I be limin': January 2012

We went for a hike on the weekend...

It was a relatively short hike....just 45 minutes to our destination. I hadnt paid much attention to the sign at the road (I took the picture after we got back to the truck). I knew we were going through the Bamboo Cathedral. The Bamboo Cathedral is just 10 minutes off the road. We had been there before but we hadnt ventured up the trail beyond that.

Along the way, this little critter fluttered by and landed just long enough to get his picture taken.

We came up on the North Coast. There was this lookout point----actually a rest stop on this uphill hike for us elite athletes.

Just another kilometer up the path we came around a corner and voila, there was...just what the sign said...the (satellite) tracking station. It hasnt been used in quite some time.

We walked around for a bit.

It's a cool spot. While were up there we noticed this guy on the top of the dish...

On the walk back down, he came up behind us riding his mountain bike. We had a nice chat. I gave him my business card - he wanted a picture of himself up on the dish. Easy walk - 45 minutes up and 20 minutes down....and a 3 beer lunch afterwards.

While flying back to Calgary for a white Christmas, I am penning this note. I have received several year end/Christmas letters and I enjoy reading them. If you dont, read no further....

It has been an interesting year for Mimi and myself.

Trinidad has grown on us. Nothing much surprises us anymore. When the international press reported that an assassination plot on the Trinidad Prime Minister and 3 of her Ministers had been foiled, we thought it was just another Friday in Trinidad (BTW all 16 people arrested for the plot have since been released). When someone stole $1 million worth of cashews from the port, it got a bit of chuckle. We know that unfortunate things happen in the rest of the world but with 3 tabloid national papers here, it is front page news here with a splash every day.

This year, we have been through a State of Emergency and a curfew (9 pm to 5 am) which did put a crimp in going out for dinner as restaurants had to close at 6 pm so the staff could get home. It also meant that Mimi had to cook most nights! There were reasons for the State of Emergency (I think). It was alleged that a drug war was about to break out and the SoE was put in place to deal with it. I did have a curfew pass for work (Mimi didn’t) but I didn’t have anywhere to go so it wasn’t of much use.

My own work milestones have come slower than anticipated (dont tell my boss) but now as we end the year we have traded some delays with some other successes - we have imported a new drilling rig from Canada, commissioned a new service rig and we expect the arrival within days of a big rig to drill our deeper wells. The industry here had been in a bit of slowdown and we are still the only company to have drilled exploration wells onshore in a number of years. In February, we tested the first onshore oil discovered here in 50 years. Not bad. As I have grown the office here, I am no longer ‘indispensible’ and have left others in charge of the operations so I could get back to Calgary for Christmas. We are still exploring for oil here but the approval process has been more difficult than the actual drilling for the oil. I (ok, Mimi and I) have signed on for another year here. I want to be here when we get the regulatory, operations and production all aligned and working.

Mimi and I have learned more about being expats and we both now have Canadian passports that have been issued outside of Canada, Mimi’s in Buenos Aires and mine now in Port of Spain. I had to get a new passport early because I had run out of pages.

We have seen a bit of the Caribbean and as you probably have guessed, I have taken more than my share of photographs. The kids have been great about sending us photos almost daily of Rebecca and Sienna. I think we have received about 700 photos of them as they have grown. It is a treat for us. We have two more grands on the way as Kelli and Katie are both expecting in June. Skype video has been a godsend for us. The babies do recognize us (ok, they recognize Mimi more so than me – she works hard at it).

I have not kept up on my blog (www.ibelimin.blogspot.com) but every so often, I do several entries in a row. I think my stories might becoming stale. We need to get away from Trinidad a bit more often and find more stories to share.

My commute to work is still 75 minutes each way (I cant believe how many new cars get imported into Trinidad each week) but now when I leave the office, I dont turn off my computer. I write emails on the drive home and when I get home, the internet reconnects and they all get sent. We are 3 hours ahead of Calgary now so the office is still open on my drive home. No, I dont text and drive. This is the last place on the planet to do that – a recipe for highway disaster for sure. For the last year, I have had a driver in order to get more work done on the commute and to come home a little less tired each night. The highway wrecks here are truly spectacular (in a negative sense) made worse by the lack of car seats for little ones.

As we start year 3 in Trinidad, Mimi and I are changing apartments. We are moving into one that has an office. It will give me space to spread out and not be underfoot as my old ‘office’ was set up on the kitchen island. Mimi has been a really good sport about it for two years.

We have switched from accumulating Argentine wines to developing quite a collection of rums. Everyone here has a favourite so having them all on hand when friends drop by is a good idea. When I last checked – we have Angostura 1919, Single Barrel, Mount Gay Extra Old, Ron Zacapa 23 yr old (and a lovely bottle of XO), Ten Cane & Black Label – they are all quite good. We only really drink it when we have friends over. So the supply has built up significantly. Trinidad is a big scotch drinking country. I haven’t acquired a taste for it (yet).

The raining season this year (July – December) has been particularly wet. Flood damage has been significant across the country and it regularly wipes out houses and businesses in a single rainstorm. I often have to suspend conference calls because the sound of the rain pounding on the office roof makes it impossible for anyone to hear.

I am scheduled to officiate at a FIS race near Ottawa in February. I am timing the trip to meet with the Trinidad High Commissioner to Canada. It will be an interesting mix of reasons to travel. I am looking forward to getting back on snow. I will have to bring my gear down here with me so I can take it with me to Ottawa. I will rent skis when I am there but I will be hauling boots, ski pants, jacket, gloves, toque through Trinidad Customs.....I am sure they have seen far stranger things. We get CBC down here so I was able to watch the Lake Louise World Cup Downhills.

After 2 years, we are now seeing old friends leave and new friends arrive in Trinidad. Mimi is very much the welcoming type and has made entry into Trinidad easier for several new expats just as others have done for us in Argentina and Trinidad. Mimi is staying busy with the Canadian Women’s Club Welfare Committee where she does fundraising and directs it towards local charities. Her book club reads some interesting books and she has become very good at Canasta.

At this time of year as hectic as it is, we just wanted to check in, say hi and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mimi & Brian