Week at Moms

I’ve been having a great time since I came back form Jamaica. Big Red and the Engineer Hater took me out for a good time on Barrington after a rough night @ the T-Room for Mario and classes Iron Ring ceremony (congratulations).

I had a very nice turkey dinner which was a treat last weekend and also did a bit of work on the house (Rockwood).

This week I’m in Grandville Ferry visiting my Mom and also helping her with a few things at the office (http://peacefulschoolsinternational.org etc). When I got home I notice that IBM had sent me a new 46GB HD that I want to put in OuterSurf to give tons more room. On the other hand there has been talk of putting together a superserver for everyone, which I think makes sense, since we could get somewhat failsafe raid storage or tape backup etc.

On the flip side every time I look at a picture of Christeen I get a bit sad. I had a really good life in Jamaica too.

Things

…that were nice on the trip back
– I didn’t have to turn on my lap top at security
– air plane had plugs for lap top

…that are different
– white women
– eating chicken with a knife and fork
– a mall
– how casual and crappy every dresses.
– my gear shrinking because of the cold

The bad life. (mugging)


watch this


(10mb Divx+mp3)

Here is what happened.

My flight was supposed to leave on Friday @ 4pm. Since Christeen and I didn’t get a chance to have our romantic weekend getaway I extended my ticket for 3 extra days. On Friday afternoon I met up with Christeen and we took the bus to Half Way Tree.

It was 6:05pm and we were waiting with a ton of other people for a bus to Port Antonio. I had my large Burton backpack on and was carrying a duffel bag of Chisteen’s with both hands, (it resting on my right hip). It was so busy that I wanted to take a bus Sat. morning instead. A few minutes after I suggested this to Christeen I felt a hand in my pocket (which I couldn’t see because it was under the bag) – I quickly turned around and pushed the man with Christeen’s bag. He said something like “you want me to cut ya white boi” and proceeded to make two uppercut type motions to my stomach with a triangular shank. The first one poked my stomach and the second one I jumped out of the way of.

He then ran away. This all took about 5 seconds. I was still in shock and checked my pocket. At first I didn’t think he got anything because I felt my cell phone but then realized he did have my wallet so I started to run after him. Christeen and some other woman grabbed me and told me “it’s not worth it”.

The thief was being chased by a plain clothes police officer down the road who took out his piece and fired shots in the air as he chased after him. This made the whole crowd duck for cover. The police officer told me that he couldn’t really have shot him in the back as he was running away as it would have looked bad.

I think the actual thief dropped the wallet and someone else picked it up (perhaps a person on a motor cycle).

The man they arrested wasn’t the guy who tried to stab me but an accomplice (they work in groups). I ended up loosing $6800J’s which is $220 CAD. The money was to pay for two nights lodging and meals in Port Antonio for Christeen and me. I was worried about budgeting the cash so my plan was to bring it all and just make sure we had enough for the trip home. (we’re now spending the weekend @ home because I’m totally broke).

The shanking was just like in Oz but his shank was dull (I suspect since it didn’t go in my stomach). Christeen thinks he likely uses it as an intimidation tool rather than to cut people open.