 <p>'I Wanna Come Home All covered in Mud' The 
 Who<img src="content/pic/trip1/manson.jpg" alt="Marilyn Manson, eat your heart out" width="194" height="300" align="right">
</p>
 <h3 align ="center">J'ouvert 
  Morning </h3>
  <p>After missing the Panorama (Steel Bands of 50 to 100 musicians, 
  with multiple instruments) due to excessive consumption of Alcohol 
  at the TTSA pre carnival fun race, half the crew didn't turn up 
  and to fulfill the sailing instructions 3 of us were obliged to 
  drink the bottle of rum given to us at the briefing. All was peaceful 
  right through Sunday, until 1:00am when we caught a maxi taxi 
  into Port of Spain, where we donned our costumes. Resplendent 
  in our Flour Bag surcoats we consumed much beer and rum punch, 
  before beginning our parade through POS(Port of Spain). A mixture 
  of mud and paint was liberally applied, by/to anyone who seemed 
  appropriate*.As the Power Boats Scorpions Pan band crawled off 
  towed by its tractor I found my self out in front waving the banner 
  all over the place.The 2 escorting Pickups of security took up 
  their places on each side, their primary job to hand out the Rum 
  punch and Beers the pick ups contained. As SONY said about the 
  Playstation, <i>do not under estimate the power of rum punch.</i></p>
 <div class="blog">
		 <h3 align="center">WHAT IS RUM PUNCH?<a name="punch"></h3>
 <p>Rum Punch is a lethal mixture of Orange Juice, Grapefruit Juice 
  Angostura Bitters and LOTS and LOTS of <i>RUM</i> Not Just any 
  rum either, but 80% by volume white rum. This means that the brew 
  is a fragrant (the bitters) fruity drink and since the strong 
  rum is mostly alcohol and doesn't taste of much, the whole concoction 
  doesn't taste like there's much rum in it........... THIS IS DECEPTIVE, 
  drinking more than a few rum punches will render you incapable 
  if not horizontal with remarkable efficiency; I love it.</p>
 </div>
 <p><img src="content/pic/trip1/sandr.jpg" alt="Muddy Crew!" align="left">We proceeded around the streets of POS dancing shouting (nothing 
 about Carnival in Trinidad is quiet) smearing passers by with mud, 
 well extra mud - there's no such thing as a clean Trini on the first 
 night of Carnival.<br>
 The culture of Trinidad is wonderfully inclusive, the tourists don't 
 just sit and watch the events go by - they're expected to join in. 
 Most do, often because they've been to carnival before. After carnival 
 when I ran into Campbell and Skana off Dreamtime, Campbell said "after 
 what we'd heard (from me) we thought it had been over-hyped, we believe 
 it now". Skana just said "we're coming back".  </p>
 <p align="left"><br>
 Occasionally we'd run up against other bands (Trinis use the word 
 band as in "band of men", as well as musical band) with 
 their sound trucks, usually we had plenty off warning a sound truck 
 is audible from miles away. I remember some of our friends off Wingbeat 
 saying look after Sam, I cheerfully agreed and pogoed off on my merry 
 way to where ever I was going. Where I was <img src="content/pic/trip1/wingbeat.jpg" alt="Calvin and Jane, off Wingbeat" width="400" height="306" align="right">going was anyone's guess. 
 I remember charging into a Chinese take away and attempting to buy 
 breakfast - there was a sound truck outside holding us up at the time 
 and since they put out about the the same wattage as Glastonbury, 
 communication was impossible, but what I ordered, what I got and what 
 it tasted like, I have no idea, presumably I enjoyed it.</p>
 <p>My agreement to look after Sam proved 
  to be dishonest, at some point he and Rauni managed to lose the 
  band. By the time I'd noticed the people who'd made the suggestion 
  had disappeared also, I assumed, wrongly, that they were together. 
  It was only after we'd triumphantly marched back to our start 
  point at the rugby club (a hour latter than planned, 7:30 am) 
  and returned to the TTSA clubhouse that I realized that this wasn't 
  the case. Sam and Rauni turned up (separately) about 9:30. I'd 
  already cleaned myself up by jumping in the sea and scrubbing, 
  with the help of 2 American ladies</p>
 <p> I When something nudged my leg I assumed it was a sponge (which 
 I didn't have) and picked it up. The jellyfish, being sober, was probably 
 more surprised by this than I was - I discarded the Jellyfish on the 
 assumption that jelly fish are probably not the best things for removing 
 mud. I still have no Idea what the best thing for removing the mud 
 is, 3 showers later I've still got bits.</p>
 <p align="center"><img src="content/pic/trip1/renagades.jpg" alt="Renegades pan band." width="500" height="134"></p>
 <p align="center"> My flour bag was discarded at the taxi, my T-shirt earlier in the 
 evening and some unknown point, my shoes I left on the dock so as 
 not to pollute the dinghy, sadly they too appear lost.<br>
 <br>
 <a name="experts"></a>After discussions with experts, who are easy 
 to find amongst those who have consumed much alcohol. It was decided 
 that we should take Sam to the hospital to get stitches put in his 
 head. By the time I'd been come back the the boat for money and returned 
 to TTSA it was noon. - Why bother with bed? So I went looking for 
 Dreamtime, which meant I went to to the pub. The bar man who'd been 
 out all night and myself discussed the nights festivities with the 
 others in the bar, who'd missed them after which I went back to POS 
 for a Roti.</p>
 <div class="blog">
		 <h3 align="center">WHAT'S A ROTI?</h3>
		 <p>A Roti is the most popular dish in Trinidad, closely related 
  to the Buss Up Shot (literally "bust up shirt" Trini 
  spelling often follows their pronunciation "d" or 
  "da" for 'the') It contains Indian food, beef or 
  chicken curry mixed with a sort of dall of chickpeas and potato 
  wrapped in a special bread.The bread is normal white dough 
  with vegetable shortening and baking powder. </p>
 <img src="content/pic/trip1/roti.jpg" alt="Roti Man" width="250" height="203" align="left">
 <p>First you make it 
  into balls about half way between a golf ball and a tennis 
  ball, then you flatten 2 of them out to bout 6" diameter 
  spread margarine on 1 side of 2 of them and combine them together. 
  Roll them out to about 15" diameter.To cook the 15" 
  pancake like thing, get a large (18"+) aluminium plate 
  and put it on a gas stove. Brush it with cooking oil and carefully 
  spread the dough circle out on it. Brush more oil on the dough, 
  and turn. Ether wrap the chicken curry and dall in the resulting 
  baked bread thing or crumple the bread up on the cooking plate 
  and thump heavily with wooden spatula. This will break the 
  bread up a bit,for the bust up shirt effect. Serve dall and 
  curry along side it. I eat a lot of these, I've only seen 
  them once in England, in Neasden, it wasn't good.</p>
 <p>Serve with "da coolest beers"</p>
</div>
 <p>POS was still heaving, the sound trucks were out for 
  the preliminary judging of the Mas completion, at carnival everything's 
  a competition, the Soca, the Calypso, the Pan and the Mas** Costumes. 
  All the kings and queens dressed in their huge costumes, presumably 
  praying there wouldn't be any wind. A few hours of this was enough 
  for me, my legs hurt from dancing around all J'ouvert night so I 
  went home for an early night.</p>
  <p align="left">Tuesday Mas dawned after a good nights sleep, early 
  rain occurred while we were in Independence square POS, however 
  unlike the rest of Trinidad I wasn't wearing a bra/tabard and Knickers 
  covered in sequins. Sam and Rauni however were, they were out with 
  <a href="http://www.barbarossaintl.com">Barbarossa</a>, one of the 
  biggest Mas "Bands", with the Soca band "Trafik" 
  on their leading sound truck.<br>
 </p>
			<div class="blog">
  <h3 align="center">SOUND TRUCK? WHAT THE &%^" THAT?</h3>
  There are no floats in Trinidad carnival. All the participants 
  walk, however three are certain vehicles that follow them 
  with drinks or what ever and some times ever 100 person steel 
  bands. However the king of the road (street) is the Sound 
  truck. A sound truck is a shipping container transporter (40' 
  lorry bed) with a large generator just behind the cab and 
  the rest of the truck piled to a height of about 8' above 
  the bed with speaker stacks pointing all directions.</p>
  <p align="center"><img src="content/pic/trip1/soundtruck.jpg" width="400" height="130" alt="Sound Truck"></p>
  <p>These trucks put out a wattage similar to an out door music 
  festival. The volume control is a delicate and important control. 
  It is carefully set to a level a fraction below what makes 
  the speakers distort, and left there. There are about 40 of 
  these trucks, and they are LOUD.</p>
  <p>I want one! I'll show that Chris Eubank***</p>
			 </div>
  <p align="left">Sam and Rauni, all togged up, met up with the <a href="http://www.barbarossaintl.com">Barbarossa</a> 
  group in Independence square, I went in search of fags, taking the 
  suncream with me. After taking a ganda at the rest of <a href="http://www.barbarossaintl.com">Barbarossa</a> 
  all 5000 odd of them, I returned to find Sam and Rauni's section 
  aproaching the judging point by the docks. As the bands approached, 
  I was quite suprised when a Trini woman, in broad daylight, in the 
  middle of a street, charged up and proceded to put her bum in my 
  crotch and roll her hips. Obviously no one paid any attention, this 
  is called "wineing" a traditionl Trini dance. The woman 
  turned out to be our friend Eulene who I'd been expecting as she 
  had booked the same costume as Sam and Rauni.They carried on the 
  parade route and I went to check out the competion, which was stiff 
  and numerous. Poison, the largest carnival group, stretched back 
  about half a mile! The parades high point is the main judging point 
  in Queens Park Savannah, a large park in POS.</p>
  <p align="left"><img src="content/pic/trip1/mas.jpg" alt="Rauni, Sam and Eulene, in mas costumes" width="400" height="390" align="right">When the sound trucks reach the Savannah and the danger 
  of overhead power cables is leesend the Band leaders and DJ's get 
  up on top of their trucks and start calypsoing along to encorage/organise 
  there bands. Organiseing and more to the point geting them off the 
  stage is quite a feet.</p>
				<p> Poison who have the reputation for been the 
  worst behaved band as well as the largerst took over an hour amd 
  a half to cross the stage. Last year apparently they were diqualifed 
  because they wouldn't get off the stage. When <a href="http://www.barbarossaintl.com">Barbarossa</a> 
  were crossing the stage one of the sound trucks passed within 2' 
  of a policeman on a horse, the horse didn't even flinch. I asked 
  the copper (when the truck had moved on) about the apparently they 
  spend 2 months before carnival training the horses, all the Police 
  cadets dress up in carnival costumes and march past the horses to 
  the acompanyment of loud Soca music. Sounds fun.</p>
				<p>
  Shortly after this I returned, very nackered, to TTSA where many 
  bemused yachties, oftern with salvaged bits of carnival costumes 
  were drifting back home. Sam and Rauni returned later having obtaind 
  more cheap beer....and sunburn. We went to a quiet bay the following 
  day for an after Carnival Lime****.</p>
 </div></div>
 <hr>
		<p>* - i.e. EVERYBODY<br>
 **Masquerade<br>
 ***Anyone not from Brighton won't get this.<br>
 **** Lime - verb to "hang out" or noun place to hang out in.</p>
 