The Ashes of Eden (Life)

Hi everyone!

Well, today's post is a morbid one, all about death and the sad things in life. Although it would take several more posts to cover every single thing. This would just be a small take on it though.

Spoiler warning, stop reading now if you prefer light and fluffy things in life - (in true movie review style, although this is not a movie review)

The name of the post is a nod to the most recent single from Breaking Benjamin's Album Dark Before Dawn, Ashes of Eden - Breaking Benjamin

A well written album, lyrically strong but not as memorable as Phobia's hits The Diary of Jane, Breathe and Until The End. 

Anyway, this post is not about an album review though.


Funerals, sad affairs all, I've been to so many over the years, extended family members and family friends. The closest family member I've lost was my Aunt in 2011, wife of my mother's brother. I don't know at what point I've started to think, what is the best use of my time? What is the best use of the time that was given to me? What should I wile away my days on this earth doing? 

Looking on at the funerals I've attended over the years, being in the graveyard with the crowd saying farewell to the deceased, I always think of many things, has this person lived a good life? Have they achieved all they set out to achieve? Did they accomplish everything their heart yearned for? How many years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds I have left?

Knowing that I could die tonight while I sleep, tomorrow driving to work, the day after, and be in just the same position in the grave as the people who have passed before me. 
Morbid yes, at the same time we cannot and should not live in fear that the next minute is our last.

More questions than answers as always, what is the key to happiness?

I'll leave everyone with the mantra I live by now, 

What good shall I do today?

Ask yourself this question at the start of every day and the good deeds will line up for you and when you look back on the day, you will feel fulfilled. 

I also will leave you with the saddest picture of a dogs tears I've seen in my life. 

Heart-breaking.... 

From The Ashes... (Cricket)

Hi everyone!

It's like that time after every loss, where the post mortem takes place. Every West Indies Test Match loss. Losing to the Indian cricket team by an innings and 92 runs. That's just wrong firstly, secondly it's been so common place the last 16 years that it's unlikely there will be any improvements in the short to medium term 1 - 5 years.
This is irregardless of three world Cup wins this year, women's, men's and under 19, all fabulous victories, which temporarily paper over the cracks in the system.

The talent is there in West Indies cricket, the wide variety of players, plying their trade all across the world in so many different tournaments, the passion is there because there won't be crowds coming to see Twenty 20 matches if everyone is over supporting cricket in the West Indies and finally what's missing, is the overall underlying want to change, change what was done previously to make things better and easier than before.

The biggest problem in the West Indies is the poor quality pitches, cause if you grow up on slow and low pitches, and you go anywhere else in the world, you can't cope. ESPNcricinfo has done many impressive and amazing articles on this over the years. The numbers game is particularly my favorite. This is however not a rehash of whatever cricinfo's opinion is, it's my take on the stagnation of cricket performances in the Caribbean. To have the lowest run rates worldwide over the last ten years is an important issue and an embarrassment at the same time. For a region know for flashy scoring batsmen and devastating bowlers to the state it is currently is enough to break anyone's heart.

I hope at some point in the future that we will see West Indies cricket rise again, really and truly and sincerely. But it's a long road up there and I promise to start back supporting West Indies when they can consistently beat Australia in all formats of the game.

In other news, I just finished watching The Revenant and that was a truly epic tale of revenge and raw blood lust, truly enjoyable experience to see why Leonardo Dicaprio won an Oscars for his performance, well done! Amazing stuff.
Pacing of the story was a bit drifting at points but overall a movie of the year.

The make up team for this movie deserved accolades as well. Leonardo looked horrific!


As always to close my blog post, here's an adorable picture of a puppy.
Awww, isn't he sweet.
I want a dog soooooo badly. 😢

Tripping on Broken Wings (Cricket)

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is doing okay.

My post today is all about cricket that's happening currently around the world.

Firstly, the poor showing by West Indies cricket team in the test match today against India, reminds me time and again that I've made an excellent decision to give up supporting West Indies cricket since April 2007.
This occasion was Brian Lara retiring and the conclusion of the shambles of hosting the 2007 cricket world Cup by the West Indies.
When I first started seriously following cricket in 1996, I've always thought that Brian Lara would be the one to turn things around for the team, but years of mediocre performances for enough flashes of brilliance for him to be regarded as a genius.
And to top it off, there were always questionable decisions he made as Captain.
Don't get me wrong, when he was playing I was a staunch supporter of him and what he did.
And I will always hold up the 2001 series West Indies vs Sri Lanka when he scored 688 runs in three test matches with 3 centuries and one fifty in six innings. This I consider to be his greatest test series where he really showed what he is capable of achieving. And this was done on foreign soil and not on the typical road of the Antigua Recreation Ground where he scored his two records 375 and 400.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=457;type=series

Supporting the Australian Cricket Team since 2007, while there have been heartbreaking losses over the years, it has been far more ups than downs, more wins than losses and more memorable times than forgettable times.

I'm excited for the series in Sri Lanka coming up against Australia! Wondering and hoping I get to see some, with the time difference and all and not being shown on TV, I'll have to watch it online.

Pakistan vs England, in England, the series going on at the moment, is going so similar to the West Indies vs India test match, that I don't know what to make of it.
Intriguingly, since Pakistan won the first match at the Lord's Cricket Ground so comfortably, it could either be a one off miracle or the sign of a great test series.
But Pakistan are definitely up against it.

Finally, the Caribbean Premier League, a decent enough league, but I am heavily disappointed by three things,
1) the actual lighting at the grounds are poor, no other night cricket matches in the rest of the world is so poor. Parts of the field shouldn't be dark, the entire viewing experience is in shambles when that happens. Not to mention the safety of the players, Mitchell Starc almost got hit when he lost the ball in the lights, which should've never happened.
2) the inconsistent scheduling of matches and the breaks between the matches causes viewership to fluctuate unless the schedule is stuck in someone's brain, sheesh, a simple schedule makes life much easier for everyone.
3) the weird times to start each match every day, 6, 7, 8, 9, what on earth?
And showing a match delayed is pointless. Totally pointless. Especially when it's only an hour delay, everyone wants to see it live. Gosh.

Anyway, that's my wrap on cricket currently,

Be safe everyone!

Hope to pick up next time.

And if the blog post today didn't interest you, here's am adorable picture of two huskies.

I want a Husky soooooo badly!



😢

Even Angels Fall (Life)

Hey everyone,

It's me again, inspired by www.fairytalekindagirl.com to start back writing.

Thank you :)

It's been seven long months since my last post and I would be glad to say nothing happened in those seven months and lived it to not only the best of my ability but enjoyed each and every day, each and every minute of being alive.

In March, I literally had the worst day of my life, it was the perfect trifecta.
I know, it's not comparable to millions of other people who have bad days every single day.
But it made me reprioritize life and I hope and pray I'm on a better path.

Firstly spent six painful hours with IT support to fix my work laptop only to be told that I have to get a new one two whole days later.
Next, walking miserable and tired back to my car, (a new car I fully paid for with the money I've sweated over to make for years) only to find no car, I got towed as it turns out, an expensive lesson to learn that I can't park on that particular spot of the road.
Finally, all on the same day this happened, after getting back my car, I took two and a half hours to reach home cause of an accident, traffic backed up for miles. I should've taken 20 minutes.

After this day, I spent the next lying down at home (an unexpected day off, cause I couldn't do any work without a laptop) and I just was so shattered I literally had no idea what to do with myself.
I had a mini life crisis a couple weeks later when everything came crashing down.
I didn't do anything crazy like harming myself or anyone etc etc. I eventually figured out to take a month off of work and I spent the month piecing together why I'm doing what I'm doing.
I am very attached to my amazon Kindle and I read two extremely insightful books in that time, Living Forward a proven plan to stop drifting and get the life you want and
The Top Five Regrets Of The Dying,  two fabulously life changing books and I really hope that when I look back on this year in ten years time, I can say this is where it all changed for me.

Today, I'm in a much better place, happier, more positive.

More in future posts about the life plan I've created and the progress and results.

In the meantime, here's the two links to check out those books.
Highly recommended!

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Forward-Proven-Plan-Drifting/dp/080101882X

https://www.amazon.com/Top-Five-Regrets-Dying-Transformed/dp/140194065X

Bye everyone, till next time!

It's on Sasha! Competition on blogging :)

Check out www.fairytalekindagirl.com! You might learn a thing or two, or otherwise just be entertained :)

And i loove dogs! :)