August 14

August 13 & 14, 2004

DAYS 57 & 58

 

 

Friday ; Spent most of today making phone calls hither and yon about vehicle safety certifications, vehicle registration in Manitoba, vehicle insurance in Manitoba, drivers' licenses abstracts from Ontario, vehicle insurance histories from Ontario, etc., etc., etc. ! I don't recall having to deal with this much bureaucracy when we moved from Manitoba to Ontario 16 1/2 years ago. I wonder why it seems worse moving from Ontario back to Manitoba ? Must be that in Manitoba the automobile insurance is administered by the Provincial Government.

In the evening, we went to 2 Folklorama Pavilions. First, the Belgian Pavilion in the Belgian Club on Provencher Blvd. Joanne's father was Belgian, and a member of the Belgian Club. After a dinner of Belgian food ( including beer stew, of course ), and watching the ethnic singing and dancing entertainment, we went downstairs to see some old men Belgian Bowling. It's a very interesting game, somewhat akin to dry land curling, using heavy discs called Bollens. I gave it a try, under the guidance of a couple of friendly old guys. After that, we crossed the street to the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain where the Caribbean pavilion was located. Another Pavilion where the 8:15 P.M. show was full, so we had to wait in the outdoor beer garden for the 9:45 P.M. show. Maybe a good thing, since there was a false fire alarm during the 8:15 P.M. show that forced an evacuation, and disrupted the show. I wonder if Dixie-Ann, the limbo dancer from Trinidad was the cause. She dances the limbo under a flaming bar. A very low flaming bar ! I ate some Jerk Chicken Wings that left my lips burning for quite some time afterwards. The entertainment was great. In addition to the flaming limbo dancer, there was a steel pan orchestra comprised of about 8 steel pan players, ranging in age from about 10 to about 70. WOW ... what a performance ! There were also a dance group from Grenada, a senior women's singing group from Jamaica, a pair of bongo drum players from Brazil. Who knew that old women from Jamaica could wail like that ?! Who knew that young women from Grenada could shake it like that ?!?! I sure like the spirit of the Caribbean.

 

Saturday ; Today is mail catch up day. Finally our redirected mail from Ottawa has arrived. Until now, our redirected mail from Ottawa / Cumberland has been sent back because the Post Office’s redirection address stickers were incorrect. We got that sorted out last week, and now 8 weeks of mail has arrived all at once. A mountain of overdue bills, junk mail ( sorry ... ad mail ), pet industry magazines, etc.. Boobheads !

Spent the whole afternoon and the early part of the evening working on updating our investment records. I've just now received in the mail all the documentation relating to the investments purchased with the proceeds of the sale of our Ottawa house.

Accepted Sharon's invitation to dinner. Barbecued Salmon and 2 types of holuptsi ; regular and sour cabbage. I'm catching up on 16 1/2 years of no home cooked Ukrainian food.

Spent the evening on the Danelak's back deck, then in the gazebo, drinking a bottle of Australian Riesling wine, received as a gift from our friends Erbon and Lorraine Dickinson shortly before we left Ottawa. A well travelled bottle of wine. Thank you, Erbon and Lorraine. It was a good bottle of wine. When Bud and I finished the wine, we started in on the 2 jumbo bottles of Heineken beer Bud had. Finished those in no time. Bud was telling me about his Tae Kwon Do sparring experience with the local woman from Lorette who is on the Canadian Tae Kwon Do team at the current Olympics.

Suffice to say the work Bud was going to do on the folding computer table he's making for our trailer didn't get done tonight. Neither did my investment records get completed. Hey ... Rome wasn't built in a day < BURP >.

DSK