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
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….
Part of Jamaica’s heritage in silver, one of two commonwealth countries granted it’s own guild of silversmiths, JDF collection is from across the empire only the UK and India outdo us
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…?
