Ah, yeses, I know, this week’s letter is a little late, to the extent of being in the following week, i.e. this week. This could mean, that this letter is this week’s early, but no; its last week’s late… Did you follow all that?!
Ah right, so, what’s happened in this, or, rather, last, week’s fun packed days? I saw this great advertisement for a clothing company. The tag line is ‘I’ve got ewe, babe’, and the company’s called sonny and shear. Brilliant, very funny. OK, I’m not selling advertising space, but had to deserve a mention. However, this is a letter from Trinidad, not just for advertisements from companies overseas. I also get several emails a day, from all kinds of names claiming to be a bored 25 year old girl. I guess the spammers didn’t check the names too well. When someone with an unusual male name claims to be a 25 year old girl, well, yes! Speaking of spam, in gmail, the spam page always shows links to things to do with spam. I never realised there were so many ways of preparing and eating it!
An oddity I’ve never got used to in Trinidad, despite being here for just a few days shy of 6 months, is using ‘Good night’ as a greeting. Yes, I know it’s the way it was originally used, in England, but, since I was a kid (and before too, I’m not that old), Good night is used to close a conversation, not open one. When I come back to the apartment complex, and the guard greets me with a ‘good night’, it still feels peculiar. Just one of those things you never quite get used to, I guess.
Another thing about Trinidad I’m still getting my head around is people who block pavements with stalls. I’m not talking about a shop extending out into the pavement, or a stall on a wide pavement. No, I’m referring to stalls which are so big, they take up all, or almost all, the pavement, and force pedestrians to walk in the road. Near the office, on the road one has to walk down, to get to the car park, there’s such a stall. It just appeared one day. It’s a classic street vendor’s portable stall, built on a trailer, with wooden sides, which can open, a cool box to the side, and awnings above, to keep the stall holder shaded. Actually, one wheel reaches out, over the curb, so it’s on wooden blocks. Between the stall, and the fence, is a 2′ gap, but as the stall holder, and friends, sit there, you must walk in the road. Actually, what with bits sticking out, you still walk in the road, at most times. Actually, it’s only open for business for a few hours, but they leave it there, all the time, annoying me! However, all over Trinidad you will see such stalls, and blocking pavements too. Not that the police don’t take an interest. I’m quite sure they stop there for a drink or food as well… Oh well, welcome to Trinidad! The corruption here, and lack of law enforcement, is just mad. Anyone can make a fortune here, with western style service, etc, but unless you know the right people, forget it!
Actually, I saw something the other day, which rather disturbed me. On the side of a car was a Swastika. Now, I know the Swastika was devised as a peace symbol, but, even so, in England, you would only see one at an ultra-left wing party rally. It’s symbolism as the banner of National Socialism, it’s association with death and horror, mean it’s, for the foreseeable future, effectively banned in England. However, I wonder, does it have the same association here? I remember chatting with someone at work, who didn’t know who was in WWII, but thought the Germans were in it, for some reason, even if they didn’t know where Germany was. Was this just one person, who was ignorant, was it indicative of something greater in Trinidad? I’ve asked a few other Trinis, and they say that Trinis would know about WWII, but still, it was a bit of a wake-up call, about expectations.
As for the lifts this week, well we’re on 3. So, a good week! Of course, people still take the lift in the wrong direction, thinking it faster. I’m still trying to get my head around that one! However, the lifts at Bayside are a bit strange. For example, if you park downstairs (the carpark has entry level and ground level, under it), on ground level, and want to use the lifts, just one of the two lifts (2 per tower), opens both way (enabling access direct to the carpark), and just this one is set up for trolleys. Going up, it’s fine, as if you call the lift; you get the one suitable for a trolley. However, going down is a different matter. Say you have a trolley to take back down. Naturally, you want the elevator they can use. However, there’s just one button, so chances are, you get the fancy lift. In which case, you need to send the fancy lift to another floor, and call both lifts again! Of course, if you really want fun, you’ll notice that the lifts refer to 2 ground floors (but just one is real). When new, you sometimes try and take a ride to the false floor…! What is it with Trinidad and lifts?
Ah well….work’s been up and down all. We had a reconciliation issue, which I guessed immediately was a reporting issue, either down to timing or criteria, or both. However, they wanted to churn through it the usual way. Needless to say, I was right… Still it means it reduces how much time I need to spend in Trinidad, and I should be able to leave sharpish to Texas. I’m not point scoring, just want to get all the stuff over and done with.
Speaking of work, it’s been quite a good week, for good ideas. I had one the other day, whilst pondering a problem. Whilst my idea needed to refined slightly, to be more practicable, and can only be applied to new items, not existing ones, it will save around 25,000 Pounds a year (if not more), and improve the customer experience. Nice! The main one, that will improve the way we run things, make payments, etc, is till being developed, but that’s also a massive saving too. It’s nice to know I can bring in savings, on top just doing the normal job.
On the other hand, the system I’m talking about has been rather frustrating. Way back in April time, the improvements to the system I was writing were frozen. Now, suddenly, it’s all been activated again! Bit frustrating all this. The improvements have been live, or frozen, for a long time now. Anyway, finally, most of the improvements have made it to ‘production’, plus some more I didn’t think of first time, but sans this rather complex macro I wrote. This will be the last incarnation of the system, before it’s switched off, later in the year (unless the new system fails).
Actually, it’s been frustrating, because I can’t talk about Texas, officially, even though most people know now (the grapevine here is fantastic). This puts me in the difficult position of developing a system in a way that enables it to be used after I’ve gone, but I can’t explain why… Very weird, the whole thing! It’ll so much easier when all this can be out in the open. Make it easier to work too. Right now I’ve got to develop a new reporting system. That’s not too difficult, but only if I can agreement on one part. Guess what…the crucial person isn’t here. Same person who needs to make the official announcement. Rather frustrating!
However, I’m leave my 2 grey suits behind, and let this chap who’s rather large have them instead, along with 3 of my shirts (the really nice ones, with the soft cloth). The other 3 I’ll take to Texas with me. They’re most standard shirts, 2 of which are stained anyway. The 3rd is nice, but I’ll keep that for good, maybe a date, in San Antonio or something…. So, just taking with me loads and loads of shorts, a few t-shirts 3 nice shirts, and er, underwear. I can see my needing to buy new clothes quite quickly! Ah well, it’s all so cheap right now, anyway, what exchange rates being what they are, etc.
However, back to Trinidad, and yes, rain. Oh boy, the rain. We had rain here the other day, so intense, you couldn’t see a thing from the window, even a few yards away. Quite, quite, unbelievable. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed that such an intensity of rain was possible. Imagine trying to look through a waterfall, that’s near what it was like! Oh well, at least the Royal Navy lads would have felt at home. HMS Ocean, the largest ship in the RN was here for anti-drug duties. I bet it made some of the girls quite happy too, the ship I mean, or rather the sailors, as opposed to the rain.
Something that’s been annoying me is this girl near me who’s ring tone is this baby singing a nursery rhyme, with the notes tapped out on a xylophone. It was OK at first, but her mobile kept going off, many many times… Funny was that one say she brought her baby to the office, so the baby in real life was singing along to the recording! Ringtones can be so annoying though! Mine’s set to vibrate only, you need it!
Heard a weird thing the other day. At the petrol station, there’s also a KFC. The girl kept saying to patrons: ‘do you want spicy or regular flavour’? (in Trinidad, KFC comes in 2 flavours). To anyone who answered ‘regular’, she replied ’sorry, we only have spicy’. I just found that completely mad! Speaking of mad things, I had a pension from my time at T-Mobile. Now, T-Mobile offer a very good pension package (I recommend working there, if for that alone), which is a ‘final salary’ type. So, I had a choice, cash it in, or have 2.5x as much, by transferring it. The mad thing that the government, to stop pension mis-selling foces the pension advisor to offer a private pension comparable with the one I just left. As few people offer such a good pension, I couldn’t transfer it, and so was forced to lose 000’s of Pounds, and take cash. Madness, pure madness!
Oh well, on a nicer note, I’ve been having lunch a few times a week from Patricia’s. Patricia is this bubbly, fun woman (Venezuelan, actually), who has this little café behind a bar, where she serves up traditional Trini food. Every day you have the following steam kingfish, fried kingfish, or a meat or poultry, plus the vegtables/salad. Good, wholesome food, and loads of it! Often she’ll come by, and give you more! It’s TT$35 for fish and TT$25 or TT$30 for the other. Divide by 12 to get to Sterling. I had some of the people in the office laughing the other day when I pronounced ‘gerrera’ as it’s written, it’s actually pronounced ‘jeera’ (it’s a style of cooking meat or poultry). Absoluletly devine! Here, pillau means rice with bits in it, not as in England, one of the number one dishes. Another one is callaloo. Best to describe it as a slimy vegetable mix. It’s green, slimy, with bit in it. Taste is OK, if not wonderful, but the texture is off-putting…
Anyway…on facebook met up with some old friends. Funny, one of them I’m friendlier with now, than when we were at school, found we have a lot in common. It’s weird the way things develop! Speaking of past, also watched an old classic, almost twice in a row. Yes, The Big Chill, such a wonderful film. A real classic, and so well cast. Looking back at it, and doing some research, I’m guessing that the characters would all have been born in the late 1940’s, as they would have been around 35 in 1983 (when it was). That mean, add on 24 years, and, oh yikes! They’ll all be around 60 now, and heading towards retirement. They can’t be, can they? Wow! That freaks me out…
Well, there was a more to add, about car parking space, guards, Trotter’s bar, goodbyes, hellos, and the queues at the Hi Lo, but, no, I think I’ll leave it there for now.
Speak soon!
Osher
