Saturday, April 29, 2017

Saturday 29th April 2017...Day 21!!!!

This is easy......

Woke up and it is raining... so watched a live soccer game from England!!!!



Had lunch and it is raining.....so I watched a hockey game!!!



After the hockey game and it is raining...so





I actually went out with Boomer..and it is still raining!!



Today in San Miguel is Graduation Day for my English students wish I could have been there to see and join in their celebration....my lovely friend Gracie who is seen here with her Grade two students forwarded these photos...thanks!!!

 My students

This is Rosy she joined my class at Christmas from Level 6 as there was no teacher and she was the only student to Graduate from the school so proud of her and I helped write her speech...she is amazing!!!






Tonight I went to Karen's house and we walked , in the rain, to this church around the corner from her house...


Canada 150th Birthday
To Canada with Love – music by Canadians about Canada. Some familiar, some unusual, some pop, some folk, some laments, some explosions of joy. Our land, our sea, our lakes, our victories and defeats. It’s all here for your musical enjoyment, performed by the Malaspina Choir with a whole host of up-and-coming Canadian musicians from our local schools (NDSS, Kwalikum Secondary, Pauline Haarer) and Vancouver Island University, funded in part by the Government of Canada.
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah nestles between Jimmy Rankin’s Fare Thee Well Love and Srul Irving Glick’s The Hour Has Come - to love our planet and humankind. Celebration fills the air with music from local composer Gail Lund and BC’s Larry Nickel. Music from Newfoundland balances music about Vancouver Island. Song For Canada, extolling “this land of our hopes and dreams”, reveals the poignant loss of Un Canadien Errant who has been banished from his beloved land. One hundred and fifty years of Canada deserves a big party – let’s celebrate! 

Adults $10 | Under 25 $5 | Children under 12 FREE
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM THE PORT THEAATRE BOX OFFICE
and from choir members or at the door, subject to availability
250-754-8550 www.tickets.portthratre.com
Artistic director: Lionel Tanod
Accompanist: Sharon Wishart
With Guest Artists
Gail Lund
NDSS Brass Ensemble: Director: Ken Brewer
École Pauline Haraare Choir, Karen Withers, Director
Kwalicum Secondary School Choir: Brent Kellas, Director
And compositions by local artists; Gail Lund, Elise Boulanger and Derek Robillard
St ANDREW'S UNITED CHURCH
311 FitzWilliam St, Nanaimo
Saturday 29 April, 7:30 pm


A wonderful concert home by 10 pm and guess what???

IT IS STILL RAINING!!!!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!

Friday, April 28, 2017

Friday 28th April 2017...Day 20!!!!

This morning was a lazy one with breakfast some e mails some reading, taking Boomer for a walk and then I went off to play pickle ball at a different outdoor location...on the way stopped by here one of my favorite spots!!!!





This is at Beban park a really huge and great complex and the two courts were in good condition and i enjoyed playing outdoors...as I mentioned before this a wonderful replacement for missing tennis....I am learning the little secrets to the game and I must admit my reflexes are really good...almost three hours and enjoyed every minute!!!!


Did some shopping and then home about 3 pm.... Heather and Kirby's oldest son Ben is home for a couple of days and you see him here with his buddy Brandon...a tough job for them !!!!!
 Ben is the one in the hat!!!!!

I am now engrossed in a fabulous hockey game the Edmonton Oilers my first team are winning at the moment!!!!



What a great mantra for everyone!!!!

Living the Four Agreements: A life changing Journey

In the best selling book The Four Agreements don Miguel Ruiz gives four principles to practice in order to create love and happiness in your life. Adopting and committing to these agreements is simple. Actually living and keeping these Four Agreements can  be one of the hardest things  you will ever do. It can also be one of the most life changing things you will ever do.


As you practice living these four practices your life will dramatically change. In the beginning these new habits will be challenging and you will lapse countless times. With practice these agreements become integrated into your being and every area of your life and become easy habits to keep.
The Four Agreements are:
1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
Understanding how to Integrate and Live the practices
Upon reading don Miguel’s wisdom many people have their eyes opened to a new possibility for living life. They get excited when they see the potential for happiness, love, and respect with themselves and their relationships. What they fail to see is the challenges and resistance the mind will have to living just one of the agreements. Don Miguel briefly mentions these challenges in his book, but people fixate on the four chapters with the agreements and seem to miss these other important points. This is often the set up for expectations that lead to disappointment and frustration.
Domestication
During our early life we began making agreements. Our parents rewarded us when we did what they wanted and they punished us when we didn’t. We also learned behaviors and habits in school, church, and from other adults and children on the playground. The tools of reward and punishment were often emotional and sometimes physical. The impact of other people’s opinions and reactions to us became a very strong force in the habits we created. In this process we created agreements in our mind of who we should be, what we shouldn’t be, who we were, and who we were not. Over time we learned to live our life based on the agreements in our own mind. We learned to live according to the agreements that came from the opinion of others. In this process of domestication it turns out that the choices we make and the life we live is more driven by the opinions we learned from others than one we would choose on our own.
Why Living the Four Agreements Is Such a Challenge
We have out of years of habit not paid attention to how we express our self. The responses that come out of our mouth are often automatic. They were learned from years of habit living by the agreements we learned. We do not consciously choose our words, or the emotion, tone, and attitude that we express.
Over years our mind has filled with beliefs that generate incessant thinking. In all that thinking we have many assumptions that we are not aware of. We even make the assumption that what we think is true. We imagine and assume what others think of us and how they will react. We also assume that the judgments and self criticisms we have are true. We have learned to make so many assumptions that we aren’t aware of. These assumptions are not the truth. These assumptions and the faith we express in them is just one way that we are not impeccable with our word.
Through our domestication we have also learned to take things personally. We assume that when someone has an opinion about us that their opinion is valid.  Their opinion becomes our belief about our self.   We end up having an emotional reaction to our own belief because  we assumed their opinion it is true.   We can also take personally our own opinions. We take personally our own self judgments. These self judgments are nothing more than an assumption. Over years the mind has developed many habits of making assumptions and taking them personally.

Yashi Kochi!!!

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Thursday 27th April 2017...Day 19!!!!


Well the rain never came so that was good news....did some house hold chores this morning before going to Pickle ball...it was at the same Recreation club as  Monday and I went to pay and the lady asked for 7 dollars which I paid....was three hours of great fun...great work out and nice people...talked to one lady about the cost which I thought was $5.25 and she said it is only 7 dollars if you are under 60!!!!
So the dilemma was do I just go away being swell headed the lady thought I was under 60 years of age or go get a refund of $1.75????
I took the money but thanked her for making my day!!!


Came home and enjoyed a long soak in the tub with Epsom salts..... watched some hockey before I went off to poker..it was good to see the guys again and I started out doing well
 but I am afraid my luck did not last long and at the end of the night my tray was looking pretty lonely!!


A little smile for you!!!

While golfing, I accidentally overturned my golf cart. A very attractive golfer, who lived in the Villages on a golf course, heard the noise and called out, "Are you okay?”

"I'm okay. Thanks," I replied as I pulled myself out of the twisted cart.

She said, "Come up to my villa, rest a while, and I'll help you get the cart up later." I noticed her silky bathrobe was partially open, revealing what appeared to be a very nice figure.

"That's mighty nice of you," I answered, "but I don't think my wife would like it.”

"Oh, come on now " she insisted. She was so pretty, and very, very persuasive.

I was weak. "Well okay," I finally agreed. After a couple of Scotch and waters, I thanked her and said, "I feel a lot better now. But I know my wife is going to be really upset. So I'd better go now.”

"Don't be silly!" she said with a smile, letting her robe fall slightly more open. "Stay for a while. She won't know anything. By the way, where is she?”

I replied, "Still under the cart, I guess".

The test post below was an attempt to copy and paste a map into the blog from the lesson I had at the library but as you can see I did not pay enough attention and i have booked another lesson in ten days!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!



test

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Nanaimo,+BC,+Canada/@49.1731975,-124.0771049,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x5488a15e20ac1c5b:0x50135152a7b0fd0!8m2!3d49.1658836!4d-123.9400647

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Wednesday 26th April 2017...Day 18!!!!

Lovely sunny but cool morning and today I drove Heather down to the airport in Victoria for her flight to Denver for her to watch her son Zach compete in the huge Pac 12 golf tournament......unfortunately the weather forecast there is calling for about 7 inches of snow on Friday so we have to see what develops!!!

The drive takes about 2 hours over a beautiful mountain pass here is one quick shot!!!




I dropped Heather off at the departure gate and then started to drive back stopping at a lovely Provincial Park called Goldstream Park...there is a little know but lovely waterfall in this park maybe 200 yards off the busy highway that not too many people know about.
I parked and walked through this tunnel...

Along this path...
and to the base of these majestic falls!!!!


Just a great waterfall...





There is a steep trail which I followed up to the old abandoned railway trestle..
A magnificent feat of engineering!!!

I like this shot looking through the girders!!!
Watch out Larry no rails on this bridge!!!
A steep drop!!

As you can see it was a lovely sunny day not too warm but still nice!!

Back at the car I drove to the next town of Duncan where my friend Sara lives today is her birthday and I have not seen her since she was in San Miguel...so I stopped by and took her to lunch, Happy Birthday!!
On the way home I picked up Boomer from the kennel he was really happy to see me..it is just the two of us till Sunday...

Had a nice light dinner and the world is as it should be with a hockey game on tonight and my team Edmonton won in a great match up with Anaheim...go OILERS!!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!!

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Tuesday 25th April 2017...Day 16!!!!

So this morning I get up go to the kitchen get out a bowl put some sliced peaches in, get out my granola and put some on the peaches and then got out the yogurt container when Heather came in the kitchen asking what I was doing.....and then she told me that I was supposed to be fasting for my blood test work......I had completely forgot so the peaches went back in to the fridge and I remained hungry!!!!

After doing a few chores I went to the clinic armed with my book as I knew I would have to wait and I did about 30 minutes....and within 2 minutes I was finished!!!!


I then drove down town and took some local photos....this is looking across the harbor towards Vancouver and the mountains!!!

Before I moved to mexico I lived in this town for almost 20 years and I was involved in quite a few projects and associations and a few years ago the town decided to recognize my contributions and efforts for the town with this small park close to down town!!!!  Not many people have a park named after them!!!!


This river is virtually right down town!!!
Spring colors!!!!
This is the restaurant where I spent 14 years before I retired in December of 2006!!!!!
I met up with Karen and she took me shopping for a few clothes my dress sense is non existent!!!
I like the things she picked out for me!!!

Next it was to the local library where I had booked a free 30 minute tech help and the kind assistant showed me how to download e books from the library on to my Kobo...it is virtually like walking into the library and I can access it from anywhere in the world....

When I finally got home Heather had a surprise for me...yes a load of bark mulch!!!!  Just what every guy hopes for!!!
The before photo
The after photo
I cannot take any credit Heather as you see her above did all of this I just loaded a few wheel barrows for her...because......I was mowing the front and huge back lawn!!!!
You see what happens when there is no hockey on TV a man works!!!!

Thank goodness the games resume tomorrow!!!!

Oh by the way  anyone who believed what I wrote(That means you Linda) about the Pearson Park being named after me...I have a bridge in Florida I would like to sell you!!!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!

Monday, April 24, 2017

Monday 24th April 2017...Day 16!!!

I like to get a medical check up when I am here and I found out my great Doctor of over 24 years retired last year.....Heather made an appointment for this morning and I met the replacement Doctor, he looked about 17 years of age but was very professional and I liked him.....he is sending me for regular blood tests and I go back to see him in two weeks....

Breakfast on the Bank!!

 On the way back from the Doctor's I drove past my old condo complex....was not this color when I owned one....mine was the middle condo on the far left...I owned this from 2000 till 2006 and made 100,000 dollars when I sold!!!!
 This view was almost across the street sort of!!!!
 At noon I went to play my first game of pickle ball...


How Pickle-ball® Came to Be

The Birth of Pickle-ball®

Pickle-ball® is a game for the whole family. So it’s only fitting that it was invented by a family, too. The game got its start back in 1965, in Bainbridge Island, just a short ferry ride away from Seattle, WA 
When Congressmen Joel Pritchard, William Bell and Barney McCallum came home from a game of golf one day to find their kids bored and restless, they set out to create a game that would engage them through the lazy days of summer.
They wanted to create a game that would be challenging, but still accessible. They handed the kids table tennis paddles and a wiffle ball, and lowered the net on their badminton court. In the coming days both kids and adults alike fell in love with the game, and as they played the rules evolved (to include the non-volley zone, for instance) and solidified to their present incarnation.

Pickle-ball's Birthplace — Bainbridge Island



The Early Years

Pickle-ball® caught on fast with friends and neighbors. People began making their own Pickle-ball® paddles, which were more suited to the game than table tennis paddles, using a wood jigsaws and marine plywood. Those who had access to badminton courts simply lowered the net. Others set up courts in their driveways and backyards, drawing lines with chalk. News of the fun new game spread by word-of-mouth.

Evolution of Pickle-ball®

Pickle-ball® continued to gain in popularity over the years for players of all ages, and in 1972, Pickle-ball® was officially incorporated to give the game a proper hub and keep up with the demand for paddles, balls, nets and other gear. 

An Interview With Our Own Barney McCallum



Pickle-ball® Today

Today Pickle-ball® is played all over the world—through community groups, PE classes, YMCA, retirement communities and more. According to a recent article there are more than 2,000,000 people playing Pickle-ball® in the US alone, and the game is growing exponentially.

It was a drop in group and they were all very friendly and it took me a few games to get the hang of it and then i think i did quite well...played almost 3 hours and it was a great workout...it seems I will not be able to get any tennis in so this is a wonderful replacement...i look forward to playing again on Thursday...

 No comments please about the hair...I was sweaty and hot and also no comments about the shirt..it is the national soccer shirt of Croatia!!!
 Came home and had a fabulous long hot soak in the tub!!!

Then spent three hours in the kitchen making a batch of pea soup!!!
 Heather worked late tonight and when she came home she had a bowl and said it was delicious!!!!

Taken just around 8 pm...
You will notice there is no mention of watching a hockey game tonight!!!!!

No game..next game Wednesday!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!

Thursday 5 th January 2023…it was a great run!!!

 This was my first ever blog post back in November of 2006!!! With just a couple of days off I have written a blog every day since and I hav...