A slow news day, but read on.
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 09/Sep/2011 01:15, 34 days ago
Well it was a slow news day here in Kingston, Jamaica. And that's not all bad. No really bad traffic accidents, no really bad murders, etc. My only photos of the day involved taking a photo of somebody else taking a photo of a Pattie. In my defense, you have to photographically record that Jamaican heritage for posterity before you leave.Here is the picture of the Pattie - it was a beef one. It's cheaper than a cheese or a chicken one, so you have to wonder. No, that might not be a good idea. Stop wondering. The other photo had more human interest but seeing as I did not ask permission to upload it, it remains off the web.Things may have been slowly going uphill when I heard about tonight being Fashion Night in Kingston. I was picturing models walking along catwalks, well-dressed citizens promenading along the streets, but it was not to be.Fashion night is basically a retail stores event where the shops sell the usual things but at say 20% off. It's sort of like a "Back to School","Spring into Spring", or similar sale. The interesting things is that all stores do it on the same night.Looking around for excitement I switched on the computer. Often it does not disappoint. Last night I watched Dr. Strangelove that by coincidence included Peter Sellers - he was the film star whose impression Bunty took a photo of on Hollywood Boulevard recently. The night before I watched Young Frankenstein. It's too late at night to research whether any of its stars also appear in Californian concrete.But first before tonight's movie, I had a quick look at the local weather forecast. This is more exciting than Canadian weather because Jamaican summer weather is often to be seen on the National Hurricane Centre's web site.I had intended a quick look but my first thought on looking at the screen was along the lines "Holy mackerel look at all that red". I'm not fully Jamaicanised yet, I should have substituted Red Snapper, Wahoo or King Fish instead of mackerel. Be that as it may, as with traffic signals, red generally indicates dangerous situations. Red is something you pay attention to.A quick geography and hurricane lesson is case you're wondering why a person in Jamaica is getting excited over those red things on the Atlantic Ocean map that are hurricanes. Where is Jamaica anyway? If you draw a straight line between Nate and Maria it will pretty well pass through Jamaica that is about twice as close to Nate as it is to Maria. Also, if you go straight down the map from the "o" in the "Cyclone" that appears in the map's title then where it hits the Nate-Maria line is it.The hurricanes seemed go be generally missing Jamaica so I moved along to other thoughts.I know it sounds vain, but I speculated that because I have a reasonably common name that there was bound to be a mighty hurricane named after me. Unexcitement continued as I learned that the French-Canadian spelled Hurricane Georges was as close as it got. Here's a Wikipedia picture of it. Maybe one day they'll drop the "s"? Actually, the "s" is not pronounced by French speakers, so maybe I have bragging rights already?That's the advantage of having a common name - you get hurricanes more or less named after you. The real challenge would be if there was a Hurricane Bunty. Now that would interest me.Unfortunately Google search politely asked me if I really meant Hurricane Betty, Hurricane Booty or Hurricane Bondi. Well I didn't, but I had time on my hands so I looked them up. They weren't hurricanes but just websites where the two words had appeared, but not that close together. The first two were night clubs, while the third one was a restaurant named Hurricanes on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Maybe one day?Bunty gets a second shot at fame because on her passport she is a Josephine. Would Josephine be any luckier? The answer is yes, yes and yes. Every six years, which must be the hurricane name cycling period, a hurricane or tropical storm named Josephine comes along and blows and soaks everything in its path. Here's one of them:It's from 2008, so we are half way to the next Josephine already. Poor me though, Haley's comet will probably pass by again before there's another Hurricane Georges.But nobody should accuse us people in Caribbean of hogging all the best hurricanes and tropical storms for ourselves. The projection below shows that Hurricane Katia is going to blast across the Atlantic and it's remnants will impact the Scottish coastline somewhere near Dunoon next week - so keep your umbrellas handy Sarah, Stewart and Deborah.So that's it for today, or until the weekend. I'll be up in the Blue Mountains with the Hash Harriers (named after the British army cafeteria food) getting some exercise provided Tropical Storm Maria doesn't go off course and dump a whole pile of wind and rain on our parade, I mean hash.