Future Planning
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 10/Jul/2011 02:57, 34 days ago
Sometimes everything planned falls through and nothing is accomplished. This is the time to revise plans and think about the future.I thought I'd go swimming today, but a thunderstorm or two came along and nixed that idea. Staying indoors and doing something on the computer was always a possibility but the Internet service tends to be down on Saturday afternoons, like it was today. Oh well, a movie in the evening, the latest Transformers, could be good, but it was sold out before I got there. I should have planned that better.There are a number of possible blog articles in the pipeline that need just a little bit of upfront planning, and help from other people, to turn them into reality. I've listed them not in any particular order but just as an aide-memoir for me. I think aide-memoir is the French word for a handkerchief with a knot. The knot acts as reminder that something needs to be done. In the Kleenex or paper tissue age, I guess we just don't remember things anymore.1)The luminescent lagoon east of Falmouth on Jamaica's north shore along with its many heritage buildings. I need help in identifying reasonably priced accommodation close by and hope to travel up on July 17th& 18th. One of these pictures I got from the Gleaner and one from the Glistening Waters tour site itself.2)The newly re-opened Jamaican railway line that Wikipedia does not yet say is running again. It gives you a one hour train ride for about $1 Canadian. This is a commuter train heading towards Kingston so its direction of travel is not helpful to me because I live in Kingston. It only runs on weekdays.This train runs between Charlemont and Spanish Town and I have a feeling that there is an unidentified train that runs from Charlemont just after 4:30PM. Any information on this would be much appreciated. I would hate to get the 3:30 PM train out from Spanish Town and get stranded in Charlemont with nothing to do until the 5:30 AM train the next day. I've never actually been to Charlemont so it could be a very fine place near the bauxite plant in Ewarton. I suspect there would be route taxis available though, so there would be no need for me to panic.Here is the Jamaican train before it had a nice exterior paint job, had the interiors fixed up a little bit, and got new wheels. It looks very presentable now and is painted in Jamaican flag colors.3)My dentist is a Jamaican army soldier who practices dentistry in the evenings and weekends. I am sure there is an interesting story here once I ask her permission and so some research. How many full-time Canadian soldiers also work as dentists outside the military?4)Bluefields Bay just came to my attention this evening. It's quite a distance from Kingston on the south shore past Black River. It has a fine beach and close by is the Peter Tosh mausoleum that apparently is worth visiting. You are less likely to be pressured as a visitor than at other similar places; maybe because it is fairly remote. I've driven by it on the rush back to Kingston, however there is no doubt that it is pretty as the photo below taken by a Bluefields Bay resort indicates.5)MountAmbrim, Westmoreland, classical music concerts by established concert musicians from outside Jamaica and arranged by a Doctor Gruhlke. He is an ophthalmologist and gave free glaucoma tests to Jamaicans back in the 1960's. The location is likely to be somewhere close to BlueFields Bay so I might be able to combine them into one trip.6)Tin grinners - people who have had orthodontal work done here. I saw the mobile clinic bus drive by me once and wonder just what on earth a tin grinner was.7)International Cricket game - just down the road from my work at Sabina Park but they tend to play sporadically and during the working week. My motivation is low because I played cricket at school. George Bernard Shaw also once said something to the effect that cricket was a game invented to give the English, a race of heathen non-believers, some idea of what eternity was like.8)Edit the recent office photos blog and makes helpful suggestions on cutting down the paper burden and increasing productivity. This falls directly into the building organizational capacity mandate that CUSO-VSO volunteers have.Astute readers will note that today there was no confrontation between me and my alter-ego, the Blog. I often need the Blog to fine-tune or provide creativity. Today was simply an accountant's style to-do list. Therefore it was reasonably boring and I could not mess up. I was able to complete it without troubling the Blog's sensitivities.The Blog remained outwardly sleeping, but inwardly it is perpetually alert in case my thinking ends in a ditch or over a Blue Mountain precipice, figuratively speaking.