The abolition of slavery

Tomorrow, the 1st of February, we celebrate the 173rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Mauritius. This day means a lot to me; it is a public holiday. Well, on the other hand it's great that we are commemorating the abolition of slavery, a slavery that existed more than 200 years ago. This day could serve as a reminder of the fact that slavery was a reality somewhere in our country.

But what about today? 200 years later... Slavery still exists. It exists in the form of dependencies. Those self-induced slaveries of which we cannot get rid. Some are addicted to nicotine, drugs, sex, the internet, their blogs, cleaning, hurting others... forms of addictions are unlimited yet they have one thing in common, they force us to forego a part of us, sometimes essential parts of us. Then one day you realise you have not fulfilled your dreams, you have not taken care of your kids, you have not learnt how to bake a cake... So on this day, tomorrow, at least on this one day, it would be nice if you could think about this.

Think of all those things to which you are binded and set yourself free...

Cyclones do come...

My life has turned upside down ever since the day blogger started hating me. And now I'm totally pissed and in the fuck you mood and I don't want anyone to ever ask me what happened. I'm thinking of temporarily moving to another host so that I could have an interesting life all over again but I've got a feeling that would not help solve the situation.

Ahh, but only time will tell dudettes and dudes and my confused aliens.

Anyway, a cyclone is brewing overhead and its name is Gula. I don't know why they named it Gula. It might be some sort of gluttonous (I don't even know if the word exists) cyclone and it's taking its sweet time to manifest itself like any other summer cyclone with some self-esteem. Yeah I know nothing I'm saying is making sense.

Anyway I'm not against the prospect of a cyclone. In fact, I'm all for it. For once I'm prepared. You wanna know why?



Yeah, that used to be a large burgundy rubber plant (ficus elastica decora 'Burgundy'). It now means V for victory! Hihi!

As I sit and write this, I'm longing for a huge plate of macaronis! It's such a gratifying feeling when you can actually sit down and fantasize on food you've cooked.

Argh... I guess I gotta stop here dudettes and dudes and my hungry aliens.

Wild Flowers

While summer rains are the delight of any gardener (I'm not a
gardener, it just sounds cool to say it that way). So, where was I?
Yup, while summer rains are the delight of any gardener, some wild
plants benefit from it too. Today I went for a small walk and saw some
really common wild plants in the area.



The Argemone mexicana (mexican poppy) is a very attractive wild flower
which can be lethal at the same time. Its seeds contain toxic
substances called alkaloids sanguinarine and dihydrosanguinarine. I've
had a painful experience with a mexican poppy some years ago. One of
its thorns remained in my finger for 1 whole year!

Next comes the lantana, often referred to as the
shrub verbena. The lantana comes in different colors from orange, red,
pink, yellow to white. This plant is invasive and can easily cover a
large space, especially after heavy rains. Its leaves can be
irritating to some people's and children's skins, so some cautions
have to be taken. The lantana is a very popular plant in Mauritius and
is often used in landscaping.

Next comes fluffy, OK you got it, I don't know the name of this
flower, but fluffy sounds great,huh? It is terribly fluffy and it
smells real good! I tried typing "fluffy white wild flower" on Google
but I did not get the real name of fluffy. On this picture fluffy is
seen along with a dried friend. Anyway, I hope I find fluffy name soon
enough.


Hmm, so much about some summer wild flowers dudettes and dudes and my
wild aliens. Yeah I know, who cares about wild flowers? But I do... So
long!

Those things I'd never say

I've been tagged by Kathleen from Diary of a Heretic and I'm supposed to write seven weird things about me. Coincidence you'd say? This week's theme of the week at MBB is Seven!

So let's get going shall we?

1. Coffee makes me sleep. It is the best soporific substance I've ever laid my hands on.

2. I've got a terrible phobia regarding shirt buttons, I cannot bear people who wear shirts with buttons. I just cannot see that! This becomes worst in rainy days. Imagine shirt buttons wet in the rain. I shudder at the thought.

3. I believe I have premonitions. They are not the Phoebe Halliwell or Jess Mastriani kind of premonitions. I dream of stuff which later happen for real. Yeah, you'd say it happens to everybody else. But that's where you'd be wrong! Mine are special. Like I dreamt of a girl being abducted and killed. Her body was found some days later not far from our Goodlands house.

4. And I'm already running out of weird things. Though I can't draw, I'm good at painting, especially impressionism.

5. I hate love songs and I can't repress those stupid songs that keep playing in my head every time I'm with Jev

6. I secretly dream of conquering the world.

7. I cry. Yeah I know, how can I?

Now for the persons I'm tagging, Jev, Keli, Nussaibah, Slasher, Fadilnet, Miranda, offbeat_chick, La Pingouine.

So long dudettes and dudes and my weird aliens!

Alien flowers

It's an alien plant for now and it's going to be an alien flower tomorrow. It's more freaky in real than what it looks on the picture. The plant has got a reptile-like appearance and the flower buds look like they could be stars of a sci-fi movie. Sorry I've got no latin name for this plant, actually I've got no name at all for this plant. But I'm searching people! :D

The plant takes about four to six months to reach maturity and then it starts blossoming. Its flower is white and the latter lasts for a day only. It is extremely fragile, as opposed to the plant itself which has tough leaves.

I believe this plant is related to the cactus family because of its resistance and preference to the sun and dry land and because of its way of flowering (the flower stems out directly from the leaves.).

Anyway, enjoy the crappy pictures dudettes and dudes and my gardening aliens.


Update: Some minutes after I wrote this post I realised that I was stupid. So here go, some further information. The flower is called Queen of the Night or Belle de nuit. Sounds familiar Keli? Yup it does! hihi! Here are some photos that Keli took from her plant last year. I've nicked them from this post:

Lovely aren't they? And so much more pro! :D

And now for the latin or like I like to say international name, it's the Epiphyllum Oxypetalum. A cactus, I was right on this one! :D

Summer Blossoms

Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll

I had a well-documented post planned but then I decided that it does not suit me. Since this blog is about me, I gotta give my opinion on sex, drugs and rock n roll. So here goes...

But before I proceed, note to MBB members: it is not because I'm the last one to post that the post is a masterpiece . That said, I can now proceed without fearing the deception that I might cause with this post.

So what's sex, drugs and rock n roll for me? For me, it's a cliche, the kind of stuff that some people think is cool but which is not, it's the kind of stuff which has given rock a bad name. I'm referring mostly to the Mauritian context. The first metal concert I've been to was a fiasco, I'm not talking about the musical part. People were drunk, an adolescent was drugged and raped and I fled home with Keli, wondering what the hell happened and most importantly, why? I had been there in the first place because I wanted to see and most importantly hear what those Mauritian metal bands could do. I did not go there to watch people getting laid in what was without any doubt a public place. I did not go there to have drugs. I went there for the music and I can't ever understand why people mix those three together.

There's a place and time and state of mind for everything. A concert is the place to enjoy the music. If you love the music, you don't need to be on dope to enjoy it. If you love the music you would not want to get laid while listening to it.

For me sex, drugs and rock n roll don't go together. As Anteblog said, even pop stars are drug addicts. And I guess for me rock is a high enough to enjoy it on its own without the help of stimulants.

So long dudettes and dudes and my rolling aliens. So much for my theme of the week participation.

Oh Yes!

So I got these awards from Ropi and quoting him

This award is handed to people whom I really respect and like.

Hihi, that's cool! Then comes another award from Ropi again.

Well, thanks a lot for these Ropi! :D I'm really happy!

I wish to pass these on to all the dudettes and dudes on my blogroll but most specially to

BbZush for being able to update her blog everyday with great posts! I wonder how she manages that! :D
Keli, for her new journal which is so lovely and simply true to herself!
Jev cause you need to move your eerrmm and post more often!

Hehe! So long dudettes and dudes and enjoy these awards! :D

Wanted: Flowers.

As the saying goes, " All that I wanted were things I had before", OK, it's not a saying, I'm just quoting Slipknot. But this sentence has some relevance here. All the flowers that I want to have are the ones I had before.

The first one on my list is definitely the Alpinia purpurata

An alpinia purpurata bush, taken from here.

The alpinia purpurata is a tropical plant and very commonly available in Mauritius. I used to have it for several years until, I don't remember quite well what killed it. It must be noted that this plant takes 3 years to come in bloom for the first time, so I gotta be really patient this time.

Then comes the famous roses.

photos taken from here.

We used to have perfect pink and dark red roses until my mom decided that she did not like them. And when my mum does not like something, she considers it a general consensus without even asking the permission of others. So, we no longer have roses at home. Yeah, you can laugh now.

Next on the list comes the Strelitzia Reginae, commonly known as the bird of paradise (note the royal connotation in the word "reginae"). For me, this flower is the tropical plant par excellence.

Lovely isn't it? Taken from here.

The bird of paradise takes 5 years to start flowering when planted from a seed. In my opinion, it's definitely worth the wait. It's orange color and bluish touch, makes the bird of paradise a unique flower.

These are the flowers that I long to plant in my garden this year dudettes and dudes. Might be a promising event as well! (MBB joke) Hihi...

So long dudettes and dudes and my choosy aliens.

Weird Google search terms

I was having a look at my sitemeter counter and checking out from where you guys come from and what search terms you type on Google and other search engines to get here when I thought why not actually answer to you guys' search terms, even the weirdest of them. Let's begin.

(This is based on today's search terms. I've picked only the weird ones and not the relevant ones :D )

rainy day always remind me of - Now now, I cannot possibly know what a rainy day reminds you of. You will have to dig into your own mind to find out what rainy days remind you of. Or are you an android trying to artificially fill you "mind" with memories and thoughts?! Oh my! This is soo freaky!

How did Slipknot make the video Vermillion? - I'm not omniscient but I've got a feeling they hired a video clip making company and an actress/model for the clip. There were some special effects too. But I guess that was kinda easy to figure out.

something to talk to a girl about - and the worse part is that it was a Mauritian who typed this. If you were looking for my blog, it's Something to talk about... not really complicated, huh? And if you were looking for a subject to start a conversation with a girl then it's so eeewww...

dthe rooch - You were looking for my friend Rooch? Woaw! She is THE Rooch now? I knew she was unique! haha!

the savanna - I cannot give you directions to the savanna but I've got a feeling it's not here.

The canonical five jack the ripper pics - Oh my God, I don't even want to know who you are! But I've got a feeling you found the pics.

koz creole - Aww, it warms my heart, I'm first on the searches for that! But were you ordering the search engine to speak in creole?

And then the freakiest one of them all:
do you remember me morinn? - Now what the hell is that? You think I am Google ( assuming you were referring to me.) I really hope you were not referring to me. I'm sorry to say, no, I don't remember you.

And the most adorable of them all:
something to talk about flower blog
morinn's flower blog

Hehe, so long dudettes and dudes and my inquisitive aliens.

The crosswords galore

Are you a fan of crosswords? No? I am! Crosswords are fascinating and one can get easily engrossed in that. Approximately 99% of newspapers in the world publish crossword grids for their readers to solve. Now now, I have compiled a list of crossword facts which might be interesting to know.

The first crossword puzzle ever, appeared in the December 21st 1913 edition of the New York World. It was created by Arthur Wynne whose first attempt, using a diamond shaped grid, was an instant success, and a crossword became soon a regular feature of the New York World and other papers.

The first crossword to be published in Britain was also an Arthur Wynne puzzle and it appeared in the Sunday Express in 1924 and was by then in the more common square format.

Prize puzzles-also known as pruzzles- became popular in the 1920s. This was a huge source of revenue for newspapers. Profits often lined the pockets of racketeers, but in some cases they went to charity funds, like aiding the blind.

George McElveen , a Baptist pastor of Pittsburgh, was the first of many preachers to use the crossword puzzle to attract bigger congregations. He announced that a large blackboard would be placed in front of his pulpit. On it was an original puzzle and the audience was required to solve it before he would begin his sermon. The solution to the puzzle contained the text for his sermon.

In 1926, a waiter in a coffee house in Budapest, Hungary committed suicide and left a suicide note in the form of a crossword. The police had to seek the help of the public in deciphering it.

In 1944, MI5, the security service, interrogated the chief crossword compiler for the Daily Telegraph when 5 of their D-Day code names appeared as crossword solutions within the space of a month.

Crosswords were forbidden in Paris at one point during the World War II, in case they would be used by fifth columnists.

Crosswords have been in our lives for almost two centuries and sometimes we don't realise the long way they have gone through to become as they are known today.

For fans of software design patterns here is a puzzle that might please you. It's basically meant to test your knowledge on the subject! :D

For now it's a farewell from me. Take care dudettes and dudes and my puzzled aliens. Long live crosswords!

Rainy day and Jack the ripper

Yesterday was a long rainy day and I've started reading the book, Portrait of a killer by Patricia Cornwell. The book is mainly about unraveling the mystery of Jack the ripper and the author believes that Walter Sickert, the English painter, might have been the ripper.

In the 19th century, in the year 1888, from August to November, 5 women (also known as the canonical five) were brutally murdered in the White Chapel area in London. The killer was never found by the police and the killer came to be known as Jack the Ripper from the signature on the letters that the alleged murderer used to send to the police, basically to mock their failure at finding out who he is.

Anyway, here are pictures of the ripper's victims, as you can see they died in atrocious conditions, most of them having their organs and genitals ripped out and disfigured by their killer.

Jack the Ripper gave me horrible nightmares those past nights. I'm never afraid of him or of murder or of horrible corpses when I'm awake but in my dreams they become different; seeing a person smash another one's head with a hammer is somewhat trauma-inducing. Hehe...

Anyway, if you did not know about the ripper, wikipedia can enlighten your soul.


Take care dudettes and dudes and my frightened aliens. I've got loads of good sleep to catch up. So long!

Image sources:
http://soazig.wordpress.com
http://judicial-inc.biz
Wikipedia

The most promising event in 2008

Undeniably, it would be my birthday, on the 23rd of February. As usual, I expect it to be an unusual day. Perhaps there would be a cyclone like last year or perhaps I would be fasting for Mahashivaratree or perhaps the weather would be so bad that the day would be declared a public holiday. Yup my birthday has often been like this.

I remember in 1999, riots broke because of singer Kaya's death in prison and as from the 22nd children were not allowed to go to school for security reasons. Then, in 2000, the prime minister declared it a public holiday due to heavy rains by making a special announcement on TV on the 22nd, at about 10 pm live from Grand Bassin. He was almost soaked and holding an umbrella.

Then, for the later years, I took my own personal leave from school to celebrate the matter at home. And then came last year, 2007. Things went quite well, until the 22nd, the feared date. A cyclone named Gamede started pointing its terrible nose round our tiny island and then on the 23rd, "a cyclone warning class 2 is in force in Mauritius."

Yup, we had to cancel all celebrations and spend my birthday quietly, eating away all the cakes and food by candle lights. But still, dudettes and dudes, I've managed to have fun on this day. Spending ones birthday at home with solely ones close family has a very cozy aspect to it.

So again this year, I'll be waiting for the 23rd of February to come and surprise me.

Hehe! So long dudettes and dudes and my birthday aliens.

Blame it on the PMS

PMS really exists. I'm saying it to all those skeptics who think it's just an excuse for us women to behave madly. Hell! No it's not an excuse. The proof of this is my previous post. Today when I woke up with all the pain and all and I looked at my blog, I was like "OMG why did I write this?!" And guess the answer is, I was PMSing yesterday. Yeah I really was. I had all the symptoms.

So what does PMS stand for to some?

Psychotic Mood Shift
Pass My Shotgun
Perpetual Munching Spree
Puffy Mid-Section
People Make Me Sick
Provide Me with Sweets
Pardon My Sobbing
Pimples May Surface
Pass My Sweatpants
Pissy Mood Syndrome
Plainly Men Suck
Pack My Stuff
Permanent Menstrual Syndrome


And how do you know if you have PMS?

1. Everyone around you has an attitude problem.
2. Your husband/boyfriend is suddenly agreeing to everything that you say.
3. All your Ibuprofen, Diclofenac and Paracetamol pills are gone... And you just bought them yesterday.
4. Everyone's head looks like an invitation to practise batting.
5. You start remembering old enemies and suddenly the idea of revenge becomes really appealing.


Photos and quotes taken from here: Link.

I think I need some rest dudettes and dudes and my pmsing aliens. So long!