Next Phase for Min-Min -- Exploring Jamaican Roots

Ever since I was a child, I wondered about my family's roots, but no one was talking, except for the Irish bit. I never knew my grandparents were born in Jamaica; nobody said. But this is the year that my cousins, my sister and I began to put the pieces together. We saw the census pages that stated Grandpa and Grandma Walsh's birthplace as Jamaica, BWI (British West Indies). I could not believe it when I first saw it. I thought it was a mistake or that my rascal grandfather was obscuring his possible illegal immigrant status. But the story is too consistant in other papers, draft cards and such. We have Jamaican ancestry. Well, we will just have to follow up on that.

Ports of Call

On Wednesday, February 6th, our group of 29 will set sail from NYC at about 4PM on the Norwegian Gem. We will be at sea for 3 days. We are scheduled to reach our first port on the 9th. The itinerary is as follows:

Feb 9 - St. Thomas, VI
Feb 10 - Antigua
Feb 11 - Barbados
Feb 12 - St. Maarten
Feb 13 - Tortola

We depart Tortola that afternoon and sail 3 days back to New York, arriving Saturday, Feb. 16th. I am quite fond of cruising and I expect that this will be a grand old time.

Counting Down

My countdown calendar say I have 8 days till my cruise. I'm getting in the mind-set for a few days at sea. It's a good feeling mixed with a little anxiety about last-minute details. I plan to relax and unwind and enjoy the experience. Recently, a friend said that experiences are more important than things -- I agree.

Looking for Adventure

Soon enough, a few staffers from the Newburgh Free Libary will be embarking on what promises to be a very good time on the Norwegian Gem. We keep checking in to see how many days till we embark. I have looked into the accomodations and amenities and it all looks very attractive. This will be my 8th cruise, but I'm a novice compared to the intrepid Mrs. Crabb. She has been on more than 60. I think I will use the blog to explore some of the features of the ship. Please note, it is very much like it's sister ships by Norwegian Cruise Lines. Most of the big name passenger ships have similar amenities and are designed not just to accomodate, but to delight passengers.

Lost flickr episode + Views of Burning Man

It seems my attempts at flickr never made it to the postings. This gives me a chance to go back and consider what I personally would like to see. I like the spectacular and colorful. Burning man is certainly a great annual spectacle. Hmmm, maybe I'll go someday.

Home Stretch

Week 10: Yay! Yipee! I've made it this far. If I can keep my wits about me, I should get through this with a modicum of dignity. And speaking of dignity, I can think of no surer way to lose it than to muck about in the overly-eager world of friends online at MySpace. I did create an account there but, I was rather unspecific about personal facts.
I'm not sure how we would use MySpace for our purposes, but I'd love to create a site called Newburgh Noir and see how weird our local MySpacers really are. Just a thought. Maybe, I wouldn't really want to know -- "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of Men?"

Podcast -- BBC Scotland

Last week, I went looking for an interesting podcast. I found a few good ones (Meditation - for wellness, Bad Buddhist Radio and Alan Watts) but, I was unable to install them, so I went "mainstream" to the BBC of Scotland.
I once visited Scotland for 2 weeks and I hope to go back again. Above is a view of "New Town" including Princes Street and the shopping area as seen from the Edinburgh Castle. Library Lass has already given us a view of the castle on the wiki.