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| Friday, September 22, 2006
Kingston Girl
Why come back?
gym bunny
Every now and then, one of the
little things happens that make me glad I came home. I had one of
those moments in the gym last night.
I was in the process of dying, that bit when I have just finished my
cardio stuff before heading to do weights, and went into the changing
room to put down my MP3 player. And I saw a little girl in there who
must have been about 6 or 7. I’d seen her around before – she seems to
wander around with a book or watching tv while her mum exercises.
Yesterday, she was talking on a phone, a pink razor phone. So I
stopped to admire it and told her it was very pretty and that she must
have important phone calls to make. She smiled shyly back at me, and I
started to walk off. At that point, she came up to me (remember I am
very sweaty at this point) and gave me a huge hug and then ran off.
Why does that make me glad to be back in Jamaica? Well, children in
foreign don’t do that. They’ve all been taught that strangers are
nasty and dangerous and if you even smile at a child in a shop, their
parents will run and grab them and give you a dirty look.* I want to
have children somewhere where they can talk to strangers, where adults
they vaguely know will pick them up if they start to cry and where
they can be hugged by a teacher when they do their work well without
the teacher fearing a lawsuit.
*And yes, I
know that parents are cautious for a reason, there are paedophiles out
there and I am not denying that. However, statistically children are a
lot more likely to be abused by someone they know well…
by Kingston Girl
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November 10th, 2006
Ladies, you will
undertand me on this one. It is very hard to find a good strapless bra. You
know, one that fits well, offers a push without being too much, comfortable,
doesn’t leave lots of lines showing, sexy (ie not looking like a piece of
armour). Yup, it’s hard.
So if you find one that
is perfect, you cherish it. You wash it in delicate soap. You put it away
carefully. You love it. And I had found that perfect bra and oh I treated it
well.
Until one night, I went
out. And I had a few drinks too many. And I came home tired, peeled off my
clothes, left them in a pile on my chair and fell into bed. And woke up in the
morning and rushed to work without tidying up.
And it came to pass that
a while later, I was looking for my beloved strapless bra and was unable to find
it. I search high and low and it was nowhere to be found. In desperation, I
asked my helper if she had seen it and after describing it to her, a look came
over her face.
‘You mean the thing
without the straps? Oh. Me did see it one day on the floor and thought that it
was bad to me throw it away.’
My beloved bra had
obviously fallen off the chair from the pile of clothes and seeing it, my helper
noticed it and decided to be nice to me and clear up a bit.
And obviously a bra with
no straps is no use at all. So in the bin it went.
I cried.
Kingston
Girl
But I
forgot to finish the story. Obviously once I found this out about my helper, I
had her beaten by the yard boy, I docked her pay to cover a replacement (and
obviously, this would be the equivalent of about 4 weeks pay as it was an
expensive bra and I pay her nothing really) and then fired her. As that is how
we all treat our ‘helpers’ obviously.
Kingston
Girl
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Trying to become a home owner
Kingston Girl
As I've mentioned before,
I am currently trying to buy a house. Well, to be accurate, an apartment.
A little apartment. But somewhere that is mine. I have taken the
decision that unlike many other girls my age, I am not going to sit
around waiting on Prince Charming to come along to move me into his
gorgeous house. I am going to try and make a start on my own!
I am one of those people who when I make a decision, I tend to go for
it. And I've been like that about this apartment thingy. After
contemplating and saving for ages, I decided about 2 weeks that it was
time to act. And since then, I've looked at 6 places. I made an offer
for one, but so did about 4 other people... and the person selling liked
the young couple more than me. So now I have made an offer for another
place and the man selling seems to like my offer. I'll give you more
detail of the place should everything go through - I don't want to tempt
fate!!
So now I am learning about the mortgage process in Jamaica. Mortgage
rates here are mad - commercial rates are between 14 - 18% per annum,
hellish. But you can borrow some money from the National Housing Trust (NHT)
, a government agency that loans at much cheaper rates.
So I am going the NHT route and had my first visit to them this morning.
I called and spoke to them and found out what initial documents I would
need to get an initial letter saying I look like a nice person who, once
they've checked me out more, they'd lend money to. The guy who I am
buying the house from wants this letter so he knows I'm serious. Fine.
This morning, I went to their offices with the documents that they told
me they needed. I went to one window, got redirected, went to the other
and then ended up in the right place. And I sat and waited patiently. I
expected the wait - I had taken a few sudoku puzzles with me to keep me
occupied! And it wasn't too bad - only half an hour until a young man
called me up.
The first thing he needed to know was whether I was married - huh? When
I informed him I wasn't he said 'Oh, yes, that's good for me.' Urrgh.
Then he slowly went through my papers and then he sent me away.
Apparently the people who answer the phones had forgotten to tell me to
bring a letter from my employer - they had told me to bring my
employment contract but that wasn't good enough for him. I wasn't
impressed - why the people can't talk sense on the phone? Why they make
me waste my time?
So now I have to go to my employer, wait about a week to get a letter
from them, and then go back and join the queue again to even start the
process. Grrrr
I just keep telling myself that it will be worth it one day when I am
finally sat in my place!!!
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