Mmm, tasty

I'd like to thank the driver of 38156 (and the manufacturer of the Clio as well, I suppose) for giving me a taste of his windwiper fluid on the way home from work today. Seriously, who designs those things so that the jet of fluid instead of being useful and hitting the screen, floats needlessly over the roof of the car and into the path of following traffic?

Circus fun and follies

When the driver of 34369 pulled out of Whitney Institute without looking to his left, I thought to myself, oh great, just what I need... a trip to the hospital. Luckily, I had enough time to brake (and deliver a honk of the horn the way you're supposed to, as opposed to the usual greeting honk) and let the deliquent joker ahead of me. He then gave me a wave. He should have at least shouted "Sorry" or something.

Further along, I'm stuck behind the same car and in front of him is some delivery truck, licence HC693, who has decided to become a traffic warden of sorts, as he is holding up traffic on the main road into the city, to allow a heap of vehicles from a secondary road to pull out into traffic. Gaaak.

So that's my Monday morning for you after the Good Friday Holiday weekend. You can deduce that I'm pretty miserable right now. By the way, both drivers, are totally Booked.

Saturday, I attended a circus. First circus I've ever attended, by the way. This wasn't the prototypical Barnum and Bailey type - this was strictly human performers doing feats of balance and athleticism. The hosts, one DNA Entertainment, did a good job of providing talent. Many of the performers appeared to be ex-gymnasts, as they demonstrated their strength and flexibility. There were two guys who although very talented, strong and flexible, gave many of the audience members a bit of a "oh no it's Brokeback Mountain" vibe. The chief clown of the day was very entertaining, I liked when he went into the audience and had select members participate in some activity or another. The show's final performers, a trampoline basketball crew, I found to be very overrated. However, basketball's something that Bermudians would identify with far more than people balancing on things or stretching their limbs in all directions while hanging from something, and I think they got the most cheers even when they missed (at least 5, in my count of) their routines. My companion remarked that typically, the Bermudian public tends to not applaud for things (unless prodded, I suppose). Could be right.

However, where DNA Entertainment failed miserably was the part outside of the 'big top'. The concession stand was crammed underneath some of the bleachers (more on the bleachers later), and there was no sense of order there at all. It was the typical Bermudian "free for all" scenario regarding service and any attempts to form a line or anything was easily averted by the many people squeezing in cut ahead. Also, while taking a breather to walk around outside I was somewhat rudely told "you can't go this way". Now, if someone had put up a SIGN or something to indicate where people were allowed to walk, that would be one thing. As it is, I can bet that many other people received a similar cussing-out during the show's intermission period. The bleachers themselves, were shoddily assembled together, it seems. My companion was justifiably concerned about the creakiness of some of the seats and at least one of the floorboards had come off. Seems typical. And a shame to mar an enjoyable day out.

Bad customer service

I realize that especially in Bermuda, trying to obtain last-minute weekend restaurant invitations is a trying experience often met with "Sorry we are fully booked"-kind of responses, but shame on the restaurants at the Coco Reef and Wyndham Sonesta. My calls (redirected from the hotels' front desks) were met by either constant ringing or a auto voice mail. Yeah, right. Like I'm going to leave a voice mail in hopes of getting a call back to make a reservation. See ya.

Apparently last Saturday, a group of people damaged a fence while putting their cars on the field at Shelley Bay Park. Now, the park is public and free to all, but my understanding is that the department of Youth and Sport (or whatever it's called these days) should be contacted before planning your big event, so that parks officials can at least scout the grounds or monitor things in the event of something going awry.

But if people continue to cause damage, maybe what'll happen is that the public parks will get fenced off completely unless explicit requests are made well in advance. And the public will have themselves to blame for adding red tape.

What's the driving force behind love

I'm going to get sentimental in this piece, sorry for that.

People can love their neighbour (well, that's what the Bible asks us to do, right), love a friend, love a family member. And it comes from usually well-defined places.

But what about romantic love? What is the driving force behind that? Where does it come from? Can a person claim to love (or be in love with) someone and be incorrect in their claim because they've confused it with caring/liking/lusting/feeling obligated to/servitude/miscellaneous emotion?

Can a person be incapable of loving in that way because of lack of know-how, or cynicism or distrust, and possibly be doomed to simply not know true love?

Happy April, guys. Apologies for the multitude of open-ended questions.

We have a littering law after all

Like traffic laws, I didn't think that the littering law was being enforced in Bermuda, but lo! and behold, they actually booked someone as mentioned in this Gazette article. Of course it would be at one of the few times we see Police patrolling around town, because every weekend night there's some disturbance going on at the Ozone nightclub. Now if they'd only fine people who dump their trash all over the roads and bushes during daylight hours...

April is here, thank goodness, and spring appears to have arrived in full. We're coming up to the best time of year in Bermuda, where it's warmer, but not at that unbearably-hot level that we reach in late July and August. Daylight Savings Time, also a welcome sight to behold. It's just so much better for the sunset to be closer to 8pm, as there's a greater chance of us late-workers being out to see it.