Where are they now?

Every year for one week, the island practically shuts down to celebrate Carnival. The ?Carnival Season? actually starts in January, when they start having competitions for the year?s Carnival Song and for bands to play it. The type of music is what they call Tumba (pronounced toomba). People spend a lot of money to get groups of people together in matching outfits and enter the parades. Yes, that?s plural; there are more parades here during Carnival week than you can shake a stick at. There are teen parades, night parades, kids? parades, a Grand parade and a Grand Finale Parade. Among others. The weeks approaching Carnival week are full of Jump-ups and Jump-ins, which are large indoor/outdoor parties that can sometimes spontaneously turn into parades. If you go to this website,  you can watch a video clip that gives you a taste of some of the parade activity ? the costumes, the dancing and the music. http://www.curacaocarnival.info/eng/index.php (click on ?Watch a Video Clip? on the left side of the screen)

(did you notice that these dresses have dolphins jumping out of them?)

I?m huge.

3 weeks to go and I have a big belly and elephant feet. With the heat and teaching, my ankles are the size of my thighs at the end of some days. Don?t get me wrong, I?m not complaining. I actually find them pretty amusing to look at (though not amusing enough to post a photo).

We decided to fly to Bonaire for the weekend before Lianne wouldn't be able to fly anywhere for a while. It is the next island to the east - also part of the Netherlands Antilles. We were thinking we would enjoy a quiet, relaxing weekend snorkeling, swimming, reading and relaxing. Unfortunately it poured rain (like we've never seen!) for the entire time we were there. Nonetheless, we did relax and we got to see another island. It's different than both Aruba and Curacao. The photos below would probably be much nicer if we had had sun but they give you a bit of a taste of what the island is like.

There are some "wild" donkeys on the island:

Windsurfing is pretty popular here, but SCUBA diving is what the island is all about.

We were lucky enough to see a whole flock of flamingos in flight!

Salt is a major export - it is produced by extracting it from sea water.

Dom?s sister, Stephanie, came for a week with her husband Denys and the kids, Amelie and Matthieu. Dom?s dad, Pat got a last-minute deal to come down too. We spent some time at a few beaches and enjoyed hanging out with them.

We managed to sneak in a quick trip to Halifax to get a dose of cold! We missed the cold weather. More specifically, we miss the change of seasons through the year. When we landed, there was no snow on the ground but it was nice to see our breath when getting off the plane. Lianne hoped for snow and the weatherman delivered ? a blizzard with about 30cm of snow on New Year?s Eve!

We had a very relaxing time, hanging out with Peggy and Paul ? we were even treated to a belated Christmas dinner with all the fixins! 

This picture was taken in our living room in Curacao just before leaving. The tree was real (from Quebec, even!) but somehow it still didn't feel like Christmas.

Pat and Cynthia came for a week-long visit to get some sun and a warm reprieve from chilly winter days. We enjoyed some of the ?old haunts? from their visit last year and then went to Aruba for a couple of days. Dom wakeboarded and Cynthia waterskiied - something she hasn't done since she was 14 years old! She got up on the skis on the first try and had a fantastic run without falling.  A good time!!

Check out a funny video in our videos (to the left) called "Supportive Wife"

Well, we knew this day would come, but Lester Marvin has finally become independent. For a few weeks, we've given him a larger room where he could exercise his mended leg and Dom has been taking him out in the yard to walk around with a bit more freedom. One day, he went into a dog kennel that is in the back of our yard and he hid behind some boxes. We decided to put his food and water there. Our hope was that he would stay there for as long as he felt comfortable and then he could be free to leave whenever he wanted but there would always be food and water if he needed to return. He did stay for a while and we stopped watching him to give him some privacy. The next morning he was gone and, although we continued to put food out for him, we never saw him back again. My hope is that he went home to his family. As I said before, he was obviously accustomed to people and though we didn't find his owners, he was found not too far from where we live. Cats have travelled much farther to return home and I think that's what ol' L-M did. I think that 10 weeks with us was enough for him and he was ready to leave. Here is a picture of him on Dom's lap - note the sunburnt nose and ears and how he's kneading Dom's leg!

Our friend Candace came for a week's visit. Dom and I were both working but we still found time to skip off to Aruba (along with Greg) and Greg actually had a couple of days off so he was able to take Candace around to some of the sights that we weren't able to. We ate some good food and had some great laughs.

(P.S. the dress was poofy - I may be pregnant but I wasn't that fat!!!)

It turned out that Greg, Lianne and I had the same three days off and so we decided to rent an airplane an fly to Aruba. Another colleague, Martin (from Quebec) tagged along and the four of us had a great time. I liked Aruba more than I thought I would. The beaches are fantastic, the people are friendly and there are lots of things to do. Greg, Lianne and I chartered a boat and did some wake boarding which was a blast, and then we just relaxed on the beach.

It was very late one night (or very early one morning) and Dom was getting into bed after a flight and he woke me to tell me not to go into our laundry room because a cat was in there? He was driving home in the dark and saw a cat curled on the side of the road that had been hit by a car but was obviously still alive... He got out of the car and saw that the poor thing?s leg was broken and his head was bleeding but he was awake and breathing. Dom picked him up and put him in the car and ultimately in our laundry room (which is outside our actual house).

The next day, we took the cat to the vet. They took some xrays and discovered that one hind leg was completely broken and one eye was filled with blood but otherwise he seemed to be Ok.  We paid for surgery to have a pin put in his leg and we?ve been keeping him here, feeding him and keeping him from running and jumping too much.

We?re trying to find out if he has an owner but until then he?ll be staying at the Baker Animal Shelter. I thought we should give him a name because when we say ?did you feed the cat?? it gets confusing because we could be referring to Bailey. I suggested the name Marvin. Dom liked Lester better, so we?ve compromised and his name for the moment is Lester-Marvin. He?s quite sweet; he hisses when Dom gets close to him (because I can?t touch him, of course ? who knows what diseases he might have) but he allows Dom to pet him. As soon as he is being petted, he starts meowing instead of hissing, then he starts kneading with his paws and eventually, after 10 minutes, he?ll even start to purr. He might have been a wild cat or maybe he was a family?s outdoor cat so we are trying to find out if he has owners that miss him.

He has become quite affectionate with Dom, even climbing up on his lap when he goes into the room for a visit (after he?s gotten over the hissing, of course). He?s all white with yellow eyes. He has lost the vision in the damaged eye after all and it will take a while for the muscles in his hind leg to get their strength back but he seems to be a fighter and we?ll look after him until he?s ready to go back to where he came from. I?ll post a picture if I can get one of him.