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I was very upset this morning to learn that the Sun-Maid raisin girl had received a makeover.
Where has our sweet innocence of yester years gone?
Now she is featuring boobs and I swear they look like implants.
Don't you think so too?
Some say that the newly made-over raisin girl looks like a Barbie Doll in Amish attire
Bring back the old Sun-Maid raisin girl, please!
- Mood:
tired
Last night the gardener and I went to a lovely party hosted by Vicki and Elaine. It was a nice gathering held at the Rainbow Beach Club where both Elaine and Vicki own apartments.
We shuttled back and forth between the two apartments. The shuttle got more difficult the more wine I drank. LOL
And after eating, no one moved around too much.
We arrived there early in time to see a nice sunset.
No wonder Elaine, who lives there full time, takes all those those wonderful pictures from her balcony.
We enjoyed our evening, seeing some old friends and meeting some new ones.
Thanks Vicki and Elaine for a nice evening.
Elaine and me
Vicki holding the collapsed key lime pie, which tasted fantastic anyway!
Our friend John and the gardener
Ladies of the night, singing Day-O!
- Mood:
lazy
Yesterday I spent most of the day scanning a lot of old St. Maarten pictures for a friend.
These are pictures his father had. Many of them are from the 1940's.
I thought you might be interested in seeing how the island looked in the old days.
Some of the pictures are not the best quality because they are so old.
And please remember to double click on the pictures to see them larger.
OK. Here we go!
The above pictures are of Front Street in Philipsburg and the old pier in the center of town.
Also there is a picture of the town beach, way before the boardwalk. LOL
And, yes, they used to have donkey races. That happened on the Queen's Birthday!
And they used to have a seaplane which flew into Philipsburg.
The salt pond looked like this. There was no garbage dump in the middle of it like there is today.
The Marigot Pier used to look like this.
And looking down from the top of the Cole Bay hill looked like this.
Now it looks very different.
- Mood:
nostalgic
Meet Obama AKA Puppy and Jean Luc
His current name is Obama. My friend Phillipe named him that because he is tall, Black, and smart,and he loves being in the President's chair!
Obama came to Captain Oliver's Restaurant and started begging for food in the dining room.
Philippe taught him not to come in the dining room, so Obama sat outside the entrance greeting customers with a little meow.
Then he moved into Philippe's office. Philippe bought cat food and put a dish in his office and Obama has never left.
According to Philippe, Obama waits for him in front of the door in the morning and lets him know loudly if Philippe is late.
Obama comes in, eats, then goes to sleep on the chair until Philippe leaves the office by 3:30pm when he puts Obama out!
Then Obama is waiting for him again at 6.30pm when Philippe comes back to work.
Of course, Obama can tell time. Can't all animals?
I met Obama on Thanksgiving when we ate dinner at Captain Oliver's with Philippe and William.
He is a sweet friendly cat. I took the picture, sent it to Philippe, who then posted it on Facebook.
Well, one of Philippe's Facebook friends saw that picture, and said : Hey, that is my cat. His name is Puppy!
It seems Puppy has had an interesting life so far.
Philippe's friend told this story:
"Puppy left our place a long time ago when a whole bunch of dogs showed up around our place at blue beach, he was constantly being chased, so he made his way down to Columbus hotel and hustled the tourists that stayed there, then Pierre and his family moved to Columbus so Puppy ended up staying with them, and when they were gone, Flo, the Dinghy Dock bartender, stayed at their place and took care of him, and named him Jean Luc. and now he's made his way to you. W live in Philipsburg now and I knew he was KING of Oyster Pond and had lots of smarts to get food whenever he needed it, and plenty places to stay so I left him there....I don't think he would be happy with me if I moved him out of "his" territory.
I brought him from the states with me though, he's actually American, so Obama fits I guess!
I've had him since he was a baby and he will be 5 years old on April 1st! just so you know, since it looks like he's found a new home!"
Yes, Obama has found another new home, and has a new name, and, yes, Obama is certainly a smart cat and a survivor.
I leave you with a few wonderful cat sayings:
If a dog jumps into your lap it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing it is because your lap is warmer. ~ A. N. Whitehead
"A cat´s eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world." - Irish Legend
It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming. ~Adlai Stevenson
In order to keep a true perspective of one´s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him. ~Dereke Bruce
If cats could talk, they wouldn´t. ~Nan Porter
There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat. ~Tay Hohoff
In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this. ~Terry Pratchett
The cat could very well be man´s best friend but would never stoop to admitting it. ~Doug Larson
Cats come and go without ever leaving. ~Martha Curtis
You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats. ~Proverb
- Mood:
busy
Yep, it's true. Front page news in The Daily Herald this morning.
I had heard this before but frankly had not paid too much attention to it because I am tired of huffing and puffing about all the over development on this island.
No one listens anyway.
But this morning the headlines sort of hit me in the face, so I read the article and then went to the web site to read more.
Maybe no one on the island listens but, trust me, the outside world is watching and they don't like what they see.
traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/d
traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/d
It's not a pretty picture folks!
Read the article. Basically it says that:
"This island presents one of the best examples of what islands should avoid in tourism development. Tourism has gobbled up the culture of the island, which now is defined by the hotels, casinos, and other modern developments—not the island's historical, artistic, culinary, or other local heritage. Quality of life is a major consideration for residents as well as visitors. There appears to be widespread interest in making changes."
Widespread interest in making changes? Really? I honestly don't see much evidence of that.
They actually like the French side better than the Dutch side. I'm not surprised about that either. The French side still has a chance.
Protect NOW what you still have!
St. Maarten got a score of 38. We are in the bottom 10 overall.
The fjords region of Norway was rated the highest with a score of 85.
One panelist stated:
"The threats to the environment are multiple, mainly on the Dutch part of the island. The strong development of tourism without all the necessary measures to address the environment is provoking damages, many irreversible. A change of mentality in the direction of a sustainable development is necessary, especially with regard to natural resources."
Well, duh! What has SXM Pride been screaming about for years? Does anyone listen?
All of the above information is in the current November/December issue of National Geographic Traveler.
Be sure to rush right out and buy a copy so you can become even more depressed than I am.
- Mood:
depressed
I've been living in the Caribbean too long. What is this phenomenon called Black Friday?
I do not remember anything called Black Friday from when I was living in the States.
Who thought this stuff up anyway?
And why would any sensible sane person stand in line all night to wait for a store to open at 5:00 AM so they can buy a laptop or something at an insane low price?
Ah, that's the catch...an insane low price.
I heard this morning that some store was selling a Sony laptop for $399.00 and by 7:00 AM they were all sold out.
One has to wonder how many Sony laptops they actually had in stock? 6? 12?
Whatever!
That's one sale I missed.
We do not have Black Friday here in St. Maarten although I did notice one merchant advertising a Black Friday sale in the newspaper the other day.
People here get paid once a month.
And then maybe they get a partial pay or maybe a bonus in the middle of the month before Christmas so they can do some shopping..
Typically our Christmas shopping season really doesn't take off in full form until the very week or 10 days before Christmas. We don't have any of this shopping craziness until then.
As far as Black Friday goes, I will be the last one to ever go in a large department store on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Of course living down here I can't do that anyway, but if I were up there, I just wouldn't do it. No way!
I leave you with a few Black Friday jokes, since I think the whole thing is a joke anyway.
(Remember to click on the images to enlarge them and see them better.)
Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space. ~Dave Barry
- Mood: tired
The only people who celebrate Thanksgiving today is the United States, as far as I know anyway.
Canada has their own Thanksgiving Day.
And the rest of the world does not celebrate it.
St. Maarten has its own Thanksgiving Day which is on the 30th of November , at the end of hurricane season.
I am very thankful for that and for the fact we had no storms this year.
According to SMN-News,
"The Annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving service for the island will take place on Sunday December 6th 2009 in front of the Government Administration Building. The service will start at 4:30pm and it is a joint service hosted by various churches on our island. The general public is invited to come out to give thanks collectively for the safe passing of the 2009 hurricane season. The service will consist of praise & worship, songs and the spoken word. All are encouraged to come out and give the almighty God thanks for bringing us safely through another year.
During the service the annual lighting ceremony will take place to ring in the Christmas season.
A love offering will be received, which will go towards providing food baskets for less fortunate persons in the community for Christmas.
Individuals, groups, organizations, businesses etc. are encouraged to contribute to the food baskets by providing non-perishable food items.
You can contact the Department of Social Cultural Development to drop-off or call 5422056 for picking-up the food items."
But today we celebrate American Thanksgiving. I am not cooking this year. Well, I rarely do cook, but usually we have some friends over to the house and we all share in the cooking.
It's usually a small group.
Gotta love that Maxine!
and Jon Stewart has something to say about Thanksgiving dinner too:
I celebrated Thanksgiving in the traditional way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast. And then I killed them and took their land. -- Jon Stewart
This year we are going out to eat with some good friends at one of my favorite restaurants, and I like that idea a lot.
I have to admit I am feeling rather untraditional this year so I will leave you with a couple Thanskgiving Day jokes.
Enjoy the jokes, enjoy Thanksgiving, and be grateful for what you have.
You know that just before that first Thanksgiving dinner there was one wise, old Native American woman saying, "Don't feed them. If you feed them, they'll never leave."--Dylan Brody
Thanksgiving is an emotional time. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often. - Johnny Carson
- Mood: content
If you take a walk down the boardwalk, ti's a nice stroll. Walking along the beach, people watching. The restaurants and bars are open and there is a lively atmosphere.
But take a good look..a really good look..and see how run down things are.
My first blog asking who's in charge of the boardwalk showed you some pictures.
barcann.livejournal.com/148928.html
Now here are some more!
Ash trays all have all rotted out and need to be replaced.
This picture above looks more like a backyard in some slum rather than an attractive area for tourists and residents to walk in.
And last but not least, our cannon!
A historic cannon I presume, just left out of place and dangling like this.
So I have to ask again:
Who is in charge of maintaining the boardwalk? And why aren't they doing their job?
- Mood:
irritated
