With a brisk night breeze,
Filled plates, carolling voices -
Christmas is now here

After taking this test to see how Monkish I am I shared with Adrian that it says I am “a little bit Monkish”. I was relieved because sometimes I worry about myself. Adrian shared some of his quirks so I said I would share mine (I know it’s a little overdue).

• When I buy magazines I must read them first. I absolutely hate anyone reading my magazines before me though I don’t mind with books.
• My daily reading of the newspaper in the morning needs to be done in an orderly fashion. I have to read the newspaper sections in order which tends to slow me down on Sunday mornings when for some reason, they sometimes rearrange the sections in their attempt to minimize the folding or rolling size of the entire thing.
• When standing or sitting near a collection of items, e.g. glasses, bottles etc. I often find myself lining them up or placing them in nice symmetrical patterns like squares or diamonds. Triangle or pyramid shapes are also possible tho rare.
• If I get a stick of gum, one of those nice (hygienic) individually wrapped bits, after unwrapping it and popping it in my mouth, I will inevitably neatly fold the wrapper in a symmetrical fashion into as small a package as possible and put it in my pocket until I am ready to dispose of the gum. Not sure what I do when I have no pockets.

Now for some reason I have a lot of food/kitchen-related idiosyncrasies:

• When serving out food into my plate, I need to have my meat on the right-hand side of my plate, with the rice on the left and any sides (corn, salad, etc) toward the top. This always has me doing some serious plate spinning when being served by someone else, especially in a buffet line.
• I always eat away from me in the plate, leaving space closest to me to rest my knife and fork. I think I get this one from my mother cause she does the same thing.
• If I am washing the dishes, then I will make sure to keep the cutlery types separated when in drying rack. So all the forks in one compartment, all the knives together etc.
• In the cutlery tray in the drawer, I like to ensure that the forks are grouped by size in their compartment. There are some forks with shorter tines which I will always place on the left with the longer tined ones on the right. Don’t even ask. It really bugs me when they are all mixed up.

I have no doubt there are more but this were the first ones that occurred to me. No need to say a word. I know, I am special.

I’m not sure what it is but Christmas is redecorating time in my house. For some reason, around this time every year, as the holiday season digs into our lives, my household decides the time is right for a new look.

Most of the time it doesn’t get too major (though this year we did toss around the idea of painting the entire house a new colour :???:). Our changes are more on the surface - new curtains on the windows, new mats on the floor, new shower curtains, new towels, new bathroom stuff, new sheets, pictures go up on the wall… and that’s my room alone.

A lot of people see the new year as a time for the new start, the spring cleaning, but my family seems to see the Christmas season as a more suitable time for this. I guess having new things in the home, everything looking all spiffy helps to stir up the joy. Especially since these redecorations are almost always a family affair. Each room requires a caucus to decide on colours, textures, styles.

Every family has their own traditions and I guess this is one of those that makes my family what it is. Gotta love ‘em.

It is amazing how life works sometimes. You can get yourself all worked up trying to “make” things happen and end up feeling like you are spinning in circles with no tangible results. And then with no warning, things may just start to come together and all you can say is “nothing before its time”.

A study conducted by AZE (Alliance for Zero Extinction) scientists working in collaboration with an international network of experts have so far identified 595 sites that must be effectively protected to prevent the extinction of 794 of the world’s most threatened species. The AZE aims to prevent imminent species extinctions by identifying and safeguarding the places where Endangered and Critically Endangered species are restricted to single remaining sites. The criteria for selecting sites are:

1. Endangerment - An AZE site must contain at least one Endangered (EN) or Critically Endangered (CR) species, as listed by the IUCN Red List.
2. Irreplaceability - An AZE site should only be designated if it is the sole area where an EN or CR species occurs, or contains the overwhelmingly significant known resident population of the EN or CR species, or contains the overwhelmingly significant known population for one life history segment (e.g., breeding or wintering) of the EN or CR species.
3. Discreteness - The area must have a definable boundary within which the character of habitats, biological communities, and/or management issues have more in common with each other than they do with those in adjacent areas.

AZE is first focusing on species that face extinction either because their last remaining habitat is being degraded at a local level, or because their tiny global range makes them especially vulnerable to external threats.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, it seems Jamaica has 5 such sites with 9 species that have made the AZE list. Only 2 of the sites are currently under protected status.

1. JM1 - Blue and John Crow Mountains (protected)
   • Eleutherodactylus alticola (Common name: Lynn’s Robber Frog) - critically endangered
   • Eleutherodactylus andrewsi (Common name: Andrews’ Robber Frog) - endangered
   • Eleutherodactylus nubicola (Common name: Portland Robber Frog) - endangered
   • Pterodroma caribbaea (Common name: Jamaica Petrel or Blue Mountain Duck) - critically endangered (last seen in 1879)
2. JM2 - Cockpit Country (protected)
   • Eleutherodactylus griphus (Common name: Trelawny Parish Robber Frog) - critically endangered
   • Eleutherodactylus sisyphodemus (Common name: Quick Step Robber Frog) - critically endangered
3. JM3 - Hellshire Hills (unprotected)
   • Cyclura collei (Jamaica ground iguana) - critically endangered
4. JM4 - Portland Ridge (unprotected)
   • Eleutherodactylus cavernicola (Common name: Portland Cave Robber Frog) - critically endangered
5. JM5 - St. Clair Cave (unprotected)
   • Phyllonycteris aphylla (Common name: Jamaican flower bat) - critically endangered

To find out more about AZE, see: http://www.zeroextinction.org and for the map of all the world sites: http://www.zeroextinction.org/aze_map.pdf.