Bees

We have seen our share of annoying lapwings and encountered caimans at Millennium but this past weekend it was bees.

On the 9th tee box, there was a swarm that had congregated on a post.nearby.

 

They were just minding their own business. I wasnt. I had to check them out.

 

After we played through, they closed the area and had a bee guy come in and remove them.

 

B.

Middle o' the fairway

The Lapwing is a very territorial bird. They have quite an annoying cry and they will divebomb you if you happen to get near a nest or their young ones. W have had several run ins with them at Millennium - not because we are looking for trouble, its just that there are so many iving on the course.

  

Yesterday, we came across one sitting (literally) in the middle of the 18th fairway. I drove quite close to it to take a picture.  Mimi was not happy about our proximity to it.

As I got closer, the lapwing stood up and there 185 yards from the pin right in the middle of the fairway was a nest with 3 eggs in it.

 

 

Since they rarely cut the fairways or the rough, the eggs have a pretty good chance of hatching.

This guy was watching over the tee box.

 B.

Ryder Cup skype

We planned our Sunday afternoon around watching the Ryder Cup (despite the one-sided results after Saturday's matches).  We just started watching the coverage when the TV went blank. Turns out a small storm had come through and a Flow tower was struck by lightning(30 minutes into the Ryder Cup coverage). We lost TV & internet until 5 this morning.

We debated whether to go to the Trotters Sports Bar to watch the Ryder Cup but neither one of us wanted to get off the couch.

Came up with a Plan C.  I have a Digicel 4G remote access stick.

 

We ended up using it to get internet access and then we skyped our kids in Calgary who put a computer camera in front of their TV.

 

We saw the last 90 minutes of the Ryder Cup.

Great finish, eh?

 

B.

Great Race - Update

29 boats registered.
24 boats started
12 finished

Gulf Fire One won the race.

B.

One Way Ariapita - not any more

Back to the old ways on Sept 3.

 

The West Port of Spain Traffic Plan Experiment is over - even before the new paint on the roads is dry.

They will have to repaint all the repainted lines and arrows, remove the new traffic lights.......and add back 20 mins to my commute.

 

Damn.

 

B.

 

The Great Race - Trinidad to Tobago

Carib sponsors a Trinidad to Tobago boat race. It starts in front of the Hyatt hotel and then heads to Tobago.  

There was a crowd of folks out to watch the start at 8 this morning. 

The larger boats are packing 2400 HP. The trip to Tobago wont take long.  They are followed by helicopters for safety.

They were a fair ways offshore as they went past the Hyatt but you could really hear them!
I dont think anyone on the water side of the hotel slept past 8:05 am.
 

B.

Birthday cake!

It was my birthday yesterday.

 

I got several calls and emails through the day and at about 3 o'clock, a cake was delivered to the office.

 

 It was also accompanied by a pile of small boxes.

 

From Calgary, Mimi had asked that as part of my party, the staff each get a small treat. Hence the boxes.

Party Bites did a great job on the cake & cupcakes. The pics ended up on their Facebook page as well.

 

It was fun time.

 

B.

50th Anniversay Murals

The Parliament moved to the Waterfront Towers while renovations continue at the Red House. 

A series of murals were commissioned describing the history of Trinidad & Tobago as part of the 50th Anniversary of T&T's Independence.

It starts with the first peoples, the Amerindians and continues to the cultural influences to the present. 

It threads its way down the side of the building.

Highlighted murals include the Carnival mural.....

The Industry mural....

And of recent interest is the Sports mural.

The mural highlights the Hasely Crawford Olympic gold medal won at the '76 Olympics.

The recent success of Keshorn Walcott, winner of the Men's Javelin in London has sparked a debate as to whether the mural should be modified to include reference to his gold medal before Independence Day which is on August 31st. 

Stay tuned.

B.

7th Fairway Fred

I was out at Millennium on the weekend when this guy walked across the fairway.

I thought....take your time, I am not in a rush to tee off. 

The lapwings have been pretty skittish lately.  They have been very protective of their territory - which consists of most of the fairways these days.

I was able to get pretty close to this one without getting yelped at or divebombed...she was protecting a nest of 3 eggs.

O...and my game still sucks - I lost 7 balls in that round. The golf ball recycling program is working very well. I am now buying used balls 50 at a time.

B.

Olympic time!

I came back to Calgary for some meetings just as the Summer Olympics kicked off in London.

As Calgary is an Olympic city, the Olympic flag will be flying over COP for the duration of the London Olympics. It is a pretty cool flag.

BTW my nephew, Luke starts competition in the 470 Class of sailing Thursday, Aug 2nd. Go Luke! 

B. 

Sienna makes the news!

As a grandfather, you get certain bragging rights. As a grandfather with a camera, you brag in colour. 

A couple of recent pictures I took ended up in the Calgary Herald as part of the Best Stampede Photo contest - one of Rebecca and one of Sienna.  The one of Sienna was highlighted today. 

The picture of Sienna didnt win - that wasnt my goal.  I was just sharing.....or bragging ; )

http://www.calgaryherald.com/PhotoVote+have+winner+Best+Stampede+Photo/6940861/story.html

B.

One way Ariapita

Today was the day that the new traffic plan for Port of Spain was implemented. A number of two way streets are now one way streets. Lots of opinions as to whether this experiment will work. Well, I have to tell you that Day One was very successful....for me.
Instead of taking the usual Wrightson Road through Port of Spain on the way to Marabella, I took the new one way eastbound Ariapita Avenue and cut 15 minutes off the commute.

A few paint jobs need to be fixed up but otherwise there wasnt the chaos some were predicting.....but then there is always Day Two.

B.

Symbiotic relationship

A symbiotic relationship can be described as one that is beneficial to both parties.  I am currently in one.
At Millennium, I seem to have an amazing ability to lose golf balls - it was 7 today (I found two, so it was net 5). I have long given up playing new balls (and Pro V1's are a distant memory) but now I have developed a relationship with a guy on the golf course who sells found golf balls.

Today I bought 3 dozen balls for TTD $120 from him.  It really is a great relationship, I need golf balls and he works hard to find them.

Now, I am marking all of my all of my balls the same way  - 3 black dots around the logo.  I figure at the rate I am losing balls, he will just be selling mine back to me soon enough.

Our symbiotic relationship will then become a recycling program that I will be basically subsidizing. Hey, I am close to becoming my own government.

To my surprise, there still are guys playing (and losing) Pro V1's at Millennium - in my lootie bag of 36, there was 3 of them. Sweet.

B.

Next door fireworks

You gotta love it when the fireworks come to your doorstep.

Our daughter and son-in-law just live behind COP. They are in the shadow of the ski jumps.This weekend, there was a great fireworks display.   
These pictures were taken from their front window (that is the reflection from the TV in the bottom left corner).

Without taking a step, we were able to watch the weekend's show. 

Unfortunately, my 'steady' hand did not do a very good job of capturing the '100' firework to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Stampede.

 It was still great to watch.

B.

More pancakes!

We went to another Stampede pancake breakfast at the Bearspaw Golf Club.

There was, of course, pancakes.....

and Penelope the Clown, who did face painting (and in our case, arm painting),

and balloons for Sienna and Rebecca.


Gran also had some quiet time with Spencer out on the course.

B.

Calgary's 100th and Spencer's 1st Stampede

I came back to Calgary for a quick visit. It would be the first time I have met my newest grandson, Spencer Paul.

We took him to the Stampede Parade.  It would be his first parade and pancake breakfast. Being only three weeks old - there will be a lot of firsts. 

There was a parade but it was just nice to watch his big sister's Rebecca's reaction to everything that was going on around her. 

 It was a fun day.

B.

Need an Olympian to cheer for?

Then cheer for my nephew, Luke Ramsay.
My sister's son, Luke has been a sailor forever. A former Laser World Junior Champion and then, not too long ago he switched to sailing in the 470 Class with another successful Laser sailor, Mike Leigh. Luke got an engineering degree along the way too.

At the World Championships last month in Barcelona, they qualified to represent Canada in London in the 470 Class.

This week, they are competing in the European 470 Championships in Largs, Scotland and after 10 races, they are in 5th place. 
Check it out:   http://event.470europeans2012.com/eventsites/default_s.asp?eventid=66760 
There are some great write-ups about their performances on the website as well.

CAN 618 - that would be Luke & Mike's boat (in the lead)...

It looks a little chilly in Scotland at this time of year.

Bookmark their blog and appreciate that if they don't update it very often - they are busy training, and fundraising and training and fundraising. It will be a busy & exciting month ahead for them.
Check them out:  http://www.mikeandluke.com/ and on Facebook :  http://www.facebook.com/mikeleighandlukeramsay

We are all very proud of Luke.

B.

P.S. Sponsors welcome (for them, not me!)

Trip to Calgary - the real reason

I have told everyone I booked a quick trip to Calgary to meet our new grandson, Spencer.

In actual fact, it is to get a refill of my Father's Day golf ball bucket.

For Father's Day, I recieved 30 'experienced' golf balls from the kids.

I have lost most of them playing at Millennium Lakes in just the past couple of weeks. At Millennium, losing a half dozen balls per round is easy to do. I know, I have done it every round in the past 5 weeks.

I wont be buying Pro V1's any time soon.

B. 

Learning at an early age what it means to be Canadian

On Canada Day 2012, our granddaughter Rebecca got to check out some oversized hockey gear. 

She looks ready to take up the sport.

B.