Silly Test, with amazingly true results!!!!!!!!!!

Tee Hee! I did it too! I got this over at Tootsie's this site and did the reading level thingie!



Try it here and test your blog's reading level, it's real quick and easy, for the lazy blogger like myself!



This is my result
They are soooo on the button!! heh heh

Friday Fill Ins #6

Another Friday is here and it's time for Friday Fill-Ins, hosted by Janet and you should do it! I'm hooked!

1. The last band I saw live was Traffik

2. What I look forward to most on Christmas is the house spotless and decorated with lights and other decorations, oh and a new purchase, (even if it's just a lamp!).

3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is limited to toys this year (if the kids are happy, hubby and me are happy!).

4. Thoughts of Christmas food fill my head.

5. I wish I could wear a bikini and not have to apologise for the tummy!

6. Bagpipes are cool! but kilts are cooler! (huh Lisa?!).

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading up tomorrows lecture. tomorrow my plans include yup school all day and Sunday, I want to make it to beach if the rain would stop!

How many of you can say THAT!

As a Trinidadian I along with the rest of the world looked on with keen interest at the US election, and like everyone else saw history made, well it got me comparing the history on my island with the history of America in terms of Presidents, you guys have had 44 presidents thus far. We've had only five. So it thought how can I spin this fact that would make me feel better about my relatively young country? Like this.............. I've lived an amazing life! Do you know that in my lifetime I have lived through all the Prime Ministers (Presidents) that this country has ever had! Yup all five of them!

Now while Obama is the 44th President of the US, my Prime Minister the Honorable Patrick Manning is the 5th leader this country has had! The first leader, was Dr Eric Williams, he took us from being a colony of England to being independent, this happened six years before I was born, however unlike the US we can have the same Prime Minister for................. ever! As long as the electorate is happy with him. In fact Eric Williams may well have been PM for life, had he not died while in office. He served for twenty straight years!

Hereunder are the sum total of everyone who has been the leader of this great nation Trinidad and Tobago: (the dates are when the served as PM)

Eric Williams: 1961 - 29 March 1981[1]

George Chambers: 30 March 1981 - 18 December 1986 A.N.R. Robinson: 19 December 1986 - 17 December 1991 Patrick Manning: 17 December 1991 - 9 November 1995 Basdeo Panday: 9 November 1995 - 24 December 2001 Patrick Manning: 24 December 2001 - present
And there you have it, the first two Prime Ministers are now dead, the third actually went on to become President ( a mostly ceremonial post), and the last two have been competing and still is competing for the post of Prime Minister during elections.

So that is a quick look at the political landscape of Trinidad, considering how much your elections were in the news, and it's now finished, I figured you would say to yourself, 'I wonder who leads Trinidad and Tobago?' now you know!

An Autumn Award

Isn't this award the cutest? I got it from confessions of a 40-something mama queen her blog is so nice and welcoming! Thank you tardevel!

As with most awards it comes with rules, which of course is part of the fun!

Here is how we play:

1) I need to list 5 things I have always wanted to do.

2) Then contact 3 (or more) bloggin buds, and pass the award along to them.

I must say this is quite easy as I have soooo many aspirations and far fetched dreams! I will try to keep them realistic ok?

1. I always wanted to bungee jump or fast rope through trees in a jungle of some sort




2. Host a lovely dinner party for my blogging friends




3. Have snow at Christmas (so much for realistic!)




4. Take Gabby to Hollywood, she is such a little actress!




5. Have a getaway weekend with the hubby, without my kids that I love soooo much, we take them everywhere!
   

Now to pass this award along to 3 blogging buddies:

1. My friend Donna over at Donna's Den, Donna is a live one! She blogs from the heart and shoots from the hip! Visit her and you'll be glad you did! She is fiercely loyal and sweet!




2. My friend Penny over at Always something by Penny who is such a sweetheart and a funny funny person, she leaves the sweetest and funniest comments that just warms the heart to read, she needs to post more though, visit her! you'll love her!




3. And my friend buffie, everybody loves buffy, mostly because she is nutty and proud of it! If you never visited you are SOOOOOO missing out! Just by the name of her blog you know she is nutty, 'my left foot!', she may have to change the name of her blog soon, lol!! (long story!)

Friday Fill ins

Another Friday is here and it's time for Friday Fill-Ins, hosted by Janet and you should do it! I'm hooked!

1. My blueprint for success includes if it makes you happy go for it!

2. White chocolate was the last candy I ate.

3. The best facial moisturizer I've ever used is Olay Total Effects Moisturizer.

4. Shopping! can be good therapy.

5. I'd like to tell you about bloggeville!.

6. Honesty is my strongest characteristic.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to fast food and sleep, tomorrow my plans include school all day and Sunday, I want to cook early and relax!

Seems like my last few posts have been memes, in my next post I promise to be very controversial and rock your worlds!

Actually no, I have nothing in mind, so just read my memes and comment ok?

Oh what the heck I'll throw in another awesomely bad video!

I am not quite a vlogger like my friend buffy, so dont laugh at my 'teachy' voice ok?

One word answers

Shamelessly stole this from Chris who stole it from Smiling Sally, of course you may use (steal) it if you like!

1. Where is your cell phone. Car

2. Where is your significant other? Work

3. Your hair color? Black

4. Your Mother? Home

5. Your Father? Heaven

6. Your favorite thing? Shopping

7. Your dream last night? Mcain won

8. Your dream goal? Degree!

9. The room you're in? Bedroom

10. Your hobby? Blogging

11. Your fear? Frogs

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Financially secure

13. Where were you last night? Home

14. What you are not? Working!!

15. One of your wish list items? Fitness

16. Where you grew up? Trinidad

17. The last thing you did? Gabby's lunch

18. What are you wearing? T shirt and shorts

19. Your TV? 29"

20. Your Pet? pesky rottwieler

21. Your computer? HP

22. Your Mood? Excited

23. Missing someone? me

24. Your car? Nissan

25. Something you're not wearing? Bra

26. Favorite Store? Price Smart

27. Your summer? Kiddie Camp

28. Love someone? Many

29. Your favorite color? Orange

30. When was the last time you laughed? This morning

31. When was the last time you cried? This morning

Friday Fill Ins #5 and how to drink coconut water

Janet hosts Friday Fillins here, feel free to do one of your own!

1. My favorite food seasoning is Garlic.

2.Let me take the kids to school today babe is music to my ears.

3. Lucky is healthy kids.

4. Respect for all races is something I take very seriously.

5. Many people wonder where I find time to blog.

6. I cant remember what was the last thing I bought at the store.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to pre reading notes for school, tomorrow my plans include all day school, and Sunday, I want to get over school!

On a Friday Fillin I did some time ago, someone asked what was coconut water! So I used my cell phone and made a really poor quality video for you, if you can suffer through it you will get the idea!

Enjoy!

All about carnival

Since my last blog about my disappointment with the costume offering of Brian Mac Farlane, I realized that some of my blogging friends had some questions about carnival and the whole mas thing, so since I love to write about carnival I thought I would post this today, not to mention I was over at the in-laws this weekend and I took my laptop and worked on it in my spare time.

Carnival is a season, just like Christmas is a season, the Carnival Season begins just at the end of Christmas. Carnival Monday and Tuesday is the culmination of the Carnival Season and is always the Monday and Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday (usually between Feb and March of the year)

Carnival is not only about prancing in the streets in your costume, there are many activities and competitions that are spaced out over the carnival season.

These activities and competitions are cultural in nature, there is the steel pan competition called ‘panorama’ (steel pan or drum is our national instrument and the only musical instrument invented in the last 100+ years) and the calypso competition which takes two forms, one for traditional calypsos and one for the more modern upbeat version called ‘soca’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xETyczXqVM or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFE2xIukL3Q.

This is a video of our steel pan being played:



Children also take part in carnival, in fact, the kids get to play mas on more days than the adults! They actually have 2 weekends to play mas, on both days of the weekend too! The children can play mas as part of their school band or they can play with a children’s carnival band that is open to children from all over the world! The children’s costumes are usually much more lovely and creative than the adults, and much more entertaining to view! Here are some samples of this year’s offering of children’s costumes for this year.

These three costumes are from a designer who decided to create an all white children's band this year! I wish him luck with a bunch of bratties in all white! lol!! I think they are beautiful though!

These four above are from a very popular children costume designer and this year her theme is National Pride, the names of all the costumes are actually words taken from our national anthem.

The biggest night in Carnival is the competition called ‘Dimanche Gras’ which when loosely translated means ‘Big Sunday’. Dimanche gras consists of the finals of many different competitions, like King and Queen of Carnival – These are huge costumes worn by individuals. These costumes are the leaders of different carnival bands and are very beautiful and creative.

Another competition that is judged on Dimanche Gras night is the Calypso competition, this is greatly anticipated because it is usually made up of either pro or anti government calypsos that are very witty.

Following Dimanche Gras is ‘Jouvert’ this is the start of the street party, this is where it is legal to take over the streets of our capital city of Port of Spain, follow music trucks and dance to your heart’s delight. Jouvert begins at 4:30 am. The costumes worn during Jouvert are usually very casual in nature , and very very funny. Some men wear shortie nighties, some wear chamber pots or ‘posies’ on their head, adults walk around with pacifiers in their mouths and baby bottles filled with alcohol. Some dress like our politicians with placards portraying the latest dumb thing they did or said in recent times. This type of mass is called ‘ole (old) mass’ some people just love it because you avoid the hot sun, and the costumes are of course not as formal and fussy, you can put on a cut off jeans and tee shirt, cover your self with mud, yes mud! And have a great time! Oh yes mud mas is a great part of jouvert and even made it’s way into the Monday mas as well. Mud can be mud colored or blue as seen below, the blue mud wearers are known as 'blue devils'.

The mas I play is called pretty mas and takes place on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. You go to the different mas camps or peruse them on line and choose a costume, pay for it and you collect it about a week before carnival Monday.

And as you may know, I am not impressed with Mac Farlane's offering this year, my views on that are expressed here for those of you who may have missed that post. Oh! And an important point! The prices seen for these costumes are quoted in Trinidad and Tobago dollars, so that all prices should be divided by six to get the US price.

But I digress, so the package you get when you pay for your costume is your Carnival Monday usually consists of your Monday outfit, which can be anything from a Tee shirt and a hat, you can wear Jeans or tights or what ever you want with your tee shirt, or you may get a few yards of white sheer material (voile) that you can wrap in any way you want about your body. Apart from that you get some sample size toiletries and sunbloc. Of course the price includes two meals on Carnival Monday and Three meals on Carnival Tuesday as well as drinks and water for the entire day.

Carnival Monday is the really fun day, there is no worry of a fancy costume and head pieces, its just you the music, the road, the people, the drinks, the music and of course the music!!

My sisters and I in our Carnival Monday wear!

Your costume package of course will have your full costume as well, which you wear only on carnival Tuesday. However when Tuesday comes, you are exhausted from Monday! You wake up and your feet aches, your calves ache, and you may have a slight hangover, I always have to drive home after so I don’t drink any alcohol on the days, if I do, it is hours before I have to drive home. In spite of all the exhaustion, what gets you going is taking a look at your costume that you have hanging in your bedroom for more that a week! Oh! You jump out of bed, hit the shower, have a HUGE breakfast and brush your teeth and put on your make up.

Applying make up is sooooo much fun for carnival! You get to wear eye shadows in colors that would not usually be worn! You can choose colors that compliment your costume and just experiment and have great fun! Of course a few days before I experiment on my carnival make up and put on my head piece! So that by Carnival Tuesday I know what colors I want to wear!

I hope this gives an idea into Trinidad and Tobago’s carnival and how the whole thing works. Of course there is debate on whether or not the costumes are overpriced and in many cases they are, in many instances the band leaders are laughing all the way to the bank as they take advantage of persons wishing to take part in something that is part of their national heritage.

If your band wins the ‘band of the year’ title the money goes to the Band Leader and not a penny goes to the masquerader, however they contend that costumes are expensive to produce, the music trucks are expensive as well and there are other costs like security for the band, an ambulance that follows the band and other logistics. I still have not chosen my costume yet but I still have time, Carnival Monday and Tuesday will be on February 23 & 24th 2009.
My next carnival post will be about accessorizing your costume and more on Carnival Tuesday!