5C's Que Pasa

Colin and I are sitting here at the airport waiting for our flight to board.  We are jetting off to Edmonton to see the chiropractor for my annual visit.  At the same time we will be seeing friends every day.

For the first time ever we are flying on Flair Air, one of Canada’s new economy as in cheap airlines.  Unlike the USA, Canada only has two main airlines and they charge a lot as they have the monopoly.  In the last few years a few cheaper airlines have cropped up.  It only works if they are traveling to where you want to go and they are restricted to certain days of the week with usually just one fight per day and maybe 2 or 3 flights per week.  Fortunately this trip to Edmonton worked out with a bit staggering of dates and adding an extra night away.

I was going to fly West Jet on my own but Flair came up with a 2 for 1 seat sale so it worked out that we could both fly to Edmonton and back and back for less than my return flight on West Jet.  I had to pay the same for the hotel whether I was on my own or not so we decided to both go.  Which has turned out to be perfect as I can now lean on Colin due to low energy levels.  We checked one suitcase and  also did seat selection for less that the cost of the other airline for one person.  Great deal.

Speaking of saving money, I was able to save over $600.00 on trip cancellation insurance for the October 2020 trip.  Yesterday Colin called Shaw Direct and cancelled some channels that we never watch.  All told that gives us a savings of approximately $1,100.00 over the next twelve months.  Our provincial monthly  health care costs are decreasing to zero effective January 1st so that is another $900.00 to be saved over the next year.  With the cancellation insurance it took a good deal of online research but it paid off in the end.

Life is good.  I will be checking in from Edmonton.

Went to the doctor today.  Unfortunately  my GP is away until mid November so I am having to deal with a locum MD.  Sort of like a substitute teacher, who is just filling in and no extra mental energy required.  I already knew more that what he had to add to my current medical situation.  In fact he told me that he would have to do some research tonight based on what I had told him. He did try to help within his allotted ten minute session. He was already running 40 minutes behind so I knew my time with him would be brief. I had no confidence that he would be of help so my main purpose was to review my last test results ( all normal ) and to get my ears flushed.  I have been having trouble hearing, mostly due to wax build up.  So here I am seven hours later and not able to hear out of my right ear at all.  Too much water flushed in.  It had better sort itself out tonight as we are flying out tomorrow.

Meanwhile back home, Colin was starting to put our yard to bed for the winter.  Turns out that there was a bat in that umbrella and he had to put it back together to get the bat out.  No way did we want to deal with a dead bat next spring.

Kayak loose on the loose from the wind storm yesterday.

Our rain chains needed attention.

We had no idea that they were as clogged as they were.

Quite a bit of debris.  This task has been added to the annual to do list.

The sky last evening.

We are in the process, well actually, we have booked a trip for October 2020.  The fact is that we were forced to make a decision quickly as there were only two spots left.  I will admit to that contributing to my stress level these past two weeks. We finally were able to sort out all the details yesterday including the cancellation insurance.  We have never ever purchased cancellation insurance for a trip but as this is 13 months away we did.  In fact this is the first time we have booked a trip so far out but it is worth it. It seems that this destination is a top vacation location of late.  Will I tell you where we are going?  Of course not, you just have to stick with me.  This is a huge incentive for me to get my body back together.  A wee hint, the cost is more for a 19 day tour than our entire six week recent vacation to Europe 😯

This past Saturday Colin had to deliver a flash drive to a client and pick up a cheque. As we were already in the downtown area we decided to stop for dinner.  We have been hearing about this fabulous restaurant for close to two years.  So why not stop and try it?

Per the owner “Pizza Napoletana is baked in a wood burning oven at 950c for 90 seconds or less (like our sign says) – otherwise it is not considered Neapolitan as per it’s UNESCO registration. Our kitchen is open to the dining room and you can easily watch us prepare them from scratch”.  He has a Unesco registration!

Per the owner “Pizza Napoletana is made with imported soft wheat (low gluten/protein) flour and is by design soft and foldable. It is impossible to have a crispy Neapolitan pizza”.  Also a comment he made to a comment on Trip Advisor  “Even our flour is imported from Italy since our wood fired oven should only use a low protein/gluten tippo 00 blend.  So for the sake of anyone reading this review I would like to point out that Pizza Napoletana by definition is a dough made with imported soft wheat (low gluten/protein) flour (tippo 00). The dough is naturally leavened for approximately 36 hours at room temperature making it easily digestible.” There is long and high pile of flour sacks in the middle aisle of the restaurant. Most impressive.

Everything is imported from Italy. Per the owner “the finest olive oil in the world shipped directly to me from my own orchard in Kalamata”. The oil is for sale in the restaurant.

Per the owner “We source only THE BEST ingredients possible for our pizza. That means REAL DOP San Marzano Tomatoes, REAL DOP Parma Prosciutto, REAL Mozzarella Di Bufala flown in from Campania, Italy”.  “Our tomatoes are real DOP certified San Marzano grown on the mountainside of  Mt. Vesuvius (3X the price of regular tomatoes) seasoned only with sea salt and fresh olive oil as per Neapolitan tradition”. I saw flats of these tomatoes sitting in the aisle.

It was chilly so we sat inside but there is a lovely patio overlooking Bernard.

They play vinyl. Sadly Abba had just finished.

Our Margherita Di Bufala did not disappoint.  It was right up there with the best top two in the world that we sampled in Naples in May of 2018.  Excellent pizza.

We enjoyed the first pizza with our wine and then ordered a second, the Isola, but substituted mushrooms for the ham. Equally good. This has to be one of the top pizza restaurants  in Canada. As you can see we ate  before I thought to take a photo. Our theory was to order the first pizza, eat it and then the second when we were ready.  After all it only takes 90 seconds to cook in that 950C/1,742F oven. I like my pizza warm.

Thank you for your kind thoughts. My motto is one day at a time and today was a good day. I am counting on more good days to come. My research has paid off and it appears that the natural supplements may be the beginning of my healing.  Time will tell.  It may be a temporary fix but it is worth the effort.  I remain positive.

Life has taken over my life 🙄  Once our company left I took a few days off.  We then had a few serious and time consuming matters  to deal with which I for the most part completed today. I will also admit that I am having a health issue that I am not ready to share yet.  It is similar to what happened to me before we left for Europe in May, the same thing that almost made us cancel our trip. There are not enough hours in the day to do my normal day to day activities never mind find time to read a book, go for a walk or write a blog post.  It seems that the more I do the more I am behind.  We are scheduled to leave for Mexico in just over five weeks.  Not ready at all.  I can’t even face looking at my to do lists.  I am not sleeping well at night in part due to my medical problem and I have very little vitality to get through a day.  The minimum is getting done.  I have been wondering how I managed to get it all done when we had the girls who needed a good deal of attention not to mention several daily walks plus run a busy business.  I do not like having no energy.

I believe that this is the longest I have gone without writing a blog post.  It’s not that I don’t have stories and several photos to write about, it is simply a matter if time.  However dropping the blog has not helped with my situation. Everything takes longer to do.  I think I am just going to take it day by day for the next few weeks and see if I perk up and can get back to normal.  I do not want this to be my new normal, not acceptable.  All the rain we have been having has not helped.  It has been cool and gloomy.

This not a normal September for us. Today we weren’t able to even see the mountains. The clouds were so low that we didn’t even see the hillsides around the lake. Just the water and the clouds.  I have been told that this is normal here during the winter months.

A few days ago we were treated to a rainbow, actually a double rainbow.  You can see the second over top the brighter one.

I spent a lovely few hours last Friday enjoying tea & conversation with Ferne, a friend from the lower mainland who comes to the Isla in the winter in her RV.

We haven’t had to water our garden for over a week now.  The flowers in my patio pots are looking ragged, I think that they are drowning. Colin has clients in the wings waiting for sunshine for their photography.  Life goes on.  We have a mini trip by air planned in a few days.  Fortunately I will be able to go, drugs are a wonderful thing even though I prefer not to use them, but they will get me there and back. Perhaps a change of scenery will pick me up but sadly it won’t fix what’s broke.  That remains a bit of a mystery as to the cause.  The good news is that all the medical tests are perfect but still 😯  Hopefully soon the cause and solution will be discovered. Meanwhile special hugs to those of you who reached out to check on Colin and I.

So my plan is to post when I can.  That means if you aren’t signed up to receive any new posts via email that you will have to keep checking back.  If you want to receive new posts in your inbox simply go to my post and click onto the “Subscribe by Email” under Home Page on the the top right corner of any post.  That will take you to a page to fill in your email address and to click that you are not a robot.  Pretty simple.  Talk to you all soon.

Last evening we went over to see Penny and Croft for a final happy hour.

I think that they have had a laid back week with more relaxation.

They have been to a few wineries on their own.  Last night they gifted me with a lovely original hand painted wine glass.  The dragon flies are painted in my favourite teal colour.  Penny picked that up from all of the teal accents in our home.  Colin and I were presented with a lovey bottle of Cedar Creek Pinot Gris. Thank you both yet again.

There are two smaller fires burning not too far away here in the valley.  I was able to catch the drift of smoke at sunset last night.

We had a quiet day today mostly working on our computers.  Later I had a long lovely bath with a glass of wine and started a new book.  Meanwhile Colin played.  We didn’t get much free time Friday as Colin did a dusk shoot and I worked on something at my desk.  Before it got dark which is happening much earlier, we went to water the garden. On the way back we stopped for a final adios and hugs.   We came home with beets, beet tops, sweet carrots, tomatoes and Swiss chard.  Quite the haul. We still have three cucumbers in the fridge.  Just about to have a very good fresh veggie dinner with some baked cod.  We are going to miss Croft and Penny when they leave tomorrow, Sunday morning 🙁