The BIG Trip Cancellation Cheque!

Wow! I never thought I'd see a FULL REFUND of all the money we paid for our December cruise and airfare, but here it is...

It renews my faith in Master Card Trip Cancellation Insurance. As you know we had to cancel our trip because of Wendy's eye surgery which came up unexpectedly less than a week before we were to leave the country.

Good luck was the reason it all worked out. You see, Wendy's eye surgery was deemed a new condition because she hadn't had any previous meds or diagnoses for that condition for the past year. If however, we had been forced to cancel for some ailment for which she had already been diagnosed and treated for in the past 12 months, the insurance would not cover it. In other words if you know when you book a cruise, that there is a "pre-existing condition", then don't expect to receive the insurance if that condition flares up or otherwise causes the cancellation. Doesn't seem fair does it? Insurance should cover the cancellation what ever the insurable reason. People don't buy cancellation insurance to defraud the company by cancelling their trip just to get their money back. It makes no sense to me.

.
.
.

Let Me Try On Justin's Beard...

I never could grow a very good beard so this little experiment encouraged me to never try again.

.
.
.

A Dinghy Ride in 2012, Point Edward.

"A Night In Winter Harbour" September 4, 10 pm, 2012.

.
.
.

Hamilton Bay - My Artsy Pic For Today

Inspired by our 2018 boat ride around Hamilton Bay and the steel mills.

.
.
.

Peter and Kay Snowed-in In Newfoundland

The outdoor bar in the center of the cruise terminal in St Kitts

You might remember the cruising friends Peter and Kay, we met on a Celebrity cruise out of Miami three years ago. They hail from St. John's Newfoundland so that inspired me to drop them a note after hearing about the recent blizzard which hit their island.

Here's what Peter wrote back:

"Thanks for reaching out to us.   We survived unscathed but had quite a few hours of shovelling over 3 days – luckily the good NL’ers came through as usual – our “younger” next door neighbour helped shovel the first day and the second day he got his brother to use his Kubota snowblower to get rid of most of the drifted snow that we had left after the first day of shovelling (picture with shovel against the bank).  The first picture gives an idea of what we were dealing with when we started – there was no snow along the side of the house and at the back of the driveway yet the 3 vehicles, our 2 and our neighbours, the white lump to the right of the truck, were encased in snow and the drift went to the road – about another 20 feet from the shovel, 15 feet from where Kay is standing – probably 8-10 feet out into the road which still hasn’t been pushed back.   The most terrifying part of the whole ordeal was that the wind had sustained strength of 100 km plus for 15 hours – that is a lot of wind – the house shook.    Highest wind in St. John’s was about 135 km while some areas had gusts to over 170 km so we were lucky."

 "Anyway we were home and it is probably good that we were – would have been hard to be away and not know what was going on.    We were supposed to be in Vancouver all week at the conference and then go to the interior on Thursday for skiing with our son, DIL and grandsons (supposed to leave Sat AM, then Sunday AM, then Tuesday AM and now we are going to Kelowna on Thursday for Kay and Friday for me) – the airport remains closed – supposed to open again as long as the State of Emergency is lifted, tomorrow, Wed at 5 AM.     It has been a tough weekend and into the week – they are allowing grocery stores to open today as people are starting to run out of things – we are OK although we are running out of coffee cream – not that important for sure."

"Hope that your winter goes better than ours has to date."

.
.
.

Ooops, We Lost!

"Two months and 881 entries later, with artwork coming in from every province AND territory, we are proud to announce the winner of our Catalogue Cover contest!
Kim Collins' "Rad Dad" beat out our other two semi-finalists and will grace our cover this coming March. "Rad Dad" really resonated with us: back in the 80s we didn't have cell phones, internet access, and hundreds of channels of TV to watch, so we all made our own fun! In Kim's case it was building a soap box racer and repairing a beloved red wagon with the help of dad (and the pets too, of course).
Congratulations Kim! And a huge thank you to everyone who entered. You didn't make it easy for us to pick a winner! Keep an eye on the comments below to find out who our other two semi-finalists were."

Above is the winner, congratulations!

First and second runner-ups. I like the one below.

Oh well, we'll never know what the actual criteria was to pick the winning entries. Looking over the winners I suspect it could have be a legal issue since I used actual photos. There might be a perception of copyright/permission problems with actual human models. Anyway, as I say, we'll never know, but certainly it was worth a try because I had a lot of fun doing my three entries. CLICK HERE or scroll down to see mine.
.
.
.

My 'Artsy' For Today "Vernon and Irene 1912"

"Vernon and Irene 1912"

My coloured interpretation of a black and white PD image of Vernon and Irene Castle, c.1912

"Irene Castle 1919"

 Click any picture to enlarge it.
.
.
.

Flashback: Leaving St Kitts On Wendy's Birthday 2015

Flashback, to November 23 2015 as our ship, the Oosterdam leaves the beautiful island of St Kitts.

.
.
.

Our Waterfront Property, Lake Flash Peaks Out...

Our own private lake, levels seemed to have peaked this morning after unusually heavy rain in the last few days. Lake Flash, was so named because it tends to appear (and disappear) in a 'flash' and named after our old black cat Flash.

How nice is is to sit by the dining room window and enjoy a coffee with a lake view. Even if it lasts but for quite a short time.

CLICK HERE to read some previous blog entries about Lake Flash.
.
.
.

I was hoping getting old would take longer!

 January 12, 1949.(25,930 days ago)

Had a Birthday dinner with my fantastic family... pizza and my all-time fav... chicken wings!

CLICK HERE to see some other fabulous and famous 49er's.
.
.
.

Once An Actor...

My 'Artoon' for today.

Looks to me like our actor/Prime Minister is getting into the 'Arab Look' for 2020. Is he trying to look more appealing to the big voting segment he pretty much created by welcoming all the immigrants or could he be getting ready for some travel to the Middle East? Mr. Dressup didn't score any points with his India tour and his blackface scandal didn't help his cause. Justin just can't let a good acting part go by without the full costume. You would think he'd learn!
.
.
.

Delayed Results of the Princess Auto Contest.

This news was posted on Facebook on Monday. Of course I missed it since I don't 'do' Facebook, but happened to push a button on Princess's web page that took me there.

BELOW are my final 3 entries for a chance to be on the cover and win $5000:

.
.
.

Trump The Narcissist

.
.
.

Do Everyone A Favour! Turn Your Phone!

Why did the inventors of the phone not get this right? Then, why oh why do people still keep taking skinny little sideways movies and pictures? Come on people... turn your phone!

Or the one below. (CAUTION: Not very polite.)

.
.
.

Up to You!

My friend Doris sent me this one. So true!
.
.
.