History Time: Happy 45th Independence Day Barbados



MOTTO: "Pride & Industry"



The island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in 1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on the island until 1834 when slavery was abolished. The economy remained heavily dependent on sugar, rum, and molasses production through most of the 20th century. The gradual introduction of social and political reforms in the 1940s and 1950s led to complete independence from the UK in 1966. (source: The CIA)

The Barbados flag

The left blue stripe represents the sky and the yellow/gold stripe symbolises the sand. The right blue stripe represents the sea. The trident in the middle of the Barbados flag represents Barbados independence from the British, with each point of the trident representing the three principles of democracy which are government of, for and by the Barbados people.

Name: Originally called Los Barbados (which means The Bearded One in Portuguese)

Nickname: Bimsha

Capital: Bridgetown

Population: 286,705 (July 2011)

Language: English with a broad dialect (Bajan) - Known to sound like a Yorkshire accent.

Major religion: up to 95% are Christians with other religions such as; Rastafarian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim.

Festivals: Crop Over is celebrated every year between July & August to celebrate the end of the sugarcane harvest.

National Dish: Cou-Cou & Flying Fish* (Cou-Cou is a dish made with cornmeal and Okras)

*when flying over Barbados “the land of the flying fish” you can sometimes see the fishes gliding out of the sea for 30 to 50 metres.

Random Facts:

• Mount Gay Bardados Rum is one of the oldest rum brands in the world and is over 300 years old..
• Rihanna is one of the biggest worldwide artist to come out of Bardados and now has her own national day on the 20^th Feb  in bardados. "Rihanna's Day"

Location: Caribbean island in the North Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Venezuela

Quote of the Week

"The Two Most Important Days In Your Life Are;

The Day You Are Born,

And The Day You Find Out WHY"

 - Mark Twain

#WRETCH32INVASION

                      

This time 2 weeks ago I was filled with excitement as I knew in a few hours time, I was being treated by my good friend Mayah & finally getting the chance to see my favourite UK artist, Wretch 32 perform live at a secret gig being filmed for Channel 4. Now as you may or may not know I have been a massive fan of his since he released his first mixtape and was selling them down Seven Sisters Market.  Since then I have not looked back and have every mixtape and album he has released… So you can imagine how excited I was.

Having seen Wretch 32 perform live at a variety of events I have never had the chance to see him in his own concert.

Despite waiting nearly 3 hours before Wretch 32 came on stage, I am happy to say that he lived up to my expectations. In the build up to waiting for Wretch we was entertained by Twin B who got the crowd warmed up by spinning the hottest tracks around at the moment & we was also treated to a special performance by Wretch 32 supporting act, Smiler (a UK recently signed rapper) and his guest artist My Nature. (If you have not heard of them before and you like UK rap check them out on youtube). Performing a few of his tracks and his own version of "House of Pain – Jump Around" he definitely done a good job in getting the crowd hyped & excited for what was about to come.

After what seemed like forever, Mr Wretch 32 along with his Live Band decided to grace us with their presence and start off with a bang, opening the concert with the first track (Black & White) off his new album "Black and White".

Wretch 32 mainly performed tracks from his new album, which included hits such as; Tracktor, Dont Go, Forgiveness (his new single), I am not the Man and Anniversary (Fall In Love). He also took us back a little and performed “Be Cool”.

As well as treating us to a live band he also surprised us with some special guests such as; Scorcher, Etta Bond & Loick Essien to name a few...

Overall his performance was brilliant & definitely made the waiting around worth it. The night had too many highlights and funny moments that I personally would never forget but my main highlights of the night had to be; when Scorcher appeared on stage, when Bart from Hollyoaks randomly jumped on stage during the middle of Wretch's performance (if your a fan of Hollyoaks you would have seen it on Hollyoaks 2 Fridays ago) and when he performed Tracktor which sent the crowd mad!!

My disappointment of the night had to be the fact that we was soo sooo soo close to Wretch 32 but never got the chance to get a picture taken with him, but oh well maybe another time.

For now, check out some pictures taken on the night, sorry for the not so good quality pictures I left my camera at home and had to use my fone and I was over tired that day as well but in the words of Wretch 32 "Ahhh Yeaaa"…. 

#WRETCH32INVASION

Mr Wretch 32 Himself

Wretch 32  "AHHH YEAAA"

Myself with Smiler & My Nature - Cool Guys!

Mayah & Loick Essien

Channel 4 Live

#Wretch32Invasion Wristband

Video of the Week - Wretch 32 ft Etta Bond - Forgiveness

Another Video of the Week dedicated  to my Fav UK artist... Watch out for my review on the #Wretch32Invasion coming soon. 

Quote of the Week

"With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26 NIV)

"That's a pretty all-inclusive statement. No matter how big your problem is, God can handle it. But you must do your part. Do what you can with what you have and then expect God to take it from there"

Quote of the Week

"Often the difference between the successful person and failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take calculated risks to act."

 - Andre Malraux

Happy November

"Not knowing what is gonna happen today is one of the beautiful things about life, but scary at the same time"

This morning I woke up feeling really excited, like something good and unexpected is about to happen. I don't have a clue what it is but you know what I'm embracing the excitement and looking forward to any blessings that is about to come my way.

So when I saw the quote above on twitter this morning, I could not have agreed more. But then I started questioning why are some people afraid of the unknown? I believe that if you have faith and trust in God you have no reason to be afraid of what is going to happen today, tomorrow or next week. He never gives us more than we can handle, therefore we need to embrace whatever comes our way and run with it and yes that does mean both the good and the bad.

Everything we experience every day is a part of our journey and in order for us to grown and become the person we are destined to be we need to experience them. Its all about growth..

So this month embrace each new day and look forward to the unknown, you have nothing to fear but fear itself. Maybe try take a risk this month and do something you would not usually do, you might be surprised at the outcome.