Moving on

I miss Facebook.  I miss the immediacy of the contact, of being able to share what's happening right now with friends and family (and posting pictures of Beacon Hill Park :-)).  I've always considered Facebook for for the quick and short postings, and the blog for the longer, more philosophical thoughts.  Looks like I may have to change that thought, and adapt ...

So, here's what's been going on:

Lis
Had a great visit with my youngest sister in June.  She had never been to Victoria before, and her only other visit to the west coast was when she was 16, so we packed in the activities.

She saw the Butterfly Gardens, Moss Rock Park, Fisherman's Wharf.  She ate fish and chips at The Fish Store, Tea at the Empress, Legendary Hamburgers at the White Spot, and the buffet on the Spirit of British Columbia.  She went to a Harbour Cats baseball game, the Royal BC Museum, and the Hop On Hop Off Tour.  She visited with Allison and her family, Bryan, Chuck and Jacquie, and a friend in Vancouver.  She took the ferry between Victoria and Vancouver three times!  And she shopped ... and shopped ... and shopped.

We're hoping that she had such a good time that she'll come back!

Retired again
I have retired from my job as a travel agent.  It's been a great three years, and I have learned a huge amount of stuff relative to the travel industry.  I will miss hearing about all the great places to visit, and the friendship of my colleagues.  I won't miss waiting on hold for 40 minutes to talk to the suppliers, fielding calls and emails on my days off, nor the responsibility for making sure nothing goes wrong with your trip.  Now I'll leave all that to my travel agent. 

Trust me:  You really do want to find yourself a good travel agent.

Thuli
One of my (former) clients arranged, through me, to bring a young woman they have been sponsoring for many years to Canada for a visit.  Thuli is from Lesotho, a land-locked country surrounded by South Africa <http://wikitravel.org/en/Lesotho>.  She is such an engaging young woman, and she and my clients were so appreciative of my help with their travel requirements, that she came in to the office to thank me personally. 

Thinking that she might want to meet some people who were more her own age, we hooked her up with Bryan.  Ever the gentleman, Bryan bused up to Royal Oak, picked up Thuli, and then took her around Victoria, introducing her to his favourite hangouts.

And just the other week, Bryan took Thuli, Tom and me out for dinner to the Steamship Grill, where we introduced Thuli to an assortment of seafood that she had never tried before, while Tom made creepy, crawly crab gestures, to her delight.  It was interesting to eat with someone who had never seen a prawn before, asking how much of the thing she was supposed to eat.  (We stopped her from eating the tail :-)).  And she adored the lobster ravioli.

Christmas in July
The Steamship Grill was also the setting for dinner with Allison and John this week.  At Christmas we told them that we would take them out for a grown-up dinner, just them, when the time came that they could spend some time away from the kids.  They had both poured over the menu in anticipation of the event, and came to the table ready to enjoy themselves.  We even convinced Allison to try raw oysters!

Both Tom and I were very impressed that they both refrained from checking in with the babysitter all through dinner.  Word has it that the kids were not at all pleased to find that the parents had skipped out when they weren't looking.

Those McNeil kiddies just get cuter and cuter.  The other day we were waiting for the McNeills to meet us at the corner of Park and Cook so that we could join them on their walk to the park.  Hudson saw us from a block away, and started running, arms outstretched preparatory to giving us hugs, yelling, "I'm coming, I'm coming!"  Doesn't that just warm your heart.

And little Quinn is walking!  Instead of "mama" or "dada", her first word is "HI!"  That charmer will go places.

Goodbye Facebook

I deactivated my Facebook page today.

I've been thinking about it for sometime. It was beginning to feel like I was watching the 12th season of my favourite TV show - not much new going on, just watching out of habit.  Then a friend of mine, who keeps in touch mostly through Facebook, told me about his perception of my life, as seen through my Facebook postings.  Not my life at all.

So, I'm done.  Gone.  No more Facebook for me.

For now ...

Heart of Palm

I'm crocheting this little blanket for Quinn in a cotton/acrylic blend yarn.  Sometimes, just sometimes, I get a feel and sound in my fingers that is just like the feel and sound I get in my head when I eat heart of palm.  Weird ...

Retirement time

My brother retired about a year ago.

It takes time to adjust to retirement: time to find meaning to your life outside of paid work; time to adjust to a lack of scheduling; time to stop worrying about the money that's not coming in every month; time to find the new you.

My brother is there.

A couple of days ago, there was a piece in the paper about the upcoming Beer Week in Victoria.  So we sent him an email with the link and asked, When shall we meet the plane?  A few minutes later, we got a phone call.  I'm on my way! he said.

Yep, he's there.

Busy, busy

I've been trying all week to fit lunch with a friend into my busy schedule.  In the process, I learned that busy, to a retired person (well, this one anyway), means something different from what it used to mean. 

First, two appointments in a single day is busy.  If it is absolutely necessary to have two appointments in a single day, they must be separated by a minimum of three hours.  Walking and busing do not lend themselves to quick turnarounds.  Don't want to have to rush!

Secondly, more than four appointments in a week is busy.  Because, as we all know, there are things that happen in daily life that never make it to the calendar - laundry, grocery shopping, church, paying the bills, etc, etc.  Besides, you have to leave empty spaces in the calendar for those unexpected plans - you know the ones:  Let's go to Beacon Drive in for ice cream! - or - I'm enjoying working on this project - or -  It's too wet to go out, we'll do it tomorrow  - or -  I have to finish this book - or - It's a goofing off (!) day.

Thirdly, unscheduled time means ...relax ... no pressure ... you're retired ... 

So, call me, I'd be glad to meet you for lunch!  Just let me check my schedule ...

 

Musings on a culinary experience

I confess:  I like Kraft Dinner.  When I was a starving immigrant to BC, it was a cheap meal that I could mix up in my electric frying pan (remember them?).  I think you could buy 3 boxes for $1.  Now it's $1 a box, and one of those I-can't-be bothered-to-cook-but-I'm-hungry dishes that satisfies a need, and I still like it.  I just don't eat it as often.  :-)

Then there's carrot cake.  When I worked for Loyalist College, they had a culinary program that held bake sales every Friday.  It was hard not to swoon at the offerings.  Their carrot cake was to die for.  I think what made it so good was the perfect ratio of (extraordinarily wonderful) icing to cake.  Since moving to Victoria, we have found a perfectly acceptable replacement: the carrot cake from Pure Vanilla Bakery in Oak Bay <https://www.facebook.com/PureVanillaBakery/>.  O. M. G.

And milk.  I spent most of my life hating milk.  Then suddenly, around the age of 60, I liked milk!  Not milk with carrot cake (although that is an exceedingly wonderful combination), but Just. Plain. Milk.  And skim milk, no less. Go figure.

There and back again

Things are pretty well back to normal at our house.  Suitcases are unpacked, clothes washed, travel accoutrements put away.  It's hard to believe we've only been home a few days.

Despite the potential disaster from our delayed departure out of Victoria, the rest of the trip was smooth sailing. 

First stop after Los Angeles was San Diego, a new port for us.  The cruise ship docked along side a veterans memorial walkway.  There was a maritime museum made up of about ten different kinds of ships, including a submarine.  Next door to that was an aircraft carrier, one seriously huge piece of equipment.  It was impossible to get a picture of the whole thing, we were so close.  The walkway ended up at a park dedicated to veterans, with tributes to sailors returning from WW2 action (Embracing Peace), and Bob Hope.

Several of the museum ships in the background

The Midway aircraft carrier and The Kiss

Another interesting part of the walkway was the seating.  The local kids had painted ceramic tiles which were then used for the tops of the benches.

Next stop, Cabo San Lucas.  This was our first test of tendering with a walker.  Piece of cake.

Cabo San Lucas gets a lot of cruise ship passengers ...

After Cabo was La Paz, another first for us.  We docked at the commercial port and were bused into town, about 30 minutes away through an arid, brown landscape (and scary curves in the road), to a beautiful seaside town.

 Next, Loreto, about which I've already posted.  Take a look at this beautiful town:

The Town Hall

The square in front of the Town Hall

The Mission

The Mission

The pedestrian-only street

Finally, Puerto Vallarta.  We've been there quite a few times, but this time we were on a mission:  Our friends had asked us to pick up some tea, only available in Mexico, from the Walmart.  Though the store is only a few blocks away from the cruise dock, there is a busy road to cross, with inadequate sidewalks and confusing Walk signs.  It was probably the most challenging aspect of our trip (other than choosing from the dinner menu).  But we did it!  And later that night, our travelling companions, Linda and Brian, presented us with more tea.  They hadn't been sure we would be able to negotiate our way to the store, so they picked some up for us.

It was a pleasure to share our vacation once again with Linda and Brian.  Linda and I went to the same high school, but in different grades, and we first got to know and enjoy her and Brian at our high school reunion cruise last year.  We met each night for dinner, catching up on the day's experiences, and getting to know each other better.  We did a little shopping, saw a few shows, had a few drinks ...

Hmmmm .... Where to go next ....