And the gender stereotypes continue. Tomorrow will mark my first ever baby-sitting adventure. It’s not going to be major - I will arrive while the helper is there, get settled and then be alone with my adorable god-daughter for over an hour till her mother makes it home. No big, right? The most I may have to do is change a diaper.

I commented to a friend that it would be my first diaper-changing experience and his response: “here I am thinking this is something all females have already done”. Ahh, boy. Yes, we do still live in a world where girls are expected to play with dolls while boys play with cars. But we also live in a world with stay-at-home dads (still rare I know) and truck-driving mothers.

Somehow I seem to have escaped this girly ritual of changing diapers on my dolls, and baking in my EZ Bake Oven. I guess I was too busy reading books and climbing trees. Maybe I never really understood what men and women were “supposed” to do. I had a father who loved to cook and to fix cars and a mother who could repair a toilet or mend a torn hem.

I always figured people just learnt to do things as they needed to do them. I can’t do much of anything on a car, largely because I figure there are people I can get to do it. However, I do know how to change a tyre by myself and have successfully installed a car radio. Lord knows, I stay away from cooking, but I bake a mean brownie and a delicious omelette.

In my mind we should have reached a point where the “roles” are blurry because men and women do the things that are necessary without worrying too much about the man’s job or the woman’s place.

How many times must we look back?
Thoughts we never shared
I could have said, maybe I should have
What would they have thought?
Why not ask the question?
Before we realize, the moment has passed
Life’s time, not pausing, continues
As we yearn for another chance
We long for the strength, from inside
To step outside our fears
And so, as we replay the scene
We know, hope, pray, that next time
Will be the time we take that leap 

Sigh. Another carnival season is past. This year had some interesting points. I made it to Beach J’ouvert for the first time. For some reason this shocks all who know me but I have never left town on Easter weekend before. Of course, it wasn’t for fun - it was work, pure and simple. It was the first time the band played at that event, in fact the first in a long time we played at anything for carnival.

I made a bunch of new friends in the St. James Tripolians who came down to play at Frenchmen’s Pan Night. We played host to them and forged some great new relationships. Another first for me - I got to be flag girl on Wednesday night.

Carnival weekend went without a hitch. Headed to Jokers’ J’ouvert because of Machel. Had fun as always though the vibe was different to last year. They tried to kill me by making the J’ouvert route longer this year but I managed. Slept pretty much all day Saturday before getting up for Sunday.

Sunday I donned my Persians costume and headed to meet my people. The morning went well, as expected, the sun was hot, the music was pumping, the vibes were flowing, lunch was good when we stopped. Then, the sky opened, literally. The rain that poured was unbelievable, but we didn’t stop. I don’t think you’ve played mas till you’ve done it in the rain. It was too much fun, except for the puddles in my shoes.

All in all a good week. I am sad that it is over but there’s always next year.

In the tradition of the 30,000 calorie sandwich and the $1000US sundae, I present yet another incredible menu item. Billed as possibly the world’s most expensive sandwich, this £85 sandwich is being offered as part of a more refined lunchtime experience at Selfridges in London. Created to offer a truly gourmet experience, this sandwich contains the following:

• rare Wagyu beef - Wagyu cattle are one of the most expensive breeds in the world. These Japanese cows are raised on a special diet, including beer and grain. They are supposed to be regularly massaged with sake, the Japanese rice wine, to tenderize the flesh.
• the finest fresh duck foie gras - the fattened liver of a duck that has been overfed. Along with truffles, foie gras is considered one of the greatest delicacies in French cuisine.
• black truffle mayonnaise   
• brie de meaux -  One of the finest and best known French cheeses
• roquet - also called Rocket lettuce, apparently, this is what is commonly known as arugula. It is an aromatic salad green very popular in Italian cuisine.
• red pepper and mustard confit (preserve)
• with English plum tomatoes
• in a 24-hour fermented sour dough bread

Other links: ‘Most expensive sandwich’ on sale

People love drama! This is no surprise any more, after all, this is how talk shows get the high ratings. We love to watch other people’s lives unfold, and sometimes crumble. It’s the whole car wreck story. Yeah sure, we like to see the happy endings sometimes but more interesting are the cheating husbands, who’s-your-real-daddy, my mom stole my man shows.

I was watching a talk show this morning (not my usual choice of activity) and my mouth dropped because the host did something absolutely unheard of. She actually, how dare she?, stopped the guy from revealing to his “girlfriend” that he is seeing 6 other women. I was in shock. This is the stuff talk shows are made of, the tears, the how-could-you’s. Even outside the realm of the Jerry Springers, most shows would have let that secret come out because this episode was about revealing secrets. She was quietly said, after he’d revealed the first part of his secret, “ok, you two can talk about the rest off air”.  Amazing!

In my shock, I then realized I had been waiting anxiously to see the young lady’s reaction. Why are we so drawn to other people’s pain? Is it so we can sit back and be glad it’s not happening to us? Or do we try to imagine how we would react in that situation? Do we want to see him get what’s coming? Or do we just really get some joy out of seeing other people squirm? The human psyche is a weird thing.

Every now and again mealtime at my house brings forth the experimental side of my mother. I have no problem eating new foods but I do have a problem when she is not eating. It seems to me that one should beware of the chef who won’t eat his own cooking.

This is a principle which extends to many areas of life. Outside of those spheres where a conflict of interests could be a problem, would you trust your money to someone who doesn’t invest his own, an accountant who cooks his own books, a lawyer who breaks the law as easily as he breathes? One of my classic examples is the doctor with the unhealthy lifestyle. I have a problem with someone telling me what I should be doing is… and then stepping outside to light up a cigarette. “Physician, heal thyself” comes to mind.

Here’s another example - could you follow a priest or minister that doesn’t believe in what he preaches in the pulpit. “Practice what you preach” sounds so cliched now but is surprisingly applicable. Francis Wade of Moving back to Jamaica and Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle makes this point in his post Doing What Is Loved as he discusses a bank VP who won’t use his own bank’s branches and a newspaper editor who doesn’t read her own paper when it offends her.

The disturbing part here is these people not only have no love and passion for what they do but they also lack respect for their field. Yet they expect you to trust them and invest your hard-earned money and time with them. This is why employee stock programs appear in companies all over the world. If your employees don’t believe in the company enough to invest, why should anyone else?

My conclusion - follow your heart. Find what it is that you are passionate about and then spend your life pouring yourself into it. Your passion will sell if that is what you seek.  

Ok, April Fools’, I get it, ha ha. I don’t mind this day so long as people aren’t stupid about it. What makes a good April Fools’ prank? Well, for one, it shouldn’t actually have people crying over loved ones. Confused?

Well, today my mother received a call asking if she had heard about X, supposedly they had died. All attempts were being made by another of X’s close friends to get to the hospital etc. My mother took this call pretty seriously given the credibility of the caller. 10 minutes later she receives another call to say the original caller had in fact been pranked by another “friend”, and X was perfectly healthy.

Now how sick do you have to be to think that pretending someone has died is funny?? How disturbing that you would think that the loss of X wouldn’t be traumatic to someone who has known her for something like 30 - 40 years? All I can say is grow up!!