Nice - got my new passport yesterday. I just sent in the online form along with my old passport to Gatineau, QC and had the new one in my hands in less than 2 weeks! This is so much better than standing in line. The last time I had to renew, I left it too late and had to go to the passport office. What a zoo. Being 3rd in line at the post office in the back of Turtle Creek is way better than being number 572 in a skeevy government office.

Special bonus: I like my new photo better than the old one and they even returned my old passport. Those stamps and visas remind me of so many great trips.

While searching for a photo of a Canadian passport, I found out that Canada will be introducing a higher security, electronic passport valid for 10 years, starting in 2011. This makes so much sense, especially since Canadians are required to present a passport to enter the U.S. when arriving by air or sea and, although it's not strictly enforced, proof of identity and citizenship when entering by land. Currently, that means if you don't have a passport, you have to use a driver's license combined with an original birth certificate. Taking this into consideration, the Canadian federal government is developing an alternative secure travel document for short-term travel to the U.S.. Ottawa will spend $6-million over two years to support enhanced provincial drivers' licenses that will also list the driver's citizenship.

Having this new passport makes me want to try it out. Gah. Not good. I can see the airport from my office window and Flaco says the Bali Trip is ON...

ugh....
Today I found myself in one of those awkward situations... I was talking to someone and they said,"oh tomorrow I'm doing blah blah and then I have this with these people..." and I remembered that I was invited to this about 6 weeks ago and said, "Oh right, I forgot about this with them ..." and then let it trail off as realization sunk in that this person knew I'd been invited but there'd been no follow-up phone call or email - to me. I'd been dumped!
Stuck now, the other person said, "oh, do you want to come?" so I made up some reason for not being available. But then I thought maybe I was being over-sensitive. I mean, why invite me in the first place? So I said, "Maybe I can make it, what time?" But there was that weirdness again as they gave me the details. Now we were both really uncomfortable and I couldn't take it back and since I haven't been in this situation since high school, I didn't know how to smooth over the moment. Now it's just sort of out there and I feel like a big social duffus, with greasy hair and a skin condition.
erm...

Winnipeg is sinking....

My brother just sent this photo. Both he and his girfriend, Jo-Ann, are researchers associated with the University of Manitoba.

He wrote, "Thought I would send along a photo taken this past weekend of our research farm located about 15 km south of Winnipeg. It’s the island in the bottom right corner. The larger farm in the center of the shot is the University of Manitoba’s research farm. Jo-Ann and I are spending the night manning the pumps as there is some seepage through culverts in the dike. Not to worry...we have a boat in case the water comes up over the roadway. Oh...and a bottle of wine."

What??
You know, I don't like to miss a TFC game but I wasn't too upset when I realized I couldn't make tonight's game because of a coaching gig. De Ro is out with a groin injury and we were up against the undefeated Chivas USA. Plus it was cold and rainy (although it's always a good time in 119!).
So what do they do?? Instead of continuing their slippery skid of defeat, the Reds delivered their best home performance of the year! I got a text from my son as I was leaving Sunnyside and I thought he was just being a jerk because I couldn't be there;
1-0 for TFC
Chya right.
No, we won!! :):)
Really??
crap, I missed it.
Anyway, this is all it'll take to get the fans up for Sundays game against K.C. Can't wait!!

It's still cold and grey out there. Tonight's my first night of the year for coaching db at Sunnyside - Greg and I are co-coaching a corporate team that has an A & B crew. Should be fun (as long as I remember to take a hat and gloves). With the weather I'm guessing we'll be lucky to get one full boat, let alone two.

Gah...the wind is ridiculous! It was rainy, cold and windy all day. And of course it's the day I get two emails from the guys in C.R. telling me how great the waves are - head high - and asking if I miss the warm weather and the skinny men with big feet.
I do! I really do.
In the afternoon, there was a major accident that shut down the QEW westbound. I had a very brief window to go to the gym before heading downtown but traffic was crawling on the Lakeshore. I was talking to Pete and he wanted some computer help at the club so I ditched my plans for the gym and headed to MCC instead.
It was good to see more people back from school and Florida. I think everyone should be home within the next week or so.

So, I had been thinking about taking the subway downtown from Kipling, because the Spanish Centre is right at Yonge & Bloor but the weather changed my mind. The wind had to be over 70 km/hr a straight headwind as I drove east. The force was so strong, the wipers couldn't even clear the water. It was like having one of those indoor waterfalls on my windshield.
The Spanish Centre is a 3 storey building just east of Yonge, south of Bloor. The instructor for this beginner class, Carlos, has the most amazing, deep voice ever. I laughed because it's exactly like the guy in the video we watched the other night. Anyway, he's a Phd student at U of T, dynamic with great teaching skills. There are just 9 of us in the class which makes it easy to be speaking all the time. First class was easy, especially since Spanish is such a logical language - at least with the regular verbs. We'll see what happens next week when we start with irregular verbs.

Hey, Kris Sziraki and Sue Boruvka are doing the Spring Sprint 2009 in support of Canadians affected by a brain tumour. Please check out Team Szirak Attack - you can pledge something or join the team in London with your own pledges!

Bugger. I went out to buy a book this afternoon and ended up buying a dresser and bedside table at Interiors. Don't get me wrong, it's actually a good thing because two drawers in the antique dresser in my room broke a long time ago. I've been keeping my clothes...well, all over the place. So I really need a new dresser. I just didn't intend to spend more than $60 today. I like it though.

Oh, while I'm here, I want to address this whole Susan Boyle viral ...whatever it is. Doesn't anybody remember Paul Potts?? He was on this same show 2 years ago. It was exactly the same scenerio. So I'm just going to put it out there - this is their thing - they scour the country for a very talented, less-than-attractive performer, create the set-up, "sad-sack mobile phone salesman or 47 year-old, never-been-kissed--lives-with-cats" and it's a slam dunk. Free advertising. I guess what's really bothering me is that in all the high-profile interviews (Larry King, Oprah), they're all, "Ooooo phenomenon, what a surprise, who'd have thought?" and no one is saying, "Hey, this is just like 2007 when Paul Potts did exactly the same thing"! And not to take away from the person's talent but it just seems a little devious. Plus, there are a ton of highly-trained, talented people out there who never made it for one reason or another. Hey, they should have a program that filters throught the general population and then they could win a contract or.....
....oh...

Never mind.

Impromptu cocktail party for the girls at my house last night. Carrie, Marisha, Eve, Katy, Karen & even Chrissy (who I didn't know was home from London) dropped over. I had a bottle of pomegranate liquor that has been hanging around for ages and I wanted to try it and a couple of appetizer recipes. For some reason, my recent vacation reset my cooking gene. There were quite a few things changed by this trip but more on that later.

So I had planned to do all the prep work on Thursday night but didn't get home until late and ended up doing everything on Friday. I was still mixing up the mushroom stuffing when Marisha arrived. She brought me a beautiful serving tray as a gift for no reason. It's beautiful - I love it! She said there was a complete line so I asked where she got it. Laughing she said, "you'll never believe it, Winners!" This just confirms my belief that I need to go to Winners more.




So, my planning and organizational skills are rusty but it was a fun night and the food I'd made - guacamole, shrimp skewers and stuffed mushrooms - disappeared so the recipes were a success. I'm going to entertain more this summer, I think. I just need to get that rooftop deck built so we can do it outside!

We mostly drank wine all night but after a few glasses, I decided it was time to try the pomegranate mojito recipe. (ps new rule - friends don't let friends blender drunk). I ran up to the computer to check a website that had recipes, ran back downstairs and muddled the mint leaves in the glass as directed, forgot part of the recipe so ran back upstairs, ran back downstairs and added the rum and pomegranate, ran back upstairs to check if there was anything missing, ran back downstairs and threw everything in the blender with ice - mint leaves and all. When I poured the mix into glasses, the chopped up mint just floated on the top like a crust of mown grass. I didn't have any straws so just handed the drinks out. I'd had too much wine to have thought about straining the mint off and everyone was too polite to say anything. They sat there drinking it with green goo stuck to their lips & front teeth. Now those are good friends!

(btw, I know you're thinking,"why not just print off the recipe?" but they're those dumb flash animations that can't be printed or cut & pasted.)

On a sidenote, why do you always get the good hair day when you're not doing anything special? My hair looks fabulous right now and that's not just the hangover talking!

This afternoon Ryan came over and we walked down to the lake. It's so warm we're wearing shorts and t-shirts. There were deer in the marsh and then this crazy fish carnage on the little beach where the marsh empties into the lake. Usually, it flows out through an opening but I guess the waves this past week built up a temporary wall of rocks. It looks like the fish (we couldn't identify the species) got stuck on the marsh side and tried to swim across the rock bridge. There were dead fish everywhere and there were still a bunch of live ones thrashing around in the shallow water, apparently trying to tunnel their way to the lake.
Afterward, we walked over to the grocery store, made some dinner (not fish) and we watched a video my boss had given me on Guatemala. She's from there and told me about a town she thinks would be good for me to visit. I asked if it was a town of single men. She laughed and said no, it's supposed to be the best place to learn Spanish. It's won all these awards because that's the town's main tourism - the entire place is geared to helping the tourist-students learn the language. We decided that if Pete has to cancel the Greece trip for any reason, we'll go to Guatemala instead. Really, the video was about 20 years old - 80s-licious - but the place looks amazing!

Also, talking about learning Spanish
got me thinking I need to do something new so I signed up for Spanish lessons at the Spanish Centre in Toronto. I start on Monday so we'll see if the trip reset my learning gene too! I'm excited. They also have merengue and salsa lessons so I'll probably sign up for those as well. I saw some pretty good salsa dancing in CR and would love to be able to do even the basic moves.

We had pretty amazing weather all through the long weekend. It wasn't excessively warm but at least it was sunny. I slept in late every day and then paddled once the air warmed up a bit.

My good friend Susi drove down from Sutton for the night on Friday, a big undertaking since she had to organize the care and feeding of her 3 dogs and 1 cat. We had burritos (did I mention I make a perfect burrito now? Yep, as good - no - better than Burrito Boyz, no lie! Just ask and I'll make you one!) and drank pina coladas because I hadn't made it to the liquor store before they closed for Good Friday. We ate cheezies and gained, I mean watched, Seven Pounds. And then talked until 3 in the morning. She had to leave pretty early the next morning because her grand-daughter was going to her house to colour easter eggs. I did some gardening - which as you know means mostly ripping up weeds in my backyard - until I got tired of it. I decided to head down to meet the guys at the Brazen Head early after all since I was bored of the garden.

So, game 2 . I met the other guys from our section (Toby, Larry, Attila and a bunch of Burlington guys they know) at the Brazen Head for a pint. Harely and PJ (Dominique's husband) were also there on someone's extra tickets. So great to see everyone. The bar was packed - all TFC fans. Around 3:30 we headed back to the stadium where I met up with Blake and Greg outside Gate 1 - they were taking my other tickets.

I'm loving the new seats. I prefer standing and think it's actually easier to stay warm! Tie 1-1 but at least they played better this week. I had driven down and parked behind Medieval Times so Blake, Atti, PJ, Harley and I went out for some refreshments while we waited for the post-game traffic to lighten up. We went to a place called Jolly's just north of the Dufferin Gates. Their server is the cutest guy with the sexiest french accent ever. Definitely not from Q.C. since he was as easy on the ears as he was on the eyes. I haven't seen Blake or Harley in ages so it was great catching up. Harley, who was in Costa Rica at the same time as me, was trying to convince me to go back with him in May but since he's actually going to visit someone there and isn't offering to pay my airfair, I said "pass".

Huh. I had written the owners of GI a note about what a great time I had in Costa Rica and I just got an email from them tonight saying 10% off my next visit or for any of my friends who come on my recommendation. Pretty sweet since it took no effort to be positive about my experience. It's especially good because you don't have to take some mega-package, they also just rent boards or give one-off lessons.

Meanwhile, back at the canoe club...
They put the docks in a few weekends ago and they've added some braces to hold them out and away from shore. Really good, especially for when the river's low. Drayton checked the water temp a couple of days ago and the river was 10 degrees. The lake is also warmer than normal which is a little weird. The water level is really high right now so I'd expect the water to be colder. I'm not questioning the conditions though - too many years we've had the opposite.

Most of the canoers and kayakers are on the water. There are some really good midget-juvi paddlers coming up. And with women's canoe potentially getting an event at the next worlds, there are even a few girls out there in C-boats. The other day, Olek broke his paddle mid-stroke and fell on the broken shaft, face-first. It cut his face pretty badly but no stitches. He's pretty sure it happened because he's just too strong. Anyway, pre-season injuries aside, I think Missy will have a good year. Trials are in Welland this year. I'll probably go to take photos but haven't decided about Worlds in Dartmouth. I'll be there for a wedding a couple of weeks earlier so may not make the trip again.

Oh yeah, nice weather is always a plus. I paddled tonight in spite of a ridiculous wind coming straight down-river. I was actually surprised at the water temperature. I'm not going out on the lake yet but I was in the harbour and it was reasonable - probably about 8-10 degrees! It's also nice to be back at the club. I haven't seen any of the kids yet - they're always in paddle pool or doing weights - but I'm looking forward to the summer.
Peter and Jess were there, they just got back from Florida on Tuesday. Peter was booked for 4 full weeks of camp this year and it sounds like there are some interesting stories.
I saw Daddyo out walking on my way home. He looks good! Nice to get a visual since I haven't seen him since I got back.

Back to C.R. - Tuesday.

So there are a few things on my schedule that I kind a go "hmmm...." about. One of them is this morning's Spanish lesson. However, after 3 and a half days I've realized what a dope I am to come here thinking that similarities between French & Spanish would carry me through. I haven't gotten my 'ear" for this language yet so when people in stores and restaurants say anything, I can't even catch a word of it. I've already got a bunch of questions for J. when she meets me at the pool bar with a green blackboard.

This is the first time I've met J-3. She and her husband are the managers of the surf camp. She's the epitomy of a California girl - blond, tanned, fit and an accompished surfer. She has a degree in Latin studies which is what brought her here originally.

The stuff she gives me is so useful that I'm glad it's on their program. Thanks to our diverse coffee community in North America, I already know how to ask for coffee with milk but there is one phrase in particular I want to learn and she writes it out for me on a post-it. "Cafe con leche para llevar". It'll be no surprise to my friends that this is so I can ask for my coffee to go.

I learn more in an hour than I did from listening to "Rush Hour Spanish" for 3 weeks, the commuter Berlitz CD I picked up once I'd decided on a trip to Central America. Granted, I learned how to count to 12 and name the colours of the tie or skirt I might wear...

J. and I end up chatting more about ourselves by the end of it, how she came to be here, her surfer-life in CR with her husband and their 4 year-old daughter Alana. When I mention that I'm already comfortable in Dominical and would consider getting a residence, she makes an off-hand comment that I should just marry a Tico. This isn't the last time I'll hear this recommendation during my trip.

It's low tide by the time we drop R. and V. off at the DiuWak and head back up to Dominicalito. So this is what's under the water when we surf in this bay... Hard to believe since I have a clear memory of my face being dragged along the bottom when I got taken down by a wave this afternoon!



J. assures me that the force of the waves at high tide completely buries the rocks and crevices with sand. So obvious, but when you don't live on the ocean it's all new info.

There are a bunch of fishing boats I want to take a pic of but as I walk over, I notice that the vultures sitting on the beach have surrounded a little white dog. Really weird dynamic. None of them move as I approach so I assume the pooch is okay. I often see the dog and vultures together on subsequent visits to Dominicalito.





We visit a few other scenic points - the cliff overlooking the coast has an amazing view and there's a restaurant here which J-2 says is too expensive for the tiny portions they serve. He suggests fresh shrimp at a local restaurant on the highway. We head up there and he is so right -fresh jumbo shrimp sauted in garlic with palm salad, potatoes, a glass of wine and a cup of amazing Costa Rican coffee for about $12 and we've still got time to get back to the beach and watch the sunset!


Later, I'm having a beer at Tortilla Flats when R. & V. drop down into the seats at my table. We order ceviche and Imperials and have a really fun evening. We've all travelled quite a bit but to different places so it's really interesting to share stories and descriptions. After a couple of hours, I hit a wall. I figure it's about 11:30 and head back to my room via the beach. It's pitch black but the stars are brilliant. Fortunately I have a flashlight or I would have tripped over the various pieces of driftwood and random surfers lying on the beach on my way back up to the road. When I get to my room, I'm stunned to see it's only 8:30pm. Either way, I'm exhausted and crash.

March 9th


My schedule indicates a visit to Posa Azul in the morning and a regular (meaning 'not beginner') surf lesson in the afternoon - both with J-2 as instructor and "Rob + 1" as additional students. I feel kinda like I passed my tadpole swim test or something!

When I arrive at the GI office, I recognize the other students as a couple I noticed around town yesterday. Hard to miss because he has a ridiculously swollen ankle and is hobbling around on homemade crutches while she, exceedingly blond and fair, is burned as pink as a Rimmel retro lipstick shade. I introduce myself and ask what happened. Apparently in his beginner lesson, Rob stepped back off the board thinking he had about 2 feet of clearance before hitting bottom. He only had about an inch and came down with his full weight. His wife, Venetia, had clearly just spent too much time on the beach without adequate sunscreen.

Anyway, the 4 of us jump into the GI van. Before we head out of Dominical though, we stop at the pharmacy to see the on-call doctor who confirms that Rob's ankle is severely sprained and not fractured. We travel another 10 metres before stopping at Delicias - a bakery cafe with amazing breakfasts. It would become my Helen's and Starbuck's combined while I was down here. J-2's best friend works here and is quite adamant that I shouldn't use my breakfast ticket for only coffee and a fruit plate. It's worth 5,000 colones, which could easily buy breakfast for 3 of us, and she doesn't feel right about letting me waste it. The fact is, if she didn't say anything, she could have submitted an inflated receipt to GI and scooped the balance for herself. We agree that we'll stop by on our way back to top up with more food and coffee. This was not the first time I encountered this remarkable honesty. In fact, every server in every other restaurant in town (with the exception of the Tu Lu) did the same thing. If my breakfast/lunch/dinner didn't use the full amount, they would offer to tag on something else. I usually just had them add the drinks or appetizers of my tablemates. The guy at Tu Lu took the ticket and a tip. Once I realized it and stopped using my tickets for my 3000 colone breakfasts there, he would always ask, "Don't you want to use your GI meal ticket?". Chya right.
All the chatting about meal tickets has grabbed Rob's attention and he wants to know why I have meal tickets and they don't. Both his wife and I explain they're part of a particular package but he is ready to march back to the GI office and demand his meal vouchers. I get the idea that he doesn't like anyone getting something he's not.

Once we got our stuff (on Tico time) we head along the ocean highway for about a kilometre before turning into a dirt road with a guard stand. J-2 waves at the guard as we pass a soccer field with a practice going on and enter a small community. This is called Dominicalito (a town and beach) and J-2 lives here with his wife and 6-month-old daughter, Ciara. After driving through a shallow stream, J-2 stops at their house and brings Ciara out to the van. She is incredibly sweet natured and has no problem being plopped in my lap! She is fascinated by me and all I can think is how this poor little thing is stuck to a sweaty stranger! (I was like a sprinkler for the first two days until I got used to the heat).

J-2’s wife cares for another little girl during the day. I wish I’d gotten a photo of her but she was behind their security fence and I didn’t want to impose. She's about 3 and walking around carrying a purse with 7 thick bangles on her little arm – basically bangled from wrist to armpit. I saw her a couple of times after that and it was always the same, playing the lady. Omg, she was so cute! I tell J-2 I can’t believe he’s old enough to have a baby but he says he’s 19 (and I can’t say anything because I was only a few months older when I had Ryan).

We proceed up the road for about 500m and we’re at Posa Azul (Blue Waterfall). It’s beautiful and the freshwater pool at the bottom is so cool after the 85 degree saltwater of the ocean!

J-2 climbs up and swings off the rope while I snap photos from the water. Rob and Venetia just hang out on shore. They don’t seem too impressed. Suddenly, there’s an American voice out of the shadows on shore. Some guy has been sitting there all along but since he’s very tanned and wearing a brown speedo, we didn’t notice him. He’s an ex-pat from Boston who has retired here and is farming... something. As he comes closer, it’s obvious he’s recently smoked a joint or possibly many joints. Surprisingly, he’s very chatty and follows me as I swim all around the pool talking about his life here. I wish I could say it was interesting but it wasn’t. I mean, he was stoned and mostly just kept repeating himself.

Rob and Venetia aren’t enjoying the pool as much as we are so J-2 and I decide to do a tour on our own after the 12:30 surf lesson.


The surf lesson went well and I'm impressed that Rob still goes out and tries to get up on his gimpy ankle. Venetia and I are doing really well and getting up on almost every wave which doesn't improve Rob's mood since he's (understandably) unable to stay upright.

I'll start updating now - please be patient as it'll be disjointed. I'll probably switch tenses and insert wrong dates constantly but will get it sorted eventually.

So, to backtrack...first day in Dominical was pretty quiet. I realized early on that I was pretty much the only guest at the DiuWak hotel. There was a Japanese couple next door, Akio and Sachi, but because of the language barrier, we restricted our communication to shy smiles and waves of acknowledgement. Akio spoke enough English for me to understand that he was a shaper from Kyoto, here to deliver a new board.

I dropped by the GI office on my way to breakfast and introduced myself to the guy at the desk, Jorge.

I had a fruit plate and coffee (!!!) at the Tu Lu restaurant and then went exploring. After establishing myself as the most recently arrived tourist by exposing acres of pasty skin and taking photos of basically everything in town, I covered myself in 40 Spf sunscreen and settled at the beach until my beginner surf lesson with Junior at 2:30pm.

There's hardly anyone on the beach. In fact at the moment, there are as many lifeguards as surfers/swimmers. The waves were pretty small (it was about 2.5 hours after low tide) and, after a brief lesson about rips and how they're formed, we went out into the white water. It was great!! I got up easily and was pleasantly exhausted after 2 hours of paddling out, riding in...rinse, repeat.

After the lesson, I grabbed a cold beer and dinner at Arena y Sol - arroz con pollo which, strangely, came with a mound of french fries - before heading down to the beach to watch the sunset. (I think they threw the fries on because I'm new to town & "american". Once I start ordering in Spanish, I never see another french fry)

As I returned to my room after a glorious sunset, I wondered if I'd made a mistake by coming for so long on my own. I had expected to meet people through the surf camp but so far there was just me and another couple who I'd meet at tomorrow's regular lesson. The average age in Dominical was 25 and I am basically invisible (picture a town full of skinny 20-something girls in bikinis). With all the activities we had planned I knew I'd be busy during the day but I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of eating dinner by myself 21 times. As it turned out my concerns were groundless.