Ahmad: I’m salivating over Christmas dinner with the Fennells
Published:Wednesday | December 9, 2020 | 12:20 AM
United Kingdom High Commissioner Asif Ahmad still savours the flavour of foods from his first Christmas in Jamaica, and he is making belly room for more helpings later this month.
Ahmad, whose tour of duty in Jamaica began in 2017, reminisces on his maiden experience of Christmas here courtesy of former athletics administrator Mike Fennell, whom he first met at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.
“My luck would have it, the very first event I attended upon arrival in Jamaica was at The Pegasus hotel. I walked into the reception and the first person I see is Mike Fennell,” Ahmad said of the veteran sports administrator, a former president of the Commonwealth Games Federation.
Their friendship has blossomed since then.
Fennell jumped at the opportunity to invite the high commissioner for Christmas dinner when he discovered he hadn’t already made plans.
“He said, ‘Well, you can’t spend Christmas by yourself.’
“So he invited us to spend Christmas with him and his family. What is significant about that is that we not just the only foreigners at his Christmas celebration, we were the only outsiders. So we were treated as family,” he said.
Ahmad told The Gleaner that he had everything that was usually consumed in Jamaica at Christmastime.
“I had delicacies that I have never had before. We had a sweet potato bake pudding with marshmallows and all the traditional things that you have,” he said.
Ahmad hopes Fennell invites him again for another Christmas get-together despite COVID-19.
“... If his family is under the required 15, we will happily join him,” Ahmad quipped.
He said the Christmas was a time for family and albeit COVID-19-affected.
“I’m looking forward to sending off my cards,” he said.