Ah still vex

Ya really, really want to know why?

I mean yes, I had a nice Caribana and all but yes I'm still upset about the one that got away. And no I don't mean the Vincy girls on the truck that I was trying to follow when Bajansistren keep reminding me I actually had a band to jump with. No I not even talking about them.

Picture this. Caribana 2005, ladies in abundance, all sizes, all shapes, all shades, all ages, skimpy costumes, beauty, color, cellulite, curves. To paraphase the old time bajan spouge duo the Draytons 'Who aint looking good, good looking and who aint looking nice, nice looking, who aint looking nice in front, looking nice behind....'. You get the point.

Alright then. One good thing about music when it hits you ya feel no pain. Well the rhythms were hitting so hard it was like somebody give all of us Codeine tablets. The Caribbean rhythms; the soca, the pan, the drum were causing bodies to gyrate and shake and move and sway and jump and sweat. You just couldn't resist it. Sweet soca music , ya coulda neva refuse it!.

It was a veritable cornucopia for the senses.

Your boy, Jdid, that's me, just enjoying the sounds and the sights and taking beaucoup de pictures thinking to himself wow this really is a spectacle to behold. I'm not the best photographer and on most occasions I just take pictures of things not people but Caribana is different you have to get photos of the people to celebrate the event. Plus I was not too sure how these photos would turn out after having failed miserable to take anything useful at Pan Alive Friday night. A new camera will do that you.

So earlier in the day before the jump-off, I was focusing on getting photos of the big King and Queen costumes like this.

and



(Oh previous two photos compliments of Bajansistren. Thank you very much. See previous blog if you missed the other photos).

Then as the parade started I began getting pictures of the bands as they left the stadium to hit the parade route on Lakeshore. Best place to take photos in my opinion because once stuff gets on the roads things start to get mash up and spectators join in with the bands and it kind of dilutes a bit of the color intensity of say seeing one band section all in blue like the photo below.



So I'm doing my photo thing when along comes this group of lovely young ladies (another set not the Vincy ones on the truck).

Hey where did that photo come from? To wife: umm no I don't remember taking those photos it must have been the guy I lent the camera too. Yea that's it lol. la la la ........la la

Anyway sorry I digress, so these nice looking young ladies are going past me and there are a few of them with Caribbean flags including one rather stunning beauty with a Bajan (that's short form for Barbados for the uninitiated) flag who I focused in on. Ok she maybe wasn't that stunning, (she was rather good looking though) but after what happened next and forever in the stories I will tell in the future she will always be the best-est looking girl I ever saw. I will be singing her praises with hyperbolic terms of exaltation, extolling her to the highest degree, her aura will be raised to mythical proportions. A girl who would make Halle Berry look like Whoopie as my man Big L (R.I.P) would say.

Now there she goes again the dopest Ethiopian
and now the world around me is just moving in slow motion

So guess what happens next. The sista with the Bajan flag is passing by and another beautiful lady with a Jamaican flag (although not as beautiful as the angel with the bajan flag) is pulling her along when she, the bajan flag girl not the Jamaican flag girl, sees me with the camera and stops. Hallelujah! Could it be? Is she stopping to pose for lil ol me? Nooo! Yess! Nooo! Really! Me? Whoa! She is actually posing for me. Oh man if I ever had any doubts about there being a God in heaven. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah! No more singing the Pharcyde's passing me by cause she's the one who didn't pass me by.

Oh man, I'm on cloud 9, I have hit the jackpot! If I don't take another shot all day and even if I don't get to follow the Vincy truck then to actually have this girl pose for me just makes my day, strike that my week, my month even my year. This is the coup de grace, my shot heard around the world, my crowning glory. This was the photo in the future I'd be showing my kids, my grandkids, everybody saying can you believe what happened to me out of the blue and can you believe how lovely this young lady is.

So quickly, in the next few seconds, I manage to steady my hands and I set up the shot. Ok Jdid, steady now. You definitely don't want this one to come out blurry like the ones the night before. This shot must be perfect. Perfect girl, perfect shot, I'm focused, the camera is focused, we become as one, man and machine blending into the perfect element. The camera's lenses combining with my own eye's lenses to form a cybernetic entity. Coming together for a common cause for the betterment of mankind. (alright too much hyperbole I'm getting carried away) Ok here it comes, everything is good, homegirl is in the center of the picture, I double check everything is straight and I depress the camera button to take the shot. I hear the double click meaning I'm good to go and I depress the button fully and snap what is possibly naa scratch that what is definitely the greatest shot I have ever take in my life. Hey I'm easy to please what can I say. Oh happy day!

I say a heart felt thank you and 'God bless you girl' and the girls are off. I was happy before but my heart is all a flutter, I'm positively giddy. Giddy as a schoolgirl well as giddy as an emotionless android like myself can be anyways. Yea I have emotion issues but that's a whole other blog.

Then I look at the picture and it all falls down like a Kanye West song.



There on the left is the Jamaican flag girl, quite beautiful in all rights but wait what the? Nooooooooo I scream! Whyyyyyyyy? Where is my bajan flag girl in all her exquisite beauty? Nooooooo!

Yo where that big headed woman come from to block my shot! Cheese on bread (bajan term of exclamation, don't ask I have no idea of the origin)! I utter various unprintable words. A who de one bleep bleep big red frizzy headed woman and where she came from to block my shot? My perfect shot in ruins! Ruined I say!

Bajansistren had been standing next to me and I show her the photo and she laffin at me, I show the wife she laffin at me. Everybody enjoying my misery. Cuhdear. To have it so close to your grasp only to have it cruelly snatched away.

Totally offset the rest of my day. To think I had the best-est girl in the universe to take a picture of and that woman head block out all trace of my girl. See dat, life just not fair.

Not only that but homegirl had already disappeared down the route and so I was left there with only a memory and once again a brother's singing a variation of the Pharcyde's Passing me by. Damn!