Send a Geek to Cordova Bay

Here is the first tour of my new place!

Time Zones Around the World

I've just started my Chinese lessons again, after about a 3 month break.  I'm currently visiting my daughter in Quebec, and since she is a student and generally pretty busy, I figured this would give me something to do while she was at class, doing homework, etc.

Well this has lead to an interesting conversation with my teacher about the whole timezone thing.

Did you know that China has only a single timezone?  Despite being the 3rd largest country on earth (or 4th on some lists, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and call them 3rd tied with the USA) the entire country runs on a single timezone.  Well it turns out that the Chinese think it very strange that other countries contain multiple timezones!

Me:  I'm in Quebec right now, so it's 8PM.  In Victoria it's only 5PM.
Valarie: That's strange!  Why is the time different?
Me:  Because Canada is so large.  The sun sets later in Victoria, so it's in a different timezone.  That way the sunset it at the same time (about 6PM) everywhere.
Valarie:  How strange!  In China we are all on "Beijing time".

When travelling in Europe, we noticed that Italy and Spain are on the same timezone, resulting in a sunset about an hour later in Spain.  Where dinner time is around 8:30PM in Italy, it starts around 10PM in Spain!  However the Spaniards are thinking of changing this - see the following article:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24294157

This is one of the things we really liked about Spain, the relaxed and laidback lifestyle, and late dining habits.  (Although for me the 10PM dinner was actually a "second dinner", there's no way I could hold off eating that late!)

Special Guest Post from Sonya and Jack

By Sonya and Jack

(Ed note:  I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which parts of this post were written by Sonya and which by Jack.)

Both Jack and I had promised Ian that we would do at least one guest blog post. We didn’t quite manage to blog during the trip, but we thought we’d make up for this by doing a final "our favourites" post.  (And Ian, you are free to add editor’s comments if you want to add to our list but no changes!  Frutti di Bosco is the best gelato flavour without question!!  (Ed. note: except for gin and tonic!))  Well let’s start there.

Our Favourite Gelateria and Gelato 

The gelato shop in Calci was definitely our favourite. Conveniently located across the street from the grocery store, many flavours, delicious and large scoops at a low price. Honourable mentions do need to go to the gelato shop in Pistoia which had Ian’s all time favourite flavour – gin and tonic. We had this in our first week in Italy and searched everywhere else we went for gin and tonic flavour but never found it again.

(Ed. note - we found Mohito flavour but it was disappointing.)

Our Favourite Pizza

Yes, definitely Ian's pizzas that were baked in the wood oven at our exchange house in Calci. Even the "train wreck" pizza was delicious. Close runner up (and very, very good!) were the pizzas at Voglia di Pizza the local pizzeria in Calci.

(Ed. note - buying pizza saved about 7 hours work.)

Our Favourite View

The view from the bedroom window at the house in Calci gets top prize. You could see the entire valley which was a wonderful spot to watch the sunset and sunrise. We also had a great view of a lightning storm going across the valley one night, and a fireworks display another night.

Also amazing were the views from the rooftop deck at the beach house in Zahora,

the view along the coast from the balcony at our apartment in Cinque Terre,

and of course, all the views from the many, many towers that Ian insisted we climb up.

(Ed. note - by the end of the trip me & Jack would climb the towers and Sonya would go shoe shopping.)

Our Favourite Hike

I think it’s a 3-way tie between the hike up in the hills near Calci where we stumbled across the 11th century ruins of a monastery,

the hike between the towns in Cinque Terre (and of course our lunch afterwards- I loved that pesto pasta and the antipasto misto!),

and the hike down to the bottom of the New Bridge in Ronda (which was then followed by a hike through the country side in the mid-day heat but it did end with a delicious lunch! Ian’s paella was the best!).

 
Our Favourite Accommodations

If we exclude our exchange house, then hands-down the best apartment we stayed at was in Sienna. This was the amazing, luxurious apartment with a full dining room, separate living room and bedroom, and a bathroom with a Jacuzzi that would fit a family of four and a shower with every possible feature you could think of.

Close behind was our beach house in Zahora Spain with the rooftop patio that looked out over the beach, and the fancy 2-bedroom apartment we rented in Seville.

Our Favourite Beach

Not only was Zahora in Spain the best beach, but it was also Jack’s overall favourite for the entire trip. This is partly due to the beach itself which was white sand, very long, good waves and not too crowded.  But also because Jack made friends with some Spanish and British kids that were staying at the same place as us.

(Ed. note - Jack's other "favourite" part was that the kids got to stay up every night until 2AM playing hide & seek and sitting around chatting.  Hence the fact that the last pic is a little dark.)

We were also surprised at how much we enjoyed the “ pay” beach just north of Pisa. We are used to free, uncrowded beaches in Canada so we thought we would hate having to pay to go to the beach that was lined up as far as the eye can see with beach umbrellas and loungers. But it was actually quite fun and we ended up going twice to the same beach house. There is something to be said for being able to walk a few feet to the beach café for a cappuccino in the morning or an aperitivo (or gelato) in the afternoon. And the water was warm!

Our Favourite Show

This is a hard one for me as we saw a number of excellent shows – flamenco, opera in Vienna, blues festival, Mark Knoplfer, ….  (Ian’s favourite was clearly Mark Knoplfer!)

(Ed. note - yep!)

But I will have to go with flamenco. We saw 3 flamenco shows while we were in Spain, including Duende at the Alhambra in Granada, a small show in Cunil, at street show in Granada. All were very good and inspiring, but my favourite was the last one we saw in Seville with Marcos and family. The dancers were unbelievably good and we were sitting only a few feet away from them.

Jack’s favourite show was the many exhibits and events at the medieval festival in Volterra.

Best Meal

I’m not even going to attempt Best Meal. There were just too many good ones. But I’m sure Ian would vote for the best breakfast to be the pane,  ham and tomato.

(Ed. note: and speaking of food ...)

Zombies can only be eaten if you cook them properly, otherwise side effects could happen.

For example:  Serious coughing, random twitching, itchiness, constipation, and other things. The  final stages will turn you into what scientists are calling them now. Zermbies. Highly dangerous if you are bitten, scratched or other things that the Zermbies can do to you. Please contact your local quarantine if these effects have happened to you.  If you happen to see a Zermbie make sure it isn’t your neighbour before you kill it.  When you are killing a Zermbie it is highly suggested that you use a chainsaw to cut off its head. Once you have cut off its head, burn the rest of the Zermbie.

If a Zermbie infection has begun in your town, leave immediately because the army will be coming to bomb your town. If a Zermbie  infestation starts in your school or maybe the same building that you are in then use these simple drills - quickly exit the building and then lock the doors to the building making sure that no one or no Zermbies can get out. Once you have done that call the ZermbieBusters.

We hope this manual helps to fight off those  Zermbies out there.

Made by the producers of Green Fungus Inc

Kicking my mid-life crisis up a gear

Me and my new Yamaha FZ6.

Busy September!

I've had a busy month in September!  Finding a new place to live, getting ready to go back to work in October, etc etc etc.  However I found the time to take a motorcycle class at Vancouver Island Safety Council - highly recommended for anyone considering getting a bike!!!  I did the "novice" course (4 days classroom and practical; we learned on Triumph 150's at Western speedway) and then a 2 day "traffic" class (basically driving a bike around in traffic for 2 days straight).

Well, now I'm hooked, and tomorrow I'm off to shop for a bike!

Thursday I'm flying out to Quebec to visit my daughter for a week.  I fly home on the 29th, then on the 30th I move into my new place, and on Oct 1 I'm back to work.  That's the end of my 6 month sabbatical :-(