Oh What a Night!

Let's hear it for the Brits!

If you haven't seen the film - it's brilliant!  I'm not biased at all. The competition was stiff and I wouldn't have been surprised had there been an 'upset' as with the Oscars, one never knows.

I am so pleased that Colin Firth won Best Actor.  He accepted with typical British understatement!

Sandra Bullock was so gracious - is it a year since that fiasco after she won??

Jennifer Hudson the one who, in case you didn't know, was sent home from American Idol after being told she didn't have any talent, standing there looking amazing in tangerine - a few hundred pounds lighter too.  Eat your heart out Simon Cowell!!

That's it for another year - a year when there were some excellent movies on the list and a year when I'm sure it was hard to make choices.

BTW. did you see those dresses on the Red Carpet?

Our House - Sunday Lunch

Lunch today was French (actually it came from New Zealand!) roast leg of lamb which I cooked with rosemary and garlic.

Three quarters of the way through cooking my husband took the lamb out of the oven (he's helpful like that!!) so that I could put the potatoes around it, to roast.

As I was doing this, I saw my husband pricking (more like stabbing) the meat with a very sharp pointed knife.

Me in horror:           What do you think you're doing to my lamb?
Husband calmly:      This lets it breathe
Me:                         Breathe? It's DEAD!!!!!     

Ushers Wanted!

On the 16 February I posted a blog, 'A Dire Prophecy?' on Blogger and then exported it to Multiply!  It was about a predicted earthquake by a man no one has heard of. No problems on Multiply but on Blogger!?? Phew! Lord preserve me from illiterates, idiots and religious fanatics!

My blog coincided with a visit to Trinidad by the false prophet Benny Hinn.  I happened to give him a four line paragraph at the end of the post. That, together with his prediction of the earthquake hitting Trinidad at 6.00am today and my post wherein I quoted a so-called prophet predicting an earthquake of major proportion here in 2011, has caused havoc on my Blogger site with two thousand plus hits over the last 24 hours!

Come and read it by all means but before commenting make sure you have read it properly!  I did not make the prediction - I merely wrote about it and tied in a little history of earthquakes in Trinidad and said that given location, seismic research etc.., it stands to reason that we may have 'the big one' at any time.  Last year alone we had over one hundred and this month we have had two. the last measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale.

I did a little research and found that if one types in 'earthquake Trinidad 2011' up pop my blogs! And, some 'bright sparks' have now taken my address and linked it into two Trinidadian websites. Result:  a couple of thousand views and in true Trini style, total commotion with a few comments some of which I have had to delete! The religious fanatics are onto me! They have tried to turn my post into a religious debate and left comments such as 'repent', 'turn to Jesus', 'do you believe in the Bible?' and asked other personal, intrusive  questions.   I will now go to my settings and ensure that no one can find my blog through any search engines!

But, in the meantime now that the secret is out I'm off to set up my white tent, 2,000 chairs, music ministry and sound system.  Prophecies start at 9.00pm sharp.  Bring money! Plenty of money! Ushers wanted!

Eat your heart out Benny Hinn! I have arrived!

Pieces of Life

Magpie 54

 Photograph courtesy of Tess Kinkaid, Magpie Tales

Pieces

Straight pieces

For the outside

Look for the

Straight pieces first

Complete

The rectangle

 Or

The square

                

Pieces

Irregular pieces

For the inside

You don’t have

To look for

The irregular pieces

Because

Like it or not

They’re there

Pieces

Different pieces

Some slotting into

Each other easily

Others

Out of kilter

Not belonging

Here

Nor there

Pieces

Jigsaw pieces

Some in colour

Others black and white

Carefully

Being put together

To form

The tapestry

Of life

Barbara M Lake

Trinidad

February 2011

©

The Invisible Woman!

Yesterday, a good  friend sent me an e mail entitled 'Invisible Woman'.  As I read it I could see myself here at certain times in my life - more in the context of being someone's daughter, someone's mother, someone's wife, someone's friend, someone's boss - always being attached to 'someone'.

I enjoyed the read so much that I was intrigued as to who wrote it.  So I went to good old Google and found the 'owner' of this piece is Nichole Johnson.  I also found the following which I do hope you'll enjoy as much as I did.

Renewed and Loved

MAGPIE TALES 53

Photograph courtesy Tess Kinkaid Magpie Tales

My new mistress

Picked me up

At a house sale

Where my previous owner

Did not know my worth 

My new mistress

Has an eye

For quality and saw

That I am  Swarovski

One hundred percent lead

My new mistress

Took me home

And cleaned me up

So now every facet

Sparkles in the candle light

My new mistress

Tells who asks

That I came  cheap

As I am no longer

Part of the required pair

My new mistress

Does not know

How my other half

Ended its pepper days

Smashed against a wall

My new mistress

Fills me up

With pure table salt

As I’m turned and shaken

I know I’m loved once more


Barbara M Lake
February 2011
Trinidad WI

 ©

A Dire Prophecy?

For years now I've been hearing how God is a Trini and because of this, together with the fact that Trinidad and Tobago is a land of praying people, the nation will never suffer a major earthquake.  I have experienced several earthquakes since I came to these shores in 1992 but none was ever enough to get upset about.  Yes I've seen the chandeliers swinging,  computers working their way off desks, choppy waters in the swimming pool, pictures moving and a couple of things falling of shelves.  I have even been 'down d islands' as they say here and been woken at daybreak by a very loud rumbling noise and been known to ask my husband 'why is there a train running through the house (we were on a tiny island in the middle of the sea for God's sakes!)  only to be told it was an earthquake.  None of this has ever phased me and certainly never been enough to frighten me to death.

But I think all that is about to change.   Regardless of what 'Trinis' say, the reality is that we are being warned by the Seismic Centre and the Office of Disaster Preparedness (that in itself is a joke as it's not prepared for anything let alone an earthquake of grand proportions) that this could be the year when we see an absolute disaster.  Not awfully encouraging really for a small island with a population of 1.3 million, a great deal of reclaimed land and buildings that were not built to withstand earthquake and hurricane!

Our sister isle Tobago is on the Caribbean Plate and Trinidad on the boundary between the South American and Caribbean plates.  The trench between the two island is not the only plate boundary.  The boundary is also on the Northern Range (mountains) and the fault line extends from there across to northern  Venezuela onto Colombia and then to the Andean Mountains.  Most earthquakes that occur in this region normally happen a couple of kilometres North of Trinidad and several kilometres down in the sea. But that's not to say there could not be something closer and the Seismic Office is saying that it's only a matter of time.


So this morning I was not amused when I opened an e mail which told me that one Dr Leslie Roberts has made a prediction regarding the future 'health' of Trinidad and if one is to believe him, things are not looking good for us here on this tropical island.  I immediately Googled said prophet only to find that his Prophecy website is closed to all unless one registers. Sod that!


This is what he supposedly predicted for the small island on which I live whilst he was here last year:

November 18 at 9:05pm
There's a POWERFUL prophet in our country named Dr. Leslie Rogers...he's one of the most renowned and accurate prophets. He held an annual prophetic conference to which I went to the Friday that Rick gave his testimony in the Reinzi Complex, it was HUGE. All of his prophecies he has ever gave came to past. And he has the track record and testimonies from others to prove it. Predictions about disasters, government...not only in our country but in other countries as well, he made and they ALL came to past (he has them on tape from when he made them too so he also got the evidence.)

Anyway, he made a prophecy about Trinidad . Hurricanes and earthquakes were always targeted by Trinidad (which is true) but he said that God has been merciful and long-suffering with us and He keeps sparing our land.

But Trinidad in the year 2011 will be hit by an earthquake...even WORSE than Haiti . Many will PERISH. This earthquake will happen North, South and West of this country (amazingly it's where all the major clubs and crimes are). He said that only Trinidad will be hit, not Tobago and it will occur early in the morning before 6:00AM. Signs will occur he said, Barbados and Grenada will begin to show signs of tremors, fishermen will begin to come from the seas and talk about how the fishes are acting weird and strange (According to the book of Job animals and fishes can predict these impending disasters and proof of this is that they begin to act weird). Also, its INEVITABLE. This is not demonic but divine. God is sending judgment to the land and especially to the church. He included also that there are wicked people in the church and God is fed up of them.

He placed his entire reputation on the line (as usual) with this prophetic word. And there is no doubt in my heart that this will happen. Stuff that I have never seen before in my country, I see them happening now and its so disturbing. No wonder God is going to do this. 

  

Interestingly enough he doesn't say which church. Trinidad is predominantly Roman Catholic closely followed by Hinduism and Islam.  Then there are the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Shouters Baptists and various 'small churches'.

I don't think I want to end up in a place looking like the picture below (Haiti after the earthquake) although there are some areas in this country that already look very similar due to government neglect.

 

One of the small churches is bringing Benny Hinn into Trinidad later this week.  I wonder what he will have to say on the matter when he's finished pushing people to the floor!  Last time he was here he said of the then Prime Minister that he was a 'very stupid man'.  We didn't need a 'prophet' to tell us that!!!

 

Ella Fitzgerald - My Funny Valentine

To anyone who visits today my wish for you, not only on this St Valentine's Day but for all the days that follow, is that they be filled with love, joy, friendship and laughter be you young, older, single, spoken for, in a relationship, married or not.

Just a House

MAG 52

Photograph  courtesy of Tess Kincaid, Magpie Tales

A green and yellow house

Standing so alone

No imprints on the snowy  steps

Nobody’s at home

Windows shuttered,  curtains drawn

No sign of life at all

It looks so cold and empty

Forgotten and forlorn

No sounds of a normal home

No laughter from within

Just echoes of total silence

Behind a  bolted door

To the side a  chimney stack

But no curling wispy smoke

Or any other  tell tale sign

Of any warmth inside 

An old lonely abandoned house

One has to wonder why

Is it that it’s for sale

Or did someone die?

When Jack Frost has finally gone

And spring comes once again

A flight departs from warmer climes

And brings its owners home!

Barbara M Lake

February 2011

Trinidad, WI

©

Talking

MAG # 51

Photograph courtesy of Tess Kincaid, Magpie Tales

Sometimes

Just sometimes

Talking

To 

Your children

Is like

Talking

To

A brick wall

Barbara M Lake 

February 2011

Trinidad WI  

©