I woke up at 6:20am on Tuesday so you know your girl did not plan on meeting Spice for the designated 6:30am on Charlotte Street. I don't know why I didn't remember that this corset takes forever to lace up, so I was a little late. Eventually I left Chaguanas at 7:50am. I met my make up artiste, Makeda at Methuen Street, near Wrightson Rd for my appointment. As I came out of the car the long gold chain on the belt got caught in my stockings and cut my inner thigh. Imagine the stockings ripped and I didn't even have on my make up yet! Note to Spice: Do not include pieces that will rip stockings! Anyway, it was a good thing I had on 2 pairs of stockings so I removed one and used clear nail polish to fix the snag in the second one. So I got the make up done, which I loved! Another successful year with Makeda from Shades of Sugar...
I then met the band near Memorial Park on Charlotte Street at 10:00 am; I couldn't believe they had not even crossed the stage at this point. I had already made up my mind to miss the Savannah stage since I would have been late, so I was glad that I would be able to cross. Now at this point, it's really hot and not a drinks truck in sight and we clearly weren't going anywhere anytime soon. I then succumbed and bought one of the $12 (yes, $12) bottle waters. About an hour later, we crossed the stage to Palance with Thailand crossing second to last; no scene, we real Palance on that stage (although no one saw me on TV!) and went on to the lunch stop.
Sad to say the rest stop situation did not improve on Tuesday. This time, I had the spaghetti and meatballs with a heavy dose of dust. To quote the security guard from the previos day, just geh meh some pelau. I don't know what people have against pelau, once the pelau taste good, I happy; I don't need anything fancier than that. So I touched up the make up and did not use the portable toilets, since again, there was no toilet paper and soap to wash your hands. Then we were on our way to Ariapita Ave.
Ariapita was the worse part of the route; it seemed like we were standing there for hours in the heat. I made my way several times to the cool down bus and was turned away since the both buses were filled. I finally got a seat and questioned why this was called a "cool down" bus; since the bus was more like a sweat bus; no AC in the bus. But, I really needed to sit for a while and recharge. I must mention the girl who was a part of the Spice Committee who came in the bus and smoked her cigarette; did I mention the bus was hot? She's lucky that the tobacco law came into effect on Ash Wednesday...
After a brief nap on the sweat bus, I was ready for the Adam Smith stage. We Palanced some more and by this time, we had 2 frontline girls. out of about eight. I think the Thailand headpiece was too big and uncomfortable for the frontliners. I still however, suffered from Frontline envy. Last year as a frontliner, I posed for dozens of photographs and blushed at the endless compliments. So next year for sure I will be reclaiming my frontline status; frontliners have more fun...talk done!
After clearing Ariapita ave, we made our way to the downtown stage which went at a good pace. By this time, I hungry since I only took a few bites out of the lunch. I saw some people with aloo pies and quickly got excited because the aloo pies sell off last year. But wait...where did the aloo pies come from? I never saw anyone distributing the pies but people were eating pies...so I kept asking persons where they got the pies, to which I got the response, the man just pass. I couldn't understand how I kept missing these just pass aloo pies so again I succumbed and purchased a hot dog from one of the vendors by Central bank. Lo and behold, 45 minutes later, I see the man with aloo pies while waiting to cross the downtown stage...I grabbed that aloo pie so fast and crossed the stage holding on to half of the pie!
Well downtown was my last palance and I headed back up to Chaguanas about 6:45pm. I wasn't that tired but my feet hurt like a bitch....I couldn't wait to get my feet in a foot bath with hot water and epsom salts.
I did have a great time in Spice and I did not have a bad experience like so many other masqueraders. My costume registration and collection was a breeze. I did not experience any bad attitudes from any of the Spice Management team. I did not mind being in the the back of the band since music at the back was really vibesy and we had a main bar that was always stocked so that was a nice surprise. For the most part I loved my costume but the lack of gems on the corset was very disappointing. Initially I was told by Spice that frontliners did not have the corset option, which I found unfair but there were a couple frontliners with corsets so why didn't I get that option? I already addressed the negatives such as the food, rest stop and the cool down bus. These little luxuries are what keep people going back to bands like Tribe where masqueraders can see what they are paying for. These are the real missing ingredients that make the experience worth it. I think my main issue was that last year I really enjoyed myself because the band had a more intimate feeling due to the small numbers. Spice is definitely not ready to operate as a large band...keep it small or medium and give your masqueraders the best service and costume quality.
Will I be in Spice next year? I'm willing to give them another chance once I could get a frontline costume that's reasonable, pretty and comes with a corset.....
