Today was a day of ups and downs. I suppose you can say it is a side-effect of the pandemic. To be honest, I have suffered these effects in the past. I have had a good handle on things over the past few years but the pandemic seems to have messed things up for me again.
Throughout the day I would find myself becoming sad or down for pretty much no reason at all. I would then start feeling happy, again for no reason.
I started to track these mood changes to see if a pattern was developing. It is now 21:42 and I can gladly say that the last down feeling was at 17:00! I have been listening to music since around 18:30 and chatting with a dear friend who lives in Korea.
I spent this evening listening to House music, then Korean ballads, then old skool Funk! I am listening to Funk as I write this.
I turned my Phillips Hue lighting to blue, got dressed up in blue clothing with a blue hat and started to dance. I then changed the lights to red and kept on dancing. I am now sitting here at one of several computers that I own.
Music does wonders for the soul. I love music and am sure music loves me. Here are some songs to enjoy:
Deja Vu – Larry Heard (House)
Apala New Skool – Qdot (Afrobeats, Apala)
Candy – Cameo (Funk)
지금이 아니면 – Taru (Korean Indie)
The above songs are available for your listening pleasure on music.youtube.com. Premium subscription is suggested if you are like me and hate listening to or viewing advertisements when trying to enjoy music.
Feel free to drop by https://www.traxsource.com and purchase your house music. Traxsource is the premier source for house music on the web.
These days I hear a lot of chatter about how we must adapt to this new way of life. It seems as though people are giving up and accepting this as our reality forever. I am holding onto hope that a vaccine will be found. I am looking forward to a day when we may return to living our real lives.
I would like to discuss what I am going to call the Three Ps: Post-Pandemic Plans. I pray and hope that our lives are not compromised for too much longer. Post pandemic, I would love to travel again. This is both a small and large world. There is more to our lovely planet than the place where we currently reside and work.
I plan to visit South Korea and Japan… no surprise to those who know me personally. I have many deep ties to those nations and have spent a considerable amount of time in each. I also plan to visit London, Paris, and perhaps Berlin. The most important place I plan to visit is West Africa.
Most of my multi-ethnic background can be traced to West Africa. This is a fast-growing region of 400-million people. Although I was born in Canada, my parents came from Jamaica. My ethnic make-up consists of Jewish (Iberian Peninsula), Arab (Syria/Lebanon), and West African (Akan, Igbo, Yoruba, Ewe, Efik).
Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria Photo by Dr. Flynn from Pexels
I would also love to visit Spain and Portugal which exist on the Iberian Peninsula. I would also love to visit Syria once that nation stabilizes.
The West African ancestry in Jamaica is comprised of people from several ethnicities, the largest by far being Akan (Ghana) and Igbo (Nigeria). There are also Mandinka, Yoruba, Kongo, Fon, Ibibio, and others. Jamaican patois is comprised of several Akan and Igbo terms.
I love to watch Nollywood movies and have studied West African culture increasingly over the past few years. While I was in high school, I had studied Arab culture upon discovering that my Great-Grandmother was Arab. This past year I also did some research on Iberian Jewish history since my Grandfather was of Iberian Jewish ancestry.
Nigeria and Ghana have bustling entertainment industries. Both countries produce incredible music and entertaining film. The cuisine of West Africa is truly amazing. Jamaican cuisine has a lot in common with West African.
On my West African trip, I plan to spend time in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Warri Nigeria. I also plan to spend time in Accra, Takoradi, and Kumasi Ghana. Future trips will entail visits to Benin and Togo, two smaller nations situated between Ghana and Nigeria. Eventually I would like to visit all the nations in West Africa including Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Gambia, etc.
It would also be quite interesting to visit Sri Lanka in South Asia. I love their cuisine and have had nothing but positive experiences with Sri Lankan people in Toronto. I once went to a Sri Lankan wedding and was treated very warmly. Our group of eleven from work were the only non-Tamil people in a wedding party of 400 people! The bride is a friend from our office. She has taught me a lot about Sri Lanka and the Tamil people. They have a rich culture dating back thousands of years.
Sri Lanka is a lush, green, and beautiful nation which should be a vacation hot-spot. The tourism industry is growing now that political conflict seems to have subsided and the nation is building up its economy.
Speaking of weddings, I attended a wedding in South Korea where I was the only non-Korean person in the entire building! I had a great time and even posed for a photo on stage with the bride and groom and their friends. They took two photos on stage… one consisting of family members and another consiting of friends. I like to refer to the photo that I am in as my Where’s Waldo photo. I am the only non-Korean amongst of throng of 70 Koreans.
I am writing this while sitting on my balcony listening to Afrobeats from Nigeria, drinking Space Invader IPA beer from Toronto’s own Amsterdam Brewery, and looking at the sky wondering when air travel will pick up again. It really does feel strange not seeing airplanes flying overhead.
We are nearing the resumption of live sporting events in North America. Unfortunately due to the pandemic, these events will not be played in front of live crowds. For those who love sport, the compromised version will be better than nothing. Talk show hosts will finally have something to talk about besides speculation or recollection.
I am looking forward to NHL hockey (my favorite league), NBA basketball, MLB baseball, and MLB soccer (football). To be honest, it will feel strange watching basketball and hockey during the summer.
Since there will be no fans in attendance, I suppose the leagues’ main source of revenue will be the television and advertising deals. The leagues will be competing for television viewers. Normally hockey and basketball would be over by now and we would be well into the baseball season. Now people who fancy all three will have to make time for them.
The NHL and NBA seasons start and end around simular dates. My tradition has been to watch NHL games throughout the entire season plus playoffs. I would watch NBA games sporadically until the playoffs. During both hockey and basketball playoffs, I would split my time evenly… if the Toronto Raptors are involved. If not, I will spend the time watching NHL playoffs until the finals. I like to watch the finals of both leagues.
Now that we are in a lockdown, well not so much a lockdown as it was, but a restricted life, the return of sport will bring some much-needed entertainment to our lives. There are only so many movies and television shows one can watch. Sport is an entirely different ballgame, yes pun intended.
To fight boredom, I had planned to get more involved in baseball statistics. Now that baseball will be on along with the other sports, that might be a challenge. I think I will watch the four leagues but analyse statistics for NHL and MLB. I always analyse NHL statistics but will add baseball to the list. Baseball is slow-paced compared to hockey, basketball, or soccer. Basball does appear to track more statistics and looks to be a lot of fun for us nerdy types who love numbers and statistical analysis.
Bars in this province are restricted to limited patio seating only. Under this arrangement, I will not be watching sport at the bars this season. During normal times, watching sports is the one event where everybody talks and mingles with everybody else at the bars in this city. There is loud, excited chatter, hugs, handshakes, etc. In no way can we do those things while a pandemic is raging on. I will watch the games at home on my big screen TV, sipping beer, and eating home-cooked food.
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