The Grand Bahaie Ambar

Well, here I am in my third evening at the Ambar. Fantastic hotel. This is a huge complex with three resorts in one. The Ambar is adults only, which makes it the quiet section. Not much happens here after dark, although those who want to party take the shuttle to the Casino and Disco.

The flight down on Saturday night was rather uncomfortable as Can Jet jams their seats in pretty tight, and there are only a few with extra leg room. These were already gone by the time I booked the trip. There was a pretty decent meal, and the movie was "Salt", a good one although I had already seen it. Quick move through security and for the first time in a few trips our bags were one of the first off the plane. We hopped onto the bus with Larry and Karen and were at the resort around 10:30 at night.

Because we were there on our anniversary :), the resort gave us one of the prime rooms in the building closest to the pool and the beach. The rooms were spectacular, huge and high quality decor. By the time we actually got into the room though (key trouble), it was after 11:00 and the lobby bar was closed. We did meet another couple that night, Peter and Sandra from Guelph, who hung out with the four of us for much of the week.

We were, well at least I was, up early ready and rearing to go Sunday. After a full day of beach/pool and lots of beer, Sunday night was a good one, or so I am told. Managed to start early, finish late, make many new friends, quite a few people laugh, offend only a few, only semi embarass Mary Lou, get cut off from the bar, have a quintuple scotch, take a tumble and come up on two feet , yet still be able to hit the beach at 6:00 am.

Larry and Karen are a fun couple, and quite tolerant as well based on Sunday night. I told Larry that what we like to do is make up some new identity, and tell people that when they asked. He came up with an idea that we were a band, he was the manager, the girls were the singers and we were called Mitch and the Kitchen Bitc..s. So far so good. Having the travel guitar helps sell the story.

Most of the activity so far has been, sleep and read on the beach, long walks in the surf, runs to the pool bar and generally yakking it up with the people we meet. Today I was sitting on the beach chair, listening to Jeff Buckley sing We All Fall in Love Sometime on the Ipod, while reading 101 Songwriting Wrongs and How to Correct Them, looking out at the turquoise water; and I realized I was in paradise, doing what I loved to do, what I was meant to do. There was very few other things that could have made the moment better. I have to find a way of getting myself to the Caribbean on an extended basis. Nice engineering assignment, buy my beach grill, who knows?

The travel guitar was a fantastic purchase. I used it to check out the five songs I had completed against the first few chapters in the book. Four out of five passed the muster test, one is going back to the drawing board.

Had a couple of amusing things happen today. The first was in the washrooms. The cleaners are all women, including in the mens washrooms, and they just wave you in when they are there. I was at one urinal and she was literally cleaning up the area beside me. Didn't phase her a bit, so, it didn't phase me. The second was at supper. We went out for dinner to the mediterranean restaraunt. After carefully scrutinizing all the entrees, I selected the only one that didn't have onions in the ingredients. When it came, sure enough there were no onions on the cod, but the three other items on the plate were pearl onions, carmalized onions AND...batered onions. To the buffet I went.

Back At It

Well, time to give this another try. Haven't done anything on the site since our trip to Mexico/Belize/Guatemala back at the end of April. The purpose of this was to have some fun and get something down on paper, well on line, that will remind me what we have been up to over the year. We do lot's of interesting things but half the time forget them. So, since we are getting ready to head to Punta Cana, time to get back in practice.

Normally, in the last month before vacation I can't sit still, can't keep my mind off the trip. However, this year it is different. My big project, the one that I have been working on for three years, is finally off and rolling. Construction has started,and the push is on to complete designs. So, work right now is keeping me both busy and pre occupied, and as I told Mary Lou, this will be the first time in years that my vacation will seem to go by slower than work. I get in to the office, look up and it's already six o'clock. Guess that's good.

Today, had an interesting experience. Mary Lou has read her way through her own library (I'll never get there, or at least not until I've been retired for a few years), and wanted to get a few things to read for the trip next week. I decided to take her to Seekers Bookstore, a second hand shop located at 509 Bloor Street West, Toronto. This is a really neat spot, where I knew she would find something of interest, and more importantly for her, save quite a bit of money. Been there previously a few times on my own, and have never left empty handed.

The store is arranged a bit like a library, with everything catagorized by subject or author. There books range from new to very old, all in good shape, with a large section of spiritual, new age, meditation, philosophy type books, you know "heart, head and soul" stuff. You will find books on any topic you are seeking, hence the store name I guess, and more than likely would find a specific book you could not find elsewhere.

While Mary Lou was browsing the stacks my eye was drawn to the Buddist section, full of all kinds of things from the Dali Lama and his followers. While standing there, a book fell from somewhere behind the shelf, landing right in front of me. I pulled a few things out of the way and picked up a large paper back book, that must have been there for a long while as it was covered with copius numbers of dust clumps. I spent a minute shaking and brushing them off, before turning the book over and seeing what it was.

The book was titled "Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom" by one Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. I am at that age where change is being forced upon me, getting older every day, and contemplating how I intend to retire. I recently decided to try meditation, figuring I could best learn how while facing the sun rising over the Caribbean each morning on the beach. Last week I went to see with Mary Lou what I thought would be a chick flick (owed her that for dragging her to see Get Low the week before) Eat, Pray, Love , and was actually deeply affected by the movie, as I am "in my own way" on a journey of self discovery. So, I thought, was this just a book falling, or did this book seek me out. Is it a coincidence, or did that book hang on until it sensed that someone who may have a need for it was there. I don't know for sure, but I bought it, and plan on carrying it with me to Punta Cana. Hey, even if it was just a book falling, can't hurt.