Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year's - Just Too Exhausting

Ok. I'm glad the holiday season is done.

I don't think I would have been able to keep up the celebrating for much longer. First there was Christmas Day dinner at Elsie's place.

Elsie and Christina

We were greeted by Elsie and her friend Christina, who stayed over the holidays. Although it's a two bedroom apartment, Elsie's place seems huge, well, big enough to comfortably put on this Christmas dinner. Alan, Elsie's SO, was absent. He'll be coming down from Canada just around New Year's.

Photogs At Work

Just before the final preparations began, it seemed everyone wanted to snap some shots of the proceedings. So, there was a lot of pictures being taken of other folks taking pictures.

Shortly after we got there, Dianna got busy fixing the gravy. Here she is being all chef-like early on.

Dianna Making Gravy

There was time, even as the cooking was proceeding to stop and smell the roses, as it were. Here's Denis and Vivien enjoying some refreshments before things really got going.

Denis and Vivien

And then, when it got serious, everyone thinks they're Chef Boyardee (who was a real person). It worked out fine however, because the meal was perfectamundo.

Something About Too Many Cooks?

Just before we sat down to eat, I caught Craig putting out the salads. He and Mae made them and with the veggies, fruit, and nuts, it was yummers.

Craig Placing the Yummy Salads

Then, when the turkey bird was ready, I snapped this photo just before it began to get ripped apart by the hungry hordes.

Meal, Ready To Eat...

Even though I held myself to one helping (of everything) I got stuffed. That was pretty much it for Christmas Day.

Then there was Boxing Day. For you non-Brits or other colonials who have gotten lax on the proper celebrations, this is the day after Christmas day, where the lords of the manor gave the 'staff' either the boxes stuff came in or the stuff they didn't want or something like that. I'm not real sure. Anyway, we celebrated that event at Maria and Ed's place.

Dave and Denis Hard at Work

Again, everyone worked really hard getting ready. I know it looks like we're all just hanging out (which we're really good at), there was a huge amount of work that went into getting ready for each of these parties.

Relaxing at Ed and Maria's

Christmas In Belize

This is one of the few photos I have of anyone actually working. Here it's Ed carving up a scrumptious Christmas ham.

Ed Carving the Ham

Twyla and Maria

This originally was billed as snacks and some byob-type drinks. Oh no. It blossomed (as these things do) to a full-blown Christmas ham with all the trimmings afair. You know, potatoes of two or three different types, a couple of different salads, rolls and butter, mustard, a veggie tray, many different deserts, and so on.

Before I forget, this was preceded by horses duvers.... hors d'overs..., Hors d'oeuvres..., appetizers, whatever. There were enough of those were enough to feed half the town of Corozal.

Then we move up to New Year's. I have to say, I think the economy of Belize is improving vastly. The reason? Well, for Christmas, which used to be the real biggy as far as fireworks, let's just say the fireworks were the usual displays. Not bad. But, about after a half hour or so, the noise from the star shells and other explosives, managed to work itself down to one every now and then, and finally petered out. A fairly normal display.

For New Year's Eve, wow! I couldn't believe it. Horizon to horizon, noise and more noise. And it went on and on for several hours. And, not just the fireworks - at least I think they were fireworks, Ok, with maybe some other explosives mixed in for effect, but I think that every other neighborhood in Corozal and Ranchito had a band or a humungous sound system - maybe both. All night long.

We must be becoming Belizean. The music blasting all night has even begun to sound like normal activity to us - either that or we're simply becoming slightly deaf. Dare I say, that we even look forward to it now?

In fact, the next morning, when I walked the dogs, there were still parties going on. I walked near one in Ranchito. They were still setting off fireworks, playing music and it sounded like there was a yard full of people still whooping it up. Even when I was young, I would have been hard pressed to keep up with these folks. That was around 6:30 in the morning. But they weren't the hard core party goers.

No sir. Not by a long shot. Around 8:00 or so that morning, there was still the sounds of parties going strong from virtually every direction in Corozal. Approaching noon, things finally began to settle down and get quiet, of course with sporadic outbursts of fireworks and some sound system here and there being momentarily cranked.

There had to have been a fortune spent on fireworks alone, not to mention the bands, sound systems (I'm sure some of those were rented), food, drink, rented tables and chairs, and party tents (all big business year-round here).

If you're worried about putting rice and beans on the table for the family, you're not going to spend near as much on the trappings necessary for a great bashment for your family and friends, so that is my rationale for saying things have improved markedly.

Out of the almost six years that we've been here, this was by far the biggest, loudest, most long-lasting celebration of the new year that we have witnessed. At least I hope it is a sign that the economy here is improving. It will only help if it is.

Well, since we're on New Year's as the topic, things just didn't wind down, they kept going. Earl and Gail had their traditional New Year's Day Brunch, which we made it to for the first time in a couple of years.

Quite a Feast

This always attracts a large crowd of folks. There were people we haven't seen in a long time. There were also people we hadn't ever seen before. It was all fun. And just a ton of food to eat. Earl too, had a great ham to wolf down.

Everyone Getting Comfy

Gail and Earl's back yard is big enough that they could spread tables and chairs out for everyone to enjoy. That is, until it decided to dump bucketfulls of rain all over. Earl literally worked up a sweat getting all the tables and chairs under cover before the guests all arrived. That goodness their back veranda or patio is easily large enough to handle the crowd.

Nice Covered Patios

Lots of Folks Outside

Not only were there lots of folks outside, but in the dining area inside, there was no shortage of people either. And there too, there was no sense of being crowded.

Even More Inside

Looking the Other Direction

Not everyone is so easily impressed. Young Thomas, Ed and Maria's boy, ignored the goings-on and concentrated on his Lily-Pad..., Leap-Pad..., (something like that) interactive computer learning toy/thing.

Some Are Not Impressed With the Festivities

Just about the time we left Earl and Gail's, the rain slacked off and the sun began to appear.
Which was fortuitous, since we had our own event to get back to. We hosted the second annual Corozal Men's Group Polar Bear Swim.

Our Intrepid Polar Bears

With water temps barely able to reach 83°(f) on the thermometer, it's only brave souls strong enough to jump into the pool.

Braving the New Year's Day Chill

Complete with pot luck snacks, a tee shirt, specially printed for the event, and, I wouldn't have believed it possible with the rain earlier, but glorious sunshine as the hardy swimmers braved the icy chill of our swimming pool to earn their tee shirts.

Showing Off

One of the Men's Group members, Doug, was called back to Canada on short notice. I outfitted him with a tee shirt on the promise that he would provide documentation of his completing an appropriate swim to earn his shirt.

Doug In Canada

He sent down a photo of himself and some friends fulfilling his obligation on New Year's Day no less. He said it was -4°(f), the hot tub was 102°(f) and the beer somewhere in between. I wonder, what is that white stuff all around them?

So, after the polar bear swim festivities and ceremonies, we were finally able to relax. My God. I don't remember a holiday season here in Corozal that was as all-encompassing and as all-exhausting as this one. It's going to take the rest of the year to recouperate and prepare for next year.

Welcome 2011 - Edited

We (Denis, Vivien, Dianna & Me) headed out to Copper Bank to help those folks bring in the New Year. We got to the Copper Bank Inn and Donna's Place Restaurant about 3:00 PM. Of course, a pot luck was in full swing. None of the four of us remembered seeing anything about a pot-luck in the emails.

Enjoying the Pot-Luck Chow

(thanks Vivien & Denis for the photos)

Like most pot-luck affairs, there was plenty of food for everyone - even those who didn't bring food, like us. And it was good too. A great salad, a really tasty lobster dish (I don't know what it would be called - it was molded to look like a lobster), and a whole lot of other eats. No one went hungry for sure.

I went and left my 'Pocket Instamatic' (remember those?) at home, as I was going to rely on my phone camera. Hah! With no flash, it was less than useful for that purpose. Thankfully, Vivien brought her camera along and these are her and Denis' photos. Thanks guys. It's unfortunate, but they didn't send me any photos of themselves (That has since been corrected, hence the edit in the title - Ed.).

After shoveling all that chow down, and helping it down were a few bottles of Belikin, it was time for darts. Again, we were a little reluctant to play, but there were no excuses excepted this time. Everyone in the place played. There were four teams set up and two boards, so there was plenty of room for everyone to play.

Just Some Whupass Dart Playin'

I played on Tall Paul's team and we almost won our first match. There were about five or six folks on each team, so there was plenty of time to stroll around, eat more food, get another cold one, visit the other board or the head (whichever you needed to do).

Dianna Doin' the Tushy Wiggle

Denis called my attention to this. My team was playing by this time at the other board. Denis' team was playing Dianna's. He said I had to watch Dianna shoot. She had developed a rather unique style of getting ready to deliver the dart. We were lucky enough that Denis captured this shot in mid stride. You can almost see it happening.

Vivien Celebrating A Good Shot

Denis, Coolly Taking A Shot

What a great, fun and relaxing way to bring in the new year. Well, almost. We left Donna's place about 8:00 PM and made it back to our places by about 8:30. When we arrived at the ferry, they were ready and waiting for us. I didn't even have to stop - we just drove right on, parked in the middle and enjoyed the ride across as the only vehicle on it.

Dianna and I were in bed and asleep by about 9:00 or so. Thankfully, there were enough fireworks lit off at midnight so we could roll over and wish each other a happy new year. Then it was back to sleep.

New Year's day was totally a relaxing, do-nothing day for us. Other than napping and watching a couple of movies on the tube, we just vegged the whole day.

I hope you and yours had as enjoyable a New Years celebration as we did. Here's wishing everyone a great, happy, prosperous and safe new year.

Cheers

St. Nick Takes Time

Good old St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa, or whatever, took time from a well-deserved vacation in paradise, to have a mini-Christmas for one little boy.

Joshua (1-yr) Opening his Present

Our Godson, Isaiel, his wife, Amarilly, and their son (our great-Godson?) Joshua, came to visit this morning from Guinea Grass. We had a present for Joshua to open, which he did with gusto.

Rip It Open

Joshua is 1-year and 2 months old. I guess in the State, you would commonly say, he's 14 months old. They don't do that here. Anyway, last time we saw him - two months ago, on his birthday, he was almost walking. He could stand up and hang onto things. That's all changed. Now, he totters around without hanging on to anything. Oh sure, he still falls now and then, but the change is amazing. Next time we see him, I have no doubt he'll be talking, and probably reading too.

It's a Little Talking/Singing Piggy

See? All Mine

So, do we sound like doting grand parents? How weird. We've gone our whole lives without kids and now we have this little urchin we can spoil (within reason) and do all that sort of 'grand parent stuff'. Just seems bizarre.

Dianna Doing A Little Doting

This wasn't the only reason they came up to Corozal. They had a gift for us - a nice bottle of white Caribbean rum, and Isaiel had five hose holders I had asked him to fabricate for us. These things are so cool. They turned out much better and fancier than I dreamed we'd see.

Isaiel Finishing the Hose Hangers

Amarilly and Joshua Supervising Dad

We have five plastic hose hangers around the place now. Of course, with the sunlight we have here, the hangers lifespan is nearing the endpoint, so we had to do something. I found a picture a while back on the Intertubes, printed it and asked Isaiel if he could come up with something similar. These turned out much better.

 Four of the Five Drying

I can't wait to get them bolted up in place. I'll take a couple of pictures after they're installed so you can see them 'in action'. Well, as much action as a hose hanger will get, anyway.

We had a nice visit with them. It takes a while, culturally, I think, to become really comfortable and at ease with folks. Both directions. You don't want to say anything that will offend, etc., sometimes, you're not sure what they mean when they say something. So it does take a while to get that relaxed and comfortable feeling. I think we're there now.

There was also more work going on with the bulkhead today. The way they work is, a couple guys run the 'machine', filling up about a hundred and ten bags with dry-mix concrete.

Having Too Much Fun

That'sa Lotta Bags!

Then they wheelbarrow a couple filled bags at a time, dump them in the water, and one or two guys manhandle them into position, adding rebar and drain pipes as needed.

Lowering Bags into the Water

At the place in the canal (boat slip area) where they're working, it takes a lot of bags. The water is anywhere from 10 to 12 feet deep, so at 6" high (roughly), that's a few layers of bags just to get up to the surface of the canal.

Here's One Just About to Splash In

They are making good progress, although Emir says it's taking about double the amount of concrete that they estimated.

Later this afternoon (in about an hour), we'll be heading over to Sherry's new house to help her break it in, on New Year's Eve, yet. Then, this evening, we are all heading over to Tony's Inn & Beach Resort, for a sit-down dinner and some drinks. Then it's home. We'll be back home easily by 9:00 PM. That's late for Corozal.

Have a great, safe and peaceful New Years everyone. Cheers.

First Post of the New Year!

It seems to me that for the first post for the year to the blog that I should be writing something meaningful, something weighty, something pithy, something erudite, something...

Ok, ok. Enough of that crap. I don't have anything "heavy" to talk about. I am feeling pretty good about the new year however. It hasn't been around long enough yet to get screwed up. I do have some pictures of our guest house and the progress they've been making.

For example, how about the lintel over the kitchen window? They've done the same for the two small windows in the utility room, bathroom and bedrooms. So, progress is coming along. I think I mentioned it yesterday, that by the end of next week, they may be ready to cast the roof. Now that'd be progress!

Kitchen Window Lintle Inside

Kitchen Window Lintle Outside

Most of the electrical outlets and switches have been put in place. Here's Esidoro cutting one of the last outlet boxes in the kitchen - probably for the microwave.

Esidoro Making a Dense Cloud

Cleaning Up Spilled Concrete

One of the things I was adamant about was that there should be no mess on the wood deck from their construction. They've actually done pretty good at keeping it clean. Each day, their young worker is detailed (one of the sh** jobs, I'm sure) to clean it up. You can see him doing just that above.

Now that we're in the dry season, watering plants becomes necessary. Actually, we had to do it even in the rainy season (well, Cody actually had to do it). We call it the "rainy season". It's more properly the "hurricane season" as we don't get all that much rain, on average, in any season.

Dianna Taking A Turn With the Hose

It seems strange, but we've been without Cody since Christmas Eve. That and Boxing Day, two official holidays, the weekend, and Cody taking his one week annual vacation, split by New Year's Day, another holiday. A good bit of time off. We're looking forward to his return on Monday.

Since we hired him on Christmas Day year before last, he was entitled to a week's vacation after completing a year with us. Time flies.

One of the many plants that Dianna was watering is the coleus below. Up north, y'all know it as a house plant. Down here, it's practically a weed. There's a ton of plants around here that grow big and fast that only struggle in pots up north.

Our Garden Coleus

On paydays, Jose, the Sandwich Man, comes by to collect on the bills from all the workers around the area. He runs Corozal's equivalent of the sandwich wagon, the roach coach, ptomaine express, whatever you want to call it. What Jose does is, he brings sandwiches and patties (spicy, ground beef in a folded-over fried totilla) and juice drinks in plastic baggies, to all the workers at construction sites around the area. It's all pretty good too. He carries the lot in one or two five-gallon pales on his scooter.

Yesterday was his day to collect what was owed. On his stop here to collect from our workers, he had his young son with him. Always an opportunist, they took time to fish in our canal boat slip cutout. Jose was teaching his son how to cast a weighted line (none of the locals use poles or reels). The kid was pretty good too. He was routinely making 25-30 foot casts - with accuracy!

Jose, the Sandwich Man and His Son Fishing

Our Crew Watching Jose

Now, you can tell where I was shooting the action. I was in one of the bedrooms before the wall had gone up way high. As I was watching, I thought, "This would be an ideal place for a window. What a view." On our plan, we had no window on that wall. We do now. I called Bob and told him I wanted one in there. The timing was perfect as they would be ready to block it in today. So, one of our bedrooms in the guest house now has two windows.

This afternoon, I supervised Miss Blue as she was outside munching on grass for another full-body experience, as cats do. I looked up to see Cindy and Secret watching her. They're really good with her too. They've kept her from going out of the yard before when she's snuck (is that a word?) out with no escort. Blue's not afraid of them at all.

Cindy and Secret Keeping a Watchful Eye on Blue

Ok. That's it for post number one. I'll try to keep the usual high quality going for another year.

Cheers,
Dave

And A Happy New Year To You Too!

Well, here we are already into 2008!

New Year's here in Corozal is celebrated with fireworks, similar to Christmas, just not as many fireworks. They do believe in LOUD music from early afternoon straight through the night to about 5:30 AM today. Of course, all we heard was the bass and drums.

Oh, well. Once you kind of get used to it, you can sleep through it with no problem. That's what we did anyway.

Today, New Year's Day, being a holiday, nothing much was happening. About all I did today was relieve Cody, my caretaker and night watchman, so he could go home for breakfast, then again at lunchtime, and finally at supper time.

While Cody was at lunch, I did take the opportunity to partially wire up a door bell assembly. We're going to put a door bell at the front gate. I now have it about half done.

Monday, Franz's guys got here a little early and proceeded to get to work. Doing trim around the doors and windows, working on tile in the bathroom, and filling in the wood floor joints with Plastic Wood.

Abraham Planing Door Trim

Abraham Fitting Door Trim Pieces

Our bathroom tile job is really taking shape. It's amazing the tools used to accomplish the mission...

The tile setter (I spaced on his name) does have a scoring tool to break tile in linear shapes. He doesn't have a water-cooled tile saw, so he uses a small grinder tool with a tile blade to freeform cut as necessary.

Tiling in Progress

Cutting Tile A Different Way

Plastic Wood - Once you smell it in wood shop, it's an aroma you never forget. It still smells the same way. Doing it on a scale like this, it sort of gets overpowering.

Filling the Cracks

I mentioned the doorbell. It was fairly easy to run the wire (no #20 bell wire here - we use paired speaker wire). I did have to buy a fish tape to fish out the wire for the run down the wall. Unfortunately, there was no plastic holder for it, so my tape is a jumble till I can get the holder.

Ding - Dong, Ding - Dong

Fish Tape Gone Awry

I did spend some time this evening when I relieved Cody for dinner. I watched the most spectacular cloud formations over the bay. It was just superb. If you get the chance, I highly recommend it. At the same time, the egrets were coming in to roost in the trees along the canal, along with some velvety midnight black birds, shaped like herons, but much darker. They also roosted in the trees. Altogether a most magnificent sight.