V/C in the capital

Went to my first World Cup cricket game yesterday - West Indies vs. Pakistan at Sabina Park. There were about 10 Pakistanis there - give or take - and 19,946 West Indians, mainly Jamaican.

The most exciting part of the day, however, was not the match - but my first attempt of getting to the match.

At about 8:15 a.m. we are just past the first lights on Waterloo in the regular morning traffic jam when my fellow cricket fan sees a Gleaner guy. I don't have $30 and nor does he. So he takes $100 from his wallet and gives the vendor/cretin - who gives him $50 change. 'Do you want an Observer?' asks the v/c - no says David - mi just want mi change. So the guy says, is the magazine in there? There isn't and so on that pretext the v/c gives him another and drops one on the floor of the car. David is bending down to get the paper while the other guy has his arms in the car supposedly picking up the paper or something. I know he's up to something, so I grab my phone and my camera. The traffic is moving - David still hasn't got his extra $20 change and the guy goes off and I move with the traffic.

I say to David- that guy was up to something funny - at which point David realises he is no longer in possesion of his wallet.

I pull over to the left, stop the car - get out to find the guy (what I'm going to do if I find him I don't know) but he has disappeared. I call 119. Police say come in and make a report. I go back to car - the wallet is definately gone.

So the wallet is gone. With a hunk of money in it. I was not a happy camper. And David wasn't either. Anyway - we drove around like lunatics - because I was heading for the police at Half Way Tree, but David didn't want to bother make a report because what would be the point.

Long story short - went to Liganea police - they said go to Half Way Tree. Make a report there - but they really don't seem interested at all. Can't blame them really - nobody murdered so why bother? And with the cricket here, I guess they are stretched enough.

After all that negativity, David doesn't want to go anymore. I call a friend and we go together, getting to the cricket a little late. My mood has improved by this point, but if it hadn't the general atmosphere of genuine bonhommy (is that how you spell it) would have. Getting there late turned out not to be so bad. Our seats were in the very first row - so were in the sun until just after we got there - which was good timing really.

The only real prob was food. We were starving - but so were 20,000 other people. At 1:00, food lines were long and stationary (an unpleasant reminder of the Waterloo incident) and then the food ran out. So we gave up. It wasn't until around 2:30 that we discovered an air conditioned bar that we could have gone to all along - no lines and great hotdogs.

Hopefully the memory of the enjoyment of the cricket will soon supersede that of the v/c and his monetary gain - in the not too distant future. The Windies won after all.