We followed Ernesto’s trail online hour by hour but by early morning it had become clear that he was turning away from Jamaica and moving north. So we feel pretty silly sitting in a house with boarded-up windows (actually only four windows – that’s all the plywood we had).
We also tried to follow local reports on Jamaican television, but TVJ was more concerned with showing a radio chat show from the US on the controversy (sic) of evolution vs creationism (Darwin pwns Genesis btw), Love Channel (sic) had its usual hallelujah whoop-up, which left only CVM-TV to report on the forthcoming wrath of God hurricane … by way of rebroadcasting the US Weather Channel.
But lo! Then came a hurricane report from the local studio, presented by a man who seemed to have a problem with ahm what we ahm say ahm … speaking is it.
According to the … ahm OfficeofDisasterPreparednessandEmergencyManagementODPEM ahm the … hurricane ahm Ernesto should pass the ahm island around … ah two o’clock. TheODPEM ahm advises residents in ahm the parishes of er Portland and St Mary to uh … run for their ahm … lives.
Oh well. Still a hurricane virgin, if we discount the heavy wetting by Wilma last year.
We consoled ourselves with a big Cuban lunch that began with plátanos a puñetazos (punched plantains) and ended with plátanos en tentación (bananas cooked with cinnamon, sugar, lime juice and white wine), accompanied by my first ever daiquiri.
Mmmmm. I popped my Maraschino cherry.
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