This old lady is heading E*A*S*T...

TO the far, far East. At least, that is the plan, s..t...i...l...l.   It will be the furthest east I have ever been in my life, on what may well turn out to be the BIGGEST adventure of my life (other than being a mom and grandmother!).

Well, as you know, the Coronavirus (aka Covid 19) is in the news daily, and although we are NOT traveling to China per se, we will be in the vicinity.  While I am NOT worried, I must admit the steady barrage of depressing news from China, kind of puts a damper on things. How many people have to worry about a possible world wide pandemic when traveling?  As usual, my timing is impeccable, don't you agree? J'entends déjà de mes cousines dire "This could only happen to you cousin!"

This trip has been in the works for almost a year.  When my former Toronto neighbour, and old friend, asked me if I wanted to join her on a trek to Asia, I jumped at the chance. Paying a single supplement to travel really limits your ability to be intrepid, so we are both very fortunate to be able to do this together.  Have other single girlfriends... WILL travel. :)

I shall call her the Princess Traveler, as that is what she calls herself.  She has been to Asia quite a few times, is Canadian, and of Chinese ethnicity.  We are NOT going with a tour group, but we did have help planning our itinerary.  If you surmised that she likes to travel well, by her traveling moniker "Princess Traveler", then you HAVE surmised correctly.  Suffice to say, we will NOT be slumming our way through Thailand, Bhutan (I didn't know where that country was either. I had to look it up on a map!) and Vietnam for four weeks, starting March 4th. It shall henceforth be referred to as my Asian Adventure!  More details on that subject will follow in my blogs.

For those of you who enjoy reading my travel blogs, and have told me that they travel with me from the comfort of their home...all I can say is HOP ON for the ride then!  I will try to blog as often as the availability of technology will allow.  I will also attempt to post a map of where we will be traveling.  I am not too savvy with technology though, so that may not happen. 

As I inquired about top-up medical insurance recently, the agent with whom I chatted, wished me a good vacation in Florida. Funny eh? She assumed that I was a snowbird.  No, not me! Not yet!!  Nor am I a 3G RETIREE - Golf, Gardening and Grandchildren.  I golf now and then, do NOT garden any more than I absolutely have to, and while I adore my one and only granddaughter, I am living my life right now, as I want to live it; that involves traveling the world as much as time, my health and my bank account will permit.  YOLO!!!! 

Our final destination in Bhutan, will be this monastery, in the Himalayas, called

TIGER'S NEST. Sharp eh?

  

LOVE...L'AMOUR... EL AMOR...

So now that the CRASS COMMERCIALISM of Valentine's Day is over once again, how was it for you?  Were you left feeling alone, unloved, neglected?  Unfortunately, I think that many do feel that way when February 14th rolls around.

I know couples who choose their own LOVE DAY, and celebrate their union that day.  I think that is a great idea! However, love 💗is NOT just about loving💕our partner, our children, our families, our friends and our pets, and showing that love even moreso on that day.  WHOM we love makes us happy, but doing the things we LOVE 💓 can make us happy as well.

Here is my 💖 list: too long I know, but you get the idea?  What's on your love list?

The town plow not leaving a mess at the bottom of my driveway.

A warmed up plate of good leftovers, after a busy work day.

Peace and quiet on a Sunday morning, with my Spanish list playing on my Spotify, while I savour a cup of java.

A quick eight kilometre bike ride around the basin, where you can glimpse water almost everywhere.

A phone call from an old friend, my son or my daughter, just to see how I am doing.

An invitation out to supper, or lunch or breakfast (not so much breakfast though, as I like to sleep in if I can!)

A visit from a friend for the weekend.

A really awesome book I can sink my teeth into on a cold, Friday night.

A big cup of hot chocolate and marshmellows after a hike (with the odd shot of Bailey's thrown in!)

HUGS, HUGS, AND MORE HUGS! 

Anyone smiling at me! 

Shared laughter!

A FaceTime chat with my daughter and granddaughter.

The small water view from my balcony.

A hike with Vimy through my Enchanted Forest, or Daly Point Nature Reserve, or The Mi'gMiq trail, in all seasons.

Travel outside my province, and my country.  

A card in a the mail, or even better, a handwritten letter.

The CBC - Listen, Gem, and Music plus Michael Enright on Sunday morning.

So cheers to those we love, and cheers to what we 💓💓💓 having, doing, giving and receiving. 

Rants are good for what ails you... S*O*M*E*T*I*M*E*S

I have been so busy ranting about this and that lately, that I haven't had time to blog. Whether it was about rising medical insurance rates, or the town plow filling my driveway, I seem to be on a complaining kick these days. Seeing as we are surrounded by nothing but negativity, it is easy to see how negativity begets MORE negativity. 

Recently, I started thinking about ALL the misadventures that I have had, that I haven't blogged about... and there have been some doozies.  I never blogged about my neighbour going ballistic and blaming me for her broken window pane, which I did NOT break.  Nor did I blog about a guy I dated, only to found out he had just gotten out of a rather nasty place!   Nor did I blog about the police calling me because the owner of the Husky who tried to kill Vimy a year ago, was upset with me.  I had told his neighbours, who are dog owners, that HIS dog was DANGEROUS. Monsieur did NOT like that. He has his NERVE, and all I can say about the police, is that it must have been a slow day at work that day? Nor did I blog about the time I lost my dental appliance, spent a week turning my house upside down, only to accept that it probably ended up hooked on an article of clothing in a bag of clothing I donated to the SPCA for a fundraiser.  That misadventure cost me $1200 big ones!!  I could go on and on... but I can't remember all the more upsetting misadventures. 

I did not blog about the New York City marketing firm that contacted me, wanting to use my review of Vimy's harness, as PR on their website, to help build their client's brand.  Vimy was wearing that PUG harness when the Husky viciously attacked him.  I am convinced that harness saved his life. Mind you, this is a positive outcome, albeit from a negative incident. Plus I received another wonderful PUG harness, FREE! 

It all goes to show that IF I don't think about the really negative misadventures that I have had, they fade away.  When I do think back, I realize that most of the details have faded as well, which is a good thing.  Plus, you LEARN from adversity.  However, when I remember positive misadventures, I can go back, reread my blogs, and smile every time. Smile... and the whole world smiles with you, right?  

There is BURIED treasure to be found....

in my Enchanted Forest.  I know, because I found ONE!  I went hiking with a friend, one late November day.  I introduce as many people as possible to this magical place, and she had never been.  We had had a bad wind and snowstorm earlier in the week. There at the end of the trail where the gazebo looks out on Peter's River, we came upon a huge fallen tree... TWO fallen trees actually.  The kind owner of this beautiful acreage that he shares with the general public, had put up an orange cone, by way of warning.

As we hiked on by we looked back, and both noticed a green, disk shaped object in the stump of the smaller tree that had also fallen, and lay almost perpendicular to the larger, fallen one. We both remarked upon it, and immediately leaned in to take a closer look.  My hiking companion mused as to whether it was a "geocache", as we opened the container.  Lo and behold, it was!!!

The old Kraft peanut butter jar held all kinds of goodies, i.e. pens, little toys, stickers, just various small objects.  There were even peanuts. Well, we weren't about to eat THEM!  There was also a piece of paper with the information on "geocaching" and the rules, so to speak. One of the rules is that if you take something, you replace it with something else. We decided to add what we had that wasn't perishable, which were Ricolo losanges that my friend had. We didn't take anything out. 

However, what was MOST interesting, and THE real find, was the list of people who had found this geocache.  Believe it or not, the last ones had added their names and date, in July of 2015...almost four and a half years ago!!  We added our names and date, but I have blued them out to protect my friend's privacy. 

I am NOT savvy enough to figure anything out about geocaching. I don't even know how a GPS works, and I can b*a*r*e*l*y navigate Google Maps.  However, this little adventure left me wondering where this jar had been hidden before the tree fell.  Had it been put in a hole in the base of the tree, covered by moss and dirt, and NOT been visible to the human eye, before the tree fell?

Just another one of those unanswered questions in my life.  Like who left those BBQ lighters in my mailbox last fall!  Unless of course, you are a geocacher, and can elucidate me? Do you know any geocachers in the Chaleur area? Share this blog with them. Maybe their name is on the sheet? There is a conundrum in a peanut butter jar, deep in the Enchanted Forest... 

By the way, my Fallopian Tubes Christmas lights are still twinkling merrily and making we smile every morning and evening!