But a West Coast Berbice resident, Mr. Freddie Persaud, probably made up for the others with a 25-foot high kite he eventually got up in the air at Hope Beach.

He felt it was the biggest kite around this year and it probably was.

However, even at the regular kite-flying haunts such as the Joe Vieira Park just off the Demerara Harbour bridge on the West Bank Demerara, the National Park and the Georgetown sea wall, you could almost count the number of kites in the sky which is mighty unusual at this time of year.

People seemed to be more interested in what they had in their baskets and coolers, which came in all shapes, sizes and colours, or to be just content with catching up on the latest gossip, while the kids had a good romp in the grass or wandered aimlessly around.

Many didn't even bother walking with a kite.

Another departure from tradition, it was pointed out, is that persons are now coming out much later than usual, though this year it may have been because of yesterday's sweltering heat, pegged at between 29 - 31 degrees Celsius.

Things began to pick up somewhere after 13:00 hrs when it was that people began to venture into the streets in spite of the sun, but not without some sort of shelter, usually in the form of an umbrella.

Out at Joe Vieira's, it was more of a picnic mood, with cars and private mini-buses jostling for parking space on either side of the road and whole families encamped under the palm and other species of trees in the park proper.

Many families were also seen encamped outside the Continental Group of Companies head office at Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, which is a relatively new development, as was the sea of marquees and tents along the stretch of seawall between Sheriff Street and just before the Ocean View International Hotel at Liliendaal, on the lower East Coast Demerara.

Further along the coast, things were relatively quiet except for sporadic glimpses of a few kites here and there and the tell-tale drone where families set up picnic sites.

Things were relatively lively up at Hope Beach, where a beer guzzling competition among other side attractions were set to take place later in the afternoon.

It was there we met Persaud, who challenged himself into making a 25 x 19-foot monster of a kite, which he swore was the biggest in the country this Easter.

Hailed from Number Four Village, on the West Coast Berbice, he said it took him about three days to make and with considerable help from friends and neighbours in the village.

He used fishing net to back it so that the paper would hold fast and the aluminum frame was donated by the Rubex firm of the Coldingen Industrial Estate, East Coast Demerara.

Patriotic to the core, he made it in the colours of the national standard, but named it 'Prince Andrew' after his youngest son.

It was not his first time rising to such a challenge.

Three to four years ago he said he made a 15-footer, and last year he made a 20-footer which he raised on Number Six beach, Berbice.

"I like doing the impossible; that's the type of person I am," Persaud said.

Though he wanted to, he said he did not participate in this year's kite-flying competition because the organisers were only putting up $15,000 as the grand prize.

"...and that's just pocket money," Persaud said, since it cost him more than $100,000 to make his kite. The frame alone, which he got gratis, cost about $66,000.

He got it flying with the help of some six men and it turned out to be a showstopper.