Took the camera for a walk today

I went for a stroll today and took a few pictures of our immediate vicinity. I just love these flowers. All these scenes are only about 5 minutes away.

  

  

We went out last evening to visit the couple who come down from our village each year. They have been coming down to San Carlos for 20 years so know a lot about the area. We spent this afternoon checking out other possible rentals for next year and then were invited by a woman from BC to join her for a drink at a local bar on the beach and together we watched the sunset, it was quite spectacular.

I had planned to publish this post this morning (Thursday) but the connection was lost at the coffee shop I was at so I am adding to it and hopefully i can get it published tomorrow or Saturday.

Yesterday when we were looking around for a place to rent we got chatting outside a store to a man from Colorado who knew someone who wanted to rent his basement out, so we went to visit him today and discussed renting his place next year. Very nice, a recent widower looking to have the same people each year rent the basement of his rather luxurious home overlooking the bay. We worked out a reasonable deal and so it is all fixed for us to come down next year for 5 months. He even agreed to get WiFi, he said he had put it off and now he has reason to get it so it will be here next time we come. It is a sweet little apartment with a stupendous view and a nice little patio and lots of areas for me to walk plus the WiFi. I had told my husband that internet connection and a patio were my two big requests. After all I can`t be out in the hot sun all the time. I like to go when it is cooler first thing in the morning and for an evening walk but even now in February it is very hot in the middle of the day so I tend to stay out of the sun. I notice many on the women here have allowed their skin to become like leather and apart from not looking good it is so bad for the skin.

Interestingly enough these two men are both involved with a Christian organization called castawaykids which do building projects and so on for the locals here. Something my husband wanted to get into. The odds of finding someone involved in this just from stopping looking at a bulletin board like that is pretty remote I think, God does work little miracles along the way don`t you think. We were invited to join him at the local community church on Sunday and then go out to brunch. It is odd that we will probably be more involved here in San Carlos with a church than we are able to be in Canada due to the distance we have to travel to get to a church. So we have decided not to sell our place in Canada just leave it for part of the year. It would be unlikely that we would get enough for it to replace it without dipping into our savings and we think we will enjoy a Mexican winter more than another location to spend winter  in Canada. It was an either or decision.

Lazy days

Up at 8am, breakfast at the marina at 9am where I check my email and we take a walk.  The odd shaped mountain in the back is called Tatakawi or Teats of the Goat. We take an afternoon siesta and then another walk along the beach looking for shells. After we make supper we take a walk or drive before bedtime. That has been pretty much the order of the last few days, exhausting isn't it?

The little house we rented is about a block from the beach and we can see the ocean through the front door. We are situated in the central part of San Carlos and it is nice in the evening to wander down the main street. There are many bushes covered in flowers which hang over walls and are incredibly beautiful. I don't know what they are but the colours are pinks, reds and purples but they have no fragrance.

We are about due for another dinner out as we have been buying food and cooking it at home. Food is so much cheaper here than where I live in BC. I bought a tray of chicken breasts for about $5 CAD which would have cost me about $15 at home. There are a great selection of cheeses at a fraction of the price in our part of the world. There are quite a few foods I don't recognize so we are experimenting with them although I will leave the tripe alone. My parents would eat tripe simmered in milk but it has no appeal for me although it is readily available here.

We have decided to make Mexico our winter home, we think we can do it on our pension plus pull a little from our savings and hubby says he can pick up an odd job around our village in the summer months. We think we will leave Canada at the end of November and return in early May. The only cost that we are still trying to come to terms with is the medical. We have to see if we can find a company that is less expensive than BCAA which we used this time but have since been told is one of the more expensive ones. Also our doctor in Canada told us our drugs would  be cheaper here.  They are quite expensive at home. We have to look into these things yet.

I don't know if we will return to the same spot every year but we both like it here. I find the cities too big and the traffic a bit frightening but it is okay here. After our part of Canada where we can drive a long time without seeing another vehicle it is a bit unnerving being a passenger in a Mexican city. Perhaps being the driver is not so bad. Hubby wants to bring his truck next year so he can put his zodiac boat and trailer in the back. That will depend if the gas prices are still reasonable. The cost of renting a boat is a bit too high for us and he would like to go fishing in the bay. Not for big fish but jigging for bottom fish.

There is quite a bit of charity work that goes on by the Canadians and Americans who winter here. Hubby is interested in getting involved in a building project next time and I will have to see where I could fit in. There is a lot of wealth in Mexico but there is terrible poverty too and it only seems fair if one comes regularly to a country to try and give back a little.

It makes blogging quite difficult not having an Internet connection. When we go for coffee I have just about enough time to check our email, upload pictures and publish a post but I might get more organized in time. I think on the whole though life is healthier in that I am getting out more, something I did not do much at home.

Out and about

We went out for a shrimp dinner last night and sat outside on the patio and watched the sun go down. It had been a beautiful day, warm and sunny although the locals say it is freezing and you see a few scarves and heavy coats about but for us tough BC types we were in shirt sleeves.

Today we went in to Guyamas and drove around a bit. We checked out the large department store called Lays that sells everything from auto tires to sugar, clothes to hardware, you name it they have it and much cheaper than we can buy in our part of northern BC. There were lots of different foods there and I have no idea what they were let alone how to cook them.

We then drove around and got a little lost in the city but got back to San Carlos and sat on our patio chatting for a while. Then we walked by the marina for an hour, checking out the boats and admiring the fishing skills of the pelicans, before coming back and making supper. It would be too expensive to eat out every evening so we have to show some discipline.

We went out for a walk in the town after dark and the music was starting up in some of the bars but it was quite quiet really. San Carlos is not as busy as I thought it would be and many restaurants are almost empty. I don't know if that is the evidence of the recession reaching here already. 

Tomorrow morning we are meeting our friend for breakfast at Barracuda Bob's and there is WiFi there so I can publish this and check my mail.

Our first day in San Carlos

The first full day in Mexico and boy did we need a break from driving. I think my legs had locked up but after a good sleep things are getting back to normal. The weather today was over cast, the locals say it is very unusual, but at least there is no snow and we could go out without jackets.  There are orange and lemon trees just across the road with fruit on them, even in February, and gorgeous red and purple flowering bushes on the sides of the road and hanging over walls. Our little house is not luxurious but more than adequate and very conveniently located.

The first thing we had to do this morning was get some food which was quite an experience as we were not able to read  the labels but some how we came out with enough for supper.

Our friend S who travelled down with us was not too happy as he woke in the night to find his place full of water as pipe had burst, but it is being fixed today we hope. This afternoon we just stayed near our little house and walked on the beach. After supper we walked a short distance up the road and met up with a couple from our village 4500km from home.

We have not found a place with WiFi as yet, so that I could connect to the Internet but we were told tonight that there is a coffee shop by the marina that offers that so we will go down tomorrow or the next day. Maybe I will get some photos soon. Hubby is the photo guy but I get to carry it around.

The first five days

Feb 9th -We left home at 4.45am and it was fine and clear driving at first until it started to snow around Prince George and even when we turned south towards the lower mainland we kept company with the snow clouds all the way down and the first night we  stayed in Hope. It was quite cold but I did try to get a walk but just as I set out hail started to come down quite hard and I got back to the motel as quickly as I could. The motel we stayed in was fine but had omitted to warm the room  before we got there, it took ages for me to feel warm after being hailed upon.

Feb 10 -We woke to snow, as many parts of lower BC had been hit by freak snow storms but we got off in time and arrived at the border about 9:30 am.  The border guard was very pleasant but looked like he just had a part-time job from school, but everyone looks so young when you get to sixty one. We had to throw some oranges away as he explained that even though they came from the US they were not allowed back in to the States because the skins carried some type of canker that could re-infect the crops. I won't grate orange peel into anything ever again after his explanation. Shortly after we crossed the border and got on to the I-5 the weather turned vile and for six hours the driving was very difficult but we finally made it to Salem, Oregon where we planned to stay for our first night in the States. We have just returned from a fabulous meal at Applebees . There is no sales tax in Oregon and things seem so cheap here even after doing the exchange into Canadian dollars. So now we are relaxing in our motel before turning in for the night.

Feb 11-We left Salem around 9am and the first part of the journey down I-5 was lovely. It was a pleasure to see the lambs and new born calves in the fields which were so green. The sky was blue and the traffic flowed along nicely but unfortunately we must have brought BC weather with us because we soon started to experienced slippery roads and some really horrid weather again on this leg of the trip. The I-5 at the California border had been closed for a while due to a blizzard and the traffic had backed up until the road opened again. I have never seen so many trucks at one time. We drove for miles in convoy. We did get a glimpse of Mount Shasta and tried to take a photo but it wasn't very good so was not worth putting up here. When we got to Redding California the weather seemed to cooperate and dry up and the sun poked its head out. There are acres and acres of fruit trees in the area and they were just coming into bloom and one could see pink almost to the horizon. We were glad to get to our intended overnight stop in Red Bluff as it had been a tiring day. The guys had bought some booze at the border but later found out they weren't allowed to take it into Mexico so they have valiantly been trying to use it up each evening at the motel. They had a couple of drinks before going out to dinner this evening and it was like going out with two adolescents.

Feb 12 -Today we are heading for Buttonwillow to spend the night. I hope to get hooked up to the Internet there and send a few emails and get this published. I have been trying to get Internet access for the last two nights but have not been able to do so. We arrived in Buttonwillow and it is a haven for truckers. Literally hundreds of trucks in all colours, really fancy rigs overnight there, probably because the accommodation and  food is  cheap and very good. We had a meal at a really superb buffet for $7.99 each, and all you could eat, it was so good we plan to stop for the buffet breakfast be.fore leaving tomorrow. At $5.99 you couldn't beat it.

Feb 13 -Gorgeous weather at last, better than at home in the middle of summer.  The drive was quite interesting early on going through rolling hills but gradually as we came into the flat desert that went on for miles and miles it was a bit boring. Incredibly there are mobile homes dotted here and there in the desert where there was a bit of moisture and live miles from civilization and no other homes anywhere nearby. This afternoon our friend had a problem with his car, and we had to stop at a place called Needles to get it fixed. We were told it gets really hot in summer up to 140F, can you imagine. The Colorado river runs through Needles and the mountains are a bit spiky hence the name. I asked hubby to take some photos while we waited for our friend's car to be fixed but he said the mountains would not show up in a photo very well. So I still don't have any photos as yet. I am in the yard of the car repair place typing today's entry. I hope I can get on to the Internet later.

Just waiting around, sigh

We are all set to go so just waiting around now. I have set up my Live Mail on my laptop to receive feeds to download when I get to a hotspot and I can read later when I have a moment. I doubt that I will be able to actually comment on anyone's blog but I may send an email comment if I have your email address as I can write that offline and send it later.

I probably will take a bit of a break from blogging though and will just check stuff every three days or so. I have any comments coming to my Live account on the laptop so if you want to make an observation on the posts from Mexico I would be delighted to hear from you. I will be posting using Live Writer offline and then publish it when convenient. I will have to do the same for our friend's blog and hubby's as they don't know how. I set up the laptop to get the friend's photos from his fancy new camera he just bought for the trip so I can't think of anything else to do.

Some of you have become special friends and I would hate not to hear from you for a whole six weeks.

I hope to be out and about more and getting some exercise and soaking up a few rays, rather than messing with the computer. That will be when I have run out of other things to do or I am sitting outside a coffee shop sipping a decaf latte while the two men chat and plan our activities over their double Americanos.

We are going to touch base with Brenda who lives very nearby where we are staying in Mexico. It will be lovely to actually meet another blogger. We will be passing by Eileen and Karen , waving at Gene in Yreka, California and who else I don't know on our way down and maybe others on the way back as we hope to take a few days and look around Arizona and New Mexico after we leave Mexico.

Do you know how to forward emails?

Do you really know how to forward e-mails?  50% of us do; 50% do not. Personally I almost never bother to read them or send them, most are a waste of my time.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail?  Do you hate it?  Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses and names.  As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail address that has come across his computer.  Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit.  That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!  How do you stop it?  Well, there are several easy steps.

Try the following if you haven't done it before:

 (1)  When you forward an e-mail, delete all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top).   That's right, delete them.  Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do.  It only takes a second.  You must click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message.  If you don't click on 'Forward' first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

 (2)  Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do not use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses.  Always use the BCC:(blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses.   This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address.  If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear.  Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy.  When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients in the 'TO:' field of the people who receive it.

 (3)  Remove any 'FW :' in the subject line.  You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.

 (4)  ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading.  Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it?   By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.

 (5)  Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition?  It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book.  The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses.  A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein.  Do not put your email address on any petition.  If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient.  Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.   (And don't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just ain't so!)

Do not forward emails that says something like, 'Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.'  Or sometimes they'll just tease you by saying 'something really cute will happen.'
   

Before you forward an 'Amber Alert' , or a 'Virus Alert' , or some of the other emails floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them.  Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for years!  Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out a Snopes.  Just go to www.snopes.com .  It's really easy to find out if it's real or not.  

If I find something in an email that I want to share I generally copy and paste it into a new email message then send it out. I have been doing that for years rather than forward it.
 

I need new clothes badly

Sorting out my clothes to go I really don't have much in the way of decent clothes to take. I don't need anything but jeans here and most of those are not new. I pulled out a few blouses and when I took a good look at them most are a bit worse for wear. I don't mean stained or missing buttons or anything just old. Since I get most of my clothes second hand anyway they are a little worn. Oh well I guess I won't be stunning anyone in Mexico with my wonderful wardrobe.

We have to go to a wedding in May on Vancouver Island, about a month after we get back. I will have to buy something for that and clothes shopping is something I hate. Maybe I can get something pretty in Mexico.

I snuck the iron in the back of the car as hubby will kick up about taking too much but I at least do not have to be creased for a month and there is no mention of one provided at our rental. We really are not taking much just one suitcase between us, an overnight bag between us, for when we stop in hotels, and my computer bag.

Dust balls and packing

I decided that it was no point dusting and vacuuming etc. when we will not be here for six weeks or so, so the dust is starting to collect. Of course the wood stove contributes to that largely. Hubby says he will be embarrassed if we have a break in and the thief sees the state the place is getting in. Ha Ha.

I have been sorting out what we need to take today, I know it is a bit early but I would rather not have any last minute surprises. I don't like surprises at any time, not even gifts.

I have to have everything ready by Saturday as Sunday is dedicated to getting the water blown out of the pipes and emptying the hot water heater etc. So I will put a large pan of water on the wood stove for Monday morning to dunk my head in, to make me feel like I have had a shower and to wake me up. I have to wash my hair every day as it has a life of its own and a thorough wetting is the only way to bring into submission.

I bought some ready made meat balls and hopefully I will have a bit of salad left to eat with them on Sunday night and then we can just throw the packaging away.

My husband just asked me if I am getting excited and he qualified the remark with "you rotten sod". That folks is an endearment from him. Do you think I will be scarred for life for the lack of romance?

Heads or Tails - Previous theme - Watch

Skittles started a meme some time ago called Heads or Tails and this week we can select any previous theme to write about so I chose Watch.

One of the few things that I have that belonged to my mother is her watch. It must be about 80 years old now. Originally it had a velvet strap but I have never been able to replace it.

Amazingly the watch still works. I almost never wear it and it just sits in my jewelery case year after year. The only other things I have of my mother is her engagement ring and a picture taken just before her death with me in my new school uniform ready to attend kindergarten.

Do you know who Punxsutawney Phil is?

Punxsutawney Phil is a groundhog that comes out of his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania, each February 2 to predict the weather. According to legend, if Phil sees his shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of cold weather. If he doesn’t see his shadow, spring will come early.

So what did he predict today, six more weeks of winter, well may be for Pennsylvania and Jeni at Down River Drivel will be relieved but it won't be for most of Canada.

25 Random things about me

My blogging friend Joy suggested we try and write 25 random things about ourselves in order to get ourselves known a little better so I thought I would give it a try. The only thing is I have been blogging for three years now and I expect you know pretty much all I can think up. I will try and do it chronologically.

1. I was born in England, near London Airport at the end of World War II so I am a Baby Boomer
2. My father was Welsh and my mother English Memories of my Welsh grandmother
   
3. My father went to work in Iraq as the doctor suggested it for my mother's health - Wire
   
4. My mother died when I was 5 and I went to live with my father's sister in West London
5. I visited my father several times in Iraq
6. My father remarried
7. I went to boarding school in Ascot, Berkshire -post Where or Wear
8. I got my first job working in the City of London - Oh how times have changed
   
9. I married an Australian immigrated to Canada when I was 21, and lived in Toronto for 1 1/2 years
10. We toured the United States and Mexico then ended up in Vancouver, BC
11. We amicably divorced
12. I lived in downtown Vancouver near Stanley Park for a few years
    
13. I went to work in Illinois during the Watergate scandal Just one of my career ventures
    
14. I remarried and spent the next few years having babies - 3 sons
15. Went back to England for a year to see if we would like to be closer to family
16. Returned to Canada to Fort St. John, BC as it was a boom town at that time
17. Three years later we went to Edmonton, Alberta so my husband could attend Bible College
18. I decided to home school my three sons One of the achievements of which I am proud
    
19. After college visited Disneyland then returned to Fort St. John as he became Trainee Pastor for 1 year
    
20. Moved to many places finally ending up in Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, BC
    
21. Divorced after 18 years of gradually escalating abusive marriage.
22. Ran my own house cleaning business, taught computers and acted as rooms manager in a hotel
23. Remarried in 1998 and retired
    
24. Moved from Qualicum Beach to Granisle, BC in 2003
25. Yellow is my favourite colour.