We have been enjoying lovely sunny warm (for february) weather for the last nine days, this is the fabulous view we enjoy driving from home to Blaine where our boat is moored.
Alas, just as spring is showing its face we have to say goodbye once again. Our suitcases are packed and we will be making our final trip back to cold Mongolia later this week.
This afternoon we watched a controlled burn of a house in our neighbourhood. Rather than demolish the house, the owners gave it to the local fire department to use for training exercises with the final burn taking place today.
The first image was taken at 1.25pm, a few minutes after the firefighters had torched the centre of the house, the second shot, just ten minutes later shows how quickly our wooden tinder box houses can become totally engulfed. Tomorrow we will be checking all our smoke alarms and fire extinguishers!
This morning I did a double take as I pulled in to the parking lot of our local supermarket, and saw this splendid car - a 1931 model A Ford - that I had seen and photographed in Mongolia last year during the Peking to Paris Rally. The car finished 39th overall, from a field of 134 starters, and looked none the worse for wear after the grueling rally.
Another month has gone by since I updated the blog, this time my excuse was a last minute trip to the Yucatan in Mexico, where we spent almost 3 weeks. Grant, Brenda and David arrived a few days after us so it was a family holiday. Our base was a condo right on the beach near Progreso and from there we made lots of day trips - to the beautiful colonial city of Merida, the Mayan ruins at Uxmal which were truly incredible, the “yellow city” at Izamal and a 3 day trip to Cancun where we stayed at an all-inclusive resort. Here are a few pictures from the trip and if I ever find a few free hours from my very busy life I will post a web gallery.
The Grand Plaza in Merida - a great place for people watching
One of the new modern wonders of the World - Chichen-Itza
Ray and David just hanging out in Cancun. Note the incredible pale blue water of the ocean in the background.
Enjoying the warm blue waters of the Caribbean.
The Convent in the yellow city of Izamal. Most of the buildings in the city centre are painted in the same ochre colour.
Rose flamingoes at the Merida Zoo. There are huge flocks of these colourful birds in the wetlands close to where we stayed.
We woke up this morning to a light covering of snow and now, 7 hours later, we have over 2 inches and it hasn’t stopped yet. Ray decided to shovel it off the driveway and had a very willing helper.
We’ve been very busy since we got back, spending time with our family and taking advantage of some of the great pre-Christmas deals. Yesterday was Ray’s birthday which we celebrated at home with a lovely traditional English style roast dinner. Here he is with our new TV, which was delivered just in time for his birthday.
Yeserday we arrived back in Beijing from 10 wonderful days in Thailand and we fly back to Canada later today. I’ll post some pictures from our trip as soon as I get a few free minutes.
Yesterday our North Korean engineers invited us to join them supporting their national soccer team playing Mongolia in their first round qualifier match.
The Koreans had lots of support from migrant workers here in Mongolia and we sat with them in the bleachers. Before the game their cheer leader (lady in pink cap at bottom right of picture) had them singing and waving red flags.
Security was tight with men in riot gear standing along the sidelines, closely watching the crowd and glaring at the Koreans whenever they cheered their side, which was often as they dominated the game.
By half-time the score was 3-0 in favour of North Korea. Although the Mongolians did manage to score one goal in the second half they were no match for the visitors, and the final score was 4.1.
The game ended without incident but this old fire truck was standing by, presumably this was the water cannon for riot control.
I haven’t been posting much to the blog as we have been enjoying our ’summer’ holiday here on the Wet Coast of Canada. Weather records have been broken with the longest stretch of rainy days in any July on record which made it a soggy time, but the end is in sight and the sunshine is forecast to return tomorrow. The week before the deluge started we took David to the zoo and spent another fun day at the beach in White Rock.
He loved his ride on the choo-choo.
and an ice cream afterwards.
busy on the beach
and helping Grandpa assemble our new garden bench.
As always holidays are over too quickly and Ray is now on his way back to Mongolia. I will join him in a couple of weeks.
Today Sean had his best ever day on Alamy, with 3 sales totalling over $1000. Well done Sean.
I also sold another of my Mongolian horse pictures, this one for a Japanese tourism brochure.
You can see Sean’s (and my few) stock photos at Alamy.com
Yesterday was Canada Day so what did we do, we went across the border to the USA to visit the boat. Here’s David checking things out, he loves to drive and was delighted with having a wheel this big.
We have had lovely sunny warm weather for the last few days and yesterday afternoon Brenda, David, Ellie (their 5 month old Irish Wolfhound) and I went to White Rock beach where they were able to do what kids and puppies do - run around and let off some steam. We ended the evening with fish and chips. Good fun.
No pictures this time, I arrived back in Canada a few days ago and have been too busy spending time with my cute little grandson David and his Mom and Dad, calling friends and family and generally settling back in. I’ll be back with some new pictures in a few days.
Hurrah - I’ve made a sale, this image has just sold for the princely sum of $75.00
Country: Worldwide
Usage: Editorial
Media: Book- Academic/Educational
Industry: Retail books/magazines/newspapers
Sub-Industry: Education and Test Guides
Print run: up to 5,000
Placement: Inside
Image Size: 1/4 page
Start: 01 March 2008
End: 01 March
It gives me a great feeling of satisfaction to actually sell an image, now Ray can give up his job and I can support him in retirement by selling my work!!!!!
Yesterday the competitors in the 100 year re-enactment of the Peking to Paris Rally arrived in UB, after encountering many hardships crossing the Gobi Desert. Ray saw these 2 cars refuelling and stopped to have a look. The red car is a 1924 Itala 51B, the burgundy one is a 1928 Chevrolet AB Roadster. Today is a rest day for the rally and we will be going to have a look at the cars, and tomorrow morning we hope to watch the start of the next leg. For further information on the rally check out the web site at: http://www.pekingparis.com/index.html
We arrived back in Mongolia late last night after a week long business trip to Beijing, 37 hours late - for a 2 hour flight. This is not the first time we have been delayed by Air China, but it by far the worst. We were waiting at the departure gate on Friday morning when they posted a sign saying flight delayed due to bad weather, and were all taken to a low grade hotel where we were fed meals that looked and tasted like dog food, not told what was going on and not allowed to leave the hotel. This treatment by Air China is inexcusable, especially when we know that MIAT (the other airline which flies from Beiijing to Mongolia) was operating as normal. We will never fly with this airline again unless it is a dire emergency and will be writing a strong letter of complaint.
A couple of weeks ago the weatherman predicted a sunny weekend so we packed up the trailer and headed south to Deception Pass where we spent a great weekend camping.
The bridge at Deception Pass.
During November and December the area was hit by some ferocious winter storms, with many trees fallen.
David enjoying the beach.
and exploring with his Mum and Dad.
Bald eagle eying us from his lofty perch.
Even in the depth of winter these camels are “saddled up” and waiting by the roadside in Terelj National park most days, the owners hoping some crazy tourists will come along and pay a few hundred Tugrugs for a ride or photo op.
Back on this side of the Pacific the snow finally stopped and the sun came out so we donned snow boots and toques and ventured into the yard, here’s David getting to know Freya, our ”ney”bours horse.
Yesterday we got a taste of winter with a big storm dumping almost 6 inches of snow on us. This picture was taken around 4pm from my kitchen window and by the time it stopped snowing we had another 3 inches.
This morning we started clearing walkways and digging out, but David was not sure about all that white stuff.
Ray is now back in Mongolia, here’s a cute shot of David helping him sort through some drawings to take back.
The two weeks since Christmas have flown by - here are a few of our pictures from Christmas morning. Although David is too young to understand what its all about, he soon got the idea and had great fun opening his gifts.
He climbed right onto the huge pile of gifts - these were all for him
Some assembly required but Dad soon had the bike put together
During the 2 weeks since my last post we travelled from Mongolia to Beijing where we had two hectic days of Christmas shopping, and then flew back to Canada to spend Christmas with our family. This Christmas will be great fun now that our little Grandson David is running around. Like all one year olds he is into everything - he’s been trying to get into the presents under the tree for days.
We’ll be back with more pictures and snippets from our very busy lives soon, but in the meanwhile we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.
Ray and Pauline
Last Saturday Ray celebrated his birthday with a group of friends at Dave’s Place, our local English Pub.
Not enough room on the cake for all the candles.
It’s been a very busy month for me as far as travel goes, and this last weekend was no exception. I went camping on the Oregon Coast with Grant, Brenda and little David.
We had gorgeous weather, a real bonus for the end of September and went for walks on the beautiful beaches at Sand Lake near Tillamook and Fort Stevens Park near Astoria. We were even brave enough to test the temperature of the Pacific Ocean, but only briefly.
David loved the sand, and we had lots of fun playing with him on the beach.
My holiday in Sweden is almost over, but it has been a very enjoyable 12 days seeing some of this beautiful country. Yesterday we went to Gamla Stan or Old Town, with its quaint cobbled streets and old buildings, mostly painted in warm yellows, oranges and reds.
Yesterday Chris pulled out some boxes of old photos, this one which is in need of some major restoration was taken many years ago before we moved to Africa.
This was taken in Trosa, a picture perfect little town a few hours drive south of Stockholm.
Once again my blog has been assigned a low priority, as Ray and I returned to Canada last weekend due to the death of a very dear family member. Ray is now on his way back to Mongolia and I am heading to Sweden tomorrow to visit my brother - a long planned trip which fortunetely I was able to rearrange and reschedule so that I still make it for his birthday on Sept 11th. I hope to be posting some pictures from my Scandinavian adventure soon.
We spotted this bike while wandering down a lane in Macau, this one is ready for any kind of weather
Sorry no pictures this time, I’m taking a break visiting Hong Kong and Macau and too busy playing tourist and shopping. More from here in a few days…….
Hello from Ray and Pauline in Mongolia,
Through this blog we’ll share some of the sights and experiences of our life here.
There is a famous painting by Mongolian artist B. Sharav titled “One day in Mongolia” which depicts various aspects in a typical day of a nomad. The painting above, though not by Sharav - is an example of this style of painting. Through posts to our blog we’ll try to convey one day in our life here, which due to the cultural differences and language problems can at times be difficult and frustrating but is always interesting.
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