Health Companion, Travel Ready. Spanish. Susan Lowe, an Experienced Medic & Life Coach
OnlineCounsellingJamaica instigated and is collaborated with the Hyperbaric Unit of the University of the West Indies Marine Lab to carry our Jamaica’s 1st trial of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for stroke rehabilitation based on a Cuban model. The project was a fully, vertically integrated effort and has been published by the West Indian Medical Journal & PubMed
WIMJ
Click here for Lab website:
Discovery Bay Marine Lab
I can’t tell you if I’ve invented a cure or not, but I’ve had good success with a somewhat cumbersome system of natural therapy for women at the ends of their rope with interstitial cystitis so I’m giving a talk on it at the University of the West Indies MonaVisitor’s Lodge on November 22, 2013. Hopefully I can get some funding to patent and research the protocol
MOTTO
GOOD FOR JAMAICA, GOOD FOR YOUR POCKET
MISSION STATEMENT
TAKE BACK JAMAICA, KINGSTON IN PARTICULAR, BY FINDING THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE THAT ARE FREE (OR NEARLY) IN KINGSTON
ESCAPADE NO 5
I’M NOT A HARRY POTTER FAN REALLY (SO SUE ME). THAT SAID, I THINK JK DID WRITE SOMETHING INTO BEING THAT IS GREAT ENOUGH TO HAVE BEEN PENNED BY MY HEROINE, ENID BLYTON. DIAGON ALLEY IS A PIECE OF BLYTON-LIKE GENIUS & I WILL NOW TAKE YOU TO FIND IT. SOME OF YOU WILL NOT WANT TO GIRD YOUR LOINS FOR THIS ESCAPADE BUT IT IS AT THE CRUX OF THE IDEA OF RECLAIMING KINGSTON.
SINCE 1925, IN THE HEART OF (NO, NOT THE BALOOBA – our thoughts with Sparrow) KINGSTON HAS LAIN THE SLEEPING GIANT OF A BOOK SELLER, NOVELTY TRADING, FOUNDED BY THE FAMILY BRIDGES. THE EASIEST WAY I KNOW TO TRAVERSE THERE IS BY PASSING ALONG THE QUEEN’S STREET EAST TILL THOU COMETH TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE CONSTABULARY OF JAMAICA. THEN LOOKETH THOU IN THE DIRECTION OF THE SEA, AS THE MOUTH OF ‘DEAD & GONE’ ALLEY (ACTUALLY GEORGES LANE) LIETH DIRECTLY OPPOSITE THE JCF HQ & LOCK UP OF THE CITY OF KINGSTON. NOW PASS YE DOWN THIS NARROW BYWAY TILL YE COME UPON A PORTCULLIS OF MODERN MAKING (NOVELTY’S SERVICE ENTRANCE), TO THE LEFT, IF THOU FACETH THE SEA. PARK YOUR TRANSPORT ALONG THIS PATH (KNAVES, BLACKGUARDS, DRAWLASHES, THIEVES & HIGHWAY MEN ARE NOT TO BE FOUND HERE FOR SOME REASON, BUT LOCK THE CAR ANYWAY). KNOCK YE (OR RING BELL) UPON THE PEDESTRIAN APERTURE WITHIN THIS FACADE AND YE SHALL BE ANSWERED BY A GATEKEEPER (OR MAYBE JUST A BUZZ). WATCHING THY HEAD & FOOT – GO IN. ASK FOR THE SECRET CAVE WHEREIN LIETH ALL SALE ITEMS 60 – 70% OFF!!! OF EVERY KIND OF PAPYRUS, SCROLL, READING & AUXILLARY ITEMS THOU CANST IMAGINE. IF THOU ART A BOOKOPHILE, HEREIN SHALL YE FIND YOUR HEAVEN. EVERYTHING FROM PENNY DREADFULS, TO FABULOUS COFFEE TABLE ITEMS TO MOUNTAINS OF JUVENILE WORKS – ANYTHING THAT THE LARGELY & SADLY NON-READING PUBLIC OF JAMAICA HAS PASS-ED OVER. WHEN I FIRST SAW SAID TREASURE TROVE, ONE HAD TO WATCH ONE’S STEP LEST ONE TRIP AND TUMBLE DOWN OR DISRUPT IT & CREATE AN AVALANCHE UPON ONE’S HEAD BUT WHEN I RETURNED, THE GENIES HAD BEGUN THEIR WORK OF TIDYING SAME AS I HAD THREATENED THEM WITH THE MODERN MARVEL OF THE WEB TO SPREAD WORD OF THEIR TREASURE. AS THE YULE APPROACHETH, THINK YE OF IT & GET IN EARLY. I SHALL.
& FOR BRAWTA…RE FOOD FOR YOUR MIND AT NO COST (YES FREE, I THINK FLOW UNDERESTIMATED THIS ONE, HAPPILY FOR US :)) …IF YOU LIKE COLIN FIRTH, POUR YOURSELF A GLASS OF SOMETHING, GO TO FLOW 1000, LOOK UP MOVIES ON DEMAND, SCROLL TILL YOU FIND THE SECRET LAUGHTER OF WOMEN, ONE OF THE BEST OFF BEAT ROMANTIC COMEDIES I’VE SEEN IN A WHILE; EVEN SOME MEN WILL LIKE THIS ONE. SET IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE IT COVERS THE FORGING OF AN UNLIKELY ROMANCE & WHAT BRIGHT LITTLE BAD BOYS GET UP TO!
Hit Your Six on Route Kingston Kicks!!!
Hit Your Six on Route Kingston Kicks!!!
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ESCAPADE NO 4!!!
As you might have realised, the Kingston Kicks mission statement sounds something like:
TAKE BACK JAMAICA, KINGSTON IN PARTICULAR, BY FINDING THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE THAT ARE FREE (OR NEARLY) THEREBY PAYING HOMAGE TO THE FACT THAT JAMAICA IS PARADISE AND WE LIVE IN IT AND SHOULD STAND UP FOR IT…IN EVERY WAY!!!!! A PROPOS OF THIS …SEE THE ABOVE, IT’S FREE…JUST HAVE THE MANNERS TO RSVP….AND I HOPE THEY DON’T LET YOU IN IF YOU DON’T…PART OF TAKING BACK KINGSTON MEANS WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SPREAD COURTESY……
CPJ THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX…HERE I FOUND A JAMAICAN CPJ SUPER GOING HOME WITH HIS FAVOURITE BAGUETTE ( YOU READ RIGHT!), A YOUNG MISS AT THE CASHIER WHO STOPPED ME BUYING A DRY WINE BECAUSE SHE KNEW IT WAS SO AND KNOWS JAMAICANS AREN’T GREAT FANS OF ‘DRY’ AND WANTED TO CHECK IT WAS REALLY WHAT I WANTED… AND ANOTHER YOUNG LADY WHO WHIPPED UP AN IMPROMTU ICED TEA FOR ME BECAUSE THEY HADN’T LABELLED SOME PRODUCT RIGHT…THE GLASS WAS PRESENTED TO ME WITH THE STATEMENT …’COLD DRINKS ARE NICER ‘LONG”..!!!!!!!! LOOK HERE MAN, EXPOSE US AND WE CAN LEARN!!!!
GO MIX AND MINGLE, CPJ IS VALUE FOR MONEY AND THIS EVENT IS FREE…HERE LIVES COURTESY NO MATTER WHAT BOMB IS DROPPED..I FIND ANYWAY
Hit Your Six on Route Kingston Kicks!!!
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ESCAPADE NO 3!!!
BACK ON THE RACK WITH PJ STEWART –
KINGSTON’S ANSWER TO THE RASTRO OR PORTOBELLO RD.
Believe it or not this type of activity is the sign of a maturing society…
ever wonder why these ‘flea market’ enterprises are seen a plenty in ‘developed’ countries and not the ‘developing world’? Some serious reasons…
1) a society coming of age or of age begins to have/has ‘disposable’ accumulation of goods
2) there is less worry about keeping up with the Jonses and having bling to show
3) it’s done without forced privation (think Cuba)
Let’s put that in perspective…imagine a slave receiving ‘hand me down’ from another slave as opposed to massa…he wants to ape massa so whose will he take? OR imagine a creole accepting from one of his own rather than a lady from the mother country…. so you’ll notice up to now in Jamaica we might happily recycle goods not seen in public (happily we’re still poor enough to understand the real value of many things, eg. food, we use fish head to make great soup) but when it comes to outward appearances – clothing, bling and luxury items, cars, homes – only the biggest, newest, best, blingest, most expensive will do…WE GOTS TO KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES… Then as we arrive at the point where we realise the motherlands ain’t saving us and we deh pon we own…we begin to ‘destratify’ ourselves a bit and get busy with sustainability, recycling (within the same strata of society – more like handing across than handing down), & realising thrift with personal items does not equate with poverty…and revolution does not have to drive the point home…IE we are getting happy with ourselves and our own little country and turning it to good…voila farmers’ markets (up till recently our Jones mentality had us in supermarkets or at Coronation, now there’s middle ground) and more and upscale thrift shops. No longer just Goodwill and Salvation Army. Hey…I was in Knightsbridge and picked up a gorgeous peacock blue thing based on a shalwar design and was off to pay for it…my friend stopped me…before I made an ass of myself…second hand Zandra Rhodes £500 :).
RECYCLE, RECYCLE!!!! EVERYTHING!!!!
EVERY LAST SAT AT 9.00AM, 28 COLLINS GREEN AVE., 925 7575
PRICES JA$100-300, ALL PROCEEDS TO FATHER HO LUNG
Have fun….
Well, it is really a labour of love down at Back on the Rack…it’s hot like any bazaar but really well thought out and there’s no reason you shouldn’t leave with a buy. I left with 2 and missed a third because I thought I’d look around…haha…it was gone when I went back to get it ten minutes later…In the Boutique section…all my buys came from this top of the line section 500 Emoji There’s also general ladies at 300 and a man’s section, children’s section, shoes, a ‘bendown’ (rockbottom) plaza and a what-not section which was mostly sold out. There’s a try on compartment with privacy and mirror in the boutique section. All ranks of society amiably and quietly moving around and of course sales talk here is a little different ….
” Miss, everyting me try too small, eider de bus or de bottom too small…”
” Well go pon diet”
All in all a really great effort for Father Ho Lung. I will shop there again…especially the Christmas bazaar….
ESCAPADE NO 2 – JDF SILVER
We have one of the world’s historical collections of silver here so… Some of you will be familiar with this collection and some of you know Christie’s and Southeby’s realm of antiquaria…well we have a sterling silver collection worthy of it…items are individually deemed to be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and collectively are priceless because they are national heritage…
There is a serious significance to this collection on 3 levels
1) Our military history marks us as one of 2 nations of the Empire, whole or as in our case, part, which forced Britain to the negotiation table ….India and Jamaica via the Maroons.
2) This silver is exquisitely wrought stuff dating back to the 18oo’s at least – last and only time I saw it was when it was displayed as a special exhibit of the BBC Road Show at Devon House
3) I can’t remember for sure but I think there were a few pieces of extra special significance…i.e the items wrought by the worshipful guild of Jamaican silversmiths…again we were one of maybe 3 nations in the realm granted our own guild of smiths…. complete with the crocodile head as its stamp
Anyway the JDF military museum is open Wed to Sun 10 – 4 price 150 adults and 50 for kids
Capt Anglin in charge 920 0186
Well the JDF silver was ‘fanastic’ as expected but they’ve not got it all under one roof yet…some in Chief of Staff’s yard, some at the regiments, etc. so we saw ‘the some’ that’s in the museum. They have their first curator now though and she’s working on it, Capt Dehaney and her ops man is Capt Anglin…run off his feet, he is…
BUT the real eye opener for me was more proof we are in the very slow process of really becoming a nation albeit we have a reputation already centuries long the half of which we don’t even know:
Eg
1) Our First Military Family, The Beeks, goes back 5 generations!!!! The old man married a nice African lady when he served with the Brits there. They still serve today…one was my Pop’s boss in the air wing
2) There was a WW II flying squadron nicknamed the ‘Jamaica Squad’ because it was nearly all Yardies!
3) One Mrs. Alexander, a most interesting woman, who met me at Camp proceeded to instruct me and the Capt assigned as our guide in what we never knew…we still have a ‘Knight of (the awful) Battle of Arnhem’ WWII living among us, got stabbed in his neck to make sure he was dead ….and lived….
4) We’ve won nough Victoria Crosses …2 … very rarely awarded for ‘valour beyond belief’ (my version of the citation :)) Grandpa told me it is the custom to salute such awardees when you pass them in the street.
5) Much as UWI has always known it and named the women’s hall after Seacole, I was thrilled to see the JDF acknowledge her as one of the earliest female battle nurses (before Florence and Florence adopted her methods and wouldn’t hire her). There’s now a cute little museum park and herbal garden in her honour…really cute…they need farming advice to get it really into gear.
6) The Montego Bay Kerr Jarretts get their status and are descended from the David Kerr who was a top dude in the British Forces here, there’s a funny looking statue of him.
7) There is a library and internet cafe for the public!!!!
GO JDF.!!!!!..How comes it has to be attached to war before all ranks of society get taught and accept teaching on self reliance, making do, discipline, pride, skills training, efficient and practical esthetics..etc etc…?
Click the academic finding below…it’s a study about how the Arts help Jamaican inner city youth overcome their circumstances…
“Theatre – Arts Pedagogy f or S ocial J ustice : Case Study of the Area Youth Foundation in Jamaica”
I’M SPEAKING AT THE CONFERENCE ABOVE ABOUT INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS WHICH APPEARS TO HAVE A SERIOUS AUTO-IMMUNE/COLLAGEN VASCULAR COMPONENT & I FIND IT ‘COINCIDENTAL’:
1) THAT THERE ARE PAPERS SAYING INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS HAS AN AUTO-IMMUNE LINK (READ COLLAGEN VASCULAR DISORDER LIKE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS)
2) THAT THIS MEDICINE WHICH IS CHEAPLY AVAILABLE IN EUROPE OVER THE COUNTER, IS MASSIVELY EXPENSIVE AND EXCLUSIVELY SOURCED FROM GERMANY IN THE US, TREATS BOTH THE AILMENTS ABOVE
3)THAT AN INDIAN COMPANY NOW COMING OUT WITH ITS OWN FORMULA CANNOT SELL IT IN THE STATES.
4)THAT AN INDIAN COMPANY RESEARCHING ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE RHEUMATOID CURE AND ARRIVING AT A BREAKTHROUGH WAS ONCE TORCHED
5) THAT McBLAWG, A BLOG ABOUT GLYCOSAMINAGLYCANS (READ PENTOSAN POLYSULPHATE, ETC.), HAS A GLITCH WITH GOOGLE ‘RESEARCH SEARCH PAGE’ SO THE BLOG CAN’T BE READ
HMMMMMM…..
LINDA CURRERI OF NEW ZEALAND WROTE THE BOOKLET BELOW- IT INCLUDES A WAY TO SOURCE THE MEDS AND I INCLUDE THE SOURCE WEBSITE OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA FOR THE INDIAN PRODUCT . HAS THIS 50 YEAR OLD MEDICINE BEEN OVERLOOKED OR SUPPRESSED…?
CLICK THIS LINK TO READ THE BOOK:
pentosan polysulphate a medicine made from beech bark
CLICK THIS LINK TO ORDER THE ORAL MEDS:
ORDER PENTOSAN POLYSULPHATE ORAL OUTSIDE THE US
There is hidden Jamaican money throughout the Jamaican financial system! I kid you not. NIS has disablility assistance and relief with doctor signed forms, there are widow’s benefits like funeral costs, they may also hold the only key to your getting pension money from places you worked and forgot or are closed down. Let’s say the company you worked at closed and you didn’t get your NIS and NHT forms…the closed company is supposed to have handed your data over to NIS ….then again, if they didn’t ‘yu salt’….but if they did you can use it towards getting govt pension (however small) and towards getting NHT refunds. As you leave/retire from each company make sure you get your NHT & NIS data for pension purposes, i.e., your NHT letters, keep all your pay slips and P24s back ’till you were 2 yrs old’ (just kidding but the 7 yr rule DOES NOT HOLD HERE!) …as the tax man and HR lady told me….it can take ‘ a long time’ and you don’t have a long time to wait for income when you retire… Did you know NIS is in surplus because people aren’t claiming?! And…they’re using to money to buy up overseas property rather than increase ‘the smalls’ we get…..sad…but every ‘mickle mek a muckle’..when it comes to your pensions…
Find out if your business is exempt from GCT transactions. Call the ‘tax specialists’ (official name) at the Ocean Blvd dept of the Tax Office….(bet you didn’t even know this section existed, these are the guys that know every last angle and loophole of Jamaican taxes!!!)
HIT YOUR SIX ON ROUTE KINGSTON KICKS!!!
I took myself to Rockfort Mineral Spa in the am hours and was not disappointed – quiet, simple and best of all, pristine. Too bad they use chlorine to wash out pool Mondays because that water goes into our harbour and there are now serious, though slightly more costly, natural antimicrobials/fungicides. Anyway, by Wednesday all trace of chlorine gone and they don’t chlorinate water obviously…they’re sure heading in the right direction down there…some staff very responsive, service oriented and helpful others the usual Jamaican ‘worksworths’. And now to the pool, facilities and experience.
Pool: Crystal clear and clean
Ladies and gents, we’re missing a trick – among highest, safe level mineral and conductivity ratings on earth. This means take all your immune dermatological ailments there, take your joint ailments there, take your bottles to collect the BEST kind of alkaline water there for your internal ailments drinking a glass a day (no more, too much of anything good for nothing!). Our rocks are estimated 6 x more conductive (magnetic activity) than most places on earth (In the early days of Jamaican radio, Radio Jamaica & Rediffusion engineers had to set up 6 x more relay equipment than elsewhere on earth to counter it and Portland (thank heavens) has still not been fully conquered by wireless)
The conductivity rating is 915 ms/m (permeation of your body)
The Sulphur rating is 400 mg/L (skin magic)
The Magnesium is 124 mg/L (provided conductivity drives it in, asthma, pregnancy, autism and Lord- he- knows- what -else this-newly ‘re-discovered’ -miracle- mineral- that- is- now- acknowledged-sadly- lacking-in-diets-worldwide might help with)
Bicarbonate 227 CaCo3/L (your internal alkaline water magic, here properly buffered and not just so-so alkalinity, even so the heap of minerals can become a circulatory plaque base if you overdo it. Best alkaline water available)
Silicon Dioxide 28.5 mg/L (1.5 mg below the magical point at which mineral water taken internally chelates harmful absorbed aluminium dramatically-pots and pans, deodorant, vaccines, baking powder, cocoa, etc etc., so I think regular temperate intake must still be helpful at these levels.)
Try it some time….
Facilities: JA$350 and can be booked out. Shallow throughout pool with 3 headwater spouts
Public side lovely and clean but private baths still unusable (they look too ‘medicinal’ today as well, need a more organic ‘spa’ oriented facelift). Wed mornings best, ‘schoolers’ not yet there (even so they are separated off from adults when they do converge). Take your bottles and collect your medicinal alkaline water 100% made in Jamaica at the head spring spouts.
Experience: low key, folksy and very comfortable old time Jamaican and 100% best in the world primary product (again!) The European Bads all have their fabulous brass and crystal bars for ‘taking their waters’, which ain’t up to ours, I saw one in Germany… Could we ‘fancy up’ ours just a little…not too much…along the lines somebody like Chris Blackwell would do it…:)
TEL 1 876 938 5055
Stay tuned for Escapade No. 2 this month….