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Covid – Covid – Covid

Early in October the Kamloops City Strummers did an outdoor and socially distant concert at The Shores Retirement Residence where GGMA lives. It was a nice day and an appreciative audience.

The Saturday of the Thanksgiving Weekend we met up with the Princeton and Kelowna families in Merritt at Rotary Park for a picnic lunch. It was so great to have everyone together and the weather held until we were all ready to head home. It was truly something to be thankful for.

The rest of the month just flowed by with regular day to day stuff. Line dancing for Brenda 3 – 4 times per week and strummin’ for me.

October 23rd was the first snow fall for 2020——— WAY TO EARLY !

So, you have probably noticed that we are really behind in posts for 2018. In fact since Hawaii in January of 2018 we have not posted a single thing.

So, without further stalling or debating here is a brief capsule of 2018.

Immediately after we got back from Hawaii we headed to Vancouver to see Jake Shimabukuro perform. Wow, what a show he puts on, so  check out his web page, a true master of the ukulele. While in Vancouver we also took in the Vancouver Home Show.

Near the end of February we moved Brenda’s dad Murray to Pine Grove Extended Care Centre. It was the first choice of care facilities and even though it is a little older, the folks that work there are excellent and plus it is reasonably handy for Brenda’s mom Joan (GGMa) who is still at The Shores. GGma rides her scooter over when the weather is good and takes the Handi-Dart Bus at other times.

In March we headed to Silver Star for our annual Ski Vacation with the family. Great time was had by all. Lots of laughs, lots of skiing and lots of love.

Then April and May arrived and with it trips to see grandkids and the time just flew by.

In June we headed to Quebec City and toured the Eastern Townships. Quebec City was beautiful and lots to see even though we have been there before. Our last few days in Quebec City we celebrated St. Jean Baptiste on the Plains of Abraham along with 50,000 other Canadians.

July we were off to Victoria and Surrey with Sage and Conrad for a summer getaway. Victoria has so much to see and do plus lots of shopping for the kids. They love shopping when they travel since they don’t have the greatest selection of stuff to buy in Princeton. From Victoria we then headed over to Surrey and had dinner at Mike and Rose’s. What a great evening having all the family from the area over for dinner.

August and the wildfire smoke was back this summer. Hard to go outside, your eyes burnt and many days we could not see across the valley and on the really bad days we could not even see 6 blocks. However, we still found time to have Namma and Pops Summer Camp with Zach and Oliver. Part of this years summer camp was in Kamloops and part of the summer camp was in Kelowna. Jeff and Lindsay were away playing Ultimate Frisbee in Vancouver.

September we were back down to Kelowna to look after the grand-kids while Jeff and Lindsay headed off to The Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

October was when we held our annual Reunion with our very special friends. This years location was Kamloops.

November came along and we made a quick trip to Princeton to drop off some birthday presents. then over to Kelowna to drop off some birthday and Christmas presents.

Finally December was here and with it Christmas preparation. We were so lucky this year to spend Christmas with Kevin, Tamara, Sage and Conrad what a lot of fun.

With that, 2018 was over and done.

So stay tuned for 2019.

Wednesday morning we headed back to St. Maarten airport to meet up with Dean and Judy and to fly over to the French island of St Bart’s.

The flight into St Bart’s is sooooo much fun. We flew with Winair which uses Twin Otter Aircraft. 

You generally approach from the west with the Capital of Gustavia off to your righthand side. Then as you near the airport there is a hill that the pilot aims for and then when the plane flys over the traffic circle at the top the pilot dives the plane downwards and lands on a very short runway! Yahoo!

Once we landed, cleared immigration and picked up our luggage we got our rental car.

Dean and Judy headed for the hotel they were staying at called L’Petit Morne located at the top of Colombier.

Meanwhile we headed for our accommodation in Corrosol for the next four days at L’Etoile du Marin. We have stayed here in the past and really enjoy the location and especially the view from the deck. The property is owned by Marie-Flore and Arnaud Questel. Arnaud built the addition to their main house about 10 years ago. It is absolutely perfect for  few days in St Bart’s.

We started each morning with a walk and when you live in St Bart’s there are very few flat spots. So, you are either climbing a hill or going down a hill which means you have to climb to get back home. Fortunately the steepest climb and walk we took peaked  near a local bakery that had chocolate croissants. After a morning walk, breakfast, etc our days were mostly spent at the beach or touring around the island and discovering many changes since our last visit.

After four nights we said goodbye to Marie-Flore and Arnaud. When we checked out they informed us that they were no longer going to be renting out “L’Etoile du Marin as they were both retiring and planning on traveling to see their families in France.

So, it was off to Villa Apiano with Dean and Judy

The days are flying by and we are really busy doing a lot of nothing. Well it really isn’t nothing, but it is sure keeping us busy with everything there is to do.

Thursday afternoon we headed to the farmers market that is held at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki.

Plus sunset this evening was spectacularly different:)

However, today we are stalled a bit. There are really high winds and so it is keeping us close to the condo. Rains are starting but it will all blow over and we’ll be back on track later today. Having said that the temperature is still a very nice 25C, so we can’t complain at that.

Last night we went over to the Hyatt Regency Pool Bar. There was a local ukulele player performing. Her name is Taimane and she was very good. She played one somewhat traditional ukulele song and her mother did a Samoan Dance; which was special since it was Taimane’s birthday. The rest of her songs were ones written by her or adaptations on other cover songs. Her style is quite edgy and harsh and personally not the style I like. But there is no argument that she can really play the ukulele and her strumming hand moves as fast as I have ever seen anyone play and her finger picking is clear, crisp and accurate…… no mistakes.

We were joined at our table by a very interesting couple who lived nearby. He was a semi retired Cardiologist and she worked as the office manager. They have travelled the world and he presented papers worldwide on the subject of heart health, cholesterol, etc. plus he had some very strong opinions and facts around immunizations, vaccines, lifestyles, life choices, etc. he said he had a poor bedside manner but that was just the facade he wanted to project. We could tell that he would be a very straight-shooter and not beat around the bush with regards to your health and what you needed to do to improve it.

This morning we got to sleep in a little and after breakfast we sailed/cruised for about 5 hrs before starting the days bike tour. During the morning cruise from Dordrecht to Tholen we went through some large locks to get us from a canal we were traveling on to the river delta.

A real bonus was that it started out sunny and it got sunnier and warmer as the day went on, certainly a nice treat.Once arriving in Tholen we cycled through the countryside and villages to the town of Bergen Op Zoom and had a nice afternoon coffee and rest in the town market square. From there we headed to the barge which was waiting for us the other side of some large locks around the area of Mosselkreek for about a total of about 40 km.

After dinner we took a guided train tour of the city of Antwerpen. It was an extra tour that was organized by Jack our tour leader and cost us 10 euro each.We visited the town centre, the diamond merchant area, the main train station (which is four levels of trains that enter into the station), the main market square area and then to a walkway along the river where our tour leader Jack and the Captain of the ship hosted a small drinking party 🙂 complete with red, white and/or rose wine.

So, if you had your choice what would you go for, Hawaii or a Hernia?

Well that’s a stupid question isn’t it? Of course you would pick Hawaii.

Well unfortunately when it comes to some things in life you don’t always get a choice. Anyway to make a long story short I developed a Hernia. I discovered an unusual bump/protrusion in my lower right groin area after a swim at the YM/YWCA the week before Christmas. So, it was off to see our family Doctor, who sent me to see a Surgeon in the New Year and from there I was scheduled for Surgery on January 18th.

As I am typing this I am resting comfortably in bed and the surgery went well according to the Surgeon. For obvious reasons this will be one post without pictures! Ha! Ha! Although the various shades of black and blue are spectacular.

Saturday morning we drove to Princeton to look after the grandkids for 2 weeks while their Mom & Dad head off to Hawaii for a belated honeymoon.

The house is safe and secure as we left our good tenant in the basement suite to look after the place, the friendly neighbors who always keep an eye out and 11 year old Ben who lives down the street in charge of snow removal.

Tamara did an excellent job making a list all the stuff that is going on for the next two weeks with the kids. Compared to our retirement life these two are busy! Lots of school activities and a lot of other fun community events.  So, we expect the couple of weeks to fly by. We’ll provide picture updates later on.

Today was Electrical Installation/Addition Day. The majority of the electrical work is complete and the electricians won’t be back until it’s time to do the final hook up of lights, heated floors, switches, etc. Today’s work included installation of new light switches and boxes in the main bathroom and walk-in closet, wiring for vent fan and the big job was running 240V for the installation of  a heating pad for the travertine tile floors. We also had them wire a new plug-in for the T.V. and re-route the cable for the T.V. so we can do a wall mount for our flat panel LCD. The two guys we had working today were the very accommodating and work their tails off to get all the work completed in a short time! Pictures below.

Well it’s been exciting to say the least. Goats on the road, very narrow and twisty streets, but the hightlights so far are: Orient Beach at our doorstep, the view from our Condo of Orient Beach, Turquoise Water, Pellicans, 10′ Oleanders, Bouganvillia, Big Surf, Happy Bay Hike, Luxury Yachts, Cheap Beer (6.75 for 4 bottles), inexpensive and very tasty French Wines and warm weather 24 hrs a day.

Au Revoir……….. Bon Nuit………. Larry and Brenda

Happy belated 86th birthday to Grampa………. we got our days mixed up and forgot to send it earlier. Hope you had a great day.