Two weeks later, Christmas was suddenly upon on us, but it was relatively quiet for us, with get-togethers or dinner at friends’ homes most evenings. We had our now traditional Christmas tree decorating party bringing Christmas cheer to our little place with good friends. And the tree was PERFECT covered in its mish-mash of ornaments and fond memories! Christmas day itself was very relaxed: after an eggs-benny breakfast we sat in the snow on the beach enjoying the White Christmas, drinking hot chocolate and baileys – looks like it’s becoming a Christmas day tradition for us! Later we had delicious mouth-watering turkey with friends Aaron and Katherine and their family, followed by games… and more eating!
Boxing Day we braved the Sales. In North America Boxing day sales start at 6 or 7 in the morning. Two and a bit hours of freezing cold at 4.30am in the queue was not much fun let me tell you! It had it’s merits - the people around us were nice enough and knowledgeable about electronics, helping us seal the deal in justifying our intended purchase of a new telly! Our current 13 year old telly was going to replace a broken tv for our Big White renters. We had done our research from all the Boxing day flyers out on Xmas eve and knew which bargain we wanted. Once the doors opened only 20 people were allowed in at a time and as we were 19th and 20th in the queue, we were in the first group; we obtained a sales slip for the TV at the door, then headed over to the till. That easy! Even though the whole experience was extremely dignified and this was a big purchase for us, I think this will be my first and last Boxing Day sale. Getting up at some ungodly hour and standing in the freezing (-15C) cold has to be really worth it! Thankfully, Martin and I love turkey and later that day we drove to Summerland (about 45 minutes away) for more Christmas turkey with his Nanny, and Auntie and Uncle. (His parents winter in Arizona). So it was a relaxed and pleasant afternoon, but we were definitely wiped out from our early morning start!
Recent storms have been dumping lots of light fluffy fluffy fluffy snow so we have been enjoying the snow up at Big White - the ski hill. Unfortunately, I was back at work this week while Martin, whose work was closed, skied for a number of days.
New year’s eve was great; a party and sleepover at Nicole’s and Don’s. Quite a few families with lots of kids running around. We had fun playing twister in the garage (Nicole and Don had epoxyed coloured circles onto the garage floor!), but as we’re all getting old , it was pretty tiring. This was followed by endless games of Hula Hoop and tight-rope walking on the Wii. I crashed at about 2am! Martin at 4.30am. * Mush
Photos to follow.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 08, 2008
Cuba, Nov 2008
Photos to follow.
For a Christmas present to each other, we went to Cuba at the end of November- a place I’d been wanting to go to for a while. We spent two and a half weeks moving around every 2-3 days. We have been to many countries around the world and discovered that Cuba is not our favourite country - probably because we have a lot to compare it to! We loved the old colonial architecture. Pity it was crumbling and very run down in many places that we went to. Imagining all the buildings restored to their former glory, it would’ve been an amazing place to see. Some towns were very quiet and there wasn’t a lot to do in the evenings, but when we encountered latin music playing in the which we discovered in the evenings just walking around town. We enjoyed going back in time seeing all the rundown 1950s cars - very cool! And the people in the Casas Particulares (like B&Bs) were super super nice to us and we had a great time interacting with them. We also had fun in a place called Vinales – in the countryside with lots of limestone pinnacles. One day we met a farmer, Miguel, who was SO nice. He had a moustache – mo – just like Martin’s, so here they are, the Mo Bros! We don’t speak much Spanish although we tried and managed to muddle through most times. Using very basic Spanish so we could understand, Miguel invited us to his home (shack) for coffee and a handmade cigar which he rolled for us right there and then! We met all his family over the next coming days, and they were super-grateful for the toothpaste, soap and clothes we gave them. On the whole, the people in Cuba in the streets and shops are not as friendly as other people we have encountered in other similarly oppressed countries that we've been to. Of course, they do want your money … so there was a lot of hustling.. "You want taxi?.. You want restaurant? You want cigar?" Like I said, not our favourite country, but we’re glad that we went, and now we can cross it off our list.
For a Christmas present to each other, we went to Cuba at the end of November- a place I’d been wanting to go to for a while. We spent two and a half weeks moving around every 2-3 days. We have been to many countries around the world and discovered that Cuba is not our favourite country - probably because we have a lot to compare it to! We loved the old colonial architecture. Pity it was crumbling and very run down in many places that we went to. Imagining all the buildings restored to their former glory, it would’ve been an amazing place to see. Some towns were very quiet and there wasn’t a lot to do in the evenings, but when we encountered latin music playing in the which we discovered in the evenings just walking around town. We enjoyed going back in time seeing all the rundown 1950s cars - very cool! And the people in the Casas Particulares (like B&Bs) were super super nice to us and we had a great time interacting with them. We also had fun in a place called Vinales – in the countryside with lots of limestone pinnacles. One day we met a farmer, Miguel, who was SO nice. He had a moustache – mo – just like Martin’s, so here they are, the Mo Bros! We don’t speak much Spanish although we tried and managed to muddle through most times. Using very basic Spanish so we could understand, Miguel invited us to his home (shack) for coffee and a handmade cigar which he rolled for us right there and then! We met all his family over the next coming days, and they were super-grateful for the toothpaste, soap and clothes we gave them. On the whole, the people in Cuba in the streets and shops are not as friendly as other people we have encountered in other similarly oppressed countries that we've been to. Of course, they do want your money … so there was a lot of hustling.. "You want taxi?.. You want restaurant? You want cigar?" Like I said, not our favourite country, but we’re glad that we went, and now we can cross it off our list.
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