December 19 to 25, 2024 ; Victoria, B.C.

 Thursday ; Raining, +8° C.

We spent a long, tiring day shopping for shoes for Joanne.

She has an ongoing heel pain issue related to Achilles tendonitis. For the last few days she has been doing research on shoes which would relieve / minimize the pain, guided by her podiatrist’s recommendations. SHEESH ! Who would have thought that buying a pair of old woman walking shoes could become so incredibly complex and complicated ?

Immediately after an early lunch we had the hotel’s shuttle take us downtown to the north side of the Bay Centre, very close to the first of many downtown shoe stores Joanne had planned to visit. We spent the entire afternoon trudging in the rain from shoe store to shoe store, trying on numerous makes and models in each store, until we were both really tired of it. At dusk, around 4:30 PM we phoned the hotel and asked to be picked up by the shuttle and returned “home”.

The best service came from the first store we visited, and Joanne’s likely selection … not yet made … came from the knowledgeable sales clerk in that store. She was an older woman whose commitment to good customer service reminded me of the level of retail customer service one gets in Europe, but is downright rare here in North America.

As opposed to the poor service we received from a young man at Sport Chek, whose knowledge level was low and he was WAYYYY more interested in returning to his yukking it up with two of his colleagues than he was in serving a customer.

From the time we got home until bedtime every time we opened the door to our suite, we were assaulted by the very strong odour of marijuana smoke. It was so pervasive and persistent, and I go so tired of getting a headache every time our door was opened briefly, that I finally went to the front desk around 10:30 PM to complain.

Friday ; Cloudy, +9° C.

This morning I walked across the street to the Best Western Plus ; Inner Harbour to view a couple of their suite layouts, their fitness centre, hot tub and sauna, etc. Their suites are slightly nicer than here at the Royal Scot, their prices are similar, they don’t permit dogs. However … Apollo is old, and won’t live forever. ( Ditto ) ! The Best Western Plus might be a viable alternative to the Royal Scot at some point in our future.

At 2:30 PM we had the hotel’s shuttle drive us to the McPherson Playhouse for a matinée performance of “A Wonderheads Christmas Carol”. It is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens as interpreted by the Wonderheads theatre company. It was wonderful ! My eyes filled with tears when Bob Cratchit and his wife visited Tiny Tim’s grave ! Joanne asked “How could that be ? Did you not know the story ?” HA HA HA … of course I did ! They just did that great a job of … emoting.

The Wonderheads is a husband and wife owned and operated theatre company based here in Victoria, performing all over North America. Both husband and wife are screenwriters and playwrites, directors and actors, set designers, lighting designers, sound designers … ! Their productions are wordless ! The actors wear huge, full face masks / heads. Some actors are inside huge puppets. Some control / employ smaller puppets. It’s hard to describe. See www.wonderheads.com !

After the play, as we were leaving the theatre, we noticed the huge, brightly lit ferris wheel behind the theatre, in Centennial Square. It was brought in to be part of the Wonder Of Lights exhibition for this final weekend before Christmas. We went outdoors to view the ferris wheel, and to watch a Christmas dance exhibition by a local children’s dance studio. We had been planning to phone the hotel to request a pickup by their shuttle, but decided to walk home.

The entire downtown area, all the way back to our hotel, was a busy, crowded, shopping / eating / drinking / dog walking / tourists taking photos Christmas event.

I made supper tonight. Wild Salmon chowder for me, French Canadian pea soup for Joanne, both purchased at Red Barn Market recently. And I made a Cheese Pie, a new recipe I got from www.eggs.ca. It turned out very well !

Saturday ; Cloudy, +10° C.

For our “early” walk with Apollo we walked across the Parliament Building grounds … Apollo likes to defecate on the lush lawn in front of Parliament … HA HA HA … across the street to the BC Royal Museum, to view the Christmas decorations display inside Helmcken House.

Helmcken House is a circa 1850 log home still in its original location, which is now in between the BC Royal Museum building and Thunderbird Park. It was the home of Dr. John Helmcken, Victoria’s first physician, the BC Governor’s son-in-law, founder of the BC Medical Association, eventually a politician, etc. The museum has decorated the inside of Helmcken House with Christmas decorations of the 1850’s era.

I went inside first to tour the house and view the interesting Christmas decorations of that era, while Joanne waited outside with Apollo. Then we switched, I waited with Apollo while she went inside. While she waited outside she had the “privilege” of watching a junkie shoot up, struggling to find some appropriate place on his abdomen to inject himself. Then while I waited, a few minutes later, I got to see the moment when his drug of choice took hold and worked its magic. <blink blink>

WOW ! That was shocking and … sad ! After engaging in loud conversation with himself for a few minutes, then he became obsessed with picking imaginary lint off himself. Everywhere ! Frantically ! I kept thinking … I surely hope he didn’t overdose and is about to drop dead in front of me !

After lunch while I napped with Apollo Joanne went downstairs to the laundromat and did our weekly laundering. Afterwards I sent “Season’s Greetings” and a “Christmas card” / picture by e-mail to family and friends. I received a reply that made me so happy I cried.

Earlier today a large bus load of seniors arrived at our hotel. From catching snippets of their conversations it seems as if they will be here until the new year. They seem to be … forty-nine old women and one old man. HA HA HA ! At 5:30 PM we took Apollo for his late walk. The herd of seniors was leaving the hotel and trudging two by two slowly down the street, heading somewhere for supper. They seemed remarkably similar to the lines of two by two day care centre children that we often encounter as we walk Apollo every day back home in Dugald. <heads snapping around> “Look ! Puppy !” HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA ! ! !

At 6 PM we went to the fitness centre / swimming pool to do exercises and soak in the hot tub. Fortunately, we didn’t have to share the pool and hot tub with fifty other old people. HA HA HA !

Sunday ; Overcast, intermittent light rain, windy, +9° C.

The neighbourhood … and our hotel … are filled with recent (yesterday and today) arrival Christmas week visitors. HMPH ! Tourists ! HA HA HA ! This morning we drove to Thrifty Foods to replenish groceries and refill our five gallon water jug. While Joanne paid for our groceries I walked across the street to Pharmasave to buy some antibiotic ointment. I recently sustained some deep scratches on the back of my leg. And … <shrug> … I don’t know how or when !

One of the items I was planning to purchase when (if ?) we visit Saltspring Island was some exotic, outrageously expensive goat cheese concoctions from a goat farm cheese maker. This week their products are available, advertised special, slightly discounted (twenty bucks for a teensy tub !), at Thrifty Foods. I bought a tub of their goat cheese with smoked salmon and capers. WOW … it’s really good ! And I’m not usually a fan of goat cheese.

We have just returned from walking Apollo (5:30 to 6 PM). On Menzies Street, behind our hotel, was a large wagon, drawn by two large draft horses (clippety clop, clippety clop), wagon filled with carolers singing. How nice ! Merry Christmas ! We are really enjoying downtown life here.

Our new Sunday evening ritual is watching back to back episodes of “All Creatures Great and Small” on PBS, a BBC adaptation of the book by the same name. I was introduced to the stories written by the veterinarian James Herriot when I received an earlier version of the book, under a different title, as a gift from my animal rescuing mother. Testament, I suppose, to the adage that apples don’t fall far from the tree.

Monday ; Intermittent light rain, +10° C.

YIPPEEE ! ! ! Joanne finally bought new shoes !

We left our suite at 2 PM heading out to run three errands. First errand was to visit another shoe store. I was convinced that she would not find a better choice than the ON brand CloudMonster 2 model of shoe to mitigate her Achilles tendonitis pain issue. It was recommended to her at Running Room, the first shoe store we visited. But today at FrontRunners Shoe Store the very knowledgeable and helpful young female clerk recommended a new model of ON brand shoe, the CloudEclipse. That was what Joanne eventually bought. But not before trying on MANY other brands and models, until she had finally tried every brand and model her online research recommended for her condition. Who knew that shopping for “specialty” shoes would be as complicated and trying as shopping for a new mattress ? ! ? I surely hope these shoes will provide her the Achilles tendonitis pain relief she so desperately needs.

Next errand was grocery shopping at Market On Yates, an upscale supermarket with plenty of exotic and/or gourmet choices. Well, honestly … all of Victoria’s supermarkets are more exotic and gourmet than Winnipeg area supermarkets, which are, for the most part, pretty “meat and potatoes” by comparison. We finished grocery shopping at 4:30 PM, exactly as planned. That was the opening time of the Egyptian food take-out restaurant where Joanne wanted to purchase dinner. We had reviewed the restaurant’s menu online, and were intrigued by their “limited time” three course (four, actually) dinner offering called “Holiday Delight & Surprise Bag”.

We drove in the dark to this very difficult to find restaurant, placed our order with the very friendly Egyptian fellow running the place, then took Apollo for his “late” walk in the restaurant’s residential neighbourhood while we waited for our meal to be ready.

We had our “Holiday Delight & Surprise” meal at home at 8 PM. It was very good. Despite it being almost totally unknown foods. We recognized only the falafel balls appetizer. Our meal was ;

• Mama’s Salad Mix

• Crunchy Falafel Balls

• Tahina dip

• Mama’s Signature Chicken Bowl

• Mama’s Baba Ghanouj dip

• Balady Bread

• an Egyptian version of Baklava ... probably called “Mama’s Baklava”. HA HA HA !

This is the first year since my father died on Christmas Eve in 1995 that I have not felt a blanket of depression weighing heavier and heavier on me every day in the last few days leading up to Christmas. What a relief ! Finally ! ! ! I can find no explanation other than the good news I received the other day in a reply to my “Season’s Greetings” e-mails sent.

Christmas Eve ; Sunny (WOO-HOO), +10° C.

Today I remember my father, who died on this date … a long time ago.

We had a lazy day, by design. I walked Apollo at 9 AM while Joanne slept late (as usual), we both went for longer walks with him at noon and again at 6 PM. This afternoon we baked sugar cookies together. Joanne’s idea. After Apollo’s late walk we went to soak and relax in the hot tub (both of us) and swimming pool (Joanne).

As always on Christmas Eve, Joanne prepared tourtière / French Canadian meat pie for Christmas Eve dinner, her family tradition. I began reading a book to her (and Apollo, who seems to enjoy being read to), a Christmas gift request of hers. She chose the book ; “The Dog Who Thought He Was Santa”. <shrug>

Christmas Day ;

Mostly cloudy, occasional very light rain, windy, +7° C.

Again by design, we had a very lazy day. We slept very late. At 1 PM we had a FaceTime phone call with Joanne’s sister. After a walk with Apollo we opened our gifts to each other. Had a very late lunch of leftover tourtière. Apollo and I had a long nap. At 5:30 PM we went for another walk with Apollo. BRRRRR … windy and chilly.

Joanne prepared Christmas dinner, wonderful as always. Mandarin salad with Asian dressing, roast turkey breast stuffed with cranberry dressing, roasted small potatoes, brussel sprouts, turkey gravy. For dessert, brandy laced dark fruitcake from Victoria’s Murchie’s Fine Tea & Coffee store, a Christmas gift from her to me, along with other products from Murchie’s. Thank you, my dear. Hope you enjoy those Purdy’s Chocolates.

<blink blink> Maybe I should revise that to past tense ... enjoyed ? HA HA HA !

In the evening I made all of our hotel reservations for our return trip home in April. I was hoping I might find some Boxing Day sales on hotel reservation sites, but … NO !

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

DSK

December 12 to 18, 2024 ; Victoria, Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

 Thursday ; Cloudy, light drizzle all day, +9° C. Not bad at all, especially in light of the fact that it is 26 below in Dugald at this moment (9 PM) ! ! ! And feels like 34 below with wind chill factor. HA HA HA !

We left our suite at 11 AM this for another long (5 ½ hr.) day of errands and shopping. First stop was Canadian Tire in Hillside Shopping Centre (What ? This silly mall again ? ? ?). Joanne and Apollo waited in the car while I went inside to buy myself a Christmas gift. I wandered around the store, probably 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, unable to find the automotive section ! HUH ? How the hell can a Canadian Tire not have an automotive section ? ! ? I searched for a store clerk, finally finding a woman wearing an ugly Christmas sweater restocking shelves. No name tag, no Canadian Tire shirt, just an ugly Christmas sweater, so I was uncertain whether she was even an employee.

ME ; Excuse me … where is the automotive section ?

HER ; Upstairs.

ME ; HUH ? Upstairs ? How do I get upstairs ? ! ?

HER ; Escalator. <she points over her shoulder>

I found the escalator, found the automotive section, found my Christmas gift, tried to pay while upstairs, was told I could only pay downstairs, couldn’t find a staffed checkout downstairs, used self checkout … <sigh>.

Back at the car, Joanne had decided since we were already in this silly mall, we should go to Wal-Mart for a few items. **** ! ! ! <fume> Drove around to the Wal-Mart side of the mall … much too far to walk … parked again … had a wonderful time shopping at Wal-Mart ! <sarcasm>

Found our way to Joanne’s choice for lunch, a hole in the wall Trinidadian restaurant named “Trini To De Bone”. We shared a beef roti and a pineapple soda. <shrug> Was okay … I guess. Overpriced !

Continued driving further and further from downtown to Eagle Creek Village, a shopping mall in the “high rent” View Royal neighbourhood. Shopped at Dollar Tree first, then Quality Foods Supermarket.

Arrived back home at 4:30 PM. Tired ! Napped with Apollo !

Victoria’s traffic is always congested, everywhere. Like rush hour, all the time, everywhere ! With ongoing “battles” between passenger vehicles vs. busses vs. pedestrians vs. bicycles on crowded, narrow, winding, hilly streets.

Friday the 13^th ; Cloudy, +8° C, very light drizzle / mist in the morning, strong winds in the afternoon and evening.

We left our suite at 11:45 AM for a long walk around the James Bay neighbourhood with three specific destinations planned. First stop was James Bay United Church for their weekly three hour pop-up thrift store. Joanne waited outside with Apollo while I went in first and browsed. Bought a pizza cutter wheel. We’ll leave it behind in our suite’s kitchen utensils drawer when we leave. Then I sat outside with Apollo while Joanne browsed, buying nothing.

Next stop was across the street, Red Barn Market, a small gourmet supermarket. Again Joanne waited with Apollo while I went in and browsed. Prices were a tad high, but some items on sale caught my eye, and I bought a bag of baked pita chips and two containers of ready to heat & eat specialty soups, a salmon chowder for me, and a French Canadian pea soup for Joanne. She doesn’t like fish or seafood chowders of any sort, and I can’t digest the ham in the pea soup. I waited with Apollo while she browsed.

Gee … he’s really a chick magnet. While I waited outside the church, then the grocery store, many women, young, old, and in between, stopped to admire Apollo. Good boy, Apollo. You just keep reelin’ ‘em in ! HA HA HA !

Last destination was Birdcage Confectionary, a small, corner store / convenience store, like a casse-croute in Quebec or an aborrote in Mexico. This store is noted for its fresh baked goods and hand made / home made chocolates. I bought a spinach & feta croissant, and a beef sausage roll for us to share for today’s lunch back in our suite. They were good. Although … a tad expensive for what they were ! That seems to be a recurrent theme here in Victoria in general, and more specifically in our old, elegant, upscale and somewhat snooty James Bay neighbourhood.

After lunch at home, and a nap for me and Apollo, we set off again at 3:45 PM, this time leaving Apollo in our suite, for a 4 PM free Christmas concert in the BC Parliament Building. Every day for the last few weeks before Christmas there is a free daily Christmas concert in the Parliament Building, featuring local choirs and bands. Today’s performance was two brass / wind instrument concert bands, each performing a half hour set. It was a pleasant outing, in the spectacular rotunda of the BC Legislature. I think we will return for a tour of the magnificent BC Parliament / Legislature Building before we leave Victoria at the end of January.

Saturday ; Cloudy, windy, +9° C.

We have just received an e-mail (at 7:30 PM) advising us that Apollo’s “big brother” Peeta’s life ended today. We send our sympathy to our friend Patti. Farewell and Godspeed, Peeta.

Our early (noonish) walk with Apollo was along the harbourfront to the west, our first time walking westerly along the harbour. There’s a lot more for us to explore in that direction, but today was a bit too windy.

At 2:30 PM we left our suite to attend a play at Belfry Theatre. We went there and back by bus. We had visited the theatre a few days ago to pick up our tickets and had decided at that time that parking near the theatre was going to be too much of a problem. I was a bit uncertain and anxious about taking the bus there and back, but it worked out very well.

The Belfry Theatre is in an old church building in the Fernwood neighbourhood. It’s a lovely old church, and repurposed / redesigned / reconstructed as a wonderful small theatre venue, seating a few hundred people, not a bad seat in the place.

Tonight’s production was “Mom’s The Word ; Talking Turkey”. “Mom’s The Word” is a collective of five women friends, playrights and actors, theatre legends here on the west coast of Canada, that started thirty-five years ago, writing their first “Mom’s The Word” play about the trials and tribulations of young motherhood. Over a period of thirty-five years they have written a number of sequels, relative to their ages and experiences over the years. They all seem to be in the vicinity of sixty years of age, one is a widow. This play is their perspective on Christmas ; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It was hilarious. It was tragic and sad. It was poignant. It was great !

We returned home at 7 PM. Apollo had been alone for 4 ½ hours. And apparently he had been a very (quiet) good dog !

At Patti’s request, we each gave him a big hug.

Sunday ; Sunny (how odd for Victoria during winter !), +7° C, calm / no wind.

We enjoyed our leisurely late morning walk with Apollo. I’m already “sun deprived”. Viewed next week’s schedule of free Christmas concerts at Legislative Building rotunda, will attend Tuesday noon concert.

Joanne went Christmas gift shopping by herself to Bay Centre this afternoon. Requires me to return to Bay Centre with her tomorrow to view / try on / approve gift purchase. <sigh>

We took Apollo for his afternoon (more like evening !) walk at 5:30 PM, then at 6 PM went to the fitness centre. While I did dumbbell weights work in the fitness room Joanne did aquatics exercises in the pool, then we both did hot aquatics in the hot tub. We need to find the motivation to do this more regularly.

Monday ; Mostly sunny again (how nice !), +7° C.

This morning we set off for a sightseeing drive around the James Bay and Oak Bay waterfront. Our first stop was Finest At Sea, a local fishing, processing, and retail operation … with a food truck. They operate a fleet of fishing boats, have a fish processing plant very near to our hotel, with a retail store attached, selling their products both fresh and frozen, and a food truck out front selling their products cooked and ready to eat. We’ll return some day to buy lunch from the food truck. Today we browsed, and bought some interesting food products in their retail store ; freshly caught, freshly processed, pickled herring rollmops, and some fresh halibut cakes. OOOOO … halibut is expensive ! But we knew that, having bought halibut before when visiting Bella Coola, Prince Rupert and Haida Gwai.

After shopping at Finest At Sea we drove along the James Bay and Oak Bay waterfront drives, all the way around the south end of the Sannich Peninsula to the Oak Bay Marina. We stopped a couple of times. Once to take Apollo for a long walk along a section of the waterfront that is designated as a leash optional dog park / dog walk area. We’re not entirely trusting of him in dog parks, especially this area with nothing but driftwood fences separating the dog walk area from traffic. Dogs Apollo’s size can simply slip underneath the fence. But he did meet off leash dogs, large and small, and responded each time with friendliness. HMPH ! He’s only “reactive” with some other dogs, usually large, young males, when both he and the other dog are leashed. Further along the drive we stopped again and Apollo and I walked down to the rocky, driftwood laden beach, and “beachcombed”. I was fascinated by the large amount of cedar driftwood pieces on the beach. Apollo was fascinated by the stinky kelp and other seaweeds. HA HA HA ! The path down was too steep for Joanne. She waited in the car.

Once back at home we had a late lunch, and I napped with Apollo. At 3 PM we walked to the Bay Centre. Yesterday Joanne found a clothing item she wanted to buy for me as a Christmas gift, but she needed me to try it on today to be certain. DONE ! We were back home at 4 PM. Apollo seemed to have remained quiet for the hour that he was left in our suite. Good dog, Apollo.

At 6 PM we went for our late walk with Apollo. At 6:30 PM we went to the swimming pool and hot tub, doing aquatics exercises in both.

At the corner of Belleville and Douglas, on the Empress Hotel side of the street, is a bronze statue of a man looking out over the Inner Harbor. On the ground beside him is a bronze statue of his dog, looking up at him. The dog statue is about the same size as Apollo. Apollo is puzzled why every time we walk by that statue, and he sniffs the dog’s butt, the dog statue doesn’t react / reciprocate. HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !

Good dog, Apollo ! <whispering> What a dolt !

Tuesday ; Raining steadily all day, +7° C. Yeah … this is what I expected Victoria’s winter to be !

After our early walk with Apollo we walked to the Parliament Building for today’s free daily Christmas concert in the rotunda at noon. Today’s concert was Voices In Motion, a byproduct of a research project. Voices In Motion is a choir comprised of people with memory loss, each memory loss person is half of a duo, accompanied by a caregiver / family member / friend, etc. It was formed to participate in a research project on the effects of music on memory loss. At the end of the research project, well … they saw no need to disband the choir, so it continues.

It was a wonderful concert. Excellent choice of songs, most of them not Christmas songs. And at the end of the concert I got to meet Beebee, the choir’s Saluki therapy dog. What a good girl ! As I heaped some attention on Beebee one of the choir’s members approached me to ask me about “my” dog. <blink blink> She had forgotten that Beebee was the choir’s mascot and therapy dog.

Apollo did not like being walked in the rain at 4:30 PM. At 5 PM we left our suite again to walk to the Vic Theatre, a repertory theatre, often featuring “foreign art” films. Vic Theatre’s tagline ; “embrace the unexpected”. Tonight’s feature was “Flow”, a weird and wonderful, wordless animation from Latvia. The main character is a cat, who through a series of serendipitous events joins forces with a capybara, a meerkat, a Yellow Labrador dog, and a large crane like bird to endure and survive an apocalyptic flood of the world. Sort of an “artistic license” interpretation of the story of Noah’s Ark. But … without Noah ! HA HA HA !

When we returned home around 7:30 PM Joanne prepared yesterday’s purchased halibut cakes, with a wild rice mix side dish and a bean & carrot vegetables medley. Good supper !

Wednesday ; Sunny, +10° C, a pretty nice day. Warm enough for me to do some work on our minivan downstairs in the underground parkade.

I spent much of today making phone calls to other hotels nearby with winter long term stay plans, arranging / making appointments to view their suites, or walking across the street in one instance, to view the rooms / suites at Days Inn On The Harbour. I think it is unlikely that I will find something better / more suitable than the Royal Scot, but I always like to assess / analyze / compare to be certain.

I also made arrangements to drive up to Cobble Hill, about an hour “up island” / north of Victoria, for an advance / preview visit to Xanadu Estate, our upcoming accommodations for February and March.

After lunch and a nap with Apollo, while Joanne walked to Thrifty Foods in James Bay to replenish groceries I went downstairs to the parkade and installed wheel well mouldings on the minivan. You know … the wheel well mouldings that Santa was supposed to put under the tree. HA HA HA ! OCD prevails again !

After our late walk with Apollo we went to the fitness centre and swimming pool to do exercises. Alas, the hot tub was out of order. Joanne prepared supper to be ready just in time for us to have supper while watching the season finale of Survivor. Congratulations to the winner, Rachel. Too bad Genevieve from Winnipeg was eliminated so close to the end.

DSK

December 5 to 11, 2024 ; Victoria, Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

 Thursday ; Cloudy, no rain, +8° C, as warm as it gets in Victoria in the winter.

Routine morning. Went for our morning walk with Apollo shortly before noon. Napped after lunch. Around 3 PM had the hotel’s shuttle drive me to the Paintless Dent Repair business to pick up our minivan. Nice work … dent is gone !

From Dentex I headed to The UPS Store to send Joanne’s travel wash kit for repair. I bought my first Briggs & Riley travel wash kit circa 1981 when I began to travel extensively for work. It was very expensive, but excellent quality and functionality. AND … guaranteed for life. Mine required a minor repair a decade or so ago. I had it repaired at a Briggs & Riley authorized luggage repair service centre in Tucson, Arizona. I bought another one, for Joanne, circa 1987 as we were preparing to move from Winnipeg to Ottawa. A few days ago, in Princeton, she noticed that a rivet on the handle had popped. Today I sent it to an authorized Briggs & Riley authorized luggage repair service centre in Vancouver.

When we purchased Apollo’s dog food in Grand Forks a week or so ago we received a Black Friday gift voucher worth ten dollars, valid this week only. When I was finished at The UPS Store I walked over to Bosley’s Pet Foods in the same mall and bought Apollo some biscuits. From Santa Claus !

I arrived back at home just before 5 PM. At 5 PM we dressed warmly and headed out to attend the Inner Harbour “Harbour Light Up” event. All the Christmas lights around the Inner Harbour were lit at 5 PM. Many of the very expensive looking boats (yachts ?) in the Inner Harbour were decorated with Christmas Lights. There were food vendors. We walked all the way around the large U-shaped Inner Harbour causeway / walkway. We each received a free small cup of hot chocolate and a free “designer” bakery shortbread cookie celebrating the event. AND … <sputter … blink, blink> … we witnessed the arrival … on the water, in the dark, of a small motor boat with … HA HA HA … Santa Claus. Alone ! HA HA HA … he had to tie up his own little motor boat to a cleat on the dock, in the dark, trying hard not to fall into the water while announcing his secret arrival with loud HO HO HO’s. Joanne, Apollo, and I had to scramble to get out of the way of MANY children shrieking and running to greet Santa’s arrival. HA HA HA !

There were many people. And dogs ! Apollo was very well behaved. Good boy, Apollo ! And he was not intimidated by being in a crowd, as one of our previous dogs, Bo, was.

We became chilly. And tired. And hungry. We returned home a little before 7 PM.

Friday ; Again … cloudy, no rain, +8° C, as warm as it gets in Victoria in the winter.

We had a busy and tiring day. After morning routines and exercises and walk we set off for another long day of shopping errands. Too long for Apollo, he spent more than four hours alone in the car, and by the time we returned to our suite at dusk he seemed frazzled by too much time left alone in the car. Sorry, Apollo.

We headed out at noon. Our first stop was Tillicum Centre, a large shopping mall, for purchase of lots of kitchen basics and essentials for our winter stay on Vancouver Island. Joanne had selected The Hot Dog Guys as the place to have our lunch. It is a highly rated upscale hot dog (oxymoron ?) kiosk in the mall, featuring kosher all beef hot dogs to satisfy Jews, and Halal chicken hot dogs to satisfy Muslims. And … satisfactory to at least some of us with ulcerative colitis / inflammatory bowel disease. HA HA HA ! Our “retro (all beef) chili cheese all beef hot dogs” were pretty good. Not as good as Wienerschnitzel in Yuma, Arizona, and … overpriced. Milkshake was pretty good as well.

Next we drove to another very large shopping mall, this one on on Saanich Road, to shop at Wal-Mart Supercenter. We have shopped at Wal-Marts all over the world … literally … and this one was, without a doubt, the ****ing goofiest Wal-Mart of all ! We drove into the shopping mall’s parking lot, and drove around and around and around, looking for Wal-Mart. Couldn’t find it. HUH ? ! ? Finally I rolled down my window and asked a woman who was walking back to her car where was the Wal-Mart ? “Oh … you can’t get to it from here”. HUH ? ! ? “You can only get to Wal-Mart from the underground parkade underneath this parking lot.” <blink blink>

I drove out of the parking lot, made an illegal U-turn, and entered the underground parkade. Parked the car, and began wandering around looking for an entrance to Wal-Mart. Followed signage to an elevator. Got on the elevator and realized we were parked on level 3 of 4 levels of the parkade. HUH ? ! ? Asked people on the elevator where the hell was Wal-Mart ? ! ? “OH … get off on the main floor”.

OK … we got off on the main floor. We were outdoors again. HUH ? But … nowhere near the outdoor parking. WHAT ? ! ? Now we were in some sort of inner courtyard. Bunch of store fronts and … WOO-HOO … a ****ing Wal-Mart entrance ! ! !

Entered Wal-Mart ! Well … not really ! Now we were in another elevator lobby. <blink blink> Got into the elevator. There were already people in there … facing the back wall ! HUH ? Where did they come from / get on ? Why are they all facing the back wall of the elevator ? OH … more elevator doors on the back wall. Eventually the elevator back doors opened and … lo and behold … we were in Wal-Mart. Or so we thought.

NOOOOOO ! We were on “level one” of Wal-Mart ! There were multiple floors to this Wal-Mart. And we had to get on and off elevators … and escalators …. with our shopping cart … to get to different departments on different floors. Beside each escalator was … a strange looking but quite effective shopping cart escalator. You pushed your shopping cart through a set of swinging doors, it was grabbed by a track like device, like you would find in an automatic car wash to propel your vehicle along, and it began to descend or ascend. You would get on the adjacent people escalator which travelled slightly faster up or down than the shopping cart escalator, and as you stepped off the people escalator, the cart escalator would sort of spit your shopping cart out at you.

Which works well enough, I suppose. But for newbies, like us, who are unfamiliar with what departments are on what levels, we were up and down like yo-yo’s ! ! !

When we were finally finished shopping, and through the self-checkout, we had no idea how to get out of the store, let alone find our car in the parkade, and find our way back out onto the street. Any street ! Maybe younger people (millenials ?) would find this “escape room” Wal-Mart amusing, but I sure as hell didn’t !

Especially since, thanks to my own impatience and stupidity, I left Joanne waiting for an elevator down (or up … who the hell knows ?) to the parkade, while I and the shopping cart used the escalators, and … <sputter> … I got hopelessly lost, with a shopping cart filled with a hundred and sixty bucks worth of purchases, so I couldn’t just say “**** this” and walk away from it, while I went up and down and all around trying to find the parkade level we were parked on. <taking a deep breath>

Eventually I found the car … and Joanne waiting. <sigh>

This evening we walked across the street to the Grand Pacific Hotel to see the Habitat For Humanity Christmas season fundraiser “Gingerbread Showcase” competition. Thirty-five organizations, or family / friend groups, constructed gingerbread creations. They were set up all over the public lobby areas of the very upscale Grand Pacific Hotel across the street from us. WOW ! WOW ! ! ! Some of these creations, all fitting within a two foot by two foot base took over two hundred hours to create ! For a $5 donation to Habitat For Humanity, one could vote on their favourite. Five bucks well spent !

Saturday ; +8 C, windy, cloudy, intermittent light rain.

This morning we walked a few blocks in light rain to the James Bay Community Centre to attend the annual Dickens Fair, a local arts and crafts Christmas market. I waited outside with Apollo while Joanne went inside and browsed. She found nothing she was interested in buying, and while waiting outside I overhead many complaints from people exiting about how overcrowded the event was. When Joanne came out she concurred. I chose not to bother going in.

We walked a few more blocks to the James Bay location of Thrifty Foods. Joanne waited outside with Apollo while I went inside to shop for some advertised specials. I needed assistance finding most of the advertised specials, and in most cases I received atrociously bad customer service. Some of these overpaid unionized supermarket employees need a refresher course in who and what need to be their priorities ! ! !

By the time we returned to our suite the rain had stopped and the clouds were attempting to break up. Ultimately they failed. Just as we were about to have lunch Room Service showed up to give our suite its weekly full service. We took Apollo to the hotel’s very comfortable front lobby and read the newspaper for half an hour.

Yesterday at one of the grocery stores I bought some freshly made salmon & caviar sushi for myself for today’s lunch. MMMMM … it was good !

We took Apollo for his late afternoon walk around 5 PM, then Joanne wanted to visit the Christmas light displays at Centennial Square. We drove there, intending to visit another grocery store afterwards to buy some of their advertised specials. It being Saturday night, and Centennial Square being close to some downtown (uptown? … I think where we live is “downtown”) theatres and the hockey arena, I could not find anywhere to park. We decided it would be better to return on a weeknight.

We drove to Fairway Market and shopped for advertised specials. We liked that supermarket and may return in future. On our way back home, driving south on Douglas Street, a main north / south arterial route, we inadvertently encountered the annual Christmas Truck Parade heading north through downtown / uptown (?) on Douglas. I pulled over to the curb and we watched the lengthy parade pass. I had pulled into a loading zone parking spot, but the many policemen directing traffic on Douglas Street at every intersection were too busy with the parade to care.

Back in our suite, as we were finishing eating supper at 8:30 PM, and SNL / Saturday Night Live was starting on the TV, Joanne wondered why it was starting so early !

“LIVE … FROM NEW YORK … IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT ! ! !”

<rolling my eyes upwards>

A few minutes ago, as I emptied my pants pockets in preparation for getting undressed and ready for bed, I was reminded … as I wandered through the supermarket earlier this evening, passing the produce section, I noticed a display of floral arrangements. I thought to myself, some husbands might be tempted to impulsively buy their wives some flowers. But not me ! I took the opportunity to get her what she told me yesterday she really really wants for a long winter of staying in hotel rooms. My pants pocket contained ten produce bag twist ties ! HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !

Sunday ; Sunny, +9° C during the day, but very chilly after the sun went down.

This afternoon we attended a Victoria Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert with Canadian Brass, a brass winds quintet, at the Royal Theatre. It was great ! I have had little to no opportunity to attend symphony concerts over the last twenty years, and today served to remind me how much I miss it.

We left home at 1:30 PM, for the 2:30 PM concert. We had the hotel’s shuttle drive us to the (north) downtown Royal Theatre. We walked around the area surrounding the theatre for about half an hour before going in and settling in our seats. This was a “pops” concert (popular music, as opposed to classical) conducted by the symphony’s pops conductor.

Canadian Brass was formed in 1970, and still has one of the original founding members leading it. I saw them perform before, forty to fifty years ago, with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

The concert ended at 4:30 PM. It was dusk when we left the theatre. It was chilly and became dark as we meandered back to our hotel, taking half an hour to walk the 1.2 km. home.

Apollo was resting quietly in our suite when we got home, and we hope he was resting quietly for the entire 3 ½ hours that we left him alone. Good dog, Apollo !

I prepared a wonderful Udon noodle chicken stir fry for supper. It turned out very well, especially in light of having less food basics and cooking resources than I have back in our condo home kitchen. Well done, Daniel !

Monday ; Mostly sunny, +8° C, chilly after dark, as usual.

WOO-HOO … you can teach an old dog new tricks ! Good boy, Apollo !

P.S. ; And to my dismay … he can teach himself new tricks ! Bad dog, Apollo !

Joanne had insomnia overnight. She was awake for much of the night. That’s rare for her, it’s me who regularly experiences insomnia. This morning I decided to treat us to a pancake breakfast. To no avail, for the most part. Joanne slept until 11:20 AM due to her insomnia. I made pancakes, and ate mine alone. Well … they were pretty, but tasteless, with poor tasting syrup. The other day at the grocery store I bought a small box of an unknown brand of pancake mix, and cheap syrup, instead of our usual pure maple syrup. The pancake mix made very pretty pancakes that tasted like … puffed air ! And the low calorie corn syrup tasted like … well … low calorie corn syrup !

I did some paint touch up work on the car this morning. While getting an estimate for the dent repair on the fender recently the estimator pointed out to me a crack in the paint at the top of the wheel well, caused by the dent on the fender above. After having the dent repaired my OCD required me to touch up the crack in the paint. And having done that, now I think I would like to add wheel well mouldings to the car. Is Santa listening / reading ?

After lunch and a nap for me and Apollo, we set off for a walk to the Bay Centre to view the Festival Of Trees / decorated Christmas tree exhibition / competition. The Bay Centre is a three storey downtown shopping mall, hence the need for Apollo to learn how to use escalators. HA HA HA … good dog, Apollo ! ! ! He was reluctant and confused on the first escalator, guarded but responsive to my “wait” and “go” commands on the second, then confident from then on. GOOD DOG !

Victoria seems generally dog friendly, and we keep seeing small dogs in places where they would be unwelcome in most cities. So today we simply walked into the Bay Centre and walked around wherever we wanted with Apollo in tow, short leashed. Nobody seemed to care, including the mall security guard that we passed by. We did not take him inside any of the store’s interiors, one of us waited outside when the other wanted to go inside a store to see something. <whispering> That resulted in me buying a Christmas gift at Purdys Chocolatier. Wrapped and bowed, please and thank you ! We returned home at 4:30 PM. Dusk !

Today’s outing reached the limit of Joanne’s ability to walk, considering her chronic heel discomfort (Achilles tendonitis). I used the i-Phone to measure our distance walked. OK … 3.5 km. is her limit. Good to know for future planning.

At 6 PM we went to the hotel’s fitness centre / pool / hot tub / sauna complex. While I worked out with weights in the fitness centre, Joanne did aquatics exercises in the pool. When we were done exercising we went for a soak in the hot tub … AHHHH … then while Joanne went into the women’s sauna (the men’s is still out of order) I showered, dressed, and returned to our room.

Only to discover … wait for it … not only a little dog barking, but … <sputter> … in the kitchen … the napkins were knocked off the dinette table, as were the placemats, the pepper shaker, my computer power cord, and … AND … <sputter> … still sitting on the table was the carrot cake, in a baking pan, in a plastic produce bag. HMPH ! The bag was torn, a sharp knife left inside the baking pan was sticking out of the torn bag, sharp point sticking upwards, and … AND … AND … two pieces of carrot cake were partially eaten ! ! ! ! !

<blink, blink> “YOU BAD LITTLE DOG ! ! !”

And while I’m scolding him … he’s flattening himself onto the kitchen floor, front legs splayed outwards, tail wagging, looking up at me with doe eyes … ! ! ! This is the pose he strikes to communicate “Look ! I’m a good little dog, I can do “down”, give me a treat please !” You ****ing little cur !

Tuesday ; Cloudy, +7° C.

This morning we combined Apollo’s noon time walk with a trip by car to the James Bay Thrifty Foods supermarket. After we finished our walk we drove to Thrifty Foods, because we needed to refill our five gallon water jug. Thrifty Foods is within easy walking distance, buy not while carrying a refilled water jug weighing fifty pounds. There is very limited parking at Thrifty Foods in James Bay, as is the case throughout our neighbourhood. Their small customer parking lot was full. I had to park the car in an adjacent residential underground parkade that has a few parking spots reserved by Thrifty Foods as “overflow parking” for their customers. Hard to get into and out of the parkade. Hard to get into and out of the cramped parking spots within the parkade.

At dusk we headed downtown by car to view Lights of Wonder, the Christmas lighting exhibition at Centennial Square, behind Victoria City Hall. While wandering around admiring the lights and taking pictures we chatted about pets with a pair of women about our age from Chemainus, near where we will be spending February and March, who were doing the same as us.

Wednesday ; Cloudy, no wind, +6° C.

Our late morning walk with Apollo was an exploration walk. We left our suite around noon, walked a block east to the Parliament Building, Joanne verified which entrance to use to reach the Parliamentary Dining Room, we studied the posted schedule of public tours and events, and made some plans, then continued on to the other side of the building to find the Parliament bus stop bays where it would be most convenient for us to catch a city bus. We crossed Government Street to the Royal BC Museum, and found our way to the Food Truck Village behind the museum. Not many of the food trucks were open, and those that were open had little appeal for us. We crossed behind the Royal BC Museum to Thunderbird Park, to view and take photos of the many totems in the park. And to verify the location of Old Spaghetti Factory across the street.

We wandered back west along Belleville Street, past the museum, past the Parliament Building, along the south side of the Inner Harbor, back to Royal Scot, our hotel. “WOO-HOO … kefir (yogurt) lunch time” said Apollo. Well ... metaphorically speaking. HA HA HA!

After lunch and a nap I worked on downloading a backlog of photos from the i-Phone

to the laptop and processing them. Joanne did laundry in the hotel’s laundromat. At 5:30 PM we took Apollo for his late afternoon walk, then Joanne and I went to the fitness centre and pool. I did weights exercises in the fitness centre, Joanne did aquatics exercises in the pool, then we both did hot tub exercises. I recently came across a set of aquatics exercises designed to be done in a hot tub and today we tried them for the first time. Nice ! I think they will become a regular part of our fitness routines.

Joanne prepared supper to be ready for 8 PM, and we ate supper while watching the second last episode of this season of Survivor.

DSK