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Back in March while we were still in Mexico, Rosalie saw an online ad for some small carry-on cases. She decided to buy them as they looked like just what we needed for when we travel. I was a bit dubious but as there wasn’t a lot of money involved I looked the other way.

After we got home we still hadn’t seen them so Rosalie sent an email to find out what was going on. She received a very polite reply and so we settled down to wait a little longer.

And we waited! We finally got an email saying that the cases had been delivered. The next time we were in Nanaimo we checked our mail and…nothing. When we got home I got the tracking number and plugged it in; the cases were in Alberta, or so they said.

Another email and another apology didn’t solve anything so Rosalie had had enough as it had been seven months since she had ordered them. By this time we suspected that we had been scammed: duh! She sent an email asking for our money back.

She was ticked right off!

But not just any email. This is how it went:

I still have not received my beautiful luggage I’ve been patiently waiting for.

So now I regret I must ask you to refund my money.

Definitely would have preferred to get the awesome luggage but since it looks like that won’t happen, please refund my money.

Thank you so much.

And they replied:

Dear customer

We urge the logistics company to deal with it as soon as possible, since it is an international logistics, it will take some time to deal with it

Please be patient for a week

Thank you for your understanding and support

Rosalie answered:

I still have not received my beautiful luggage sent from you yet.

My husband is Very Angry with me because he says you are a scam. He’s already beaten me once & if I don’t get the money back from you he will beat me within an inch of my life!

Please, please refund my money so he won’t.

Please refund to my credit card. I am so scared!

They answered:

Hello, I’m really sorry that you didn’t receive the package. To make up for your loss, we can resend a new package to you.

The new tracking number will take 7-10 days to arrive, and the delivery time for the package will be around 25-35 days

As soon as the courier comes out, it will be sent to you in a timely manner,

Can you accept it?

Looking forward to your reply

Rosalie again:

My husband says No.

He says I have waited long enough.

We are moving in 2 weeks so we won’t be at this address anymore.

My husband has no more patience and wants the money back on the credit card, Please.

I am worried about what he will do to me next if the money does not arrive soon! Please help me!

Back to them:

Dear customer
Hello, we will change a new express company here.
Make sure you get the package,
Is that okay with you?
Looking forward to your reply  

Rosalie:

The package will never arrive in 2 weeks before we move away.

So my husband insists you should return the money as the wonderful cases will not arrive before we move!

Them:

We guarantee that you will receive the package this time. Can you accept it?

Looking forward to your reply

Rosalie:

How can you guarantee the parcel can arrive in two weeks, when we won’t be here to accept it?

My husband is Really mad now.

Please just return the money to the credit card before he really does me in!

We haven’t heard back so I will have to give an update later. Oh boy! after all those hints about my abuse I’m expecting the cops at the door any time now. I laugh every time I read this. I’m very proud of my crazy wife.

Ah, family! they are either great or frustrating. I’m privileged to have a bit of both. Some of my kids are not talking to us, however, my eldest daughter Lisa is.

A while back I spotted a sign I wanted to put up at our trailer. I was fed up with all the “Welcome to paradise, Life’s better at the lake, My kids are little angels”, mamby-pamby signs. So, I got Lisa to make us our own little sign.

I loved it but it was a little too harsh for Rosalie so Jim said we should add a little something to make it genuinely Canadian and he came up with this…

Thank you Jim for coming up with the idea and thank you Lisa for making it for us. Rosalie’s much happier now.

As well as being a talented craftsperson, Lisa also takes after her Dad when it comes to other things like fishing. Her husband Peter didn’t do too bad either.

They had a good fishing trip and shared some of the catch with us. Rosalie and I had fish three days in a row and we loved it.

On a different note; I am still experimenting with the bokashi compost. I hadn’t touched it for a while as we had been away, so when we got back I opened up the bucket expecting a horrendous odour. I was pleasantly surprised at how little smell there was and what there was of it, wasn’t bad at all. The reason for that is, instead of just rotting, the bran that we add to it ferments the waste.

Even the juices running out of the bottom of the pail didn’t smell so I mixed it with lots of water and fed some of the flowers with it.

I’ve filled my first bucket and now have to leave it for two weeks to brew a bit before putting it in the garden for another two weeks before planting. It should just be in time for us to head back to Mexico in a couple of weeks. Geepers, it’s getting close. It was 9 C outside this morning so I think it’s time.

Our friends Neil and Diane often host bands to play at their home on Cowichan Bay. On this occasion, they had The Bandidos, a Mexican band from Melaque/Barra de Navidad. We’d seen The Bandidos on several occasions in Melaque so were really looking forward to seeing them again here.

They arrived in BC a couple of months ago and have been playing in the Okanagan, on the lower mainland, and finally Vancouver Island.

It was a busy Thursday, I had two doctor’s appointments and then had to attend the regular mandatory pub meeting in the afternoon. We arrived in Cowichan Bay just before 5 pm and very much looking forward to a few drinks and some good music. We weren’t disappointed on either count.

The music started at about 6 pm and the food appeared soon after. Rosalie had made a seafood cake which we shared with Jim and Ylda. It was delicious.

There were about 70 people in attendance who had to pay a minimum $20 donation each, all given to the band, who played three sets during the evening. Some people danced.

Neil and Diane are doing a house exchange with some people from Portugal and their guests weren’t expected to make the show because of the ferry situation. However, they showed up about half an hour before the end.

I was surprised to find that Harry was actually English. He is a lawyer and I don’t know what Vanessa does. We had a great conversation with them and Ylda was happy to meet someone from her birth country to practice her Portuguese.

Over the last few months, I’ve been trying to cut back on drinking but I failed on this occasion, waking up with a bit of a hangover. It was a great evening and Neil and Dianne were gracious enough to let us stay overnight.

It was an early start the following day to catch the ferry to the mainland. We arrived at the terminal at 9:30 and were told that we would be on the 3:15 sailing; a six-hour wait. Fortunately, this was expected and Rosalie had packed a picnic lunch so the wait wasn’t too bad. As it turned out we managed to get onto the 12:45 sailing which left at 1:10 (?).

We got to Agassi at 5 pm and had a great weekend with the family including our great granddaughter Stevie’s first birthday party. All weekend was very smokey. It seems as if the whole mainland is on fire.

After getting my eyes fixed I was really happy, that is until I looked in the mirror. Now I can see all the wrinkles; not so happy now!

We have a mosquito that buzzes by every night at about 7:30. He’s so regular that we have named him ‘Mo’. As soon as he arrives I light a mosquito coil, wave it around a bit and we don’t hear from him until the following night. We’ll miss him when we get back to Mexico.

Mexico: it’s only another 5 weeks before we head back there. This year has just flown by. I have to do something to slow it down a bit. Maybe a new hobby; we have an idea in mind but want to wait until we get home to Mexico before we try it. Explosives are cheaper and easier to get down there anyway.

As we are going to be away from our hydroponics for several days and the fact that they are guzzling a lot of water, I have a problem. How do I keep them fed?

I came up with the following idea:

The bucket on the left is the main reservoir and the one on the right is the reserve. Okay, so, the reserve has a tube feeding the reservoir. As water always seeks its own level it lets water into the reservoir when the reservoir gets low.

The large bottle on top is there in case the reserve gets too low. Water in that is held back by a vacuum until the water below drops and releases air into the bottle, therefore, letting out more water to feed the reserve.

Now, if anyone can understand what I just did, please drop me an email as I’m thoroughly confused. Of course, the nutrient level will drop but you can’t have everything.

We’ve been without company for the last few days. perhaps we’ve become unpopular at last. Although Bob and Marlene from next door dropped in for a visit so I’m keeping my hopes up. I think they just feel sorry for us though.

I installed a Spypoint camera so that we can keep an eye on the place during the winter. So far all I’ve got are pictures of Rosalie and me when we forget to turn it off when it’s not needed. I had to up our package from 100 pictures a month to 250 to accommodate our forgetfulness.

I did get excited the other day though when I caught an invader red-handed. Unfortunately, I was under the knife with my eye and couldn’t do anything about it. It looks as though he/she didn’t like watercress so we got off lightly.

I noticed that the CBC has posted a few negative reports about electric vehicles over the past few weeks. It was okay until I read one about a guy who took his Ford F150 into the States and couldn’t get it charged so he abandoned it and had it towed. Big news!

I’ve noticed that some of the stories are about people who don’t plan ahead and then complain when things don’t go their way. If that truck driver couldn’t find a charge station within his 500 Km driving range then he didn’t plan well.

I wondered, if I had a gas-powered F150, ran out of gas at the side of the road and had to abandon it, would they make a news story out of that? I doubt it very much! I’ve sent them an email which I’m sure they’ll ignore.

After having cataracts removed from my left eye and seeing the great results, I was excited when they called to give me the date for my right eye.

It was a bit more of a humane time at 11:45 am so we were happy about that. I arrived early only to find out that there was a one-hour delay. That was fine I just sat there looking bored for over an hour while Rosalie drove off and had fun grocery shopping.

Other people were waiting, as I had already had one eye done I felt somewhat superior. I saw these poor folks shaking in their boots while I was all calm and collected, or so I thought.

After the preliminaries which included seven lots of eye drops and a blood pressure test which was a bit high but nothing to worry about, I was ready. I was offered a sedative but put I on my manly face and refused. They still insisted on that silly hair net thing though.

I walked into the operating room and was again greeted by that ‘here’s another victim’ look.

The Doctor was awesome but he does insist on singing along with the music that is designed to calm you down. I think it did the opposite

Very soon it was all over and I went for my post-op blood pressure test. I was surprised to see that it was 240/80. The nurse didn’t seem concerned until she saw my pre-op numbers. 160/70 which is normal for the stress a person is under. However, they have a practice where the numbers have to be within 20 points of each other so she gave me another test and that was only 180/70, so she let me go. My normal pressure is 120-130 so I must have been more stressed than I thought.

When he was finished, the surgeon put a plastic shield on the eye. I had to wear it until the next day and then only at night for the next week. It’s to prevent me from rubbing my eye during the night or poking myself in the eye with a pointy stick.

I have to take three different drops four times a day as well as finishing up the ones for my left eye that have another week to go. It’s all very confusing but between Rosalie and the many alarms we set, it’s working out well. I wish she would stop slipping in a few drops of lemon juice though.

The upshot is that the right eye is still a little swollen and a bit blurry, but the world is looking a lot brighter and I can already see better. I can’t wait to get to Mexico to see all the young chiquitas on the beach.

How the heck did a kid from a very poor area in England end up with all this? I often sit with Rosalie on the beach in Mexico drinking a glass of wine and enjoying the cool breeze and say “How the hell did I get here?” What did I do to deserve this?

My Dad left home when I was eight years old and I was raised by my Mum. She had a hip operation where they pinned her hip with a steel rod so she couldn’t move it and therefore had less pain. There were no hip replacements in those days.

She did an awesome job of raising me and seeing that I was fed and clothed as we got no support from my dad. Part of the time we were on welfare but she was always looking for work. She was one of the rare women at that time, who could drive so she had a bit of an advantage. She once fell down a small flight of stairs and bent the pin in her hip, but she carried on working.

So how did I end up with a beautiful wife, a lot of good friends in a great country Canada and a great lifestyle that includes Mexico? That’s a rhetorical question because I haven’t a clue.

Growing up without a male guidance system was a problem. My three brothers had long left home to get away from our dad’s physical abuse (fortunately he left me alone.) so I didn’t have them to guide me until much later but by then they were more concerned with their own families.

Was it luck, karma, hard work or just stubbornness to survive? I don’t know, but whatever happened, here I am.

I wasn’t guided into a trade so I just worked at whatever paid well. When I came to Canada I was married with a young daughter and still no trade. Through the years I installed cable tv and eventually, I became an alarm installer. I ended up as an installation manager for Chubb Security in Toronto. Can you imagine me in a suit? I was responsible for 50 employees/subcontractors and an operating budget of 3 million dollars which was a lot for the time. How did that happen?

I’ve tried a lot of things in my life, looking to support my family. When I was 63 I went back to installing alarm systems so I could contribute. I took $10,000 off our mortgage that year.

I don’t have a million dollars but perhaps I have what a lot of people would like, contentment, enough of everything, an incredible wife, lots of good friends and a way of life that suits us both perfectly! As Rosalie loves to say, “We have more than adequate resources to meet our needs”. It’s not about money it’s about how happy you are in your life, and I am completely happy.

However, I’m still wondering how the hell I got here.

As we wind down to the new, Mexico season I’m finding myself a little bit bored so I need something new to excite me. A friend came by the other day and provided the perfect solution: composting. Not just any composting but Bokashi composting.

I turned to the main “how to do it” site on the internet: Youtube, and looked it up. It was a little scary as the last time I did this I YouTubed hydroponics and look at the mess that got me into.

As I’m always looking to try something new I thought that this may be the thing to ease my boredom.

The dirt garden, although getting better this year, the soil still needs a lot of building up. I think a good dose of compost may help. I know very little about gardening but I do try. I heard the word compost and knew this had to be the answer to the failed crops I’ve had over the last few years.

This is all done in two 4-gallon paint buckets from home depot for about $15 or you can buy the proper bucket for about $60. I’m sure you can guess which one I chose. Although the $60 bucket does come with a tap. Unlike conventional composting, this is an airtight process so a tight lid also helps to keep out any odours.

The secret ingredient is a composting process that uses microorganisms known as ‘Bokashi bran’ to ferment organic food waste and create a super-fertile compost that will enrich your soil. The bran and compost are layered in the bucket and at the end of two weeks, the waste is fermented and ready to go into the garden. Meanwhile, the liquid produced is collected, heavily diluted and fed to the house plants. Now you know why you need a tap in the bucket.

Next, you just dig a trench, dump in the compost and then cover it with dirt. At this point, the waste solids haven’t broken done yet, but there is little or no smell. The rest of the process takes a few more weeks.

For anyone who may be interested, here are a few videos. The bran tends to be a bit pricy but eventually, I will make my own with the help of these videos: The second one doesn’t even need bran.

The thing I like most is that the buckets can sit right outside the door and we don’t have to worry about odours.

You can’t plant over the trench for a few weeks as the compost may still be too strong and burn the plants. Anyway, I’m going to give it a try and will report back later.

It started off as a crazy year for my plants. I tried my super new vertical system and found that it leaked so much that I had to refill the water every day. That also means topping up the nutrients which can be expensive. The problem was that I had already placed a lot of seedlings in it. The first thing I did was panic, jump up and down and blame it all on Rosalie.

After Rosalie bought me back to earth with a sharp slap and a shot of tequila, I decided to build another, more traditional setup. Then I took the plants from the vertical setup and stuck them in the new one. I’m not too organized and they all got mixed up so I had little idea of what each plant was. I knew that they would eventually grow and maybe I could get them sorted out. It did work out that way eventually but in the meantime, there were a few surprises.

Our friends Art and Linda gave us about six tomato plants of various varieties. As we had so much success last year I decided to grow them hydroponically again. This was partly a big mistake.

One of the plants started to get so big that the roots blocked the outflow pipes and we had a bit of a flood so I had to relocate it to the dirt garden where it’s doing just fine. Later, a second one did the same thing but the roots were so tangled with its neighbour that I had to leave it and trim it a little. Right now I’m praying that it doesn’t get too get much bigger. The size of my hydroponics wasn’t designed for plants this big. Next year I’ll try a different method.

One morning, while inspecting the troops, I found two more small tomato plants growing among the unknown. Then I remembered that last year, our hydroponics store gave us some tomatoes that they had grown and I had saved some seeds. This must be them.

I caught this guy chomping on the bean leaves. He (or she) casually wandered off as if they owned the place.

We’ve had great success with all our plants but Rosalie is mostly excited about the peppers as she has some great ideas for them. We are also growing Lemon Cucumbers. They are round and tastier than the long skinny ones. From my last inspection, it looks as though there may be a couple of dozen of them.

There are also lettuce, kale, spinach and my favourite, watercress. My Father grew cress for a living in England so I grew up with it. My Mum used to say that I was teethed on the stuff. It has a slight peppery taste and is great in salads and sandwiches.

I’m still learning about all this and it’s a lot of fun. I have so many ideas for different ways to grow stuff that I’m afraid to tell Rosalie. I tried a new nutrient, It’s a bit more expensive but I sure can see how much better the plants are.

This year has been a success so far and hopefully, next year will be even better.

You may have noticed that the blog about the party was a bit late. It wasn’t all about me being lazy, our WiFi has been terrible for the last few weeks.

We have a Telus hub, and it hasn’t been too bad for the last few years. Lately, however, it’s been horrible. I reluctantly called the service department and got the usual run around.

First, after choosing a number to enter, I pushed it and hoped for the best. Who knows if you’re getting the correct department or not? Then I got a message saying that my wait time is three days thirty-two minutes and would I like a callback. Sure why not, I think they expect someone of my age to forget I ever called and the problem will go away.

They did call back twice. However, my phone didn’t ring on either occasion. I found out later that my phone was blocking all unknown callers; another problem for later.

I called them again on a different number only to be informed that I have to try to solve the problem myself online. How can I do that if my WiFi is all screwed up?

Okay, now I’ve had enough. I check online to look for rural internet companies and find that Xplore (formerly Explorenet) is still going strong. We cancelled them before because they only offered 100 GB. Now however they are offering 350 GB. We’re in!

After a short wait, I gave them a call and spoke to someone who spoke English, although with a slight U.S. accent. They were understandable enough though, so I plowed on. Oh! If only all calls were answered as quickly as the sales department.

After signing up I was told I would be contacted within two business days. On the third day, I tried to call the installer. I left a message and hoped they got back to me.

They did call back but my phone didn’t ring again and I missed it. I left another message with Rosalie’s number and waited. Nothing happened so I called Xplore again and was finally told our installation date.

At the time I had so much trouble with the WiFI that I had trouble writing this blog.

Eventually, the installer Steve, contacted me by text and we finally got the installation done earlier than expected.

Next, I had to give Telus the bad news that we were cancelling. I phoned them and after a very brief wait, I ended up talking to three different people. When they found I was cancelling I was offered all kinds of incentives to stay. Why I wasn’t offered these options when I had so much trouble before, I don’t know.

In the meantime, Rosalie had had trouble sleeping and had to spend a night at the sleep lab in Nanaimo. She said it wasn’t too bad but felt like a fish caught in a net.

She did manage to sleep and in the morning worried that they didn’t get enough data. However, the technician told her that she had slept for six and a half hours and they actually got good data. So now she has to wait for the results.

Our annual Melaque party was a little different this year. It happened to be our twenty-fifth anniversary so why not celebrate that at the same time? It was our party after all so we could do what we wanted.

Invitations were sent to sixty people and thirty-six showed up, including us and three of Rosalie’s relatives. The relatives arrived a few days early so we had a good time visiting before the main event.

We had arranged to borrow tables and chairs from various friends and neighbours and rounded some of them up the night before.

The day before the party, I had to go to Nanaimo to get some injections for my back. I took my brother-in-law Gordon and somehow we ended up at the Longwood pub for lunch. While we were sitting enjoying a beer, I remembered that Jim had volunteered to help set up the tables and he now, was having to manage all by himself. Oops!

After getting home about three we piled into doing whatever else needed doing. Then we were all set for the following day.

People started to arrive about 3 pm, and soon the place was hopping. After a while, someone called for the appies to be served and the festivities began in earnest.

Our good friend Gordie (not our brother-in-law) stood up and said a few words for Rosalie and me. Then, I knew I had to say something even though I hate speaking in front of people. So, to calm myself down I played the Mexican national anthem.

https://youtu.be/B9jUdcio5FY

For those who don’t know, this is the propane gas truck that we hear just about every day outside our yard in Melaque.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKmqngs-DxQ

After I said my bit we got the taqueria started and my B-in- law Gordon and I started to sling tacos.

I think a good time was had by all. There were very few fights, no naked table dancing (thankfully) and I didn’t have to carry anyone home. It sounds boring I know but people seemed to have fun anyway.

The following day after an initial clean-up, I started putting my phone back together. After much cursing, as the parts were ridiculously tiny, I got it all together and low and behold, it worked. I now have a nice new phone. Unfortunately, the face recognition doesn’t work as the parts were not Apple approved so I will have to wait until Mexico to get it fixed.