HOUSE RENOVATION

 

Commonly practiced: When you want to build a new house on your lot, you construct it over the existing house thus avoiding the building code, moving out while you build and buying all new material.

MECHANICAL MISADVENTURES

2011 ended with everything I owned broken and/or malfunctioning…refrigerator, car, camera, computer… now I am broke!

CAR: With the money I made at Ararat this summer I bought an old Mitsubishi sedan when I returned to D/ca. It needed a few adjustments and a tune up! Fine, but it took 2 months of lies, surprises, misunderstandings, and threats to finally get it in satisfactory running order. One small story– just when I thought it was ready to come home (mid December), it turned out that it needed a new gasket (I won’t go into all that led up to this). OK. The mechanic was to order this...days go by...then 2 weeks go by. When I checked on him he assured me that it had been ordered and was on its way. Another week went by and I could see that the car was still in the same place in his yard and had not been moved. Hysterics and yelling ensued, whereupon he confessed that he had not ordered the gasket – from Japan yet! It gets ordered and arrives within the week thanks to Fed Ex. He promised that I would have the car in a couple of days. However, now the timing is off and it is Christmas. The only guy in all of Portsmouth who has the testing gizmo and who can adjust the timing is drunk, and I know that he will stay that way well into New Year’s week. I tell the mechanic that he has ruined my entire Christmas holiday. Does he care? He tells me that his wife left him because he is such a nice guy (honest!). He has me completely at his mercy, but he knows he has done me wrong and he is a little scared because he knows I am ready to sue. Ergo…the car was delivered this morning and is good to go.

‘FRIDGE: I had to buy a fridge. Appliances are very expensive here, so I found a nice, clean one that had been repossessed and that I could easily afford. In the shop it ran nicely and quietly. Within weeks it began to make a serious noise. Mr. Prince, the repair man, came quickly and said the computerized regulator is malfunctioning and ice was building up. I decided to simply defrost it every couple of weeks. This method worked for just that long i.e. a couple of weeks. Then the freezer compartment got too cold and the ‘fridge part did not get cold at all. Mr. Prince came and got it, did his magic, and returned it within 36 hours and it works perfectly, if somewhat more noisily. This, of course, was not free.

CAMERA: Suddenly the lens would not extend. I love this camera – a Canon. I cried. It is once again working well.

COMPUTER: I have a two year old MacBook. I love it. Some weeks ago, in the middle of working on it, it shut down – just like that. I started it up again, but it kept shutting itself down and displaying other bizarre behaviour. I could see that nothing was lost, everything (music, photos, programs, documents etc.) were still there. I also discovered that by holding down the ‘D’ key it would stay on (?), but really it was not functioning at all. Desperate emails to my brother Peter to no avail, so I prepared myself to do without it, put it away and take it back to Ottawa in June and make do with an old, but working PC I had (again, thanks to Peter). Last night January 7, 2012, we went to one of our favourite bars. Just behind the bar was a man working on a computer mixing some music. I asked him if he was working on an Apple by any chance. Yes. After some discussion it turns out that he is a radio DJ/Technician /music producer, in the UK, and he would be happy to look at my MacBook. So I took my Apple computer to him today and watched him investigate it. Clearly he knows what he is doing, and is puzzled and intrigued. He thinks that there was a power surge that scrambled it. Domlec, the Dominican power supply people, apparently have sudden, huge, destroying, unpredictable surges. He talked about equipment he has had destroyed as result of these surges. I left it with him. To be continued

I must look up to see what constellation the moon was in December. There can be no other explanation.

Outdoor Movies

The pub around the corner has a huge screen - white painted plywood. They show videos every night. You sit on the road, along with the neighbourhood dogs and cats, drink beer and eat peanuts and watch. They show Jackie Chan type movies, and ridiculous melodramas about mongol hordes rampaging across Asia, "Gladiators" is a favourite.

We have a movie (The Harder They Come) featuring Jimmy Cliff's music, with Jimmy himself acting and singing. It is about the dark underside of the Jamaican music business. We took it over last night. As soon as it came up on the screen everyone whooped and cheered. They brought their chairs out of the pub and plunked themselves down front and centre in the middle of the road. They sang along and made fun of the Jamaicans! Outdoors movies at their best!

Jimmy Cliff's hits: You Can Get it if YOu Really Want it, Johnny Too Bad, Pressure Drop. Many Rivers to Cross, Rivers of Babylon.

CORRECTION

Apparently I have propagated the erroneous notion that I am not happy in Dominica. To counter this ridiculous notion I offer: reggae, powerful sun light, heat, fresh fish, bright colours, lush rain forest, Kubuli beer, abundant clean water, more protected area per capita than any other country on the planet, fabulous waterfalls, hot springs, the mighty Atlantic and the warm Caribbean oceans, responsible fishery, non chemical farming, rainbows everyday, much less complicated life …and Sono!

A Montreal Misadventure

Today was a perfect early fall day, still green, cool, dry and sunny. I planned to take the number 24 bus all the way east on Sherbrooke Street to the Botanical Garden. I was all ready to go around 1:30 when I had to go down to the basement to put something away first. What I met down there was a strong wet smell and water on the floor in the large back room. There are no mops, buckets, cleaning rags, (cleaning tools of any kind – but that’s another story) in this house. I could only find the home phone number of the property manager. I called and left a message – 3 times. I rummaged around and found his office number, called him and he came over immediately. The water was seriously dripping from the ceiling in this room; all the pipes seemed to converge here. Fortunately his plumber was available and he came right over. By 4 PM he had fixed, temporarily, whatever the problem was. But it is not solved, major plumbing is needed.

It was still nice and warm out so I decided to walk downtown. I could still make a five o’clock movie. It was at the AMC. Now, the last time I was in Montreal, the AMC was on St. Catherine Street beside the Future Shop. I walked quickly and made it in plenty of time – except, of course, the AMC Theater was no longer there. I went into the Future Shop to ask where it was. The girl told me I was standing in it! OK…then I remembered that there was a movie theater at the Eaton Centre so I rushed off there and made it just on time. But that theater was also gone. At this point, I don’t remember how I figured out there was a theater complex in the next mall over, but off I went in search of Scotia Place. I found it eventually after going in circles around the corridors, shops, and boutiques. A nightmare. Shopping in Montreal is horrible. Now I missed the start of the movie, and it was 2 hours before the next showing. Should I hang around, shop, eat? Yes. I went to Reuben’s and had an expensive, not very good smoked meat sandwich (this is another story). I walked around the shops a little, sat outside the theater, went in early and gratefully sank into soft deep seat and had a nap in spite of the million-decibel soundtrack of the pre show trailers.

I saw “The Driver” an excellent movie. If you like dark movies, I recommend it. ,

MONTREAL

So here I am in Montreal for 5 weeks, and working at Ararat Rug and living, alone, at Harold and Jan’s house (my brother and his wife) while they are in Tibet and Mongolia.

I was really worried at the first about working – could I do it? Well, it seems that I can.

I was looking forward to being on my own at H&J’s, but it has become very, very clear that I really don’t like living alone. To be sure, I enjoy my time alone, I treasure those periods when I don’t have people depending on me and when I have time to myself, but to actually live alone – nope – that’s not for me. I like to know that someone is coming home at some point. I find getting up in the morning to an empty house a bit scary!

Montreal is a terrific city. I love it. But it is too inconvenient. I’d always said that if I were to live in a city it would be Montreal, but I’ve changed my mind. I think Ottawa would be it. However, it’s going to be Portsmouth, Dominica, not Ottawa or Montreal.

There are many, many reasons why I am returning to Dominica - but mainly, they are simply more fun - even in their poverty and despair.

The plan is to finish out my stint here in Montreal, go back to Brooke Valley, pack and return to Dominica by the end of October.

Things That Continue To Astonish Me

Bioche - a fishing village at sunset









Mero Beach
















We sent a sick young man to the hospital with fever. They sent him back with a vial of his blood, in his hand, not wrapped, just as is, to be tested. He took it to the lab, by bus, to the next town where the lab is. The result of the blood test was that he had dengue fever.

A person with the Ministry of Education was on the public bus, writing government cheques to various agencies.

Reruns of 6 month old news casts on Dominica’s national TV channel.

Dominicans talk to each other at the top of their voice, often at the same time and always illustrating their point with actions and gesticulations.

Often the sun will shine in all its brilliance while it is pouring rain. One wears sunglasses and holds an umbrella!

There are always people about. Even in the dead of night, someone will be on the street, walking or just sitting in a doorway.

There is absolutely NO confidentiality. Everyone knows everything about everyone and can recite every family's geneaology. When meeting someone for the first time they will ask, "Who is your father?", although fathers are often not in the home and have children with several women.

The lab where they dissect bodies at Ross University is at street level with big windows. As you walk by you can look right into the lab and see the students at work on dead bodies. Honest