A Christmas Treat

Morris Cargill

I had a Christmas treat a few days ago. You may not know this from some of her columns but Dawn Ritch is a very gentle person. Every now and again she feels that it is her duty to take me down from the shelf and dust me off. So a few days ago she took me out to lunch, or perhaps I should say, in view of my great lameness, she carried me out to lunch. The carriage was her new Isuzu Trooper; a very splendid diesel engine vehicle fitted with something known as an intercooler, which gives it extra speed. Dawn likes speed and she drives her speedboat at not less than 55 mph. Fortunately, for my nervous system, heavy traffic limited her speed in the Trooper to not much more than 30 mph.

She took me to that splendid new mall called the Market Place near Sandy Gully Bridge and to a restaurant there called China Express where I enjoyed a most excellent meal partly consisting of marvellous mushrooms and a dish it calls Pan Fried Pork. You should try it over the season. I also enjoyed the company of Derrick Mahfood, who owns the complex, and Abe Dabdoub, both of whom had the terrible task of helping me to overcome my lameness. Derrick was looking well inspite of the Christmas hassle of having to nurse his three shopping complexes, which he owns. Abe was looking surprisingly fit inspite of the trial he had to undergo during the aborted election for the Jamaica Labour Party's deputy leaders. Abe sustained a near miss from the peculiar political enthusiasms of 'Babsy' Grange.

The Market Place is a large and very nicely designed shopping complex which I have not seen before.

All together I had a very nice Christmas treat indeed.

* Morris Cargill is The Gleaner's senior columnist. and has been writing for more than forty-five years.