Spa Bliss

Ladi and I took a break from the hustle and bustle and signed up for a spa package including mani, pedi, facial and massage.

India ~ same same

In Thailand, I would ask questions to compare information and the answer would usually be "same same". As Ladika and I drove through the city looking for saris, she asked about the quality of the outfits of one location compared to another, the driver advised "same same"
Was that a means of advising that the quality is similar or simply a way to divert from the original question?

India~ Mumbai ~ Vaguely familiar

Even though this is my first time in Mumbai, it seems vaguely familiar. There were parts of East Santa Cruz that reminded me of Downtown Kingston, specifically Papene. While I could not understand any of the non English signs, the city still rendered a feeling of "home"

Plans~ a false sense of security

I left work promptly at 4pm, caught the 4:05pm LIRR to Jamaica and walked into terminal 4 literally the same time as Ladika. Perfect timing or what? Not only were we early but there were only 2 people ahead of us on the queue!

We checked it, received our boarding passes and were advised that despite the snow storm, our flight was scheduled to leave on time at 720pm! Perfect!!! Right?

At 720pm our plane was still in Washington DC because JFK was closed to incoming flights, of course flights were allowed to leave, but there were no Virgin Atlantic planes!

At 9pm,we were still hopeful because we had a three hour layover in London before our 1035 flight to Mumbai. At 12:20am, not so much. We boarded in a very chaotic manner close to 1am.

Our flight arrived around 2PM the following day, clearly we missed our flight. After approaching the Virgin Atlantic counter, an older gentleman informed us to step aside and wait on another line because we missed the flight and its only one flight per day.

While plans may make you feel secure for a certain amount of time, there is so much uncertainty that you just need to do your best to be proactive and then deal with everything else that comes. Who could have predicted a snow storm a week after a hurricane on a random day in November?

The result: accommodated in a very nice hotel in London with dinner, hotel/airport transfer and cheap wifi included.

Tomorrow Ladika and I will go to the airport and figure out everything else.

Be careful what you wish for

Moving from Jamaica to NY produced moments of culture shock. I was so surprised that strangers didnt talk to each other, I mean I know mommy told you "not to talk to strangers" but now you are old enough to make discernments, talk to them!


I sat on the train reading my Kindle and the following conversation occurred:
Random boy: yo miss, excuse me
{Ro delays but eventually looks at boy}
Random boy: Can you sing?
Ro shakes head to motion "no" in an attempt to quickly end the conversation
Random boy: Do you go to CCC?
Ro shakes head no, I have visited CCC (a large church in Brooklyn but not in several years and never participated actively)
Random boy: Do you live in Brooklyn?
Ro shakes head yes
Conversation dies down...

Random boy: yo miss, you sure you don't sing? Have you been in a music video?
Ro: no
Random boy: I know you from somewhere
Ro: I have a familiar face

As the train pulls into my station, I am relieved and exit as fast as I can without making it obvious. He exits too.

Random boy: you are very beautiful
Ro: thank you so much {genuinely}, have a nice day

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. (Mark Twain)

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. 
Bill Cosby 

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. We must do that which we think we cannot. Then you are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' 

Eleanor Roosevelt 
Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
Jim Morrison 

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Nelson Mandela 

*Ro Intl, Est 1985*

Worry

Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway.

"When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened"

“There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” —Mahatma Gandhi
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