So we did make it down this past March but our internet was still a bit spotty. We brought down new devices this trip and some extensive pruning of trees that was blocking the routers (or something related to the signal) made for a better connection but, you know, I was so fed up and disheartened from November's fiasco that I just didn't have the fortitude to try to post anything. Too often, I'd have a post typed up and then it wouldn't post.
So I guess I'll do a bit of a catch up. I'll try not to make it a novel.
I was reading through the last few posts to see what I'd written and I realized that I never updated on the baby status from March last year. We made it home about a week before Baby was born. We received another g'daughter who is now almost 14 months old. This is g'child #5. The girls are the bookends, one on each end, with the 3 boys in the middle. It's sure been nice to be able to buy pink, frilly things again. The eldest g'daughter is almost 15. Pink and frilly just doesn't cut it with her anymore...lol.
The first 2 weeks in December saw my mom, sister and brother-in-law come for a visit. Mom came down with my sister and hubby who stayed for a week. Two weeks later, she flew back with us. It was her first time out of Canada, never mind going to somewhere tropical! Mom has always been a real roadrunner, zooming along wherever she went. But she's been having some leg problems and so she wasn't able to walk very far. I knew she wasn't as spry as she once was but I was surprised to see how far she'd declined. (I live almost 6 hours from my home town so I don't see Mom often). She was very frustrated but we did the best we could. Some of the plans we'd made had to be nixed which was unfortunate.
We all went to Uxmal but she could hardly make it up the walkway that opens up into the grounds. We'd had the foresight to bring a fold up chair with us so she and I hung out in the shade while the others toured the site. Even though she couldn't walk around, she enjoyed seeing the little bit that she could. She was amazed at the size of the Pyramid of the Magician.
We spent a lot of time down at the beach, which she really enjoyed. She grew up in the Maritimes so it reminded her of that.
Her birthday is in December so I arranged a little pot luck party for her. She was so thrilled to be able to celebrate her birthday without snow.
Sr B retired the end of Feb. We're now officially retired old f*rts. Woo Hoo!!!! The team that he worked with hired a limo to pick me up at our house and drive me out to the worksite. After a small farewell party, the limo took us home. They had even supplied some adult beverages for the ride home as well as a fabulous food basket. What a great group!
We headed back to Progreso the beginning of March, planning on staying for 5 weeks. Sr B's mom had been failing since the fall and we hemmed and hawed about whether or not to come down. We decided we couldn't put our lives on hold so we made the trip, knowing there was chance we might have to come home early. We did. His mom passed away 2 weeks before our scheduled return.
United Airlines charged us $200 per person, per leg, to change our flight time! Cancun to Houston and then Houston to our home airport. Eight hundred dollars it cost us!! It's bleeping obscene! We're not sure if we can get any of that back due to bereavement. We're still waiting for a copy of the death certificate.
Sr B had arthroscopic surgery on his knees 3 weeks ago to remove some arthritic debris. His surgeon, the same one who did his shoulder a year and a half ago, said he would need new knees eventually. Good grief! He's still in some pain but he's back golfing so he's a happy man...lol.
Oh, hey! We finally got ourselves a Mexican cell phone! We hadn't really needed one before but, after a few inconveniences in November/December, we decided to spring for one. I haven't completely figured it out but the writing on it is in English so it'll just take some time.
Ok. I promised not to write a novel so this is...
THE END
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Sunday, November 9, 2014
We're Here!!
Mercy! We thought we had a bad internet connection in March. It's almost non-existent now. We've been here since the 30th of Oct and this is the first time I've been able to get online. I brought my iPhone with me, mainly because we live hours away from our home airport and I feel safer with it in case of an accident. (How did we manage before cell phones?) It has been the only way we've been able to stay in touch with our kids. On the plus side, I`ve been forced to learn how to do things with it that I didn`t know how before. Dinosaur that I am, I pretty much just use it for texting and sending pictures. A few apps would make it much more useful down here. Oh well. It`s sufficient for now.
Great news! For us anyways. Not so much for our neighbour across the back. He had a couple of trees that had grown so large they blocked our view of the Gulf. Apparently, he had a break-in this summer and decided to install an alarm system along the top of his fence. It looks like an electric fence and has 5 strands of wire. In order to do this, he had to cut down both of those trees. I tried to post before and after pics, but they won't download.
The mosquitoes have been more present than usual. I've given up trying to kill them before going to bed and in the middle of the night when the sneaky little bleepers decide to have midnight lunch. Now I simply hose myself down with OFF and call it a night. I often use it during the day, as well, and I've used a ridiculous amount since we've been here but the other option is to lose sleep and/or get chewed alive and risk dengue. I don't like using so much of it, but the few bites I've received have swollen and been really itchy. Not to the epic proportions that they did when we first started coming down, but more than they did on our last trip. Sometimes a chemical intervention is necessary.
If any of my readers know of any Remembrance Day services in either Progreso or Chixulub, could you please drop me an email? thebts2000 AT yahoo DOT ca. If you reply here, I may not see it but I can access email with my phone, so that's the best place. The gentleman who normally arranges it isn't here at this time. Thanks bunches.
And that's about it. Hopefully I can post sooner than in another week. Maybe even add some photos.
Great news! For us anyways. Not so much for our neighbour across the back. He had a couple of trees that had grown so large they blocked our view of the Gulf. Apparently, he had a break-in this summer and decided to install an alarm system along the top of his fence. It looks like an electric fence and has 5 strands of wire. In order to do this, he had to cut down both of those trees. I tried to post before and after pics, but they won't download.
The mosquitoes have been more present than usual. I've given up trying to kill them before going to bed and in the middle of the night when the sneaky little bleepers decide to have midnight lunch. Now I simply hose myself down with OFF and call it a night. I often use it during the day, as well, and I've used a ridiculous amount since we've been here but the other option is to lose sleep and/or get chewed alive and risk dengue. I don't like using so much of it, but the few bites I've received have swollen and been really itchy. Not to the epic proportions that they did when we first started coming down, but more than they did on our last trip. Sometimes a chemical intervention is necessary.
If any of my readers know of any Remembrance Day services in either Progreso or Chixulub, could you please drop me an email? thebts2000 AT yahoo DOT ca. If you reply here, I may not see it but I can access email with my phone, so that's the best place. The gentleman who normally arranges it isn't here at this time. Thanks bunches.
And that's about it. Hopefully I can post sooner than in another week. Maybe even add some photos.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Here We Come
Arriving to Progreso Oct 30th for 6 glorious sun-filled weeks.
Snoopy pinched from Google
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Finances and Food
This morning we went and paid our property taxes. All 237 pesos (20.00 CDN) worth. The low cost never ceases to amaze us! After we paid, the cashier gave us a small form to fill out but we had no idea what we were supposed to do with it. So I handed it back to her and said, "Por favor?" She filled it in and handed it back to us, telling us to go put it in a box at the back of the room. We only figured that out because she was pointing to it...lol. So we went to put the form in the box but there was no opening. An elderly gentleman showed us how to slide the small cover back. Ah ha! As far as we can tell, the form seems to be for some sort of draw, though we haven't a clue for what. The cashier probably told us but my Spanish still isn't strong enough to understand a lot. We don't have a phone so we couldn't fill in our phone number and the form didn't ask for an email address so, even if we win, I'm not expecting to hear about it.
Then it was off to the bank to replenish funds. The ATM usually spits out 500 peso bills so it's always been a challenge coming up with small money for shopping, bus fare and tips. I finally got smart this trip. After hitting up the ATM, I go to the teller and exchange some of the big bills for a bunch of smaller ones. I've also started using 20 peso bills to pay for bus fare on occasion, instead of always trying to scrounge up enough coins. These two changes have made life so much easier.
Groceries was next on the agenda. As we were leaving the store, one of the baggers came up to us and wanted to check our bags. I use a couple of large, insulated zippered bags from Sobey's. I had to unzip them so she could look. She wanted to see if we had Coke bottles, which we didn't. And then she checked our bags again after we were outside the store. We have no idea what the issue was but I couldn't help but be glad we didn't have any Coke in the bags. After we got home, I realized I had forgotten to tip the person who bagged our groceries. Jeepers!
El Faro has all-you-can-eat-ribs on Tuesdays so a bunch of us from the complex went tonight. I'm not really big on ribs but these were good. I quite liked the potato salad, too.
I forgot to post that we went to their all-you-can-eat fish and chips on Friday. I never order fish and chips back home because there's always twice as much batter as there is fish but the batter the other night was thin. There was more fish than batter. And their fries are really, really good.
After supper tonight, we stopped for tea and lime pie at the home of one of the couples. As we were getting back to our unit, our neighbours invited us in for a drink, so we enjoyed a lovely evening visiting with several very nice people.
Then it was off to the bank to replenish funds. The ATM usually spits out 500 peso bills so it's always been a challenge coming up with small money for shopping, bus fare and tips. I finally got smart this trip. After hitting up the ATM, I go to the teller and exchange some of the big bills for a bunch of smaller ones. I've also started using 20 peso bills to pay for bus fare on occasion, instead of always trying to scrounge up enough coins. These two changes have made life so much easier.
Groceries was next on the agenda. As we were leaving the store, one of the baggers came up to us and wanted to check our bags. I use a couple of large, insulated zippered bags from Sobey's. I had to unzip them so she could look. She wanted to see if we had Coke bottles, which we didn't. And then she checked our bags again after we were outside the store. We have no idea what the issue was but I couldn't help but be glad we didn't have any Coke in the bags. After we got home, I realized I had forgotten to tip the person who bagged our groceries. Jeepers!
El Faro has all-you-can-eat-ribs on Tuesdays so a bunch of us from the complex went tonight. I'm not really big on ribs but these were good. I quite liked the potato salad, too.
I forgot to post that we went to their all-you-can-eat fish and chips on Friday. I never order fish and chips back home because there's always twice as much batter as there is fish but the batter the other night was thin. There was more fish than batter. And their fries are really, really good.
After supper tonight, we stopped for tea and lime pie at the home of one of the couples. As we were getting back to our unit, our neighbours invited us in for a drink, so we enjoyed a lovely evening visiting with several very nice people.
Monday, March 17, 2014
I'm No Longer a Virgin
A Zumba virgin, that is!
Mary, a Canadian who lives just a couple of blocks from the complex, hosts Zumba on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 8:30 to 9:30. She's not the instructor, she simply provides her backyard for the class.
There are several ladies from the complex who attend regularly and I joined them this morning, for my first ever Zumba class.
Oh my gosh. What a hoot! I love to dance but my moves were so uncoordinated and not very Latin looking, at all...lol. About the time I figured out what to do, the instructors would change things up. I spent most of the class about 3 steps behind...lol. But I had a ball!
I can't wait for Wednesday.
And when we get home, I'm going to get our granddaughter, who's been in dance for 7 or 8 years, to show me how to do a couple of those moves that I just couldn't figure out.
Mary, a Canadian who lives just a couple of blocks from the complex, hosts Zumba on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 8:30 to 9:30. She's not the instructor, she simply provides her backyard for the class.
There are several ladies from the complex who attend regularly and I joined them this morning, for my first ever Zumba class.
Oh my gosh. What a hoot! I love to dance but my moves were so uncoordinated and not very Latin looking, at all...lol. About the time I figured out what to do, the instructors would change things up. I spent most of the class about 3 steps behind...lol. But I had a ball!
I can't wait for Wednesday.
And when we get home, I'm going to get our granddaughter, who's been in dance for 7 or 8 years, to show me how to do a couple of those moves that I just couldn't figure out.
Friday, March 14, 2014
A Very Busy Day
This morning I went with friends Bindi and Debi to the Bamboo Beach restaurant in Chicxulub for the Muelle Market that's held once a month. Lots of great things to purchase. Some are made by Mexicans and some by expats. I picked up some homemade lunch meat, pickles and salmon dip. I took my camera but I was so busy looking at all the cool stuff that I forgot to take any pictures!
Afterwards, we stopped at a fruit and vegetable market and picked up a few things. Bindi headed home and I went with Debi to her hair appointment to help her discuss a hair colour service that she'd like to receive next week. Today she just got a cut.
I love watching other hairdressers work...to see how they do things. We all have our own way of doing things and we all learn from each other. She told me about the colouring technique she's going to use on Debi's hair. I had never heard of doing it this way so I can't wait to see the end result.
A group of folks from the condo go down to Barlaventos, a restaurant downtown, quite regularly, usually on cruise ship day. Today was one of those days and Sr. B and Bindi's husband had gone with them while Bindi and I were out. We joined them later.
We were seated at tables on the sidewalk and a young fellow was standing nearby, singing and playing his saxophone. Way too loudly. People were yelling to be heard above his music and above the sounds of everyone else talking so loudly. I was getting a headache, so I headed home.
Later, we went to Owen and Bindi's for supper and then played a board game that's kind of a cross between Chinese checkers, Trouble and Skip-bo. I lost the first round and won the second. I never caught the name of the game but it was a lot of fun.
It was a busy and noise-filled day. Quite overwhelming for my introverted self. I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of now being home.
Afterwards, we stopped at a fruit and vegetable market and picked up a few things. Bindi headed home and I went with Debi to her hair appointment to help her discuss a hair colour service that she'd like to receive next week. Today she just got a cut.
I love watching other hairdressers work...to see how they do things. We all have our own way of doing things and we all learn from each other. She told me about the colouring technique she's going to use on Debi's hair. I had never heard of doing it this way so I can't wait to see the end result.
A group of folks from the condo go down to Barlaventos, a restaurant downtown, quite regularly, usually on cruise ship day. Today was one of those days and Sr. B and Bindi's husband had gone with them while Bindi and I were out. We joined them later.
We were seated at tables on the sidewalk and a young fellow was standing nearby, singing and playing his saxophone. Way too loudly. People were yelling to be heard above his music and above the sounds of everyone else talking so loudly. I was getting a headache, so I headed home.
Later, we went to Owen and Bindi's for supper and then played a board game that's kind of a cross between Chinese checkers, Trouble and Skip-bo. I lost the first round and won the second. I never caught the name of the game but it was a lot of fun.
It was a busy and noise-filled day. Quite overwhelming for my introverted self. I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of now being home.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Knitting Group
There is a lady, several blocks up the street, who hosts a Stitch and B*tch every Wed morning from 10 to noon. I know lots of groups like to call themselves by that name but I can't say I'm a fan of it. It sounds so negative. Luckily, they all seem like nice folks and there wasn't any b*tching. Just a group of like-minded gals spending time together. I really enjoyed myself and I'm sorry that I'll only be able to meet with them once more before we head back north.
This group collects caps for the cancer kids in Merida. I had brought some down in November but wasn't able to get in contact with anyone to drop them off to. I made a few more to bring down this trip, hoping to get in touch with someone. And that someone is the above mentioned lady. Yay!!
Here is the first batch I made.
And here's the second batch that I brought down this trip.
I've been knitting up a storm while we've been here. I thought I had brought enough yarn but I'm going to run out. I might have to go shopping. Gosh darn...lol.
This group collects caps for the cancer kids in Merida. I had brought some down in November but wasn't able to get in contact with anyone to drop them off to. I made a few more to bring down this trip, hoping to get in touch with someone. And that someone is the above mentioned lady. Yay!!
Here is the first batch I made.
And here's the second batch that I brought down this trip.
I've been knitting up a storm while we've been here. I thought I had brought enough yarn but I'm going to run out. I might have to go shopping. Gosh darn...lol.
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