The Good with the Bad

I hope the following is as amusing as it is enlightening.

The Good

At the end of last year, my girlfriend and I got tickets for Cirque Du Soleil. We had seen Alegria some time ago and really enjoyed it and vowed to go to more productions. We bought tickets for some kind of hybrid Cirque Du Soleil Ice show but the pandemic wiped that out. When we bought these tickets, we were worried that this would also be a bust, but we figured that it was a worthwhile gamble. Luckily this one paid off.

The show just opened a few days ago, but thankfully everything went ahead full steam. It was so nice to get out a do something. The show was lots of fun with a number of good acts. It is amazing what the human body can do with zero body fat and great balance. There were moments that were amazing. I will definitely go to more shows like this one. Perhaps, one day, I will be able to afford to be a VIP customer and get to spend time in the VIP booth before the show.

If I had any critiques, it would be with the high price for parking and the rather uncomfortable chairs. None of these things involved the show, so let’s leave them here.

The Bad

Yesterday, I joked about the coffee maker dying. I was planning on going through the whole vinegar routine on Sunday. The area I live in has hard water and regular de-scaling is important. I shouldn’t have joked about it, because I woke up this morning to a non-functioning coffee pot. Easter Sunday, and no coffee. Coffee makers don’t really last a long time, but I have a feeling I jinxed myself.

Suffering from caffeine withdrawal is no time to go shopping. Easter Sunday is no time to go shopping either. As it turns out, a number of stores are open, but I chose the wrong ones and couldn’t find a coffee maker anywhere. Then my girlfriend suggested Canadian Tire. I thought it would be closed and hadn’t even considered it. This surprised her as this is my “go to” store. Usually I consider Home Hardware my go to store, but sadly the size difference and stock quantities don’t really compare. I was surprised that I hadn’t checked the store hours either, and chalked it up to a lack of caffeine.

So, after several stores, I ended up at Canadian Tire and bought a coffee maker–nothing fancy. It used a basked filter whereas my current one uses a cone filter. No problem, I thought. I have a basket filter at home. Actually, what I had was the box for the basket filter, but not the filter itself. So, yes, I had to go back to the store. I blame everything on my lack of caffeine. Although breakfast was delayed, I did eat something. That was good because if I had also been hangry, it wouldn’t have gone well.

The Indifferent

I awoke to snow on the ground. While this was not totally unexpected, I had hoped that I would be on my bike this weekend. It melted and if it hadn’t been for the whole coffee maker issue, I probably would have gotten out on my bike. Then again, I probably would have had to engage in yard work too–so I really can’t grumble about this. I will be on my bike sometime this week.

Wrapping Up My Trip

I would like to write a post chronicling some of the things about my recent Trip to Morocco that is a collection of impressions and anecdotes about the trip.

Preparation

If I am being honest, I would say my preparation was poor. Not unlike several of the other people on the trip, I expected it to be warmer. I also didn’t consider the elevation or how cold my hands could feel as I raced down the mountains on some of those descents. On one day in particular we had wind, rain, snow and then balmy temperatures–basically all four seasons in one day. I have warm weather kit, I just didn’t take it with me. I should have taken my full finger gloves. I should have tighter fitting water resistant jacket to wear over my cycling kit. I should not have taken my swimming trunks. I should have taken the longer leg bibs. I also should have taken more cycling socks. Also, I really should have taken my action camera.

The Country

Wow! I really didn’t know what to expect but what I can say is that Morocco does not disappoint. The landscapes were amazing and the things I did and saw were out of this world. I mean, I saw goats on a tree. I saw two major bodies of water, three mountain ranges, the desert, traffic chaos akin to Vietnam, glistening high rise buildings and people living in caves. I road up mountains, descended into gorges, road on the coast, went off road, and jostled with trucks, donkeys, motorbikes, and camels. I was greeted warmly by tons of people and given quite a wide margin of error by almost all drivers. It was such a full trip and I have absolutely no regrets about going.

Covid and its effect on Tourism

Morocco is only starting to recover from two years of no tourists. I consider myself lucky to have gone when I did. I am quite certain that I had more space and freedom than I normally would. The infrastructure is still there, but the effects are clear. Some hotels took the time to do facelifts, while others just packed themselves in mothballs. A number of times I requested things on the menu and was told that they weren’t available. A number of options were closed, but what we did was amazing enough.

Cycling

Seeing a country from the seat of a bicycle is something pretty cool to do. I have never regretted doing it that way, and I suppose I will continue to do it that way going forward. The perspective on two wheels is like nothing else

Fitness

I was pretty fit at the end of cycling season last year, but Christmas holidays and lack of training really put that to the test. Once again, I feel like I am starting from zero.

Blogging

I didn’t blog during this vacation and I feel like I missed something. I probably had time to write daily and you might have gotten a better impression of the country had I done so. After two years away from it, I had gotten out of the habit. Hopefully, I will do better on the next trip.

Photos

I really need to talk to WP. Maybe they could archive the years before this one in another blog and allow me to keep the followers and stats on this one. I really would have like to share more of the pictures with you all. That might have been the reason for not blogging so much. If you want to see them, a link to my Instagram is below and to the right.

I took a lot of photos. I am not sure what to do with them. I am definitely going to print some up for my walls, but I am thinking of making a photo book as a more permanent souvenir. I should also make a slide show to take to people’s houses so I can annoy them with my travel photos.

Food

There is some great food in Morocco. There is a lot of tajine, but there is a lot of other stuff as well. Everything I ate was good and quite a few things were great. I have already bought some olives and my girlfriend has already made the Moroccan carrot dish I liked so much. I got to experience quite a number of flavours that I would like to see incorporated into some of my meals.

Souvenirs

I didn’t buy too many souvenirs. I didn’t have room in my luggage, and I am not really a collector of fridge magnets. I did bring back some coffee, a t-shirt, a hand woven carpet, and a scarf for my girlfriend.

I bought a bunch of postcards to send to people, but when I went to the post office, they only had 3 stamps for postcards. That’s right. The post office only had three stamps. I know people aren’t sending as many postcards (if any) as they used to, but I would think the post office would have more than 3 stamps for the purpose.

Hot Chocolate in a Snowman Mug

The writing of this blog is an act of introspection on my part. I have written about it before….at length. Rather than repeat myself and explain how I choose the what I am going to write about, I would rather explain a little bit about what happens, sometimes, after I choose. This will also explain why this isn’t the post I meant to write for you.

Sometime before now, and I can’t really be that specific, I chose a Moment for Today’s Perfect Moment. I spun it around in my head, possibly composed the either the first few lines of this blogpost, or had some ideas of what I was going to write. Then I forgot it. It completely slipped my mind and no amount of prodding was going to bring that back. Since this has been happening with quite a bit more frequency, I could apply the same solution I have been using lately–that is to say, I could just skip writing the blog and go to bed.

The other option, and the one I am going to take (this time), is to write about my back up Perfect Moment. It might have come in second, but that is because I had already chosen the original topic and completely forgot it. Regardless, let us begin.

Some days you just need a cup of hot chocolate. That’s a bold statement, but no bolder than “some days, you need a good/strong cup of coffee, In my case, it was too late for a cup of coffee and I was craving something sweet.

I was on the couch, watching a documentary about Ernest Hemingway that I had recorded from the PBS station across the border (WNED). It had been on my PVR for quite some time. I had missed the first episode and was reluctant to start on the second. The first had covered my favourite Hemingway book–the Sun Also Rises–and I was less interested in the rest. On this day, however, I decided to hit play and see what it was all about.

Of course, I needed something to drink while watching. I briefly considered something stronger in solidarity with Hemingway, but ultimately rejected it. Instead, I reached into the cupboard and got down the snowman mug (a cross between Frosty and Raymond Briggs’ snowman). I made the hot chocolate, went back to the TV, considered the mug and all its holiday implications, glanced over at the tree and the already wrapped gifts underneath, and pressed play. If only it had been lightly snowing outside.

The program was quite good.

Phone Battles Begin

Unlike many of the people I work with, I like simple video games.  I don’t need epic story-lines and award-winning graphics.  I don’t need booming soundtracks and epic boss-battles.  I just need something to occupy my time in short bursts.  I also need someone around to compete against—either head to head, or in a level by level basis.

To that end, I play games like Words with Friends (and I am sure I have written about it–I have.  I have linked the text.).  I am not sure my family enjoys playing with me, but they manage to keep their trash-talking to a bare minimum.

So Yesterday, I discovered Happy Glass.  It has all the things I listed above.  It’s a cute problem-solving game that has multiple levels that get harder.  I enjoy it because it requires problem solving skills and a fair amount of experimentation.  Because it has levels, I can compete against friends and family.

After a hundred levels, things started to get harder.  I and a friend found ourselves stuck on the same level for what seemed like an eternity.  Then, with a little bit of strategy and a staggering amount of good luck, I completed the level first.  Though they are only bragging rights, they are all mine.  Perfect Moments come from anywhere.

A Kick Out Of Bananas

I have written before about gifts my students have given me. Today is another one of those situations, but with a little twist.  You see, usually the students bring things from their country.  These can be folk crafts, snacks, post cards, key chains, and alcohol–yes, I saved that one for last on purpose.

In today’s case, my student brought me something from their country that they bought here. They had gone shopping to a Korean grocery store and came across Banana Kick.  I mentioned this once when showing them a video of kydeanderic who are two jvloggers.  In the video, Kyde and Eric are visiting Korea town in Tokyo and Kyde heaps a lot of praise on this particular snack.  If you’ve watched these videos, you would take her food advice pretty seriously.  She knows her stuff.

So, if you’re keeping score, that means that

• My student actually paid attention to something I said.
• My student remembered something I said.
• My student thought of me when they were shopping for food–if I am shopping for food, I am most likely thinking about myself and my grumbling stomach.
• My student wanted to do something nice for me.

All in all, a pretty easy choice for Today’s Perfect Moment.

By the way, I have always found banana to be a hard flavour to replicate without tasting like chemicals. While I cannot say there was no taste of chemicals, at the very least, this did actually taste like bananas.  The students disagreed.  I had to fail them for that.

A Simple Sandwich

Today’s Perfect Moment is a celebration of one of the simpler things in life.

The day held very little in the way of either excitement or controversy.  I spent time

• folding clothes
• trying to get information about flights to the various places that I am considering for my winter cycling vacation–current contenders are Sri Lanka, Cuba, and Chile/Argentina.
• wracking my brain about the above choice
• cleaning up
• drinking coffee
• glancing through the newspaper
• returning a product to the store that I incorrectly bought
• watching Notre Dame beat Stanford
• wondering how my blog is doing
• writing a post for one of my other blogs
• playing with my cat

By the end of the day, I decided to make a simple dinner of a sandwich.  Of course, I chose my favourite ciabatta bun, sweet with heat mustard, and all the toppings that go well with chicken.  Yes, it is simple, but that is no excuse for not making the best chicken sandwich you can.

Reflections On My Trip

I wasn’t sure it was necessary, but I feel the need to reflect on my trip before the memory fades too much.  Thankfully, I have my blogs and my photos.

When I got back from my Vietnam cycling vacation, I was asked by all the people work with and all of the student who knew I had been on vacation how my trip was.  I answered with words like amazing, incredible and fantastic.  Since they had seen my somewhat dour and haggard look before the trip, they might not have been ready for my enthusiastic response.  The fact remains that it was true.

Before the trip

I had some reservations about taking a group tour. I had been intrigued by the variety of trips in the Exodus Travels catalogue, but I was a little hesitant,  I had never done anything like that before.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I had taken an ill advised group bus tour to Mount Fuji during Obon about 23 years ago.   That had been poor organized and overly ambitious.  (We only had time to climb a couple of stages and did not get to stay in a mountain hut.)  All I can say about this trip is that it exceeded my expectations on every level.

The people

I shouldn’t have worried about this. While I have met some less than friendly people on my bike, the vast majority of cyclists are like minded people.  They are usually friendly, encouraging and down to earth people.  My group in Vietnam was exactly that.  They were great.  In fact, I would go on record as saying that I made some friends that I want to keep for life.

 

The organization

This tour ran like clockwork. During rest breaks, while we were eating the snacks and drinking liquids the water bottles were being refilled and the bikes were being checked.   When we came to dangerous intersections, where there were no traffic lights, the crew was out warning traffic of our arrival.  When the riding was done the bikes were loaded with care and the bus  was prepared for our departure.  While we checked into our hotels the bikes were also being maintained and seen to, unnoticed by us.

Our hotels were amazing. I don’t know what they are like on other tours in other countries, but in Vietnam, these 4 star hotels were great.  They were welcoming too.  When we showed sweaty and covered in road dirt, they handed us drinks and took great care of us.

The country

Wow! It was so beautiful.  The colours were vibrant and varied.  We cycled through farmland, mountains, urban and rural areas.  We cycled with the coast and ventured inland.  The fact that every cycling day was sunny and warm was fantastic. I comfortably forgot about the Canadian winter I had left behind.  Honestly, with so much to see (and eat) I wish the tour had been about 3 weeks long.  By the third or fourth day I was smiling so much that my face hurt.

The People

Vietnamese people were friendly and funny. I never had a negative experience.  I did have some aggressive salespeople, but not angry aggressive. They just wanted to make a sale.

The Food

The food was awesome, and very affordable. They had a good range of sweet to spicy to savoury.  Additionally, I have never eaten so much delicious fruit in my life.  I already miss the mangos and the dragon fruit.

The hotel breakfasts were fantastic. They had a nice mix of western and Asian.  I had nice omelettes alongside rice porridge, and some delicious yoghurt.  And when you talk about breakfast, I have to explain that the coffee was the most delicious coffee I have ever had.  I drank more cups than I normally would (especially since I was going to ride a bike) but I didn’t regret it for a minute.  In fact, coffee was one of the souvenirs I brought back for myself.

What I would do different next time

First and foremost, I would get my own room. While sharing wasn’t horrible (and would have been good if I had taken someone with me) I didn’t like being on anyone else’s schedule.  On a cycling trip, you’ve got to clean your gear and clean yourself and it would have been better if I could do it without worrying that I was taking someone else’s time or soap.

Secondly, I loved my sandals. They were the perfect choice.  However, I have since found out that I could get the same sandals with cleats for the bike.  That would have been awesome, especially for some of those long climbs.

I should have packed more jerseys and most of my riding kit could use an upgrade. I don’t think I need to wear the full water backpack, but some quick drying shirts, a better helmet  would have been welcome additions to those sandals I am now craving.

From a tech perspective, it would have been nice to have a Garmin to map my ride and provide me with lots of interesting stats.  Also, blogging on a phone was less than ideal  I would probably need to pack a netbook rather than a laptop.  Space is at a premium after all.  And if were going to venture into the dream budget, a Sony Action Cam would also be pretty awesome to capture some of those views for my readers.

Recommendations

Vietnam is a fantastic place.  It took a long time to get there, but it was definitely worth it.  Choosing to travel by bike in a group tour was fantastic.  I might have had some reservations about the trip before going, but they were quickly swept away.  I got to see the country from ground level and that was amazing.  Exodus Travels who arranged/booked the tours were great.  Most of the people on the trip had already done one or more of the trips and they were back for more.  In fact, one of my fellow Vietnam travelers has already booked his next cycling trip in Cambodia through Exodus.  Maybe if I can raise the funds, I will join him. I am planning on taking another trip with them this year. I can’t decide between the already mentioned Cambodia, Based on my blog traffic, both reviews and daily blogs about traveling seem to attract a lot of attention.Chile, Iceland, India or hiking with them to Machu Pichu.  Only time will tell.