One of the best things about being in Tobago is that no matter where you are, you are close to the sea. I was privileged to be staying right on the coast so I didn’t have to go far to see spectacular sunsets and various planes coming in for landing. I was also privileged to be visited by the hotel’s resident cat who inspected my room and seemingly found it in satisfactory condition.
My sister and I have come to the inevitable conclusion that we are in fact, sharing the same brain. Thusly, we have decided to open a brand new blog called gyulDOTpus or gyul.pus…
The idea of this blog is to exhibit our psychotic behaviour. The posts are actually not the important or entertaining portion of the blog at all. The true gem of this blog lies in the comments. It is something of a split personality (Don’t tell me that I told you) show where we comment as stalkers to each other. Thus the name of the URL, stalkingu.blogspot.com
If you would like to find out about where we got the other oddity which is the name gyul.pus, please visit us and enjoy!
Frooples & Froopert
Since before the holidays I have been trying incessantly to upload pictures. IMPOSSIBLE! I can’t upload to Flickr, I can’t upload to Blogger. Page Load Error… Every time I see that line, another blood vessel swells up in my head. I’m so sorry to all my loyal readers, commenters, haters, everyone. 
It seems that I have been defeated by the Page Load Error, whatever it may be.
Oh! yet another one to add to my seriously declining level of patience… “Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail. Retrying…”
Blogger.com, are you really retrying? Or are you just patronizing me?
I doubt it’s the fault of the sites so I won’t even bother trying WordPress.
Anyhow, how was your holidays? Mine was uneventful. Well, Boxing Day my uncle had a GREAT party at his home which was filled with many alcoholic beverages to tickle any fancy and enough food to make you sick. I ate enough food to make me sick. The next day, the party-goers retreated to my home where everyone was extremely tired so we all just sat around stuffing our faces some more. Some of the brave ones even drank some more.
Then it was a couple days of recuperation followed by Old Year’s Night which is what we call New Year’s Eve… Make sense right? I went to my best friend’s home where I unsuccessfully tried to eat Barbequed Lamb… Of course since my wisdom teeth surgery I have not been able to open my mouth very big or chew to my satisfaction. Therefore, I have been forced many a time to swallow my food whole like Mimi.
Our Parrot is an idiot.
After leaving my best friend’s home at almost 23:00 I went to my boyfriend’s so I could get my new year’s kiss which I am still waiting for. I think I may have gotten it on my arm but I’m not too sure. I must say, his fireworks show was quite something… But guess whose camera battery died after the FIRST photo? I keep telling myself I love my camera but it’s starting to misbehave.
Totally unrelated news- I chopped off my hair. My hair used to be almost up to my waist- It’s the first time I’ve ever had such long hair and I’ve been trying to leave it to grow for about 5 years. Usually, I go crazy and chop it all off. I did it again. I’m surprised that it took so long for the crazy to kick in. It’s just slightly past my shoulders now.
I thank you very much for listening to my querulous ramblings and promise that soon I will have more interesting content with pictures instead of strangeness that came out of my head.
My mother is obsessed with plants. I think unhealthily obsessed would not be an exaggeration. She used to water her plants twice a day, morning and night. This one time, (and probably more times that I don’t know about) two of our neighbours were walking on the street going to work in the morning and saw Mum watering her plants. When they were returning from work that day, guess who was STILL in the yard watering plants!
Of course, it only looked like she was in the yard all day… I think. Please take a look of what is in her garden and let me know if you think it was worth it.
This is the view from the back of the house- That’s the tops of bamboo that is on the bank of the river behind the house… I actually thought the sky was nice and dark and that’s why I took this picture. This technically is not part of Mum’s garden.
Isn’t this just the cutest flower? I LOVE these! I actually took some of them and stuck them on my wall.
The following is a collection of Bougainvillea in Mum’s Garden.
This one is called “Buttercup” although I’m not sure if this is the correct name for it…
Ahhh… The Ixora… Not my favourite flower… Actually, I don’t really like this one at all. Im sorry, I think it’s not that great looking. This is a shot before they open though.
And this is after it opens. The reason I am not fond of this flower is due to it’s ridiculous popularity. Even people who don’t have a garden, who don’t like flowers, who only have bush in their yard, have at least one of these plants. Although Mum has her’s in great condition and it looks a lot better than the scraggly plants you see unkempt in some flower-neutral person’s yard, I still cannot bring myself to like them. 
They have a yummy nectar inside though… But I still don’t like the flower.
No need to explain this one…
This is a Mango tree with Mango flowers and… PASSION FRUIT in the distance. This Passion Fruit vine decided to inhabit our Mango tree and now there are more Passion Fruits than Mango on this tree…
And here is a green Mango. Fear not! I will post pictures of this when it is ripe. That is, provided a bird does not get to it first.
The Mango tree was once called the Chloe tree as well since our cat would often be heard falling out of it while hunting for birds thereupon.
This is a Torenia in a pot next to the garden. There is almost more flower than plant on this plant.
A Cherry Pepper. A Pepper, that looks like a Cherry.
The BESTEST herb in the world! Bandanya or Chadon Beni or Shadow Benny as it is called is a very pungent and poweful herb used as seasoning. It’s delicious and is used for everything in Trinidad dishes. This is a little one that is really struggling to grow because in some plants, the leaf grows to over a foot in lenght. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen one grow this big in our garden because for some reason, pieces of our seasonings often go missing…
Another herb used in cooking , Pudina which is called POdina in Trinidad. 
The leaf is kinda furry and Bunnies love it I have recently discovered, much to the dismay of my Mother.
And lastly…
Behold! Chinese Pommecythere! I think it’s actually grafted. That word is pronounced pum-see-tay… Don’t ask me how because I do not know. (Notice, Ixoras are in the distance) Regular Pommecythere (which is also known as golden apple) is about the size of your fist and is very sour until it gets ripe. This particular type (called Chinese for reasons also unknown to me) is a very small tree that may be around 6 feet tall- Ours is about this height and it bears multitudinous fruit in these little bunches. The fruit takes exceeding long to become ripe, however even when it is still green, it’s sweet! Isn’t that great! It’s a great fruit for chow-making! Just add salt, pepper, seasoning (bandanya for example) and maybe garlic if you like to smell from a distance.
I know, you may be wondering WHAT IN THE HECK is that thing? A Christmas Saguaro? I am parked on the shoulder of the highway taking this pic. Their are two of these eyesores on either side of the highway, this one is on the left ramp which goes to my home.
Here is the close up… The skirt in the middle is apparently a Christmas tree. The object in it’s left hand (yes the tree has arms) is a “Deeyah” which is symbolic of the little clay pots that Hindus fill with oil and a wick and light for the Hindu festival “Divali” or “Diwali” or “Deepavali” (All the same thing, just different words)
In the right hand is the Moon and Star symbol for the Muslim festival of “Ramadan” and “Eid-Ul-Fitr”. This is the way the moon and star line up on the night of Eid.
Considering that Trinidad & Tobago is a mixture of all religions, this is an appropriate decoration. Even if it’s funny looking.
Oh, And T&TE? You want to know what that is, do you? Well that is the “Trinidad & Tobago Electricity Commission”. But where’s the “C”?
Here it is- This is Saguaro #2 on the right side of the highway.
Now THESE I MUST agree are very artistic! I really like them. There is a Company called “TRACMAC” and they have these vehicles in their yard. I must say that this is quite a nice idea…
So, what do you think? Are Trinbagonians talented and creative? Or should we stick to putting lights on trees?
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