Be Responsible

I thought I was going to get around to writing about that delectable meal I had at the Hilton on Saturday....

My heart weeps for the mother of the little girl who drowned at Miami Beach on Sunday as well as for the family friend who will never forget this...children and negligence do not mix. The sea is no respector of man... Watch your children...ALWAYS!

It was with a great sadness I read in the Nation Newspaper about a little girl just seven years old who drowned at the sea. I am not a mother so I can't imagine the  mother's pain but 4 years ago my brother a 6ft 5inch 20year drowned at the same beach.  My brother was an adult who got up that Sunday morning and drove to the sea. My brother as tall and as strong as he was could not fight the sea and as a result lost his life. I sympathize with the mother of that little girl and my heart grieves for the loss of a such a young life yet I cannot help but wonder why adults continue to believe that the sea can be likened to a splash pool in one's backyard.   

We need to teach our children to love and respect the sea, and learn to swim.  It's interesting how, in an island as small as Barbados (166sq miles) we have so many people who don't know how to swim. Even those that can swim need to understand that the sea is no respector of man and we need to act accordingly.

As I read the article I thought that for the rest of her life, that lady (not the mother) who took that child to the sea will always wonder what she could have done.  We can't bring the little girl back but we can try, by speaking out, to save a life to come.  Parents/Guardians need to be a bit more responsible for their charges.  I have no children but I have countless cousins and have always been responsible for taking them to picnics at the beach, to the park, to fairs and countless other occasions.  Even when I give them the opportunity for ''free play'' my eyes are always glued to them, watching their every movement. Things, which we regret for a lifetime, can happen in the blink of an eye. 

A few weekends ago I was at Agrofest and every 5 mins during the day there was a call for parents/guardians to collect some little one from the police outpost.  Some of these parents/guardians need to be charged with some type of negligence at these events especially when you can hear the announcer calling for the parent/guardian some 20 minutes after the initiall announcement.  I cannnot understand how persons can so easily allow children to wander off at an event filled with hundreds if not thousands of people.  Fortunately for us, this is still Barbados but adults need to be more vigilent and realise that we are here to protect the children and keep them safe. Negligence cannot and should not be excused.

Family

Initially I was going to write about the wonderful time I had at the Hilton hotel on Saturday night but something I saw on my facebook changed the direction of my thoughts.

Family...We all have family. Moms, Dads, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. Some of us even have stepbrothers and sisters, step moms and dads. Adopted siblings or parents. However you look at it, we've got some kind of family.

For me, my family are those persons who are related to me by blood. Those that are in my family tree. I come from a very large family. My great-grandfather, on my mom's side had 4 children, his father, my great-great gradfather had 7 children and my grandmother (my mom's mother) had 7 children. Now interestingly enough, I call all these persons my family. Some of them I know some I don't know. Some of my first cousins and even second cousins I talk to everyday, others if i hear them once a year it's a lot, some I may not have a conversation with in a couple years and others I hardly know. However, in my eyes they're all still family.

Now some of my really close friends are obviously closer to me than my own family. However, I cannot get rid of my family. Whether I choose to speak with them, send them greetings at the appropriate times during the year or simply ignore them, as some would say ''blood is blood''. I can choose to ignore my family or I can choose to embrace them. I choose to embrace mine, whether or not they welcome that embrace. The funny thing is that even when we ignore family in life, we are quick to recognise them in death. We go to their funerals; we might not have said two words to them while they were alive; we might have ignored all advances, chose to pretend the weren't family but as soon as there is a death we whole heartedly embrace them and extend to them the love that they can now no longer feel. The two things they say that bring families together...weddings and funerals. I've always been and will always continue to be a family person. I know that they are times when I will reach out to family and be rejected but I will continue to do so because that's who I am...welcome to the family!

The Beginnings

The date is March 26, 2010. The time 5:41 in the evening and I'm here in beautiful Bim writing this blog, my first I might add. I wouldn't say I'm a bandwagon jumper (since everyone seems to be doing it) but since I've got a lot of time on my hands recently, I thought I'd give it a try. This blog has no topic in particular. It's just about anything that I'm feeling, or not feeling on any given day. Anything that catches my attention, a social issue I want to rant about, anything. Hence the tittle.

I'm a simple girl really, though most recently I've been trying at this makeup thing. It's almost a habit and quite an expensive habit at that. Thank God for duty free prices, samples and generous friends. MAC is my most recent discovery thanks to http://scandalousbeautyonline.com. Well maybe not total discovery,probably just responsible for the MAC experience and what an experience it has been. From the girls at the 'CS' Mac Counter, the nice and the not so nice, to the foundations. Do you know that MAC has approximately 10 or 11 foundations to choose from.Man!! Well as I said before the stuff isn't cheap. I've tried the studio fix powder foundation and the studio tech. Will I try anymore? Well my birthday is in November...hint!hint! It totally love MAC's blotting powder. It's my new best friend. I've tried the Iman blot powder and Fashion Fair's oil control powder. MAC wins, hands down. Ain't no shine with MAC.


I think this blog will be an experience for me. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up or how often I'll blog but I hope you enjoy these murmurs of mine. On the daily!