In a sea of men

As with most Middle Eastern countries, there aren't a whole lot of women out and about. Then again, it's possible I just haven't been where the women are. The most women I have seen here was at an expat mall and only 3 women there were locals, the rest, expats. But even if I go where there are a lot of people, most will be men. And I have discovered that I am reluctant to begin any casual conversations with the men from Muslim countries. By nature and practice, I am fairly shy anyway and have little to no ability to participate in "small talk" at parties and such. And yet oddly enough by curiosity and travel, I will strike up a short conversation with just about anyone to: ask a question regarding the local customs, ask for directions, ask for a shop, etc. etc. Yesterday I was in a shop with my driver and the shopkeeper. A Qatari man entered with his son who was wearing a white hat. I was so curious about that white hat that I found myself hissing quietly to the shop owner "Is it ok to talk to him?" With Muslim tradition being strong here I didn't want to stomp on any toes by accosting this stranger in traditional robed garb and so I hesitated whereas in another country I would have just waded into shallow waters and hope for the best. Here, I am standing at the edge of the sea and wishing I could swim, so to speak. In the end, it turned out ok, my question was answered, and if the men were shaking their heads at the brazenness of a stranger, it was after I left and I'll never know. But it did show me that I am much more hesitant than I thought and much more cautious than I like. A foreigner can usually get away with a lot more than a local can but it's possible also to be a bit too "foreign" and I do want to avoid that. Somewhere is a happy medium and I'm still looking for it.

5 daily calls to prayer

I know the 5 pilars of Islam and I know that 5 times to pray daily is one of the pilars. I heard the first call to prayer this morning, sometime between 4 and 5 a.m. I am in my hotel now, working on my computer with the very slow connection and I heard a call to prayer. About 1/2 hour later, at a little bit before 3 p.m., I heard another call to prayer from a different sounding muzzein (I think that's the right term). My knowledge of Islam is limited but I thought that the times for calls to prayer were pretty universal throughout a country and maybe even throughout the Muslim world. So how is it that there were two calls only about 1/2 hour apart? Possibly one of them wasn't a call to prayer but was something else, an announcement or pronouncement? As it is all in Arabic, I haven't a clue of every figuring out what the two calls were but if someone knows for sure about the timing, I'd sure like to know. Can't look it up here, computer is tooooo slow.

Foreign Worker Contact Mode

I've visited the U.A.E. (all emirates except Abu Dhabi), Oman, and now Doha in the Middle East. In each, it has been difficult to meet someone actually born in and from that particular country. These countries all possess what I call "foreign worker full contact". Oman was really more like "foreign worker 3/4's contact".

modern buildings
Foreign Worker Full Contact means that the country has hired so many foreign workers to do the day to day tourist types of activities. In these countries, it seems that Filipinos are most often the ones working in the hotels. They are the housekeeping staff, the bellmen, the desk managers. Often most of the shopkeepers are also Filipino and beauty shop people are Thai or Filipino. Restaurants have a mix and that might be the best shot of meeting a local. In Doha, the taxi drivers seem to be all Indians. Granted I have only had experience with 3 so far but that's 100% so far. These areas (taxi, hotel, shop, restaurant) are the most common tourist hits so foreign worker full contact means that tourists are meeting expats, not locals. In Oman, I did have a tour service arranged before I got there and my guide and driver there was an Omani so I was able to meet a local and get some good information on the local life and cities and country and ruler. In Dubai, never met a local except a few shop owners in the souqs.

construction
I haven't been to the souq here yet so I still have hope to meet some local Qataris. It is nice to talk to the Indian taxi drivers though and see where they are from and it's quite hilarious to tell them about Canadian winters and listen to them talk about December in Qatar when it is "so cold we can't stand outside the taxi. We must sit inside in our coats with the heater running."
There is a lot of construction happening now in Qatar. The construction workers are also foreign and look to be either Indian, Pakistani, or Bengladashi. Such was also the case in Dubai and Sharjah. There are so many of these foreign workers from the same countries that it is difficult to imagine how there is anyone left back at home. My taxi driver today said the living here was good though so I am happy that he has landed somewhere he likes and can make a good wage. That isn't always the case in some of the Middle Eastern countries that hire foreign workers and since I don't have facts and figures in front of me, I'll just leave it alone for now.

new building on the way
All of this just really goes to show there isn't anything as isolation any longer and the world is getting smaller all the time. Even North Korea, possibly still the most isolated country in the world, has tourists. I've been three times. So I travel and travel and travel to meet locals and learn cultures and see and discover history. More and more there are "regions" of the world that are becoming so very alike that they may lose their identity as a separte people. I hope to arrive before that happens.

Don't Mess with Housekeeping

Most hotels will have a courtesy late check out time but they don’t really tell you about it. You have to ask if you can stay an hour later or ½ hour or whatever. The last several times I have asked for this courtesy, I’ve been told, “We have to ask housekeeping”. Wow, who knew that housekeeping runs the hotels these days? They are just like secretaries apparently. Behind the scenes but know all and manage all and are the real bosses.
Upon arrival at our hotel in Prague, we got a free basket of fruit. Most of it was not ripe so we ate a couple of pieces and left the rest to ripen and have in a day or so. When we came back to the hotel after our first day out and about, our fruit was gone. At 6:20 P.M. we called guest services and asked where our fruit was. They apologized and said housekeeping would bring up another basket. At 8:30 P.M., we called again and asked if they were coming today. At 9:00 P.M., they called us and the guest services lady apologized again and said she was so angry that housekeeping had not brought our fruit yet and somebody was going to get into trouble.
At 9:30 P.M., she called again and said the fruit would be delivered between now and 11 P.M. if that was alright. The fruit was delivered at 10:20 P.M. Since we had asked to get it back because we wanted some fruit, I looked in the basket to see if I could eat something then. Someone in housekeeping must have gotten in trouble for taking our fruit but they got even. They brought us a rotten peach, a dry orange, and the rest is still not ripe and waiting for a day when we might be able to sink our teeth into the skin.
Housekeeping wasn’t finished with us. The next day one of our robes disappeared. We haven’t called to ask for it back because no telling how they will return it. We have learned our lesson. Don’t mess with housekeeping.

The vagarities of hotels

When you have not visited a place before and need a place to stay, there are several choices. You go with a big chain, you ask friends, you look on the Internet. Sometimes we do the big chain either because they have a deal or we have points to use or the other choices don’t look so good. In Sopot, we stayed at the Sheraton Sopot Conference Center and Spa. It was a very nice hotel but very expensive. Internet in our room was $30 a day but taking my computer down to the lobby was free, just inconvenient. A nice drink out of the mini bar (YES, we have one and I love them) was about $12. There is fresh shampoo and conditioner every day in the bathroom. So yes, there are perks and sometimes you just need them to feel good about traveling.
As we are not super rich, staying in something like the Sheraton or Hilton or Intercontinental does not work for us in every town. Possibly if we did vacations of only a week or two, we could swing it but as we do month long vacations normally now and I’m traveling for 4 months, just not going to work. And often, in the neater places, out of the way places, very newly discovered to tourism places, the bigger chains are not close to the things you want to see and then getting to the places of interest means time wasted and money spent taking a taxi or whatever.
Second option for hotels is ask your friends. This works when we are staying in places in the United States as we have friends in many different states and can get some recommendations and some ideas of things available. I’ve now visited over 115 countries and am busy trying to visit more so a good many of the places we visit now are places that a good many of our friends either haven’t heard about since 5th grade geography or have no interest in visiting or want us to go first so we can check it out. That shoots that option into the rubbish bin.
Third option and the one with most options, the Internet. How did we ever travel without it? You can type in a city and ask for accommodations and get everything imaginable and in just about every price range. In some countries we have learned to stay away from certain types of hotels. Not doing 2 star in China as that was a bad experience. 2 star in Korea can be OK. 2 star in Paris is usually a lovely little family run hotel in a small cozy neighborhood. 3 star in most countries, so far, are basic and what we go for when not doing a 4 or 5 star chain. (except ‘the Stans, try to avoid them there).
Having said that, you are now left with what the hotel is telling you which basically can be boasting and false claims just to get you to come stay with them. The photos can be their absolutely best room that the owner lives in so you never see it. The neighborhood photos can be photoshopped so it looks like the hotel is in the middle of the district where you want to be when in reality, it’s several miles away by tram (as was our hotel in Berlin). There are places to go look though and see if the hotel has a good rep or if people are trashing it big time. TripAdvisor.com is where I usually look. I drop off the two worst reviews – someone had a run in with the staff, someone was not having a good vacation, etc. and I drop off the two best reviews – a plant, someone with no reference to other hotels, and then try and decide if it is going to be a good match for us.
Sometimes I email a lot of places before I decide. That doesn’t always work though. We like to do bed and breakfast so we can meet local people. I figure that if they answer in English, they speak in English but sometimes they have agents. Both in Russia and in Italy we ended up in bed and breakfast establishments which were quite lovely but not as enjoyable because no one spoke English. I’m pretty good at the pantomime but still we make mistakes due to that.
That leads us finally to our hotel in Krakow. It had good reviews, it was close to the center of town, it was not expensive, it was 3 star, it seemed perfect. Made the reservation with a problem. Our train was late in arriving so we got to the hotel later than expected. We were the last people to check in and get a room today. I ask if there is Internet – in the conference room. I ask if there is breakfast – of course (sometimes I forget whether there is or not). I ask if there is a lift (an elevator) – yes, at the end of the hall. We go to the end of the hall and get in the lift and it goes to floor 3. Our room is on floor 4.
We trudge up the stairs and find our room, a garret, under the alcove, under the eaves, under the sloping roof. It’s not a bad room as my last under the eaves room was in a super fancy hotel in Slovenia where my traveling roommate and I had to go outside to change positions in the room. This one is at least twice that size and we even have a sitting room of sorts with a small table and lamp.
So in the end, I am not complaining about the hotel here in Krakow or the room. It is lovely and it will only be inconvenient twice, coming and leaving. But it does show my point, you never know what you are going to get no matter how hard you try to make the best choice off the Internet. Luckily my hubby is a very resourceful and easy going guy and can make the best of anything.

Piglet Flu?

These days I usually travel in larger blocks of time, like month to 6 weeks. I can almost always be assured of catching a cold somewhere along the trip. You’d think that by this time I would have enough foreign bugs roaming around in my system that they could fight off new foreign bugs but it is not to be so. My husband has been fighting a cough which he has jokingly called his Piglet flu. Now I think I have it as well. Drat. I do have enough cold tablets and such that I can fight it but it does mean some slow moving for a couple of days. On the trip to Central America in June, spent one afternoon sleeping fighting off piglet flu there. Hopefully I can keep upright for this trip and stay somewhat healthy. Not off to a good start this week.

And we Proudly Present for your breakfast pleasure

Hot Dogs! We stayed 4 nights in the hotel in Krakow. It was a very nice place even though we were in the garret room under the eaves. On our 4th breakfast, the earnest young man who was in charge of the food inquired if we would like some sausages for breakfast. Our thinking immediately went to some nice bratwurst (wrong country?) or some Polish kielbasa or something along that line. We both said sure! Thanks so much. In a few minutes he came back with a plate for both of us with 3 each of nice steaming hot boiled hot dogs! Not what we were looking for in a breakfast food. He was so pleased to give it to us though that we felt we must suffer through at least one plate. My husband, to his credit, managed to down almost 2 of them. I managed about ½ of one. Unsure what to do with the untouched plate of remaining hot dogs, we tried for a sneaky exit of the breakfast room when he was engaged elsewhere. Several hours later the memory of that half a breakfast hot dog is still with me.

International Invisible

We enter the electronics store. We have a mission. The plan is to buy a new laptop, a mini me that can travel with me around the world and anywhere else. The clerks are standing around a register discussing their activities of the prior evening. We stand next to them. They do not notice us. We check each computer in the store, play a game on one, and check prices. No one comes to see if we want to buy. We leave.
A restaurant, a café, someplace where it is necessary to be served. I ask for a menu from a waiter so they will know we are there. We sit close to the door. The waiter comes and serves the table next to us then walks past us back into the restaurant. Next the waiter comes and serves the table across from us and then gets orders from the table behind us. We wave and wave. Finally we stand up and wave and then the waiter comes. We repeat the process to pay our bill. Why do I think that if we stood up and just started to walk away that we would be very visible?
Sitting in the plane next to the window. The flight attendant approaches with the snack and drink cart. She asks the two ladies sitting next to me if they want anything. They ask what they can get for whatever amount of change they have in the local currency. She sells them a snack and moves on down the aisle to the next row. The ladies have to poke her to get her to come back and give me a drink.
Into the furniture store. In the market for a new bed. That’s expensive and one would think the salesclerks would be all over us. Nothing. There are three other customers in the store and about 5 men working in the store. We wave at one and he waves back but does not approach. After looking at all the beds and prices and never seeing a clerk come close, we leave.
A restaurant on the sea shore. Many people sitting at tables outside for the sunset and the breeze. We take an empty table in the crowd and press of people. There are only a few empty tables left and the waitresses are moving around taking orders. They pass by our table and do not stop to see if we want anything. After a few minutes, we go ask for a menu in English. We sit longer without anyone coming for an order. The table next to us has a new customer sit downs. The wait staff comes to his table immediately. We signal that we are ready to order. We are not seen. We leave.
A jewelry store, an expensive jewelry store. I’ve gotten dressed up for the occasion, knowing that sometimes I seem to be invisible to clerks. My thought is that they will see I have money and come forward to sell me something. It doesn’t happen. Clerks talk to each other. A customer enters after me, another customer enters. Both are scooped up by clerks and are taken to the section of jewelry in which they express an interest. I am ignored. I go to another store where it only takes 10 minutes standing by a clerk to get noticed and buy my jewelry.
A brewery where hubby likes to sample the micro brews made locally. Usually you can get a taster, several of their beers in small glasses. The bartender does not see us. I walk to the other end of the bar. Neither one of us is seen. Hubby waves his arms and finally attracts notice and gets his beer.
Hotel bar and café. You can sit and use the internet. There are menus where you can get small snacks or expensive wines and beers. A glass of wine is $20 so you would think you would like to sell some. Beers are $15 each. One evening here, no one comes. Next evening here, we are asked within 5 minutes but we don’t want anything tonight. Next evening, it takes 10 minutes before we are asked if we want a drink. Hubby gets a beer. 10 minutes later his beer comes. I say I would like a drink but she walks away. My voice is low so possibly she didn’t hear. She returns in 20 minutes (I know the time because a timer was counting down my internet time) I order one of the wines. It comes 30 minutes later. Had I not had a lot of internet business we would have been long gone. She could have drunk the wine herself then.
Car dealership, a used car dealership, reputations for pushiness. Forty minutes in the showroom without a single salesman approaching us. As there are many car dealerships, we are ready to leave when someone finally sees us and comes over to see if we want to buy a car. We have already been sitting in cars and kicking tires just to see if they notice us. He says, just saw you walk in the door. A line definitely or he is very time challenged.
Another local restaurant, a different city, a different country. I walk up to the hostess to make her seat us so that we will get service. She puts us in a room where there are not as many people nor any cigarette smoke either. 30 minutes later we leave without ever having seen a waitress. The hostess thanks us for coming as we walk past her.
These are small examples. These things happen to us all the time. We aren’t bad looking people, we aren’t dressed shabbily, we don’t sit in the corner in the dark, and yet we can be ignored in the best to the worst of places that we visit, and in whatever country we visit. Has service become so bad that service staff and wait people and salesclerks just don’t care anymore? Or are we truly sometimes invisible? Is anyone else invisible too? As we get older, do we get more invisible? If this is true, why can’t I be invisible and walk onto airplanes and get free rides? Why can’t I be invisible when I want to be? What does the future look like if we slowly fade away to invisibility and no one sees us at all?

Duty Free Etiquette

Traveling internationally offers one the opportunity to see products that are very high priced and possibly out of the price range of the usual traveler. But this very ability to travel has made these products available to the usual traveler. And I don't mean to purchase. this is your opportunity to try the most expensive and best brand of beauty products that the highest priced stores have to offer. Almost all duty free stores have perfumes, face creams, hand creams, moisturizers, anti-aging, firming, cleansing, bronzing, regenerating, toners, scrubs, night time, day time, and more. Almost all of these are in testers for you to try.
Once I was timid about heading into a duty free shop just to get some hand cream but an expat friend convinced me that it was perfectly ok to sample the wares. The logic is that you will like it so much that you will buy it. So no trip is complete now without a stop in the duty free to moisturize my face, soften my hands, and whatever else I need at the moment.
I am not advocating that you go into the duty free and make up your entire face but it is perfectly ok to layer your face with the firming, anti-aging, daytime moisturizer and the same for your hands. And ladies and gentlemen, do NOT go to the brands you usually buy. Take this opportunity to sample the most expensive brands on the market. They too are hoping you will like it enough to fork out the dough and take it home with you.
A few hints. The sales clerks will help you if you express desire to buy but don't pull the wool over their eyes. They can recongnize the "Non-shopper" like me. They let me be because I am discrete and do not "over-use" the samples. You can only layer on so many things before you'd have to go wash your face and return. This would be noticiable. Don't try too much perfume. Put it on the sample papers until you find the one you want to wear for the day. And finally, in really big airports, there are usually more than one duty free stores. If you are shy about trying on products, go to different stores and only try one in each store. The clerks are not getting together at days end to compare customers. Hope this helps. It also takes up some time of that eneviable wait in the airport.

Collecting odd things

Everybody has collections of one kind or another. You start small collections as kids, maybe stamps, maybe rocks. As you grow older and have more money, you start collecting things like Lladro, or jewelry, or frogs, or angels. The questions arises in how many make a collection? Is it two, four, fifteen? Is it a collection when you start calling it that or when other people start calling it that? I have several collections already. Some, like stamp and coin collecting, did start when I was younger and relatives gave me stamps and coins from their travels. The first piece of jewelry my husband ever gave me was an opal so now I have a nice collection of opal jewelry. And I have collections of other oddities, like darning eggs. How that one got started, I'm not really sure since I have no clue how to darn anything.

Today I decided I was going to start a new collection because by my count, I am up to five. At least that's five according to what my travel guides have told me over the years. So I am collecting Techtonic Plates! Today I added two to my collection. In Iceland, I went to the location of the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate and the place where they are spreading apart to the tune of about 2 1/4 centimeters a year. It was a bit hard to understand the guide at times but I think I stood in a spot where one foot was on the American plate and one foot was on the Eurasian plate. So that is what I will collect, where I can stand with feet on different plates.

My earlier collection consisted of being in Djibuti where I stood with a food on the Somalia Plate and a foot on the African Plate. We also stood on the Saudi Plate. So that's five. I should look up and verify some of this because in the multimedia presentation today, there was no Somalia plate showing. I don't think it would have disappeared in the last couple of years so maybe it is a subplate but that's ok for my collection. I will also look up and see where else I can do this because my collection might stop abruptly at five if there aren't any other places where I can stand without getting burned by lava or drowned by sea water. Still, it's always fun to have collections.

Rescue boats

When we were living in Okpo, Korea, I would see the rescue boats that were on the back of the large car carriers. ABS, American Board of Shipping, had inspectors in the shipyard that sometimes had to test these rescue boats and sometimes their wives would also get involved in being on the test. The boat is loaded, falls backward into the water, sometimes from a distance of 30 meters or more, and then motors around waiting for rescue. While it seemed like it would be fun, the wives who had to experience it were less than enthusiastic.

In Reykjavik today, I saw one of these boats puttering around the harbor and then motoring out to sea. They were having a rescue drill. I shot a few photos of the boat and drill

could really use an ondol floor

I miss living in Korea. Being there had some great perks and I sure miss one of them tonight, the ondol floor heating. Most homes had them, even our high rise 35th floor Seoul apartment. Basically it was a series of water pipes laid underneath the concrete flooring and the water would be heated thus heating the floor. On a cold winter morning, nothing was nicer to step out of bed onto that warm floor. First night in Iceland and I am missing those floors! I had to put on my wet suit booties to walk around the room. think I might be wearing socks on a 24/7 basis here.

The garbagemen of Jersey

I used to surly and nasty garbagemen. they come once a week, if not on strike, and chose whether your garbage is worthy of being taken or left behind to molder in its insignificance. We are required to have three bins, one for the organice types of garbage, food, cat litter, etc. One bin for recyclables which includes papers, bottles, cans, some plastic. and finally one for trash that doesn't fit anywhere else. You are only allowed to put out the garbage every week and the other bins every other week. You must take them to the curb and bring them back, you must have them out on time, and if they look inside and don't like what you have in there, it gets left for you to figure out where you went wrong and hope that the next two weeks worth of whatever will fit in the bin with the last two weeks worth.
So in the Isle of Jersey this week, I am trying in vain to locate a bus stop and finally asked the local garbageman who was delighted to help me. Then I wait for the bus and watch the garbagemen at work, incredulously. There are three and the driver hops out as needed to help. The first two jump off the truck as it stops and jog briskly into the courtyard of the house to bring out the bins! They then line up the bins according to what is written on them, garbage, paper only, bottles and can, other trash. seems like houses here have at least 4 bins and sometimes 5. The truck is able to handle two bins at a time and as I watch, the men put on the garbage bin and the paper bin and the truck lifts them up and dumps them, exactly into the same location. Next comes the bottle bin and the plastic bin and sure enough, the truck dumps them exactly in the same location. Finally the last two bins, cans and trash, are picked up and dumped exactly in the same location. The two workers then job the bins back into the house courtyard, the driver works the truck so all 6 bin contents are swept into the truck, in exactly the same location. they then drive 5 feet to the next house and repeat the process. I always suspected thatall the recycling was pretty much a fun effort on our parts but I have to admit watching the men jog after the bins was quite entertaining and it wouldn't have been near so much fun had there just been one bin to dump

cats behaving badly

i've been gone two days and my daughter writes that my precious kitty has already been behaving badly with me gone. she takes to scratching up things, usually my daughter's things, in an attempt to let us know she does not appreciate my leaving. guess she has abandonment issues.

what a storm

last night, big storm. If we'd been looking out of the correct window, we might have even seen a tornado as one did a lot of damage as close as 3 miles from our house. After the storm we a wonderful double rainbow for awhile. But, as happens too often to be funny anymore, our power has now been out for almost 24 hours. just up now. had to sleep in the basement as it was the only cool place in the house. spent this morning buying ice and coolers to try and save the freezer items. think we have managed that. hard to be in the part of town where we are always the last to get power restored!

looking hopeful

FINALLY got some responses from my Ukraine tour requests. One company is looking pretty good so will probably go with them as soon as they come back with prices. then find the flights and then I'm on the move again, ever eastward.

meow

finally got the rain from this morning that I was trying to avoid on my motorcycle. Not a big enough storm that the cats are freaked but Godiva is sitting here trying to get my attention with her tiny little meow. sometimes it is even too hard for her to make a sound and I get the silent meow with the big eyes and the quivering body. it is possible that she's hungry - ya think!

motorcycling to beat the rain

don't have a lot of time to ride so thought I would get in an hour this morning. sky was clear when I left. by the time I was 1/2 hour away, the temperature was noticably dropping and sky was getting rather ominous. made it back before the deluge

Puff's acne

our cat has acne. apparently it isn't as uncommon as one might think. His chin is all nasty looking and evil. I have to put hydrogen peroxide on it several times a day, which he hates of course. poor Puff. his wet chin now makes his side hairs stand out a bit and he looks like an old cat with a beard. Plus he's now on a diet. I imagine he'll not miss me when I go traveling next time.

The Demise of the Mini Bar

Have been traveling off and on for a month in various portions of the U.S. Staying in nice hotels, various Hiltons, Marriotts, Starwood places and even some which are on the list of "best small luxury hotels" in the world. NONE of them have mini bars anymore. when did the mini bars disappear??? I always loved looking in there to see the tiny bottles, different juices and soft drinks, candies and nuts. Sometimes I even bought something when I was desperate, even at the inflated prices. So it's been sad to see the passing of another era in the U.S. You can still find them in many hotels in other countries but will they slowly disappear also? Going the way of the clacking train schedules in cavernous railroad halls.

On Carousels, Paddle Steamships & Teddy Bears & Choppers

Visited Burlington, Vermont yesterday. It has enough interesting things to keep one busy for awhile. Started at the Shelbourne Museum which is a large complex of buildings and gardens. One building built rather like a horseshoe has an extensive collection of a minature circus parade which stretches for over 500' or the equivalency of 2 miles. What a wonderful thing to walk along this and see all the stuff that used to be in circuses long before I ever attended one. Made me a tiny bit envious to see all the exotic animals and wagons and bands and "scenes". Wagons were American or European or Asian and had scenes on them to represent that area. I never saw a circus like this parade and it just looked so exciting. Would have been the best thing to come to a small city in those days. The museum also had a small carousel beside the circus horseshoe. A nice lady was running it and called for us to come ride. We both hoped onto a horse and she ran the carousel for us only. days gone by for sure. Haven't been on a carousel horse in many years.
The U.S.S. Ticonderoga is also at the museum. Poor boat is sitting on dry land now but her glory days of being a paddle steamship on Lake Champlain will be remember from the photos and the restoration of the ship. She is a very nice boat. We got a sneak glimpse of the hidden whistle when we were in the forward lounge and they guy came to tout it. quite loud but quite melodeous as well.
An exhibit by Louis Comfort Tiffany was also in the Webb Gallery and such beautiful work. As I am also a stained glass builder, I love looking at his work. If I had the money and the assistants like he did, perhaps I could also churn out such glorious pieces. no matter.
And finally, at the museum, was an exhibition of motorcycles. The entry barn had some old motorcycles on the top level then some choppers on the next level. These choppers are also incredible works of art. I cannot imagine ever riding something so beautiful and odd. cannot believe that any of them would be comfortable to ride for any length of time. I'll stick with my faithful little cruiser who doesn't leave me exhausted after a couple of miles.
After leaving the museum, we headed down the road to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. this company started because Teddy Bears, named after Teddy Roosevelt, were no longer being made in the United States. The founder has made a thriving business out of the bears and now they are well loved and quite expensive. But it was fun to see how they are made, hear the patter, and get one. Yes, I bit the bullet and bought a bear but it's quite lovely.
When we left there, it was pouring rain so that stopped any outdoor activities but a lovely day.

Someone Else's Mom

my mom died on Sunday, early in the a.m., at a nursing home, by herself. I feel sad that she died, relieved that she finally died, and the only upset that is visiting me is that other people knew a different lady than I did. I left the "ole family homestead" close to 40 years ago because it wasn't a happy childhood, I was miserable, hated being there, etc. etc. Always thought that it was my dad that made me so unhappy and insecure but after he died some time ago, I realized that my mother had just as much to do with making my life "something to escape from". tried over the years to maintain a relationship but I just gave up about 3 years ago. It was then that I realized the effort was all on my part and pretty much had always been my effort and none from her to keep close to her daughter. Now reading what people have written on Facebook about her dying, it seems my neices had a much closer relationship with her and even seemed to genuinely like her and respect and admire her. Why wasn't I given the same treatment and love and caring? who knows and we'll never find out either. ah well. It has taught me to be totally different with my daughter and I worry constantly that someday we'll drift apart and not have a good relationship ship so for that, I do thank my mom that she showed me what NOT to do in a family relationship. This will probably be the end of any relationship with my family because it seems my sister is taking over in her footsteps and I'm sure her daughters will be the same. it is too much work and energy to always be the one reaching out. I will continue to do that through emails and facebook but this family's era has ended. R.I.P.

early Shaker cult

Spent some time touring the Great Stone Dwelling today, a house built by Shakers way back when in Enfield, New Hampshire. What I learned today is that the Shakers really fit the definition of a cult per Webster: a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader. The members of such a religion or sect.

Who knew. I really thought they were a religious group that made great furniture and boxes and didn't know much else. I know a lot more now but they still required a contract where the recruits gave up their worldly goods and agreed to celibacy and living separate from members of the opposit sect. Families joined were torn apart with adults and children being sent to separate houses and husbands and wives being split. People weren't always able to stay in the order and left sometimes to get married or whatever. Now there are only 3 actual Shaker members left, 2 elderly women in their 70's or 80's and a slightly younger man. wowzer. end of an age and era.

antiques and tidal change

Staying in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. our bed and breakfast is on the back bay. They say that there is water here but tidal change last night was in the dark. So far we have only seen the mud flats but it must be lovely when there is water there.
Plenty of antique stores all along the coast. In fact, stopping and shopping could take up weeks. so far, we have managed to avoid stopping but only due to disagreement on what we should see. ah well. seems like most antiques these days are things I grew up with and discarded when I had the money to buy better stuff.

canadian summer

Canadians really love their summer which seems to be about 4 weeks long, maybe! We've only had on the air conditioner once and a few days I've felt like we needed to turn on the heater! Every yard though is ablaze with color. they plant flowers like crazy so for a few weeks, it's just gorgeous walking down the street. don't even recognize half these flowers.

Two deer, goose, goslings but missing the groundhog

it's always amazing to see urban wildlife but I guess we get used to the squirrels and birds and such. Walking in the park, I saw a doe on Sunday and then another one today! That really surprised me because the park "forest area" isn't that large. So the deer are living in a tiny enclave by the river and who knows what they do in the winter around here.
Shopping at Costco this week, as I was leaving the parking lot, I had to wait for a goose and her 7 half grown goslings parade past on their way to a mud hole. I parked the car to watch them and then swung around the parking lot to see them safely under the fence and on their way to the water. Canadians don't seem to like their Canadian geese very much as several people just sped by them without a glance.
My daughter sees groundhogs at school all the time. In fact, they apparently wait for her to come out of the building and sit in the middle of the sidewalk to watch her. Of course, she gives up whatever vegetable she has with her. I go to pick her up and all groundhogs have retired for the evening. I have yet to see any. Maybe it's a myth because she knows it drives me crazy that she sees them and I don't.

Mangosteens!

Oh Heaven! My grocery store actually had mangosteens today. I could not believe it! How rare to find them outside of Southeast Asia and who could even have through they'd end up in Canada. They also had rambutans. but my favorite, mangosteens - almost bought them all but figured I'd better eat one and make sure the long transit had not damaged them in any way. Nope, pure lusciouness in the mouth! wonderful!
Of course the check out clerk had no idea what they were. I kept telling her mangosteens and she kept asking all the other clerks until one finally agreed that they were mango something. Doesn't matter. I made it home with my precious cargo and I'm not sharing!

the friendly Puff

my hubby's cat, Puff, is probably the biggest scardy cat around. He could sit on anything and subdue it into submission at 18+ pounds but the slighest noise and he's off like a rocket to hide. poor baby. Now his "daddy" is gone so he comes to me for his "noggies". see if you can type with an 18 pound cat on your lap.

Two photos of Puff.

Because he is such a scardy cat, he loves to cram his body into tight places, a box is one of his favorite. usually we're lucky he waits for us to empty it.

Puff is hiding behind the wall. even though he's such a scardy cat, you can see that he's having a hard time staying awake.

whole house vacuum

i suppose I like it, if one can ever like housework, which I don't, but my whole house vacuum came to an inglorious end today, meaning I have to clean out the bin and the filter. I gave it a halfhearted attempt and decided that was best left to another day when I am already dusty and dirty and in a bad mood.

My New Shoes

I am liking them a lot. I bought a pair of the MBT rocker shoes. Felt a bit like being on a balance board but they are supposed to be really good for your core and your body. hope so since they were expensive.

link to Honduras

see my other blog on Honduras
http://onleavinghonduras.blogspot.com/

funeral flowers

walking home from the park yesterday, a funeral passed me winding it's way through the neighborhood. A bit odd I thought. then they stopped. The two funeral directors hoped out of the lead car and walked two massive funeral wreaths up to the front porch of a house. this was a new one on me as I'd never seen this done before. Every funeral I've ever been associated with, the flowers were usually given to the church or some such thing or put on the grave. interesting.