These are new pages to catalogue Nigel's "Updates" on life in Trindad - much appreciated by those of us far from home... They are a wonderful mixture of reportage and personal observation and I am really sorry I lost so many of them in a stupid software glitch last year!

I had saved the whole lot, right from the beginning of the Pointe-a-Pierre web site, so if anyone has any of those old ones and would like to email them to me, I'd be really happy! The ones below begin in 2001.

Nigel's own web site (from where these pages are taken) is @: http://www.papmemories.net/

Monday, May 27, 2002 1:14 am Subject: Update.

Hi All,

Embarrassed to point out that the last Update and Newsletter was dated 26th February......especially since the site map says "Weekly Updates". But lots going on and time is at a premium. I'm down with the virus (human type) so had a bunch of time today to get the site fully loaded and to tackle a new Newsletter so please bear with me.

Talking about viruses we have been sent eleven infected messages via e-mail in the last seven days with a virus named W32.Klez.H@mm. Thanks goodness for the updated Norton 2002 anti-virus program that grabs and quarantines the infected files before they even enter the PC. I changed away from McAfee just about three weeks ago....whew!! This is a bad virus with different subject lines and constantly renamed infected executable file. Also there is no real way to track down the sender since it will randomly pick IP addresses in the infected address book and send out a message seemingly from someone else. The only answer.......have a good virus scan and keep it up to date....BE CAREFUL!!

Lots of good feedback on the Carnival 2002 series that mainly covered J'ouvert.....finally finished it when Trevor Pollonais passed over some pics he had taken while out on the road.......check it out.....hit the green and yellow "Trini Links" button and Carnival button from there. Last week I heard from Steve and Christine Denton (Coombs) who are holidaying in Barbados......enjoy Bim Chris and Steve. We have a long list of people planning to visit Trinidad this year and had the pleasure of two visits recently.

Both Angela Edwards and Gordon Lloyd visited recently, and from all appearances had a great time retracing their memories and exorcising a few ghosts. It was really wonderful to meet them both after forty years. [ VISIT THE PaP SITE TO SEE THEM http://www.crosswinds.net/~nwent Visit the Newsletter page.] Taken in the lobby of the Hilton where we had a brief but super little get-together, the pic above of Angela and Gordon will invoke a lot of good memories. It was moving to hear of their recollections and the things that they saw and held as important as they moved through PaP and lots of other parts of our island.

Each time I meet a past PaP person who is in my memory banks and has been missing for a long time, it is like as though a piece of me has been replaced.......two pieces were put back in week before last........cheers guys.

The pic below is the crew that gathered to have a drink with them at the Hilton one evening. [ VISIT THE PaP SITE TO SEE THEM http://www.crosswinds.net/~nwent Visit the Newsletter page] From left Gordon, Jackie Carr-Brown (Gibbon), Angela, Yvonne and Geoff Parsons. Yours truly behind the lens of his new Fuji digital camera.

These days almost impossible not to feature grandson Andrew in the dispatches.....supper little guy........in this pic he is "Little Mango Mouth"......the charming look and the gleam in his eyes are intended to soften me so that he can have a grab at the new Fuji........hi littlest man.....love ya.

Heard from Leslie-Ann Howell (Phillips), Jimmy Walden, and Brian Withstandley via e-mail recently, and quite a bit of Henry Perez who lives on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.....not a good place to be right now....keep your head down Henry.

The sad passing of Winston Harris touched many of us and invoked a lot of heart-felt e-mail eulogies. I remember Winston selling me my very first insurance policy which is still paid-up today. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family........Winston was a real nice guy and touched many people. The PaP site should now be fully re-loaded.....if you find anything missing please let me know.

Going to get started on the improvements and new pages as soon as we get back from Antigua......the Dons and I are off for the upcoming four-day weekend for a stay at the all-inclusive Jolly Beach Resort. Won't get to see Alison Archer who is away however.

As you will have guessed the guestbook on the Crosswinds site is not working....this is due to the IP who hosted the site going under. On the Geocities site I didn't read the fine print and have now found that there is a limit to the number of free entries......easily solved however.......fork out the bucks....US$ of course.....no coconut dollars!!

Other than the political circus, TnT is doing well, the two trains of the LNG plant currently under construction and the oil due to come ashore from BHP Billiton's discovery off of Toco point will all start to put a lot of money in to the exchequor's pockets starting from 2003 and over the period to 2005. This will inject a lot of money in to the economy and challenge our ability to manage inflation. The politicians have classed it a coming "boom" but we need to be careful with that kind of language. In any case, control of these spoils is what the current political fight is all about.

On the political scene things continue unchanged. It took a slow talking Texan who I met in Houston recently to point out that unless there was a new form of arithmetic an 18 18 majority was new to him and his board of directors. The challenge on voter padding has come to nought and if it wasn't for a supportive ethno-aligned press the ruling party should have been embarrassed badly. Looks though like they might finally have the goods on the leader of the other party who has not responded well to the charges, and in fact has not taken advantage of any of the numerous slip-ups made by the leader of the ruling party.......an opportunity missed is an opportunity lost.

There is a new political party on the scene that is led by an ex-ruling party member that could swing the direction of an election if one of the opposition party members doesn't get locked up and create an artificial majority for long enough to elect a speaker.......baaaad stuff which ever way it goes........don't remember which Marxist it was that said that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"......one doesn't have to steal money to corrupt.......inappropriate use of our laws and institutions is a corrupt act.

We officially entered the rainy season last Thursday. The last rainy season never really released its grip on our weather and while things dried up a bit we never really lost our green, and the bush fires never really got going......did have a few big ones but not bad. Things now are lush and green and the battle with the bugs intensifies....healthy grass means lots of edible leaves and roots.....grrrrrr! Among the things to post when I open the new pages is the pics of the flowers in our yard.....some super close-up stuff......keep checking.

Take care y'all.

Nigel.