5C's Que Pasa

Where the heck did the past few months go?

We only have a tad over one month left to enjoy Mazatlan and the Isla.  Thank goodness we are coming back the beginning of November.  There just is not enough time to do all we wish to.  Yesterday we each made a wish list of what we hope to do before we leave early April.

The weather is heating up.  Today there were many people on the beach.  Spring break???

Fun on the beach.

The ugly……well it took me over 90 minutes to find my brown sugar today.  I am tripling my old fashion bean recipe for a dinner tomorrow but could not find the brown sugar.  Colin with much patience and a flashlight found it at the top of a cupboard way in the back.  I then spent 5 hours looking for my WHR membership numbers to no avail.  I turned the RV upside down……what a pain in the butt!  We have been living in the RV for 1.5 years and things are lost.  I think when we get home in April I will totally clean it out before it goes into storage.  Perhaps the packing in October will be more systematic.

Yesterday we went into town to look for fabric for our new window seat and to recover our dining chairs.

Hundreds of choices. How do you like the middle one with the brown circles? Hope you do because that was our choice. The teal matches our 2 teal leather chairs and the white our sofa and the brown our wood ( well we hope so ). We bought enough of the fabric to cover 8 chair cushions, to cover an 80 " long window seat, both sides with a 4 inch depth and extra to make 4 throw cushions. Cost......$26.00 CAD!! So if it doesn't look good we can change it next year.

So first you wonder about for an hour or more and make your selection. Then a staff member cuts what you need and gives you a piece of paper. Then you line up to pay where you get another piece of paper. Then you line up again and finally get your package. That is me in the lime green, waiting to pay.

We then crossed the street to purchase a few essentials at the mercado.

One of those essentials included that multi colored hat that Colin had spied on an earlier trip.

At this point we ran into our new friends from yesterdays blog….just not enough time in the day.

A few more essentials and we were on our way.

We had an appointment with Dr. Diego the Chiro guy. Quite the "man", eh!

Then home to rest, vino and beauty.

…and that was how February ended.

Tags: Isla de la Piedra, Mazatlan, medical, Mexico, Stone Island, sunsets, Tres Amigos RV Park, vino

Surprise, surprise!

I was inside the RV when I saw 4 people circling around.  I finally went out and said ‘hello’!

” Are you Contessa? ” was the reply!!!

They had come to Stone Island/Isla de la Piedra to look for me.  They are long time blog readers and wanted to check out Tres Amigos RV Park.  Both couples are also long time RVers to Mexico but had never been here before.  Once we got chatting we realized we had many  RVer friends in common who visit Mexico.

Welcome to Lloyd and Marilyn from Grand Forks, B.C. and to Dennis and Carole from Edmonton, Alberta, my hometown in Canada.

We toured the RV park and who knows what the future may bring.  Based on the road remaining in great shape they are thinking about visiting next season.  However not everyone wants to stay in one place for the entire winter.  Perhaps 4 or 6 weeks here and there, coming and going from/to destinations further south.

After a short visit they went on to lunch.  Hhhmmmm, with some persuasion I got Colin pried away from his guitar and we walked down the beach. We found our new friends at Letty’s and joined them for lunch.

Dennis just had to get into the act with Lady Gaga!

Lloyd was not far behind but was still into his appies.

We had great discussions and the time passed too swiftly.

Poor Colin was never in front of the camera today.

Thanks for the visit folks, it was a great pick me up!  I do so appreciate you reading my blog.  Hope to see you soon here on the Isla with your RV’s.  Please stay in touch.

Tags: friends, Isla de la Piedra, Mazatlan, Mexico, Stone Island, Tres Amigos RV Park

Last Monday we went into Mazatlan with friends to attend a play reading at El Recreo.  El Recreo is a community centre created by ex pats in Mazatlan for film and theatre, plus, plus, plus!!  What is a play reading you ask?

A play reading is a rehearsed performance of a play with the actors reading from the script. There is no set, no costumes or props. There is no action per se, instead a narrator describes the action and the setting. There is a long tradition of rehearsed play readings and they can be very effective and entertaining for audiences.

We had a marvellous time.  The play was called “WRONG FOR EACH OTHER ” written by Norm Foster, a Canadian playwright often compared to Neil Simon.  It was witty, funny and sad and so very true.  Sometimes I forgot there wasn’t a set as I could see it in my mind.

The narrator was on the left.

It really was a great venue and a wonderful evening.  The next play reading is on March 31 and April 1.  My background is theatre and I really enjoyed this performance.  You will see me at the next performance.  As El Recreo grows, sets, costumes and the entire enchilada will be added.

The most special part of the evening was meeting up with my dear friend Nancy. She has been going through chemo for ovarian cancer and is doing amazing. I love her so much.

But the evening even got better.  Our friends and us walked up to the Plazuela Machado and tried a new restaurant.

The Italian restaurant Casa Canobbio did not disappoint. This dish is sliced eggplant and squash in a tomato sauce smothered in mozzarella cheese. Linda and I shared it and were stuffed. So I won't even show you the pizza we shared. Needless to say we were stuffed.

...an aside.....the margaritas were excellent!!!!!!!!!

Colin had Fettucini Alfredo with camarones! I stole a sample and YUMMY!!!!

Kevin devoured the Pasta Puttanesca!!

We all said it was a perfect evening.

Now if only the wind would stop blowing.

Tags: food, friends, theatre

…I am very very frustrated.  I have been looking for a few days for my lists!!!  Can’t find them at all.  I did find other stuff I thought we had forgotten at home but not my lists.  Most of the list stuff I can do without but……we had taken very careful measurements of our dining room chairs which need to be recovered in the same fabric as the window seat is to be made in.  I have the measurements for the window seat in my handwriting but not the chair seat dimensions.  I clearly recall Colin doing the measurements and writing them down but where are they?? At this point I don’t even remember how many chairs we have!!!!!!!  Over the past few days and hours I have taken the RV apart to no avail!  So I am frustrated, mucho mucho mas!

I should be out there relaxing with a book, a glass of vino blanco and my queso and crackers.

...or even just being silly in the kitchen!!! But not frustrated.

Why can't I be relaxed and play frisbee like Carmeh?

Colin is always relaxed, even when starting his annual RV wax job.

I am willing to give up the rest of the lists which likely contained a list of things I needed to buy in the USA on the way home.  But I can’t and won’t give up my frustration until I get those dimensions!!!

On the other hand I think I am going to keep my mind churning about what else might have been on those lists!

Tags: Funny, RV repairs, vino

Why am I getting so much spam these past few weeks?  I think others are also.  Que pasa?

I am becoming too attached to my computer…I sit down for 10 minutes and am still sitting there an hour later and truthfully even two hours later.  Sometimes I learn new things but honestly I mostly think I waste my time.  Do I really have to read all those links that jump out at me?  Somehow I have to become more disciplined, perhaps allocate a certain amount of time and set a timer to ding and tell me to move on.  There are not enough hours in the day to just keep sitting here.  It is almost 3PM and I have not written my blog.  Not good!  I think I can be doing much more with my time, I will have to work on it I guess…….

Meanwhile I received this lovely email from a reader….

I ran across your blog.  I hope to go to Mazatlan in September 2013. Your pictures are lovely and your blog has encouraged me it is safe to visit there.

Keep posting your pictures.  I am not a snowbird but enjoy looking at them.

SM

Now that made me feel wonderful.  I so hope your trip to Mazatlan in September is all you hope it to be.  If there is anything I can research for you please let me know.

The Ducks currently in Arizona asked what type of fish were in the post yesterday.  I answered in a return comment but the correct answer is found here…..short answer….Torro or Jack Cravelle!

Nancy wants to know where I got the cruise ship schedule I posted a few days ago…..well Mr. Google of course.  He is my main go to guy.  Just type in Mazatlan cruise ship 2013/2014 schedule.  Just remember it is on the books but not necessarily a reality, at least not yet.

We had a roof intruder the other day.  For a few days now I thought I had been hearing things, like a hose being dragged across the RV roof.  Finally I convinced Colin to go up and check….

It was another iguana. I saw it drop down to the carpet from the roof and in those few seconds I saw it was a different one than the one we had before. Perhaps younger, slimmer and a longer tail. I was already to take a photo but it was too fast for me and way too fast for Carmeh who wanted to catch it.

That made me think that perhaps I should get my ears cleaned.  I have been asking people to repeat things over and over lately. My ears like to produce excess wax which does affect my hearing.  Is is so easy for wax to become impacted and obstruct sound. Ear candling is easy to do and very effective.  I have paid up to $75.00 to have is done so Colin and I have learnt to do each others ears.  We just make a point of always having the proper ear candles with us which can be purchased at most Health Food stores.

I just checked with Mr. Goggle and this is what I found….most interesting indeed.

So do you want to see how much wax came out of my ears……a huge amount!!  Now I can hear much better and my ears are no longer itchy.

A one peso coin shows the ration, one side is the left ear and the other the right ear.

Thick too....I know I have grossed some of you out!

Sorry about that, but it really works so if you have trouble hearing be sure to give it a try.

Tags: blog readers, computer stuff, cruise ships, health, Mazatlan