Monday – 14^th April

“Storms come, and are so personal, they seem to know your address and have the key to your house.”  – Reverend Jesse Jackson

Woke up pretty tired after way too much fun over the last 4 days. This will have to be a slow day for me. The weather is changing with high humidity and a heavy storm brewing for later in the afternoon.

My main mission this morning is to head down to the Island of Salvation Botanica to visit Sallie Anne Glassman who is a highly regarded New Orleans Mambo (Voodoo Doctor). Our own Kerri Simpson is very close friends with Sallie and Kerri has given me a copy of her incredible new C.D. 4 A.M. to present to Sallie as a gift. Last year when I was in town I had a crystal ball reading as well as a Gris Gris bag made for me by Sallie. It is only a 15 minute walk from where I am staying and I can cut through Frenchman St to get there. I will fill you in on Frenchman St. in my next post. Alas when I got there I was told that Sallie was out of town for a couple of weeks. I will still be in ‘awlins when she gets back so I will catch up then.

I went back to Frenchman and decided to call into the Louisiana Music Factory. LMF is just about the best record store on the planet. It has only just relocated to Frenchman and I will be hard pressed not to spend many a dollar there. Alas it was not opening for another half hour.

It is getting close to 11 and I have not yet had breakfast. I know of a cheap place to eat near the French Market. The Magnolia Grill has good food and I can relax and write down a few notes. I am not overly hungry and I guess my body clock is still all astray. I opted for pancakes with bacon and maple syrup washed down with a Barg’s Root Beer. The waiter is a cool guy and he said he recognized me from last year. It is good to feel like a local although he maybe tells that to everyone?

I heard my name being called and looked up to see my neighbour having breakfast with his young daughter. Maybe I am a local!

I wondered off after eating to head back to the apartment and I ran into one of the local characters who goes by the name of Anzie. Last year when Wendy was in town we had a chat about all sorts of things. He is a 60 something hippie and he sounds like a throw- back to Woodstock. In fact last year he told us all about his hilarious adventures at the said music festival. There were a group of tourists eating gumbo and having their tour guide tell them about this delicious New Orleans staple. I overheard the tour guide ask the group if any of them knew what file was? I waited a few minutes as there was no answer forthcoming. I put up my hand and the tour guide said ‘yes sir, what is your answer’. I said file comes from the Sassafras tree. The tourists who were by the way American were a little stunned when I answered correctly in a strange accent. I’m the man!

I gave up with the Internet connection back at the apartment and went to the Radio Shack on Canal and purchased a mobile Wi-Fi. The store person was very good as she set it up for me. It works a treat. It is 4G that is real 4G not like the Telstra shit you get back home that says it is 4G but operates all the time at 3G. You sure notice a difference with the speed.

As I started typing up the blog an almighty crack of thunder heralded the start of a very heavy storm. Time was around 3P.M. and the rain continued through for the next 6 hours. Thunder and lightning incessantly. If ya’ll are a first time visitor to New Orleans and one of these storms rolls in then you think you may think you are an extra in Russell Crow’s Noah but the locals just take it in their stride. I was going to have a quiet night anyway. At least I had some left over Dirty Rice in the fridge from last night’s tea. Dirty rice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_rice