BlackMan Time

Archive for September, 2007

I am not a Chelsea supporter but I have been taking a keen interest in what’s been going on there of late. The sacking of Jose Mourinho is one of the biggest tragedies of modern football, where money meets common sense with common sense taking second place!

For Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to replace someone as loved, effective and important as Jose Mourinho in such an apparent foolhardy fashion, is both rash and ill-advised.

It is simply nuts to replace Mourinho who has brought so much glory to Chelsea in such a short period of time with someone like Avram Grant, a virtual beginner in the football management business. To put this into perspective Chelsea has spent decades and lots of millions without success trying to achieve what Mourinho helped them achieve in his three short years as manager.

Unless Grant can at least equal Mourinho’s achievements quickly he will continue to be the source of aggravation and discontent among both Chelsea supporters and players alike. But unlike the players who can be told to “buckle down” and work with Grant’s regime, the fans are under no contract to listen to any alleged voice of reason.

Thus, these look like turbulent times ahead for Chelsea.

I thought I’d follow up yesterday’s caution about the importance of drinking hot liquid after a meal with today’s thought on spotting heart attack symptoms.

Again Carolyn T. Wooten advises that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. We should apparently also be aware of intense pain in the jaw line!

“You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack,” Carolyn says. “Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.”

So, there you have it: next time your jaw starts to hurt you it could well be the beginnings of a heart attack. Or it could possibly be the after effects of that right hand your partner playfully threw at your face because you forgot their birthday!

Drinking cold water during or after having a hot meal is bad for you!

Apparently the cold water solidifies the oily (or greasy) stuff you just ate which in turn slows down the digestion process. Once this ’sludge’ reacts with the stomach’s acid, it breaks down and is absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. Thus it will line the intestine and very soon turn into fats and could eventually lead to cancer.

For these reasons it is best to drink a hot cup of tea, soup or warm water after a meal. This habit is something regularly practiced by the Chinese, Japanese and people in Arabic countries like Morocco where tea-drinking is a natural part of their meal time ritual.

This cautionary thought was written by Carolyn T. Wooten a customer service agent at the Oklahoma Tank Line but was sent to me by my friend BG. I must admit I had no idea of the importance of drinking a warm drink after a meal! But now I do; and so do you!

I will see at least four movies at the cinema next week. These are “Mirror of Beauty”, “The Kingdom”, “War” and “Michael Clayton”. I will skip “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” and “Halloween” because they don’t appeal to me. I might possibly add “Mr. Woodcock” to my will see list, if time allows.

Ever since discovering Cineworld’s Unlimited Card scheme where you watch as many films as you like from just £10.99 (around $22) per month, my cinema attendance has soared.

Being a film graduate – with ambitions still to make his own feature, one day! – I have a very deep love of films shown on the big screen rather than on a monitor or TV screen. So, I did my maths and worked out that £10.99 per month costs me £131.88 (around $263) per year and if I spend an average £7 ($14) per film going just once a week over the same period it would cost me £364 ($728). This is a massive saving!

In reality I go to the cinema at least twice a week so I am actually saving £464.12 ($928) and since I have introduced my middle sister (I’ve got three and this one’s in the middle!) and her children to the scheme we regularly go together to enjoy the experience.

It’s a really good idea since it also covers the entire country wherever there is a Cineworld cinema. I am sure it probably won’t be the last of its kind and I suspect Cineworld will now contact me and make me their Goodwill Ambassador for a contract promoting their services. Yeah, right!

Do they operate such a scheme in your part of town?

The suicide of someone I know quite well has actually played on my mind much more than I realised it would. The many questions as to why she did it kind of disappeared when I discovered she had been unwell for a number of weeks and had taken time off work with a stress-related condition. But at least I understand the situation, even if I don’t condone it.

Other people I have spoken with over the matter have not been so charitable. One hard-line male associate said he had no time for “weak people” who “spit in God’s face” by taking their own life. “Anyone who kills themselves is weak and never deserve to live in the first place,” he declared. I don’t agree with this point of view but I see where they are coming from.

A female associate lamented that you never know what’s going on in someone’s heart and mind. Then she broke down…

Another female, a former lover of mine who is related to the deceased, refused point blank to talk about it.

After the dust settles what is clear from all this is that death affects everyone who knows or knew the deceased person. When we hear of someone close to us dying it also brings home the inevitability of death; that one day we will be next.

For some this is frightening thought that is best disposed of by putting it to the back of our minds in the vain hope that death, in whatever form it takes, will not come today.

There is supposed to be a sting in this story’s tale, but death has its own venom…

From ever since I was a child I have enjoyed eating tamarind balls! Back in the Caribbean we call them “tambrin balls”, as is our way of versioning anything we use! Since I discovered a good nearby West Indian food selling shop which also sells tambrin balls I have been eating them again, just like yesteryear.

For those not familiar with it: tambrin balls are homemade caribbean sweets simply made from the pulp of the tamarind seed covered in brown (Demerara!) sugar, rolled into a ball. It is not exclusive to the Caribbean and some other regions add black pepper or other condiment to spice it up. We love it with brown sugar.

Anyway, what may not be immediately obvious about eating lots of tambrin balls is that they act as a kind of laxative if you eat too many! For me this is a really good thing because I love the idea of a natural laxative to “clean out your system” as we would say. So it becomes a skill to know just how many tamarind balls to eat before the laxative effect kicks in.

While the sugar gives you energy, eating plenty of tamarind encourages bowel movements more effectively than some proprietary laxative brand! So, in essence, tambrin balls make you go and come (or is it the other way round?) at the same time.

I bet you can’t say that about every sweet!

I hate the fact that mobile phone companies are still squeezing us with that little trick they use of explaining to us how to use voicemail. You know how it works: you ring someone’s number and they are unavailable so their voicemail kicks in.

You listen to the message but before you are able to leave a message the phone company’s person comes on to tell you something like “you can leave a message after the beep. If you wish to re-record your message press xyz key at anytime, blah blah blah…”

By the time they have finished their spiel another 15 to 30 seconds has elapsed adding to the cost of you making the call in the first place. Of course we know why they do it: the longer they keep you on the phone after you have connected to their voicemail number, is the more money they make.

This is the name of the game but it seems insulting to one’s intelligence since in most cases they have not changed their messages since they introduced their voicemail services.

Do they really think people still do not know how to leave voicemail messages in this day and age?

It is only a three hour flight to Morocco’s Marrakech Airport from England’s Luton Airport but the difference in culture between the two countries could not be more distant!

This was the first thought that came into my head as I settled into my Mercedes-Benz driven taxi that was taking me from Marrakech to Essaouira, a small coastal town around 60 miles away. My driver, who also met me at the airport with a placard bearing my name on it, was called Feta.

These are just some of the other impressions I got or made from the journey:-

• Absence of pubs and bars!
• Donkey and donkey carts are also used as legitimate road transportation.
• It’s flat, arid, dry, desert country.
• The Moroccan flag is red background a five pointed star, usually in gold or white, on it.
• Was picked up in a huge Benz which made me think I was getting special treatment only to have my bubble burst when I realise that Benz is standard taxi ride for some companies in Morocco.
• There are a huge number of cats everywhere!
• Women are dressed modestly everywhere you go.
• Local people make you feel very welcome.

I have made a much bigger list but maybe I will reveal these at a later date. Hope you are happy with this lot for now!

It’s very easy to get the impression that the entire world is out to get you and that you’re one person against the world! The reason for this is you cannot always tell who is really for you and who is actually against you.

In fact your worse enemy could possibly be your best friend. And, your best friend could turn out to be your worse enemy, to quote a Bob Marley line. So how do you sort out who is for you and who is against you? How do you tell your enemies from your friend?

I usually say that the test of a true friend is whether that person would give up their life for you! I know it sounds rather drastic but that is the very model Christians have been given as the test of their belief, when Jesus apparently sacrificed his life on earth so that those who believe can live.

It is both a simple and a tall order, depending on your faith or belief system but anyone willing to sacrifice their life for you just has to be a million dollar friend!

Who loves you enough that they would willingly die for you?

On the way down in the lift I met a female neighbour who told me some news. “Do you remember EC?” she asked.

A feeling in my stomach prodded me that this was not going to turn out great. “Yeah,” I answered. The neighbour went straight for it: “she died two days ago.”

I took a deep breath. It was as if someone had punched me in the stomach or maybe I had been struck by lightning. I stood there riveted to the spot for a moment, my eyes bulging out of my head as I processed the shocking news.

“Oh no!” was what came out at first. “How did she die?” is the next thing that came out.

“She was under stress at work and killed herself,” my neighbour said, in one even tone. Then I found myself thanking her and heading towards my car with my memories of EC alive and well playing over in my head…

To be honest EC and I had not been on speaking terms, but I was sad to hear the tragic news. She was the cousin of an ex girlfriend of mine and the news disturbed me for a few hours.

I escaped thought of the death by going to the cinema to watch “Shoot ‘Em Up”. It was fast-paced, loud, violent and full of action. It deadened the pain but still there was this one prevailing question floating around in my head about EC’s death.

Why?