Sunday ; Mix of sun and clouds, occasional light rain later in the day, +8° C.
To fulfill a year old Christmas present / birthday gift commitment to Joanne, today we indulged in afternoon high tea at the establishment of her choosing. We left our suite at 12:45 PM and walked about a kilometre to Piggy & Paisley, an upscale tea house across the street from Thrifty Foods, in our James Bay neighbourhood. We both thought that the experience started off poorly when we were made to wait at the front door for over five minutes for our 1 PM high tea sitting, their first of the day. If you are going to make your customers make an appointment, and pay a deposit, for an indulgent experience that is outrageously overpriced, by anybody’s standards ... be ready for them when they show up on time ! ! !
Notwithstanding that service “stumble”, the experience was very good. The quantities and qualities of teas and foods, the most important elements of the experience, were excellent ! The ambience was pleasant, three tables serving three couples, in a small, intimate, pleasantly decorated, afternoon high tea room. The young woman server was knowledgeable, and pleasant, although she tried a bit too hard to engage us in small talk. It came off as “phony”. One table was occupied by a pair of young Asian women speaking Chinese. We chatted with the other couple, a bit younger than us, who are originally from Winnipeg.
When we were finished, the experience taking longer than we had expected, we crossed the street to pick up a few items at Thrifty Foods. The afternoon high tea experience is designed to be leisurely, and lingering seems to be part of the experience. If you’re in a hurry ... don’t do afternoon high tea. HA HA HA ! We arrived back at our suite at 3:15 PM. Apollo was asleep ... quiet ! Very good dog, Apollo !
We had another weekend of many dogs ... and plenty of dog drama ... in the dog wing of our suites hotel. By the time we arrived back home at 3:15 PM, all except the couple across the hall who are here due to medical treatments seemed to have checked out, and our wing was quiet, as usual.
I had a brief, late nap with Apollo, then worked on uploading my weekly blog entry, and budget planning for next year.
<checking bucket list> Afternoon high tea for Joanne <check>
Monday ; Sunny in the morning, heavy rain in the afternoon, +8 C.
Because Joanne was dissatisfied with the lettuce available at Thrifty Foods yesterday, this morning she wanted to go to Quality Foods in Esquimalt to buy lettuce and a few other items. <sigh> I’m tired of how frequently we shop for groceries. Joanne is unwilling (afraid) to drive in downtown Victoria, but assures me that once we move to the Robin Hood Inn in a few weeks she’ll drive herself to wherever she wants to shop.
It wasn’t until we arrived at the small mall containing Quality Foods that she surprised me with a visit to that mall’s bakery. How nice ! <sigh> Closed Mondays !
After buying lettuce ... and more ... she wanted to see how close that Quality Foods is to the Robin Hood Inn. So ... we drove to the Robin Hood Inn before returning home to Royal Scot.
At 5 PM Joanne and I went to the swimming pool and did a set of aquatics exercises, then soaked in the hot tub. We have found that 5 PM to 6 PM is a good time to go to the pool and fitness area, we usually have it to ourselves at that time.
At 11 PM I took Apollo for his last walk of the day. BRRRRR ! Cold ! On the sidewalk in front of our hotel was a homeless man’s grocery cart of possessions. While walking Apollo I noticed the homeless man dumpster diving at the Royal Scot, the Grand Pacific and the Days Inn. <sigh> After returning Apollo to our suite I went back outside and offered to bring him a cup of tea. He said he would prefer coffee. I went back to our suite and prepared two cups of coffee for him, in disposable cups.
Merry Christmas, Ryan !
Tuesday ; Mostly sunny, +8° C.
Today’s weather was so nice (no rain !) we both took Apollo for his noon walk. And this afternoon Joanne invited me to the Bay Centre to see the Festival of Trees displays and then ... have an afternoon snack at Beavertails. OK ! ! ! We took the hotel’s shuttle to the Bay Centre at 3:15 PM. That was my mistake ! It took twenty minutes to drive to the Bay Centre ! Walking there slowly takes about that amount of time !
We spent an hour or so wandering around the Bay Centre looking at the many decorated Christmas trees, each created by a local business or organization, and most decorated in some theme à propos of that business or organization. For five bucks one can vote for “best tree”. All funds to BC Children’s Hospital. Our vote was for “Team 4 Hope”, a children’s cancer organization. Some of the attached pics (below) are of their tree. The lower part of the tree is decorated with ornaments made by their current cancer patients. The upper part of the tree is decorated with small angels bearing the names of their deceased patients.
We left the Bay Centre and meandered back towards the Inner Harbour and home/Royal Scot, with a small detour to Beavertails for Joanne’s promised afternoon snack. <blink blink> Closed on Tuesdays ! That’s two days in a row that Joanne tries to treat me (yesterday at the bakery, today at Beavertails) and is thwarted. Pauvre petite Joanne. <snicker> Don’t worry ... I still love you !
It was dusk as we approached the Inner Harbour on the way back home. Nice sunset !
Wednesday / Christmas Eve ; Sunny, chilly, +5° C.
Today I remember my father, who died on this date thirty years ago. Seems like yesterday. And for thirty years now, the Christmas season drowns me in depression and negativity. BAH, HUMBUG !
Today was a lazy day, by design. Apollo and I were up around our usual time of 8:30 AM. He woke me up wanting to go out to relieve himself. Joanne slept late.
In the afternoon I gave Apollo a bit of a facial haircut. WOW ... he has Bette Davis eyes again. HA HA HA !
In the early evening we went for a short drive around the James Bay neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights and decorations on the James Bay homes featured in the local newspaper’s map of “must see” decorated homes.
As is her family’s tradition, Joanne prepared French Canadian tourtière for dinner tonight. Thank you, my dear. As always, it was a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. As a matter of fact ... <whispering> ... this year’s version was even better than usual.
We watched White Christmas while having dinner. I’m grateful that there was something other than It’s A Wonderful Life to watch.
Thursday ; MERRY CHRISTMAS ; Rain, +4° C.
We slept very late this morning. Well ... I had to get up at 7:30 AM because Apollo was asking to go outside earlier than usual this morning, but after a walk he and I went back to sleep until 10:20 AM.
I made my family’s traditional Christmas brunch ; Belgian waffles slathered with jam then covered with vanilla ice cream. As I mentioned in a Bluesky post the other day, it wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I realized this was not a “normal” Christmas breakfast. HA HA HA ! We opened gifts, which this year involved opening a reusable shopping bag and pulling them out. We have both finally eschewed, at the ripe old age of 71, the concept of wrapping gifts.
This afternoon we had a lengthy FaceTime session with Joanne’s sister and her partner. We look forward to seeing them in a few months when they come to visit Victoria. Apollo and I napped. Joanne worked on preparing Christmas turkey dinner with all the fixin’s.
Christmas turkey dinner was excellent, as usual. Thank you, my dear ! I moved our suite’s small dinette table from the kitchen to the living room and we ate dinner while watching Call The Midwife, a BBC show we have not seen before. It was interesting.
Between supper time and bedtime I became ... <ahem> ... very ill ! I believe that may be as a result of drinking half a can of the (exploding) probiotic soda drink this afternoon. After speaking with the “owner/manufacturer” of that line of (exploding) probiotic soda drinks, who “discovered” the formula for those drinks while he was in a drug rehab facility, I’m dubious about the “quality control” of his “manufacturing” operation ! I will pour the remaining 1½ cans of the expensive (and explosive !) cans down the drain. Good riddance ! ! !
Although ... so as not to be an ingrate ... <clearing throat> ... thank you very much for the thoughtful (exploding) Christmas present, dear. <snicker>
Friday / Boxing Day ; Sunny until noon, chilly, +4° C.
I woke up late, still feeling ill. By noon I was no longer feeling ill, just weak. When Housekeeping came to service our suite, we went for a walk with Apollo. Although cold outside, it was nice to walk in sunshine.
After our walk, as I was preparing Apollo’s “kefir lunch” as we call it, and opened the fridge door to remove the bottle of kefir ... ZOOM ... in the blink of an eye, Apollo had his face in the fridge, gnawing on the turkey in the roaster on the bottom shelf. HEY ! Get your ****ing face out of the turkey ! ! ! Apollo backed out of the fridge looking extremely self-actualized !
We had turkey dinner leftovers for lunch, then Joanne stripped the remaining turkey meat off the carcass, packaged it into containers, and put them in the freezer for future meals. Thank you, my dear.
We watched an episode of Call The Midwife while eating dinner. We’re now hooked on yet another BBC show. We spent the evening amusing ourselves yet again with browsing vacation rentals for next winter.
Saturday ; Sunny, cold, +4° C.
We both took Apollo for his noon time walk, the sunshine was so pleasant, but it was cold. Late this afternoon we drove to Centennial Square, where Lights of Wonder continues for a few more days, to see a mariachi band perform. We have seen a lot of mariachi bands, in south Texas and all over Mexico. None were this bad ! HA HA HA ! I think it might be that it was too cold for the trumpets to sound correct. Breath vapours condensing then freezing inside the trumpets ? There were also puppeteers in giant puppet costumes wandering around the square, amusing most children, scaring some. We were there for only about half an hour. It was too cold ! Apollo was shivering.
DSK
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