13th September 2006

If I thought last week at work was bad, it was simply the precursor to this. It is the week before a board meeting when a company of 2000 people frenetically pull their hair out at one man’s whim. The management time and effort expounded in this pandering, it is a wonder that the company does not grind to a halt one week in every month.

To make matters worse Lady of Leisure has suddenly become Lady of Leisure Time. Monday at the Cinema, Tuesday at the Canadian Women's Club though entry criteria cannot be strict as she’s is not Canadian, Wednesday was the Jamaican Photographic Club and Friday was a girly night out. I think she is trying to highlight the juxtaposition between her lifestyle and mine in an artistic way of telling I’m working too hard.

I can’t help noticing that Jamaica has a number of incongruities. In almost every aspect of life, Jamaican’s just seem to coast along without a care in the world. Nothing fazes them and there is not a problem that is insurmountable. Not when it comes to driving. Traffic has been worse than usual recently, but just watching people get pissed off waiting and drive down the wrong side of the road is simply shocking in its brashness. When they have the audacity to honk their horns at cars coming in the other direction all you can simply do is laugh. At home we used to see an ad for Bacardi that poked fun at Road Rage and how it could not exist in the Caribbean. It seems funnier now given how wrong it is.

While on the subject of incongruities; Jamaica has given the world some of the fastest people on the planet. Not just now with Asafa Powell et al, but Sherone Simpson, Veronica Campbell, Merlene Ottley and going way back through history. So how come the women here walk at a pace slightly slower than those big stones on Easter Island?