Happy 100th entry nniversary

This is my 100th entry anniversary of my Yum Yum Café blog!

Who would have thought it would be so much fun. Now I know (through the sitemeter) that there are a few loyal fans among family and friends who read my blog regularly. Some of you have even, on occasion, written me emails about subject material you liked. What I would be interested in hearing is what type of topic material do you like best or not at all.

Guy Kawasaki recently wrote a very interesting entry in his blog called, The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog. In it, he made a very succinct suggestion to “think book, not diary,” meaning I should write my blog entries with you guys in mind and not just something that randomly comes to mind.

Point taken, so I wish to send out an appeal to all my readers: what do you want to read? Help me change this diary into a book.

A gesture of gratitude

This is a collage I made recently. It contains three generations of my family, lost in what I call “slow play” in Grenada over a fifty-year time span: something this wonderful island and its people possess in abundance.

Longer days

One of the distinct disadvantages of living “up North” (Luebeck lies more or less on the same latitude as the south part of Hudson Bay) is the long winter nights.

Yet, undoubtedly, one of the joys is the coming of the long summer days. Already, we have light from five in the morning until nine in the evening. In another two months, we will have nearly nineteen hours of light. Wonderful.

It is time for me to go off walking along the canal with a good friend of mine, Christine. We usually “go walking” (and not “go for a walk”) a few times a week. Giui calls these sessions Walkie Talkies. My husband is a very astute observer.

Excellent stuff

The flavour of this month as far as podscasts go… Ritmo Latino. Definitely worth listening to. It really gets your tooshy moving.

It also shows you what excellent music is legally available for podcasters and listeners, all hoping that listeners will purchase the music online. So, look into it, friends and neighbours, and then go in for a spin around your living room.

Puzzle of life

Here is a collage I created listening to my favourite playlist, Radio Déliro, and some newly discovered BBC podcasts (I'll write about this later).

Virtual possessions

Talking to my teenage son about what he plans to do with the 900 upward photos he took on his trip, he said he would select 20 or 30 pictures for friends and family to look at and then copy the rest onto his external hard disk. 

I was appalled, why did he want over 900 photos, some of the blurry and unfocused, crowding up his hard disk? He said he wanted the images just to “have”. To him, unlike me, virtual possession or collection has material significance. In the same way I used to collect books and records, he contains mp3 files and photos. They actually translate materially in his mind. Isn’t that phenomenal?

A long haul back

We arrived back home safe and sound. The journey took over twenty hours door-to-door. Once again, a fantastic trip underlined with efficiency and customer friendliness on the part of the airline personnel. Why does that seem creepy? Maybe it is because it has been decades since we have experienced such while flying.

Does anyone remember when flying was fun? Or you felt as if you belonged to an elite club of worldly travellers? Seriously, that was only around twenty-five or thirty years ago…

Early morning

The sun is so gentle in the early morning hours.

The colours of the garden seem to glow from within, no matter how subtle they are.

We went to one of our favourite beaches yesterday, and the children spent hours body surfing and digging holes to China. By the time they were finished digging their holes, they were covered from head to toe by the dark volcanic sand, which is prevalent on that side of the island.

Photo safari

Just came back from taking some photos with Chris as my loyal chauffeur. She drives me around in her open jeep, and when I see anything of interest, I just yell out for her to stop. She is terrific at signalling, pulling over, and stopping on a dime.

Julien has been taking a lot of photos with the digital camera we bought.

Lots of sunsets and sunrises. Who can resist?

A few erudite compositions.

And then a quirky one as well.

Dry season

The dry season arrived a few days ago. No rain, but the vegetation is still lush with greens. The newly built house looks spectacular.

We woke up yesterday before dawn, our first morning here, to sit by the pool, overlooking the wild wind-capped seas. The trade winds are still a blowing.

We had the company of a baby iguana throughout our meditative revelry.

A meeting of exceptional circumstances

We arrived in Grenada safe and sound. The trip was long, but it went flawlessly. Strange how punctuality, efficiency, friendly service, no muck ups with the seating reservations or pre-ordered meals, and clean toilets have the power to transform me into a mood of grateful jubilation. I don’t think I have experienced all of these things in their entirety during a long trip in the last fifteen years. The occasion definitely warrants a letter of praise to the airlines, even though, theoretically or according to their adverts, this level of excellence reflects the norm and not the exception.

Cold turkey gone bad

Second day in paradise. Well, I didn't bring down my laptop. Unfortunately, there is a laptop installed with DSL access, sooooooooo, I'm back to blogging and Bloglines.