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Exactly one year ago today it was raining cats and dogs in Trinidad! The weather this year is quite the opposite though. Nothing better that waking up in the Caribbean to a sunny day with that North East Trade wind blowing through your bedroom :-) What could be more perfect? I have just the thing: A bright sun shiny day in the Caribbean with that breeze blowing AND you're in A.W.O.L!! The Fetealotathon® continues with a day fete that we attended for the first time last year. Despite the rain last year, the turn out was great. As such, we were expecting big things this year, and big things were indeed the order of the day.

As you probably already realize, we have Carnival 2007 COVERED. So when we say that A.W.O.L, the All Inclusive fete, was among the top five events for Carnival, yuh know it was off the chain! Picture yuh driving though Macqueripe Road in Chaguramas, a drive that in itself is very picturesque and serene, and yuh on yuh way to an all inclusive. Buss a right just before yuh reach the beach, which by the way used to be home to US Submarines many moons ago, and yuh dey. Tucker Valley is the name of the place. Ah could swear ah camp there already when ah was a boy scout in Newtown Boys RC, but once again I digress. The hosts greeted us at the main road with a parking pass for the TJJ whip, so we didn't have to take a shuttle in, ah really nice touch indeed. The road to the party was narrow, even by Trini standards so shuttling patrons from a nearby car park was an ideal solution.

Once we arrived, there was no trouble at the entrance and the vibes that had begun to build since the drive to the fete, was increasing exponentially. Imagine you in ah All Inclusive fete in what can best be described as a nature reserve. Bamboo arches illuminated by strategically positioned lamps, formed overhead. Straight out of a movie, yuh can't make this stuff up! The A.W.O.L plan is to change venues every year, well boy, we cyah wait to see what venue can beat this one next year. Two well positioned bars and one of the most sensible food offerings I've seen all Carnival, were set up among the bamboo patches. There wasn't an overwhelming plethora of food which was sweet and on point. Curry and buss up, Creole food, Blue food and they even had boil & roast corn (yes roast corn) which was a hit with the crowd.

The sound system was great and DJ's Anonymous and Cin provided the tunes. The crown was frenzied many times throughout this even but coming down to the last hour Cin really had the now chungo crowd lookin' for "Jumbie" in the bamboo patches. The fete went longer than it was supposed to, always good to meet and exceed expectations :-) Not to mention the riddim section who jump out from nowhere and bless the dance! Would you believe after all this, patrons were given authentic steel mugs on exit, that was surely the icing on the cake for what is easily on the TJJ Fetealotathon's® top five fetes for Carnival. Thanks so much to Ian, Wendell, Pixi and the entire A.W.O.L crew for being such great hosts; we can't wait to see what you have in store for 2008!

Big W aka "The Appraiser" for the TJJ fam

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