A wonderful Christmas concert

This past Thursday we went to the Club Regent Theatre in Winnipeg to watch ‘A Prairie Christmas’ with the #Nadeau Emsemble. Two women played the harp and a man played a variety of old string instrument that looked quite complicated. One of them sounded like the Scottish bagpipes. What a great performance! No screaming voices and no blaring steel guitars that make your chest vibrate and your eardrums wanting to burst.

The women didn’t just play the harp, they also sang along. Both women had lovely, sweet voices that blended perfectly with the sound of the harps. It was a wonderful and enjoyable evening. I never knew a harp sounded very much like a piano.

Too bad the show wasn’t sold out. People don’t seem to be interested anymore in these kind of performances, where you can sit back, close your eyes and be transported into a world of peace and quiet solitude. They’d rather flock to shows performed by bands like the Tragically Hip and similar groups. I’ve never enjoyed shows where you can’t understand the words, because they are screamed into a microphone and where the instruments are played so loud you can’t hear yourself think. I don’t like people waving their hands in the air in front of me so I can’t see the stage anymore.

We went to a Winter Concert from School. They used to call them Christmas Concerts. Not anymore. In this political climate we are living in, we mustn’t offend all those minorities that don’t believe in Christmas. They played one ‘Song’ with drums I thought would never end, one with nothing but electronic music, and one song by Zeppelin with loud instruments and a guy singing. According to my son he did a great imitation. I couldn’t wait for the evening to end to give my ears a rest.

Whatever happened to those singers with the melodic, resonant voices instead of those flat voices you hear these days?

It seems to be a sign of the times. Nobody has time anymore to sit and relax, to contemplate life and enjoy the silence; to listen to their inner voice. Everything has to be loud and hektic. You hear it in the music and in every part of life. When I watch people walking around with their I-phones in their hand, constantly checking for who knows what, texting while they cross the street, while they stand in line at the cashier, or sitting in a doctor’s office. I’ve seen them playing games on their gadgets while fishing. I watched a man with his two children in a restaurant. Instead of paying attention to his children, he was occupied with his cell phone, completely ignoring his kids. What is happening? Where are we heading? People seems to be more nervous than ever; they suffer from mental problems and from stress. Perhaps putting away their phone and just having a nice conversation with the people they are with might help a lot or going to a concert like the one we just enjoyed.

Many people reading this will not agree with me. My son is a fan of the Tragically Hip. I guess I’m just an old-fashioned guy, a dying breed. Maybe in a hundred years, if we haven’t managed to destroy this worlds with everyone on it, things will be different. Perhaps people will enjoy classical music again and appreciate voices and music performed by groups like the Nadeau Ensemble.

The Snowman

I made a snowman from papier maché using soaked toilet paper, flower, gypsum, and glue. The hat was the biggest challenge. I made if from thin cardboard. Then I glued it with tiny straps of paper to the snowman. I had to paint the snowman white, because the maché was kind of yellow. For eyes I used a couple of tacks. For a little extra I carved a tiny pipe and glued it into the mouth. The base is a slice of oak branch  which I varnished. then I glued the finished snowman to the base.

My wife actually likes it and lets me display it in the living room. At least for this season.

#Yellow Bean Soup

I haven't posted for a while. Been busy with the yard and the garden. It's that time of year. The yard looks good. We raked the old grass from the winter, cut it twice now. We spread fertilizer and sprayed for those pesky dandelions and for now we have them under control. It is next to impossible to keep them out of our lawn. We are between neighbor that don't give a crap about their lawn. For whatever reason. One of them is against spraying because it isn't healthy. He just cuts the grass, never bags, which means all the weed seeds stay in the grass to make new weeds. I bag most of the time and take the grass to the dump where they compost it into soil.

Speaking of seeds--all of my vegetable seeds are in the garden. The lettuce is already sprouting as are the beets and the onions. I also planted 17 Kohlrabi and 6 Kale, but didn't get around to plant my peppers and tomatoes. That's a big job and with the rain these last couple of days I had to put that on hold. It is supposed to be sunny and warm for the next week so, hopefully, tomorrow I can do some transplanting. The soil is still too wet.

I spread nearly 2 yards of fresh soil onto the beds and mixed in plenty of 19-19-19 fertilizer. If everything goes well, we should have a bumper crop. So far, I've caught 4 mice in the trap, which is promising. It means they aren't too many out there. The last couple of years were terrible. The garden was infested with mice. They ate most of our beets. I set out traps and lost count how many I caught. The crows were happy.

Since it rained, I managed to make a pot of soup yesterday. A new recipe for me. I made it once before and I loved the soup. We still have frozen yellow beans in the freezer, which I used. I found the recipe on the internet, but I modified for myself and added different vegetables. The soup turned out well and it tastes great. Here is the recipe. Try it out. You won't regret it.

Yellow Bean Soup with Italian Sausages

Ingredients (makes 10 portions):
•    2 tablespoons of corn oil
•    500g yellow wax beans, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
•    1 medium onion, finely chopped
•    2 cloves of garlic crushed
•    1 medium potato, peeled and diced
•    2 carrots, sliced into disks
•    1 stalk Celery, chopped
•    1 – Parsnip root (chopped)
•    Small handful of frozen peas
•    900 ml Beef Broth
•    600 ml Broccoli water (or just plain water)
•    2 - Italian Sausages (sliced)
•    100 ml sour cream
•    1 teaspoon of corn flour (corn starch)
•    2 teaspoons of Hungarian paprika powder
•    salt (Hys) and pepper to taste
•    dash of hot sauce (only if using mild sausages!)
•    1 Bay leaf (optional)
•    Fresh parsley or dill to serve – optional
Method
1.    Clean and prepare the vegetables
2.    Boil Sausages for a few minutes. Pour off the water.
3.    Slice Sausages into small pieces
4.    Cook the onion and garlic on the oil till translucent
5.    Take off the heat and stir in the teaspoonful of paprika powder
6.    Add the vegetables and cook on a moderate heat for 2-3 minutes while stirring
7.    Pour in the water, add the sausages, drop in the bay leaf (if you have one), salt and pepper to taste, and cook on low heat till the vegetables are tender (50 minutes)
8.    Combine the teaspoon of corn flour and the sour cream evenly, ladle in some of the hot liquid from the soup to even out the temperature between the two, mix well then pour the sour cream mixture into the simmering soup and stir until thickens slightly.

It tastes as good as it looks. Hmmm--Yummy

#Who's Bad--the Michael Jackson Show

Last Friday we went to the Casino to watch the Michael Jackson show. The show was called ‘Who’s Bad’. There were two impersonators. One of them was better than the other one. He looked more like Michael Jackson and he had the moves down to perfection. His moonwalk was smooth and impressive.

Both performers did a great job.

That was the only good thing I have to say about the show.

For me, it already started out badly. The guy who sat in front of me blocked half the stage, he was so big. I could see the performers only either with my left eye or my right eye, depending on which side of his huge head I looked past him. It was one of my nightmares come true. I have this fear (and rightfully so) that a big person will sit in front of me when I go to a performance, even the movies. It happened too many times. It happened again this time. Even the people sitting beside us felt sorry for me.

Expecting the music to be loud, I took out my hearing aid. When the music started, I stuffed pieces of Kleenex into my ears, but it was still so loud, the noise echoed inside my head and my chest vibrated. You could barely hear the singers, because the drums and other instruments were overpowering.

To make it even more pleasant, the women behind us shouted and screamed most of the time. When they didn’t, they filled the time with chattering. Why do women scream at these shows? Don't they have any self-control?

So many women and girls ran to the front of the stage and danced, sang, and waved their hands over their heads to the rhythm (if there was one) of the music (translate: noise). I can’t understand this hand-waving. I thought they did that only in some of the churches in the South.

The other thing that annoyed us were the lights the lighting people constantly shone into our eyes. What is the purpose of that? I want to see the stage not the audience.

If I could have uttered the magic words ‘Beam me up, Scottie’ and they would have worked I would have yelled them out loud to escape Never-never-Land.

Even my wife, who is more of a fan than I, didn’t enjoy it. We left early and went to play the machines. We each had $20.00 of FREE PLAY. To ease the pain, we managed to leave the casino with $40.00 of winnings between the two of us. That lifted our spirits a little.

I am willing to bet that most of the people who go to these shows end up with massive hearing loss sometime in the future. They’ll all be wearing hearing aids.

We’ve seen great Michael Jackson impersonations when on holiday in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. We expected a similar performance. Unfortunately, we were disappointed. This was a waste of money and an evening.

#Iberostar Daquiri, Cuba, Review

I sent the following review to TripAdvisor, but they rejected it, because of some unspecified content. They don't like personal opinions. So I deleted much of the review, things that I thought were actually relevant, things other travelers might find useful and submitted it again. Most likely it was my opinion about the CUC. Mustn't offend Cuba. Can't write about the truth in this political correct climate we're living in.

This review is, of course, only my opinion and is based on the experience my wife and I had.

We stayed at the Iberostar Daquiri from March 5 until March 19 of this year. It cost a little more than we usually budget for, but we thought a 4-star resort would offer more. Now we don’t believe it was worth the extra cost. In our opinion it is only a 3 to 3 1/2-star.

The resort itself is clean and well taken care of. We stayed in the last building to the north, Pinar del Rio, in room 5150. It was considered Ocean view, but our view was obstructed by a building. It didn’t bother us too much, because we don’t spend much time in our room and we were close to the beach. One problem with ocean view: When the wind blew from the East, which was often, we couldn't sit on our patio.

The room was basic with a King-size bed, which was comfortable. The toilet worked and so did the shower. We never had an issue with the bathroom and we didn’t run out of hot water. The fridge leaked water when we moved into the room, but that was fixed within a short time. The Air Conditioner had only 2 settings: On of Off.

One beef we have: They wanted $28.00 for the safe. Since we never take much money or valuables on vacations, we didn’t take the safe.

Our maid, Ary, did a great job with cleaning and she changed our towels when needed. The fridge was always stocked with a new water bottle.

Beach towels: We didn’t get any until the next day and we had to go to Guest Services to get them. Exchanging beach towels was a bit of a problem. We exchanged ours only once.

The Beach: Iberostar Daquiri has a long stretch of beach. It was also quite wide, but the beach was not as nice as the beach at other resorts in Cuba. Lots of seaweed along the shore, especially after a storm. There are plenty of palapas, not the round ones but the rectangular ones. They don’t give much shade, because they are not covered with palm leaves. The roof is constructed from poles and the rays of the sun come through between the cracks.

I’m not sure if it is the location of Guillermo, but it seemed to us it was windier there than in Cayo Coco. Already the presence of a place that rents out wind surfing equipment makes us suspect that we are correct. We had stormy weather the first five days and we couldn’t stay at the beach. Because of the high winds, everyone went to the pool. It was nearly impossible to get a spot by the pool. The wind surfers though had a great time.

Food: The food was okay, but there were issues. Long lineups at the food stations where they prepare the food. The chicken was always overcooked which made it dry. I had pork chops three times. The first couple of times they were not bad, but the third time I could not eat them, because they were so tough. The beef was also tough. There was lettuce every day, but for the last week there was no descent salad dressing, only vinegar. Probably not a big deal to some people, but too me it was, because I like to eat lettuce every day—with salad dressing. They had shrimp every day, but they were always overcooked and next to impossible to peel. No lobster.

The fish was excellent; many varieties to choose from, but you had to stand in line. French Fries were great. Other potatoes were hard. Great soups which is important to a soup lover like me.

Breakfast was always good with eggs cooked different ways, pancakes etc. Always yogurt and the buns and bread were good. Cold cuts were fine; many different kinds of cheeses, but no jam.

The Cuban a la cart: Big disappointment. They offered the same stuff you get in the buffet only less. We had the lamb stew or maybe I should say the ‘lamb bones’. The little bit of meat that clung to the bones was so tough to make it impossible to eat. Little choice of salads and no choice of desert. Also beware of the fact that they try to sell you the wine. It comes in bottles and is prohibitively expensive. Take the house wine or drink beer.

The Mexican a la cart: Better, but again, basically they serve whatever the buffet serves. We had pasta with small shrimp infused in whiskey. Okay but nothing special. My wife got an upset stomach after eating there.

We never tried the Italian one because of the negative reviews.

One thing that disturbed us were the filthy cushions in the dining rooms.

Service was fine, except the big tippers got the hugs and the closer attention. We noticed that tipping was rampant. People tipped the servers, they tipped every time they got a drink from the bar, and they even tipped the cooks. I only tip after I receive good service not before.

Entertainment: The entertainment was first class. Those dancers were so talented. They had a different show every night.

The only problems were the noisy people at the bar which is behind the last row of seats. Why they bother going to the show is beyond me. Talking loud during the show displays disrespect for the performers and disturbs the guests who are there to enjoy the show.
Other observations: The CUC, the Cuban Convertible, is in my opinion a scam from the Cuban government. It isn't worth anything on the world market, but in Cuba it was pretty much on par with the Euro. How they arrive at that I have no idea. It cost $1.40 Canadian Dollars for one CUC, which makes no sense, since the Canadian economy is so much better that the Cuban economy. In a way, they cheat the vendors, because prices are way out of line. A T-shirt, for example, costs between 11 CUC and 20 CUC, which makes it approximately 28.00 Canadian Dollars, and the quality isn't there. We don't buy much in Cuba because of that, but it doesn't keep us from visiting Cuba. It is still a wonderful vacation destination.

We probably won't go back again to this resort because of the winds and the condition of the beach.