Winning streak

A few days ago I won the By-My-Art t-shirt competition. And today, the Prep's Garden video (featured above) which I shot late last year won the TV/video category of the IICA/CARDI Excellence in Agricultural Journalism Award 2009.

As I sat in the prize giving ceremony today, waiting to hear the results, I thought of how great it would be to win ... not just for winning's sake, but because I know the children, their parents, their teachers and the entire school were so excited and pleased when I did the video ... and would be thrilled if it won.

Looking forward to going to the school (my old primary school - The University School) and surprising them on Monday morning at assembly, by announcing the victory.

Splitting the prize money will be the cherry on top.

V is for Vote. V is for Victory.

The winner
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Soon we will be voting for our new Government and (first female) Prime Minister. In the meantime, people voted for t-shirts. The results are below. Love won.

Also, I didn't even realise my father had voted ... much less correctly guessed the top 5 designs in their Guess-the-5-winning-designs part of the contest. He wins a free t-shirt.

(Updated: Correction - it's actually my mother who won the free t-shirt, but she sent her votes via email and daddy's name is on the email. So the organisers thought it was from 'Julian Duncan').

Below is the e-mail from the organisers.

And The (5) WINNERS Are!

1. Elspeth Duncan: 34 votes

2. Jean-Marc Hunt: 19 votes

3. Ibrahim Miranda: 19 votes

4. Mario Lewis: 15 votes

5. Tamara Tam-Cruickshank: 15 votes

6. Omar Lewis: 12 votes

7. Seon Thompson: 11 votes

8. Hassan Hajjaj: 10

9. Hadassah Emmerich: 8

10. Raimi Gbadamosi: 8

Julian Duncan is the WINNER of a free By-My-Art T-shirt for predicting the winning designs.

By-My-Art will like to sincerely thank all the participating artists who gave their time to prepare and submit their designs. Without your contribution this project would not have been possible. Most importantly we want to thank [YOU] all our By-My-Art supporters. Our journey has only just begun.

We have some very new and interesting developments to share with you as the Trinidad and Tobago Fashion Week gain momentum. Look out for new announcements and giveaways.

www.bymyart2010.blogspot.com

Good news is green

(l. to r.) Elspeth Duncan, President of Greenlight Network; Akilah Jaramogie, managing director, Fondes Amandes Community Reafforestation Project; Senator the Honourable Dr. Emily Dick-Forde, Minister of Planning Housing and the Environment
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Congratulations to all members of the Greenlight Network who, in spite of challenges, remained committed, worked hard and today, can say that our efforts have paid off.

Click here to read the good news.

All-expenses-paid French vacation for two

The bow on my French prize.
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Take a wild guess as to what my French prize was ... then scroll down to read the answer.

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My French prize is an "Oxford French Dictionary PLUS Grammar and Culture Guide". The woman who went up before me received the prize for French Level 1. Then I went up and received for French Level 2 (the class I was in last year). Then was a woman for French Level 3. We all got dictionaries. They got huge ones (like encyclopaedias), but mine was much smaller (like a thick novel) - 8 inches high by 5 inches wide by 2 inches deep.

One might find that a dictionary is a strange prize, given that most language students already have dictionaries. But, according to the Level 1 woman, the ones we got are "the recommended ones".

When we got back to our seats the Level 3 woman said to me: "But how come we got such big ones and they gave you that small one?"

"Because mine is for traveling with," I said in all seriousness. I then added that I would no doubt find my plane tickets (for two to Paris) between the pages when I unravel the bow.

A good experience, nice to be acknowledged, encouraging to have won something, especially when I wasn't even expecting it.