Amateur Electricians

Amateur Electricians
Originally uploaded by guardian1213.

Major surgery on a freezer cord at La Vendimia!

Frogman Holds His Breath

Frogman
Originally uploaded by guardian1213.

Jorge Andres (Katrina and Andres Tinoco's son) cheers on the amateur electricians' mission!

New Plug!

new plug
Originally uploaded by guardian1213.

Nobody died and we resurrected the freezer!

Viva Medicina!!!!!!

Okay I'm well now. My, that was fast! Mexicans might be amongst the most laid-back people getting things accomplished, but my doctor is terrific! My last post was yesterday (Saturday) and by afternoon I was well enough to go out for the first time in a week or so! We took hay to my horses, then (of course) went to La Vendimia, saying we'd only be there for an hour or so. "Or so" is how long we were there, of course. Six and a half hours later we came back, and not without having had an adventure! That's what the above photos are about....

So there we were, the restaurant was very quiet, and Katrina's mother-in law-Josefina was doing a great job keeping us entertained with lovely conversation while we sipped fresh coffee and I enjoyed being let out of the prison of strep. I got lots of good sympathy and congratulations for being well again. Then Madame swept in (this would be Katrina) and we had a great time.

Before Katrina arrived, though, we saw a flash and heard a POP from under the bar, so we called Joel the waiter over (he's the adorable guy in the photos below, with whom I am making a latte) and told him. He investigated and found that a plug had blown on a freezer and needed to be replaced. Of course this occurred five minutes after all the electrical shops closed. Andres (Katrina's husband) came up with a couple of new plugs but didn't know how to change them. He had tools though, and off to work Josefina and I went! I jumped on the internet and found out how to connect the wires (for a 3 prong plug the ground wire is green, by the way, and it doesn't matter which way the other 2 wires go). Josefina held the plug steady and gave me a lamp to see by and together we put the new plug on. Then came the moment of truth...plugging it in! Josefina was going to do the honors (while everybody backed away from the bar, the chickens!) then changed her mind at the last minute and handed the plug to me (I'd never changed a plug in my life). With completely false bravado and a prayer ("Dear God, you just made me well from this horrible infection, please don't kill me now") I plugged in the cord. No sparks flew and I didn't hear the heavenly angels. Whew. I felt the freezer, its motor had come back to life and it was purring away. Then of course the waiters rushed up to the freezer to see if it was working and there I was, all proud of myself! Now Katrina wants me to be her handywoman for her house and take care of the plumbing. No problem! As long as I have the internet and the right tools, I can do just about anything and when all else fails, there is plenty of duct tape in this country. Whole cars are held together with it here!

So, I'm well now. My doctor is amazing. One glance at my hellish throat told him the whole story and I will never again question his judgment. And guess what else, I got all well for under $100! I must admit that as far as Mexican medicine was concerned, I was very skeptical about it and figured they had technology obtained from the junk yards and wired up by an idiot like me who had internet access. Picture radiation flying all over the place and meat cleavers used for surgery. Hey, at least I am proud of how ignorant I used to be! But no, they have some of the best doctors in the world here and Dr. Mario (my Peruvian doctor) is surely one of them!

What a life.....what an adventure! I highly recommend complete immersion into a foreign culture and losing your identity for a while. It's good for the soul!

STRICKEN!!!!

I just knew it. There is a price to pay for staying to long at the party when you have Epstein-Barr!!!!! After all the fun and frolics and late nights, I have been down for over a week with a very bad strep infection. As I write this I am still in my bathrobe and it's almost 12:00, which may seem like the good life to you, but I hate it.

Listen up, strep infections are nothing to mess around with! I nearly wound up in the hospital and had it not been for my excellent Peruvian doctor, I'd be laying in a ward right now with IV's and doctors and nurses I can't understand! We caught it just in time but the pain has been terrible.

So yes, for those of you thinking that I am living it up in Mexico (which I am), I am also paying the price. Oh, well. It's been worth it and my friends and Mexican family have all rallied on my behalf, bless them!

Soon I will be able to hear out of my right ear (I haven't been able to hear out of it for over 2 weeks, due to the ear canal being inflamed and trapping fluid in there because of the infection). In some ways it's been a blessing because my right ear is on the side of our noisy street and party hall next door so I've spent some nice time in my cubbyhole office working without being so distracted by all the noise. I've also slept better because I can't hear the traffic. I also have a good excuse for exercising selective deafness if somebody wants me to do something I don't want to do. Ha! Still I will be glad to have my hearing back and I don't think I'll complain anymore about all the noise.

The joke now at La Vendimia (from me) is to introduce all of them to you saying, "These are my new friends who put me in the hospital!"

When I get well I want to go to the second hand shop next door and buy a pair of roller blades. It's true, we go through a very crazy time when we get near age 50, and we Boomers are coming up with incredible ways to be in denial about approaching our "Golden Years." None of that boring sports-car-affair-with-the-secretary stuff for us! Ohhhhhhhhh, no! We can do more with midlife crisis because we had Johnny Quest. This gave us a purpose in life...grow up, make the stuff on Johnny Quest, then come up with a way to afford to buy it. Unfortunately, Hummers and SUV's are becoming very unpopular because of high fuel prices. They didn't say anything about that on Johnny Quest, but we certainly do have all of the interesting exotic cultures and "evil-doers" to fight with, which leads me to believe that our administration took the exotic turban wearing bad guys on Johnny Quest seriously. Makes me feel like saying, "Hey, we weren't supposed to REALLY fight with them!" Some people just don't play fair and that sucks. I think they should all be thrown out of the sandbox.

Funny the thoughts that come when one is ill and unable to physically ignore all the junk from television that's accumulated in the brain. Remember this one? "We start out with an English muffin, then add cheese and egg and some of that REALLY GOOD CANADIAN BACON yes that's how we GO 'BOUT MAKIN' BREAKFAST, McDonald's BREAKFAST...." Now, really. How many Gen X and Y's can claim that THEY remember when McDonalds created the Egg McMuffin? Huh? They don't know ANYTHING. And how many of them can claim that they remember the first calculators? A mere $400 was all it cost to have the power of basic math in your hand! Of course, we were not allowed to use them in school. Well, using them in school wasn't an issue because the only people who could afford to buy those things were people who didn't have kids.

Last night I was watching the "I Love the 80s" series on VH1, and I was very smug; Smurfs and Snorkels??? Transformers??? BAH! Those weren't real toys or cartoons! Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner (Wiley E. Coyote), Johnny Quest...those were the cartoons that made us THINK! And I remember the exact Saturday morning when I decided I didn't want to get up and watch cartoons, then spend the rest of my Saturday inventing what I saw with what was out in the garage. That was the day I became a teenager and spent a good many years being dramatic and completely awful to be around. Yechhhhh. I think I got over that when I was around 30. Finally I got sick of myself and decided to watch Johnny Quest again to sort my head out.

And then there was Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite and guys like that who brought a sense of real class to the news. "Good night, Chet." "Good night, David." Without all the cutsie flirting and how-are-the-kids stuff. Our news anchors just said, "Back to you, David." All without sat phones and satellites and embedded anythings. That was the stuff!!!!! I'm glad I was born when I was. I used to think that technology would NEVER catch up with me, but it has. I just wasn't counting on all the jargon that came with it. When Professor Peabody used to catapult himself and that nerdy kid through his Wayback Machine, no acronyms were used. He'd say, "We'll set the time to this or that date," and KAPOW there they were with Caesar or King Henry V, no acronyms needed. Things just had short names. Then I guess they ran out of names. If we had a machine like that, the instructions (written by an ESL person, of course, in one of those exotic Johnny Quest places) would read:

"SETUP: You not want go to the rong time. Please to connect the LED display to the UCNETO before attempt to activate the ENIMATE. Danger: be sure you have the correct voltage output as seen on page 235634672 section II a.XXIVI. Select correct voltage output for you specific structure. For current names of countries see Appendix V, "Current Country Names" (CCN). Disclaimer: Manufacturer is not responsible if name of country has changed since printing of instructions."

I am going to quit now, since this is my infection talking and not me!

Thrown Across the Dance Floor

Thrown Across the Dance Floor
Originally uploaded by Triana.

My talent is NOT singing. I am a pretty good dancer, though but Laila ("Inga" is our nickname for her) decided to challenge me to some kind of crazy dance and it was all I could do to stay vertical! Laila is such a magical being, so loving and fun!

First Riding Lesson

First Riding Lesson
Originally uploaded by Triana.

Our shy and formerly reclusive Lynette, having her first riding lesson with me. I can't believe that I am an American teaching a Londoner how to ride English in Mexico! Ain't life grand???

An Explosion Of LIFE

Those of you who know me know that I was pretty much a recluse. Weary of the world, I went to few events or parties, although I value my friends above all else. I lived a very quiet life in the San Juan Islands, yet when I worked I gave my all. When I first moved here to Mexico, oh God was I homesick, longing for the days when I could just hop into Lopez Village and visit my friends like Debbie at Archipelago or or Phyllis at IsleHaven Books or Diane at Village Apparel. On Lopez I would go into the village to buy some milk and wind up not coming back home for three hours. Some interesting conversation was happening somewhere, all the time, sometimes I'd join in, sometimes I'd just say hi, but my people were there. Ten years I lived in those lovely islands where noise ordinances are strict, a siren caught everyone's attention, and if someone was airlifted off the island for a medical emergency we all knew who it was. At night I slept in my trailer under a canopy of stars, the only night sounds were tree frogs and the occasional cow lowing and the shuffling and snuffling of my horses. Bliss. Quiet. Slumber on all levels. And in a way, an inertia set in; I was comfortable and things were pretty predictable.

Now I am in Ensenada, living on a street where the noise never stops, in a country where people never sleep, where parties are the norm, cars go by with the big bass sounds booming, squealing tires signal accident avoidance or a stray dog in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sirens in tandem fly down the street several times a day and the social hall right next door very often plays music (good or bad) at a volume that makes my little office windows shake. The other night we heard gun shots. That doesn't happen often! But no sirens followed so they may have been firecrackers. As I write this, an advertising car is driving by with a loudspeaker mounted on top, rattling off something I can't understand. When I first heard one I thought a tsunami was coming and we were supposed to evacuate or something. The noise never quits. I thought I'd never sleep again.

But now this is my street, and I know everybody on it. Still, for over a year I languished in loneliness, longing for the camaraderie of my friends, longing for the time also that I lived in England, longing for ANYTHING Anglo!

Three weeks ago all of that changed. In addition to my lovely Mexican family, I now have the La Vendimia crowd. I haven't gotten to bed any earlier than 3:00 a.m. for the past week, I've danced and drank a bit and laughed and been silly but also into serious conversations. New projects are now beginning to take hold, such as a Mexican jousting team! Can you imagine?

Where before I loved being alone with my beloved cat Merlin (who sadly passed away last December at age 14), I have now joined this teeming life in this lovely town.

As always, it is the people that make a place special. Zoila and her children have made Ensenada special for me, and Mamita and Connie and her family (scroll down for that story and photos).

Zoila (with whom I live) is an awesome singer with a voice that is rich and full; she brings the house down at the karaoke bar and we want to write some music for her to record her own stuff. As far as we (the Baja Sisterhood) are concerned, a voice like this should have its own music and lyrics. So there is another project.

Suddenly I have a support network of extraordinary women and men with whom I just fell into step as if we've known each other forever. As the little boy in the movie Power Of One said, one by one the loneliness birds flew away, taking with them their eggs of stone from my heart.

An extraordinary deliverance is happening for me, and though I have thrown myself into adventures more than once in my life, this one (lock, stock and barrel moving to Mexico with my horses) was my greatest challenge. I endured a loneliness that I honestly thought would kill off my spirit, but I decided to stick it out, since life takes very interesting turns and I wanted to see what would happen next.

So above are photos reflecting some pieces of my new life, which I am enjoying immensely. I am experiencing things for the first time, such as partying!!!!!! Partying for no reason other than to celebrate life and play together. No "intentional" anything, no thoughts of anything other than the joy of the moment. Don't get me wrong, my new crowd is heavily invested in improving the lives of others, but being the philanthropic sorts that we all are (as much as we can be), sometimes you just gotta bust loose and be completely silly!!!!! And this is the best place to do it!

Total Utilization

Total Utilization
Originally uploaded by Triana.

There is a Mexican joke that says, "You know you're Mexican when there are seven of you in a four-seater car, you see three more friends on the street and you yell, 'Climb in! There's lots of room!'"

As you can see, they start practicing when they are very young! Watching these little ones always keeps me laughing with delight.

Me and my sis

Me and my sis
Originally uploaded by Triana.

Me and my "Little Sister" Connie, Mamita's OTHER daughter. We're at their ranch, putting up portable horse pens.

How Much Of a Good Thing?

New family. New friends. Wow. My circle has now become international (see photos below) and I'm a very happy camper!

It all started on Sunday the 2nd of October...we went to La Vendimia restaurant here in Ensenada, which I had read about in a local newspaper. I knew that an English woman and her Mexican husband owned the place and I had been dying to meet her (Katrina Tinoco, from Liverpool). Well, I struck gold that night. First came Julie, who is from Texas. Then in waltzed Katrina, the Grand Dame! A bit later, in came Scotti, who is a miniature Shirley MacLaine with poor Lynette in tow, who had just arrived from London and was jet lagged as all getout!

We had a terrific evening, lots of laughs and fun, and the Baja Sisterhood was born. Since then we've gone and visited La Vendimia about 3 times a week, all Sisters present (except for Scotti, who had to go back to Palm Springs where she reluctantly lives). If you look at the photo below you'll see Lynette, me, Katrina and Scotti.

The following Sunday we went sailing with a couple named Jim and Laila. Laila is from Oslo and Scotti kept calling her INGA, which put us all in stitches! It was a lovely time, except poor Scotti got seasick and perched on the edge of the boat; just when she was at her worst, a huge sea lion leaped out of the water right next to her, barked, and dove back in. Poor Scotti about leaped out of her skin while we howled with laughter. We're all lucky that Scotti is still speaking to us. We really did feel sorry for our poor Scotti, she was such a good sport through it all!

So suddenly I have found even more of my people, from all over the world!

La Vendimia is the gathering place here; so far I've met Brits, a New Zealander, a Frenchman, Laila from Oslo (she's married to an American, Jim), more Mexicans and other assorted nomads who live on their boats in our harbor.

I'm going to write more about La Vendimia with more photos because it is a rare place; women can go in there alone, it's very kid friendly, the food is to die for, and Katrina and her husband Andres and their crew make it stand out by their friendliness, fun and phenomenal service. It's a great gathering place for networking and having conversations that really mean something!

That's the update for now, more when I can!

Little England

Little England
Originally uploaded by Triana.

The International Jamboree at La Vendimia in Ensenada. L-R Lynette (UK), me, (US), Katrina Tinoco, owner (UK), Scotti (US). Trouble for sure!!!

Flags

Flags
Originally uploaded by Triana.

Here we were, leaving the Enseanda harbor; two flags visible and 5 countries represented on board: Italy, Norway, the UK, Mexico and the U.S. It was great!!!!!!

Triana sailing

Triana sailing
Originally uploaded by Triana.

My first time ocean sailing and a big smile as we leave the harbor!

Making lattes

Making lattes
Originally uploaded by Triana.

After sailing, back to La Vendimia where I made lattes!