Pe­ter Ray Blood

It is some­what grudg­ing­ly that I pub­lish the C2K11 Cal­en­dar of Events to­day. A com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice an­nounce­ment I have pub­lished re­li­gious­ly these past 20 years, in re­cent times, has been pla­gia­rised and abused by in­dis­crim­i­nate folk. Ac­tu­al­ly the prop­er­ty of the news­pa­pers once pub­lished, peo­ple have stolen the cal­en­dar, some even for per­son­al prof­it and gain.

Any­way, be­fore get­ting in­to the cal­en­dar, al­low me to give you the heads-up that, for yet an­oth­er year, the cel­e­bra­tion of Hosay is co­in­cid­ing with Christ­mas. With Big Hosay sched­uled for Thurs­day, De­cem­ber 16, in St James, the an­nu­al Moslem fes­ti­val be­gins on De­cem­ber 14 with Flag Night, along the

West­ern Main Road. Small Hosay will be held the fol­low­ing evening. As I end the sec­ond week of my much need­ed va­ca­tion, al­low me to al­so tell you about a new play­er on the scene, in terms of event-plan­ning.

The com­pa­ny, El­e­gant Af­fairs In­ter­na­tion­al, was launched in lav­ish style a cou­ple weeks ago at the up­scale Prime Restau­rant. Own­er San­dra Drap­er said that her out­fit "de­liv­ers world class el­e­gance and an un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ence," for clients. El­e­gant Af­fairs has of­fices in Trinidad and the Unit­ed States. Al­though I was not work­ing when I at­tend­ed the launch of Gen­e­sis Car­ni­val's 2011 pre­sen­ta­tion–The Nest–I must com­ment about the event. Held at The Chan­cel­lor Ho­tel & Restau­rant in St Ann's, I was im­mense­ly im­pressed with the de­signs of Ni­na Mc Ken­zie. Years ago I went on record stat­ing that Ni­na is a tal­ent­ed artist who has a keen eye for colour mix­ing, and pro­duces some of the most beau­ti­ful head­pieces for mas­quer­aders.