YUH KNOW YUH IS AH TRINI IF.....

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cartoon © Halcian Pierre

You refer to all salt crackers as "Crix".
You recognize the names Dave Elcock and Rennie B.
You know the meaning of the word "obzokie".
You point with your lips...and you give directions with your hands... even if it's in another state (yuh jus go up de road and when yuh see...)
You go to parties for the food... and the word free never quite had the same meaning.
You nod your head upwards to greet someone... and sideways when the joke stale.
Your recipe for making orange juice is plenty water, plenty sugar, plenty ice and only 2 orange... and "ah pak ah red kool-aid tuh stretch it..."
You say "boy" at the beginning of a sentence and "man" at the end of it... and the words "yes we" doesn't refer to any people...
You hate to wait in long lines, a habit you adopted from the days of pushing to get into "pit" to see a movie.
'Priority' doesn't have anything to do with what you have to do right away.
You always turn around when someone says "Psssssssst"... except for when you make out the person first and you're duckin' them.
You say "Soooo looooong" instead of "Yes, I'm done" when somebody asked you if you finished the job already ...even if you don't even know what job that person is talking about.
You have "knick knacks" all over your home... and a glass cabinet or a space saver to put them in.
You put ketchup and peppersauce on your pizza. Anchovies? Yuh lossin it or what?
You make a drink and ice cream with peanut butter but you never put it on bread with jelly... but you might put it on your dixie biscuits
You think eating salted cod fish and fried bread is a great morning meal.
Your cupboards are full of canned corned beef, pepper sauce and red beans and baked beans ...and a dry coconut for the pelau.
You think steak is a waste of good meat. You rather cut it up and stew it with some potatoes instead ... or curry it and make roti.
You use your finger to measure the water when cooking rice.
You have shares in kool-aid.
You bring home food from a party. The word "storm" has nothing to do with the weather.
You hate the saying "Today is a beautiful day" from someone who don't know where you came from. "What goin on these days?" and "I jus dey" mean "Hello, how are you?" and I'm fine" respectively.
You think your rum and Carib beer are the best in the world and you hate it when nobody heard of them ...and you'll probably have some in your cabinet at home...wherever you may live.
You put ice in your beer ...and you chew the ice when you're finished with the beer. Drinking wine is too sissy ...wine is for fruits.
You still say "Father Christmas" and "Old Years' night" ...and "dis August holidays" actually start in July.
You show disappointment by sucking on your teeth (steupsing) ...and you can conjugate "ah steupse" by age four (three if yuh smart).
You still call a soda a "sweet drink" and an avocado, a "zaboca". .and you go to the shoprite clerk and ask them "whe allyuh have de breez?" meaning "where is the laundry detergent?".
You say "whappenin" even at a funeral.
You tell the host "Good Night" when you arrive at someone's home in the evening.
You wash the "wares" after having dinner.
When someone pays you a compliment, you say "Doh mamaguy meh".
When someone sympathises with you, you comment "Yuh think it easy?".
You refer to all sweet, coloured juice as "Kool-Aid".
You call a quarter a "schilling" when this really means 24 cents.
You know that using "blue" makes white clothes whiter.
Just because something is called a "bake" you don't assume that it indicates the way it was cooked.
You have at least one relative living in either England, Canada, or the US.
You either see, speak to, lime with, or hear about at least one of your "ex's" regularly.
You know that a washy-kong bears no relationship to King Kong.
You know about straightening, pressing, S-curls and Gherri curls regardless of your ethnic background.
You have cancelled plans because of rain even when you're going to be indoors ...Rain is also a legitimate reason to be late for a rendez-vous... or to miss work.
You know someone with a gold tooth.
You know someone with their name either on their belt buckle or their chain.
You call all vaccinations injections.
You are able to recite at least one (or several) line(s) from Sesame Street.
You have been to at least one party where you have seen the sun rise.
You know someone named after either: flora:- Flora, Fern, Rose, Lily, Petal, Holly (B.) or colour:- Blackie, Blue, Pinky, Violet, Hazel or maybe even a car:- Cressida, Nissan.
You know the meanings of: "washing wares"; "straightening a room"; "bodice"; "sucking yuh teeth"; "cut-eye"; "hot foot"; "bouff".
All dish washing detergents are called "Squezy".
You still give people (youself included) "meggies".
A rubber is an eraser.
You know of at least one person who wakes up at 4am to LISTEN to cricket from Australia / New Zealand on the RADIO.
On at least one occasion you have: been told that you have a cold in some part of your anatomy other than your head or chest and/or had a virus named after something popular with the times eg. Bionic, Ninja, the Hijab, the Hangman and the Sting.
Despite lack of interest, someone has tried to convince you of the benefits of taking a purge, or becoming a born again.
You can feel cold when it's 25°C.
No matter how old you are, you still call your parents Mummy and Daddy.
You use baby powder. You still eat fries with ketchup AND MUSTARD.
You call fries "chips".
You pronounce words in plural, even though it's meant to be singular, eg."gimme ah COKES" or "ah GRAPES".
You say "FLIM" (film), "AXE" (ask) or "PITIAH"(picture), "STATELLITE" (satellite), "CUTLASH" (cutlass), WAPS (wasp)
You know what "Wukking a 10-days" is, and know darn well it's going to take much longer than 10 days. .
You know the meaning of several Indian words, eg. "dahl", "bahgee", "channa", "bharra", "chunkae", "bowgee" and use them in every language ...and actually believe them to be the correct English terms. .
You know that a lime is not necessarily a fruit.
You call little kids "po po" or "betah" and your girl/boyfriends "daahlin" or "pungkin".
You eat "wild meat" - stuff that some people keep as pets or may consider disgusting animals; like Iguana, Lappe, Matte, Tattoo (not the skin paintings) or Manicou.
You call any 'older' woman "Tantie" and any 'older' man "Uncle", regardless of whether or not they are related to you or even know you.
You could sing an entire Parang song in Spanish word for word, but don't speak or understand a word of Spanish.
You know who "Anansi" and "Papa Bois" are.
You can't bring yourself to using the correct "scientific" names of sensitive body parts because you think it sounds vulgar. Instead you use child-like words such as "tot tots", "totie", "bam bam" or "bumsy" and "tun tun" or "toonie".
You love Soca and know the meanings of RAMAJAY and DINGOLAY.
When in doubt of how to prepare something to eat ... CURRY is the always the solution.
You know Trinis will curry any and everything (not just meat) even mango, fish, conch, chataigne, etc...
You can call your fellow "countryman" by an ethnic name and it would be ok, eg. chinee-man, creole, doegs, or pyol.
When you ask for PEPPER you don't mean ground black pepper.

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