Another Wonderful Trip

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Once again I am sending out an "I'm still alive" post, that's what I term it due to my infrequent blogging. It seems Twitter and photography has grown so much that it seems to be crowding out blogging and suffocating my urge to blog. But it still lives one, somewhat.

Just in my previous post I am still unemployed and looking. Finding suitable employment in this hard economic time is like trying to find water in a huge desert as your thirst for life saving water grows exponentially. I am still indulging in my photography too in hopes that I will make some money from it to at least survive. that may be way off from now, but at least for now it helps me to keep my sanity in this challenging time.

Turtle Bay, Portland.

Speaking of photography, I went on one more of the monthly JWI/LOP group trip. this time we went to the easter coast of Jamaica, covering two parishes, St. Thomas and Portland. Once again it was a wonderful trip, which took me to places that I have never been before including Turtle Bay, which in my home parish, Portland. Other stops included Botany Bay, a quarry and a beach in Manchineal where we ate some curried chicken, curried lobster and fish. The fun on the trip was not limited to taking photographs of the scenery and of the beautiful models that spiced up the trip. Meeting up with people who you have become friends with through the common medium of photography and the internet and sharing experiences and jokes certainly add to the good times on these trips. The bus ride itself tends to be very interesting and amusing, to say the least! The conversation on the bust this time peaked when the original conversation morphed into man and woman story and fidelity, when the bus ignited it a combination of laughter and emotional expressions!

Two of our hot models on the trip

Of course the trip did not end without a hiccup, which happened just when we were ready to head back home from our final stop in Manchioneal Portland. One of the photographers who drove his own vehicle accidentally locked his key in his vehicle. Now locking your keys in your car in deep rural Jamaica and not having a spare on your person is not a good predicament to be in! Driving back to Kingston to get the spare key and then driving back to Manchioneal to open the vehicle is a hard reality to swallow. Also, calling wrecker to tow the vehicle back to Kingston would be a financial disaster and made breaking the side window look palatable to the mind! However, the flickr group decided to stick to the code of "never leave a soldier behind" and the decision was made to break into the vehicle, car jacker style. It took two hours and several attempts by several members of the team to get the door open. Now we all know how to break into a Prado!

I am still looking a job but also I am looking forward to the next trip. Food, rent and bills are important when spending my funds is being considered, but I still have to sacrifice some of this scarce funds for these trips. After all, it's one of the few outlets and sources of entertainment for me these days, one still has to try to enjoy life! You can view more of the photos on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/stunnerj/

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More Increases, More Hardship!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Once again, the hardship of the Jamaican people has increased. The Government recently tables its supplementary budget in Parliament and increased hardship was on the platter. The government has hiked the taxes on telephone calls, cards and instruments from the already high twenty percent (20%) to a whopping twenty five percent (25%). So now you will pay a quarter of the price of a call, phone card or instrument, plus the stipulated cost each time your take up that phone to make call, buy a phone card or purchase a new phone. Whoever said talk is cheap certainly didn't live or visit Jamaica! However the increase didn't stop there!

If you are thinking of traveling overseas any time soon you will be required to fork out some more money coupled with the already ridiculously high airfares. Why? The government has also chosen to increase the departure tax by a whopping eighty percent(80%)! So now instead of paying the regular JM$1000 for departure tax you will now be required to fork out an extra JM$800 to pay the new fee of JM$1800each time you purchase a ticket to travel. This government never fails to surprise as yesterday when they announced the increases they pulled a fast one and announced that these increases would be effective today, Thursday October1, 2009! Surprise!

However, the government wasn't all about increases as they announced that they will indeed be cutting something! What would cause the government to deviate from their trend of increasing? The government confirmed the fears of many public servants on Wednesday when they announced that they will be cutting the number of people employed to the public sector. Up to earlier this week the Labour Minister, Pernell Charles, stated that as far as he knows the Prime Minister would not be cutting jobs in the public sector, but the Prime Minister sang a different tune on Wednesday! No time-line has been given for this cut, but many speculate that it will be soon, with the IMF deal in sight. So once again the already high unemployment figure in Jamaica will increase.

The only good announcement that came from this supplementary budget was that the Cabinet was not immune from the public sector job cut and that the government will be seeking to cut down on the red tape and gymnastics required to start businesses. But even with this gleam of light the days ahead grow even darker and hardship will only increase for the average Jamaican.

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Everybody Going with the Flow?

Monday, September 28, 2009

The line at Flow's Pavilion Office in Half Way Tree

I received my LIME bill and realized that it had doubled since my last bill and I have not increases my usage nor have I added any new service! How could have my bill doubled just like that? Then I remembered that i no longer have the concession LIME staff normally enjoyed and as such I am now just a regular paying customer. With my unemployed status in mind and this sudden increase in my bill I have decided to go with the Flow in a bid to save money via their bundled service as well as their promotion that they are currently having. I called Flow and spoke to a nice agent who gave me the prices and was more than willing to sign me up. However, I wanted to go to the store to ensure there was no trick and to do my subscription there for their services. Big mistake!

So this afternoon I went to the Flow office located at the Pavilion mall. When I parked in the parking lot the security came to hand me the parking ticket, when she paused and asked me which store I was visiting in the mall. So I told her Flow. Without hesitation she said. "Mi nauh guh even badda give yuh nuh ticket cause in deh ram-up". Right then and there disappointment set in as I hate lines and hate waiting! I decided to go there just out of curiosity, maybe she was just exaggerating. I should have listened, as I totally wasted my time and energy walking up to the store. the line was so long that it was all the way outside the store!

I decided, well the New Kingston office should be better, and so I drove down to the New Kingston Office. this again was another waste of time and gas, even though the line was inside, it was like an overgrown anaconda stuffed in a little box! After taking a number as the security reassured me that I should take a number to speak to an agent as the line was for other transactions. i waited over half hour in the store as I watched the number slowly incremented closer to my number, but was still had a long way to go. It seems everybody has opted to switch to flow or had inadvertently become Flow customers!

I think I might create an account via their contact centre tonight and go in early tomorrow and pay for the subscription to their service. If I sign up to Flow, I will be cutting my LIME Internet, Netspeak and maybe the landline, as well as cutting my Logic One cable service to consolidate them to one bill. This would reduce my bill by JM$1000 to JM$2000, and coupled with their promotions I would be saving quite a few thousands for the next three months!

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What A Gwaan!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

It's day four of me being unemployed, it doesn't feel too bad right now, as I feel like I'm just on vacation. However, despite the fact that I plan to enjoy these weeks, I still keep it in the back of my mind that this is not just vacation. Nevertheless, I have been trying to enjoy myself so far, and enjoying these days of freedom... hoping that they won't be too much as I still will eventually need to earn my daily bread. So what have I been up to? Lets recap...

Reggae Falls St. Thomas

On Saturday morning I was awakened by a phone call on my cell, it was my friend asking me if I'm not getting up to get ready for the trip. Yes, it was time for our traditional trip to Reggae Falls in St. Thomas. For several years now my friends and former coworkers make the trek to Reggae Falls for a big cookout in the riverbed and of course some swimming under the falls. So I jumped out of bed and got my self ready and we all headed out to enjoy a day at the river. The trip was great, a good day spent frolicking in the water, eating all kind of food and of course enjoying the company of friends.

On Sunday I had my first photo shoot. I was so excited and anxious about this photo shoot. Being my first, I didn't have much idea of what I was going to do. Furthermore, all I had was my camera and a speedlight on camera. Nevertheless, my model and I went out and made the best of the time as we both were amateurs. I took several photos and got quite a few good shots. I am hoping to get a remote and trigger for my flash and an umbrella set so I can get a bit more creative. I definitely will schedule another shoot when I get the equipment and do a real serious shoot. Sunday night it was time to head out with some friends to Hellshire for an evening of liming, fried fish and festival. It was a great evening, had some conch & crayfish soup, fried parrot fish, festivals and some cold Red Stripe to wash it down. Played some dominoes, chatted and rocked to a great mix of 80's, 90's and lover's rock music. Time certainly flies when you have fun, and by the time we noticed it was midnight. Unfortunately some of my friends have work (hehehe) and we had to leave before the "dashout time" called Preny's on the Beach. The worse thing is that the half naked girls started to come in already, suh yuh know dashout time did ready fi start! But I had to go home to, I didn't pack yet.

[beep, beep, beep] That was the alarm clock, going off at 6:00am on Monday, it was time to get ready to leave. I was so tired, as I only went to bed about 4:30am after packing since about 2:00am. I had an 8:00am flight to New York. So I jumped up and dash into the shower got ready and headed out to the airport. I had already done my Web check in after coming home from Prendy's, so I had up to at least an hour to arrive at the airport. I didn't get breakfast as I expectedAir Jamaica (soon to be Spirit of Jamaica) to be delayed. Surprise! They were on time! I had to run to catch the plane, as my name was being called over the PA system by the time I cleared immigration. So you know who didn't get to grab breakfast and of course Air Jamaica has cut out the warm breakfast they usually served. So all I had to eat was a cup of coffee in a Styrofoam cup and four tea biscuits that they served on the flight. That God it was no more than a thee hour flight!

So now I'm in New York, relaxing a bit, not much plans so far, just relaxing for this first week. I will not be doing much shopping this time for obvious financial reasons. However, I do plan to spend some of my dwindling resources on camera equipment as I am hoping to take my photography to another level... financial level too! I will let you know how that goes. You can check out my latest photos at my flickr page and let me know if they good enough for the money. Now I need to go visit some blogs before I start editing those photos from the shoot. Later mi peeps.

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Officially Unemployed

Friday, July 31, 2009

It is now officially official, Stunner is now one of the many unemployed in Jamaica. I went in today to do what they call my exit interview which was nothing more than me signing my redundancy papers, and handing in my ID, access and health cards. I am no longer employed to the "sour" company. It was a bit of mixed feelings today as I handed in my particulars and signed those farewell documents, and somewhat surreal, that this was it, the finale.

I will miss my job, even though at times it was a pain in the neck and a source of much frustration. However, I had such good relationships with my coworkers, so that I know I will miss. even though we we will link up every now and then. But it just won't be the same, to in office jokes, no mutual cussing of how the badly senior managers are performing, no communal lamenting about our meager pay and of course no more heated debates about the topic of the day. Those are the things that make work fun.

Of course, I felt a bit of anxiety too while I signed of those papers, as I know this was the end of my stable income as I know it. Even through the pay wasn't much to talk about, at least I knew I was guaranteed a salary at the end of the month. But now, I will have to rely on the little that I have to sustain me until I can find another job and source of income, whenever that is. On the other hand, this is a new opportunity for me to capitalize on, to try something new or to do the something for better pay. Whatever it is, this opportunity presents me with a whole field of potential to make myself better.

These jobless days will be rough though, I will have to find ingenious ways of surviving off my dwindling savings while I try to find or invent a new job. I guess I'll have to settle down and do more stringent budgets and learn to conserve more until better days come in these harsh economic times, At least with this time though, I'll have a lot of time to pursue my hobby of photography and hopefully get better and good enough to start making some money from it.

One thing is true though, the only thing constant in life is change. So changes must come, whether we like it or not, we just need to embrace the change, good or bad, and learn to deal with it.

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