Grandfather gear

Mimi returned to Trinidad this week. She came bearing gifts.
I received some Olympic logo'd stuff from Whistler but I also got my new grandfather garb.

I especially like the over-the-glasses sunglasses. You will find me in my new outfit....after my afternoon naps.

Thanks Peter - I hope you got a grandfather outfit for yourself as well.

B.

The hills are alive....

...with fire.

Just another smoky day in Trin.

Amidst this smoke is a house.... (yes, tucked in next to the highway billboard).

No one will fight the fire - there is no extra water to fight it with. You just hope that it burns around the house.

The next night, looking out the balcony towards the west - there was a hazy sunset and another line of fire in the hills.

There is lot of time left in the dry season here.

B.

Flower power

We have moved from a country where flowers are very inexpensive to a country where flowers are not cheap. Getting them delivered from the snowy climes of Canada might even be cheaper.
B.

Fire Island

It's getting dry here. Very dry.

There are grass/ground fires daily. This one was on the way home from work last week.

Combining a very dry, dry season with this heat and a systemic water shortage is creating problems. Forgive the pun but the water authority here is taking a lot of heat.

This afternoon, I could see these two fires near the apartment.

Some fires start with the flick of a cigarette and dont get put out, they just have to burn out....there isnt sufficient water to use on the fires.

This one got worse as the night wore on.

I think it started burning more than just grass.

B.

Mall Cops

Trincity Mall is one of the bigger malls on the island.
It has a reputation of problems...smash and grabs from parked cars, bad guys following you to your car and robbing you. The police set up one of their 'Eye in the Sky' units in the corner of the parking lot. You make a point of parking near it...so when you get mugged, it gets caught on video.

B.

Post Olympic wind down...

After Team Canada won the hockey gold, it was time for a shopping spree. Have you seen the last outfit I bought?



The shoes look comfy, dont they? Rebecca looks comfy, doesnt she? All those Olympics tired her out.

B.

An Olympic Lime

Today, is the last day of the Winter Olympics. What a show....even from this far away.

While I have missed being there, I have lots of connections to it. I have many friends who have done an unbelievable job of getting all the Alpine skiing events completed and I have Mimi, Katie, Devin and Rebecca in Whistler enjoying the experience....and any Olympic outfit that would fit a 10 lb baby, I have paid for.

This afternoon, a number of Canadians got together to kick back, have some beers and watch the Gold medal men's hockey game. Call it an Olympic Lime.

We got together at Trotters, a sports bar here in Port of Spain (it is also across the road from the Canadian High Commission). Most Canadians were wearing red and there were several flags. The Americans were quite understated (a bit of a surprise). There was one girl painting maple leafs on everyone's face. The bar has 16 TV's, 14 of them were tuned into the game. We even got a glimpse of Don Cherry...

I had a couple of people from work who are down here from Calgary that joined us. Barry got his maple leaf. Ryan was quite happy with his toque... but he did add a flag later in the evening.

Having the game going into overtime didnt help but winning the gold was cool.

Tonight, we may have recruited a little one from Trinidad (here with Dana) to either take up hockey... or at least know to cheer for Canada.

I am looking forward to catching the Closing Ceremonies tonight.

As I type this, NBC is showing a lookback of the games and while there is an American spin to it, they have shown and said lots of great things about Canada and about Canadians - we need to do more of that ourselves.

B.