SUN SUN SUN, BURN BURN BURN

We are having so much fun, albeit still a little quiet.  Its taken quite some time to get the car set up and there is still more to do.

We spent a good part of yesterday at a nearby beach.  The waves were gentle and the sun hot!  Poor April, no matter how much sunblock she puts on, plus a shirt, she still burns.  Other than staying right out of the sun I am not sure what she is supposed to do.

Myles on the other hand, is turning dark as a monkey.  Before we headed to the beach they spent some time in the pool practising their snorkelling.   Myles is a 'fixer'.  Thank goodness…everything eventually has something wrong with them, and he fixes it!  Quite ingeniously sometimes!  He spent some time working on the snorkelling equipment getting it all up to snuff!

We  haven't been going out to eat.  We have been bbq'ing here at home.  So yesterday we decided we should go out.  We headed up to Haiku to Colleen's at the Cannery.  We went there with Cookie and Brian last year and we were totally shocked by the size and amount of the fish and chips.  So, with hopes that things hadn't changed, both Spod and Myles ordered fish and chips.  And it didn't disappoint.  FIVE giant pieces of fish and a mound of perfectly fried chips.  Crazy!!!  And guess what?  They ate it all (with just a little help from April and I!)

Today is a stay home day for me.  The condo is a total mess and needs some serious work put in.  Plus of course laundry.  Also I bought short ribs at costco so now I must cook 'em.  Ahhhh…life is good.  Except, Spod has just announced he has misplaced the car registration.  You can't imagine the red tape crap we will have to go through if we don't find it.  'sigh'.  I shall now go and look too.  I will post a few pics…sorry face book people, I have taken so few that I have to double up.  I usually try to put different pics in the two places, and I shall be, but I need to get out there and get some pics!  TTYL

SPOD IS DRIVING ME CRAZY

Spod is driving me nuts!  LOL!!!  He won't leave me alone….(whine).  He won't stop making mean remarks…yesterday he called me a 'great big horse' and 'Mrs. Elephant'.  He won't drive more than 25 mph.  He won't move over into the right hand lane.  He shows off and gets REALLY goofy when Myles and April are around.  At least 300 times a day he says either "I don't remember" or "I don't know"…and those are answers to things only he would know.  And worst of all he eats constantly.  Even April has been complaining about this.  

Yesterday he had breakfast.  Then a short while later we were at the mall and he had a big plate of refried beans, eggs and rice.  Then one hour later at Walmart he had fries and chicken nuggets at McD's.  He just eats constantly…and the really bad part?  He still loses weight!!!  April and I have concluded its because he is old.

Other than that, we have had a good couple of days.  The kids are staying three weeks rather than the normal two.  Its amazing how that extra week takes the pressure off constantly ripping about trying to get everything in.  The last two days we have been busy shopping for the necessities and getting the car set up.  Unfortunately, the bad weather that the previous condo stayers were afflicted by, continues.  

Yesterday we went into Walmart, stayed about half an hour or more and when we went to leave it was like the heavens had opened and the rain pounded down.  We saw more rain in the first five minutes than we had seen in the previous two years.  It wasn't raining in Kihei though…that is why we bought here.

Today we take the convertible back.  If it doesn't clear up it just may end up being a drive around day.  I would normally make it a baking day but with all the roaches in that kitchen I ain't cooking anything. 

 I opened up the dishwasher and a giant huge back roach was scuttling around the bottom.  I almost fainted.  I frigging hate those f___ers.  In the night last night I went into the kitchen to get a drink.  The stove light was on and there were hundreds of them all over the ceiling and walls.  I can't wait until April 3 when the exterminator comes and bombs the place.  I am aware that they don't hurt you and they are necessary in the whole ecological plan of Hawai'i, but they need to begone out of my kitchen!

Enough for now.  I still have not taken even one picture.  I think I am losing my touch.  I will go and take two pics or three and post them.  TTYL

WE DID NOT BUY ALL OF THIS...

WE MADE IT…BARELY!

That was one brutal plane ride.  There was almost no turbulence.  All the passengers were friendly and happy.  There were no screaming babies.  The crew were hilarious and entertaining.  So what was so brutal you ask? 

 The heat.  It was so flipping hot on the plane we almost died.  I would say it had to be in the high eighties.  Everybody was dying, but only in the few rows right where we were sitting.  Ten rows back it was lovely and cool.  Six rows ahead the same.  But the block of seats we were in were ridiculous and the air blowing out of that tiny hole above did nothing.  When we mentioned it to one of the crew all he said was "well if you think this is hot, you shouldn't be going to Maui!"  Asshat!!

The trip seemed to be so long.  We were up at five thirty am and on the road by 7:30.  I say so easily. It wasn't without its angst amongst the troops.  Travel PMS we call it.  But we got going and had a lovely breakfast on the ferry.  On the other side we missed the turnoff for the airpot and did a twenty kilometre detour, ending right back where we missed the turnoff.  Oh well…we had lots of time.  We met Aryn at the airport for lunch and had a fabulous time with her.  Then started the four hour tedious wait.   Anyway here we are and it was so good to get into our condo.

But…upon going into the kitchen, there were cockroaches (inevitable in this climate) fairly big ones that can fly, all over the kitchen.  I had to grab the fly swatter and start swinging.  There are still a lot and we have an exterminator coming on April 3.  Until then we shall exterminate manually!

Today we kept it simple.  We have a convertible for two full days until we get our car re insured and registered (they register their cars every six months here).  Today we hit McD's for breakfast, ABC store for visors and sunblock then off to Paia to show Myles Stonertown.  This is where Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, and willy Nelson all own places.  What does that tell you?!! We then went out to Turtle Beach (Ho okeepa Point) and spent some time there.  On the way home we stopped at Costco and loaded up.  Now Spod is in bed (and its only four o'clock), the kids are at the pool and I am blogging.

I forgot to post the above.  It is now Friday morning, early!  Everyone is still asleep.  We went to the hot tub last night (while Spod still slept).  Its always interesting..meeting different people with their different life histories.  

 Today April and Myles are going to stay here and go to the pool and nearby beach etc.  Spod and I are going into to town to regulate our little car and buy some crocs for Spod.  He is like a kid…no matter what we buy he will still trip (he drags his feet now, he can't feel them cuz of diabetes) and blame the shoes.  'sigh'  So TTYL  and I shall include a few pics in the next post.

TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH THIS WEEKS CHALLENGE

Yeah, don't think I will get right on this one.  She is promoting the old school mantra that you MUST eat breakfast to get your metabolism going yada yada yada.  She obviously has not kept up with the latest research.

The latest research has gone back to the old line…eat when you are hungry.  If you are not hungry in the morning, do not force yourself to eat.  That is just plain ridiculous.  Wait until you feel hunger, eat only enough to satisfy and make every mouthful healthy and tasty.  That is the latest research findings.  It is never a good idea to go against your body's natural instinct or rhythm.  Now, if you ARE hungry first thing…then eat.  Pretty simple and easy.

It is now eleven in the morning, our last day here for some time to come.  Monte and Spod headed down to the passport office and Monte will have his passport by April 8.  They also went up to the kennel so Monte could see where it is.

Now its hair washing (shovel list), final packing and cleaning.  We have gone through this routine soooo many times now I could pack blindfolded.  And this time my suitcase is only 35 pounds!

Oh dear.  Spod just handed me a giant full page ad from some newspaper he picked up at the bank.  It is an ad against pipelines, bill 4 (which probably no one even knows what it is about) and the changes proposed for industrial exploration in our parks.  As he handed it to me he made some remark about the Tides Foundation funding the tree huggers.

 You see, Spod thinks the world will go to hell in a handbasket if the pipeline doesn't go through.  I don't necessarily agree with him on each point and unfortunately we simply cannot discuss this issue like two mature adults.  Within three sentences we have descended into the hurling of insults and nasty assertions.  I told him a long time ago that we will have to agree to disagree and to never bring the subject up again.  And he just did.  So I must go now and throw the paper back at him and tell him to keep his opinions to himself!   Next post…..Maui!!!!  TTYL

WE PASSED!!!I t

Our dogs passed the test!!  We took them up there, all cleaned up and lectured about behaviour.  But as we walked away, up the hill to the car, we heard first Parker barking then Molly.  We froze to the spot, and waited.  After a few barks they stopped and we didn't hear them again.  When we went back two hours later they were all quiet and waiting.  Parker was somewhat addled, but we had already said he probably would be.  So we are in!!!

Now we need to turn our heads to finishing up a little more business and paperwork and finish up our packing.  I think I finally am getting excited but with all the talk lately of crashed or disappeared planes it kind of makes me more nervous than usual.  In the past I have been a very terrified reluctant flyer.  But I made a decision a long time ago that I would never ever let that fear dictate whether I ever travelled or not.  As the kids have become independent and not needing a 'mommy' anymore it has become a little less stressful.  Plus, having an ironclad well thought out will that takes care of everyone helps.

Plus, we are going for three months this time.  This will be our longest time away from home.  For the first three weeks April and Myles will be there.  Then Cookie will be there for an additional week after the kids leave.  Then on the 30th of April Monte comes over for three weeks.  One week after he leaves Aryn and Bradley come for two weeks.  And then three weeks after that we come home!  So I have a feeling the time is going to fly by.

I am signing off now…time to go pack.  TTYL

RIDICULOUS (SHOVEL LIST SHOVEL LIST SHOVEL LIST)

Jesus H but I do NOT like dog people.  Now, I am not talking about the normal people out there that own and love their dog, just like us folks.  I am talking about the over the top, sick in the head people, the ones that would literally expire and die if their 28 year old crippled dog finally kicks the bucket.  Sure, it is a very very sad event, worthy of tears and angst, but NOT gnashing of teeth, ripping out hair for years and years.

As you know we leave next week for Maui, April and Myles will be coming with us for three weeks.  We have commandeered Monte to come down with Keenai to doggy sit for us.  But, for two of those upcoming days he has to be in Vancouver, thus it was necessary for me to find a kennel here in Victoria.  

I went on line and found an awesome looking place just up the road from our house here.  Yesterday I called to see if they had room.  And there it was, over the top dog crazy woman who owns the place, answers the phone.  First of all she says that she is busy doing something with a 'client' (meaning a dog) and she didn't want to upset him by disturbing the flow of whatever it was she was doing with him and she took my number and said she would call back.  An hour later I almost got out the laptop to find another kennel.

She finally did call and promptly told me that she had some questions.  Had the dogs been there before?  No.  Had I read the complete website before calling them?  No.  Was I aware that because they had owned and run this kennel for a million years that they don't have to 'admit' just any dog?  No.  She proceeded to tell me that they have a 'gentle introduction' process we must go through before they will agree to adding our dogs to their client list.  So I asked, " exactly what are you looking for?  My dogs are just ordinary dogs, they don't bark, they don't bite, they have their vet papers, and they will all go together in one kennel."

"Well," she hesitantly replied, "We still have to make sure that they will fit in with dog code that we adhere to.  We expect you to bring your little family to us for intros.  Then within a few days we would like you to leave them with us for two hours, just to see how they are.  If all goes well, we will welcome them to our family."  Jeez!!!  Like I have time for this crap.  They are just dogs!!!!

This morning I got Spod up and we brushed the dogs so they would look really nice, we made them do extra poos outside so there would be no embarrassing accidents, we stopped on the way up there so they could get an extra run in so they would be quieter and calmer.  We pulled into the parking lot and quietly let them out of the car, leashes on and in hand.  My heart was pounding and I was very nervous.  I was trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong, even though we have the best behaved dogs in the whole world.

And they did behave beautifully!  Other dogs that were there barked and jumped as we walked down the long cement ally way between the long two rows of kennels.  Our dogs stayed quiet and calm, bless them.  We talked about Keenai, who couldn't be there for this pre visit intro and by now I could see that what the lady was most concerned about was barking, so I told her that Keenai had been in the family for a year and we have still not heard him bark.  Not once.  

So, (shovel list) tomorrow morning, bright and early, we are taking Parker and Molly up to the kennel for a play date, just to see how they behave and see if they can adhere to the "code".   God, give me a break.  Just in case though I have another lady lined up that takes dogs.  No intros or dog code there, just a lady making ends meet by doggy sitting.  My kind of person.  She has really good reviews too.  I think the one that we are taking them to tomorrow doggy sits the MLA's dogs, judging by the pics on the wall.  Jeez, maybe OUR dogs will be besmirched by close contact with the wrong type of dog.  Hahahaha!!!

Not much else to report.  Spod won't move the ugly containers of plants from the middle of the lawn.  I tried but he sticks out his bottom lip and refuses.  I mean the kids will be having to do a lot of mowing and you can't move those things every time…just doesn't make sense.  So instead of fighting with him I talked with April.  She and Myles will move them when they get back from Maui.  There are good places that look so much better for them to be.

We have been doing our blood sugar.  I bought new strips to be accurate and April's blood is right bang on where it should be (4.9).  Mine is 6.2.  And Spod's is…..wait for it……19.9.  I know it kind of shocked him when he saw that.  But, you can't down a quart of ice cream and expect your blood sugar to stay down.  In Maui I am going to test his blood every day…denial will be impossible!  It makes a difference to what you choose to NOT eat when you know your numbers are that high.

Off to bed now.  I will report tomorrow how the doggy play date went.  Ah jeez…give me a bucket.  TTYL

DAMN DAMN DAMN…MASSIVE FAIL

I have NOT walked the dog.  I have NOT eaten vegetables.  I have NOT drunk a ton of water.  I have NOT taken my shoes off at the door.  I have NOT done any of the challenges.  None of them.  I have managed to lose a bit of weight but I have not done anything…but sit in my chair.  I am going to get purple room thrombosis at this rate.  I am trying to feel bad, or guilty or something negative….but I don't.

Fortunately my cousin came for dinner last night so I had to move around a little yesterday.  I did some cleaning, nagged Spod to do a few things and made dinner with a load of help from April.  Dinner was mighty tasty and the visiting was even better.  Had a great time.

This morning we got up early (for us), got ourselves dressed and headed down to a diner called Floyd's.  They were featured on that show Diners and Dives..or whatever.  Wow!!!  The amount of food on our plates was obscene!  I ordered the BC Hash…and on the plate was a mound of food half a foot high!  Deep fried potato pieces, bacon chunks, sausage pieces, onions, scrambled eggs and probably more but I couldn't tell.  I ate and ate and ate and ate and I still brought home a huge amount of food.

Well tomorrow is office day.  I have so much banking to square off, phone calls to make, papers to fill out and fax or mail, orders to phone and stop.  One of them being that really stupid facial system I bought.  Man, when am I ever going to learn.  NO BUYING CRAP OFF THE TV!!  Am I going to look like Cindi Crawford, or Marie Osmond, or Valerie Bertanelli??  NO, I think not! I am not going to use that stuff and another very expensive box of that stuff arrived at my door, uninvited, unordered and not wanted.  So I have emailed them and ordered them to stop but I am going to phone and talk to a human to just make sure.

I used it fairly regularly on the trip and it made absolutely no difference.  My skin is getting wrinkly, I have brown spots, I have blackheads and great cavernous pores.  I can live with that.  I can't live with spending 70 bucks uselessly on this irreparable mug, which I can happily live with.  They just caught me at a weak, vain moment.  Sigh and (shovel list)  I think I will just concentrate on losing weight to help my hip.  But you know, if I actually DO lose 120 pounds, I will have skin dragging on the ground behind me.  You can't win!  TTYL

I THINK I HAVE FOUND IT

I think I have finally found a really strong form of motivation.  Its called pain.  Pain is scary, inconvenient, 'painful', and to be avoided at all costs.  And the 'cost' in my scenario here is going to be food.

I haven't mentioned it too much lately but my hip has become so painful I can't do anything anymore.  I know I mentioned not being able to lift boxes without painful consequences or sleeping in a chair rather than a bed.  But now even walking has become awful.  And dragging around a giant stomach and eating inflaming foods does NOT help.  And I have known this all along, but clearly while the pain was still livable with it didn't seem to spur me  to healthier living.  Such a dumb ass.

So now here I am, glued to my stupid chair, gasping in pain every time I move the wrong way, or try to get up or even turning my head the wrong way.  I now have to add extreme anger to it all.  I am so angry and disgusted with myself.  And not only that, I have become a burden to those around me.  Dumb dumb dumb.

But…I am now motivated.  Every single time my hip zaps me painfully I remind myself to not eat inflammatory stuff (and I know what that stuff is) or I remind myself to not over eat.  I treat those awful flashes of pain as not so gentle reminders of why I need to lose 120 pounds and to start getting more fit.  I am turning that pain into a motivator.  

I apologize for dumping all this out but you can blame my old life coach.  He told me that putting crap out into the atmosphere helps with the commitment.  So as added motivation I am putting it out there.

I sent Spod off today to Costco to do the shopping for dinner tomorrow night.  Cousin Dorothy is coming over for dinner (meatloaf, baked spuds, brussels sprouts and caesar salad.  And…

I think I mentioned that I ended up, kind of against my wanting, keeping the Fitz & Floyd colourful mugs.  I have planned to use them for individual desserts.  So I am making a kind of individual trifles using those little biscuit cinnamon swirl buns, butterscotch pudding, apple pie filling and whipping cream.  None for me of course…and if I am tempted I will just turn the wrong way!!  Haha!!  I love Dorothy!  We shall have a nice long gossip!

All for now.  Again, sorry about the lame (no pun intended) post.  TTYL  ps:  I thought I would include a few pics from the last trip.  Possibly there will be duplicates…but I will try not to.

IF YOU CAN SEE THROUGH THE SMOG…THAT IS AN OPERA HOUSE IN HONG KONG AND THAT WHOLE FRONT IS HAND BUILT BAMBOO SCAFFOLDING.

A REALLY OLD MANGROVE TREE BOTTOM

THIS WAS THE MOST FUN WE HAD ON THE WHOLE TRIP

RAIN RAIN RAIN

WEEK 12 CHALLENGE AND CRAZY TOWN

Breathe deeply.  Thats it, the challenge.  Stop now and then and take five or so deep deep breaths.  Try to learn to take deeper breaths on a regular basis.  She goes into great detail on how and where and why and what it does to the body.  A good idea.

This post is going to maybe offend some people…people that just might have an affinity to Port Alberni.  We saw the article that came out last week about Port being the worst town in Canada, not just BC but all of Canada, to live in.  And..in a lot of parts of Port Alberni, I must agree.  But right now I am only talking about right where Monte lives.

Its crazy.  At the end of this post I have put a little video..I hope it works.  Monte lives right smack in the centre of drug and crazyville.  Across the street from him is a row building of low rent, flat roof, little apartments.  It looks like a six door motel.  A regular turnover of drug dealers rent some of the rooms.  One of the places the curtains have been shut for fifteen years.  Behind those curtains lives a true recluse we only see once in a blue moon.  He is what the rest of the world refers to as 'tin foil hat' man and is a huge conspiracy theorist.  He plays a mean guitar though!

Right across the alley, right where Monte's bedroom windows face, is a run down dilapidated little tiny house.  A young first nations fellow lives there.  He is quite charming.  We met him when we first took over Monte's house from the previous owner.  But…rumour has it he is a pot dealer.  Every single morning about three guys roll out of that house, pass a smoke around and hack and cough until their lungs are on the ground, wiggling.  I video taped it.

Just down the street is a true blue, I think licensed pot grower/seller.  He lives and breathes mj and apparently is very very good at it.

The larger house across the street houses the two angels that have made it possible for Monte to live in Port.  Awesome people.  I have put their pictures at the bottom too..I think I have posted some of these before.

I also posted a picture of Ed…their downstairs neighbour.  What can I say?  The picture speaks for itself!

This poor town, as beautiful as it is, and as strong as the community spirit may be, has a crap load of problems.  There are a lot of homeless, and there is no employment and drugs are just a way of life.

All that being said, I had a fantastic time.  I stayed there until yesterday.  I didn't want to leave!  The last evening there I went over to the pool hall with Monte and Pat and Ange.  It was soooo much fun! I could get addicted to that!  I used to play a long time ago and could easily start up again!

  While I was there Monte wrote a song…and it really is a winner.  He should sell his songs to artists.  The ones that don't write their own music.  Anyway, I look forward to  my next trip up.  Its always totally interesting!  TTYL

THE ANGELS ACROSS THE STREET….PAT AND ANGE  THIS WAS A WHILE AGO..MONTE'S HAIR IS DOWN HIS BACK DOWN ITS SO LONG

PORT CAN BE BEAUTIFUL

DEAR OLD ED

I DON'T THINK THE VIDEO WORKED…STUPID BLOGSPOT

OUR RECLUSE

PORT ALBERNI

No offense to anyone at home, but it was such an awesome feeling getting into my car and just taking off.  Its a three hour drive to Port and I enjoyed every single minute of it.  I listened to talk radio, stopped at outhouses (shovel list but necessary), (actually, I am getting tired of being grateful for stinky green outhouses), stopped in Nanaimo at the fat lady store and found awesome stuff, mosied on through some of the most beautiful countryside BC has to offer and arrived in mid afternoon at Monte's.

His place was pretty clean for a non processing, low energy, uninterested in all things domestic, guy's house.  And it smelled good.  We took off immediately and went out for lunch in his fave spot, and it must be because the little gal serving knew exactly what his order would be!.  We then headed out way past Port to scope out a property for Aryn…she is doing a mortgage on it.  Sooooo beautiful.  I love Port Alberni.

We went shopping.  Monte mentioned that his bestest friends across the street, Pat and Ange, were right smack in the middle of a switch over from weekly paycheques to monthly, and the result of this was…they had no food til their next cheque at the end of the month.  So he shopped for them.  I couldn't believe how well he knew their food choices, what they ate and how much joy it gave him to do this for his friends.  It was a pretty awesome grocery shopping trip! 

 And then of course the joy of bringing it home and giving it to them.  They accepted the gift so graciously and joyously!  The whole experience was truly heartwarming.

Monte and Pat went out and played pool for a while last night, which of course left me home alone…not something I get very often.  Just me and his dog!  And his dog promptly lay down, put his head on my feet and went to sleep.  

Monte has a little room, about the size of Purple Room.  He has this remarkable huge awesome tv, two giant comfy old Sally Ann rocking chairs and a random electric organ in there.  I  hunkered down in one of those comfy chairs, got my technology all around and hooked up, tv clicker in hand….ahhhhhhhhh!  Happy happy…and that is where I slept.  Really well too.

Now its halfway through today, I just called Monte and told him its time to get a move on.  I don't know what we are up to today but its time to get it going!  TTYL

Week 11 LOST FOUR POUNDS AND TMI

Spod and I, for some odd reason, got turned off meat.  We ate almost no meat on the whole trip.  I wonder if that has something to do with losing weight on this trip.  So weird!  Plus, walking miles every day probably helped.

Today's weekly challenge is to read the food labels and ingredient lists on boxes.  I think this is really more for the totally uninitiated.  I can't imagine any of you not knowing the significance of avoiding certain sugars and fats etc.   But its a good reminder.

Today my challenge is to MOVE!  I got sick day before yesterday and basically I haven't moved from my chair other than heading into the loo.  I feel a little better today so I am going to get out of this chair, wash my hair and go for that walk we should be doing every day.  I think I will move my go to Port Alberni day to Wednesday.  

Now its Tuesday.  Honestly, its like my brain has gone into hibernation.  I forgot to finish this post and I just got back from the doctor…and Spod and I had the most loud awful shouting match this morning.  He NEVER remembers to keep his bathroom door shut (the heat is on in there and if he leaves the door open it causes the heater to stay on 24/7)  I am cranky so obviously I didn't use my 'talking to a two year old' voice and he got pissed and we were off.  We ended up with him yelling "just shut the F up" and I would yell back "just shut the f-ing door" and he would yell "just shut the F up" and I would yell "just shut the f-ing door" and back and forth until it became ridiculous and we were in danger of laughing..not a good way to fight.  Now he is gone…with the dogs in his truck.  We are really needing some space from each other!!
So, upon re reading this, I am dangerously close to TMI…so I shall sign off.  TTYL

THE MISSING THREE MONDAY CHANGES (WEEKS 8,9 AND 10)

I am going to simply put the three missed weeks here and I will put the new one on tomorrow.

Week 8:  Eat your vegetables.  The whole chapter is how to get extra vegetables into your diet, the ones with the most fibre and least sugar and how to incorporate veggies into your breakfast and why you should be eating them.

Week 9:  Carving out time for yourself.  How to let the family know when your 'me time' is, make them respect it and pick a certain place for it.  Turn off all screens, relax and maybe read a book or journal.

Week 10:  I really really agree with and like this one.  Make a few minutes every day when its convenient (you are more likely to do it then) and stretch.  She put in a bunch you can do but you can google it and get some good ones.  And I know from Curves…stretching really really works.  It feels so good.

I haven't weighed yet so I will do that tomorrow and give you week 11 at the same time.  TTYL

HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN JIGGITY JIG

Home again….and happy to be!!  I think I have had enough of Asia for a while!  

We spent one day tooting around Osaka (Kyoto), took in an amazing aquarium, rambled through a very strange mall and ate….well I am not sure what it was to tell the truth.  We then packed up and the next day flew to Shanghai, and went straight to our booked hotel…the cruise line paid for an extra night there…which was pretty good of them.  The room was 650 a night!  We spent five amazingly wonderful nights there and did a whole lot.

In one spot I needed the loo.  So I found one, very clean due to a full time attendant, and used the one'western toilet' stall.  If my happy visit is a lite one, I don't mind using the hole in the ground, but anything else requires a western john, if available. I slipped into the stall, used my own kleenex from my coat pocket, (they never seem to provide paper in these bathrooms) finished up and walked out towards the sinks.  The little old lady attendant suddenly rushes over to me a starts frantically yelling,  "YOU MAKA POO!!  YOU MAKA POO POO!!  YOU MAKA POO POO!!!!" very loudly, pointing at me wildly.  What the hell?  Was I not supposed to?  What was going on? She just kept yelling this at me as I desperately tried to figure out why she was yelling this! 

 Eventually she wiped her hand back and forth in her nether regions and yelled "you dirty!  you dirty!" and pulled a long piece of toilet paper off a roll and tried to give it to me.  So I tried to explain, to no avail, that I used my own.  Finally I gave up and went back into the stall, with paper, remained about the right amount of time it would take and then came out..and she was all happy!  Jeez!!

We hired a car and driver  and an english speaking guide for two days.  The first day she took us out to a water town, very much like the last time we were there, only not as pretty a one.  We had a great time anyway!  The next day we used her for shopping.  We had her take us to the parts of town where we could buy musical instruments, art supplies and then kites.  We took her out to a fantastic dim sum place for lunch and then took ourselves to Old Town.  What a great day!  She very successfully negotiated great prices for us.

Shanghai is famous for their dumplings, the dim sum kind.  They are all soup dumplings.  They either freeze soup or use a chicken pectin rich jelly along with many different types of fillings to fill these little dumplings.  When they are steamed and cooked, the frozen or jellied soup melts.  Its a true art picking them up with chop sticks and not putting a hole in them!  Delicious and fun to eat!

For the next few posts I will include a few pics.  I didn't take that many this trip.  I am not too happy with my camera right now.  Its bugging me.  We have only two weeks to get ready for Maui…not long enough.  TTYL

SOME OF THOSE MAGIC SOUP DUMPLINGS

SPOD STOOD IN LINE FOR OVER HALF AN HOUR FOR SOME KIND OF BAKED GOODS THEY WERE SELLING THAT SMELLED UNBELIEVABLY DELICIOUS…LIKE BUTTER AND SUGAR AND CREAM.  THESE LITTLE GIRLS WERE TOTALLY HAMMING IT UP!  WHEN WE FINALLY GOT THE 'COOKIES' THEY JUST WEREN'T THAT GOOD!

WE BOUGHT THIS PACKAGE…NO IDEA WHAT WAS IN IT.  WE BROUGHT IT HOME FOR APRIL.  IT TURNED OUT TO BE A SEAWEED MUSH..AWFUL HORRIBLE CRAP!