Frenchman "Foreplay" Party. Ocho Rios, Jamaica

What a weekend!! every year in Jamaica there is a party weekend called Frenchmen, so called because it was originally held at Frenchmen Cove in Portland until they out grew it as a venue. For years now it has been held on a beach in Ocho Rios and a huge section of the beach is cordoned off. The tickets are not badly priced considering that when you get in all of the food and drink is included in the price, and its all top shelf stuff. We had a private villa for the weekend with some friends and it was very comfortable to say the least!! Private cook, maid and a butler for 3 days, private pool, jetty into the ocean, great fun.

Hurricane Sandy.

I think I dodged the worst of hurricane Sandy but it wasn't without a few inconveniences and a few valuable lessons being learned. Kingston was hit pretty hard but it seems that where I live escaped relatively undamaged save for a few downed trees. Other parts of the Island suffered moderate to high winds especially in the exposed areas which wreaked havok with power lines and water supplies.
Not being one to watch or listen to the news or read the local newspapers and having been off work with a back/neck injury for 2 weeks, I only found out about the impending storm the day before it was due to hit from a work colleague.
Even for the 2 weeks prior to this the rainfall has been really heavy but the amount of torrential rain that fell during the storm and in such a short period of time was incredible to say the least.
An estimated 150cm of rainfall in 3 days would challenge even the best of infrastructures but on a self proclaimed third world Carribean island where surface drainage is normally the furthest thing from being a priority it caused chaos and turned major roads into rivers.

Greetings From Jamaica...............

Surfs Up..............

Here we go again, I'm back in the trade....... Strange how the motor trade has a habit of not letting you go...

There I was, enjoying being my own boss and making the rules up as I went along when along comes a job in Qatar back in the Middle East via an agency that I was with way back when.
That didn't happen because after 3 months and a few telephone interviews which went very well, they decided to promote somebody from within the company ........ hmmm... "why waste my time?" I thought

Switching Camps

I never thought I would be saying this so soon but I am switching jobs and going over to the other side....

As of Monday I am leaving the Ford Dealers and moving to another company with Vauxhall and Chevrolet as Bodyshop Manager for 2 of their sites.

It was a bit sad to leave the Ford dealers because there weren't any real problems there and they were a good bunch of guys in the bodyshop.

Time moves on as they say and an unexpected career opportunity landed in my lap to get back into a multi-site role in a job that should keep me really busy, for a while at least. I suppose you have to grab these things as and when you can so here goes........... I'll let you know haow its going as I get into it and get my feet under the desk :-)

The Muppets Ride Again....

Andrew, Jayne & Chloe finally made it over to our place a couple of weekends ago, it was good to see them after quite a while and they are all doing fine.

We planned to have a BBQ at our place but mid afternoon was looking bleak but just as they arrived the weather turned around and we ended up sitting outside enjoying the sunshine!! I dont think we could have planned it any better, Macky made loads of food as usual and of course much beer and wine was used to wash it down :-)

Next day we went into Liverpool and had a walk round some of the local landmarks as they have never been before.

Thats the Liver Buildings in the back ground, and next is the Albert Dock.

Next time they come over we will hopefully manage the time to get a full day and a night out in Liverpool City Centre, great atmosphere and loads of places to go.

New additions

"The Pitter Patter of Tiny Feet"

Well, here we go again..........! Yet another addition to the family household.

Six an a half years after having Daniel we have decided its time to hear the patter of tiny feet around the house again.

This time though we have decided to go for the furry type of feet, and here he is with Daniel :-)

His name is Lucky as named by Daniel an he is a 6 week old Labrador puppy, we picked him up a couple of days ago and he is already making his prescence felt and made the house his own.

He was born at a stables where he's been til we picked him up and with a full litter of 7 pups he has had plenty of attention and wants to keep it that way.....

We have bought him a puppy bed which he doesn't like to sleep in instead preferring to sleep on the feet of whoever will let him (strange dog!!)

He cried quite a bit for the first night but he has settled down surprisingly very quickly and has got used to being alone now to the point where he just flakes out wherever he wants and pesters for attention when he decides he wants it.

Because he is only 6 weeks old we cant have him innoculated for another 2 weeks which means we cant take him anywhere yet for fear of him catching any bugs or doggie diseases.

Needless to say, being a pup he likes to excercise his teeth and has taken to chewing so we have had to give him plenty of toys to destroy but he does seem to have a liking for magazines (I did say he was a bit strange)

We are quite "Lucky" because we have a lockable hallway where he can sleep at night, although he has managed to find his way out of there once and left us several doggie surprises for when we got home. Only to be expected I suppose when you buy an untrained puppy.

This I'm sure is just the beginning of what promises to be an eventful future for the latest edition.....

Maybe I should have took the Advice from Lubos and had a baby sister for Daniel instead :-)