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Hot Or Cold? PoisonUK or Lagniappe?

Monday, August 27th 2007, London, England, Notting Hill Carnival 2k7 - we ready to get on wassy. Team TJJ is at least five strong (over 20 deep) on the road and we sticky, sweaty and sexy - they can't stop us today!

The usual story occurs - you are given your costume, you are told where to meet on the road, you are given your wristband so that you can be identified for drinks and food, you are given your usual bag of carnival goodies, you try on your costume the night before to make sure it is fitting well, you scrutinize your body just a lil' bit, you wake up Carnival day and arrive at the meeting point or in TJJ's case, you reach late and call someone to ask where the band is currently located, you arrive at the band and meet up with your crew and crews, and at the first Soca tune ya hear ... the waist starts rolling.

So we meeting up at Ladbroke Grove for midday to jump up with the big sexy PoisonUK band. The name of the sections - "Sex On The Beach"; "Sapphire Ice"; "Mai Tai"; "Back 2 School" by Rumors Events; "Lock Up" by Morris Roots; and "Come Join The Mix" by Dynasty Promotions. Since the superb Carib beer was one of PoisonUK's sponsors, there were the lovely Carib girls in the band enjoying themselves and giving away some free goodies as well. They are truly wonderful girls .... be nice to dem and they would be nice to you! Personally, Rumors Event's "Back 2 School" section was the sexiest ... we were feeling the "school girls" (both the naughty and the nice one) ... hahahahaha AND if you look at the photos of the "school girls" you would definitely see what we mean!

The weather was the sexiest today out of all the days so far in the Notting Hill Season. The sun was shining, people were sweating, and we were having a blast... a complete blast! Masqueraders had their PoisonUK bottles to consume mas quantities of alco from the drink's truck or most of them had the actual bottle of alcohol in hand and shotting straight from the bottle. Or better yet, the true beer drinkers were consuming Carib, posing and wining with the bottle ensuring not ah drop spilled on the floor. The drink's truck was loaded with the likes of Vat 19 Rum, Smirnoff Vodka, Jack Daniels Whiskey and many more spirits along with the most common chaser these days - Red Bull - it gives us wings we say - wings!!! There were ah few Carnival Jumbies with the actual bottle of spirit in their hands - the large gallon of Vat 19 rum, or the 1 litre of Courvoisier and Hennessey. There were also some sexy body women serving drinks too ... jeezann!!!!!!

The DJs on the PoisonUK music truck were Mr. Marvel & Diesel; Gladiators (Lydon and Spicer), DJ Markee, Jugglers, Hypa Hoppa (Radioactive/RED 96.7FM); DJ Spice (New York) and Tweez was in de house. BBC 1Xtra and Red 96.7FM came out to support the PoisonUK family and the music on the road was spectacular. However, as another DJ agreed, the Soca world is so diverse and so deep yet still DJs are playing the same music over and over and over and over and over again. Why DJ's ... why? Yes you all played good music - without a doubt - but still c'mon .... play some more ... dig deeper into the crates ... c'mon. We must big up DJ Spice for pulling out some classic Soca selections ("Dollar Wine", "Movin'", "Follow The Leader", "Dr. Cassandra", "Put Ah Hand On Da Bumper" to name a few) and mashing up the streets towards the end of the parade! Ah really don't like to scrutinize and criticize, but hey it's not only me yuh know, but hey .... iz all good !!! We still enjoyed the music! As usual Machel Montano's "Jumbie" was the song for the season. We have seen so many versions of the Jumbie dance .... man ah sure me with my uncoordinated self could do de dip in de centre then lean back and reverse ... oh gawdy !!!! We inside like mud!!!! Come in - the water nice!!!!!

As I mentioned, we were at least five strong on the road, and some of the TJJ family were in Lagniappe mas band. This band had beautiful women, friendly people (under heavy alcohol consumption), but all good clean and healthy fun on the road. The Hawaiian section seemed to be the big hit and the wassiest crews and crews were jirating their waistlines.

WE LOVE MAS AND LOVE THE PEOPLE WHO PLAY MAS, how they jirate, all different versions of wining and all sorts of locations and even on all sorts of foreign objects. There was this particular Bus Stop that was violated by a smallie's waistline and her batty movements, and even the people on the top of the actual Bus Stop (yes, people climb up on top of de Bus Stop) were getting on ridiculously wild (photos 264-266). The road itself - the hard pitch was often a "bed" so to speak .... you know how it is behind closed doors. Ah just love the conviction and love in which some people look at each other when they are dancing on each other OR when a woman is wining and holding ah man's head and singing to the music ... it's classic! It's love man!! Women being picked up off the ground is always a superb move too ... it was just great entertainment all round, yes! Roger George.... we see ya in action (photos 335-338)!

We even had our Soca Warriors in PoisonUK - Brent Sancho and Stern John - in their "Back 2 School" section. They were truly getting on like some wild primary school children, but all part of the parade and de Carnival action. We don't blame them, have your fun and don't stop at all fellas!

Want to talk about fun? How about the miraculous skills of one of the PoisonUK DJ's (no name calling necessary) - while the dude was on the microphone hyping the crowd and getting on wassy Mr. Man was dancing and wining on a girl - talk about multitasking! But then again, the TJJ family have skills too because we often take photos while being jirated on and batty all rolled up on us ... you know how we do! ;-) You want more fun? How about the numerous police officers that were on patrol and guarding the streets - yeah big up to London Metropolitan Police Service. Allyuh Protect And Serve Us!!!!! We always enjoy seeing women taking a flexxx on a police officer - and he himself cannot do anything but just stand up and take ah good jam up!!! Ah must say though , this is third Carnival season I have experienced other than Trinidad, and ONLY in Notting Hill, I have actually seen police officers pushing away women who are inching up to take ah "roll batty on ah uniform" ... makes me wonder!!!! But is all good, they doing (and did) their jobs ... we rate the police in London.

Interesting things to mention though - Dynasty Promotions' "Come Join The Mix" section were handing out some serious nostalgic goodies ... Salt Prunes and Dinner Mints!! Ah tear came out of my eye, yes!!! Do You Know How Long My Palette Have Not Tasted A Salt Prune Or Even A Dinner Mint?? Ah had to read the sweet lines on the dinner wrapper to a girl for ole times sake, just make her blush!!! LOL ... It was a winning line ... LOLOL … "I'm gonna love you forever." HAHAHAHA ... or better yet .... "Baby I Want You To Love Me Tender Forever" .... winning lines!! The water nice!!!!!!!

The only thing we (and we're sure all masqueraders as well) would love to see get rectified for future Carnivals is the level of security, especially for the large bands like Lagniappe and PoisonUK. More security or a different type of security is a must - we know it's an expense but it is a promised part of the whole Carnival experience. Yeah gringos must have fun too while they on the road, but they don't need to be infiltrating the bands and disturbing people unnecessarily - if you know what we mean. There are so many gyms in London... all they need to do is look for the biggest, toughest looking dudes who could bench press 300lbs plus and hire them as security!! Put them in some wife beaters and give them some batons and trust us, you have the ultimate security right there!!!!

Great times, fun times, jirating bottoms, clean healthy entertainment! We dey Notting Hill 2008 for sure and the TJJ Team will be even stronger!! Trini Jungle Juice just real sexy right now .... five full days of excitement .... nostalgia .... it was great!! 2008 we ready, we ready, we ready!!!! This is TJJ officially signing out from Notting Hill 2k7 Carnival.

Amiel for the TJJ fam
Always Forward Never Backward

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