Wow cannot believe how fast the weeks and months have gone by..I am packed up and ready to head out the door on my big journey but it is a new me.
It is hard for me to keep a secret but for the last three weeks I have been having some work done..I always wanted to do something different and believe me this was not a cheap adventure around 500 dollars and painful at times but meet the new Mr.Pearson!!!!
The design is of the Mayan culture and I like it……
Yashi Kochi!!!!
and it was a beautiful warm sunny morning for our 2 hours of great tennis this morning I really enjoy everything about it.
Afterwards I went into town to meet the young lady is going to substitute at my English class…Peggy is a delightful young medical student and I know she will love the students as they will her. I am back in time for their last four classes before they graduate so I am thrilled for that.
I then came home and got down to some serious clothes washing, packed and just getting organized for my trip.
Next stop was to go over to Rita’s and take her some medications and food and have a visit with her……her health is not good and she is always so cheerful and kind a special lady indeed.
Finally got home around 5 o clock and after supper settled down to pack the car and make sure I have everything and I think I have….
Now enjoying tea and watching live tennis from Miami!!!!
I hope to have Internet on the road and keep up with the blog..blessings to all!!
Yashi Kochi!!!!
I am taking a small road trip starting on Wednesday heading first of all to palm Springs and one of my tennis buddies is going stay here in the house so the CAT will get fed…..
No.1 is where I shall be staying Wednesday night in a small town called Jimenez it is about 950 km I have stayed here a few times it is a really nice hotel with a gate and guard and the rooms are lovely…….the next day I drive about the same distance to the USA border No.3 and then cross into Arizona and spend the night in Sierra Vista No.4 and then Friday to No.5 palm Springs
In palm Springs I am going to watch and support my young friend Ashley in her quest to get into the big Easter Bowl Tennis tournament starting on the 6th April…..Ashley is 15 years old and has been in Carson tennis Academy for nearly two years but unfortunately in the last year she has undergone two surgeries and has been of the courts for 9 months and just starting back about 6 weeks ago because of this she has to qualify to get into the Bowl tournament so on the 4th she plays her first game and she must get through to the quarter finals and if she does that she will be entered in the main draw…..this will be a hard task for her because not only with her lay off but also because she is playing girls up to 18 years of age..but I know she will do the very best she can and I am glad I shall be there to see .
When the tournament ends I shall drive to Tucson to have some time with Linda and Guy I have not seen them since August so I look forward to this visit.
This morning as I went outside the back patio to hang some clothes on the line I saw this sight!!!!
I planted some Morning Glory seeds in this bush a while ago and today my very first flower!!!!
Tonight I went about 8 minutes away from the house and took these shots just lovely!!!!!
What a beautiful world!!!!
Yashi Kochi!!!!
Sunday morning so that must mean meet at the gas station in town at 8am for the regular Sunday hike……Pierre and I were joined this time by Emily and off we went to find a new way to get to the towers!!!!
The X is where we want to be but before that we had to climb up the hill to the left and let me tell you it was a hard task especially as we had to bushwhack a lot of the way…here is our fearless leader Pierre…
I like these photos looking back on a watering hole!!!
It was a beautiful sunny day and it was hot work but enjoyable and the views quite lovely this is looking back at the lake close to my house…
Some colorful plant life
We were now at 9000 feet and the towers were about 100 yards away when we decided to stop and have lunch and it was a welcome time…..
Then started the journey down we found a nice track and it was so much easier going down
Looking back on where we hiked…love the cloud formations!!!
I love this photo below we met this old goat herder coming back down the trail with his goats and we chatted with him and then I saw his feet and had to snap this shot…here we are with our expensive hiking boots and smooth dry socks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We were gone close to six hours and did about 10 hard miles!!!!
I went straight to Maryisol’s apartment, my lovely Spanish teacher and helped her for 90 minutes move some things to her new casita.
On the way home I stopped at the gas station and as the attendant was filling my tank I noticed a couple in a car at the side of the station obviously lost and looking anxious I also saw that the license late on their car was from British Columbia…so after my tank was filled I pulled over and went to them and asked if they needed any help and also asked where they were from….they were from Gabriola Island which is a small Island next to the town town of Nanaimo where I lived for many years……they had rented an apartment but never been here before I saw that the street was way on the other side of town and I told them it was their lucky day that I would drive and they could follow me…..it took about 20 minutes with all the traffic but I left them right at the door to their apartment….they thanked me so much and I just smiled and said you are welcome but you must pay it forward..they knew what I meant and I am sure they will,
So finally home after a lovely but tiring day…had a great soak in the tub, dinner and now tea and some tennis on TV…
Yashi Kochi!!!
Well the weather was a bit iffy this morning but we still managed to get 2 hours of great tennis in and I always enjoy the day when I can start out on the tennis courts….did some errands in town and did some laundry and then the heavens opened never quite seen hail like it looked like snow!!!!
That was one storm for the memory banks……
The rest of the afternoon I was home just doing odd jobs and getting myself ready for a little road trip next week more on that in a few days!!!
Tonight two hockey games and one soccer game to watch!!!!!
Remember about 10 days ago I went to Irapuato to watch a ladies tennis tournament…the first game I saw was between an American gal and a German girl and I liked the German girl I met her before the game with her husband and 2 year old baby girl…..unfortunately she lost that game and I captured this shot of her after the game changing diapers and I made a comment about sometimes the life of an athlete is not all glamour.
So imagine my surprise when I read this article below…..it was a great win for Tatjana!!!
The Canadian Press
Eugenie Bouchard and Tatjana Maria
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. - Eugenie Bouchard was upset Saturday in her opening match at the Miami Open by qualifier Tatjana Maria 6-0, 7-6 (4).
Bouchard, who was seeded No. 6, won less than half her service points, had five double-faults and was broken five times.
The Canadian, a Wimbledon finalist last year, has a 6-4 record this year. Her career record at Key Biscayne fell to 1-3.
Maria, a German ranked 113th, beat a top 10 player for the first time since 2010.
Yashi Kochi!!!
A little bit cloudy first thing but still warm and after breakfast I set out first to go to town to do some chores and then hiking…
the view of town with the Jacaranda trees in full bloom is a sight to behold!!!
I then drove out of town maybe 20 km to a slot canyon where I have not been before……on the way saw this great sight…
I follow this sometimes dry riverbed into the canyon
Am I at the beach!!!!
What is X you may ask…well my wonderful zoom on my camera tells you!!!!
This is where I had my lunch..not bad !!!!It was a good hike about 9 miles and hard because of all the scrambling over the rocks….
This kid was about 10 years old
and this lady about 80!!!!
In the small village there is a huge church
inside was lovely!!
I stopped at the market and bought myself a nice steak and when I got home the cat must have known here he is waiting for me on top of the BBQ looks like I left him a glass of water!!!!
Well it was a true Pearson day talked to no one and just had the time to myself and lots of thinking as I have some busy weeks to come and some adventures…..
The steak was great and an Epsom salts bath and just finished watching a hockey game…
Yashi koch!!!
which did not start out too well because tennis this morning was cancelled because of that big rain storm last night!!!!
So I had an extra hour studying and then went to my class…I am now into future and past tenses and I think at last I get the idea and I know I say it often but I have the best teacher…..
I was lucky because the courts were open this afternoon and I got to play for an hour which I enjoyed.
Went shopping afterwards and picked up some goodies for Rita she has a friend coming to stay for the weekend and I was happy to get some little things in for her and I took them around to her this evening and stayed for a short chat and then went into town and attended a series of 6 ten minute plays at the local theatre they were all well acted and some were quite funny.
Home in time to watching the last period of a hockey game…..
Interesting article I think!!!
It is six months since 43 students went missing in the Mexican state of Guerrero. They disappeared after clashes with police in the town of Iguala.
The government says the students were handed over to drugs gangs by corrupt local police - but the parents refuse to accept this and are demanding more action to find their loved ones.
It is a sunny afternoon in the Raul Isidro Burgos rural teachers' college in Ayotzinapa. The warmth has brought out a chorus of chirping birds, and some young children are kicking a ball about on the grass.
In the centre of the college, a few people are on the basketball court. This would normally be the heart of the college, a place where people would come and relax.
Now it is a shrine to the missing. At one end, there are 43 desks - each one with a picture of a student.
A college shirt is draped over the back of one of the chairs; other people have left balloons, pictures and trinkets.
Without knowing where their sons and brothers are, nor being able to bury them, this feels like the closest the families can get to visiting their loved ones' graves.
On the other side of the basketball court Erica de la Cruz Pascual is cradling her three-year-old daughter Alison. Erica's husband, Adan Abrahan, is one of the missing.
Every day she comes here with her little girl and eight-year-old son Jose Angel, hoping that one day he will walk back through the college gates. It is her son who has taken it the hardest.
"At first, we didn't want to tell him, but we have to be honest. He's been really sad ever since," says Erica. "He doesn't want to leave here, he says he wants to be a teacher like his dad."
Nearby, I meet Floriberto Cruz, whose grandson Jorge Anibal is also missing. President Pena Nieto has said that it is time to move on, but the families disagree.
"Sometimes we think the world's forgotten us because we don't get any support," Floriberto tells me. "We know that people from around the world know what happened here but we have no way of knowing if they're supporting us."
The case of the 43 students galvanised Mexican society - it was the sheer number that disappeared in one night that shocked many.
But they were not the first and nor were they the last to go missing in Iguala, the town that has become the centre of the horror story.
The journey from Ayotzinapa to Iguala takes about 90 minutes.
I was warned about Iguala before I went. Some people call it an "infierno". Others just label it "caliente" (or "hot') - in reference to its violent reputation.
One man stopped me in the street in the centre of Iguala to talk. I asked him how it felt to him. "Calma-chicha," he called it, explaining that there was a sort of "tense calm" in the town.
Iguala is at the heart of Mexico's opium trade. Surrounded by mountains where poppies are to produce opium paste, the town is an important point in the route to the United States.
Iguala seems like any ordinary town - there is a large square in the centre with a beautiful orange church. Shops around the square sell everything from Mexican ice lollies to boom box speakers that blare out mariachi music to everyone passing by.
But we were warned by many people to watch our backs. Halcones - or hawks in English - hang out on the street corners or drive by on motorcycles and radio their friends to let the criminal gangs know what is happening in town.
I spoke to several people, and when I asked whether they would talk to me as a journalist, the response was "it's complicated".
But Jehuet was willing to tell me her story.
Last year, her younger brother, who was 25, was kidnapped after taking his son to nursery.
The family paid a ransom of 30,000 Mexican pesos ($1,980; £1,330) and he was released.
Then, eight weeks ago he was kidnapped again. This time, he was shot in the head execution-style and his body dumped in a poor neighbourhood. Paradoxically, she says her family was lucky.
"What's happening in our lives is so depressing, so brutal," she says.
"We used to have to thank God for another day of life, for our health, to be looked after. Now we have to thank the criminal gangs that we are alive. We have to thank them for allowing us to be with our families for just one more day.
"But we also have to thank them for giving us my brother's body because there are some people - those families of disappeared - who don't have their bodies or only parts of them."
In the wake of the students' disappearance, Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca was arrested along with his wife, accused of ordering police to confront the students on the night they disappeared.
Few people here trust local politicians - the feeling is that Mr Abarca was just one of many corrupt mayors in office in Guerrero. There is now a growing movement to boycott elections in June.
"Nothing has changed since the disappearance of the students," says Ezequiel Flores, the Guerrero correspondent for national magazine Proceso.
"The same political forces that encouraged that mayor are working with other people but with the same practices and the same links. In other words, mafias have won over the political parties."
In Guerrero's capital Chilpancingo, I meet a businessman who says he is different. Pioquinto Damian Hueta is running for mayor and knows first-hand about violence.
Last year, 180 bullets were fired into his car, killing his daughter-in-law and injuring his son. Mr Hueta believes he was the intended target. Despite this, he still wants to run for office.
"Yes, I'm scared but I'm more scared about staying silent," he says. "I'm more scared about doing nothing, about being a spectator and seeing my municipality come apart. Fear of being paralysed and doing nothing, watching Guerrero and how it's come undone."
The events of September turned the world's attention to the violence in Guerrero - but six months on, little has changed.
Life is hard for people who live here, especially in towns like Iguala.
After a while, it is hard to trust anyone you speak to. Everybody has a shocking story to tell and none of those stories are simple to understand.
Politics, drugs and violence - it is a lethal mix. And one that seems almost impossible to unravel.
Yashi Kochi!!!!
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...
