Ashes to Ashes

Today's song is: Break up in a Small Town  .. Sam Hunt

and Part of Your World .. both requested by Jaime

Today we were out by 9 am, driving to the beach that my mother spent her PEI summers at. We were travelling based on my memory where the rental college was located and after a few misdirections we found it. We parked the car and decided to walk the beach for a while to get in the correct frame of mind to scatter the ashes. After about an hour we sat down on some rocks. No one seemed to want to take the initiative so I scooped out a fair size whole in the sand and removed my mom's ashes from the gold transportation bag and spread them on the bottom. I then carefully spread the sand back over the ashes and Jaime added 2 flowers (Queen Anne's Lace). We then sat for a while and then left the ashes to the sand and inevitable ebb and flow of the ocean tides.

We then headed out looking for the fish and chips shop where we used to take my mom. Our mom, being English, loved her fish and chips. However, my memory failed me this time and we decided to head off to the Dune's restaurant. The 30 minute waiting list for lunch scared us off and we headed down the road to Richard's Fish and Chips which came highly recommended. Upon arriving at Richards, we discovered it was also the original location we were looking for. What luck?

We decided to try Richards and it was okay, but I am not sure if it was better than our original place. Richard's seems to have been heavily promoted and I am sure it must have been mentioned in some rag like the Lonely Planet, which all the backpackers and similar tourists seem to think is the bible for travel an eating. I always recommend asking a local.

We then decided to visit Stanhope National Park and walked and sat on that beach for another 90 mins before returning to Charlottetown. It looks like it is an easy night for drinking wine and reflecting on today's activities.

I promised some picks so here they are:

Last night's dinner at the Charlottetown Harbour

Music Recital, Charlottetown Harbour

Dining place from below

Charlottetown Harbour

We had dessert here

Checkers anyone?

Charlottetown outdoor mall

Student street musicians

Beach where we spread the ashes  .. Ann and Jaime in the distance

Steps down from the cottage

Elaine, Ann, and Jaime

Various shots of the Dune's restaurant gardens

Not sure why they have all these Cambodian statues

Teak root chair

The Dunes from the gardens

Where we ate

The blue signed restaurant is where we used to eat

Stanhope beach

selfies in the wind  .. front facing camera

The sky is so blue in Canada

TTYL

Charlottetown, PEI

Today's song is: Crystallize   ... Lyndsey Stirling  .. recommended by my daughter Jaime

We arrived in Charlottetown yesterday after overnighting in Fredericton New Brunswick. The roads from Quebec City to Fredericton are beautiful and the pics do not do the countryside justice. The roads from Fredericton to Charlotte are the older roads that I am used to from the 90's when our family was doing the summer vacation in the maritimes. The Confederation Bridge is an awesome engineering feat. It is worth the trip all by itself.

Confederation Bridge

On the road again ... I'm driving ...

Today is a day of rest from the cars and I think a walk down to Charlottetown harbour is in order. After much discussion we decided a 4 pm sojourn to the harbour would be ideal. It should be a good photo opportunity.

TTYL

Audience

Today's song is: You are my Sunshine  .. Johnny Cash

Warning, this post will only be of interest to nerds and geeks with an inquisitive mind ...

I have been puzzled of late with the stats on my viewing audience. France, for some reason hosts the highest numbers of page views. That is sort of unusual IMHO as my blog is in English and we do not see all that many French folks in Thailand. I decided to review the data. This is what it looks like:

Two things immediately jumped out at me. One, the most prominent operating system is Linux but Linux desktops are not very common. Second, the most prominent browser is Safari which is on Apple IOS (MacIntosh), which was way down the list of operating systems.

My conclusion is that someone or some company is running a bot (short for robot) in France on a Linux server. A bot is an automated system that does something on a regular basis such as visit a website. Often the bot will be what is referred to as a headless browser. Headless browsers can pretend to be any type of browser and I think in this case, it masquerades as a safari (Mac) browser.

Now why the bot is interested in my humble blog, is beyond me. I can only conclude that Google surfaces my blog with some keywords that the bot is interested in.

I warned you that this post would only be of interest to geeks and nerds. Any thoughts out there on my conclusion?

TTYL

Today's song is: Straight from the Heart  .. Bryan Adams  .. great Canadian singer

I am back at my sister's (Elaine) and we are packing for our 7 day trip to Prince Edward Island (along with my other sister Ann and my daughter Jaime) to spread my Mom's ashes along the beach where we vacationed for many years. It will be our first family road trip (and probably last) in quite some time. Unfortunately my son Jordan can not join us as he is working at 2 jobs this summer to augment his occasion teaching during the school year.

My Canada trip (not really a vacation, a lot of work) is coming to a close. I am looking forward to returning to Thailand and seeing Thavorn and Jaidan. Jaidan seems to have developed quite a sense of humor in my absence. Jaidan turns 2 years old on July 31st and Thavorn and Jaidan are meeting up with me in Bangkok to celebrate his birthday. Time for a visit to ToysRUs to let him pick out his birthday present :-) Some pics:

Mom and son binding without Poppa

Missing Thavorn ...

Jaidan teasing his Mom ...

in Poppa's cap

I went shopping for some new books for Jaidan. He likes to be read to and really enjoys books that he can manipulate and see different things. However, he often tries to take them apart to see how they work. Two months apart form Jaidan and Thavorn is about 2 months too long. Next summer they will travel with me :-) Apparently Jaidan is chatting up a storm  .. in Thai :-(

I will document our road trip to PEI with pics. Prince Edward Island is a beautiful and laid back place to visit. It is very popular with Japanese tourists and I suspect the Chinese tourists will discover it soon.

I am also looking forward to the night life in Bangkok!

TTYL

Coaches

Today's song is: Start Me Up  ..Stones

The boys got together on Sunday at 1 pm and we laughed for the next 10 hours. We have lots in common. First and foremost, we are guy kind of guys. Secondly, are are all divorced or separated, probably due to the first reason. Thirdly, we are all accomplished basketball coaches who have coached with and against each other. Here is a pic, but unfortunately Gerry is missing from the group photo because someone has to take the pic :-)

John, Ashley, Mike, and Jim

Gerry and Ashley

Gerry owns the house and often uses it as a halfway house for men going through a divorce or other traumatic experience who need a place to crash. Laughter is heals the soul and Gerry's environment has laughter in abundance. If we could bottle it and sell it we would be very rich men.

We dined on burgers and chickens and copious amounts of wine, but I think we seriously depleted Mike's wine cellar.

My time in Canada is rapidly coming to a close. I have Monday to Friday for a last week of work and visiting school boards and then I leave for PEI for a week to spread my mom's ashes with my two sisters and daughter. Then it is a weekend at my sister Elaine's and then packing on Monday and a 6 am flight to Thailand on the Tuesday morning. Best I get down to programming ... Start me up :-)

TTYL

19 Days and Counting

Today's song is: Sunday Morning After .. Amanda Marshall

I moved back to my sister's in Ottawa and was supposed to meet my buddy John for a beer or two at Big Rigs but I messed up and it looked like I cancelled out but actually did not so there I sat all by myself sipping a tall Gold waiting for John. I texted John, admitted my blunder, rebooked for tomorrow at noon and ordered a BBQ Buffalo Chicken Pizza. I walked back to Elaine's and received a text from my son Jordan asking me to meet him for a beer at Big Rig at 8:15 tonight. Now, I like Big Rig, but 3 visits in 24 hours is a bit much, but off I go in 60 minutes :-)

The online stores can't fathom while folks do not use their smart phones for buying tings on line. Duh, what happened with Big Rig is a perfect example. Finger poking a small screen and entering info with auto correct on will land you in trouble sooner or later. Sometimes a large screen, a regular keyboard, a mouse, and your brain engaged is simply a better choice.

I have mapped out the rest of my time in Canada and it is rapidly disappearing. I am down to 19 days, 7 of which will be spent with my 2 sisters and my daughter Jaime. Road trip .. should be fun. One of the coolest part of the trip is going over the Confederation bridge.

Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved, 12.9 kilometre (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and more than a decade after its construction, it endures as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century.

I also have an upcoming coming BBQ with Mike in Orleans this Sunday and then a final week of work at various Eastern Ontario school boards. I said my goodbye's to Lake Maskinonge and my buddy Gandalf that walks the forest at my sisters.

Bigger than he looks

Chainsaw art

If you go down into the woods today

Departing .. idyllic setting in the woods of Quebec

TTYL