Holiday Weekend

I decided to semi-retire this year. I now work only 30 hours a week. six and a half from Monday to Thurday and four hours on Friday. Medically I need a little more time off. I have to see a heart specialist as I am short of breath and my doctor wants it checked out. I keep telling people I am getting old but none of them seem to believe me. I believe I will fully retire in 2014 when the hospital I am working on is completed but you never know, I could decide to go earlier. 

Because of my working hours I get Thursday afternoon off this week plus Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thursday afternoon I plan to help Frances get her photos from the iPod to the computer. We took loads of pictures in the last couple of weeks of the Orchid Show in London and Clara Boogerd's Birthday. Frances is Clara's Greatgrandmother. Friday morning we are going out to Sweaburg for pancakes and sausage at the annual 4H Maple syrup breakfast. I was quite surprised to see that Jakeman's maple products are sold in US Airports. I am hoping that the trilliums are blooming as there is a small Trillium Provincial Park across the road from Jakeman's. If things work out on Saturday I am going to a Mosque in London for an International Food and Shopping fair. I hope that Frances can come. I love to take a look at other cultures and this should be interesting.

I sent cards to the Ukraine, Estonia and Malaysia this week - I won't show you them until they either arrive or expire.
Cards that arrived at their destination this week were a whale , a bicycle and a very large train.

Large Train Card

Mouth Painted Bicycle

Whale card

A couple of cards expired this week. Too bad I liked them both and would like them on my wall.

Annandale House Tillsonburg

London Ont. Covant Garden Market



I will let you know how the weekend goes and if I got any Easter eggs.  I did buy Hot Cross Buns --- they are a must in my family for celebrating Easter weekend.

Week before Easter

We got a little silly on the Postcrossing forum last week. We mailed cards to each other with short addresses to test the pos office. All the address had was a) Unit or street number b) Postal code c) Country.
Well the Post Office is doing its job. Gran7 (Eileen) got hers today in England and I got 2 cards one from her and one from Nyassa



From Gran7



From Nyassa



A few weeks ago I entered a lottery asking for tips on how to study for exams. I wrote a paragraph about taking frequent breaks, getting enough rest, making point form notes etc. Well I didn't win but the organisers were so astonished that I had just finished University that they sent me a card anyway. It arrived today. Here is the front and back with the addresses removed.

The weekend began quietly crossword puzzles and coffee. A good laugh as we discovered that there is no such word as CAS and the answer to ______  in cat was C as in cat not CAS in cat.

On Sunday I went to a birthday party for one year old Clara Boogard, got my hair cut and colored and went to dinner with friends. Now that the hair was cut I got my passport pictures done.  Here is the beautiful results. Looks more like a mug shot.

Spring and new Postcards

Spring has arrived and so has the snow. Winter doesn't want to go away. We have had some snow everyday. Last weekend Frances and I went to the Orchid show in London. They were beautiful but there weren't enough of them.  They had some on sale but none of them really grabbed me so I came home empty handed.

I have been hanging out in Postcrossing Forum lately and I have won some Lotteries and done some swaps.  Some of the lotteries and swaps have come as signed cards. I can't remail these so they will never be on my postcard wall. I decided this was a good place to put them so others could see these neat postcards.




Swap - Cheeses of Italy



Lottery win: Diaoyutai State Guest House Beijing



Lottery win: Southeast Asia flags and Map

 



Coin Swap and the nice lady sent me a postcard as well



A little catch up

I haven't been here for awhile. Everytime I went to blog I either had writer's block or I was too busy to sit down and actually post something.
I had a great time in Portugal though I did fall down a hill and cut my nose and my knee. Strained my ankle but I drank losts of Port to make up for it.
Since then I went to California for Thanksgiving. Spent a quiet time there but I did get to walk across the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. Kind of windy but the view was spectacular.  Next time I'm down I want to go to Alcatraz.
I went to Thunder Bay for Christmas. It is nice to spend time with family. Peggy and Mike (Sister and Brother-in-law) and I get along really well, so the visits to Thunder Bay are very relaxing.
Bill and Winnie came to visit in January. They are always interesting to have around. I think Bill can give a synopsis of every movie he has ever seen. He just has to remember the name of it. So he asks Winnie with the vaguest of clues and eventually they both remember. I sent him home with some Tim Horton's Latte T-Discs for his Tassimo.

I'm going to post some postcards that haven't made it to the sender. Some have expired and some are very late. I really like these postcards and feel bad that I can't share them on my postcard wall on www.postcrossing.com because they haven't been registered yet.



Art from the MOMA





A Roy Lichtenstein from the MOMA




Roadside Tourist Attraction




Cute Puppy




Middlesex County Courthouse




Thunder Bay Friendship Garden



Permanent memory of Portugal

We arrived in Porto to beautiful weather. We found the hotel after asking directions and almost starting a fight between two pensioners. The lady lead us to the right street and almost got me killed along the way. We did a little exploring and found the local restaurants and the local grocery. We came back and took a nap and then went exploring again. The main part of town is downhill from us. The uphill climb to the hotel was a bit nasty but we survived.  I watched the tennis and we both over slept but it probably helped our internal clock
This morning we got up about nine and after breakfast we headed downtown. Disaster struck. I was taking a picture, turned and was closing the camera when I put my foot in rut and fell. I sprained my ankle.
 The sunglasses took a chunk out of my nose, I banged my forehead and scraped my knee. I refused to give up. We continued on, crossed the Dom Luis bridge and spent my time on the skycar and tasting port along the river.
When we got back to the hotel I have been icing my ankle which is quite swollen, but the rest of me will survive. Where is finding take out for us tonight and I am hoping the swelling goes down.

Panic Mode - Night before the flight

I don't know why I am in panic mode. This is by no means my first trip. It just seems that at the last minute I don't seem to know where anything is or what I should do next. The clothes are ready to pack but not in the suitcase yet. I think I have it under control but not quite.

Tomorrow evening I am flying off to Portugal with Sherie for two weeks.  It's going to be fun. It's going to be different because the only person I ever travel with for the last four years has been my sister Peggy. Sherie and I went to the Bahamas a few years ago but she has never been to Europe so it is going to be a new adventure.

We are going to Porto in the north of Portugal for a few days. Next we will rent a car and see the rural and seaside parts of Portugal using Fatima as a base.  Last we will spend the remainder of time in Lisbon. I hope to Blog everyday so you can keep uptodate. I have got my playbook with me so I can add photos to the blog. I will also upload some to facebook.

That's all for now

Lynda

Catch-up with all the news June and July

Hello again everyone. Time to do a little catchup as I have fallen behind as usual. This is the Rose of Sharon that my mother bought for me for my birthday the summer before she passed away. It is in the corner of my little back yard of the condo. The umbrella is in my neighbour's backyard.

I survived Washington with no permanent damage.  Sprained ankle healed in about 10 days. We went to the Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport the next day.  Fabulous place. We got to see the Space Shuttle and the Canada Arm. Stairs were difficult but I found ramps and elevators. Tons and tons of airplanes, gliders, helicopters and spacecraft from every era. We had a great time. The hotel staff again was excellent. They gave great directions and if Washington transport was better we would have done well. It seems the bus to the Airport and the shuttle to the Museum do not coordinate so we had a bit of waiting to do. But it was worth the wait.

The rest of May was taken up with Stratford. Frances and I went to Cymbeline on May 18th at the Tom Patterson Theater. It was great. Then we saw The Matchmaker on the Festival Stage. The Matchmaker is a non-musical version of Hello Dolly. It concentrates on the comedic side of the play and was very funny. Even though you knew the ending it didn't feel stale. On the 29th we saw the first play that we had planned on seeing - 42nd Street. Glitzy and glamourous it was fabulous.