Mas on de Move!!!!!!

Tuesday morning saw me waking up quite early as I could not sleep; came online and was kept company by another excited masquerader until we both decided we needed to get back in bed and take a nap in order to make the distance for the day. I set my alarm and about an hour later I was up; there would be no arriving late on Carnival Tuesday!Both the hubby and I were dressed and out of the house by 6:30, since the band was scheduled to leave an hour later. Of course I missed the makeup artist’s appointment and did my makeup myself which looked good enough for me!

As usual the traffic around the Savannah was chaos; we had clear roads from St. Augustine and over the Lady Young until before the Hilton. That was where the traffic started and hubby started to panic that we would be late. Thankfully we were able to navigate that two way traffic around the Savannah, park the car and make the trek to Stanmore Avenue. I swear I did lots of walking pre and post the actual parade this year!

It was while rushing to get to Stanmore Avenue that I realized my costume was giving me some problems! As I mentioned before my original costume, Fireman, just started looking less and less appealing so I changed my section. The new costume was Fancy Sailor Traditional (female version) which I have to say I loved! It was covered up by TRIBE’s standards and even hubby was concerned that it was too covered in the beginning but then he liked how it looked when he saw the final dressing. I found it was still sexy, long pants and all. Let me just say those pants weighed about 5lbs! They were made from drill which is a heavy material in itself, then the pants was decorated with beads, tassels, trim, and huge gold anchor cut outs. Added to that when I walked, which I discovered on Tuesday, the beads were hooking on each other making it difficult to move quickly. I had to learn to move in the pants, because they had the flare to the bottom and the beads that were giving me trouble, so that’s why my thighs are killing me today! I had a workout yesterday; see why the gym is a necessity!

Anyway, we eventually get to Stanmore Avenue and saw some TRIBE Bar Staff to the top of the Savannah, asked them where the band was and they informed us that they had not left as yet. Indeed as we discovered, the band was still on Stanmore, so we had breakfast seeing as we were not late! Breakfast was sandwiches, bake, sada and vegetables, doubles (from an onsite doubles vendor), peeled oranges and a yogurt drink.After we had breakfast I saw one of the TRIBE’s sector managers and joked with him that they told us we would leave at 7:30 just to get us there early. It was then he informed me that we had to wait on Island People which were ahead of us. Rumor has it that Island People left at 7:00 and changed their meeting place from the Stadium to by Jenny’s car park on Cipriani Boulevard, one street away from Stanmore Avenue.

So, we had a wait, which would be the theme for the rest of the morning, mas on the move it was not! After leaving Stanmore Avenue eventually (we waited for about 45 minutes) we chipped down Tragarete Road to St. Vincent Street, heading for Downtown Judging when we were again forced to wait for Island People who were ahead of us to cross the stage. I cannot tell you how long it took for us to inch forward on St. Vincent Street, I estimate about three hours as the first section (my section) eventually crossed the stage at approximately 11:30. The wait for me was not too bad, we were moving ever so slowly but the music and drinks kept spirits up, everyone I saw looked like they were having a great time! Too many other masqueraders passed TRIBE looking sour, what is up with that really? You are looking nice in your costume yet the face does not even show a smile!

Eventually we get to South Quay and after being pent up for so long waiting, I crossed the stage twice! Fancy Sailor was first, and I was ahead of the section just behind the individual character, but the rest of the section was close on my heels. The section was a big one, so when we first crossed the stage and I jumped up to my hearts content and reached the end, looking back I saw another group of Fancy Sailors still parading, man I went back and jumped up with them until the section was off the stage totally. My mom was at the end of the stage taking pics and while I went to take some more photos with her the rains started! Knowing that I had feathers to protect I took shelter in a makeshift bar on Broadway and saw a whole slew of soaking wet Warrior Spirit masqueraders as they came around the bend looking most concerned that their headpieces were ruined! That also included hubby who joined me in the shelter, he was most upset that his headpiece could possibly be ruined!Thankfully with some sunshine the feathers dried nicely and the headpiece was saved.

The rains eventually stopped, and I have to admit it put a bit of a damper on things. The drinks and music trucks went down the Promenade by Royal Bank then made the turn and came up the Promenade before turning unto Frederick Street. Being in the first sections we had no problem following the band. I even got drinks and water (to wash my pants hem lol) and chipped following the band across park and unto Tragarete Road; we were going in reverse direction from the morning heading back to Stanmore to make it to the Park in time for lunch. Clearly it looked like we might be missing the Savannah! Well, when we realized every single truck was lined up behind each other on Stanmore at a standstill we decided to cut across to Cipriani and just head to the lunch stop.

That was when we met Island People coming DOWN Cipriani, it was a parade of truck after truck after truck but in the distance we saw the Heineken Club Zero trailer and then I was confused as that trailer was in TRIBE! Eventually we got to the top of Cipriani Boulevard, Savannah side, only to realize the front of TRIBE was standing there motionless as Island People had cut through the band and was moving on like normal! Now, I am not trying to entice any band versus band bacchanal but I saw it with my own two eyes, no one told me this. We made our way to the lunch stop but the rest of the band took a while to catch up, obviously since they had to wait for Island People to pass through.

Starving by that time I am happy to report that we found the Bar b Que tent this time and at that point everything tasted good! Took a much needed cool rest in our car which was parked close to the lunch stop; got some air conditioned comfort, touched up the makeup, aired out the toes (got soaked in the rain) and hubby took a small nap. We had a long wait at the lunch stop seeing as the band got there long after us, then after ice cream we were told to meet the trucks by Harvards. By that time I was rejuvenated, only slightly disappointed we were not going to the Savannah then realized the crossing of the stage was no longer an appeal seeing as we had no stage, had some drinks and chipped down to St. James, we reached by Courts building when the rains came again! That did not last long; I think the Jumbie sent it away as the music truck started blasting it!

We made our way down St. James, got snacks of bake and shark (note to TRIBE please provide condiments for the Bake and Shark) and pizza. Then my feet started killing me, no joke! I now have a water bladder under my little toe on my left foot so imagine the pain I was in yesterday. I decided to seek refuge in the mobile bus to get off my feet for a while, knowing I had a long walk back to where we were parked later on. Found the resting bus, filled with some drunk masqueraders, a few sleeping soundly, and was treated to snacks and ice cream in the bus! Talk about a nice service. Anyway they kicked us out at 6:00 on the dot, the buses stopped working then. We jumped up for a little bit more until the darkness came; that was time for me to go home! Imagine I am chipping cool, cool and strange men just reaching out and grabbing me, calling “family, family” and I was not even wearing anything skimpy. That kind of roughing up from men who feel they could pull and tug at you during Carnival pisses me off; see if you look to answer them or retaliate in anyway they might be looking to injure you so that was my signal to go home! Too many gremlins like to come out when it is night looking for mischief!

Of all the sections I found Fancy Sailor, Dame Lorraine,Pierrot Grenade, Fancy Indian and Warrior Spirit looked great! Cow Mas was a mix and match section, some of the girls got tan suits like in the photographs on the website while others got a chocolate brown which looked awful! The backpack for Majorette was tiny, much, much smaller than the original! The Jamette girls looked good, but only those who got their corsets adjusted to fit properly, the others had to improvise which ruined the look. Fireman looked okay; too much orange in my opinion but the slender girls looked hot in the costume! For larger ladies the belt was too short! Jab Jab looked cute but I hardly saw the ladies wearing their headpieces! Dragon was a toss up for me; on some ladies it looked awesome and then others did not wear it well. Another section that did not look great (to me) was Bat. Something about it just did not stand out, maybe the colour did not work well with too many people, can’t say what, but it was disappointing. The costume that looked absolutely gorgeous was Imp! Wow that shade of blue just popped and with the whole ensemble of the wings, headpiece and feathered bra I thought it looked amazing; it is even featured on the front page of today’s Express.

Again I saw ladies wearing heels and even wedge sandals to play mas! My feet, in sneakers, were killing me so I only shudder to think what their feet are feeling like this morning.

I know there were issues with masqueraders to the back of the band and their experience might be totally different from mine (see why I do not like it in the back) but I had a great time, the hubby said he wished today was another day of Carnival!That is my Carnival round up, it was great and we doing it again in 2008!!!!! The countdown begins!