memed again

This is from Jo; and she is right, I have time to kill. So, here goes.

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.

What does next year have in store for me?
She Moves On, Paul Simon

What's my love life like?
Garden of Eden, Frankie Vaughan

What do I say when life gets hard?
Where the Streets Have No Name, U2

What do u think of on waking up?
Giant, Stan Rogers

What song will I dance to at my wedding?
Ocean Beat, Tosca

What do you want as a career?
It's Saturday Night, Proclaimers

Your favourite saying?
Never is Enough, Barenaked Ladies

Favourite place?
Ma's Rose, Cate Friesen

What do you think of your parents?
That Don't Impress me Much, Shania Twain

What's your Pornstar name?
Try (just a little bit harder), Janis Joplin

Where would you go on a first date?
Duke's in Town, Joe Sealy

Drug of choice?
TVC 15, David Bowie

Describe yourself
Piece of my Heart, Janice Joplin (again?)

What is the thing i like doing most?
Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe, Barry White

What is my state of mind like at the moment?
I'm Just a Singer (in a rock & roll band), Moody Blues

How will I die?
I Don't Believe You, Bob Dylan

that's all pretty retro, isn't it? My iTunes must be in a mood today.

I think that's just silly...

too much time on the internet...

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured an ancient site
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played Dungeons & Dragons for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently well enough to have a decent conversation
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life
151. Finished a marathon
152. Gotten lost in a city where you can't read or speak the language

frente frio

Yes, a cold front has hit Havana. It started out with rain last week, the sort of rain that makes you worried that your pool might overflow... And now, it's cold.

I realize that complaining about the cold in Cuba will probably garner as much sympathy for me as when I complained about finding good household help back when I lived in the DR, but this is MY blog, after all. And if you weren't used to my princess-y ways, you wouldn't be reading this, right?

So, it is cold. Why, yesterday when we woke up it was a chilly 15 degrees celcius. And today, it might only go up to 25. Will this slow down the ripening of my tomatoes? Will it chill my lettuce? Will it affect my zucchini? I'll have to remember to ask the gardener.

The difficult thing (I know, your hearts are already bleeding) was digging out long trousers for Sam to wear to school this week. Who knew we'd need them? He has 5,000 pairs of shorts, and 3 pairs of trousers. And I've taken to wearing socks in the house, as the marble floors are bloody freezing!

Outside of the extreme cold, we have been having fun here. The weekend before last, we finally found the beach that we have been looking for here: Cayo Levisa (I'll post photos soon). It is a short 110km drive from Havana - however, due to livestock and road conditions, it is a drive that takes over 2 hours! (Nothing slows you down quite like a herd of cows on a windy, hilly, holey road.)

Once you survive the drive (which is actually really beautiful when you are brave enough to stop scanning the road for cavernous potholes and look up for seconds at a time), it is a 20 minute boat ride to a tiny island, where you stay in (really, surprisingly lovely) cabanas right on the beach. They even had hot water! Every day!

And when supplemented and augmented by the goodies we brought, the food at the restaurant was downright edible, and we didn't see Sam for more than 2 hours the whole time we were there (he and his buddies were busy torturing hermit crabs - I hope that is a joke...).

So, life here is okay...

the lost blog...

I wrote this ages ago, and now that we have internet at home, I can post it.

Did I just write "internet at home"? WOO HOO!!!!



Thursday September 14, 2006

Well, last Tuesday Sam was invited to be the batboy for the Canadian Olympic baseball team, in their final game in the Americas Tournament, against Nicaragua (try to fit that on the front of a baseball jersey…). Steve and I decided that would be a legitimate excuse to skip school – he has years and years more of school, but only one chance to spend a morning in the dugout with these guys, so off we went.

Sam and I went with a few other Canadians from the embassy (including a couple of other batboys) to find a tiny little town somewhere south of Havana, on the Ocho Via (the 8-lane national highway built by the Soviets, meant to run the length of Cuba, but only made it half way – as far as they got when the Soviet Union crumbled). The Ocho Via, once you are on it, is an impressive highway – smooth, almost traffic-free, and completely unsigned. No signs to get on it, and no signs on the exit ramps to figure out where to get off for your destination. You have to hope for the best, watch the map, and count the overpasses. I assumed (wrongly) that the lack of signs was to confuse any potential invading forces. But no, it is because the metal used to make the signs is a great building material, and apparently, if you to into the right houses, you might find an ancient fridge with a side panel reading “Santiago” or “Las Tunas”.

So, we did manage to find the little town, and the baseball stadium (always one of the easiest structures to find in a Cuban town, especially at night, because of the lights. The game was fun, Sam had a great time (photos to come at some point in the future), the Canadians won the game, and we got to hear the play-by-play from the Nicaraguan sportscasters up above us in the stands. No sign of any Canadian broadcasters, though…

And we thought…

“What could be cooler than being the batboy for the Canadian Olympic baseball team?”

Stay tuned to find out…



…



How about getting to meet Kofi Annan?

All of the kids at Sam’s school (no parents, boo hoo…) were invited to go and meet with Kofi Annan while he was here for the non-aligned states thingey…

it's coming...

so, word on the street (well, ok, around the embassy) is that our home internet will be coming next week.

WOO HOO!!!!!

I have to say, I can't wait. Although it might cut into my "sitting around the pool eating bonbons and getting pedicures" time... Right.

Last weekend, we went to the Marine Corps Ball, as we do pretty much every year (I like those opportunities to dress up and wear the shoes of satan - ouch, sore feet). While it was a little quieter than those in other locations (no fraternization with locals for the marines here, poor lads), we did get the coolest party treats ever... I now have a Cuban cigar in a wooden box labelled "US Marine Corps Ball 2006 - Havana, Cuba". What do you figure I can get for that on ebay?

Oh, and one of the Marines had come to Cuba from Okinawa. Oddly, my Japanese is better than his, and I certainly wasn't doing any sort of "fraternizing with locals" (that would be a euphemism, folks) in Japan... And I bet he was...

This weekend we are off on an adventure with some friends. We are taking off to a very small island (Cayo Levisa - maybe I will google it) about 2 hours plus a short boat ride east of Havana. Should be fun, although I hear the lodgings are pretty basic and the food is awful. For Cuba. Hmmm...