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Diane's DiaryDecember 22 Wednesday Larry fixed the thermostat on the refrigerator while I was out shopping yesterday and it seems to be working well. Hope it continues to work well - I don't want to have to buy a new refrigerator too! Anyway, I spent all day today making Christmas treats. I was baking lots of cookies and stuff to give as treats to the office, guards and marina staff and some cruisers. At 4pm, we went to the restaurant for a free party with appetizers and drinks. Everyone was going to go down the canals to look at the Xmas lights but we were just too tired to go. It's difficult trying to make cookies in such a small oven as you can only put one cookie sheet in the oven and the cookies need to cool down before you take them off and put on another batch. December 23 Thursday I finished making the rest of the Xmas cookies this morning and also made Swedish meatballs. All the cruisers were going Xmas caroling and I was going to go also but I was just too tired from all that cooking. I made cheese enchiladas for dinner and we just stayed home watching movies at night. December 24 Friday I gave out my Xmas treats this morning. Elias brought us typical VE Xmas bread that had ham, raisins and olives in it and was very good. He gave some to a few of his clients but not everyone. It was very nice of him. I gave him some Xmas goodies also. Larry tried to get the printer to work to make Elias boat cards but he couldn't get the printer to work. Seems like a lot of our things are getting old and we know items used on boats don't last as long due to the salt water and humidity. Anyway, we are going to Plenum's for dinner tonight along with S/V Sunrise. I am bringing some of my Swedish meatballs, pigs in the blanket and made some butterscotch brownies for dessert. We were about halfway through our meal when we got interrupted- Lady Diane had arrived. Plenum graciously allowed them to stay for a few days until they got their own apartment. Poor Weedie- he went to get them and his dinner went cold. Unfortunately, they didn't seem too appreciative of what Larry and I had done for them and never even said thank you so I was a little annoyed at them. We didn't want to transit with another boat when we left Bonaire and after our experience with Lady Diane I don't think we ever will. We had a good time at the party and it was nice having such a big space to sit and talk in. We got our passports stamped for clearing into the country today- we get 3 months and than we'll have to renew them. December 25 Saturday Xmas Day I gave Larry a T-shirt from Bonaire for Xmas but he didn't like it. He didn't get me anything. It was the first time in my entire life that I didn't get a Xmas present and it didn't feel too good (Larry's note-I looked but couldn't find anything in Bonaire and I hadn't gone shopping in PLC). Anyway, I finished bringing my treats around to the other boaters and gave them to Plenum, Sunrise, Pawnee, Marnel 4, Sylvester, Jacobite, Wanderlust, Happy Hours, Panache and Freestyle. There weren't a lot of cookies since they took so long to make with only 1 cookie sheet in the oven at a time, but at least they got something. I got back shortly before 12 and didn't even have time to take a shower before we left for Maremares and the brunch. We took Diane from Lady Diane in our dinghy so really couldn't plane the dinghy with 3 people in it. We had a very nice time at the brunch and the food was as good as always. It's a little expensive at almost $13 now but we enjoyed it anyway. They gave us unlimited champagne but I later got a severe headache that I am sure was from this. I think the sulfites from cheap champagne and wine triggers a migraine headache in me. Anyway, we borrowed the DVD Polar Express from Sylvester and watched it tonight. It was a real Xmas movie and we both enjoyed it. December 26 Sunday I woke up with a terrible migraine headache. This has happened to me before while drinking the cheap champagne at Maremares so I think I won't drink any of their champagne if we go there again. I definitely think a trigger for my migraines are sulfites that are in cheap wine or champagne so need to avoid these in the future. Anyway, a terrible tsunami happened today in SE Asia with thousands of lives lost. All the details still are coming out but a huge earthquake in Indonesia apparently triggered it. Anyway, I didn't feel well the entire day so didn't do much. With the headache and the events over the last few days, I was just glad to take it easy. December 27 Monday I still had a slight headache today but I did make some phone calls, put away the laundry, and cleaned the kitchen. I did manage to get a hold of the dentist and she will see me in her office at 3pm today. I went to the dentist at 3pm and she reconstructed the tooth. She said hopefully I wouldn't need a crown. I hope so but if I do need a crown I would rather get it done here in VE, as it's a lot cheaper than the US. For example, I paid the dentist only $20 today and I was in her office for over an hour. It probably would have been ten times that amount in the US. Anyway, my mouth hurt a lot after she was done so I just stopped quickly at Catalano - the meat store- to get a few things on my way home. We didn't go to the potluck as I wasn't feeling too well and didn't feel like socializing. I made some hamburgers for dinner and went to bed at 7:30pm and just read for a while as my mouth was giving me some pain. December 28 Tuesday I hand washed a bunch of laundry that doesn't get put in the washing machine. It took me all morning to do. We had lunch and afterwards I made some creamy Italian dressing, blue cheese dressing and sun dried tomato beef burgundy for dinner. So I was cooking all afternoon and had lots of dishes to wash. I finished at 4pm and was a little tired so took a brief nap but didn't sleep at all. December 29 Wednesday I went to the minimart store in the am, saw so many people and stopped to talk that I didn't get back to the boat until after 11am! I did some more hand laundry including washing all the chair covers. After lunch I did some logs and made spaghetti sauce and meatballs for dinner. I walked at night as I am trying to keep my exercise up. We watched a DVD movie Oceans 12 at night but I didn't think it was very good. However, since someone just lent it to us and we didn't have to pay for it, it was worth seeing but I wouldn't buy it. December 30 Thursday We both left in the dinghy around 9:30am so Larry could get his PSA lab test done. It has to be done first thing in the morning as he can't eat or drink anything but water before the test. We took the dinghy to Plaza Mayor and walked from there. We used to just take taxis but now the taxis are $2 each way so they have doubled in price. It's not a long walk from the mall and we save $4 in taxis so that's what we do from now. Anyway, the lab was closed and had no sign indicating when they would reopen. Someone told us all the stores don't open up again until January 10 and I guess they are right. So, we walked down the street and stopped at a bunch of stores - cheese, boat, hardware, dept., etc. We even walked down to Ferka the big hardware store so it was quite a hike. We went back to Plaza Mayor and had lunch in good old MacDonald's. Larry went to the Internet café while I got a pedicure. Some of the manicure stores really raised their prices and I don't know if it's just due to the holidays- there are a lot of tourists in the area so all the stores are trying to cash in and raise their prices or if this is to be a norm in which case I won't be getting many manicures or pedicures! Anyway the mall was absolutely packed- I have never even seen it this crowded. I needed to go to the supermarket but it was just to crowded to go so I'll just come back in the morning. December 31 Friday New Year's Eve Arnaldo, the dockmaster, called us early this morning and said a slip opened up on the floating dock he could move us into. We actually like the seawall but the particular spot we have now isn't so great - the boat is pointing north so we don't get any breeze from the prevailing winds from the east. Also, it's a far walk, we are next to a large VE motorboat, the showers right in front of our boat are cold water only, and it's a long walk around the marina. The other spot looks much better but Arnaldo wanted us to move this morning as they were having a party later and would be drinking. We certainly don't want him helping Destiny after having a few drinks! Also, other people wanted the spot and if we didn't move now others would want it. Geri and I were going to go food shopping as the stores are only opened until noon but Larry thought it was better for us to move this morning when there was no wind. So we moved and our new spot is much better. The spot is huge; we have a local boat on one side that is never here and 2 local boats across the dock from us that are also never here so it's very nice. I think I will be much happier with it than where we were. Larry liked it also and so we moved. After, Geri and I went to the supermarket by dinghy. Well, the store was absolutely jam packed- if it wasn't for the fact that we needed some food (we had to make an appetizer for the party tonight) I would have turned around and left. I did notice a big price increase though- coffee is over double the price it originally was! We have been invited to a dock party tonight by Sunrise. The restaurant was also having a New Year's Eve party but it was 45,000B per person including dinner, rum punch, beer and champagne at midnight. However, at almost $19 per person, I thought it was too expensive so we didn't go. Anyway, I tried to take a nap, as I knew it was going to be a long night but couldn't get to sleep. I made my wonderful sun dried tomato dip to bring with us tonight. Plus, we have to bring our own drinks. But this dock party is certainly a lot cheaper than paying almost $20 each at the restaurant! Anyway, I made the last of the shrimp wrapped in bacon and cheese for dinner- wonderful! We have a bottle of champagne too that I had bought in Margarita but since we don't want to start missing drinks, think we'll just save it until tomorrow. We had a great time at the dock party and at midnight all went up to the bar-b-que area to watch the fireworks. The fireworks weren't nearly as good as what we saw last year in Bonaire but they were still good anyway. I didn't drink that many rum and cokes at the party but did have some champagne at midnight given to us by several different cruisers so did wind up mixing drinks. I wasn't bombed but was feeling OK. We went back to the boat and stayed up watching a TV program I had recorded. We went to bed at 2:30am, which is very late for us. All in all, it was a very nice New Year's Eve. January 1 Saturday I got up at 5am with a terrible case of cottonmouth so had to get some water. I don't think I had that much to drink but my system just wanted water anyway. I don't drink that much but probably had more to drink than usual. I couldn't get back to sleep right away so stayed up for a while watching TV. I finally got back to bed around 6am and slept till 10am- very late for me! Larry went to the monthly flea market. Why they had it the day after New Year's I don't know, as it wasn't highly attended. Anyway, I made bacon and eggs and we just hung out watching TV- we wanted to make it a slow day. At 3pm we went to the SSCA gam held here in BR. It was the first SSCA gam we have ever attended. We had a very nice time and there were probably around 100 cruisers in attendance. We than came back to the boat, had dinner and just watched some more TV. In all, we had a very nice quiet New Year's Day. January 2 Sunday Another quiet day- a lot of people are away so it's very quiet here in the marina. We didn't get up till 9am so we have really been sleeping in these days! We are usually up by around 7:30am. I got the weekend paper and always enjoy reading that as it has last week's editorial section of the NY Times. The NY Times is my favorite paper and I definitely miss reading it. Anyway, I played dominoes at 1pm but there weren't a lot of cruisers playing. I played very badly and scored around 500- yikes! That was a very bad score for me. January 3 Monday I changed all the slipcovers in the am and washed all the ones that had been on the settees. They were absolutely filthy as I didn't have a lot of water in the out islands to wash them - I only washed them once in the 4 months we had been gone. So they definitely had to be washed very badly. Larry went to the hardware store with Geoffrey from Panache. I left for the dentist at 2pm but she never showed up! So I just walked around PLC doing a little shopping. I did manage to get the new thermostat for our refrigerator Larry had been looking for. We had used our spare so we wanted to replace it. January 4 Tuesday I washed all our scatter rugs this morning. They had not been washed in at least 5 months and the dirt coming off them was amazing. I had to wash several of them many times to get all the dirt out. We have one good rug that we had from our last boat Cat's Paw that was so dirty I must have rinsed it at least 30 times and had to wash it twice! We never wear shoes below on Destiny so that shows how soiled our feet were- glad we don't wear shoes below! Glad I didn't put any of these rugs in the washing machine, as they would not have gotten cleaned. After lunch I wrote a reply to the Caribbean Compass newspaper about an inaccurate story in the December issue. One of the French cruisers stated, "Bahia Redonda is an American marina where you have to be an American and give tips to get into!" along with other inaccuracies. I felt someone needed to respond too all his ridiculous comments. Anyway, I let the staff at BR read the reply and after writing to the Compass, Sally said she would print it. To put it mildly, I wasn't nice to the guy who wrote the story as he had a lot of inaccurate comments in it that I as an American did not appreciate. In the pm, I also made some cucumber soup, brownies and chicken Italiano. We watched the DVD move "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks and thought it was very good and enjoyed it a lot. We also had some on again off again rain today even though it is supposed to be dry season and not rain at this time of the year. I also went to speak with Carlos about our marina rates- our rates are going up 60%! Yikes that is a lot! He said he would look into it and get back to us. Wow! Venezuela is not as cheap as it used to be for us - we have noticed at least a 30% rise in prices as well as a decrease in the USD from a high of 3300 to a low of 2300. Currently it's about 2450 but that's for cash only. So life is not as cheap here as it once was although Larry keeps saying it's still cheaper than the US which I guess it is. |