Running with chopped meat, potatoes and sometimes vegetables
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 05/Jul/2011 00:34, 34 days ago
Jamaica is an exciting place. Both James Bond and George Hamilton had been on assignment there. One of the two was moving carefully around a Liguanea apartment. All of a sudden there was a muffled thud. Quite close by. Where nobody was meant to be.George recalled that a shortly before he had put a 1/2 gallon plastic bottle of grapefruit juice on top of the fridge. It had dislodged the ice in the roof of the icebox."Cut, cut, cut" screamed the blog as it jumped out from its director's chair. "It's time for me to take over again. Readers want travel and facts, not fiction and housework"."As a concession I will let you keep the title, but the rest is mine. You can put that in your alternative dispute resolution pipe and smoke it. Don't bother trying to mediate your way out of this one." I had never heard such an angry blog before.The facts and nothing but the facts so help me God.The Hash House Harriers commenced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, in 1938. Its original members were British colonial officers and expatriates and they did their "hashing", basically running or whatever they could manage, on Mondays to work off the excesses of the previous weekend. The "Hash House" is the small building in the middle next to the field.So this first group got off to a promising start and the point form constitution below will tell you more about them and their values. All of a sudden, after a few months, a sleeping bureaucrat woke up. He ruled that they were a group and as such had to follow certain legal requirements.Two in particular proved very challenging to the original hashers who were unaccustomed to complex legalities and deep thought. In spite of that they were "good sports" and model citizens, so they complied.The group needed a name and a constitution. Most of the original hashers were bachelors and were billeted in the Selangor Club Annex, You might have expected a name like the Selangor Club Annex Amateur Athletic Association - the SCAAAA. But they could have been teased for that, so they didn't - for example, imagine the shame if your friends taunted you with "Ha! Ha! You're a Scaaaa!".So they picked on an attribute of the said Selangor Club Annex and went with that instead. It seems that this club had really boring and monotonous food. You could visualize the food's quality from this imaginary conversation at its probably greasy-spoon-like cafeteria."Excuse me cook, is this stew?""No soldier. Non-commissioned scum like you don't deserve stew, that's hash."I guess they got hash almost everyday and that's why they called the Selangor Club Annex, the "Hash House". The Harrier part of the name came from an old English cross country hounds and hares events. The unlucky hare got chased by the hounds and harriers across England.The Hash House people must have liked the sound of stringing three "H" nouns together so they settled on "harriers". How they proceeded through the countryside probably did not bear much resemblance to real harriers chasing real hares.And here is the constitution that is a worthy rebuttal to beer& spirit killers and officious officials everywhere:- To promote physical fitness among our members.- To get rid of weekend hangovers.- To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer.- To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel.You patient readers have absorbed enough history for today, so back to Jamaica in the here and now.Here are two random photos of members waiting for the hash circle prior to the start of the hash at the Golden River Inn - Farm and Apiary. It's about an hour from Kingston, Jamaica. Hashers are dedicated athletes and are not scared off by a little rain.And not to forget the source of nutrition to reward them on their return from the jungle. I must remember to take photos of all the coolers of beer on my next trip provided I bring along my wide angle lens.Not that far down the trail we came to the bees, but they were all sleeping or doing other important bee things so they did not bother us. And vice versa, on the bothering angle.You can see the wetness on the leaves. I had no photos of the slippery wetness of the trail as I was trying diligently not to fall forward flat on my nose, or backwards onto my rear end. Basically one hand held my umbrella and one held the walking stick. There was no hand left over to hold a camera or prevent falls.Pineapples in Jamaica do not grow in cans or in supermarkets like in Canada.Impatiens grows naturally in Jamaica.It's all very lush and green in Jamaica as you can see, and the rain has something to do with that up in the hills. It probably does not rain on the beaches, especially in Hellshire. I must check with the tourist bureau on that one.Now it's time to wind things up for the day. You get thirsty in the tropical heat so I cracked and had two cups of icebox ice dislodger to keep me from being dehydrated.Observant readers may ask about the title. This is meant to be a crossword puzzle type clue avoiding the implication that there was anything in this blog to do with hallucinogenic plants. It combines the harrier component "running" with the hash part "chopped meat, potatoes and sometimes vegetables" component. The blog let me retain it so I would have to explain my way out of it. And I did, I think.Researchv\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}800x600Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-CAX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriershttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/hash