Carnival Chronicles I

They rhelly say “never say never” in trute. I was reminded of this post the other day. Lol…well…I went home for Carnival in February. It was a trial and error trip cuz I haven’t done Carnival home since 19howlong and certainly not in my diseased state. I knew I had to take it easy and definitely do my due diligence as far as venues for fetes go because, I’ve mentioned before, I love my country but it’s not always the best place for the handicapped.

From the end of Carnival 2016 I started planning. Playing mas was out for sure (sigh) but I was thinking that I could do J’ouvert (cuz it starts at 4am) and/or Monday night mas. Eventually, after a stern talking to with myself, I gave up on the J’ouvert dream because of the crowd – I just didn’t want to take any chances. Fortunately Monday night mas is trying to make a come back and because of that, right now it’s only one band. It was affordable, all-inclusive and small (only bout 250 people). Also, ASal played last year, had a good time and said it was perfect for me (I knew I could trust her; she knows exactly what I need).  I couldn’t ask for more…I signed up.

now for the fetes…which ones to go to? trinidad is hot, scorching hot on some days.  I had to choose my fetes wisely – probably a good idea to avoid anything outdoors, some of the venues were not known or changed from previous years and then, would I know anyone who’d been there before?  If I did, I’d have to explain as specifically as I could what I needed (not always an easy task – I’m so “high maintenance” now. sigh!) – decisions…decisions.  Eventually, I settled on 2. We emailed the organiser of one asking about accessibility (I was familiar with the venue but needed to be sure) and he responded “yes no probs” and I knew someone who’d been to the other venue and it was “Stacey friendly” (apparently) . I crossed my fingers and bought my tickets.  Truth be told I really never thought bout whether or not either was outdoors. One was 2-10pm…I figured we’d get there round 5 so the sun would be going down and the other was a breakfast fete – I paid it no mind.  There was another that I would have loved to go to but I knew that it was OUT of the question because it’s completely outdoors and runs from 12-6ish so by the end (in fact by 2) I would have been dead, so why waste time on that.

I landed Tuesday night. My schedule was:

Friday (from bout 4 pm) – PHUKET…it’s Carnival Friday
Friday (whenever after PHUKET) – house lime
Saturday (7pm”ish”) -house lime
Sunday (4am) – Vale breakfast fete
Monday (7pm) – Monday Nite Jammerz night mas
Tuesday (12:30pm) – fly back to the US

I spaced everything out so the ole body would have time to recover between events, if necessary.  MS be damned…I was ready!