An American in SXM

Jean G. wuz here

2009-12-13T12:21:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when a fun blog reader and her friend invite you to drinks at Jimbo's. We inadvertently arrived during happy hour, when they bring you 2 drinks for the price of one and suddenly the table looks crazy. I had a great time and babbled so much I was hoarse the next day!

Thanks Jean and Barb, I had a great time!

Holiday Gift Idea for PYWLTGRO***

2009-12-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

***PYWLTGRO = People You Would Like To Get Rid Of

A laptop desk for his or her steering wheel!

(The best part about this product's Amazon listing is the user submitted images under the main picture. Funny stuff.)

That was a fast month!

2009-11-30T20:23:00.000-04:00

Its the end of National Blog Posting Month, which I enjoyed, and the official end of the hurricane season, which is excellent! I am amazed at the way November flew by.

Today I had a flat tire and no spare (still on the way home after the last flat I had, bad sign) and so I was *forced* to put off doing errands. The only thing I wished for today was a bathtub, as I am full of aches and pains. Sometimes I read fantasy books where the main characters stop at a mountain fortress after long and smelly travels and get to visit underground hot baths. That sounds really fantastic and I'd like to go there.

I'm going to go fill the sink with hot water and stick my elbow in there and see if it is at all similar. Ciao.

It's What's For Dinner

2009-11-29T22:49:00.000-04:00

My boyfriend has a friend who is Muslim, and who just celebrated a holiday (perhaps Eid al-Adha? I am not sure). As a result, we were lucky enough to receive some freshly slaughtered beef. Bull, in fact. Kind of a massive amount. I took it out of it's plastic conveyance to try to figure out how to cook it (what part of the bull is it, you ask? Leg, I am told.) Here is what happened:

My dogs emphatically declared their love for me and all my endeavors, including that enticing bowl and the plastic bag it arrived in. I was unable to shift them for an hour and then had to hide the garbage from them. I would not be surprised to find dog paw scratch marks on the fridge door in the morning.

Ho Hum

2009-11-28T23:58:00.014-04:00

Today I watched TV, cleaned house and went to Grand Marche. And sniffed my strawberry shortcake kitchen. Sons of Anarchy and Doc Martin were the shows I watched, and they are very different from each other. I want to visit Cornwall. I do not want to join a motorcycle club. That is what I learned today.

Things I need to re-learn. Do not go to Grand Marche on a Saturday at 7:30PM. They have no vegetables left. Here are the veggies I ended up with - parsnips, plantains and bell peppers. Now I have to figure out how to make a dish out of those things. And maybe I will use the salt pork. Ooo it sounds better every second.

Thats all I got. I'll try harder tomorrow. Hasta luego.

Things went a bit wacko at the end of my last post

2009-11-27T23:54:00.000-04:00

Yup. That's what happens when you rush the strawberry champagne. The cork popped and it splashed everywhere and my kitchen smells like strawberry shortcake. My boyfriend bought me this stuff after a dinner his bosses took him to at Bacchus and it was nice while it lasted!

Yesterday morning, for the first time in over a year, Psycho Cat stopped by. Last time I saw her she looked good but this time was extremely thin, though her coat looked good. She sucked down a can of tuna incredibly fast while hissing at me the whole time, and then took off. I suppose this qualifies her as family, since she stopped by for a Thanksgiving meal. I am keeping my eye out for her to feed her up a bit.

We went out to dinner last night at L'Astrolabe, which was great. They have a new chef (who had been at Chanteclair) and made changes to their menu. I took some pictures which I will try to post. I am so glad not to have cooked a turkey dinner yesterday. I find the process of cooking turkey interesting but I am not really interested in eating it, so I was happy to go out. Thankful even!

Today I attempted to cook a white bean soup from Seasons of the Italian Kitchen which I have used so much that my copy is falling apart. The absolute only reason I tried it is that I bought a hunk of salt pork at the market and had no clue what to do with it. The beans were nicely flavored but a bit boring. Also, I managed to leave the stove on while I thought they were cooling, and burnt most of the leftovers. Not having a successful run in the kitchen, I fear. To top it all off I still have almost about 12 ounces of salt pork left and no further understanding of its uses. Seems like cooking is a process of two steps forward and then a staggering fall back.

OK yeah. Goodnight!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T17:30:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone who celebrates it is having a lovely holiday. I spent some time making phone calls to loved ones today and am glad I did, though I wasn't able to reach everyone I would have liked to talk to. It was nice to reconnect.

I am off to chill some strawberry champagne (its good! no really!).

Remember to Share the Road

2009-11-25T23:31:00.000-04:00

A message from your friendly neighborhood goats. And bike riders.

Yes, this is yet another picture stolen from the archives. I currently have nothing to talk about. Seriously. Its scary.

Grocery Cart Chaos

2009-11-24T23:48:00.000-04:00

On busy days the grocery cart situation in any SXM market that employs them can be crazy.

In the US, you unload the cart and then push it, empty, in front of you through the cashier line, where you can load your bagged groceries into it or stick them into a row with others of the same kind.

At several markets here in SXM, generally people empty their carts and leave them behind the cashier row, in the main section of the store. This is often because a bagger has already grabbed a cart for you, and shoving another cart into the situation becomes a mess. Eventually the carts stack up and it becomes difficult to approach the cashier row until someone comes around to collect all the carts.

Its a difference that I think is interesting and amusing for the most part, until I get stuck in a sea of carts.

Waiting for the boat to St. Barth's

2009-11-23T23:53:00.000-04:00

I love Dinghy Dock. I go there a couple of times a month, I think, and it is an interesting place. Well, if you like to sit at a table and drink things and watch people, it is interesting, OK?

So anyway, the other day I was there, and was reminded of a scene from the recent movie The Hangover (look, I have bad taste in movies, what can I say. No excuses.)

This scene:

Here is some of what I saw:

Am I wrong for taking a picture? I don't know. There were about 6 men in a group who had luggage and seemed to be waiting for the ferry to St. Barth's. All of a sudden the heat seemed to become intolerable and they all shucked their pants and changed to smaller pieces of clothing. There was also this guy, though he seemed to be in a different group of people:

That is for shaving your face, right?

I suppose it could be an old fashioned kind of tazer or something...

That's all folks. Ciao!

Great Bay Beach on St. Maarten's Day

2009-11-22T23:44:00.000-04:00

The sailboats are from the sailboat race on St. Maarten day. I took a bunch of photos but who knows if I'll ever get them edited, so here is one anyway. It was a lovely day and the boardwalk was hopping.

Jealous of that dude

2009-11-21T11:25:00.001-04:00

I recently got an old external hard drive working again and have been going through old photos from 2006 and 2007. This is one of the ones I found. I love that seating area that someone put in cliffside. I wouldn't want to own it (and have to maintain it) but boy I want to visit!

Bah, my computer ate my homework. Also, a cow.

2009-11-21T02:56:00.000-04:00

Well, my 11PM plan to update this blog and post something in time to make my daily update deadline crapped out miserably when I found my computer in a pitched battle with itself. A Windows update was waiting too long to be installed, and my virus protection was trying to update itself and scan my computer all at the same time. Also I had left too many browser tabs open. Darnit. So here I am, 2 hours later, with my computer running at almost normal speed. I think this is a fault of my virus protection, it is very heavy on resources, but they do all seem to be, I have not found any I think are terrific.

So, here is some babbling and some links. (I am going to keep posting daily for this month - I was never an official entrant of NaBloPoMo and still consider that I have met my own goal if I get something posted in my day).

- Gigi, another SXM blogger, today celebrated her blog's year anniversary with some very nice beach and shore photos.

- I find it interesting to watch SXM businesses start using social media as marketing tools. The marketing team at Porto Cupecoy has a blog that they do a great job with and are on Twitter. There are a bunch of businesses on Facebook and I am seeing some use Twitter. I noticed that the Maho Sonesta is having a one day sale on Nov. 27 when I saw it on Twitter and remembered that the Westin and the Radisson have offered deals before on Twitter as well. (Porto Cupecoy also offered a free condo with purchase of a mega yacht slip - now that is a bargain). So anyway, here is a list of SXM hotels on Twitter for anyone wanting to keep up to date on sale rates. If you know of any I need to add let me know! Oh, also, here is a general SXM list - people on Twitter who live here, used to live here, love it here, etc.

What am I forgetting? Oh, right, the cow:

If that made your heart sing at all, please peruse the cow archives. Bye Y'all!

Avian Aeronautics

2009-11-19T23:05:00.000-04:00

I know starlings are supposed to be an invasive species, but I find this so amazing.

Hillside road no-nos

2009-11-18T23:57:00.019-04:00

Oyster Pond residents must be loving this road, it has looked like this for a while now:

This is part of the edge, where someone got a little wild with an excavator and removed a bit too much dirt - oopsie, the road collapsed a little. I think the water line got taken out as well when it originally happened.

Good lesson for me the next time I try to excavate some hillside with a large yellow machine.

Halfway Blah

2009-11-17T23:03:00.002-04:00

I am supposed to be posting here every day this month (self imposed rule while participating in NaBloPoMo) and I definitely have the blahs. I got nothing.

Today was a crap day. It was full of anxiety, which is a stupid thing when I realize that I was the arbiter of the issues that made me stressy. It is always the way.

It was also a watery day. I stood in the rain and stressed. It could have been this sort of zen** nature moment where I relaxed and enjoyed the moment. Instead I stressed some more, got poked in the ass by a weird quasi-aloe plant and cursed the rain.

** yeah, have never been able to use "zen" without cringing at the woolly self-consciousness of it, but wtf am I doing stressing over using a word that is used everywhere without regard for queasiness < is that even the way that is spelled, it can't be. If I am going to use zen perhaps I can use.. You can do it. Use lol. LOL. OMG. o. its too much. no

Today's Weather

2009-11-16T17:43:00.000-04:00

I took this at about noon and have been trying to upload it all day, gosh darn slow internet connection!

Today has been super rumbly, loads of thunder. It is nice and cool and fresh but I am nervous during rain like this, worried about flash floods etc. I am now a person who flinches at the first sign of rain, which is something I used to scoff at. Sigh. Shame on you, Jess-from-the-past.

Ah well.

I am making lasagna bolognese for dinner tonight if I can get the pasta rolled out properly, so I am off to splash flour around the kitchen. Hasta luego!

Saturday at Buccaneer Beach Bar

2009-11-15T23:16:00.002-04:00

Getting ready for the week ahead!

Today in Philipsburg

2009-11-14T23:08:00.000-04:00

I don't have a lot to write today but it was a good day, and I was happy to get this picture.

Pig Foot Souse

2009-11-13T12:30:00.000-04:00

Well for SXM Day I did not get to try one of everything on this menu (actually I could not get close to that booth, it was packed!) but I did find a place to try pig foot souse.

It turned out to be almost a stew, with a very tasty thick and fatty broth and garnished with cucumbers. I found a Bahamian recipe here which is a big contrast with the pickled Trinidadian version that Ron sent me the other day.

I find the definition of the word "souse" interesting:

souse
1. To plunge into a liquid.
2. To make soaking wet; drench.
3. To steep in a mixture, as in pickling.
4. Slang - To make intoxicated.

This dish is the perfect hangover food. Eat souse after getting soused.

I also tried some golden apple juice which was beautiful tasting, I could drink a bucket of it.

Yum.

Whoopsie Dayzee

2009-11-12T23:50:00.000-04:00

Is that how that is spelled? could not find a consensus...

I had a lovely SXM day and took lots of photos, none of which I have loaded on to the computer. Instead I spent much of today avoiding the computer, and thinking about Top Chef, a recent obsession. Here is a meal I made recently:

Shredded pork with tomatoes and onions, feta cheese, greens, roasted pineapple and red pepper salsa, habanero salsa with apricots, pickled onions and guacamole. Way too many choices of toppings but it was pretty good.

On an unrelated note, or possibly closely related note, depending on your point of view, here is an inspirational picture I made recently:

If you do not know who Xuxa is, please get acquainted via videos of her kids show from the 90's.

#bestsxmmemory

2009-11-11T11:23:00.000-04:00

Happy SXM Day!

This morning I am enjoying watching Twitter updates fly! Some people on Twitter are celebrating SXM Day by adding favorite island memories, and they are fun to read. You can see them as they are added by doing a twitter search for #bestsxmmemory.

I am off to enjoy the day!

Rocks in a tree

2009-11-10T12:03:00.000-04:00

(One day last week, after I left Dinghy Dock)

How did they get up there? How are they balancing so well?

Is it art?

Morning View

2009-11-09T17:22:00.000-04:00

Today has been a gray day, but the dreariness of the day was mitigated for me by the beautiful light from this morning.

November 11 = Food

2009-11-08T14:02:00.001-04:00

While looking at this flyer it does anyway, check this out:

Um, i will try one of everything. Except maybe the pig foot souse. What is that anyway?

edited to add: Thanks Ron!