YEAR OF THE OX

CHINESE 2009 YEAR OF THE OX

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The Sign of the Ox

Invariably solid and dependable, Ox people are excellent organizers. Oxen are systematic in their approach to every task they undertake. They are not easily influenced by other's ideas. Loyalty is a part of their make-up, but if deceived they will not forget. Oxen do not appear to be imaginative though they are capable of good ideas. Although not demonstrative or the most exciting people romantically, they are entirely dependable, and make devoted parents. Oxen are renowned for their patience, but it has its limits - once roused, their temper is a sight to behold.
People born under the sign of the Ox or Buffalo usually have strong codes and work ethics. This can lead to a tendency to be a workaholic, and they should make an effort to relax more. Ox people are usually strong and robust, and according to ancient wisdom, they should be blessed with long lives.
The Ox home is his castle where he finds relaxation and peace from the everyday hustle and bustle of his career or responsibilities. He also enjoys spending much time in planting gardens and trees. He generally prefers to decorate his home comfortably with nature colors.
Able, ethical and aware, co-workers of the Ox can depend on their eyes for details. Because they are so well-organized, they are better-suited for specialized positions and prefer to work in large companies. They work best when they work alone since they can be unhappy when participating in a large group.

Today, Tom had an appointment with the Chinese acupuncturist for his shoulder. He broke his shoulder many years ago and it's become a lifetime problem, so he sometimes goes to this fantastic little Chinese person in Vancouver. We can never pronounce her name, so with no malice intended, call her the "Gilly-Gilly" lady! She's a sweet wee thing with a cute giggle and really knows her stuff.

Should read TOM instead of ED!

From there, we went to Oakridge Mall. A big Chinese celebration was going on there, and we got to see a little of it, before it was over.

We missed the big celebration, but the Chinese dragon was still in the Mall. Such beautiful colours!

A piece of lettuce was hung from every doorway of each store to feed the Dragon. I'm not sure what it means but likely some form of good luck for each store.

Here the Dragon is approaching the lettuce.

The Dragon reaches up high and eats the lettuce!

Mmmmm Good!!

Driving home, we passed the Art Center where there is always something going on, so I snapped these pictures from the moving car. Looks like another Chinese celebration going on here!

Then I saw a side street with some pretty bare trees, that looked pretty to me, so snapped that too!!

Heading back through Vancouver, and home, this looked like a pretty shot, so took it too. Darn wires going across the road ruins the picture. Pretty mountains in the background.

So, that was our Saturday on the last day of January 2009

QUESTION FOR ANYONE WITH INFORMATION ON MY PICASA PROBLEM

I downloaded the latest version of Picasa, and now, I'm having problems finding my pictures, and when I do find the, they won't upload to blogger the way the old version of Picasa did.

Is anyone having the same problem? Any solutions? I had to email the pictures to myself, open a new file in MY DOCUMENTS add the pictures there and then upload to my blog from there!!! Very time confusing and extremely frustrating!!!!

TIME OUT IS OVER

I WAS IN NEED OF TIME OUT TO GET SOME WORK DONE!

Hi everyone, and thanks for making my counter go up and up!! Thank you for those who left a comment, which I appreciate more then you know. Also, to Miquel in Montevideo, who I may have offended by being a little hard on his city, without giving it a real chance, my apologies. However, a woman travelling alone in a strange place without anyone knowing where or with whom I went is still not a smart thing to do. My instincts and intuition told me to return to the ship and that's what I did!

This is what I missed, I suppose and it looks pretty nice!

Now for the mystery of the hat that I bought in Montevideo, at the vendor's market, outside the port gates. A very lovely leather and fur trimmed hat that I just loved! I have a small head, and fine hair, so I have a hard time finding a hat to fit. I saw this hat, loved it, was satisfied with the price, tried it on, and admired how it fit in the mirror the fellow held up for me to see how lovely it looked and I bought it, very pleased with my purchase.
I got back to the ship, found Tom and showed him my hat. He admired it also. We waited until we went down to the room and I tried it on for him and he agreed that finally a hat that fit me!!

So, it went into my suitcase, and when I got home, unpacked and put aside, until one day, I got dressed in my new coat I had bought a month or so before, and was anxious to see how the hat looked with my coat. Well, something happened to it, and I, nor anyone can figure out what!!!

Here is how I looked when I put it on my head.

It grew!! Why did it grow? Did my head shrink....that's possible, as I know I have less brains everyday!! It honestly fit perfect, so why did it slide right down over my head, past my nose and mouth! That bumpy part at the top is just the picture frame in the background, it has a nice round top on it. Tom and I laughed and laughed, but we are both in the dark as to why it would do that. I may take it down to the shoe maker to see if he can take it apart and sew it up tighter.

Tom is still awaiting the word, he has a MRI appointment. The ultrasound proved nothing wrong, however the doctor feels it's his back shooting pains down into his legs and other regions.

The waiting is driving us nuts, but he's much better then when we where on vacation and he's walking fairly well now, but still can't go very far.

As for me, I finally got through the mountain of ironing, doing some cleaning and today, started getting our papers ready for income tax time, looming near.

The weather in Vancouver is nice, no snow where we live and we go around in sweaters and shoes. No big coats or boots for us!!

I took some pictures yesterday of the tulips starting to come out of the ground, but when I downloaded them, I lost them somewhere on the computer, did some fooling around here and there, lost a few and did a restore and got only some back. I'll keep looking for them and post them next time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAUGHTER ERIN

GET WELL TO BOTH MERIDITH WHO BROKE HER ELBOW, AND JOAN WHO FELL AND NEEDS TO HAVE SURGERY ON HER SHOULDER!!
BUNCH OF STUMBLE BUMS!!!

Bye for now, and Have a Great Weekend!!

GOODBYE SOUTH AMERICA

January 4/09 GOODBYE SOUTH AMERICA

To get to day one of this journey, scroll down to Dec. 15th/08

Our luggage has now gone to the airport and we are almost ready to say goodbye to our home for the last 20 days, the MS Amsterdam, whose staff is eager to get us off the ship, to make room for new passengers arriving to follow the same voyage we are leaving.
Our disembarkation time is 9:30, so we have time for our last breakfast and to say goodbye to some of the wonderful friends we made along the way. We scanned our pictures and room card one last time as we left the ship.

Tom was taken in the wheelchair and carried down the gangway, and then one of the crew took us to our bus that was quite a distance away. There was quite a bit of confusion as some people where staying over in Rio, some going to a hospitality suite at the Transcontinental Hotel,, because of late flight. Ours doesn't leave until 10:15pm. I made sure they had a reserved wheelchair to meet the bus when we arrived at the Hotel.

Confusion finding the right bus, but with Tom in the wheelchair and someone who knew where he was going, and helping us, it went smoothly.

Now, this looks like a nice city, and better then what we seen from the dock area.
However, intermingled with nice looking modern cities we again are in favelos'. Our guide on the tour to the Hotel told us all about how they exist together. Below is Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Standing on the top of the mountain (below) is the ever present statue of Christ. Hard to see from these bus pictures and it's also raining now.

A very short drive into another roadway and we are at the Intercontinental Hotel, a very nice place, in a beautiful location, right on a spectacular looking beach.


I'm beginning to see another side of Rio now!!
Nice eh?Turn my camera in a different direction and there are the favelos again. Strange eh?
Odd looking trees!
A beautiful beach area. Lot's of beaches around Rio, but I never found out what this one was called.This is the hospitality room at the Trans Continental Hotel, provided by Holland America. There are sandwiches, coffee, juice, pop, cookies available and replenished all day as we wait and wait!
Meet again with our new friends from the cruise. This is Ester.
It was a LONG DAY!

When we first arrived, a bunch of these loungers where already grabbed by the first bus load. We where about the 2ND bus to arrive and only had the chairs at tables to sit at. Beside us sat this woman who had fallen in the bathroom on the ship and had possibly cracked ribs. She was a very vocal person and the type who is forward enough to get what she wants. So, she went out to see the manager and requested 3 more lounges brought down from the pool area for her, Tom and luckily me!! When they arrived with the loungers, everyone ran for them, but this lady put her hand up like she had a huge stop sign in her hand and told everyone she had requested them and they where for us!!

So, we didn't have it so bad there. I slept for about an hour and then before you know it, our bus to the airport was called at 4:15. Those lounges where taken over very quickly!

Now we are on our bus heading to the airport in Rio. Hopefully the wheelchair as requested will be there for Tom.

Watch your head!!! Coconuts!!

Away we head to the airport! Now, I'm showing you exactly what we saw, I didn't just pick out these slum area's. They are everywhere!!!

Around the next bend this was our view. Look at those "buildings" way up high on the mountain!

Lot's of these great tunnels in Rio.
Here comes another tunnel! Nice area here.


HEADING HOME AT LAST

We arrived at extremely busy airport in Rio!! Very crowded, and again the warnings to be very careful and watch for pickpockets and keep your belongings close to you. Also, we where warned that every kind of crook hangs out at busy tourist places, especially the airport. Also, told that men in suits, looking very much the well groomed business man, may sympathetically ask if you need any help and where advise to NOT to accept their help, or you may be directed into some corner and robbed. Sounds like I'm being over cautious here, but it did happen!!! Three men, who I noticed first, where looking us over, and then approached us and asked if we needed help. Just then the PUSHER (guy who takes people in wheelchairs and helps through the airport) arrived. He just gave them a look like "shove off" and away we went through bag check in, ahead of the lines in customs, and all the way to our gate and first on the airplane!! They where wonderful and so much help and this happened for us all the way home to Vancouver.

We flew from Rio to Miami to Texas, where we had to have some de-icing done on the planes, and then our last leg to Vancouver.
Neat to watch!!
Just had my camera up to the window at the right time as another plane heads the other way. I THINK we are over Oklahoma.

It looks what Heaven is suppose to look like....or is it?


Yes....that's Vancouver! Yeah!!! Home!!

Snow? Ice? In Vancouver? We left in the snow, which is rare, and coming home in what was a terrible weather week before we got here! Wished I'd known, I'd have enjoyed the heat of Rio more!

International Entrance to Vancouver Airport

Tom's family was waiting for us, and ohhh boy, was it good to see them! So good to get home too!

We really enjoyed every second of our trip and learned and saw so much of what I never dreamed possible. Every country was unique in it's own way, and much of it spectacular!!

I've heard that in one or two years, the cruise ships will cease to go to Antarctica for environmental reasons. I'm just so very happy to be one of the lucky ones to have had this experience.

We met lots of wonderful folks along the way, so I hope will keep in touch. I really do hope that some of you reading this will leave a comment on the little button you just have to click on the top of this site. Say hello, tell me if you enjoyed the blog and if it brought back fun memories. It's been a whole damn lot of work doing this and many, many hours put into it.

I'll be back with my usual fun blogging of what's happened since home, in a few days. I need a break from the computer for a day or two.

Please come back for a visit!!

Bye for now!!!

TOTAL MILAGE THIS VOYAGE (NOT COUNTING FLYING FROM VANCOUVER TO TORONTO AND TORONTO TO SANTIAGO, CHILE

Santiago to Puerto Montt.................................635 NM

Puerto Montte to Punta Arenas .......................1078 NM

Punta Arenas to Ushuaia...................................279NM

Stanley to Buenos Aires...................................1155NM

Buenos Aires to Montevideo................................143NM

Montevideo to Rio de janeiro.............................1031NM

Total distance ..............................................6413 NM

1 Nautical Mile =1.15 Statute Miles =1.85 Kilometers.

Fuel Consumptions: Diesel Generators..120 tons/day (32,000 gallons)

Water Production

Potable Water Production: 1,400 tons/day (370,000 gallons)

Potable Water Consumption 600 tons/day (160,000 gallons)

THE END!