Barbados Dreaming Again
It has been around 6 months since I left Barbados to head for London to move forward with my business aspirations. In an ideal world, I would have had at least a couple of weeks back on the island enjoying all the Bajan delights, namely the ambiance of the place, beautiful weather, amazing beaches, cool Caribbean water, rum, banks beer and watching all the pretty girls go bye.
In fact I would honestly say that the best Pina Coladas in the world are to be found in Barbados. What I would give to be at Just Grillin at Rockley eating a juicy steak, drinking a delicious Pina Colada or two and then washing it all down with a couple of Banks Beers. I must admit generally speaking the food in Barbados is generally a bit of let down and but there are a few good places, which offer great food and value for money.
I however know that if I keep on working hard to make my business as successful as I know it can become, I will then be able to choose, when and how often I head to Barbados for some rest and relaxation. Meantime I will carry on enjoying life in London and keep on Barbados dreaming.
I developed an affinity and love of Barbados during the 9 months that I lived on the island and miss many things about the place. I have decided that I will have a couple of months back in Barbados in 2010, and this picture is where I will be staying and you can take that to the bank. We all must have something to aim for and this is my goal.
Thieves, Liars and Cheats All Around Us
Picture this scenario that happened to my wife the other day in a shop in Barbados! You take a $100 dollar bill out of your purse to hand to the shop assistant in order to pay for something and it gets accidently dropped on the floor
You bend down and pick it and then the guy behind you claims that it is his money and he wants it back. Now this is something that I suppose could have happened in any city in the world, if there happens to be a crook behind you in the queue.
Now the shop assistant could clearly see that the money had came from my wife because she watched her take it out of her purse and the assistant had her hand on the money and watched it drop to the floor. Now did the shop assistant even open her mouth when the crook demanded the money, you guessed right! Of course she didn’t!
As far as the crook is concerned, don’t try shit with a Londoner with Bajan blood, you are gonna wish you never started and he ever so politely got tore a new asshole for his trouble. Oh! And the shop assistant felt the sweet tongue of my wife as well!
I suppose things like this are a normal enough occurrence in the times that we live, where there are plenty of people out there that want everything for nothing and if given half a chance will steal or cheat to take what doesn’t belong to them.
An incident like this could quite of easily escalated into something more serious. Could you imagine if my wife’s husband had been anywhere nearby when this happened, it could have turned into something more than just a bit of verbal.
I hear all your righteous bleeding heart social workers out there, which claim that it is society that that makes people resort to stealing, killing and doing whatever they want because they are so poor! There are millions of poor people out there that have never stolen a thing in their lives or hurt anybody to take something that don’t belong to them. I rest my case!
“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
Seeking Guidance From the Greatest Book Ever Written
Seeking guidance from the greatest book ever written can only mean one thing and that is of course, opening up the Bible. I may not personally be a regular church goer and in fact I will own up to the fact that in all the time I have been living in Barbados, I have only been to one service and that was for a for a family christening.
I however have visited many churches of many different denominations all over this beautiful island of Barbados. During those visits I have spent countless hours not only admiring the beauty of the buildings, but also sitting down inside reflecting on my life.
It was during one of these recent visits when I felt drawn to pick up a Bible and read it. I was for some reason drawn to Proverbs 27, which I had never read before; I suppose that wasn’t much of a statement because I haven’t really read many of them.
I know there are plenty of people out there that feel the Bible isn’t really worth bothering their precious time with, that it is completely out of date and irrelevant to them. Well I maybe was even one of those sceptics, but if you are prepared to open your eyes, you can find an amazing amount of wisdom, solace and advice in the Bible.
PROVERBS 27
1. Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
2. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
3. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
4. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?
5. Open rebuke is better than secret love.
6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Real Words of Wisdom
Just recently when I was searching for some information online and for some inexplicable reason I came across a few Buddhist quotes, which I felt that had a ring of truth to them, in fact they perfectly summed up life. They are most certainly wise words.
I don’t really know too much about what Buddhism is about or what it has to offer, but I have heard that it encourages people to find meaning in there life and that it enlightens minds.
I have discovered 3 well-known Buddhist quotes that I feel offer something that we as human beings can truly learn from.
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”
By Gautam Buddha
Attacked By the Pathetic Wee Beastie Called Spam
The Barbados Blog unknown to me has recently been attacked by the scourge of the Internet, that wee beastie called SPAM. Every time someone visited my site they would have to suffer the pain in the butt of having pop up adds appearing on the pc they were viewing my site on.
The problem of The Barbados Blog and spam was something I never personally knew about because I have a pop up add blocker and everyone else that has one wouldn’t have had to suffer this pain. But for those that don’t have a pop up add blocker and fortunately most computer savvy people nowadays have one, but for those that don’t, go get one, you can get them for free.
Now you may be asking how the hell did the dreaded spam find it’s way on to my blog? Well I downloaded a pretty wee online status flash widget from widgeo/compteur.cc, and it had code imbedded in it to create spam on my site. I added this widget to my site because it was kinda fun to see all the various countries around the world that had people visiting my blog.
I must have had the widget on my blog for about 3 weeks or so, before a kind visitor from China sent me an email making me aware that my site had pop up adds on it and that I obviously wasn’t aware of the problem.
Once I discovered The Barbados Blog had been plagued by a bad rash, I had to find out what was causing the problem. Thankfully with a little bit of help from the master of he universe Google, I eventually found out what had caused my loyal and faithful readers of my blog to suffer the nightmare of pop up adds. The good thing I suppose is that it only took 2 seconds get rid of the widget, now I would just like to get my hands around the neck of the person that created the dam spam.
I really, really hate all kinds of spam, whether it is pop up adds or emails. I don’t know why companies associate themselves with spam, because I personally think it would drive away business, rather than get business.
I Finally Hit the Top Million On Alexa, So What!
I have finally hit the top 1 million on Alexa, which is a wee goal I set myself on achieving. I know it isn’t that big a deal because for a few hundred dollars I could go out and buy myself a ranking of below 50,000, which I could maintain for a monthly fee. But where hell is the fun in that!
What does the Alexa ranking really mean? Not a lot really because it isn’t really a fair indication or reflection on how popular your site is. At the end of the day Alexa is only based on the amount of visitors to your site that actually have the Alexa toolbar installed on their computer. I haven’t even got the toolbar installed on my own one.
I use to have the misguided notion that Alexa was an important factor as to how popular my blog was. With the help of the ruler of the Universe Google, I have had my illusions shattered as to how unimportant Alexa really is.
What really matters to me, as I’m concerned is how popular my blog is and that for me that is down to how many visitors I get and how many of them visit on a regular basis. At the present moment in time I’m getting on average over 200 visitors a day and a fairly reasonable amount of repeat visitors. I know those figures aren’t a great deal compared to many blogs out there but I’m happy with the result so far.
My present goal for The Barbados Blog is to build up my daily visitor levels to an average of over 1000! Can I do it? How long will it take me? I haven’t got a clue, but I know for sure I’m going to do it!
I Wanna Hear Him Speak Chinese, Just Do It Phelps!
I just love that television commercial that I constantly see on cable tv, you know the one starring the greatest swimmer of all time Michael Phelps who recently won an amazing 8 gold medals at the recent Beijing Olympic Games.
Michael Phelps claims that the Rosetta Stone language learning system got him up to speed with the Chinese language for the Olympic games, Yeah Right! The one thing that seems to be blatantly missing form the 110-second commercial is the fact that you don’t hear one single word of Chinese spoken by Phelps during the whole advert.
Oh why didn’t they have the legendary Michael Phelps say at least a few words in Chinese to prove how good the system really is. It would have made the advert a tiny bit more believable that he actually used the system and could speak even just a few words in Chinese.
Never mind the real star of the commercial for me is Michael’s British Bull Dog called Herman; in fact I think I hear him grunt a few words of Chinese. The Course works after all!
I would also like to put in a special request to Rosetta Stone to see if they would consider putting a Bajan course together, now that would come in real handy for me! Rosetta if you can do it, you know that you can always find me at The Barbados Blog and at the Barbados Photo Blog, I shall be wating for you!
覆水難收 Water thrown out is hard to put back into the container.
Things Can Only Get Better In The USA
The Barbados Blog would like to congratulate Barack Obama on his historic win in the presidential elections of November 4th 2008 and becoming the first black president of the United States of America. Obama was born on August 4th 1961 of a white mother from Kansas and an African father from Kenya and has truly proved that the American Dream really does exist for people of all races.
I must admit that I’m glad to see the back of President George Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney and the Republican Party in the USA. They are possible the most corrupt and incompetent pairing that America has ever had the misfortune of having in charge of the country.
Barack Obama and the Democrats have a massive task in sorting out the huge mess America is currently in and any countries in the world that are assuming that they are going to benefit because of the colour of the new President of Americas skin, better wake up and take a reality check.
I feel these words said by Barack Obama when it had become known that he would become the new president of America will become immortal, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer”.
Barack Obama is above all else a very, very proud American and loves his country and If anybody has the ability and desire to make it a better place it is him.
I feel it is poignant to leave you with an exert from the last speech called, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” giving by Dr. Martin Luther King, jnr. which was delivered on the 3rd of April 1968, which was the eve of his assignation.
“And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Dr. Martin Luther King, jnr.
The President Of America Good Luck To Both The Contenders
It is November the 4th 2008 and it is Election Day in America and whatever the outcome this election will be historically significant. If Barack Obama wins he will become the first black president of the USA and if John McCain wins he will become the oldest ever candidate to be voted president of the USA, and his running mate Sarah Palin would become the first ever-female vice president of the country.
The Wandering Scotsman wishes both candidates good luck and is looking forward to the change of the leadership of the United States of America and hopefully a new era in the way the country conducts it’s business on the world stage. I feel that everyone no matter what the colour of your skin is, no what matter what religion you are, or what country you are from, if you are of a sane mind and have a good heart, you are sick of seeing the constant turmoil that exists in the world due to wars that were started in the so called fight against terrorism.
I personally feel that most of the world will be glad to see the end of the George Bush reign as President of America, and the state he has left the country in both economically and in how the world perceives the country. Things will hopefully change when the presidency changes hands later on today. I feel no matter who wins there will be huge changes in USA policies both at home and worldwide.
Well who is going to win, if I was to believe the newspapers and television in Barbados it is a foregone conclusion and Barack Obama his going to win by a landslide. But from what I can gather from searching online and from the polls, it is going to be a very tight race and either candidate could become the next president of the World, I meant to say President of the USA, but isn’t that where the USA has gone wrong, they seem to think that they know what is best for the entire world!
May the best candidate win and hopefully the American public will accept whoever that may be, and give them the support that they need to help improve the dire state that the country is currently in.
The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Becoming a Blogger
I have been asked the question’s a few times from family members here in Barbados what is a blog and then how do you go about setting one up. Well I have put together my beginners guide to becoming a blogger. It really is a simple process that anybody can do, all it takes is a wee bit of an effort and time.
So you want to become a blogger, it seems that nowadays everyone has a blog or are thinking about starting one up. Whether you want to start a blog to make some extra money or are looking to promote your business or purely for fun, my simple beginners guide will help to get you started.
What is a blog, It is basically a type of website which has its content arranged in chronological order from the most recent post {or entry} at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom. Blogs are updated frequently and are fairly straightforward to publish. The real beauty of blogs is that they require very little technical skills to update and maintain them, unlike traditional web sites.
Blog Content, you will have to decide what you are going to write about, the subject matter of your blog is of vital importance to you. Whatever topic or topics you choose to write about you will have to be prepared and knowledgeable enough to do so on a very regular basis.
Publishing your Blog, next you will need to decide the publishing method you are going to use to make your blog available to the world. The choices are either doing it the free way, through company a like, blogger.com, which is entirely free and straightforward. Or buying your own domain name, paying to host it and publishing it through something like Wordpress.
Marketing of Your Blog, when you finally see your words published on the web, it is highly likely that you will want to share them with as many people as possible. If not why go to all the bother. The next best thing to do, is make all your friends, family, and work colleagues aware of your blog; this will get the ball rolling. The next step is to submit every article you write to social sites such as Del.icio, Digg, Stumble Upon, Tehcnorati etc.
These are just some simple steps to help you get started as a blogger. So what are you waiting for if you have something to tell the world go and do it.
Some more great tips which will help you to become a better blogger can also be found at 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger
Some more great advice for those looking to become a blogger, which I would recommend reading can be found at How to become an authority blogger
For those of you that are interested in life in Barbados, visit the sister site to here, called Barbados Photo Blog.
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