Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Restaurant Blacklist

El Brujo in Bucerias has been added to my restaurant "blacklist." We had awful service and a dreadful (and expensive) meal there last evening. The only good thing was the beachfront view of a spectacular sunset, and the restaurant can't take any credit for that!

Anyway, I slammed them in a TripAdvisor review this morning, so am feeling somewhat avenged.

It amazes us how the Mexican restauranteurs think it's okay to charge gourmet restaurant prices for pretty basic Mexican fare, poorly prepared and poorly served. They certainly aren't relying on repeat business.

It was quite a contrast to the wonderful service and food experienced on Christmas Day for dinner at Mezzogiorno (right next door to El Brujo). Mezzogiorno does it right - the vast majority of other Puerto Vallarta area restaurants do not.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Monday, December 26, 2011

Thinking Ahead to 2012

Once Christmas Day has come and gone, my thoughts turn to the rapidly approaching new year. What will 2012 hold? What do I WANT it to hold?

I am pretty optimistic that 2012 should be better than 2009 (my mother's stroke, and ensuing estrangement from my older sister, "Gigi"), 2010 (my mother's death, and our condo flood and 4 months of repairs), and 2011 (my gall bladder surgery, never-ending cottage renovation nightmares and Home Depot kitchen misadventures, and the death of Gigi's elderly 2nd husband).

This past fall, I mentally worked through a lot of my issues with Gigi. I feel no active wrath or acrimony, and have apologized to her for my part in our estrangement and the hurt I caused. She accepted and reciprocated with her own apology.

Gigi now seems to want to resume some kind of sisterly relationship but, frankly, I am not so sure. Just because I harbour no active ill will or grudges doesn't mean I trust her, or want her to be much of a presence in my life. The bit of e-mail communication we've had has been chock-a-block full of questionable choices she's making re: romantic relationships (ah, suffice it to say the, um, paramours are not completely available) and she's also just lost her driver's licence for 3 months.

I offered sympathy on the driver's licence issue, but have maintained a purposeful silence on the romantic issues - those are land mines. If I told her what I really think, we'd be at each others' throats in no time.

I refuse to be cast in the role of someone whom she can rebel against - she seems to need that in her life. While our parents were alive, she rebelled against them. Now they are gone, and she insists on sharing upsetting things with me that she must know contravene my beliefs, morals and values. Who NEEDS it? NOT me.

One thing that my 2012 won't contain much of is Gigi - that is a fact.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Feliz Navidad 2011!

It's a beautiful sunny Christmas day here in Mexico! And we have a warm, fuzzy feeling from knowing we contributed to making the day of some local kids here - we contributed to the Christmas gift toy drive organized by some ex pats, and helped out by our Canadian friend GW.

We (along with many others) handed cash to GW, and he did all the toy shopping - he's great at it! After the toy shopping run, he drove by our place and showed us a minivan full of things that will be sure to have the kiddies smiling today!

We've been in e-contact with friends and family, sending greetings and best holiday wishes...and once I do the dishes and make our bed, we'll be off to the beach for the day!

Christmas dinner tonight will be at our favourite beachfront restaurant, Mezzogiorno. I'm thinking spaghetti and meatballs - they do a fabulous rendition of this dish.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Occidental Freeloading

This week we ran into friends (R & H) from back home who were down here on a pre-Christmas family vacation - staying in Nuevo at the Occidental Grand Vallarta. It was so nice to spend time with some pals who we had not seen in quite a while!

They invited us down to their resort to spend the afternoon yesterday. It's an all-inclusive and of course we weren't wearing the turquoise wristbands, so had to be "smuggled" in (which just means you try to act like you belong there, and always keep one wrist covered so security can't easily spot you as an outsider!).

The resort was very nice and we were most impressed with the food and drinks that R & H supplied us with poolside all afternoon. So many all-inclusives have so-so food and weak drinks, but not this place! We can recommend the Occidental Grand Vallarta on the basis of the food and beverages alone, but R & H's oceanfront room was very nice too.

We're looking forward to more visiting family and friends down here in 2012 - it can feel a bit lonely at times, even amid all the Canadian ex pats.

Feliz Navidad to all!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Friday, December 23, 2011

Mexican Mysteries

Everything in life has an "arc" to it - i.e., a building up phase, a plateau, and then an inevitable decline. I think my 4 year (so far) Mexican sojourn arc has reached the decline phase. In fact, I don't think there was a plateau of enjoyment to cruise along for any significant phase. I have determined that everything in Mexico is about (expensive and laborious) building up, only to watch deterioration and decline immediately set in before your very eyes.

My essentially brand new "bonded leather" Boal sofa (which took 4 months and tons of pleading to even get delivered) which is less than 1.5 years old, and that we have only USED for a total of 5 months is cracking and peeling. It looks like it has leprosy!



We have no idea what happened or what is causing this. It's never in direct sunlight. Could it be the humidity during the portion of the year that we're not here? We had been assured that this sofa covering would stand up to the climate far better than other upholstery choices. I checked the warranty...one year. Great. I e-mailed Boal, the Mexican manufacturer, but doubt I will hear anything.

We may have better luck with Home Depot. John bought and installed two new ceiling fans from there a year ago. The one in the living room is now squealing like a cat caught in a fan belt. Does nothing last?

We are still stuck with the same moronic pool guy - who overchlorinates the pool water to the extent it would qualify as toxic; it equally destroys bathing suits and human skin. We have resorted to hiding the chlorine on him so he can't keep adding it. That was a week ago and the chlorine still tests as sky high. I expect to get skin damage from the sun down here, but NOT from the pool water.

I have had 3 plumbing incidents - one kitchen and two bathroom. The faucets and pipes here are just crap and spring leaks with no provocation. For some reason we have very little water pressure in the shower this year, so I am suffering from "low flow" hair that is never completely rinsed clean.

And then there is the mystery as to why our kitchen cabinets got repainted since April 2011 when we were last here. The white knobs on the cupboards are now covered in blue paint, which was not the case previously. Mexicans do not do any kind of proactive maintenance, and they don't do anything without being directed to and then paid for the work...which leaves us wondering - what went on in our kitchen over the last 8 months that it had to be repainted?? Guess we'll never know.

At least the (Canadian) guy we bought our car from has committed to fixing a spreading rust problem at his own expense (like the sofa, the car even has leprosy). We saw a small area of rust on it when we bought it and part of the deal was getting that totally fixed. The fix was apparently done during the summer of 2010 but, one year later, it is back and has spread like cancer.

Mexico is a country where gringos have to decide what they can afford - meaning what are you prepared to Fix Or Repair Daily. My stamina for this is circling the drain down which we are constantly pouring money.

Todo bien. (It's all good).

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Did You Hear My Head Explode?

There is a great line in the novel "The Help" that is a piece of advice from an experienced writer/editor to an aspiring writer - it goes something like this: Write about the things that disturb you, especially if they don't seem to disturb anyone else.

Well, I have been plenty disturbed these past 24 hours since my internet service provider took my website down through some oversight (on their part) in renewing my website domain. Well, they supposedly put it back up, but nothing about it works, at least not from Mexico. And isn't that exactly the point of the World Wide Web - your business can been seen/accessed globally?

Right now the internet connection to my website does not work, you cannot Google "recalibrate" and have it come up, nor does it come up under my lisamallett.com domain (that supposedly links directly to recalibrate). They have really screwed something up - including my business e-mail which no longer receives, and sending notes is a 50/50 crapshoot. And I am in the middle of a very busy week with Canadian clients and need all this stuff to be working.

Then there is the never-ending pool chemical saga. Our idiot pool guy here in Mexico (he truly is a moron) keeps the chlorine levels sky-high (for 4 years now that we are aware of). This is so NO algae will grow and he won't have anything to clean because nothing could live in that TOXIC water! Mind you - humans can't tolerate it either and one person has already had hives in reaction to the chlorine, and we're experiencing skin irritation from the pool water even though we shower as soon as we get out. We've complained AND had him professionally trained in Spanish - to NO AVAIL. We have now actually resorted to hiding the chlorine on him so he can't keep adding it! He is a chlorine addict and we are making him go cold turkey.

The lock on the front gate of our Mexican condo building broke and we tried very hrd to get it replaced so that the new lock would be set up to fit the existing keys that all the owners have. No - of course that didn't happen. We now have a new lock, that barely works better than the old broken one, and a bunch of new keys to somehow distribute to people who are back in Canada.

Then there's the fingerprint scanner at the gym that is the worst piece of technocrap ever invented. Day after day, it does not scan our index fingers and there is all kinds of angst at reception as to whether or not we will be admitted! When the high tech stuff fails, what gets us in is the little scrap of paper on which our first names and membership numbers were scrawled the day we signed up. Low tech carries the day each time.

So, I have to stop and remind myself why we are here. Why ARE we here? We are here mainly because of the weather - which is perfection (in our view) fron December to March. We are HERE, because we can't stand the "Wet Coast" at this time of year with all the clouds, rain, cold and wind. Okay, so chalk one up for Mexican weather. As to other things, like frustrations over faulty goods and shoddy services, well Canada ain't much better. The only thing is I can argue in English in Canada!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)

Monday, December 19, 2011

E-Life Passed Before My Eyes

John and I nearly had simultaneous coronaries this morning when I went to go onto the internet via my business (Recalibrate.com) homepage...and saw it was defunct. Instead of the familiar site of my homepage with the ocean, sky and sand, there was a odd listing in green and red graphics with my business name, the name that I have had for over 10 years.



My e-life (on-line business life) passed before my eyes as I realized the domain renewal deadline was yesterday, and it looked like my ISP web hosting provider had NOT renewed my domain name, despite being verbally reminded to do so last month. I kept my outward cool, despite being mentally plunged into despair at the thought that some vulture had been poised to steal my business name...and had succeeded - because I had trusted someone to do their job and they had failed.

This is one of my biggest challenges in life - trusting and relying on other people. It does seem to me that people let you down more often than they come through for you - even in situations where you are paying them and it is their professional responsibility to take the necessary actions.

We're 2 hours ahead of where my ISP is located, so we had some stressful time waiting for them to open so we could start phoning to find out what the "H E double toothpicks" was going on.

Turns out they HAD screwed up and, in doing a batch of domain renewals mine "slipped through the cracks." Luckily, they have a fail safe of holding the domain for 31 days post-lapse, so I have now been renewed and don't have to recreate my entire business with a whole new name and on-line presence, business cards, brochures etc...

I had flagged this in my November 2012 calendar and they are in for some MAJOR nagging next year, as I don't plan to go through this ever again.

Todo bien. (It's all good).

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Our 20th Wedding Anniversary

My husband, John, always tells me he started to fall in love with me the evening he first saw a large(5 ft x 5 ft), abstract painting I had hanging in my home. It was over 21 years ago that he saw that painting (today it hangs in the front hall of our condo). We were married about 59 weeks after that evening and, today - December 7, 2011 - is our 20th wedding anniversary. Yay us!!

Since we first met, our lives have revolved a lot around aesthetics - we have travelled a fair bit and acquired art everywhere we have gone. And the beauty of the pieces we've chosen together is outweighed by their sentimental value to us - when we gaze at these works we are transported to where we were at that time in our lives and relationship. These works (mainly paintings, but also some glass work, pottery, metal work and wood carvings) form the emotional map of our life together.

About 16 years ago, while visiting Vancouver, we bought a lovely, bright landscape done by an artist named Nancy O'Toole. Today, while strolling the main street of Sidney, BC we looked in the windows of the Peninsula Gallery, and simultaneously exclaimed over the same painting..."Stranded in Tofino" by Michael O'Toole.



Yes, Michael is Nancy's son! We were thrilled, and bought the painting on the spot to commemorate our 20th wedding anniversary.

Twenty years is something to celebrate. Neither of us has ever lived with/spent 20 years with anyone, not even our families of origin! It's a marvellous thing to walk hand-in-hand along a street, to look in a shop window and exclaim at the same moment with the same passion about the same work of art. John just grinned at me from ear-to-ear and said "Wanna buy it?" "Duh!!" was my eloquent response.

Happy #20, my love!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)