Winnifred's, Jerk, Fun Weekend

Winnifred's Beach

Hail crowd of people! This weekend was a good one, why? Well I headed to the beautiful, lush and green parish of Portland. A few coworkers and I planned a small trip to Portland, in particular to Winnifred's Beach. Saturday was a beautiful day, the sun was shining brilliantly, the sky was blue, it wasn't too hot, the wind was blowing gently and the sea was enticing. I had so much fun in the clear, turquoise, crystal water that covered the beautiful white sand. I swam, I played, I splashed, I frolicked and I got a tan.

After all that activity, we all certainly opened up our appetite and the little snacks we brought couldn't fill that void. So it was off the Boston to get some of that famous Boston Jerk. We ordered up some jerk pork, jerk chicken, festivals and some cool, fresh coconut water to wash it down. Let me tell you, that jerk pork was great! It was like the jerk pork I was used to when I was a youth. The pork was tender and juicy, full of flavour and that kind of pepper that makes your eye water and give you that fiery feeling in your esophagus with each swallow. Trust me, this kind of pork wasn't for the faint of heart, it had my mouth and throat on fire, but it was still great.

Boston Jerk Pork

Boston Jerk Chicken

Festivals

After fulling our tummies we settled on the bay, mostly stricken by "nigaritis" and beaten out by the beach most of those on the trip all dosed off in the cool sea breeze. After chilling out and resting up a bit, it was time to leave the natural beauty of the country and head back to the concrete jungle. It seemed short, but as they say, time flies when you are having fun.

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Congrats Titchfield!

I must say congratulations to my alma mater, Titchfiled High School, which made it to the fourth round, which I think is the quarter finals semi finals of the 40th TVJ School Challenge Quiz. I cannot recall since my years of knowing Titchfiled that it has reached this far... maybe it has. Nevertheless, it has always made it to at least the second round, but this as far as I know is the farthest they have gone in this competition. Tichfiled had defeated its opponents by large margins to make their way to the fourth round much to my delight! One of their victories was scoring 56 points and defeating their rival Spauldings High School (not a big school but dem nuh too bad) who got 23 points.

It is especially a great moment for me as I work in the city with coworkers who mostly attended the so-called "town schools" or the schools in Kingston and brag about their Kingston Collage (KC), Jamaica Collage (JC) and Calabar (Rabalac) conquests. It may not be the championship, but at least my "country school" made it very far this year. Even though they were defeated by Ardene, I hear as I didn't get to watch the match, I still am proud of my high school. What I am also happy to see, is that the team is a young team as most of the members I saw were below sixth form (12 grade). So if they keep working hard they may have a good change of going even further next year with the same team, provided they don't get the very experienced teams as the ones I mentioned above in the early rounds.

Once again, mi school, mi proud a yuh! Congratulations Titchfield High!

On another note, yes I know this is very unrelated, but I saw this picture of the Star Poster Girl and I must say that Ms. Kerry-Ann Thompson is looking fine! Haven't done this in a while so here is an eye-candy for the weekend. Wait!... hmm, I wonder if I could start a Stunner's Afflictions Poster Girl?


Enjoy the weekend peeps!

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Stunner Goes Wild at the Zoo!

A Flamingo at the Hope Zoo

Who knew that the Hope Zoo is still open to the public? Well, I didn't! The Hope Zoo has been under the radar for some time now, as it hasn't really been in the media and I couldn't recall hearing anyone talking about it for some time now. However, the GF wanted top visit the hope zoo as she hadn't been there since she was a child. I hadn't been there since I followed my collage roommate to his work-study programme when I was doing the diploma some ten years ago. I was all for it, even though I doubted that it was still open.

As I approached the Zoo I was somewhat reassured by the sight of vendors and a few vehicles parked at the entrance. I went up to the admissions desk and paid the nominal JM$80 entrance fee and we were on our way. However before I could enter I saw someone who I know from the gym, and it turns out he is a part of a team working to restore the Hope Zoo. It seems the government has allotted some money to restore not only the Hope Gardens, but also the Hope Zoo and they have already began the process. That restoration is greatly need for the zoo as it only has a few animals and minimal facilities to house more animals. A city like Kingston needs things like parks and zoos, not just for children and teens to explore, but even for us adults to just relax and appreciate nature.

Nonetheless, the time spent at the zoo was great, I got to see a few birds ranging from doves to peacocks, who were more than willing to strike a pose with their tail feathers spread. I also saw crocodiles, iguanas and snakes and even the graceful flamingos, but that was just some of the animals they have at the zoo. And as you would guess by now, I took the opportunity to exercise my photographic skills so much so that one of the iguanas made it quite clear that I was getting too close and taking to many photos. Overall, despite the obvious need for improvements, I enjoyed my visit to the Hope Zoo. I think I will revisit after the renovations and expansions are completed. Here are a few of the photos I took.

A peacock strutting his stuff.

Crocodiles chilling in their pool.

An iguana hanging out on a tree.

A Jamaican Yellow Snake.

Hope you all liked the sample of the photographs I took at the Hope Zoo. If you want to see more you can visit my photoblog as I will be posting some more photos there too. So if you haven't been to the Hope Zoo, or haven't been there in a while, you can make a trek up there and check out the animals for a few minutes.

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We Have A Winner!

Yes folks, we have a winner to the first Stunnerific Giveaway (Revised)! Mr. Gordon Swaby of gordonswaby.com walked away with the Manhattan keyring by being the first to reply with the correct answer to the contest question.

Question: What major item did Stunner purchase during his trip to New York?

Answer: A Nikon D60 DSLR

Congratulations to Gordon Swaby and thanks to all who participated in the first Stunnerific Giveaway.

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Stunnerific Giveaway!... REVISED

Ok, due to many complaints about the giveaway, I have made some changes to make it more friendly for you. You only need to answer one question:

What major item did Stunner purchase during his trip to New York?

The first person to answer the question correctly will claim the prize. Email your answers to stunnerj@gmail.com with subject "Stunnerific Giveaway 1". Please remember to include your blog name in your email. You will be contacted by email if you are the winner and your blog name announced in the following post.

The previous list of contest rules were just for post enhancement purposes, so don;t worry about the long list.

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Stunnerific Giveaway!

As you all know, I went to New York for a few weeks recently and I still had to think about all of you my friends in Blogland! So, despite the hard times and bruck pocket due to my purchase of the Nikon D60, I couldn't go to foreign and nuh bring back nuttin fi yuh. Also,I have been wanting to do what I call my Stunnerific Giveaway for some time now, so I have decided to make this the first of such. Just my little way of showing my appreciation for your support of my blog. I am not sure of how often and when I will be having these Stunnerific Giveaways, or what the prizes will be, so you just have to stay tuned!

So here is the first giveaway, a genuine Manhattan Key Ring that I bought from a little souvenir store I stumbled on while on my second trip to Manhattan.

Stunnerific Giveaway 1 A Manhattan Key Ring

As I have several visitors to my blog, it would take a small fortune to buy everyone a keyring, and I could only afford to buy one. So, I will have to ask just a few questions relating to my recent trip to New York and the first person to email me the correct answers will get the above giveaway. Check out the contest rules below and all the best!

Questions:

1. Which restaurant did Stunner eat at for the first time, during his trip to New York?
2. What major item did Stunner purchase during his trip to New York?
3. Which attraction (place of interest) did Stunner visit on his second visit to Manhattan?

The first person to answer all three questions correctly will claim the prize. Email your answers to stunnerj@gmail.com with subject "Stunnerific Giveaway 1". Please remember to include your blog name and/or real name in your email. You will be contacted by email if you are the winner and your name announced in the following post. You will be required to provide a shipping address and a name for prize delivery once you have been advised by email (from Stunner's Afflictions) that you are the winner. Please ensure that your shipping address is correct as I may not put a return address on the parcel and your prize will be claimed by the respective post office.

By participating in this contest you have agreed to the Contest Rules outlined below:

1. The contest is open to all Bloggers and readers of Stunner's Afflictions as well as anyone currently subscribing Stunner's Afflictions. Identification must be produced on request.

2. The prize is not redeemable in cash and must be accepted as awarded.

3. Decisions of the contest judges (in this case me) are final - no substitutions will be available.

4. By claiming the prize, the winner authorizes the use, without additional compensation of his or her Blog Name for promotion and/or advertising purposes in any manner and in any medium (including without limitation, radio broadcasts, newspapers and other publications and in television or film releases, slides, videotape, distribution over the Internet and picture data storage) which Stunner's Afflictions may deem appropriate.

5. In accepting the prize, the winner, and any guest(s), acknowledges that Stunner's Afflictions may not be held liable for any loss, damages or injury associated with accepting or using this prize(s).

6. The person(s) whose name(s) is drawn as being the winner(s) of the specific prize will be the first to answer the skill-testing questions before the prize is awarded to them.

7. Detailed contest rules applicable to this contest, including contest entry dates, how to enter, and prize value, number and any restrictions applicable to these prizes are available upon request from Stunner's Afflictions.

8. Winners and any guests at the age of majority has already proved their acceptance and understanding of the complete contest rules by participating in the contest.

9. Stunner's Afflictions retains the rights, in its absolute and sole discretion, to make substitutions of equivalent kind or approximate value in the event of the unavailability of any prize or component of the prize for any reason whatsoever.

10. This contest is not approved by the Betting and Lottery Commission and a private contest between Stunner's Afflictions and those who enter.

11. Stunner's Afflictions reserves the right to withdraw or terminate this contest at any time without prior notice.

12. Approximate value of prizes vary.

13. Contest open to all readers if Stunner's Afflictions.

15. One entry per person.

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Crossed the Finish Line at Sigma 2K9

Crowd at Emancipation Park after the race.

On Sunday I once again participated in the annual Sigma Corporate Run, a full five kilometer of rubber hitting hard tar in the heat of the morning sun. I wasn't as confident as I was a few weeks ago, as my training had been derailed by my recent winter vacation in New York. However, backing down was not an option. I would rather fall flat on my face and get hospitalised than not to show up and attempt the race. So at 5:30 am the alarm went off and I geared up in my shorts and running shoes to the song "Eye of the Tiger" resonating in my mind.

This year had a registration of approximately nine thousand people, even though only some of that number actually participated in the race. However, judging from the huge crowd it was hard to tell that it wasn't the full number of people. Knutsford Boulevard was crammed at the beginning of the race and immediately I had to mentally prepare myself to make my way through the huge throng of people covering the pavement with the soles of their running shoes. The race started as usual. a huge mas of people running out some at their top speed, then one by one they start slowing down to a laboured walk. But even then it was still hard to navigate my way around these sometimes mindless zombies drunk of exhaustion and the piercing morning sun. I persisted at a steady pace and kept on going using my breathing techniques.

By the time I reached over to Waterloo Road I had found myself a running partner, one of my coworkers who was steadily making her way along the route. As I ran she kept up with me and so I continued to keep my pace so I don't fall back. The sun was piercing and the pavement was hard, I felt breathless and my muscles cried out in pain but I persisted. The pressure finally got to me after running up Suthermiere Road and started the slight incline of Hope Road when my steady pace was interrupted by my body feeling like it was about to give way. At this point I slowed to a brisk walk, but this was short-lived, as I heard the call of another coworker and I began to run again trying to block out the agony my body was feeling. I guess that 2 weeks break was much more harmful than I thought!

Souvenirs from the race.

I persevered and found the energy to make a sprint... well kind of sprinted my way to the finish-line to make my photo finish in a spanking 34 minutes and 11 seconds. This placed me at position 385 out of a total of 1594 runners. Not too bad eh? Obviously I didn't medal, but I did get two souvenirs from the race. Well, I wanted to do better and would have if I had done more training, but if I am still employed to the company, I will do it again the next time around and even better my record.

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JPS Again!

Yes my friends, I am back at Yard! I have been busy since I came back, not with work, but enjoying the local leg of my vacation. My flight down wasn't too bad at all, it actually left only a half hour late and I only experienced two incidents of turbulence during the entire flight. But I couldn't go to foreign and nuh bring back something fi mi friend dem who read my useless rambles about my life! I will let you know more about that in my next post, so stay tuned.

I just got a light bill a few days ago and my light bill went up, again! Now this is just crazy, considering the fact that I have been putting out even more effort to conserve. This evil utility company is seriously on a mission to rob people! I even just read an article in The Gleaner, saying that the Jamaica Public Service, JPS is now complaining that electricity theft is driving up the light bills! This could be true, but I'm just tired of hearing JPS complain and make excuses; if it's not oil prices it's the Jamaican Dollar, even hurricanes and now it's electricity theft. Yet I don't hear them trying to correct the over twenty percent loss they have in their inefficient and outdated transmission and generating systems. I think the picture above, that I found on The Gleaner's website sums up JPS' attitude. They are really changing lives with their energy... making us poorer!

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D60 in the City

Time Square New York (taken with the Nikon D60)

Wow, it's amazing how quickly two weeks can go by when you are on vacation! It seems as if it was just a few days ago I stepped on American soil, and look I'm about to shake off the dust from my feet and head to my country of citizenship. But such is life, I guess the saying is true, "time really flies when you are having fun"... or not at work! However, this is not the end of my vacation as I don't go back to work until another week and a half. So I will still have time to relax and enjoy my new Nikon D60. The GF will be on vacation too so I will have company to go on my excursions, and I have noticed that she is slowly getting used to... or should I say tolerate my insatiable desire to take photographs of every and anything I see.

Exhibit at the Metropolitan of Art (taken with the Nikon D60 - no flash!)

I gave my camera a test run in the city and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday and it certainly lived up to my expectations! The camera even took great photos in low light conditions without the use of the flash. I took photos like crazy! I was snapping away like an excited little child with a brand new toy! But aren't we all like that when we get something we have been wanting? The camera has a lot of features, settings and controls, so I have a lot to learn. I have been reading the manual to familiarize myself with all these new, somewhat overwhelming features. But I guess it takes time, so as I learn I will experiment. I still haven't gotten myself the zoom lens as yet so I am still confined to closeup photos and portraits. Until I get the zoom lens my nature photography which involve animals will have to be put on hold as wild animals don't know how to just relax and pose for a picture! I am still hoping I will get it though... almost US$200 which is a lot of money in these hard times! Now I hope I'll get random people to pose for me so I can practice my portrait skills... better yet, any volunteers?

Now I need to get to the worse park of travelling, packing. It shouldn't be hard this time I didn't do much shopping, even though I do have several food items complements of my mother, sister and a family friend. So I will just have to ensure that none of the suitcases are overweight... this time!

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Mr. Snowman and the Nikon D60

My first Snowman

Hail crowd of people! It seems as if I haven't dropped post in a while! So what have I been up to? Well, I went out into the snow that remained on the ground for some time after the storm, in fact there are still patches of snow all over the place. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to go out with my camera to take photos. However, my outdoor experiences were not limited to just photography as I made my first snowman.... Well I had my first attempt at making a snowman. It was a small one though, only about 9 feet inches (thanks Pepper) tall and I had to improvise to make his facial features. But it was fun nevertheless, I was almost a kid again... hmm, did I really grow up? You can see more of my winter photos at my photoblog.

On Thursday it was down into the city, to explore... well not really, I still had that Nikon D60 on my mind. It was over US$500, but I really wanted this camera. It took a while and some serious consideration, but I made up my mind to just get it. After all, a few hundred of the camera money was earned right here on this site... shhhh nuh tell nobady! I went to BH Photos down in the city to get my camera as it has been recommended by my sister and some of my fellow bloggers. That store was like a photographers heaven, the had everything a photographer, professional and amateur would desire... except my Nikon D60. I was crushed, now my dreams of getting my camera were dashed. As I walked along the cold New York streets, a bright light shone from the side of one of the tall skyscrapers, it was the J&R store! So I wasted no time and it was full speed ahead to J&R. Not getting the camera at BH was a blessing in disguise, as I got the camera at J&R cheaper and was able to hustle a camera bag for a discounted price too! I only got one lens though, the 18mm-55mm which doesn't have much zoom. So now I plan to get the 55mm-200mm telephoto lens as some money has found it's way to me (thank you Mommy and big sis). Despite having to use the viewfinder to take photos instead of the display screen, I love this camera, the picture quality is fantastic! So without further ado (drumroll), here is the new Stunner Nikon D60!

My Nikon D60 and Camera bag

Tomorrow it's off to the city once again, this time to take a small tour to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other places. I wanted to check out Madame Tussauds Wax Museum as suggested by GC, but it's a bit pricey. So I will check it out the next time I head to NYC, possibly in the summer. Well it's late and I have a lot of walking later in the day and a lot of reading in the night as I have your blogs to catchup on. Likkle more!

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White!!!

A view of the neighbours yard and the street.

Yes that's exactly how I would describe outside when I woke up this morning. Snow was everywhere, and not just light covering, several inches of snow! Snow was on the walkway, on the ground, on the trees, on the roofs, it was even on the windows trying to come in! I saw snow the last winter I came to New York but that was nothing compared to this.

My boots surrounded by walls of snow

I think the snow was over 6 inches high as my Tims sunk deeply in the white puffy layer of fluffy snow. It is not that bad to me right now, but I feel it for all those people who have to get out of bed and make their way to work in hostile, hazardous conditions like these. The most I did was to go outside to take a few pictures, and even that was hard. I only went out twice to take pictures. Why twice? Well within five minutes my hands were so cold and numb i couldn't even feel the shutter button! I have a greater appreciation for my climate now, as the most I have to face is heavy downpours of rain in the rainy season. Snow like this only serves on purpose, for couples to cuddle in bed and find ways to keep each other warm (wink wink).

Things should be warming up be the weekend, and I really hope it does as I have a few places to go and a few things to get before I fly out of this freezer to warmer temperatures.

PS: I will be posting more photos on my photoblog.

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Up Inna Di Cold!

Whhaaiiiii it cowl! I know I posted about how Jamaica was cold a few weeks ago, but that was like being in 96 degrees in the shade compared to the temperature here in New York. At first when I came up here, it was very cold, but it just seem to be getting colder and colder as the days progress. Yesterday, I heard on the news yesterday that a cold front was heading to the New York area and today it certainly did! It even started from Saturday evening. The forecast even went as far as predicting a snow storm, 6 to 13 inches of snow! I woke up to flurries on Sunday morning but I keep hearing the worse is yet to come. So as I sit here in the warmth of the house, I am gearing up myself to see more snow than I have ever seen before. So if that materializes, then you can expect to see quite a few snow pictures, heheheh.

Last night I had my first visit to Red Lobster and I totally enjoyed it! The food was great, and I ate my belly full. I had a dish which comprised of grilled salmon and shrimp fettucini and mashed potatos. I had to ensure I limited my intake of shellfood as I am somewhat allergic to shellfood, so I had to mix my seafood. This was preceeded by ceaser salad and some of the tastiest buscuits I have ever tasted. To wash this down, I had a tall glass of mudslide. It was certainly a feast, so much so that I couldn't even deveour the entire main course. I hope this doesn't throw me too much off course with my getting lean diet. I hope all of what I'm eating don't make me put on too much as I have not even done one act of exercise, not even in my mind!

I haven't done much shopping, just a few items, as I didn't plan to do much shopping. I am still hoping to get my Nikon D60, but parting with so much cash these days is making me have second thoughts. Later this week I hope to go down to the city to check out some camera stores. Until then I will keep considering and budgeting and watch the snowflakes accumulate.

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