise for the ersatz PM to show off to the world. That is all well and good but to spend about a billion dollars of taxpayers money to feed your ego verges on the criminal. Worse still is the upcoming Commonwealth Heads meeting which we also ( jnexplicably) offered to host. So we will go down in history for hosting two of the world’s most useless summits at a cost that could have built a new hospital or helped fix the roads or utilities. And to add insult to injury they have banned any demonstrations during the summit. I thought it was a sign of a democracy that people could protest peacefully. Thanks Nero.

In other news I went out to buy a new Mac and found them cold, ugly and expensive. Having had 2 failed Macs in a month I was somewhat hesitant to give Apple any more of my money. WHat happened, instead, was I saw a dreaded WindoZe laptop that was exceedingly beautiful. She is a Toshiba PORTEGE ( I swear they spell it all in caps) and has some rather nifty features which almost overcome the hideousness that is Vista. Who came up with this craptacular piece of rubbish? At least I can look at my red PORTEGE and think she is lovely as opposed to every other windows ( and Mac) laptop I saw in several stores.

We will see how I survive but I have Macified her complete with Expose and a dock….at the very least |I can look at her and not feel ashamed.

Alas poor iMac!

It’s finally happened my beloved iMac has died and , looking at the LEDs on the board I can conclude she died  quickly of a logic board failure. So much for Apple making machines that cost more but last longer and make a better investment. Truth be told, in recent years Apple has not had a stellar record with me in terms of quality. In the old days I would buy an Apple computer like an Apple IIc or even the original Macintosh and the thing would run till it was a technological anachronism. I remember resurrecting my IIc 16 years after I bought it and it booted up and worked faithfully but not so with the new and “improved” Apple.  My first iBook suffered the  same failure that many did and I had to take it in to have it repaired under the extended warranty service. Good for Apple for extending the warranty but bad that I am sure they did so because a massive lawsuit was looming since it was caused by  a manufacturing defect. I subsequently sold it and I understand it died because the same problem arose. This embarassed me since I sold it to a friend and made me wonder about the consistency of Apple products.

While I owned the iBook I was captivated by the new ( well, then it was) flat panel iMac G5 and ran out and bought it. I knew in my heart that buying anything that Apple has just introduced was a foolish move but I went ahead. Three months later my beautiful 17″ iMac was suffering a weird collection of symptoms that was also ( based on the web)  shared by gazillions of her compatriates…a logic board failure caused by bad capacitors. Again, Apple extended the warranty ( faced with a massive lawsuit) and she was duly fixed.  She worked well and earned me money writing for about four years until about a week ago when she just died unexpectedly from a non-capacitor failure. I loved her and I pray ( as an atheist) that she is in a better place..perhaps Bonaire. Given that much of my life is on her I was a bit upset but thanks to the lax organ donor  situation as applies to Macs I was able to rescue my work by placing her hard drive in an enclosure.  It is all too sad. She was a wonderful creature and i will miss her terribly but thanks to Apple fixing her will cost far more than a replacement computer.  I am thus left typing this on a pre-Jobs  G4 that we all know as Sybil. She has now lived way past her lifespan but is chugging along fine running OS X 10.4 Tiger. To see my amazement you can note her specs :

Machine Name:    Power Mac G4
Machine Model:    PowerMac3,4
CPU Type:    PowerPC G4  (11.3)
Number Of CPUs:    2
CPU Speed:    533 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU):    1 MB
Memory:    768 MB
Bus Speed:    133 MHz

Ancient indeed, but working just like Tinkerbell my Powerbook ( who is having her own problems but they will be fixed shortly).  I am now happy that I had that hobby hacker urge to stop Sybil from facing an imminent and  undignified demise.

I will head to Toronto shortly to see my family and maybe buy another Mac or ..shudder…contemplate  buying a Windoze or..much less shuddering…Linux computer. I  confess that I now love OS X almost as much as I love OS 9 ( which I still use…talk about blazing speed). Can I handle worrying about viruses? Most likely not. Can I handle the ease of having everything integrated so I can drag and drop from any programme to another? Probably not as well. Most likely Apple will win again and I will buy a Macbook Air or a Macbook Pro  but I will never stop feeling I am suffering from Stockholm syndrome. In these  trying economic times do I really want to tie myself to something that makes me pay a premium for every upgrade or accessory? I dunno but I know that the dark side is very dark. I may well do so.

In other news I have finally given in to age and admitted that ..as they say..”my arms are not long enough” to read printed text. I have fought it bravely for years but being unable to see the calorie content of items at the supermarket and being presented with forms to complete at work which seemed like a blur to me has resulted in me heading to the optician and getting a test and now glasses. It seems that my vision has gone from 20/20 or better to 20/25 but I am sure age has nothing to do with my astigmatism. After a chat with the experts they fitted me out with glasses that cost about $1000 CAN because being a TV presenter I had to have the non-glare option and I am now wearing something called progressive lenses. They are the equivalent of a 6 martini lunch.

While I like the idea of a 6 martini lunch I have to say these suckers take a lot of getting used to. I was not told by Carters Optical that I was essentially wearing a tri-focal lens that requires me to adjust my brain to steering my eyes to a special point on the lens depending on what I am doing. Reading involves looking down without  moving my head, working on my computer involves using the middle part of the lens ( but don’t turn you head or the screen turns into a trapezoid)  and driving or walking involves such contortions that I cannot reasonably explain here. I am trying to get used to them but on a recent walk to HiLo from work I had to stop because I had the feeling I was 20 feet tall and the sidewalk was falling away from my feet.  It is only 4 days but I hope it gets better.

I wore the glasses on camera for the first time today with my guest Dr. Joth Singh of the Environmental Management Authority and the general consensus was that they made me look “more intellugent”. I am disturbed by the implication.

More troubling still, I now realize that everyone’s facial skin is far worse that I thought. Who knew that glasses ( albeit in the rather nice frames I wear – see above)  would result in me seeing so many blemishes.

Summit wicked this way comes.

The picture above hangs in my friend Robin’s weekend house in Toco which is located in the remote North East of Trinidad. When I first saw it years ago I didn’t think much of it but I have now become inordinately fond of it and look forward to my infrequent sightings of it.  It is painted by the artist Cromwell in a style that i suppose would be described as primitive but it is, in fact, that wonderfully naive style coupled with the decidedly local subject matter that makes me love it so much. It depicts some of the figures of Trinidad folklore that many, in areas such as Toco, still believe in.

The three figures in the foreground from left to right are LaDiablesse ( the she devil) , Soucouyant ( a sort of succubus who by day takes on the form of an old woman and then sheds her skin at night to do her evil deeds) and finally we have the Lagahoo ( a man who can change into animal form). Even though I said many rural people still believe in and fear these figures i am often surprised to learn that many urban types also believe in them. A perfectly normal educated adult might tell you with concern that he woke up with two small bite marks on his body and he is sure he is being attacked by a soucouyant. Though part of me shudders at the jarring reminder that I am living in the developing world ( which I am 100% certain will still be underdeveloped by 2020 thank you very much) another part of me finds the whole thing too cute for words.

To learn more about the fascinating pantheon of Trinidad folklore characters you  can just use our old friend Google as the link option is not working for me right now.

In other news many of my interviews of late have been with people involved in or concerned about next month’s 5th Summit of the Americas to be held here. While I can still not think of a really good reason for us to be spending about $100 million US to prepare for it other than to feed the already inflated egos of politicians in charge who want to wine and dine 34 hemispheric leaders including President Obama it is still a fact of life here. One thing becoming increasingly clear is that virtually all of the capital will be under lockdown for the 4 days including my area of Cascade/St. Anns which contains both the Prime Ministers monstrosity newly built residence in all its taxpayer dollar lavishness and the Hilton Trinidad which will be host to the 1,000 string US delegation.

My new plan is to get the hell outta here and head to Toronto for the week that the summit is on and return when I can actually go to the supermarket without being patted down by 6 security officers.

St. Patrick’s Day Litany.

Éirinn go bráth