Master Cleansing

Beyonce did the Master cleanse and lost 14 pounds!!! well fuck her. Yesterday I started the famed master cleanse and I must say I feel ok.

For those who don't know the Master cleanse/ Lemonade diet is a detox diet desgined by the Dr. Stanley Burroughs as a way to rid the bod of toxins and heal the digestie system.

The diet is composed of a lemonade mixture which is the pretty much teh only thing you consume (excepting min tea, a lazative tea and a salt water flush) for ten days.

This is my second time doing the cleanse and I hope to make it a yearly thing. I'm keeping a daily journal which I will publish on my blog at the end of the cleanse.


I'm honestly not doing it for rapid weight loss or even really to detox my body. The real reason is that I need to teach my body who is boss. I have the most unhealthy eating habits. I eat late, don't stop when I'm full and indulge the worst cravings. So I want to teach my body that food is indeed nothing more than fuel. I want to break free of emotional eating and take control of my health. I feel that after the cleanse I would almost be like a clean slate that I can use to teach myself good eating habits and can subsist on a healthy diet.

Anyways wish me luck! More to come
Gordon

The Modern Jamaican Family

I was just thinking how in my family how separated things have become. My parents don't speak. I actually haven't spoken to my father in close to a year. No one talks to Aunty Joan but everyone blames her for that. My grandfather goes through spates of random passive agressive malice. My cousin has the biggest love-hate relationship with her father. My brother and I keep up with each other but have very little patience for each other. My Aunty is beginning to get more vocal about how she really doesn't like Aunt Gloria. Everyone loves grandma but easily gets annoyed by how overbearing she can be. It seems that for us, family has evolved into a way that we are irrevocably attached to people who we can't stop fighting with.

Funnily enough, The only person bold enough to be over all of the petty squabbles is my 99 year old great grandmother. Who at 99 is smarter, funnier, spunkier and more in tune with the importance of things than anyone else I know.

I want to follow in her foot steps. Maybe thats why she's one of the few that get to celebrate a 99th birthday.

I must say that I had an amazing summer vacation and it was great to see all the smiling faces I haven't seen in a while. Some years. Humans are social beings. We don't live alone.

I actually read somewhere that when we evolved eyes on the front of our heads, rather than the sides. We gained greater depth perception but then lost the ability to percieve things that aren't directly in front of us. Many animals can see in an almost 360 degree radius but we couldn't. So to protect ourselves from predators we began to live together in groups so that rather than one eye we'd have many.

So I just wanted my many eyes to know I actually love and appreciated seeing you guys.

My soul mate aka we're two cuckoo bird. nicoel and I at the now infamous engagement party. Let me explain. We were both craving birthday cake so we went to pricesmart and bought one. So most places who sell cakes will write on them for free. So I suggested they write on it Happy engagement. Jokes are jokes guys, we@re not crazy. Actually yeah we are.

Gabrielle my soon to be lawyer and the interminable voice of reason in every situation.

Denise and Michelle, form back in the party mobile days. And when I say party mobile I mean the camry with teh windows that would start and stop working at will. But it sure took us everywhere we needed to go.

The Beaver Electric- nuff said.

My esteemed hosts in Gotham City, (note the juicebox sake and japanese train porn.)

My bffny Tim and I comforted each other when we lived in teh city of high rents and exploitative employers. The funny thing is I feel like we both want to move back real bad. So we can complain about our high rents, late subway trains and exploiative employers.

Darcy and I are gonna get married someday. I'm convinced.

All I have to say is <3

And to those who always bring the party.

Tiny dancer I will never be able to get enough you.

The dirty and damaged amongst us

And of course everyone's favorite Ethiopian. My honorary brother from another family, city, country. Big H.

Independence Day

So 38 hours later and $2,700 of flying and I"m back in Jamaica till next Thursday. Yesterday, was Independence Day which has become sort of a non-event for many Jamaicans but after a call from my Uncle Norman we decided to go visit my great grandmother at her house in Bensonton St. Ann. Which is deep deep country. Way up in the hills of St. Ann near actually where Bob Marley was born and raised. Here are some pics from on the way:

The Rio Cobre Gorge:

An Independence Celebration in Charlemont. Traffic was stopped due to the JCF (Police) Band playing in the street. They were genius good. I sometimes forget how bad ass their uniforms are.



Also look at these girls in traditional folk costumes


and:



There was also what looked like a Festival Queen or an Independence Queen


Its little things like this that makes me wonder exactly how much of quaint Jamaican culture am I"v missed out on iving in Uptown Kingston. We might say its pop-down or its too country but its all ours. Jamaica is honestly a beautiful country with a beautiful history. It took us a long time to gain our independence I mean we're just an over 40 year old nation. We"re proud of ourselves and we're proud of our country. So why do we sometimes seem to ignore independence day. It just seems like its a day off for the older generations and a chance to party ( Negril and Portland weekends) for the younger. We need to take a look at countries that have far less to be proud (aka the US) see how big their independence celebrations where people prepare for weeks and put on parades and fireworks. Ok we have the latter. I just get the overwhelming feeling that in Jamaica it still doesn"t matter. For a country that is so proud of itself to the point where jamaicans can sometimes come off as arrogant. Why is Independence day so unimportant to us?

my country my love

G'tanya Forbes is a friend of mine. A real cool Chica. But cool in that I'm sort of straight edge but not really. I don't drink hard. I don't bother anybody really. I like cool things and different music.

She was really chill. Really hard working an admirable student. We were i Interact together so we were both into fundraising and volunteering.

I haven't seen her in a while but then I recieved this from her in the mail.



Hi Folks, My name is G’Tanya Forbes and I’m starting a project of sorts that needs your support. Whoa… whoa… wait, don’t click ‘delete’ just yet, give me 5 minutes away from Facebook. This isn’t one of those letters from the Son of Maraka from Botswana who needs your help saving the village chief from a terminal illness… who’s really Steve from Oklahoma trying to scam money to buy cheese curls and an X-Box. And this isn’t one of those step-on-a-crack-break-your-mother’s-back your world will implode if you don’t pass it on emails. Pretty much do with it what you will. In debates I’ve had with the older-and-wisers about the need to invest in Jamaica. The grown folk insist that our generation shows little indication of being interested in more than the loudest party and the latest iPhone and aren’t worthy of the venture. I still stubbornly argue that amidst global warming, stagflation, pandering politics and hard crime we do care. Prove me right. Prove me wrong. At 20-something I’ve found that my friends are all over the place. Fresh out of school and rife with indecision; bored (and/or disenchanted) with their first job; stuck in traffic; backpacking through Europe; yelling f-you’s at the now short-circuiting mobile phone that they dropped in the tub while trying to simultaneously text and shower last week; nursing last night’s hangover under their covers while trying to get the gum (let’s hope it’s gum) out of their hair. But what connects some of us is that we are Jamaican, and connects all of us is that we want to feel, on our deathbeds, that our lives had an impact, not soon forgotten. This is your chance to have consequence. The Project is tentatively christened… My Country My Love: A Labyrinth of Jamaican Journals. Here’s how it goes:(1) Add something to this email- a thought, a story, a poem, a photo, a piece of art, whatever… seriously feel free to submit any-anything.(2) Return it to me and forward it to others… you don’t have to forward your addition, just the original email, doesn’t matter.(3) Mail it to me if you prefer at… ‘(the tentatively titled) My Country My Love: A Labyrinth of Jamaican Journals’P.O. Box 275Kingston 9Jamaica W.I.(4) Add your name and location or sign it anonymous if you’d life to remain a mystery(5) Content once contributed becomes the sole property of G’Tanya Forbes/ ‘the tentatively titled My Country My Love: A Labyrinth of Jamaican Journals’ and may be published in a selected collection of works, a part of the proceeds from which will go to a to-be-announced Jamaican NGO.(6) All visitors to and residents/ citizens and/or lovers of Jamaica can supply.In the near (hopefully) future you’ll bump into this email in hardback form at your local school or coffee-supplier, if you do:(1) Add something to it and pass it on to the next person… same rules as above apply.(2) If the book is full mail it to said P.O. Box or email me and we’ll sort something out.Next time you feel exhausted with your ritual tooth brushing and your bowl of Coco Puffs pick up a pencil, a camera, an embroidery needle, superglue… and reflect on the significance of Jamaica on you and you on Jamaica.Congrats you’ve made it to the end.I look forward to hearing from you soon.Muchos BesitosG’Tanya Forbes
Instigator‘the tentatively titled my country my love: a labyrinth of Jamaican journals’Email: mycountrymylove@hotmail.comVisit: http://thetentativelytitledmycountrymylove.blogspot.com/


Brilliant no! What should I write.

Hidoi!!

I knew I was doing something right when my student, Tomoya called me this.

酷い(P); 非道い 【ひどい】 (adj-i) (uk) cruel; awful; severe; very bad; serious; terrible; heavy; violent;

I like the ring of it.

Gordon

English School/ After School programme

So our English School is now also running an after school program for two half brazillian/ half Japanese cuties called James and Elizabeth.

James looks like a tiny man. He's only seven but I swear he has a mustache. He just has teh manliest features of any eight year old around. He could take you.

Elizabeth is just cutedoarble. So because of this new development it means that the half of teh day I spend surfing teh internet reaading perez hilton is now spent hanging out with kiddoes.

plus we now have a tv so we can watch tv at work.

I loves it.

Gordon