Playa Del Carmen Week 1

Yes, 2013 starts the year of real retirement living, so of course it must start on a beach.  We arrived in Playa Del Carmen 9 days ago, we are still surprised at the crowds of young people, the heat, and the difficulty finding a good seafood restaurant.

Last February I went online and found a great condo to rent here in Playa and we love it, great location, clean, small complex, quiet neighbors, nice pool, short walk to the beach or busy 5th Ave with it's many restaurants.  Very happy with the choice we made to rent this place at Arena Blanca.  It is at the quiet end of town, but we still find the road noise and some boom boom music from an unknown surrounding restaurant can keep us awake at night, windows just are not that soundproof in this building(that's my only complaint so far).

When I was doing my research last year I checked the weather history on weatherunderground.com, it showed January to be about 23C on average, so we brought a couple of sweaters thinking it might not be that warm at night......well I guess the weather is just different this year, it is currently 26C, with a few nice clouds, and a breeze(thankfully)...yesterday was 28C but felt like 37C and really there has not been a day that has cooled down to prevent me from breaking out in a sweat eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant after dark!  (Yeah, yeah... we know I am menopausal women but really no one is gonna need a sweater, never mind sleeves!)

No where in my research did I find a mention of "BPM", apparently it stands for Beats Per Minute and is a huge thing with the 20 something crowd, DJ's from all over the world are in Playa Del Carmen for the next week or so (well it started before we got here, but officially Jan 4th to 13th) to play their BOOM BOOM beat at many locations throughout town.  I understand that this technobeat stuff can be quite good but I can't tell where one song ends and the next begins and all we can hear on the beach is BOOM BOOM BOOM....it is too annoying!  

Here is the link to learn more ifhttp://www.thebpmfestival.com/ you so desire http://www.thebpmfestival.com/

The beach in Playa is really quite lovely, (and it goes on for miles so you can avoid the BOOM BOOM crowd), the white sand is made of ground seashells so it never gets hot, it is like walking on powder all the way out into the water too!  The water is just as warm as the air,  turquoise blue and heavenly to float in.  The wind can create some big waves, but mostly this part of the coast is sheltered by the island of Cozumel, so it can be quite calm.  You can't help wanting to take a dip everyday!

What I find quite amusing is this photo below that many condo owners have posted on their ads to rent their places close to Mamitas beach......................

Quite beautiful isn't it?

But this is what it really looks like.....................I took this photo yesterday, the crowd gets bigger, much bigger when you get to Mamita's as it is a beach bar hosting the "BPM"   

Everyday this beach is crowded (even before the BPM) there are many beach bars, resorts and very little actual sand to sit on, storms have eroded a lot of the beach away, so that nice deserted beach pictured above, must be very very old!

Still I prefer the beaches here on the atlantic side to the ones on the Pacific coast of Mexico, the water is warmer, clearer and there are no dead puffer fish or sea snakes like in Puerto Vallarta.
On the other hand, we liked the restaurants and seafood better on the Pacific side.
It's early in the trip yet, and about 360 restaurants here, so much more research to be done.......to be continued.......

Is it safe to travel to Surrey?

Now how often do you see headlines like this in your hometown?

Homicide team investigating woman's death in Surrey

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/IHIT+called+Surrey+Fleetwood+neighbourhood+investigate+single/7522343/story.html

Yes, I live in Surrey, there are headlines relating to shootings and homicides all the time.  Yet, when someone dies or is beaten up in our city, there is never a warning put out by the media to avoid traveling to Surrey.

When we were in Mexico last January, we saw news of 3 people killed in our home town while we were away, so we joked that we must have been safer in Mexico!

Yes, I am kidding.....I know not to hang out with drug dealers or people who carry guns, in Surrey and in Mexico (or anywhere for that matter).  Every city has an area you should not hang out or even walk alone at night, so you avoid those at home, and you should use even more caution when you are traveling.  Common sense right?

I just get annoyed with people and the media for always asking "Is it safe to travel to Mexico?" before they have all the facts about a crime or a death.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-man-killed-in-mexico-feared-becoming-victim-of-violent-crime/article5146491/

Yes, you should investigate the places you travel to before you go, another common sense thing to do, but don't let news headlines stop you from traveling to Surrey, it really is a nice place to live or visit!

Do you have Earthquake Insurance?

Living in beautiful British Columbia we are always complaining about the rain, but we do know we are lucky because we don't have weather that can kill us. (Like tornados, hurricanes etc.)  I don't think earthquakes count as weather, but it is the one thing that might get us here on the west coast.

There have been 2 rather large earthquakes on the west coast in the past 2 weeks, luckily these were not centered near major population centers, and no damage or injuries occurred.   On October 27th, a saturday night we were sitting on the couch watching TV, enjoying a glass of wine, when I noticed the chandeliers above us were swaying.....I am pretty sure it was only one glass of wine....but I pointed up so my spouse would confirm what I was seeing.....and sure enough the lights were swaying even more now.  We got up, could not feel the ground moving, but looked outside to the pool, turned those lights on and watched the waves form in the pool.  The motion lasted for 3 or 4 mins, with the lights swaying so much that the metal was clanging on the glass.  I wasn't scared because the ground was not moving, but it was amazing to see.

these are the chandeliers I am talking about

Too bad I didn't think to film the moving chandeliers, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Of course the next thing I did was look for some news of an earthquake, nothing on TV, and nothing on the internet for quite sometime.  I did find the earthquake Canada website, but it was almost 20 mins before they confirmed the 7.7 quake near Haida Qwaii.  I was glad to know we were not imaging things.  Also amazed at the size of the quake.  I took the time to fill in their questionnaire, titled "Did you feel it?"http://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/index-eng.php

Now, last night it happened again, the lights only swayed slightly this time, and only for 30 seconds or so, but I knew what was happening right away.  Again I checked the earthquake Canada website, and the site was already updated showing the 6.3 quake just off the west side of Vancouver Island.

I am glad to see that the experts at earthquake Canada were able to improve their notification times, they had said on the news after the Oct 27th quake that there were things they could improve on, and obviously they took that seriously.

Now what about us, are we ready when those lights start to sway again?  Well, we do have a large earthquake kit, it is on a shelf in the garage, I am thinking it is over 6 years old so I should probably check the contents and replace the old water bottles, and whatever food is in there.  (maybe today even)

We did not buy earthquake insurance this year, first year in a long time....(yes, probably why we are having these quakes now, the superstitious would say).  I admit to buying earthquake insurance for many years without really reading what it covers.  So this year I did read it, and calculated the deductible to be aprox $65,000.00.   Yes, read your policy, deductibles are usually 10% of the value of your home.  

The cost of earthquake insurance for us was aprox $800 more on our premium, you can reduce this a bit if you take the personal content insurance off or lower the amount on the earthquake portion.   We chose not to buy the earthquake coverage at all, because we built this house, we know the quality of construction, and believe the risk is low that our damage would be over $65,000.00.

Now that is our personal, informed decision we made after talking to our insurance agent about what is actually covered by earthquake insurance.  I recommend you have this discussion with your insurance agent.  I have heard you can even buy another policy that will cover the deductible amount, but that is another yearly cost to you.  Get all the information and make your own informed decision about earthquake insurance.  (NOW before our lights start to sway again!)

Best Wishes to Diane Sawyer

If you know me at all, or even read my blogs you will know I read and watch the news quite a lot.

I don't often watch American News, but last night I think everyone was watching for a while at least, just to see who would be the next President.  I am very happy they chose Barack Obama, he is a great man, and if the republicans will just cut him some slack, he will accomplish great things!

I love the new TV series The Newsroom, it is a very intelligent, fast paced, real life drama.  Much like the old series, The West Wing. (I loved that one too!)
If you didn't see the first season, (there were only 10 episodes), I think they are replaying them on HBO.  http://www.hbocanada.com/thenewsroom/about.php

The sad thing I saw in the news this morning is about Diane Sawyer, the news anchor on ABC.  If you saw her live, or watched the clips online, you have to wonder if she was drunk or just really tired or what?  If the public was wondering this, why didn't the network take her off the air?

I do hope all is well with Diane Sawyer, but I have to admit that she does not look well, and at the age of 66, maybe she should be retired already!   There are many young americans that need a job!  Even without this alleged drinking incident, her age is really showing, (OK that sounds mean but how do I put it nicely?) If she had retired at 65 none of this would have happened, she would have left as a respected News Anchor, and provided a younger person with a much needed job. American's need jobs!

 I also know in this day and age we cannot discriminate against age, sex, race etc, but honestly I prefer watching younger News Anchors.  I also like it if they are intelligent, and can speak clearly, just like Diane Sawyer in her prime.

Great muffin recipe, Wheat free or not

I hate to brag about my baking abilities as I am sure I will never be the master like my Grandma was, or yours, but I did once have the nickname of "muffin", so it must of come from somewhere.(No I don't look like a muffin,....I Hope!)

Here is the best muffin recipe I have found recently, it is from the Looney Spoons cookbook, and not only healthy, moist and Delicious!

The Looneyspoons Collection: Bananaberry Bombs

Moist banana-blueberry muffins with oats and flaxseed

Ingredients

• 1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)
• ½ cup each all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1½ cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 small)
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions

Combine oats, both flours, sugar, ground flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together bananas, butter and egg. Add banana mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently fold in blueberries.

Divide batter among 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins

Per muffin: 183 calories, 5.7 g total fat (3 g saturated fat), 3.7 g protein, 30 g carbohydrate, 3.1 g fiber, 26 mg cholesterol, 209 mg sodium

Now you all know I cannot eat wheat , or bananas anymore, so I made some changes to the recipe above and it still turns out great!

For a wheat free version, substitute 

all wheat  for 1 Cup Spelt flour
bananas  for  1 1/2 cups unsweetened peach/apple sauce

go ahead and add nuts, chopped raspberries, or other fruit of your choice.
take note that spelt is a more delicate flour, so do not over mix, just fold until all dry ingredients are mixed in. (which is the way you should make all muffins anyway)

I make 10 muffins instead of 12, as I find if they are too small you will just have 2, so this works out to less calories than 2 muffins. (http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe)
Now compare these calories with a starbucks muffin, you won't find one under 390 calories.
http://calorielab.com/restaurants/starbucks/9

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 97 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories  203 Calories from Fat  68

% Daily Value*

Total Fat  7.5g 12%

Saturated Fat  3.3g 17%

Cholesterol  29mg 10%

Sodium  285mg 12%

Total Carbohydrates  32.0g 11%

Dietary Fiber  4.2g 17%

Sugars  15.3g

Protein  4.2g

Vitamin A 4% • Vitamin C 3% Calcium 6% • Iron 7%

Nutrition Grade B+

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

What to do about bullies?

First of all, my condolences to go out to the family of Amanda Todd, I find it so sad that she had to commit suicide to get some serious attention given to her problems with bullies.

I have had many conversations about Bullies in the past week, as I am sure you have, it is the top story on every news show and newspaper around here, hard not to have an opinion.  But I admit I have trouble writing about it because there is just no clear solution to this problem!

My Dad talks about bullies from when he was kid, my spouse talks about halling off and punching anyone who tried to pick on him, (both he and my dad agreed that always worked).  I remember a movie I watched recently where a girl vomited on a bully's shoes, that worked too!

I know as a parent I did my best to teach my kids to stand up for themselves, but I have always been against hitting or violence of any kind.  Schools taught us to communicate with our kids, make sure they know to tell an adult that they trust about bullies or anyone or thing that makes them uncomfortable etc, etc.

My problem was, what do I do when they tell me someone is bullying them, (I am not going to hall off and hit someone) there was no manual for me as a parent to follow.  I tried the approach of talking to the other parent, who of course denied that little Johnny would ever do such a thing, so then there is a talk with a Teacher and the Principle, but the are also limited in what they can do.  Luckily for my kids bullying was never a serious problem, but they did have a really large Dad so if it ever came to be a problem, my best recourse would be to defer to him. (maybe that is what they meant when they said tell an adult you trust...pick a really big one?)

Now my kids did grow up with internet, and cell phones, but Facebook didn't hit until they were in their teens, I am sure a lot of stupid stuff was emailed around but cyber bullying has gotten a lot more common place in the last 5 years.  I know for a fact that grade 8 girls are the worst bullies that one can ever meet, they work in packs, picking on the girl who just does not meet their standards for whatever reason.  In person this can be awful, online where you do not have to be face to face, it gets so much worse.  Personally I think all grade 8 girls should be banned from social media until they mature a bit more. (of course just one opinion)   We all know that banning your kids from using something only makes them use it more behind your back, so never mind that suggestion.

I love Shelley Fralic's column on this topic, it is time to out the bullies, post their photos online like the stanley cup rioters, shame them publicly.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Opinion/Columnists/Shelley+Fralic+Maybe+time+shame+bullies+campaign/7393542/story.html
I think it would be great if Newspapers published more stories about people who were/are bullies, with full apologies to their victims, like this one: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Former+bully+speaks+about+guilt+forgiveness+life+after+high+school/7387246/story.html

I see no need to wait for the government to do something, although there does need to be some new laws dealing with cyber crimes, Kids and parents know who the bullies are, we need to step in and help  any kid who is being bullied.  I am not saying you need to be cruel, violent or even mean to a bully, just tell them to stop, and if they don't there will be a consequence.  (this is the part we are missing now "the consequence")  I agree with Shelley Fralic, the consequence needs to be a public one, photo posted online, or on TV, and make them change schools if needed, not the victim!

Just my 2cents!

"Gluten Free" is not a weight loss diet

I have now been wheat free for 11 months now, I was only going to try it for 30 days, but now I cannot go back, I wish I could, but every time I try to eat wheat I get the runs (probably more than you wanted to know sorry!)
Recently, I have found more restaurants that offer Gluten free meals, more bakeries that make good bread (spelt bread is my favorite see my June 26/12 post) as well as more news about people going Gluten free.

Honestly, I don't see the attraction to this diet, eating rice bread instead of a good whole wheat or multigrain bread is a big compromise in taste, and fiber, and it costs more!  There is NO Fiber in rice bread, and it is crumbly and so disappointing that you probably won't eat it, so Yes if you give up bread entirely you will lose weight, (unless you replace it with something equally high in carbs of course).  Potatoes are gluten free, but french are not always gluten free(usually because of the oil they are cooked in), so giving up french fries will also lead to weight loss, unless you continue to eat a lot of potatoes.

Bottom line, as with any diet, you will only lose weight if you limit the calories you put in your mouth.
I found this article online, about a reporter that tried to go gluten free for a week, not a well informed experiment, but the writer does admit to losing 3 pounds only because she ate less.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/how-i-lived-without-gluten-for-one-week/article4610373/

Yesterday my Dad, (who eats too much bread, big round belly to prove it, but he is 81 and you should be able to eat whatever you want when reach that age if you ask me), but I digress.......mentions that his brother (also in his 80's) has lost 15 lbs by giving up wheat.  Hmmmm I ask "did he give up wheat or stop eating bread?"  He is not sure, but I am not surprised that he lost weight, I am really surprised that this "no wheat idea" is so mainstream that my 80 year old relatives are not only talking about it but giving it a try.

Last week the Vancouver Sun had this article about how Gluten Free has become the latest fad, so much so that things like Gluten free shampoo are now on the market.  Really are we that stupid?  When has your shampoo every effected your diet?

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Gluten+free+trend+legs/7386347/story.html

I am glad that there are more options on the market now for those of us who need to be wheat free, or gluten free or whatever ails us, but there are many times when it is just dam inconvenient!  Like a road trip to Kelowna, most of you would stop at a subway or a burger place on the side of road for lunch or a snack on the 4 hour trip, but there is nothing there that is wheat free.....on a plane or a vacation, or just a shopping trip into town with friends, you need to plan what you can eat!  Take something with you or order the sandwich or burger without the bun.  (again you will be limiting what you eat, no carbs so you will lose some weight, but you may also be hungry and grumpy!)

To anyone who wants to go Gluten Free to lose weight, you need to know how inconvenient and expensive it is, a loaf of bread is $7, and ordering a gluten free burger with or without the bun is more expensive because the cooks have to handle your food differently.  All diets take will power, but counting calories, cutting down on carbs, costs much less and is a much more "real" way to live and manage your weight.

Personally, I have lost a few pounds and gained them back just like I have before I was wheat free, I have found really good wheat free bread, cookies and muffins.  None of the good stuff is low in calories, so if I eat too much I gain weight!