Tuesday, April 24, 2007
How much stuff can one family hoard?!
There should be some sort of tongue twister about that to the tune of the woodchuck one, I think. I've been receiving some subtle hints about neglecting this blog. I am still alive and still in blogging mode. I have been buried under a pile of junk someone in my family thinks is keepsakes. FYI a torn scrap of paper with a 'phone number on it and no name is not a keepsake ... it is garbage!! When we moved here I decided it would be our last move but I now see that moving is the only way to clear out the junk. My child will not get rid of that tangled up piece of fluorescent orange yarn for anything less than a year in Belize. I have also learned that certain things should not be moved because you really don't want to know what is behind them. (I'll just leave it at that and let your imaginations do the rest) On the plus side - by the time I'm done, our house will be the cleanest one in, possibly, all of Canada and I'll be suitably exhausted to appreciate the hammock, with my name on it, on the beach. On the minus side - by the time I get home to enjoy my unnaturally clean house, it will no longer be clean. Thems the breaks, I guess. Well, it's back to the junk pile for me. You all have a great day!
Monday, April 2, 2007
We're Baaack ...
From spring break in Belize. New photos on photobucket.
Well, Adrianne and I had an interesting time in Belize, to say the least! As part of our longstanding family tradition of total adherence to 'Murphy's Law', Adrianne badly sprained her ankle the week before we left. She is still on crutches although the Dr. did let her out of bed in order to get on the plane to Belize. Consequently we did no hiking, walking or footwork of any sort. In keeping with another longstanding family tradition, we found the silver lining on that cloud: I now know that the most important travel accessory is a pair of crutches! The flights there and back were amazing because we got to board the planes first, got moved to seats with more leg room and were driven by wheelchair and electric cart around every airport. We were given preferential treatment in line-ups and were able to go through doors marked 'authorized personnel only' legally (as opposed to the sneaky way we usually do it).
Our cabana on the beach was wonderful as were our hosts at Hopkins Inn. Breakfast at our door each morning consisted of fresh fruit and local breads. It was heaven. Until the second night when the cabana showed it's true colors as a glorified cave for the local wildlife! After deciding we could still sleep in the bed if we scraped off the fresh gecko poop, we proceeded to kill off about 15, of what Adrianne identified by the proper Latin name, 'icky bugs'. The icky bugs continued to torment Adrianne through the night and she was afraid to sleep lest one of them mistake her mouth for a landing pad. The gecko took up position on the ceiling directly above my face and I was afraid to sleep lest any further poop bombs found their mark in my mouth! After a night of no sleep we had about decided that discretion was the better part of valour and we should move in with Alfred at the resort. This plan was solidified in our minds during Adrianne's morning shower which was attended by the largest cockroach either of us had ever seen!
At the resort we also had access to a vehicle which allowed us to do some sightseeing from the vantage point of the Southern and Hummingbird Highways. For those of you unfamiliar with Belizian roads, there are four paved roads in Belize. These are the highways, each of which has a descriptive name: the northern highway, the southern highway, the eastern highway and the Hummingbird highway. (you figure it out, I have no idea) The scenery was amazing, the roads were really bad and we got bored fairly quickly as the heat and crutches made it very difficult to walk for even a few minutes.
Finally we decided that we were going to go with perhaps our most lauded of all family traditions, and do something stupid. So we went snorkeling. Yes, Adrianne stuffed her ridiculously swollen foot into a flipper and climbed in and out of the boat on her knees and we snorkeled. It was so fun! We spent the morning in the water and everyone was amazed at Adrianne's dexterity. Boy did she have them snowed - it wasn't dexterity, it was pig-headedness (no need to point out that that is another family trait!) She couldn't move at all the next day but she proved her point at any rate. Nothing keeps her down for long!
Adrianne made lots of male admirers and loved interacting with the local kids that came to sell us breads and food each day. We came back tanned and rested and ready to go back to work. I'm even more excited for July now!
Well, Adrianne and I had an interesting time in Belize, to say the least! As part of our longstanding family tradition of total adherence to 'Murphy's Law', Adrianne badly sprained her ankle the week before we left. She is still on crutches although the Dr. did let her out of bed in order to get on the plane to Belize. Consequently we did no hiking, walking or footwork of any sort. In keeping with another longstanding family tradition, we found the silver lining on that cloud: I now know that the most important travel accessory is a pair of crutches! The flights there and back were amazing because we got to board the planes first, got moved to seats with more leg room and were driven by wheelchair and electric cart around every airport. We were given preferential treatment in line-ups and were able to go through doors marked 'authorized personnel only' legally (as opposed to the sneaky way we usually do it).
Our cabana on the beach was wonderful as were our hosts at Hopkins Inn. Breakfast at our door each morning consisted of fresh fruit and local breads. It was heaven. Until the second night when the cabana showed it's true colors as a glorified cave for the local wildlife! After deciding we could still sleep in the bed if we scraped off the fresh gecko poop, we proceeded to kill off about 15, of what Adrianne identified by the proper Latin name, 'icky bugs'. The icky bugs continued to torment Adrianne through the night and she was afraid to sleep lest one of them mistake her mouth for a landing pad. The gecko took up position on the ceiling directly above my face and I was afraid to sleep lest any further poop bombs found their mark in my mouth! After a night of no sleep we had about decided that discretion was the better part of valour and we should move in with Alfred at the resort. This plan was solidified in our minds during Adrianne's morning shower which was attended by the largest cockroach either of us had ever seen!
At the resort we also had access to a vehicle which allowed us to do some sightseeing from the vantage point of the Southern and Hummingbird Highways. For those of you unfamiliar with Belizian roads, there are four paved roads in Belize. These are the highways, each of which has a descriptive name: the northern highway, the southern highway, the eastern highway and the Hummingbird highway. (you figure it out, I have no idea) The scenery was amazing, the roads were really bad and we got bored fairly quickly as the heat and crutches made it very difficult to walk for even a few minutes.
Finally we decided that we were going to go with perhaps our most lauded of all family traditions, and do something stupid. So we went snorkeling. Yes, Adrianne stuffed her ridiculously swollen foot into a flipper and climbed in and out of the boat on her knees and we snorkeled. It was so fun! We spent the morning in the water and everyone was amazed at Adrianne's dexterity. Boy did she have them snowed - it wasn't dexterity, it was pig-headedness (no need to point out that that is another family trait!) She couldn't move at all the next day but she proved her point at any rate. Nothing keeps her down for long!
Adrianne made lots of male admirers and loved interacting with the local kids that came to sell us breads and food each day. We came back tanned and rested and ready to go back to work. I'm even more excited for July now!
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