This heart, my own dear mother, bends,
With love's true instinct, back to thee!
I look back on my childhood and thank the stars above.
For everything you gave me, but mostly for your love for if it was not it I would not be what I am today!!!
I remember if there were 2 pieces of what i liked left and i was one on the table you would still say that you didnt like them so i could have both!!
You were ALWAYS the one to dream great dreams for me and if I did not chase them, loved me the same selfless way any way!!!
You always backed out for me to take my happiness when it came my way so I would get it all and when sorrows did cross my path you stood between me and them to not even let them close to me!!
You were always and always will be the bank where i would come and deposit all my worries and sorrows and know they would be taken away and repaid with all the love and caring in the world!!!
You are the only person to see beyond my superficial being for the person I am within without me even having to try a display..someone who would know if i was hurt across the globe without a minutes notice...someone who can just see me and know what I have as my deepest thought....and a remedy for it all.
Mama even if I dont say it too often cause i take you for granted,thank you for being my only true friend and caring for me minus any prejudice...I will love you always!!!
THANK YOU MOM FOR LOVING ME,NOT CAUSE I AM LOVABLE BUT BECAUSE I AM YOUR CHILD AND IT IS YOUR NATURE TO LOVE SELFLESSLY!!!
here is wishing you a very happy 60th birthday and a hundred more to come....
:-)
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
love sex and dhokha
To all the girls I've loved before
Who travelled in and out my door
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this blog
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls I once caressed
And may I say I've held the best
For helping me to grow
I owe a lot I know
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls who shared my life
Who now are someone else's wives
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this blog
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls who cared for me
Who filled my nights with ecstasy
They live within my heart
I'll always be a part
Of all the girls I've loved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And every time I try to stay
The winds of change continue blowing
And they just carry me away
lol
A little alterartion to a certain Senor'e Iglesias's song and I begin my thought process very much insync with what our man must have gone through in his life had the lyrics meant anything!!!
OK lets start by being cynical!!!
I guess love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident....
Ho Hum...twiddle twiddle!!!!
An old saying which i tell everyone when everytime someone walks away shredding a piece of my heart...Can you live your life on aloo parathas all your life???
He He
I GUESS NOT!!!
Change is the only thing constant and i guess thats the basis of evolution!!!
We see our parents and I see a lot of my friends today...breaking up and making up...n there always is a comparison...look at our generation and look at you guys!!!
In our time marraige meant eternal bonding...
Eternal bonding...what is eternal bonding???
Today the meaning of happiness has been redefined thanks to what we call evolution...doors have been opened where a man and a woman today can make choices...choose who they think is perfect...and when they find out he or she is'nt...they chose again...but the problem is that they want to graduate and that i guess seldom happens and it is happy hunting grounds till the teeth fall off!!!
Now is it correct to deny a person the freedom of their choice...and shouldnt they just be let loose searching for that one non existent soul who is supposed to be made there for you...and when they come home after having done their searching empty handed and tired too lead a dreary life with the next person that walks along????
I guess that is the rule of the road...
People have stopped nurturing and cherishing what they have in the search for something better!!!
I was in school...my first love!!!
Nope not the first girl I kissed!!!
Someone i deeply cared about and desired but did not have the courage to tell...had I things might have stood differently...
Well she left suddenly and I evolved into a soul who decided to tell every woman who crossed my path that I was in love...lol...always searching for that one chance i missed on telling her!!
Life goes on and with a success ratio beyond comparison...Don Juan(mind you not casanova) had been seduced many a times into believing he was in love!!!
Sex became the epitome of love...
But is it???
I have a friend who tells me...You can either have sex with a woman or you can love the woman and if you can do both then you need a psychiatrist!!!
IDIOT!!!!
WHAT IS HE TRYING TO SAY...I WASNT IN LOVE WITH ANY OF MY WOMEN CAUSE I HAD SEX WITH THEM???
HUH...
or that i need a psychiatrist...lol...more like it!!!!
I guess nobody can replace the hurt a person leaving causes...what he can do is get immune to it...and build another home for someone to settle...Mr Iglesias we understand you!!!
A die hard romantic by heart I guess I like the concept of falling in love without learning the concept of sustainance....a fools paradise!!!
Whats the point of building a house in a jiffy when the next earthquake that comes will raze it to the ground!!!!
I would rather take my time waiting for the right person to come along and start with a strong foundation...a foundation no earthquake can shatter!!!
But do such people still exist in todays jet age where they have time to think about foundations???
Well for me i believe in fairytales and I believe that for every adam there is an eve...in yin n yan!!!
Search on dreary traveller and you might find your treasure... maybe you met the wrong people at the right time and the right people at the wrong....maybe you are meant to walk alone...
The love that lasts the longest is maybe the love thats not returned or the love that you had and lost...and comes back and haunts you...that is human nature!!
“You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”
to all the girls i have loved before......
Who travelled in and out my door
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this blog
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls I once caressed
And may I say I've held the best
For helping me to grow
I owe a lot I know
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls who shared my life
Who now are someone else's wives
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this blog
To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls who cared for me
Who filled my nights with ecstasy
They live within my heart
I'll always be a part
Of all the girls I've loved before
The winds of change are always blowing
And every time I try to stay
The winds of change continue blowing
And they just carry me away
lol
A little alterartion to a certain Senor'e Iglesias's song and I begin my thought process very much insync with what our man must have gone through in his life had the lyrics meant anything!!!
OK lets start by being cynical!!!
I guess love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident....
Ho Hum...twiddle twiddle!!!!
An old saying which i tell everyone when everytime someone walks away shredding a piece of my heart...Can you live your life on aloo parathas all your life???
He He
I GUESS NOT!!!
Change is the only thing constant and i guess thats the basis of evolution!!!
We see our parents and I see a lot of my friends today...breaking up and making up...n there always is a comparison...look at our generation and look at you guys!!!
In our time marraige meant eternal bonding...
Eternal bonding...what is eternal bonding???
Today the meaning of happiness has been redefined thanks to what we call evolution...doors have been opened where a man and a woman today can make choices...choose who they think is perfect...and when they find out he or she is'nt...they chose again...but the problem is that they want to graduate and that i guess seldom happens and it is happy hunting grounds till the teeth fall off!!!
Now is it correct to deny a person the freedom of their choice...and shouldnt they just be let loose searching for that one non existent soul who is supposed to be made there for you...and when they come home after having done their searching empty handed and tired too lead a dreary life with the next person that walks along????
I guess that is the rule of the road...
People have stopped nurturing and cherishing what they have in the search for something better!!!
I was in school...my first love!!!
Nope not the first girl I kissed!!!
Someone i deeply cared about and desired but did not have the courage to tell...had I things might have stood differently...
Well she left suddenly and I evolved into a soul who decided to tell every woman who crossed my path that I was in love...lol...always searching for that one chance i missed on telling her!!
Life goes on and with a success ratio beyond comparison...Don Juan(mind you not casanova) had been seduced many a times into believing he was in love!!!
Sex became the epitome of love...
But is it???
I have a friend who tells me...You can either have sex with a woman or you can love the woman and if you can do both then you need a psychiatrist!!!
IDIOT!!!!
WHAT IS HE TRYING TO SAY...I WASNT IN LOVE WITH ANY OF MY WOMEN CAUSE I HAD SEX WITH THEM???
HUH...
or that i need a psychiatrist...lol...more like it!!!!
I guess nobody can replace the hurt a person leaving causes...what he can do is get immune to it...and build another home for someone to settle...Mr Iglesias we understand you!!!
A die hard romantic by heart I guess I like the concept of falling in love without learning the concept of sustainance....a fools paradise!!!
Whats the point of building a house in a jiffy when the next earthquake that comes will raze it to the ground!!!!
I would rather take my time waiting for the right person to come along and start with a strong foundation...a foundation no earthquake can shatter!!!
But do such people still exist in todays jet age where they have time to think about foundations???
Well for me i believe in fairytales and I believe that for every adam there is an eve...in yin n yan!!!
Search on dreary traveller and you might find your treasure... maybe you met the wrong people at the right time and the right people at the wrong....maybe you are meant to walk alone...
The love that lasts the longest is maybe the love thats not returned or the love that you had and lost...and comes back and haunts you...that is human nature!!
“You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”
to all the girls i have loved before......
Thursday, June 17, 2010
JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH
Jules Verne would be ressurected to tell the tale I am narrating now..but being the kind hearted soul I am I let his aging bones Rest In Peace!!!!!!!!
Was I to believe him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the centre of this massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a lofty genius? Where did truth stop? Where did error begin?
Well the error had been made and the truth had stopped to exist....and the lunatic mind had taken over my lofty genius...and penetrate the centre of this massive globe we decided to do!!!
Six hours of waiting left for Lil John and time was not meant to be wasted...we decided to explore the vent of the island...the shafts Jules Verne believed led to the centre of our massive globe....the dormant volcano this island was...its very entity...its existance!!!!!
We decided to enter the womb...the place we come from and the place we end up in from this 800 metere crater called THE QUILL..the feathered pen!!!!
Scared more with what Lil Johns reaction to us would be than entering a dormant volcano we managed a guide and decided to see the core of our earth!!!
Managing the gradual 350 metre climb to where the crater was to descend to the centre of the earth!!!
It was easy...the people who had attempted to reach there before us couldnt have been the experienced trekkers we were..no offence meant....may their souls rest in peace!!
We had reached the tip...halfway to our destination...
Reaching the top we decided to look down...a bunch of monkeys sitting on a tree and chattering reminding us of where we had originated from...n look down we did!!!!
It was a steep smooth wall like creation going down n down n down....its walls ravined with volcanic ash tht had frozen into a rock like substance...little paths running across it!!!! At that point of time I would rather have gone back a million years to become our tailed ancestor cause the moment they saw us peeping down they jumped into the crater running through the ravines and disappearing into the depths and taunting us with the fact that had we really evolved from them...or just degenerated into regressive humans!!!!
which ever way,i was in a tough spot having convinced the balance of the team against their wishes with rewards of seeing the centre of the earth!!! How was I to back out now??? The simplest excuse would have been to remind them of Lil Johns existance...but in times of dire need the human mind normally ceases to exist...another truth had unfolded on me!!
with little or no vegetation showing and the smooth inner sides of the volcano taunting us the guide kind of got enthusiastic and started his descent!!!
Ten USD for serving us as a delicacy..Carribean roasted Indians...the island was to have a meal on us if we slipped and the lava still existed!!!
fair deal
We followed suit FOR ABOUT 50 METRES...the beauty of nature and its massive power awed us into proceeding without thinking...the black walls with grey streaks running through them...fossilised insects and plants clearly visible...i closed my eyes and with a furor like never before burst out...."LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...I GIVE TO YOU THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH"
With those words i had broken all barriers...made this world into a smaller and more accessible place...united its population into being one!!!!
And our adventure was over...we decided that what our ancestors could do now with ease was too easy for us and not a challenge anymore and that instead we needed to satiate our hunger all this trekking had caused and head back and prepare for Lil John.
And we turned back with a tale to tell our grandchildren as to how we had travelled and seen the very core of our existance in this unverse!!!!
Lil John was a little more difficult to handle..but alls well that ends well!!!
We got our freedom and our Dinghy permission to redock....
As we Headed back chopping the waves and being tossed around like a popcorn in a microwave... I looked back at the Island in all its simplicity hoping that one day i would return to it....I HAD FORGOTTEN TO PUT A FLAG WITH MY CREDENTIALS ON IT AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH!!!!!
:-)
Was I to believe him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the centre of this massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a lofty genius? Where did truth stop? Where did error begin?
Well the error had been made and the truth had stopped to exist....and the lunatic mind had taken over my lofty genius...and penetrate the centre of this massive globe we decided to do!!!
Six hours of waiting left for Lil John and time was not meant to be wasted...we decided to explore the vent of the island...the shafts Jules Verne believed led to the centre of our massive globe....the dormant volcano this island was...its very entity...its existance!!!!!
We decided to enter the womb...the place we come from and the place we end up in from this 800 metere crater called THE QUILL..the feathered pen!!!!
Scared more with what Lil Johns reaction to us would be than entering a dormant volcano we managed a guide and decided to see the core of our earth!!!
Managing the gradual 350 metre climb to where the crater was to descend to the centre of the earth!!!
It was easy...the people who had attempted to reach there before us couldnt have been the experienced trekkers we were..no offence meant....may their souls rest in peace!!
We had reached the tip...halfway to our destination...
Reaching the top we decided to look down...a bunch of monkeys sitting on a tree and chattering reminding us of where we had originated from...n look down we did!!!!
It was a steep smooth wall like creation going down n down n down....its walls ravined with volcanic ash tht had frozen into a rock like substance...little paths running across it!!!! At that point of time I would rather have gone back a million years to become our tailed ancestor cause the moment they saw us peeping down they jumped into the crater running through the ravines and disappearing into the depths and taunting us with the fact that had we really evolved from them...or just degenerated into regressive humans!!!!
which ever way,i was in a tough spot having convinced the balance of the team against their wishes with rewards of seeing the centre of the earth!!! How was I to back out now??? The simplest excuse would have been to remind them of Lil Johns existance...but in times of dire need the human mind normally ceases to exist...another truth had unfolded on me!!
with little or no vegetation showing and the smooth inner sides of the volcano taunting us the guide kind of got enthusiastic and started his descent!!!
Ten USD for serving us as a delicacy..Carribean roasted Indians...the island was to have a meal on us if we slipped and the lava still existed!!!
fair deal
We followed suit FOR ABOUT 50 METRES...the beauty of nature and its massive power awed us into proceeding without thinking...the black walls with grey streaks running through them...fossilised insects and plants clearly visible...i closed my eyes and with a furor like never before burst out...."LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...I GIVE TO YOU THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH"
With those words i had broken all barriers...made this world into a smaller and more accessible place...united its population into being one!!!!
And our adventure was over...we decided that what our ancestors could do now with ease was too easy for us and not a challenge anymore and that instead we needed to satiate our hunger all this trekking had caused and head back and prepare for Lil John.
And we turned back with a tale to tell our grandchildren as to how we had travelled and seen the very core of our existance in this unverse!!!!
Lil John was a little more difficult to handle..but alls well that ends well!!!
We got our freedom and our Dinghy permission to redock....
As we Headed back chopping the waves and being tossed around like a popcorn in a microwave... I looked back at the Island in all its simplicity hoping that one day i would return to it....I HAD FORGOTTEN TO PUT A FLAG WITH MY CREDENTIALS ON IT AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH!!!!!
:-)
A TRIBUTE TO VINCENT VAN GOGH
Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.
Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.
For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.
Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Now its getting boring Gulliver!!!!
GULLIVER OH GULLIVER...WHERE ART THOU????
GULLIVERS TRAVELS CONTINUED
A compass to guide you...the stars in the sky...the great bear pointing north and the cool sea breeze!!!
Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift!!!
People remember Capt Jack Sparrow but whatever happened to the original??
We were brought up on Robinson Crusoe...and his ship wreck...The Kon Tiki voyage...the crossing of the pacific on a raft...and these tales i guess have lasted in our memories gradually fading as we are ourselves...being replaced by the newer versions...Pirates of the Carribean,not that i havent watched the series with the same fervour!!!!
I remember one of my travels to this little volcanic island in the Carribean...a part of the Netherland Antilles!!!
ST EUSTATIUS!!!
An island with a population of 800 ppl when i visited it in 2002 and a sikh family running the only general store,living upto the tradition of being enterprising,it was a quiet paradise!!!!
I still remember we had sailed from the English channel during the winter season when the atlantic is at its roughest best but our ship being one of the largest to cross the atlantic and still so small in front of natures fury and after 9 days of sailing the INAGO arrived at its destination in the evening....and what a sight awaited us..frozen in my memory forever!!!
From a distance we could see the sillhouette of the volcano and the sun setting behind it,a reddish sky and the clear blue sea where you could see 300 feet down,the winds blowing at 40 knotts and the waves rolling the ship like a large cradle with its little babies onboard!!!
As we let go anchor the first thought in my mind was to swim ashore to this little quiet paradise island and follow suit the sikh mans example...open a grocery store...competition amongst brothers was not a fair idea!!!
the only thing the whole bay was full of was sailing boats and tiny speed boats as the seaway was the only highway to this paradise.
We finally manoeuvered and after anchoring I rushed to the mate to get his permission to go ashore...n granted it was!!!!
we lowered our little dinghy and the lucky seven along with the capt and the mates wife ventured ashore!!!!!
N what an experience....
Our first stop,call it patriotism,was the general store...where we picked up our cases of beer and having downed them we decided to roam the streets of Statia!!!
Our first stop was the fort on the sea front with its canons still intact pointing out to sea as if warning Jack Sparrow and its team to be careful.
On speaking withy the locals we got to know that this little paradise used to be a haven for the pirates of yore and the population were descendants of the lot that used to come here to hide frm the patrol ships....my mind immediately wandered of to THE BLACK PEARL and its crew stopping here and dividing its wealth...the women n dancing and then a thought struck me and left me dumbfound...was Senor Gags Pauls ancestors a aprt of the notorious pirates???
A SIKH PIRATE OF THE CARRIBEAN???
Made me rather proud!!!!
Dilly Dallying and with a stomach full of beer and some of the most amazing sea food we decided to divide.
The less adventurous lot thought it a good time to head back to the safety of the INAGO whilst three of us daring youngsters decided to check out the night life of this pirates haven!!!!
what happened next is beyond belief and i guess you would just have to read further in my next blog to find out...
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE...but then in my case i guess i have never been brave!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!!!!!
The intentions were clean and we were sailors in a pirates haven with the pretty bar girls in a mystical carribean island so what do we do...decide to get shown to the next whiskey bar!!!!
We asked one of the local women n she told us about this restaurant which turned into an open air club n where all the locals and tourists went to and on asking how to get there she said very simply just ask anyone and give them 5 usd n they will drop you!!!!
I wish it had been that simple.....but what were we...papooses in a strange land!!!!
In the sidereal zone of time...we finally found a decent soul who agreed to drop us to our destination for the 5 usd offered....
By the way our conversation went as such
ME: hey mate can you drop us to the PHOENIX BAR??
MAN:Ik spreek geen Engels(n he nodded his head)
ME:leetle leetle speak Engels??
MAN:yes yes(n he nodded with a fervour which made me think he understood everything)
ME:PHOENIX BAR go 5 USD
MAN:yes yes(n he kept staring at us
ME:car(signalling a steering wheel)
MAN:yes yes
n he disappeared like lightening leaving us standing!!!
N it began to rain...our hopes drenched as much as we were!!!!!!
But there is a god!!!
Very soon our man returned in a red coloured covertible and gestured us to get in...we were in luck!!!!
N promptly he drove us to the PHOENIX BAR!!!
We paid him his 5 USD n he gestured again to us saying he would wait for us n take us back to for another 5 USD!!!
WE HAD OURSELVES A MAN FRIDAY :-D
By the way a phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again and i could totally relate to know why our place was called THE PHOENIX BAR!!!
The bar was in all the majestic colours of the phoenix and every table had a small bonfire next to it and fresh meat and vegetables roasting and the most amazing women dancing to a live band going from table to table serving liquor...this was heaven..the moment a glass got over the lady came like fire and a new one was reborn!!!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Not getting carried away...the women were just good business ladies and made sure they emptied their customers pockets but who cared...we were having a blast!!!
A few kilos of meat and a coupla bottles of liquor down we decided to call it a night and head back on the dinghy to what we called home...THE INAGO!!!
In our free spiritted way and with a tummy full of meat n liquor and a heart full of love we headed out and surely did find our little man in his red convertible waiting!!
This island was truly paradise if there was a paradise on earth...
with difficulty but determination we got ourselves into the car...n the little man started driving!!!
A perfect end to a perfect day...
a good wine is one which starts and ends with a smile and i guess we had gotten our share...
Singing to our hearts content we headed to the jetty through the dark streets of Statia...
As we plummetted the streets suddenly the car screeched and stopped!!!
Ahead there stood a tree trunk...oops a man easily 7 feet tall and four feet wide with an axe in his hand....the little man was trembling and screaming LOPEN LOPEN!!!
I guessed that meant run..cause he opened the door and sprinted...greased lightening!!!
and we sat there watching that tree trunk closing in...
lol
enough for today...i guess we need to sign in again to find out more on gullivers travels
:)
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!
#####################################################################################
"A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!"
As the giant closed in all 3 of us got out of the car in a speed not definable and ran in different directions...luckily sane enough not to run in his!!!
The big man stood outside for a bit shouting and cursing then sat in his dinky car and drove away!!!
Was this the way god had made man to be???
Survival of the fittest....born with gods curse on you if you were tiny????
What kind of a place were we in...uncivilised and scary where 7 ft tall men with axes still ruled!!!!!!
Five minutes later we regrouped at the spot where our chariot had stood a little while back to re assess our situation and figure out what we needed to do...all the alcohol n love THE PHOENIX BAR had provided gradually seeping out turning into dreary despair...
A decision was reached and we decided to exit the venus fly trap as soon as possible!!!!
The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value.
The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love!!!!!
But the strange notion of being in a trap...you are in it and there is no way of getting out!!!!!
We trudged our way in the slush,drenched to the skin to the jetty to find it dimly lit and the dinghy gone!!!!
Too tired to even think we lay down in a shed and crashed into never land seeing the lights of THE INAGO out at anchor....too distant for us to reach !!!!
It was 4 A.M. and Gulliver had finally got a resting ground!!!!!!
Slumber land is a beautiful place...you dream of your fantasies and you can be king...but that night all i dreamt about was THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and the seven feet tall gigantic man with his axe!!!
On vacations: We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings.
But that is not how our little escapade on this island had turned out to be...we awoke with a leaking roof,drenched to the core...the sun beating down on us in all its equatorial glory and the taste of freshly baked earth in our mouth!!!
Paradise we were in...rejuvenated and wanting to put the previous night behind us we decided to find the quay keeper and the wherabouts of our ride to THE INAGO!!!
A SHRIVELLED MAN..BEATEN BY THE SUN AND THE WIND AND TIME...we found jose..the quay keeper!!!
He saw us...we stared at him..n thank god for small mercies he spoke English.
JOSE: goodmorning gentleman!! hope you slept well!!!
Idiot that this man seemed like...what did he think????
ME: aye aye captain...where is our dinghy??
JOSE: the dinghy has been sent back and no one is allowed to enter or leave the island!! we had a heinous crime on it last night...your presence is required at the police station!!!!
Thoughts of the 7 feet tall man slicing down a dozen with his axe and having caught our MAN FRIDAY came running to my mind and we had witnessed his wrath..decision time!!!
ME:sure...how do we get there???
JOSE:just ask anyone the way and give him 5 USD and he will get you there!!!
NOT AGAIN!!!!
ME:can we walk it down??
JOSE:yes you can but its a ten minute walk
ME:point us in the direction
AND HE POINTED TO A STREET...
Ten minutes later we were standing at the police station which could have passed off as a little tavern..a cute lil red room with a yellow cell n comfy beds and a tv and a fridge!!
It seemed like heaven after the night in the wharf!!!
The SHERRIF was sitting there feeling rather good about himself and thank god again he spoke english!!!
SHERRIF: hello
ME: hello
SHERRIF: I heard you stole lil johns car last night???
Lil John...wasn't that Robin Hoods aide...was Robin Hood also a pirate and his merry men sailors???
ME: lil john???
SHERRIF: the red convertible
We were dumbfounded!!! Lil John was the lil mans name...the giant had stolen his car and murdered him and we were the culprits!!!!
SHERRIF: you are under arrest!!! we have not had a crime here in the last 23 years and now in my session we have one!!!!
ME: sir,we never stole any car...there was this big man with an axe who stopped us and the person whose car it was ran away and so did we...thats all we know.
SHERRIF: that BIG MAN WITH AN AXE is Lil John!!!!!!
Saying that he stomped out leaving us totally bewildered in a police station that looked out of the Noddy comics!!!!
what happened next is another story but I guess i need to head to the gym....so tonight it is!!!!
AN EMPTY MIND IS A DEVILS WORKSHOP...n at that time HOT STUFF would have looked like an angel in front of us!!!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The only thought crossing our head was as to who the man was who had got us the red convertible...our MAN FRIDAY!!!!!!!
N WHAT LIL JOHN WAS GOING TO DO TO US!!!
N WORSE STILL....WHAT THE CAPTAIN WOULD DO TO US ONCE WE GOT BACK ONBOARD...N WHAT IF WE DIDNT???
My head totally hurt with the permutations and combinations of what could happen....a strange phenomenon it is but its a fact that the smallest of things can have the most drastic effect on our lives...a left instead of a right...THE PHOENIX BAR instead of THE INAGO...LIL JOHN being the owner of the car rather than MAN FRIDAY...taking a ride in a red convertible rather than plain n simple walking :-(
life has its own ways as does destiny of making us reach places.
Anyhows we sat their in despair waiting and after what seemed like the longest 45 minutes the SHERRIF reappeared with the district attorney...WONDER HOW THEY EVEN HAD A DISTRICT ATTORNEY OR A DISTRICT FOR THAT MATTER...the whole island was 13 km in diameter!!!
BUT ANYHOW IT WAS A DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND A MAN WHO FELT RATHER IMPORTANT ABOUT HIMSELF!!!!
DA:so these are the criminals
SHERRIF:yes
ME:criminals??
DA:they look like street un's n smelly !!! Have them wash up....
what did he expect after a night in the shack n no bath...did he not notice that i was wearing Armani Jeans and a Ralph Lauren shirt...duh!!!!!!
But anyhow thanks to that little confrontation,we were shown into the cell...paradise with a beautiful little water closet!!!
Hot water did the trick and we came out after a bit looking a little more like the officers of THE INAGO...THE QUEEN OF THE CARRIBEAN!!!
Cleaner we were...n the DA decided to question us!!!
I narrated the whole tale to him and as to how our MAN FRIDAY had got us the red convertible!!!
he looked at us in disbelief and that day I realised something...YOU ARE NEVER A CROOK UNLESS YOU ARE CAUGHT CROOKING...
MAN FRIDAY had gotten away n we were stuck!!!
N to top it all...in a 12th century Pirates Haven...maybe that might work in our favour...was the only prayer I had in my head!!!!
After a bit of discussion between themselves...the SHERRIF told us that Lil John would be back in the evening and we would have a meeting then...till that time we were under arrest.
THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER...MY FIRST DAY IN PRISON!!!
I was officially a thief now...so might as well behave like a rogue!!!
I opened my mouth wide and squeaked out....food!!
The 2 consulted each other again...n then told us that we could go out and eat as they never had had a prisoner n no facility for food...also that we could stay out till 5 pm..cause thats when Lil John returned!!!
To be honest they were just worried that we dirty delinquents were dirtying their prison!!!
So with a heavy heart n still eyeing the cell n its neatly laid out beds we left the jail...only to see the most beautiful sight in our lives...but that comes in a bit!!!
A lil more confidence now cause these memories have reminded me of an alternate career option....
:-/
GULLIVERS TRAVELS CONTINUED
A compass to guide you...the stars in the sky...the great bear pointing north and the cool sea breeze!!!
Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift!!!
People remember Capt Jack Sparrow but whatever happened to the original??
We were brought up on Robinson Crusoe...and his ship wreck...The Kon Tiki voyage...the crossing of the pacific on a raft...and these tales i guess have lasted in our memories gradually fading as we are ourselves...being replaced by the newer versions...Pirates of the Carribean,not that i havent watched the series with the same fervour!!!!
I remember one of my travels to this little volcanic island in the Carribean...a part of the Netherland Antilles!!!
ST EUSTATIUS!!!
An island with a population of 800 ppl when i visited it in 2002 and a sikh family running the only general store,living upto the tradition of being enterprising,it was a quiet paradise!!!!
I still remember we had sailed from the English channel during the winter season when the atlantic is at its roughest best but our ship being one of the largest to cross the atlantic and still so small in front of natures fury and after 9 days of sailing the INAGO arrived at its destination in the evening....and what a sight awaited us..frozen in my memory forever!!!
From a distance we could see the sillhouette of the volcano and the sun setting behind it,a reddish sky and the clear blue sea where you could see 300 feet down,the winds blowing at 40 knotts and the waves rolling the ship like a large cradle with its little babies onboard!!!
As we let go anchor the first thought in my mind was to swim ashore to this little quiet paradise island and follow suit the sikh mans example...open a grocery store...competition amongst brothers was not a fair idea!!!
the only thing the whole bay was full of was sailing boats and tiny speed boats as the seaway was the only highway to this paradise.
We finally manoeuvered and after anchoring I rushed to the mate to get his permission to go ashore...n granted it was!!!!
we lowered our little dinghy and the lucky seven along with the capt and the mates wife ventured ashore!!!!!
N what an experience....
Our first stop,call it patriotism,was the general store...where we picked up our cases of beer and having downed them we decided to roam the streets of Statia!!!
Our first stop was the fort on the sea front with its canons still intact pointing out to sea as if warning Jack Sparrow and its team to be careful.
On speaking withy the locals we got to know that this little paradise used to be a haven for the pirates of yore and the population were descendants of the lot that used to come here to hide frm the patrol ships....my mind immediately wandered of to THE BLACK PEARL and its crew stopping here and dividing its wealth...the women n dancing and then a thought struck me and left me dumbfound...was Senor Gags Pauls ancestors a aprt of the notorious pirates???
A SIKH PIRATE OF THE CARRIBEAN???
Made me rather proud!!!!
Dilly Dallying and with a stomach full of beer and some of the most amazing sea food we decided to divide.
The less adventurous lot thought it a good time to head back to the safety of the INAGO whilst three of us daring youngsters decided to check out the night life of this pirates haven!!!!
what happened next is beyond belief and i guess you would just have to read further in my next blog to find out...
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE...but then in my case i guess i have never been brave!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!!!!!
The intentions were clean and we were sailors in a pirates haven with the pretty bar girls in a mystical carribean island so what do we do...decide to get shown to the next whiskey bar!!!!
We asked one of the local women n she told us about this restaurant which turned into an open air club n where all the locals and tourists went to and on asking how to get there she said very simply just ask anyone and give them 5 usd n they will drop you!!!!
I wish it had been that simple.....but what were we...papooses in a strange land!!!!
In the sidereal zone of time...we finally found a decent soul who agreed to drop us to our destination for the 5 usd offered....
By the way our conversation went as such
ME: hey mate can you drop us to the PHOENIX BAR??
MAN:Ik spreek geen Engels(n he nodded his head)
ME:leetle leetle speak Engels??
MAN:yes yes(n he nodded with a fervour which made me think he understood everything)
ME:PHOENIX BAR go 5 USD
MAN:yes yes(n he kept staring at us
ME:car(signalling a steering wheel)
MAN:yes yes
n he disappeared like lightening leaving us standing!!!
N it began to rain...our hopes drenched as much as we were!!!!!!
But there is a god!!!
Very soon our man returned in a red coloured covertible and gestured us to get in...we were in luck!!!!
N promptly he drove us to the PHOENIX BAR!!!
We paid him his 5 USD n he gestured again to us saying he would wait for us n take us back to for another 5 USD!!!
WE HAD OURSELVES A MAN FRIDAY :-D
By the way a phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again and i could totally relate to know why our place was called THE PHOENIX BAR!!!
The bar was in all the majestic colours of the phoenix and every table had a small bonfire next to it and fresh meat and vegetables roasting and the most amazing women dancing to a live band going from table to table serving liquor...this was heaven..the moment a glass got over the lady came like fire and a new one was reborn!!!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Not getting carried away...the women were just good business ladies and made sure they emptied their customers pockets but who cared...we were having a blast!!!
A few kilos of meat and a coupla bottles of liquor down we decided to call it a night and head back on the dinghy to what we called home...THE INAGO!!!
In our free spiritted way and with a tummy full of meat n liquor and a heart full of love we headed out and surely did find our little man in his red convertible waiting!!
This island was truly paradise if there was a paradise on earth...
with difficulty but determination we got ourselves into the car...n the little man started driving!!!
A perfect end to a perfect day...
a good wine is one which starts and ends with a smile and i guess we had gotten our share...
Singing to our hearts content we headed to the jetty through the dark streets of Statia...
As we plummetted the streets suddenly the car screeched and stopped!!!
Ahead there stood a tree trunk...oops a man easily 7 feet tall and four feet wide with an axe in his hand....the little man was trembling and screaming LOPEN LOPEN!!!
I guessed that meant run..cause he opened the door and sprinted...greased lightening!!!
and we sat there watching that tree trunk closing in...
lol
enough for today...i guess we need to sign in again to find out more on gullivers travels
:)
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!
#####################################################################################
"A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!"
As the giant closed in all 3 of us got out of the car in a speed not definable and ran in different directions...luckily sane enough not to run in his!!!
The big man stood outside for a bit shouting and cursing then sat in his dinky car and drove away!!!
Was this the way god had made man to be???
Survival of the fittest....born with gods curse on you if you were tiny????
What kind of a place were we in...uncivilised and scary where 7 ft tall men with axes still ruled!!!!!!
Five minutes later we regrouped at the spot where our chariot had stood a little while back to re assess our situation and figure out what we needed to do...all the alcohol n love THE PHOENIX BAR had provided gradually seeping out turning into dreary despair...
A decision was reached and we decided to exit the venus fly trap as soon as possible!!!!
The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value.
The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love!!!!!
But the strange notion of being in a trap...you are in it and there is no way of getting out!!!!!
We trudged our way in the slush,drenched to the skin to the jetty to find it dimly lit and the dinghy gone!!!!
Too tired to even think we lay down in a shed and crashed into never land seeing the lights of THE INAGO out at anchor....too distant for us to reach !!!!
It was 4 A.M. and Gulliver had finally got a resting ground!!!!!!
Slumber land is a beautiful place...you dream of your fantasies and you can be king...but that night all i dreamt about was THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and the seven feet tall gigantic man with his axe!!!
On vacations: We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings.
But that is not how our little escapade on this island had turned out to be...we awoke with a leaking roof,drenched to the core...the sun beating down on us in all its equatorial glory and the taste of freshly baked earth in our mouth!!!
Paradise we were in...rejuvenated and wanting to put the previous night behind us we decided to find the quay keeper and the wherabouts of our ride to THE INAGO!!!
A SHRIVELLED MAN..BEATEN BY THE SUN AND THE WIND AND TIME...we found jose..the quay keeper!!!
He saw us...we stared at him..n thank god for small mercies he spoke English.
JOSE: goodmorning gentleman!! hope you slept well!!!
Idiot that this man seemed like...what did he think????
ME: aye aye captain...where is our dinghy??
JOSE: the dinghy has been sent back and no one is allowed to enter or leave the island!! we had a heinous crime on it last night...your presence is required at the police station!!!!
Thoughts of the 7 feet tall man slicing down a dozen with his axe and having caught our MAN FRIDAY came running to my mind and we had witnessed his wrath..decision time!!!
ME:sure...how do we get there???
JOSE:just ask anyone the way and give him 5 USD and he will get you there!!!
NOT AGAIN!!!!
ME:can we walk it down??
JOSE:yes you can but its a ten minute walk
ME:point us in the direction
AND HE POINTED TO A STREET...
Ten minutes later we were standing at the police station which could have passed off as a little tavern..a cute lil red room with a yellow cell n comfy beds and a tv and a fridge!!
It seemed like heaven after the night in the wharf!!!
The SHERRIF was sitting there feeling rather good about himself and thank god again he spoke english!!!
SHERRIF: hello
ME: hello
SHERRIF: I heard you stole lil johns car last night???
Lil John...wasn't that Robin Hoods aide...was Robin Hood also a pirate and his merry men sailors???
ME: lil john???
SHERRIF: the red convertible
We were dumbfounded!!! Lil John was the lil mans name...the giant had stolen his car and murdered him and we were the culprits!!!!
SHERRIF: you are under arrest!!! we have not had a crime here in the last 23 years and now in my session we have one!!!!
ME: sir,we never stole any car...there was this big man with an axe who stopped us and the person whose car it was ran away and so did we...thats all we know.
SHERRIF: that BIG MAN WITH AN AXE is Lil John!!!!!!
Saying that he stomped out leaving us totally bewildered in a police station that looked out of the Noddy comics!!!!
what happened next is another story but I guess i need to head to the gym....so tonight it is!!!!
AN EMPTY MIND IS A DEVILS WORKSHOP...n at that time HOT STUFF would have looked like an angel in front of us!!!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The only thought crossing our head was as to who the man was who had got us the red convertible...our MAN FRIDAY!!!!!!!
N WHAT LIL JOHN WAS GOING TO DO TO US!!!
N WORSE STILL....WHAT THE CAPTAIN WOULD DO TO US ONCE WE GOT BACK ONBOARD...N WHAT IF WE DIDNT???
My head totally hurt with the permutations and combinations of what could happen....a strange phenomenon it is but its a fact that the smallest of things can have the most drastic effect on our lives...a left instead of a right...THE PHOENIX BAR instead of THE INAGO...LIL JOHN being the owner of the car rather than MAN FRIDAY...taking a ride in a red convertible rather than plain n simple walking :-(
life has its own ways as does destiny of making us reach places.
Anyhows we sat their in despair waiting and after what seemed like the longest 45 minutes the SHERRIF reappeared with the district attorney...WONDER HOW THEY EVEN HAD A DISTRICT ATTORNEY OR A DISTRICT FOR THAT MATTER...the whole island was 13 km in diameter!!!
BUT ANYHOW IT WAS A DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND A MAN WHO FELT RATHER IMPORTANT ABOUT HIMSELF!!!!
DA:so these are the criminals
SHERRIF:yes
ME:criminals??
DA:they look like street un's n smelly !!! Have them wash up....
what did he expect after a night in the shack n no bath...did he not notice that i was wearing Armani Jeans and a Ralph Lauren shirt...duh!!!!!!
But anyhow thanks to that little confrontation,we were shown into the cell...paradise with a beautiful little water closet!!!
Hot water did the trick and we came out after a bit looking a little more like the officers of THE INAGO...THE QUEEN OF THE CARRIBEAN!!!
Cleaner we were...n the DA decided to question us!!!
I narrated the whole tale to him and as to how our MAN FRIDAY had got us the red convertible!!!
he looked at us in disbelief and that day I realised something...YOU ARE NEVER A CROOK UNLESS YOU ARE CAUGHT CROOKING...
MAN FRIDAY had gotten away n we were stuck!!!
N to top it all...in a 12th century Pirates Haven...maybe that might work in our favour...was the only prayer I had in my head!!!!
After a bit of discussion between themselves...the SHERRIF told us that Lil John would be back in the evening and we would have a meeting then...till that time we were under arrest.
THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER...MY FIRST DAY IN PRISON!!!
I was officially a thief now...so might as well behave like a rogue!!!
I opened my mouth wide and squeaked out....food!!
The 2 consulted each other again...n then told us that we could go out and eat as they never had had a prisoner n no facility for food...also that we could stay out till 5 pm..cause thats when Lil John returned!!!
To be honest they were just worried that we dirty delinquents were dirtying their prison!!!
So with a heavy heart n still eyeing the cell n its neatly laid out beds we left the jail...only to see the most beautiful sight in our lives...but that comes in a bit!!!
A lil more confidence now cause these memories have reminded me of an alternate career option....
:-/
GULLIVER OH GULLIVER...WHERE ART THOU????
GULLIVERS TRAVELS CONTINUED
A compass to guide you...the stars in the sky...the great bear pointing north and the cool sea breeze!!!
Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift!!!
People remember Capt Jack Sparrow but whatever happened to the original??
We were brought up on Robinson Crusoe...and his ship wreck...The Kon Tiki voyage...the crossing of the pacific on a raft...and these tales i guess have lasted in our memories gradually fading as we are ourselves...being replaced by the newer versions...Pirates of the Carribean,not that i havent watched the series with the same fervour!!!!
I remember one of my travels to this little volcanic island in the Carribean...a part of the Netherland Antilles!!!
ST EUSTATIUS!!!
An island with a population of 800 ppl when i visited it in 2002 and a sikh family running the only general store,living upto the tradition of being enterprising,it was a quiet paradise!!!!
I still remember we had sailed from the English channel during the winter season when the atlantic is at its roughest best but our ship being one of the largest to cross the atlantic and still so small in front of natures fury and after 9 days of sailing the INAGO arrived at its destination in the evening....and what a sight awaited us..frozen in my memory forever!!!
From a distance we could see the sillhouette of the volcano and the sun setting behind it,a reddish sky and the clear blue sea where you could see 300 feet down,the winds blowing at 40 knotts and the waves rolling the ship like a large cradle with its little babies onboard!!!
As we let go anchor the first thought in my mind was to swim ashore to this little quiet paradise island and follow suit the sikh mans example...open a grocery store...competition amongst brothers was not a fair idea!!!
the only thing the whole bay was full of was sailing boats and tiny speed boats as the seaway was the only highway to this paradise.
We finally manoeuvered and after anchoring I rushed to the mate to get his permission to go ashore...n granted it was!!!!
we lowered our little dinghy and the lucky seven along with the capt and the mates wife ventured ashore!!!!!
N what an experience....
Our first stop,call it patriotism,was the general store...where we picked up our cases of beer and having downed them we decided to roam the streets of Statia!!!
Our first stop was the fort on the sea front with its canons still intact pointing out to sea as if warning Jack Sparrow and its team to be careful.
On speaking withy the locals we got to know that this little paradise used to be a haven for the pirates of yore and the population were descendants of the lot that used to come here to hide frm the patrol ships....my mind immediately wandered of to THE BLACK PEARL and its crew stopping here and dividing its wealth...the women n dancing and then a thought struck me and left me dumbfound...was Senor Gags Pauls ancestors a aprt of the notorious pirates???
A SIKH PIRATE OF THE CARRIBEAN???
Made me rather proud!!!!
Dilly Dallying and with a stomach full of beer and some of the most amazing sea food we decided to divide.
The less adventurous lot thought it a good time to head back to the safety of the INAGO whilst three of us daring youngsters decided to check out the night life of this pirates haven!!!!
what happened next is beyond belief and i guess you would just have to read further in my next blog to find out...
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE...but then in my case i guess i have never been brave!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!!!!!
The intentions were clean and we were sailors in a pirates haven with the pretty bar girls in a mystical carribean island so what do we do...decide to get shown to the next whiskey bar!!!!
We asked one of the local women n she told us about this restaurant which turned into an open air club n where all the locals and tourists went to and on asking how to get there she said very simply just ask anyone and give them 5 usd n they will drop you!!!!
I wish it had been that simple.....but what were we...papooses in a strange land!!!!
In the sidereal zone of time...we finally found a decent soul who agreed to drop us to our destination for the 5 usd offered....
By the way our conversation went as such
ME: hey mate can you drop us to the PHOENIX BAR??
MAN:Ik spreek geen Engels(n he nodded his head)
ME:leetle leetle speak Engels??
MAN:yes yes(n he nodded with a fervour which made me think he understood everything)
ME:PHOENIX BAR go 5 USD
MAN:yes yes(n he kept staring at us
ME:car(signalling a steering wheel)
MAN:yes yes
n he disappeared like lightening leaving us standing!!!
N it began to rain...our hopes drenched as much as we were!!!!!!
But there is a god!!!
Very soon our man returned in a red coloured covertible and gestured us to get in...we were in luck!!!!
N promptly he drove us to the PHOENIX BAR!!!
We paid him his 5 USD n he gestured again to us saying he would wait for us n take us back to for another 5 USD!!!
WE HAD OURSELVES A MAN FRIDAY :-D
By the way a phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again and i could totally relate to know why our place was called THE PHOENIX BAR!!!
The bar was in all the majestic colours of the phoenix and every table had a small bonfire next to it and fresh meat and vegetables roasting and the most amazing women dancing to a live band going from table to table serving liquor...this was heaven..the moment a glass got over the lady came like fire and a new one was reborn!!!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Not getting carried away...the women were just good business ladies and made sure they emptied their customers pockets but who cared...we were having a blast!!!
A few kilos of meat and a coupla bottles of liquor down we decided to call it a night and head back on the dinghy to what we called home...THE INAGO!!!
In our free spiritted way and with a tummy full of meat n liquor and a heart full of love we headed out and surely did find our little man in his red convertible waiting!!
This island was truly paradise if there was a paradise on earth...
with difficulty but determination we got ourselves into the car...n the little man started driving!!!
A perfect end to a perfect day...
a good wine is one which starts and ends with a smile and i guess we had gotten our share...
Singing to our hearts content we headed to the jetty through the dark streets of Statia...
As we plummetted the streets suddenly the car screeched and stopped!!!
Ahead there stood a tree trunk...oops a man easily 7 feet tall and four feet wide with an axe in his hand....the little man was trembling and screaming LOPEN LOPEN!!!
I guessed that meant run..cause he opened the door and sprinted...greased lightening!!!
and we sat there watching that tree trunk closing in...
lol
enough for today...i guess we need to sign in again to find out more on gullivers travels
:)
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!
#####################################################################################
"A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!"
As the giant closed in all 3 of us got out of the car in a speed not definable and ran in different directions...luckily sane enough not to run in his!!!
The big man stood outside for a bit shouting and cursing then sat in his dinky car and drove away!!!
Was this the way god had made man to be???
Survival of the fittest....born with gods curse on you if you were tiny????
What kind of a place were we in...uncivilised and scary where 7 ft tall men with axes still ruled!!!!!!
Five minutes later we regrouped at the spot where our chariot had stood a little while back to re assess our situation and figure out what we needed to do...all the alcohol n love THE PHOENIX BAR had provided gradually seeping out turning into dreary despair...
A decision was reached and we decided to exit the venus fly trap as soon as possible!!!!
The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value.
The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love!!!!!
But the strange notion of being in a trap...you are in it and there is no way of getting out!!!!!
We trudged our way in the slush,drenched to the skin to the jetty to find it dimly lit and the dinghy gone!!!!
Too tired to even think we lay down in a shed and crashed into never land seeing the lights of THE INAGO out at anchor....too distant for us to reach !!!!
It was 4 A.M. and Gulliver had finally got a resting ground!!!!!!
Slumber land is a beautiful place...you dream of your fantasies and you can be king...but that night all i dreamt about was THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and the seven feet tall gigantic man with his axe!!!
On vacations: We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings.
But that is not how our little escapade on this island had turned out to be...we awoke with a leaking roof,drenched to the core...the sun beating down on us in all its equatorial glory and the taste of freshly baked earth in our mouth!!!
Paradise we were in...rejuvenated and wanting to put the previous night behind us we decided to find the quay keeper and the wherabouts of our ride to THE INAGO!!!
A SHRIVELLED MAN..BEATEN BY THE SUN AND THE WIND AND TIME...we found jose..the quay keeper!!!
He saw us...we stared at him..n thank god for small mercies he spoke English.
JOSE: goodmorning gentleman!! hope you slept well!!!
Idiot that this man seemed like...what did he think????
ME: aye aye captain...where is our dinghy??
JOSE: the dinghy has been sent back and no one is allowed to enter or leave the island!! we had a heinous crime on it last night...your presence is required at the police station!!!!
Thoughts of the 7 feet tall man slicing down a dozen with his axe and having caught our MAN FRIDAY came running to my mind and we had witnessed his wrath..decision time!!!
ME:sure...how do we get there???
JOSE:just ask anyone the way and give him 5 USD and he will get you there!!!
NOT AGAIN!!!!
ME:can we walk it down??
JOSE:yes you can but its a ten minute walk
ME:point us in the direction
AND HE POINTED TO A STREET...
Ten minutes later we were standing at the police station which could have passed off as a little tavern..a cute lil red room with a yellow cell n comfy beds and a tv and a fridge!!
It seemed like heaven after the night in the wharf!!!
The SHERRIF was sitting there feeling rather good about himself and thank god again he spoke english!!!
SHERRIF: hello
ME: hello
SHERRIF: I heard you stole lil johns car last night???
Lil John...wasn't that Robin Hoods aide...was Robin Hood also a pirate and his merry men sailors???
ME: lil john???
SHERRIF: the red convertible
We were dumbfounded!!! Lil John was the lil mans name...the giant had stolen his car and murdered him and we were the culprits!!!!
SHERRIF: you are under arrest!!! we have not had a crime here in the last 23 years and now in my session we have one!!!!
ME: sir,we never stole any car...there was this big man with an axe who stopped us and the person whose car it was ran away and so did we...thats all we know.
SHERRIF: that BIG MAN WITH AN AXE is Lil John!!!!!!
Saying that he stomped out leaving us totally bewildered in a police station that looked out of the Noddy comics!!!!
what happened next is another story but I guess i need to head to the gym....so tonight it is!!!!
AN EMPTY MIND IS A DEVILS WORKSHOP...n at that time HOT STUFF would have looked like an angel in front of us!!!!
A compass to guide you...the stars in the sky...the great bear pointing north and the cool sea breeze!!!
Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift!!!
People remember Capt Jack Sparrow but whatever happened to the original??
We were brought up on Robinson Crusoe...and his ship wreck...The Kon Tiki voyage...the crossing of the pacific on a raft...and these tales i guess have lasted in our memories gradually fading as we are ourselves...being replaced by the newer versions...Pirates of the Carribean,not that i havent watched the series with the same fervour!!!!
I remember one of my travels to this little volcanic island in the Carribean...a part of the Netherland Antilles!!!
ST EUSTATIUS!!!
An island with a population of 800 ppl when i visited it in 2002 and a sikh family running the only general store,living upto the tradition of being enterprising,it was a quiet paradise!!!!
I still remember we had sailed from the English channel during the winter season when the atlantic is at its roughest best but our ship being one of the largest to cross the atlantic and still so small in front of natures fury and after 9 days of sailing the INAGO arrived at its destination in the evening....and what a sight awaited us..frozen in my memory forever!!!
From a distance we could see the sillhouette of the volcano and the sun setting behind it,a reddish sky and the clear blue sea where you could see 300 feet down,the winds blowing at 40 knotts and the waves rolling the ship like a large cradle with its little babies onboard!!!
As we let go anchor the first thought in my mind was to swim ashore to this little quiet paradise island and follow suit the sikh mans example...open a grocery store...competition amongst brothers was not a fair idea!!!
the only thing the whole bay was full of was sailing boats and tiny speed boats as the seaway was the only highway to this paradise.
We finally manoeuvered and after anchoring I rushed to the mate to get his permission to go ashore...n granted it was!!!!
we lowered our little dinghy and the lucky seven along with the capt and the mates wife ventured ashore!!!!!
N what an experience....
Our first stop,call it patriotism,was the general store...where we picked up our cases of beer and having downed them we decided to roam the streets of Statia!!!
Our first stop was the fort on the sea front with its canons still intact pointing out to sea as if warning Jack Sparrow and its team to be careful.
On speaking withy the locals we got to know that this little paradise used to be a haven for the pirates of yore and the population were descendants of the lot that used to come here to hide frm the patrol ships....my mind immediately wandered of to THE BLACK PEARL and its crew stopping here and dividing its wealth...the women n dancing and then a thought struck me and left me dumbfound...was Senor Gags Pauls ancestors a aprt of the notorious pirates???
A SIKH PIRATE OF THE CARRIBEAN???
Made me rather proud!!!!
Dilly Dallying and with a stomach full of beer and some of the most amazing sea food we decided to divide.
The less adventurous lot thought it a good time to head back to the safety of the INAGO whilst three of us daring youngsters decided to check out the night life of this pirates haven!!!!
what happened next is beyond belief and i guess you would just have to read further in my next blog to find out...
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE...but then in my case i guess i have never been brave!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!!!!!
The intentions were clean and we were sailors in a pirates haven with the pretty bar girls in a mystical carribean island so what do we do...decide to get shown to the next whiskey bar!!!!
We asked one of the local women n she told us about this restaurant which turned into an open air club n where all the locals and tourists went to and on asking how to get there she said very simply just ask anyone and give them 5 usd n they will drop you!!!!
I wish it had been that simple.....but what were we...papooses in a strange land!!!!
In the sidereal zone of time...we finally found a decent soul who agreed to drop us to our destination for the 5 usd offered....
By the way our conversation went as such
ME: hey mate can you drop us to the PHOENIX BAR??
MAN:Ik spreek geen Engels(n he nodded his head)
ME:leetle leetle speak Engels??
MAN:yes yes(n he nodded with a fervour which made me think he understood everything)
ME:PHOENIX BAR go 5 USD
MAN:yes yes(n he kept staring at us
ME:car(signalling a steering wheel)
MAN:yes yes
n he disappeared like lightening leaving us standing!!!
N it began to rain...our hopes drenched as much as we were!!!!!!
But there is a god!!!
Very soon our man returned in a red coloured covertible and gestured us to get in...we were in luck!!!!
N promptly he drove us to the PHOENIX BAR!!!
We paid him his 5 USD n he gestured again to us saying he would wait for us n take us back to for another 5 USD!!!
WE HAD OURSELVES A MAN FRIDAY :-D
By the way a phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again and i could totally relate to know why our place was called THE PHOENIX BAR!!!
The bar was in all the majestic colours of the phoenix and every table had a small bonfire next to it and fresh meat and vegetables roasting and the most amazing women dancing to a live band going from table to table serving liquor...this was heaven..the moment a glass got over the lady came like fire and a new one was reborn!!!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Not getting carried away...the women were just good business ladies and made sure they emptied their customers pockets but who cared...we were having a blast!!!
A few kilos of meat and a coupla bottles of liquor down we decided to call it a night and head back on the dinghy to what we called home...THE INAGO!!!
In our free spiritted way and with a tummy full of meat n liquor and a heart full of love we headed out and surely did find our little man in his red convertible waiting!!
This island was truly paradise if there was a paradise on earth...
with difficulty but determination we got ourselves into the car...n the little man started driving!!!
A perfect end to a perfect day...
a good wine is one which starts and ends with a smile and i guess we had gotten our share...
Singing to our hearts content we headed to the jetty through the dark streets of Statia...
As we plummetted the streets suddenly the car screeched and stopped!!!
Ahead there stood a tree trunk...oops a man easily 7 feet tall and four feet wide with an axe in his hand....the little man was trembling and screaming LOPEN LOPEN!!!
I guessed that meant run..cause he opened the door and sprinted...greased lightening!!!
and we sat there watching that tree trunk closing in...
lol
enough for today...i guess we need to sign in again to find out more on gullivers travels
:)
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!
#####################################################################################
"A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!"
As the giant closed in all 3 of us got out of the car in a speed not definable and ran in different directions...luckily sane enough not to run in his!!!
The big man stood outside for a bit shouting and cursing then sat in his dinky car and drove away!!!
Was this the way god had made man to be???
Survival of the fittest....born with gods curse on you if you were tiny????
What kind of a place were we in...uncivilised and scary where 7 ft tall men with axes still ruled!!!!!!
Five minutes later we regrouped at the spot where our chariot had stood a little while back to re assess our situation and figure out what we needed to do...all the alcohol n love THE PHOENIX BAR had provided gradually seeping out turning into dreary despair...
A decision was reached and we decided to exit the venus fly trap as soon as possible!!!!
The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value.
The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love!!!!!
But the strange notion of being in a trap...you are in it and there is no way of getting out!!!!!
We trudged our way in the slush,drenched to the skin to the jetty to find it dimly lit and the dinghy gone!!!!
Too tired to even think we lay down in a shed and crashed into never land seeing the lights of THE INAGO out at anchor....too distant for us to reach !!!!
It was 4 A.M. and Gulliver had finally got a resting ground!!!!!!
Slumber land is a beautiful place...you dream of your fantasies and you can be king...but that night all i dreamt about was THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and the seven feet tall gigantic man with his axe!!!
On vacations: We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings.
But that is not how our little escapade on this island had turned out to be...we awoke with a leaking roof,drenched to the core...the sun beating down on us in all its equatorial glory and the taste of freshly baked earth in our mouth!!!
Paradise we were in...rejuvenated and wanting to put the previous night behind us we decided to find the quay keeper and the wherabouts of our ride to THE INAGO!!!
A SHRIVELLED MAN..BEATEN BY THE SUN AND THE WIND AND TIME...we found jose..the quay keeper!!!
He saw us...we stared at him..n thank god for small mercies he spoke English.
JOSE: goodmorning gentleman!! hope you slept well!!!
Idiot that this man seemed like...what did he think????
ME: aye aye captain...where is our dinghy??
JOSE: the dinghy has been sent back and no one is allowed to enter or leave the island!! we had a heinous crime on it last night...your presence is required at the police station!!!!
Thoughts of the 7 feet tall man slicing down a dozen with his axe and having caught our MAN FRIDAY came running to my mind and we had witnessed his wrath..decision time!!!
ME:sure...how do we get there???
JOSE:just ask anyone the way and give him 5 USD and he will get you there!!!
NOT AGAIN!!!!
ME:can we walk it down??
JOSE:yes you can but its a ten minute walk
ME:point us in the direction
AND HE POINTED TO A STREET...
Ten minutes later we were standing at the police station which could have passed off as a little tavern..a cute lil red room with a yellow cell n comfy beds and a tv and a fridge!!
It seemed like heaven after the night in the wharf!!!
The SHERRIF was sitting there feeling rather good about himself and thank god again he spoke english!!!
SHERRIF: hello
ME: hello
SHERRIF: I heard you stole lil johns car last night???
Lil John...wasn't that Robin Hoods aide...was Robin Hood also a pirate and his merry men sailors???
ME: lil john???
SHERRIF: the red convertible
We were dumbfounded!!! Lil John was the lil mans name...the giant had stolen his car and murdered him and we were the culprits!!!!
SHERRIF: you are under arrest!!! we have not had a crime here in the last 23 years and now in my session we have one!!!!
ME: sir,we never stole any car...there was this big man with an axe who stopped us and the person whose car it was ran away and so did we...thats all we know.
SHERRIF: that BIG MAN WITH AN AXE is Lil John!!!!!!
Saying that he stomped out leaving us totally bewildered in a police station that looked out of the Noddy comics!!!!
what happened next is another story but I guess i need to head to the gym....so tonight it is!!!!
AN EMPTY MIND IS A DEVILS WORKSHOP...n at that time HOT STUFF would have looked like an angel in front of us!!!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
GULLIVERS TRAVELS CONTINUED
A compass to guide you...the stars in the sky...the great bear pointing north and the cool sea breeze!!!
Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift!!!
People remember Capt Jack Sparrow but whatever happened to the original??
We were brought up on Robinson Crusoe...and his ship wreck...The Kon Tiki voyage...the crossing of the pacific on a raft...and these tales i guess have lasted in our memories gradually fading as we are ourselves...being replaced by the newer versions...Pirates of the Carribean,not that i havent watched the series with the same fervour!!!!
I remember one of my travels to this little volcanic island in the Carribean...a part of the Netherland Antilles!!!
ST EUSTATIUS!!!
An island with a population of 800 ppl when i visited it in 2002 and a sikh family running the only general store,living upto the tradition of being enterprising,it was a quiet paradise!!!!
I still remember we had sailed from the English channel during the winter season when the atlantic is at its roughest best but our ship being one of the largest to cross the atlantic and still so small in front of natures fury and after 9 days of sailing the INAGO arrived at its destination in the evening....and what a sight awaited us..frozen in my memory forever!!!
From a distance we could see the sillhouette of the volcano and the sun setting behind it,a reddish sky and the clear blue sea where you could see 300 feet down,the winds blowing at 40 knotts and the waves rolling the ship like a large cradle with its little babies onboard!!!
As we let go anchor the first thought in my mind was to swim ashore to this little quiet paradise island and follow suit the sikh mans example...open a grocery store...competition amongst brothers was not a fair idea!!!
the only thing the whole bay was full of was sailing boats and tiny speed boats as the seaway was the only highway to this paradise.
We finally manoeuvered and after anchoring I rushed to the mate to get his permission to go ashore...n granted it was!!!!
we lowered our little dinghy and the lucky seven along with the capt and the mates wife ventured ashore!!!!!
N what an experience....
Our first stop,call it patriotism,was the general store...where we picked up our cases of beer and having downed them we decided to roam the streets of Statia!!!
Our first stop was the fort on the sea front with its canons still intact pointing out to sea as if warning Jack Sparrow and its team to be careful.
On speaking withy the locals we got to know that this little paradise used to be a haven for the pirates of yore and the population were descendants of the lot that used to come here to hide frm the patrol ships....my mind immediately wandered of to THE BLACK PEARL and its crew stopping here and dividing its wealth...the women n dancing and then a thought struck me and left me dumbfound...was Senor Gags Pauls ancestors a aprt of the notorious pirates???
A SIKH PIRATE OF THE CARRIBEAN???
Made me rather proud!!!!
Dilly Dallying and with a stomach full of beer and some of the most amazing sea food we decided to divide.
The less adventurous lot thought it a good time to head back to the safety of the INAGO whilst three of us daring youngsters decided to check out the night life of this pirates haven!!!!
what happened next is beyond belief and i guess you would just have to read further in my next blog to find out...
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE...but then in my case i guess i have never been brave!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!!!!!
The intentions were clean and we were sailors in a pirates haven with the pretty bar girls in a mystical carribean island so what do we do...decide to get shown to the next whiskey bar!!!!
We asked one of the local women n she told us about this restaurant which turned into an open air club n where all the locals and tourists went to and on asking how to get there she said very simply just ask anyone and give them 5 usd n they will drop you!!!!
I wish it had been that simple.....but what were we...papooses in a strange land!!!!
In the sidereal zone of time...we finally found a decent soul who agreed to drop us to our destination for the 5 usd offered....
By the way our conversation went as such
ME: hey mate can you drop us to the PHOENIX BAR??
MAN:Ik spreek geen Engels(n he nodded his head)
ME:leetle leetle speak Engels??
MAN:yes yes(n he nodded with a fervour which made me think he understood everything)
ME:PHOENIX BAR go 5 USD
MAN:yes yes(n he kept staring at us
ME:car(signalling a steering wheel)
MAN:yes yes
n he disappeared like lightening leaving us standing!!!
N it began to rain...our hopes drenched as much as we were!!!!!!
But there is a god!!!
Very soon our man returned in a red coloured covertible and gestured us to get in...we were in luck!!!!
N promptly he drove us to the PHOENIX BAR!!!
We paid him his 5 USD n he gestured again to us saying he would wait for us n take us back to for another 5 USD!!!
WE HAD OURSELVES A MAN FRIDAY :-D
By the way a phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again and i could totally relate to know why our place was called THE PHOENIX BAR!!!
The bar was in all the majestic colours of the phoenix and every table had a small bonfire next to it and fresh meat and vegetables roasting and the most amazing women dancing to a live band going from table to table serving liquor...this was heaven..the moment a glass got over the lady came like fire and a new one was reborn!!!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Not getting carried away...the women were just good business ladies and made sure they emptied their customers pockets but who cared...we were having a blast!!!
A few kilos of meat and a coupla bottles of liquor down we decided to call it a night and head back on the dinghy to what we called home...THE INAGO!!!
In our free spiritted way and with a tummy full of meat n liquor and a heart full of love we headed out and surely did find our little man in his red convertible waiting!!
This island was truly paradise if there was a paradise on earth...
with difficulty but determination we got ourselves into the car...n the little man started driving!!!
A perfect end to a perfect day...
a good wine is one which starts and ends with a smile and i guess we had gotten our share...
Singing to our hearts content we headed to the jetty through the dark streets of Statia...
As we plummetted the streets suddenly the car screeched and stopped!!!
Ahead there stood a tree trunk...oops a man easily 7 feet tall and four feet wide with an axe in his hand....the little man was trembling and screaming LOPEN LOPEN!!!
I guessed that meant run..cause he opened the door and sprinted...greased lightening!!!
and we sat there watching that tree trunk closing in...
lol
enough for today...i guess we need to sign in again to find out more on gullivers travels
:)
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!
Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift!!!
People remember Capt Jack Sparrow but whatever happened to the original??
We were brought up on Robinson Crusoe...and his ship wreck...The Kon Tiki voyage...the crossing of the pacific on a raft...and these tales i guess have lasted in our memories gradually fading as we are ourselves...being replaced by the newer versions...Pirates of the Carribean,not that i havent watched the series with the same fervour!!!!
I remember one of my travels to this little volcanic island in the Carribean...a part of the Netherland Antilles!!!
ST EUSTATIUS!!!
An island with a population of 800 ppl when i visited it in 2002 and a sikh family running the only general store,living upto the tradition of being enterprising,it was a quiet paradise!!!!
I still remember we had sailed from the English channel during the winter season when the atlantic is at its roughest best but our ship being one of the largest to cross the atlantic and still so small in front of natures fury and after 9 days of sailing the INAGO arrived at its destination in the evening....and what a sight awaited us..frozen in my memory forever!!!
From a distance we could see the sillhouette of the volcano and the sun setting behind it,a reddish sky and the clear blue sea where you could see 300 feet down,the winds blowing at 40 knotts and the waves rolling the ship like a large cradle with its little babies onboard!!!
As we let go anchor the first thought in my mind was to swim ashore to this little quiet paradise island and follow suit the sikh mans example...open a grocery store...competition amongst brothers was not a fair idea!!!
the only thing the whole bay was full of was sailing boats and tiny speed boats as the seaway was the only highway to this paradise.
We finally manoeuvered and after anchoring I rushed to the mate to get his permission to go ashore...n granted it was!!!!
we lowered our little dinghy and the lucky seven along with the capt and the mates wife ventured ashore!!!!!
N what an experience....
Our first stop,call it patriotism,was the general store...where we picked up our cases of beer and having downed them we decided to roam the streets of Statia!!!
Our first stop was the fort on the sea front with its canons still intact pointing out to sea as if warning Jack Sparrow and its team to be careful.
On speaking withy the locals we got to know that this little paradise used to be a haven for the pirates of yore and the population were descendants of the lot that used to come here to hide frm the patrol ships....my mind immediately wandered of to THE BLACK PEARL and its crew stopping here and dividing its wealth...the women n dancing and then a thought struck me and left me dumbfound...was Senor Gags Pauls ancestors a aprt of the notorious pirates???
A SIKH PIRATE OF THE CARRIBEAN???
Made me rather proud!!!!
Dilly Dallying and with a stomach full of beer and some of the most amazing sea food we decided to divide.
The less adventurous lot thought it a good time to head back to the safety of the INAGO whilst three of us daring youngsters decided to check out the night life of this pirates haven!!!!
what happened next is beyond belief and i guess you would just have to read further in my next blog to find out...
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE...but then in my case i guess i have never been brave!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!!!!!
The intentions were clean and we were sailors in a pirates haven with the pretty bar girls in a mystical carribean island so what do we do...decide to get shown to the next whiskey bar!!!!
We asked one of the local women n she told us about this restaurant which turned into an open air club n where all the locals and tourists went to and on asking how to get there she said very simply just ask anyone and give them 5 usd n they will drop you!!!!
I wish it had been that simple.....but what were we...papooses in a strange land!!!!
In the sidereal zone of time...we finally found a decent soul who agreed to drop us to our destination for the 5 usd offered....
By the way our conversation went as such
ME: hey mate can you drop us to the PHOENIX BAR??
MAN:Ik spreek geen Engels(n he nodded his head)
ME:leetle leetle speak Engels??
MAN:yes yes(n he nodded with a fervour which made me think he understood everything)
ME:PHOENIX BAR go 5 USD
MAN:yes yes(n he kept staring at us
ME:car(signalling a steering wheel)
MAN:yes yes
n he disappeared like lightening leaving us standing!!!
N it began to rain...our hopes drenched as much as we were!!!!!!
But there is a god!!!
Very soon our man returned in a red coloured covertible and gestured us to get in...we were in luck!!!!
N promptly he drove us to the PHOENIX BAR!!!
We paid him his 5 USD n he gestured again to us saying he would wait for us n take us back to for another 5 USD!!!
WE HAD OURSELVES A MAN FRIDAY :-D
By the way a phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again and i could totally relate to know why our place was called THE PHOENIX BAR!!!
The bar was in all the majestic colours of the phoenix and every table had a small bonfire next to it and fresh meat and vegetables roasting and the most amazing women dancing to a live band going from table to table serving liquor...this was heaven..the moment a glass got over the lady came like fire and a new one was reborn!!!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Not getting carried away...the women were just good business ladies and made sure they emptied their customers pockets but who cared...we were having a blast!!!
A few kilos of meat and a coupla bottles of liquor down we decided to call it a night and head back on the dinghy to what we called home...THE INAGO!!!
In our free spiritted way and with a tummy full of meat n liquor and a heart full of love we headed out and surely did find our little man in his red convertible waiting!!
This island was truly paradise if there was a paradise on earth...
with difficulty but determination we got ourselves into the car...n the little man started driving!!!
A perfect end to a perfect day...
a good wine is one which starts and ends with a smile and i guess we had gotten our share...
Singing to our hearts content we headed to the jetty through the dark streets of Statia...
As we plummetted the streets suddenly the car screeched and stopped!!!
Ahead there stood a tree trunk...oops a man easily 7 feet tall and four feet wide with an axe in his hand....the little man was trembling and screaming LOPEN LOPEN!!!
I guessed that meant run..cause he opened the door and sprinted...greased lightening!!!
and we sat there watching that tree trunk closing in...
lol
enough for today...i guess we need to sign in again to find out more on gullivers travels
:)
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind....but we were not kites!!!
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