Occidental Grand Xcaret

During our trip, we stayed at the Occidental Grand Xcaret, actually a really nice resort, maybe one of the nicest we have stayed at. While in Mexico, we visited the Xcaret park, dove in some local cenotes, climbed an ancient Mayan Temple (Coba) and won a beach volleyball tourney just hours before catching our plane home :)
check out some of our pictures here - once I am less sleep deprived, I will blog more about all of our experiences!

Chac Mool dec 2011

We travelled to Mexico for the first time this year, from Dec 17 to Dec 24. I'd have to say that the most amazing thing we did was dive in the cenotes. This is a network of underground rivers and caves running throughout the Yucatan penninsula. It was amazing. We dove in areas where there was NO natural light, the light in your hand was the only light you had. We popped up in an air pocket beneath some roots from the trees growing in the rocks over our heads. While we were in there, we heard the rumble of the other tour vans leaving the area, RIGHT OVER OUR HEADS! Carlos, our guide told us that the rock above us was probably about 5 feet thick. Amazing.

We had a really great time, we dove as a group of three, just the two of us with Carlos. I'd highly recommend him as a guide for the area, he took great care of us, even brought us lunch.
He knows so much about the area and the history - both geologic and cultural. I've got his contact info if anyone wants to look him up.

Breaking up with facebook?

Recently, I've begun thinking of breaking it off with facebook. Somehow, we've drifted apart. Maybe it's me, and not you, Facebook.... but I just don't feel as excited about our relationship anymore.
Really, the only thing that we do together anymore is email people I would already be in contact with on a regular basis. And, to be honest, I have other tools for that. I don't want to make you feel bad, but good old hotmail is fine for that.
I know, you're a pretty good place for posting pictures, that's right. But there are lots of other places I can post pictures that don't have marketing attached to the sidebars. There, I said it, I guess that's what bothers me most about you facebook... It's the corporate creepin' you have going on on the side. Kinda weirds me out.
In fact, there is a portion of my job that I'm told I can't do without a facebook account. Well, I draw the line there. There is no need for me to combine my facebook page and my job. And I'm not about to start a "legit" page that I can use for work. That's just too much work. And right now, my private page, that's my page, and it's not there for people from work to look at. I need some safe place, where I can be me... And facebook, you just don't seem like it anymore.

So, yeah, I am thinking of breaking it off with you. Once I collect all those emails from people, I guess it will be over.

from the 3:15 experiment

pushing forward and upwards
bit foggy
bermuda triangle? sometimes it feels like

I'm lost
sea tossed
and wind beaten

Fuzz inside my head
words escaping me

Overwhelmed

Need a glimpse of the light,
the beacon, that moment of clarity
to bring me back
Grounding me
Homeward
Back to what was never lost.

herd mentality

Toronto.
Rush hour.

I am crammed onto the narrow platform with countless other bodies.
Bodies, that’s all we are here

- there are very few minds present.


All trying to focus on something, somewhere or somewhen else.

We’re all working so hard to ignore the sound,
the sight,
the pressure
and the smell


of being packed together on this platform

with the bodies of so many



Strangers.


The train arrives
the mob bursts into the train, it’s every body for itself

Scrambling for a seat, a pole to grasp, an entry way to lean on,
or, at the very least a position between two other bodies that don’t smell too bodily

Still, all the while ignoring the humanity in bulk that surrounds us.

There are so many stories here.
So many individuals here.

So much angst, happiness, sickness, grief, anxiety, boredom, jealousy, struggle, loss, fear, success, hunger, sleeplessness, greed, sex, exasperation, imagination, paranoia, and...

loneliness.


It’s the overwhelming loneliness that gets me.

So crowded and so very lonely.

the 3:15 experiment

I have recently been working at my writing again, and while I was looking for inspiration, I found something called the 3:15 experiment. The premise is simple. Set your alarm for 3.15 - yes, that's am - and when it wakes you - write - it can be simple, long, stream of consciousness, anything.

So, I am trying to keep a log of these pieces, apparently part of the experiment is NOT going back to read the pieces, just to write them and be done with them. We'll see what transpires...

My Happy Place

In April, I had the most amazing vacation. It helped that I was totally in NEED of a vacation, I was completely stressed and burnt out. This place was exactly what I needed.
We went to Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras, and I was blown away. The first morning I woke up there, this was my waking thought: "this is the most beautiful place I've ever woken up, I want to come back!" - and my week's stay had barely begun.
What makes this place so amazing, is, uhh, EVERTHING...
First of all, it's a dive resort - so that pretty much trumps every other place I'd been right there. They have this amazing fleet of probably 12-15 new, shiny, well-run dive boats. Their dive staff is wonderful. Put your gear on the boat, and the rest is looked after - they switch your tanks for you, help you in and out of the boat... our dive master, Alonso, was totally laid back, a really approachable guy. Richard our boat captain was also amazing, he was always there when i needed to lift my tank laden BCD onto my shoulders - he watched carefully for anyone struggling with their gear. The boat we were on was called the Trevor, if you're looking for these two guys, this is where you can find them.
The diving was great. Turns out, the Bay Islands are located on the second largest barrier reef on earth, and it was the healthiest reef I'd ever seen. I saw large barrel coral over 5 feet tall, and probably 3 feet across; brain coral which was probably 4-5 feet across - loads of fish - all the usual suspects, blue tang, cowfish, clownfish,parrotfish... Angelfish, french and queen, in their romantic pairings, gliding over the reefs together... these were so plentiful, they became a secret favourite of mine, because they weren't as frightened of us, so they were visible for long periods of time. I could hang in one spot and watch them for quite some time.
We saw an eagle ray on one dive, he came gliding along the wall we were diving, it was amazing - this was the first one I'd seen underwater. The first live eagle ray I'd seen was spotted in the channel at the resort only a night or two earlier. So this was a big deal for me.
Turtles, yes, we saw lots of turtles - and my heart skips a little everytime I see them.
We saw barracuda and groupers - and one barracuda in particular was incredible, her name was Angelina, and she was probably more than 4 feet long. She was spotted as a juvenile, and the divemasters would feed her everyday, so she has stayed in the same section of reef for the last 4 years. She was amazing, and so comfortable with divers, she swam close enough we could see the shape of individual teeth. She and the groupers were very fast and powerful... again, I could have watched forever.

On our night dive, we saw an enormous king crab... his body alone was about 5-6" thick, and his legs all curled up around him must have measured about a 2-3' span. He was pretty neat. Then we saw lots of lobster, who look a bit like they are wearing disco sequins under water... they are just covered with bright spots in the light. We saw some octopi, which are amazing, because they move like liquid mercury across the reef, the whole time changing colours like crazy, trying to get out of our lights. The most impressive one went from a deep reddish colour to a bright aqua turquoise mixed with purple in an instant. It was interesting to see the fish sleeping on the bottom, many of them were kind of tipped over, against a rock or piece of coral, like a child's toy that had been dropped there. I hear you can pick them up while they are sleeping, turn them upside down, etc... I didn't try that. I feel completely reverent underwater, and I instinctually try to lessen my impact, so I normally don't screw around much down there...
The highlight of the trip was the shark dive - speaking of being filled with reverence, this was the most amazing thing i'd seen. Admittedly, it was a bit of an attaction. It's not like this is not a highly organized and repeated activity, these sharks are used to groups of divers... so these are wild sharks, but let's just say, they're acquainted with the proceedings. I'd still love to see a shark in the wild, for real, but I'm told that once they see our clumsy shapes and hear our loud bubbles coming, they get the hell out of duke. Too bad, but maybe not such a bad thing.
Anyway, this dive was amazing. The dive master puts us with our backs to a wall at a depth of 70 feet. The sharks commune once they see the first divers coming down the line, they know this is their cue. Once the group is at the bottom, and the divemaster has assessed the current and the sharks, he tells us we can swim off the wall - and this is an amazing moment. Your field of view is filled with sharks, most of whom are about 4-8 feet long, and you have a safe, large wall at your back - at this exact moment, i wanted nothing more than to leave the comfort of the rock behind me and float amongst the sharks... so we did.
This was the most relaxing dive we had. There is nothing to do but hover, move slowly through the water, observing the sleek, powerful sharks flexing and gliding through the water... they were breathtaking. They were beautiful, they were impressive, and looked to be highly engineered gliding machines. Their skin is amazing up close. I hung in the water looking all around, as sharks slid underneath me, in front of me, around me... wow... just amazing.
We did about 3 dives per day - and because the resort was filled with divers, this was a great conversation topic, so by the end of the week, you'd talked to everyone, and made many friends. It's a small resort, probably about 150 - 180 guests, and because they are mostly divers, they are mostly cool.
I say mostly, because there were some disappointing divers there. Seems not everyone shares my underwater sense of awe. I saw and heard stories of divers bracing themselves against coral to steady themselves or a camera shot. I watched divers with cameras race across an area to film some amazing creature, henceforth frightening forementioned creature out of visible range for ANY of us, not just their fancy cameras. But these types of divers, who would become known as wankerfish as the week progressed, were few and far between. Still disappointing representatives of homo sapiens, though.
Ahh, the wankerfish, once thought to be scarce, actually more prevalent than I had thought. The wankerfish is that diver on your boat who has more gear than you could shake your snorkel at, has better dive stories than anyone, and thinks this is the most boring, pathetic dive ever, because they've just seen and dove it all, you poor uninformed, inexperienced, ill-equipped novice, you. So, yes, they do exist, just try to steer clear of them, especially if they are barreling past you underwater to chase some poor sea creature away with their camera.

There are a couple other impressive pieces of AKR's amazing dive operation I can't leave unmentioned. They have these great dive lockers, right on the dock where you can store your gear between dives and over night. This is brilliant, because you don't have to haul your gear around with you each time you prep and leave a dive. Also, they have an amazing contingency plan for inclement weather. Roatan is a skinny island, something like 3k across - so if it's too rough on the AKR side, this is the plan. Load up your gear on your dive boat, and the boats depart for the opposite side of the island, with your gear, but not you. You get to take a comfortable ride over in a bus, no sea sickness required. You reach the boat on the calm side, feeling steady and ready for some diving! It's brilliant! They've even built a facility on that side of the island, complete with a gorgeous swimming pool and restaurant, a beach, a gift shop, and most important, spacious, spotless bathrooms. In case this impression has eluded you thus far - these guys have their shit together!


The resort itself is amazing. Most of the rooms are located on the key, a tiny island located across the channel from the main property of the resort. On the main island, you have the entrance, restauarant, marine institute, dive shop, med clinic, complete with a hyberbaric chamber. (see last comment of previous paragraph) The key, which is a short boat ride across the channel, has most of the rooms, which are built on stilts raised above the beach, rocks or the ocean, depending on the location of your room.



We had room 42 - probably the best room i could imagine. We faced west, and the balcony was equipped with hammocks, for your sunset viewing pleasure. We opted for a room without glass windows and no air conditioning. This was very comfortable, because the screened windows have been equipped with louvres, which can be opened or closed to keep out light and breeze or let it all in. It was beautiful - each morning, i woke at about 6am to the sound of the waves rolling in below my windows, the rustle of the palms and the cooing of the doves...except on the rainy days, which opened with crows cawing, apparently the doves took the rainy days off.
We only had a couple rainy days, the rest was amazing. And we were diving, so what's a little rain?
The food at this place is amazing. The kitchen staff really know what they are doing, the portions are generous without being gluttonous, their fresh homemade soups are wonderful, every meal includes a soup and salad. And you have to look for Celasse and buy this man's hot sauce- he makes it himself, hot peppers, some coconut, it's amazing.. take some home with you!
I feel like I came away from this place happy, relaxed, and with some new friends i hope to see again.



I'll have to update this later, I have more to say, but not enough time right now...



Check out the resort

Breakfast of champions....

So… this morning, I was trying to get to work early, like 7.45am instead of 8.15 am – it’s only half an hour, but considering 8.15 is hard enough for me to manage, getting in half an hour earlier was a real feat!

I woke up, pretty foggy, but I managed to get myself into an upright position and stumble my way into the shower.

After the shower, I let the dogs out, and back in again, and fed all my furry creatures, and put the kettle on to boil. I normally pop a teabag in my mug as soon as I grab it, but I remember thinking this morning, NO - - THIS MORNING YOU NEED COFFEE….. (this was said in a very loud, foggy voice in my head) So, I prep my coffee, I have a little filter that sits on top of the mug, so I can make one cup at a time, directly into the mug.

And I’m having my toast and coffee - - in a total haze - -when I get to the bottom of the mug, I see this weird lump… it was a teabag ! I had put a teabag in my mug, as usual, and then made coffee right over it!

Don't bother trying this at home: For the uninitiated, the assumed extra jolt of caffeine this may or may not provide wears off as quickly (sadly) as if I had only selected one of these beverages. But I have to say, it really didn't taste all that bad, I drink pretty strong coffee, so that's all I tasted...

Name that Flower!

I can't stay away from the flowers, even on vacation!

This is OBVIOUSLY where we belong, isn't it?

and more...

Cayo Largo pictures

Cayo Largo trip

Oh My DOG - I'm in love -- with Cayo Largo. This tiny little island in a chain of islands on the Carribean side of Cuba is just plain amazing!
Let me first say that if you are looking for a holiday with lots of partying, tonnes of people piled on top of each other in small spaces, and youngsters drinking their faces off, this is not the place for you - you should go google Cancun - - like, now.
Okay, so for the rest of us, this place is amazing! I can't say enough good things about it! The sand, for one, is amazing. It's a light bone colour, and it never ever ever gets hot! It feels comfy and cool on your feet even on the hottest day. There are only 5 resorts on this island, and the beach stretches for a long long time, so most people spread out, and if you're willing to walk a bit, you can have your own private segment of beach. And since the sand is almost white, the water appears a beautiful pale turquoise... its breathtaking. And then there is the snorkelling. We have seen more life just snorkelling in Cayo Largo than we've seen on many of our past scuba dives! Snorkelling no more than a couple hundred metres out from the beach we met several charming barracuda; a big giant barracuda type thing which we have not yet identified, nor did we hang out with this chap long, he was pretty intimidating; a Turtle - snorkelling, we saw a big greenback turtle; several stingrays, different colours and sizes each; a big-ass grouper, he was cool; jellyfish; cuttle fish; a school of about 300 tarpon came whizzing around us for a few brief and hectic moments; fish, fish and more many fish on the reefs... rays shadowing you as you walk along the beach. Above the water were Pelicans all over the beach - iguanas all over the island, some of whom will share your ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Amazing bugs, beautiful flora, a 2 metre crocodile, and at least a dozen charming little cats running around the resort. And the island is half nature preserve, with a turtle incubation area to help bolster the sea turtle population.

This is Maria, a 60 year old greenback sea turtle who comes to the incubation centre to lay her eggs.

Oh ya, and tonnes of anole type lizards, and mourning doves, hummingbirds, lots of other birds I can't identify. Basically, if you love animals and beautiful scenery without too many homo sapiens around, this is the place for you.
Sadly, the week we were there, the homo sapiens count was just high enough to book up all of the deep dives, so we only did a shallow one... it was okay, but unless you're a beginner, I don't recommend it, for most of the dive we were 9-20 feet, not really much more than snorkelling with a whole bunch of extra equipment!
The resort we stayed at was the Sol Cayo Largo - a really great place, we'll definately be returning here again!

There is hope!

There is a light at the end of this tunnel (which could at any time close on us and become another dark age, by the way)
That light comes in the form of THINKING PEOPLE. Yes, they are out there - you might be one yourself! I know they exist because of websites like this:
Seed Magazine

and this:
Sex, Drugs and DNA

Enjoy these decadent slices of hope and spread the word!

Sheeple Rousing

Writing that last post has reminded me of a couple other shining moments in recent sheeple history, both provided by the CBC.

Sheeple Date – unfortunately, I can’t remember when exactly these “news”casts incited my rage, but they did, and it was recent. I’d say within the last two weeks for sure.

Thing One
A delectable little story the CBC presented which stated that 50% of the youth currently being held in a dentention centre type of scenario are the “product” of social services (ie children’s aid, etc) This little gem led them to air such concerns as “Is our system of social services failing these kids?“ Now, at first listen, this seems like a valid point – it is unfair if these detained youth are being detained due to their involvement with a social service – after all, kids at the mercy of these social services are obviously at a huge disadvantage to begin with, and to think that they make up half the kids in a detention centre… hey, wait… half, yes, they said 50% didn’t they. Hmm… let’s stop and think about that one… Half - - which means that kids who are the “product” of the social services system have EXACTLY the same chance of ending up in a detention centre as kids raised in a traditional family system…. Sooo… what they are saying here is that they have no story at all to report, and they should stop worrying about the failure of our social services, maybe they should be lauding the social services – after all, they are doing just as good a job as the old mom and pop shops of the “traditional family!” How do you like them bad apples?

Thing Two
This one is totally insipid.
The CBC did an investigation at arenas in seven cities across the country to determine what the air quality was like in these arenas. Their main concern was that the ice-cleaning machines were chugging out too much pollution for the air filtration systems of these arenas to handle. So, they tested the air quality, and determined that 24% of the arenas had air that was fairly sketchy, and 14% of these arenas had air quality that had pollutions levels higher than where they’d like to see them. This was a very targeted piece of “news,” by the way. Think of the people who use an arena. Okay, are they all in your head? You’ve got people of all ages playing hockey, figure skating, and all their associated people who come to watch, coach, etc. The on air personality of the hour was interviewing a science type, who was informing her of the details of the research, and the science type was reporting this fairly calmly, after all, only 14% had certifiably polluted air. I don’t think he was exuding the type of panic she was looking for, because she blurted out, “But these are our kids playing hockey, what about the children?” Wow, yup, she actually asked “…what about the children?!” OH THE HUMANITY!
It seems they were trying to get all those hockey moms and dads to drag out their legendary rage, and get them all excited to jump all over this issue.
The report also included an interview with a concerned parent – and I’m sure they had a hard time finding one of those – who stated that they were worried for their kids’ health, about them breathing in fumes, and stated that there is really nothing they could do about it, short of buying a new electric ice cleaning machine, and those cost like, $80K, unlike the good old gas chuggin’ air pollutin’ bargain of $40K. Hey sheeple – raise some money, aren’t the precious little ones worth a bit of time on a fundraising bingo, bake sale or rummage sale?

Sheeple Watching

Oh, the senseless Sheeple, they’ll be the ruin of us all!
Two things: Energy saving light bulbs and energy conservation.
In most cases, these would be part of the same discussion – but not today boys and girls, I’ve got a separate bee to pick on each one of these.

Sheeple date: March 22, 2007
For all intents and purposes, a fabulous day. The weather was mild, the morning had that unmistakable warm smell that signifies spring. But the pisser here is that on this date I heard two stories on the CBC that made me want to strangle someone – and I’m not a violent person… really! I’m not.

Dumb story #1
Energy Saving light bulbs – those happy, fabulous little inventions that have cut my own personal power consumption by a large portion; fantastic little catalysts for change among the sheeple, to help them see the error of their Walmart-style wasteful life choices. These are a great little item, really, they are! BUT: the CBC got hold of an audio clip of some guy talking about a 4 inch flame that came shooting out of one of these bulbs. And it became a whole story on the safety issues of these bulbs.

First, buddy there needs to take it easy on whatever hallucinogenic aids he makes part of his everyday routine, four inches? Come ON! Secondly, these bulbs have been around for years and a single reported incident like this becomes major news and we all know what major news means - - it leads fear amongs the sheeple, which grows instantly to paranoia, and their bleating, “My babies, what about the children?!” Mass hysteria, sheeple gone wild. I have even heard today that one particular member of the flock has become less interested in using these light bulbs since this story broke.

A “reputable” news source like the CBC really needs to be held accountable for sensationalizing crap in order to get the listeners all riled up. They need to present a balanced look at these stories which can lead to upsetting the livestock who are bound to get their feedbags in a knot about such nonsense.
It’s maddening, really it is.

Dumb story #2

I can’t blame the CBC for this one, they are just telling it like it is. On the same day as that fabulous light bulb panic, they aired a story about Toronto Hydro who, although is impressed with our efforts and victories in the area of energy conservation, will be introducing a hike in price due to our aforementioned savvy energy conservation. It appears that when we waste less energy, we buy less energy, and I guess they weren’t prepared for that brilliant leap of logic. Since a large number of us have managed to control our usage, they will be making less money, so they’ve announced that they will be charging us more anyway, in order to meet their targets. Great! Conserve energy – save the planet, and oh yes, we’re going to increase your rates to provide us with an amount of money which is suspiciously similar to the amount that you saved by cutting your consumption. Suspiciouly similar, you ask? Damn straight, it’s actually the same amount.

In conversations with individuals who are not card-carrying herd members, a logical solution has emerged. Since the sheeple will always waste what is plentiful and cheap and since our energy is subsidized in Ontario, it seems to make damn fine sense to charge consumers a rate that reflects what a kilowatt is really worth. Then, idiots who don’t give a shit will be racking up large energy bills, which might inspire them to think about their wasteful ways (and I used the term “think” loosely). Another snappy idea is to offer rebates to reward conservation efforts by civilians.

merry knitty feltmas!

some things I've recently finished for xmas - and an old bag i've felted just because... (that's the orange one)

Good Night, Sweet Ed

On July 18 we lost our Eddie. Incidentally, this is my birthday as well, and losing a loved one has to be the last way I'd choose to mark my birthday.
It was breakfast time, and my brother had just made me a fabulous birthday breakfast spread... we were sipping mimosas when Don yelled to me. Ed was under the couch, and not breathing well at all.
We rushed to the emerg clinic and I ran in, thinking I had it all under control, but when I had to speak, I started to cry, and a garbled, "MY CAT'S NOT BREATHING RIGHT!" or something similar fell out of my mouth. They rushed him in and started him on puffers (thinking maybe he was asthmatic) and put him on oxygen immediately.
Later in the day, after xrays turned up nothing, they did an ultrasound, and found that he had heart disease, with scarring as evidence of prior minor attacks.
This one had thrown a blood clot to his legs and lungs, leaving him without the use of his legs and a lung filled with fluid.
I kept thinking, wow, this is really serious, and at least now we know what's wrong, so we can watch for it when we take him back home... but as the day wore on, the painful truth became more and more evident. Eddie was not coming home with us.
It was past midnight when we decided to put an end to Ed's suffering, he wasn't going to be able to breathe on his own, and even if he could, by this time his back legs were of no use. We couldn't make him hang on and suffer through this without hope of regaining his prior quality of life. We had spent a lot of tears that day, in fear that we'd have to face this decision, but it had to be. We said goodbye to him about 12.30 - so far the hardest thing either of us has had to do.

It's been more than a month now, and I'm not sure that I actually believe it happened. It seems so surreal, and so wrong. I had never expected to lose Ed first. He was only 10 years old. It somehow made more sense to me that Lucy, our older cat, or Ender, our dog, would be the first to go... not Ed. It took us by surprise, really knocking the wind out of us. For a couple of weeks afterwards, I just felt exhausted. I am still having the hardest time at night, when I expect him to come pouncing up onto the bed, to sleep on our pillows (strategically placing himself as far from the dreaded dog as possible)
Sometimes I swear I hear his scratchy little meow (a la "Cartman" from South Park) or see his white and silver shape out of the corner of my eye. The dog has stopped peering around corners, deciding that his great white nemesis has left him alone, but I still find myself looking for him, expecting him to be there.
We surely miss Ed, he filled a big space in our family, and we know he will never be replaced. Even though I desparately want this to make some sense, I think I have realized that there is no sense to be made of it, no happy twist to the story, because I have never believed most of those fairy tales anyway.
A good friend told me this past weekend that there is an old Indian (native North American, I'm assuming) story that says our pets will be waiting to greet us when we die. I'd like to believe that, but it will be some time before I can test that theory out.

Ed, my first "Mister," I miss you little Man.

Sara Tavares at Lula Lounge

I had the best chill night last night with my sister - we went to Lula Lounge to see Sara Tavares perform. She has a fabulous voice, and for anyone interested in music from around the world, she's one to check out - she sings in Portuguese, and the music has definate african and latin vibes to it... it's amazing!
Click here for info