Monday, January 31, 2011

Go Ahead, Hate Me!

If I weren't me, I just might hate me. But the hate would be unjustified. I am not an inordinately blessed or lucky person. I have worked damn hard and created my own luck and abundance. No one ever gave me me anything - zip, zilch, zero, nada, nothing. No silver spoon.

This is not to say I am not extremely grateful for the circumstances and serendipity in my sometimes woebegone existence! On his deathbed, some of my (very circumspect) father's last words to me were "You were always an appreciative kid." I wasn't given much, so what came my way I really appreciated - be it attention, encouragement, or material things. I was always, and still am, grateful.

When I was in my late 20's, my then-husband and I had a lovely house with a swimming pool. It was glorious and, being a Pisces, I loved having my own swimming hole ("cement pond" for those who are old enough to remember "The Beverly Hillbillies"!).

We also had friends with boats; one in particular had a Miami Vice-style "cigarette boat" called "Night Moves" that went a zillion miles an hour with a roaring engine (other boaters hated the noise and wake it created). This pal loved zipping around the Gulf Islands in the summer with his mates - especially with us gals in bikinis adorning the bow of his boat. We called ourselves the "Boat Bitches" and revelled in our youth and imagined invincibility.

Many hours were spent lounging around the pool and we came up for a moniker for our bikini-clad selves in that setting as well - "Pool Sluts." We thought we were funny, as well as gorgeous!

Well, you can take the girl out of her pool, and off her friend's boat...but, once a Pool Slut and Boat Bitch, always one.

All I can do is own it!!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Living in the Moment

Mexico provides many reminders to live in and enjoy the moment. We've learned not to count on anything staying the same from week-to-week, never mind from year-to-year.

The standing joke between John and me is if we see a particular item we think we might want/need - either on a grocery store shelf or on a gallery wall - get it. Don't put it off, not even for a day. It will not be there when you go back. We've learned this lesson the hard way with everything from mini propane cannisters, to pickled ginger, to clothes, to handcrafts and art.

On a larger scale, it saddens us to see past favourite restaurants closed and stores shuttered. We drove up to San Pancho yesterday specifically to visit the "Anthony Chetwynd Collection" store - a lovely gallery where we have bought a few modern treasures and antiques over the past three years. The gallery space was empty and deserted; we later heard Anthony closed up shop only a month ago and relocated to Cuernavaca. We'll miss our junkets to his gallery - it was full of fascinating pieces that we haven't seen anywhere else. One less reason to go to San Pancho now.

Restaurants where we enjoyed meals just 9 months ago are no longer in business (like the "Bistro Grill" in La Cruz), or have changed hands and are no longer providing the food/experience we remember (like "Sticky Fingers Wing Shack" in Marina Vallarta - give it a miss).

These circumstances just remind me that we are in control of nothing, and we have nothing except the current moment...and to use it to enjoy wherever we are, whatever we are doing, and whomever we are with.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

My Debunking Fascination

I love a good expose - I mean a solid, well-researched, documented and verifiable debunking of conventional, widely-accepted thinking.

A conversation with a chap in Puerto Vallarta earlier this month stuck with me. We were in the cigar and Cuban-paraphenalia shop on the Malecon called "La Bodeguita del Medio" surrounded by a lot of Che Guevara symbols and images. Knowing pretty much zero about Cuba or Che, I have mindlessly accepted the pop culture propaganda that Che is some kind of iconic rebel/revolutionary who fought for freedom of oppressed people.

The man I spoke with seemed very knowledgeable on the subject, and basically told me that the image of Che-as-a-hero is simply B.S., that the guy was actually a butchering murderer doing the dirty work of Castro. He mentioned some staggering acts of genocide and brutality, and cited some stats I had never heard re: the Cuban Revolution. It caught my attention.

I looked around the little store that has lionized images of Che everywhere and asked him how, then, can he stand to be surrounded by this stuff all day (he's associated with the store and adjoining Cuban restaurant). He basically said it's impossible to overcome the deeply rooted beliefs and myths - based in popular culture - about who Che actually was, and what he actually did in his life.

I believe history gets successfully reinvented all the time, by people manipulating it for their own purposes, and it gets accepted by unthinking masses. You tell a big enough lie often enough and adamantly enough, and other people start believing it.

So, I did some research and downloaded a book to my Kindle - "Exposing the Real Che Guevara - And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him" by Humberto Fontova. I am only 1/4 into it and have had my eyes opened wide by the first-person/eye witness accounts Fontova has gathered and documented. This information runs counter to Che's famous "diaries" and all the information curated at the Cuban Archive; but, Fontova claims all that stuff has been edited/vetted by Castro from the start (typical historical revisionism at work!).

Fontova ridicules all the stars and celebrities who have Che tattoos (supposedly Angelina Jolie - a devoted humanitarian!) and those who wear T-shirts/clothing with the famous image of Che...thinking that they are exemplifying some anti-establishment brand that embraces freedom from oppression for the masses. Wrong! The information in this book documents that Che's beliefs and actions were the exact opposite.

Thank goodness for people like Fontova who are willing to go up against the conventional UNthinking of the ignorant mainstream, of whom I was certainly one on this issue - but no longer. I plan to learn more.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Some Things Just Aren't Right

I've blogged about how I know I am becoming a codger. I disapprove of a lot of things in this big, bad, modern world. I mostly disapprove of tasteless, bad behaviour, and things that are overly sexualized - because the target audience is impressionable young people, and that is just not right.

MTV and Mexican music tv channels are what's tuned in at our gym. I cannot abide most of the music (tuneless, unimaginative, repetitive garbage), so I wear my iPod shuffle and listen to my own choice of tunes.

But it is hard to miss what it happening on the huge screen on the wall right above the elliptical machines. In a word, as far as I am concerned, it's porn. A lot of the images shock me, as do many of the lyrics that scroll across the bottom of the screen.

I am not a prude, and believe adults should be able to pursue/view whatever floats their boat - within the privacy of their own lives and homes. But I don't believe the youth of North America (or the world) need this stuff relentlessly beamed at them 24/7.

Two current videos have images that really offend me. One is by Christina Aguilera, who seems to have taken her "Burlesque" movie too much to heart and has gone way beyond burlesque and into the realm of pornography. Between the "uber" skimpy/sexy, stripper/dominatrix outfits, the bumping/grinding and humping motions, full-on breast groping of her by her male dancers, etc etc, it is just over the top. I shudder to imagine the impact on the developing psyches of the preteens who watch and idolize her and similar such "acts" (I am loathe to call them artists or musicians).

The other video I just saw for the first time yesterday - it was by "Thalia and Elvis Presley" and is a remix of The King's "Love Me Tender." It shows a couple in love professing their feelings for each other...through spray painting graffiti love messages to each other all over public buildings, fences, and even transit buses! Whoever thought up this video concept obviously completely missed the fact that graffiti is VANDALISM! The video glorifies the destruction of private property. As urban dwellers in a Canadian town with a serious graffiti problem, I was horrified and outraged at the video's message to kids.

But the real nail in the societal coffin respecting the video is this - the young man and woman are each running around town separately defacing buildings with their spray paint cans, then photographing the message and e-mailing it to the lover, who looks at his/her phone adoringly upon receipt, and rushes to reciprocate by defacing yet something else. I mean, how disconnected can you get? When did it become more meaningful to make e-statements of love, as opposed to in-person declarations? Again, all I could think is this is something kids would quickly copy as a cool act to get the attention of the opposite sex.

So, complaints from two ends of the spectrum - on one hand I am offended by too much of the up-close-and-personal imagery of body parts being ground together on screen and, on the other hand, I am offended by the impersonal texting/e-mailing message of the other video. Neither of these videos bodes well for the future of our society, as far as I am concerned.

The "oldies" music videos that are sometimes shown (from the 1980s) are positively innocent in comparison, although I realize at the time many adults probably saw them as the end of the civilized world. Maybe they were right - the downhill slide certainly seems in full swing.

No Todo bien. (It's not all good.)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Slow Going

I've been going to the gym 5-6 days a week for a month now (doing cardio and resistance work), and mostly eating a proper diet. I did drink moderately over the Christmas season (Dec. 25th to January 25th is how I defined that "season"!) but have now jumped back on the wagon.

I think I have been losing weight/toning up, but I don't have a scale and didn't take starting measurements (no measuring tape) so it's anybody's guess. I am going based on how my clothes fit. I tested that this morning by pulling on my skinny Cambio jeans that I wore on the flight down - they were a little tight on Dec. 9th, but quite wearable. And they fit pretty much the same this morning. Maybe the fit was 2-3% improved - there was only a bit of "side-muffin" happening above my hips and no discernable below-the-belly-button-muffin.

I think things are going in the right direction, if slowly. I guess it beats the opposite problem of putting ON weight during winter vacation. At least I know I have not gained. I seem to have had complete success overcoming the edema problem, so I know it's not water weight that's the issue.

What contributes to my illusion of weight loss is that I have a decent tan, and a brown body always tends to look slimmer than a pasty white one!

I am having real doubts as to whether I will be able to shift the last excess 10 lbs off my frame and keep it off. I'm not prepared to make many more changes. I already do BHRT (including hypothyroid meds), eat "right" (no sugars/refined foods, and zero alcohol for 6 out of the last 7 months), take a range of vitamins/supplements, and do cardio and weights.

I wonder what it is going to take, or if I am stuck carrying this extra bulk that I think makes me look a bit square in my face/body and, therefore, matronly.

Well, sitting here typing is not going to do anything to help. Off to the gym!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Brown-Out in Bucerias

Something's up this morning. We were having our usual, leisurely morning...including a "Slow Carb Diet" breakfast, after yesterday's weekly allowed "Cheat Day."

I was doing some handwashing in the sink (there are some clothing items I just won't trust to the local laundry, which bleach-stains our coloured clothing, but makes our whites turn a faint brown...) when the water stopped running.

We turned on the gravity-fed rooftop "tanaka" which is the back-up water reservoir in times of emergency. John was letting the other residents know to conserve water (no unnecessary toilet flushing or bathing) when the power went out completely. I then heard a short siren burst in the neighbourhood, like what you'd expect to hear for a tsunami warning (not an ambulance or police car siren), so deduced there was some kind of local emergency.

Word on the street (quite literally, our neighbours were all out on the street comparing notes) is that we were having a "brown out." No word as to the cause, and the power is already coming back on in blips, so no need to panic.

I am happy to have laptop battery power and a 3G aircard that lets me bypass our condo's unreliable internet so I can write about our day of "luxury sailing" yesterday. It was great - Vallarta Adventures really does things right. We highly recommend their junkets.

We spent a gorgeous day on board a beautiful 47' Beneteau, with delicious food/drinks, attentive service from Carlos, and great sailing by skipper Javier. They actually remembered us from our sunset sail with them a couple of weeks ago.

We nabbed the bow area again and relaxed. We saw at least six grey whales and were treated to some breeching, blowing, one jump, and four full fluke flashes (where you see their entire tail as they submerge). Just an awesome sight.

We were off of Bucerias for the annual "blessing of the boats" and could see all the local boats in along the town's shoreline where the local priest blesses them. Of course, this involved lots of incendiary explosions (Hello, people - daytime fireworks are just lots of noise and smoke!) and we were happy to be out on the water well away from the firecracker-happy crowd.

We anchored at "Piedra Blanca" (white stone), which was a very romantic moniker for a guano-covered outcropping of rocks just north of La Cruz. It was fascinating to see this area from water - quite a lovely enclave of cliffside villas built above a nice private beach. You can't see any of this from the road, of course, so we've been unaware of this little nearby Eden.

We reluctantly disembarked at the end of the day and headed over to Chrysler PV where our transmission was being worked on while we sailed. We knew to arrive after 4:00 pm (we're quick learners) but the car was still on the hoist.



It's supposed to be finished this afternoon, so we'll head back to town later today by hitching a ride with our neighbours who plan a CostCo run.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Deja Vu in Punta de Mita

We did a little afternoon excursion to Punta de Mita yesterday - a beachside town north of Bucerias.

It's obvious there is money in Punta de Mita. Don't ask me why or how I can tell (I would sound like a total snob if I listed the factors I use to deduce the presence of serious money). But, the beach in Punta de Mita is quite small and very rocky (in front of the town anyway, maybe not within the gated and guarded Four Seasons mega-resort that I can't get access to!).

The town is quite small, but cute, with the requisite beachfront restaurants and shops - all very charming. I would get bored staying there for any length of time, but it's great for an afternoon. Okay, maybe I have to modify that bored statement somewhat...I could probably spend a very happy week or so ensconced at the "Hotel des Artistes" at the end of the beach. It's quite luxury/chi-chi, especially for Mexico. My husband and I always joke that, just given a chance, we'd make great rich people. But we do okay, and somehow manage to craft as many champagne moments as possible into our beer budget life.

I freely admit that I am a shopper, and I like nice clothes. The Puerto Vallarta area has a serious lack of decent women's clothing and stores. There is a market here for higher-end/designer resort wear, but nobody's tapping it. It's pretty much all cheap T-shirts, pareos (beach wraps) and beach dresses that are fringed, tie-dyed and have bodices that are simply elasticized smocking. Liverpool department store in PV is pretty good, but the prices are high and the selection is limited. I exhausted the Liverpool option a couple of weeks ago and needed fresh territory.

Punta de Mita seemed like the answer because it has a boutique specializing in "La Perla" clothing/bathing suits and resort wear, with a lovely interior design/art gallery nearby to keep my husband entertained.

I had been to the La Perla boutique last year and remember I didn't buy anything. This visit reminded me why. The prices were still ridiculously high $400.00 - $500.00 for bikinis...but it was the same saleslady this year who drove me out of there last time.

I didn't remember her at first, but it all came back to me within minutes. Upon entering the store, she took one look at me (I am 5' 10" tall and currently about 163 lbs) and told me everything on display and on the racks is a "Medium - a small medium" which is about a size 8, but that she has larger sizes in the back if I want to try anything on. Fine - no problem.

Then, as I browsed, she watched from across the store. If I lingered on anything, or took it off the rack for a closer look, she would call over that I'd need a larger size and to let her know if I wanted her to fetch the big stuff. Maybe she was trying to be helpful. But, being essentially shouted at 10-12 times in the space of a few minutes that I'd need something bigger is NOT good sales psychology, and started to really piss me off - especially considering some of the stuff I was looking at on the rack definitely would have fit me. But not in her mind!

I remembered this was exactly the experience I had in that store last year - the incessant and loud reminders that she thought I was too big for this line of clothing. So annoying! A saleslady with body dysmorphia disorder re: her customers - how does she sell anything? Once more, I walked out of there without buying anything and now don't plan to ever cross their threshhold again.

However, John had hit paydirt at the gallery, and we did our bit to "keep Punta de Mita green."

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

No, Gracias

I've been reading a new fitness book called "The 4-Hour Body" by Tim Ferriss, and learning lots of interesting things. I really admire this guy (he wrote "The 4-Hour Work Week" which I read a while back), who strikes me as something of a genius with obsessive compulsive disorder. He puts all his energy and curiosity to work researching/trying all kinds of things and documents what works (and what doesn't). He's a self-described "human guinea pig" testing/enduring all kinds of things so the reader doesn't have to experiment and can go right to what Tim has found to work.

We will be buying some kettlebells (weights with a handle) when we get home to do the recommended "kettlebell swing" that he claims is the best overall exercise you can do. I've already incorporated a few of his moves into my regime (air squats, and a hip flexor stretch that is supposed to eliminate the female abdominal "pooch" problem).

We're also doing our best to follow his recommended "Slow Carb Diet", which is a lot like the Atkins diet, but with more beans and legumes (which, oddly enough, are very hard to find in Mexico!). The stores are full of canned "bayo" beans and refried beans (too much lard and sodium for us), and that's it. But "Mini Super Beto", the best corner store ever, came through - John found red kidney beans, white beans and pinto beans there...hate to say what we paid for these imported goodies in what you would think should be "Bean Land."

Basically, 6 days a week we are supposed to avoid anything white, meaning no refined carbs of any sort, nor potatoes and rice etc. The 7th day is a "cheat day" and you are supposed to eat forbidden foods in order to keep your metabolism from getting complacent (you have to read the book - he provides all the science behind it).

We were enjoying the beach yesterday afternoon, fending off the vendors wanting to sell you everything from silver, to clothing, to blankets, carvings, pottery and candy. We just wave them off with "No, gracias" and they move on.

The fellow came by who will "write your name on a grain of rice" that gets put in a little glass bauble and hung around your neck on a leather cord. I knew John had taken the new diet regime to heart when he dismissed the name-on-a-grain-of-rice-guy with the comment "No, gracias, too many carbs."

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Iguana Wrangling and the Spa

Sunning on our top floor deck yesterday, we could see the workmen on the roof of the 3 storey place across the street that is getting repaired/painted. One guy spent quite a lot of time swinging a thin yellow rope towards the palm trees; we assumed there must be a loose frond he was trying to grab and pull off one of the trees.

He seemed to finally get it lodged where he wanted it, and gave it a strong yank. Rather than a palm branch hurtling to the ground, a huge iguana made a wide arc through the air at the end of the rope and hit the tile roof with a mighty "thwap"! The guy had lassoed a lizard (poor thing)!

We could not figure out why he did it, other than for entertainment value. He played around with it for a bit before removing the thin rope and holding it firmly with both hands. Then he hurled it into space - right back into the tree from which he had yanked it. That ended the show, and he went back to scraping and painting.

But that wasn't the end of our excitement for the day. We had scheduled a couples' massage and pedicure - the first ever of each for John! He was pretty trepidatious, but it turned out to be an underwhelming experience for him.

If his back massage was anything like mine, it wasn't great (too much broad, sweeping "effleurage" motions and not enough of the finer work) and I don't think she could have gotten more oil in my (freshly washed) hair if she had tried. I emerged a total greaseball; if I go again I must tell them to skip the head massage. It wasn't good enough to warrant all the oil.

I think I enjoyed John's pedicure more than he did. He was fine with it and agrees it's nice to have such clean, soft, groomed feet after a month on the beach and wearing Crocs. Personally, I really like seeing my husband's feet looking so "metro-sexual." To me, a groomed guy (groomed just enough - he should NOT be prettier than me!) is an attractive guy.

I let John pick the colour of my toenail polish, and knew he would choose black. That's his latest female style thing - he sees lots of women on TV with black fingernail polish, and has been asking me to try it. I won't put it on my fingernails as that is not a colour that would last a day without chipping on my fingernails; but, toenails get less wear and tear, so I went along. And I really like how it looks! I was worried my feet would look like Morticia Adams', but it's not at all corpse-like. I think having tanned feet probably helps.

I continue to research and plan things to see and do over our next few weeks. I discovered an exclusive beach club that offers a few days passes to people not staying at the associated resort. The place looks fabulous, so I e-mailed to find out how to get a couple of passes and how much they cost. We have a day of sailing scheduled for next week, and the following week we're going on an overnight junket south to the Costa Allegre region (3 beach towns to explore).

This is the best part of our southern winter escapes - nowhere we need to be, nothing we need to be doing, and all the time in the world to get there/do that.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Life and Times in Mexico

Our experiences in Mexico range from the idyllic to the frustratingly ridiculous.

In the idyllic category is things like sunset sailing on a 50 foot yacht while being served great food and drinks. Of course, life can't be like this all the time (such a shame).



More often we experience the frustratingly ridiculous, for which we have to take full responsibility for our part - i.e., not speaking any Spanish. We probably deserve anything that happens to us because we barely speak a word of Spanish and are making no effort to learn. John's excuse is he's barely mastered English, and my excuse is "menopause brains." At various times in my (much earlier) life, I studied and had some facility with French, German, Japanese and Italian. But my foreign language ability seems to have dried up along with my monthlies. That's mid-life for you, or it is for me anyway.

Since I refuse to frustrate myself with trying to learn/remember Spanish, I have to realize that resigns us to frustrating interactions, where lack of comprehension leads to misunderstandings and wasted time. In the space of one day last week, we were held hostage by both Carlos Slim's "Telcel" and Chrysler Puerto Vallarta.

Our internet connection at our condo is so pathetically unreliable (way more off than on) that I had to resort to buying a USB/"air card" and service that gives me 3G access to the internet independent of our condo service.

No wonder Carlos Slim is the world's richest man (he's the giant of Mexican telecom who owns Telcel). We waited in an endless line to buy the necessary USB and SIM card only to be sent away and told to come back in an hour...it appeared that internet access problems were not allowing the SIM card to be tested. So we went away and came back and waited some more to see the same rep. Turns out it was the SIM card that was faulty and she had to go get another one (so, there was no need to send us away and have us come back and line up all over again, if she had thought to suspect the SIM card in the first place).

There was no apology for wasting our time. In fact, the whole Telcel business is the least customer-centric one I have experienced. It appears to be organized and run like an antiquated banking system - the counter reps are like tellers who have to go to the vault and stand in line for stuff you are there to buy, then they send you to another line to pay a cashier, after which you come back to the same counter rep to show her you've paid, and then you get your stuff. A transaction that would have taken less than 15 minutes in Canada at a Rogers Wireless store took well over 3 hours - and seemed typical, judging from our lengthy hours of observation time in the store.

All of this made us late to pick up our Jeep from Chrysler PV where we were having some work done on it. But we didn't know we were late - because no one told us "lunch" is from 2:00 to 4:00 every day and the place is closed. You cannot show up between 2:00 and 4:00 and expect to pay for/pick up your car.

We got there a little after 3:00 and were told we'd have to wait until 4:00 when the right staff would be back to deal with us. The four guys who were there who we were talking to claimed to have no idea where our car keys were, nor the paperwork and bill. WTF? Who runs a business like that?

John actually spotted and grabbed our car keys from the desk tray of the rep we'd been dealing with, and tried to negotiate coming back and paying the rest tomorrow (we'd already paid a 50% deposit which he showed the receipt for). But they weren't having any of that. Our time pressure was I had a client coaching call scheduled for later that afternoon (which is why I needed the 3G USB), and waiting until 4:00 for the car, and then getting back to Bucerias, was going to make things really tight.

The Chrysler guys got very nervous when John laid his hands on the keys! We did consider just driving off and coming back the next day to pay the balance, but quickly realized that would just mean a speedy trip to the local hoosegow. The Chrysler guys were suspicious, and none too subtly moved to block our exit with a couple of other cars.



So, we were held hostage at the Chrysler dealer for about an hour until our gal got back from lunch. She looked disgusted with the guys she works with, and went straight to the office where the cashier (who had been there the whole time) had our paperwork and bill ready. Again, no apologies for the inconvenience.

We paid and left to beetle it back to Bucerias, got hooked up to the net for my call, and then my client e-mailed me moments before the call and cancelled. Oh well.

The latest local excitement is Bucerias festival week which involves letting off a lot of "fireworks" which make very loud sounds (like what I imagine a grenade sounds like) but give off very little light - more like muzzle flashes.

These "grenades" are let off irregularly at all hours of the day and night, and right in our neighbourhood. And if that isn't enough to fray your nerves, the "grenade" blasts are being punctuated by some poor little feline who has been in heat for over two solid days - the catterwauling is simply indescribable.

We looked each other and just burst out laughing last evening as we sat watching TV - interrupted by boom blasts and screeching that sounds like feline torture. That noise alone should be incentive enough to spay or neuter a cat! From what we've heard, there will be quite a litter of new kittens in the neighbourhood soon.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

This Week's Excitement

I started my latest attempt at writing a novel on January 8, 2011 - the first anniversary of my mother's death. It seemed fitting, seeing as how the protagonist's mother in my novel will play a significant role. A year has given me enough distance to have a better perspective on a lot of things. So far, I am making headway - writing a couple of hours a day should be a do-able routine to get into.

I couldn't write yesterday as we had to take our Jeep into Puerto Vallarta to be serviced; that took the entire day, and what felt like two near-death experiences.

After dropping the car off at Chrysler PV, we wandered around Marina Vallarta in the morning sunshine, Starbuck's latte in hand, and admired all the yachts (me pointedly walking away any time John started speculating aloud too much about having a boat down here...NOT happening, at least not until he's onto his third wife!). "Esposa Numero Dos" (Wife #2 - moi) is not on board with having a boat in Mexico.

We then hopped on the bus to the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta - and held on for dear life. The driving is totally insane. The tailgating, the speeding, the unsafe lane changes, no signalling, driving 3 cars abreast when there are only 2 lanes, and motorcycles weaving in and out - it's breathtaking in the worst possible way. It makes you all the more aware of what you are up against when driving your own car - you can be as careful and cautious as you want - but you are outnumbered and surrounded by the maniacs.

After a nice afternoon strolling and lunching in PV we grabbed a cab back to the car dealership. That was another white-knuckle/hair-raising experience. We bribed him with a 20% tip to encourage him to get us there in one piece...but he seemed to take that as a challenge to drive even faster and take more risks!

As we drove back to Bucerias in our own Jeep, all I could see driving around us were potential perpetrators of vehicular homocide! You really do need to have eyes in the sides and back of your head when driving here.

I better post this while the internet is still up (it's been dicey since Boxing Day).

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Powerful Semantics

As a professional coach, I have learned how to correctly state a goal to exponentially increase your chances of achieving it. The mistake most people make is expressing a goal in terms of they DON'T want, which focuses them on the wrong thing (trying to avoid what you don't want simply guarantees you will focus on and attract more of it!).

I am steeped in the belief that you must have a clear, relentless, positive focus on what it is you DO want. For example, rather than focus on "losing weight" you must focus on "being fit, healthy and attractive."

I am backed on this theory by people such as Mother Theresa, who apparently refused to attend "anti" rallies - be they anti-poverty or anti-war etc. But she said she supported rallies that were FOR things, such as Walk for Peace, or Rally for Prosperity. She knew if you focus on war or poverty (even in the "anti"-sense), you simply generate more of it. Look at where the "War on Drugs", the "War on Terror" and the "War on Cancer" have gotten us: n-o-w-h-e-r-e. We have more drug problems, more terror problems and more cancer problems than ever. And if I had my way, all the phraseology around "breast cancer" would be changed. Rather than the annual "walk for breast cancer" I would have the "Walk for Breast Health." And there would be no "Breast Cancer Centers" only "Breast Health Centers."

I was pleased to read that even Google has finally seen the light. I was shocked when I first heard their company motto "Don't Be Evil." Based on my beliefs, that was a guarantee they would indeed be, or become, evil. I am currently reading "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It" by Ken Auletta, and he writes that, at a recent Global Philanthropy Forum, Google co-founder Sergey Brin "declared that 'don't be evil' serves as a reminder to our employees, but it was a mistake. It should really say, 'Be good.'" And, from what I am reading about the power and influence of Google, we really do need them to stay focused on being good.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

2011 Ju-Ju

We rang in 2011 with friends P. & D. at their Nuevo Vallarta resort - lobster tails, champagne, a disco dance show, and a huge party with hats, streamers, noisemakers, and balloons galore was capped by the enormous fireworks all around the bay at midnight. We were in thick of it, with the resort's fireworks exploding right over our heads (I moved a bit out of the way!).

There were no beach bonfires in Nuevo that we could see, so we saved our written wishes until we got back to Bucerias. We went right down to the beach where there were lots of fires burning, and threw our scraps of paper onto the flames and released our wishes for 2011. That's one step toward improving our "ju-ju" from 2010 - which sucked.

The other "ju ju" improvement plan was to get rid of the devil's mask that John bought last Easter on the beach in Puerto Vallarta. We feel our luck really turned bad in 2010 as soon as we took possession of it.

We were going to release the devil to the deep blue sea if we went out fishing this season, but it doesn't look like we'll be going (no good fishing, apparently). We didn't want to burn it because we want that bad energy contained, not released to the atmosphere!

So, we thought, let someone steal it. If we leave anything outside our front gate it is gone in mere minutes. It's a bit unnerving, actually. Even things that are attached to the gate get ripped off (like the metal bell we installed so visitors could ring it to announce their arrival - gone, with big holes left in the wall where they tore it out).

We put the devil mask out on the gate early on Dec. 31st - and, as of mid-morning January 1st, it was still there. That tells you something! I was all the more determined to get rid of it - but how?

Just as we were silently pondering this, one of the renters vacationing in our building said he'd take it if we didn't want it. We told him we felt it had brought us bad luck, and that it also has teeny little wood-boring bugs in it, but he still wants it. John doused it with pesticide and handed it over. The renters, and the mask, depart today.

I am going to post fast this as internet access has been intermittent since Boxing Day - the internet is down more than it is up. Aggravating. Maybe that will improve when the mask leaves.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)