the day of the much talked about garden party had finally arrived. i had woken early to clean and look after some coffee.. i kept heading back to the couch to catch some warmth as the night before had brought a terrible cold and sprinkling of rain. back and forth, house to couch, veranda to couch, … meanwhile, the music from the field had already started. i soon got a call from rocksan to head down and check her. as i stepped into her room i found her bundled up on her bed, like a newborn baby. she told me she had been doing the same as me from morning, looking about this and that, and then running back to her bad to catch some warmth and relief from the cold. we hung out chatting for a while, as i basically had a good laugh at her expense and then i headed back up to find austin had woken up. i looked about some coffee and a shower and we soon headed down to marie’s. it quickly turned into a hair day… yanique looked about her hair, then she wanted to look about my hair, so she put wig after wig on my head, and then decided to flat-iron me head. she started to go off about how she was going to get a proper wig for me and we were going to start looking young and hype. she lectured me on how i have to take advantage of my youth and hype, and not follow she and rocksan because they are too much older than me. what a day it turned out to be. asam watched the new karate kid about three times, mimicking all the moves. we watched everyone getting ready for the garden party. jessie and asha soon made their way out to enjoy the day; they were the only ones. we had expected sarge to come for us to take us somewhere, but that turned into a flop, and so austin and i headed to link up with kat down at the bus stop. in turn, i was given money to buy a whole list of food; priorities first though. the place was packed! cars, people, smoke, food, music… we bypassed the field and took the road down. the road was overtaken and blocked up by cars and people everywhere. as we reached the bus stop people were piling out of carl’s and i was soon greeted by beeps, this amazing old rasta from comfort hall who is one of my oldest friends here… he was one of the first people i met when i was living in lambs river and he loves me to no end. he constantly tells me how much he appreciates what i am doing here for the youth and the people and how much i mean to the area. as well, he always tries to convince me i can’t leave and how if i stay he will give me some of his farming land to build a house. we caught up on life for a while, i ran into carl and joshie and a few others as i waited on kat to show up. edgy, chevaughn, ricky and zane soon drove up to ask how the place looked as they were looking for parking. and eventually kat showed up. we caught up on previous garden parties and how this one paled in comparison, despite the crowd. i ran into students from all over and random people i knew. after a couple hours, we headed back up and i stopped to collect the food for shanice and selassie. i ran into skeng, who surprised me with some much sought after peanut soup. as we reached back at marie’s i told them how this year had fared. we soon headed home, caught up on the veranda for a while and went to bed; or should i say i struggled to fall asleep. my yard was packed that night, yanique had showed up and taken breeza’s room and breeza took another couch. the selector’s mad shouting and sounds of dancehall filled my house. kat called to see if i was heading back and eventually at 2am it all shut down. 4:45am soon came with the sound of my alarm. i put on some coffee and we made our way down to marie’s to head to the airport. with a quick stop to wake up erika and edgy to pick up austin’s camera, we were on our way, as night was still surrounding us. we made it to the airport with just enough time. austin left and we headed to the house to kill time. i ended up taking out all of the hair yanique had just put on for marie the day before. after hours of that, we headed over to check nikki and drop off chubby. we looked about breakfast, hung out for a while and then headed back to the airport, thinking ricardo might have landed. he was supposed to reach at 10, but had texted us he wouldn’t be getting in till about 12. we traced the place looking for him, but no sight. we finally found latoya and picked her up, heading to seek refuge off the road and catch a nap. as an hour passed and no news from ricardo, we made another lap, dropped off latty and told her to call us when he landed. we headed back to our makeshift waiting space. i kept calling and eventually at 3pm i got through to ricardo. he was in immigration. another 20 minutes later he was out. we circled to meet up with them and we all headed back to marie’s. we all complained about how long we had waited without word and how were all dead for food. we made a stop at the supermarket and headed back to the house to catch up for while before heading back home. we had a long heart to heart on the way back home, luckily making a stop at my rasta cook shop so i could eat some much needed food. what a sight to behold, as i stepped in, three rastas hanging out watching dog whisperer on animal planet. it took everything in me not to bust out laughing as i waited for my food; they were all really into it too. we made a stop at marchmont road to collect water, only to find the tap was locked off. as we made our way back to marie’s we loaded the car with the remaining jugs and headed to the stream to collect some water. after unloading them i headed straight home, washed my face and passed out from exhaustion only to wake up to the sound of cudjoe and raj working on the house. i spent the day washing and cleaning as they worked on the house and bust through my bathroom window to fix it up.