January went by pretty fast. We headed back to Mazatlan for the last week of January and the first week of February!! We love Mazatlan, it’s a great town, and we love staying at the El Cid Marina, good food and good people – and very relaxing. We did an excursion to La Noria (a tiny town of 500 peopled north of Mazatlan) and to the Osuna Tequila Farm but mainly we spent time chilling at the beach, taking a few trips to the old part of the city, or walking down to the Golden Zone along the beach 😊. We had an interesting day when we went down to the cruise terminal to meet some friends of ours that we had met on the Konigsdam Cruise – Phil and Andrea. Although it didn’t say much for the terminal’s security as Kelly and I just strolled in through the main gate pretending to be part of the ship’s crew 😊. I will do a more comprehensive write up of Mazatlan in a future post as it’s impossible to describe it in just a few lines and pictures.
The weather in Mazatlan was a little different than what we’ve been used to – it was cloudy the first couple of days and it got fairly cool on a few nights. …And windy, one night we almost got hit by a falling ten foot palm branch!! However, for the most part it averaged about 25 degrees Celsius so it wasn’t too bad. We’ve had some pretty cold weather over the past two weeks back home– a couple of days saw a low of -9 C with a wind chill of – 22 C!! However, we have been fairly lucky compared to the eastern seaboard in the States and in the Atlantic Provinces – they were hammered with several feet of snow while around here we have only received about 2 inches total over the past week 😊. The next week is supposed to be reasonably warm, about 7 degrees so it looks like spring might finally be coming 😊. …And in three months time we’ll be heading off on a seven day cruise from Montreal to Boston!! I’m really looking forward to that.
The war between Hamas and Israel is still going on – about 29,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 69,000 wounded, 1200 Israelis killed in the original massacre and about 236 soldiers since then. . Israel has declared that the war will not be over until they have achieved total victory over the Hamas militants. The Egyptians have sealed the border at Rafah - Israel is planning to evacuate civilians from the area but it’s not clear where the civilians would go to; most of Gaza has been devastated. Israel is planning on invading the main hospital in Rafah citing that they have proof that militants are using the hospital as a staging area. Houthi rebels in Yemen (backed by Iran) have continues to fire missiles at shipping in the Red Sea – the U.S. Navy continues to fight back and have bombed installations in Yemen. At this point there does not appear to be any resolution in sight ☹.
The war in Ukraine is coming up on the second anniversary of the invasion by Russia. President Zelensky has replaced the previous Ukrainian Commander-In-Chief, Valerii Zaluzhni, by Oleksandr Syrskyi who previously was the Commander of Ukraine’s ground forces. The Ukrainians are holding out for the most part in the eastern and southern regions but they have had a slight setback with the loss of Avdiivka, a heavily fortified frontline settlement located about 9 miles north of Donetsk City. General Syrskyi ordered the evacuation in order to save the lives of the Ukrainian defenders being bombarded by Russian artillery and aircraft. The Russians kept throwing thousands of soldiers against the east with a loss of tens of thousands of soldiers and equipment. However, the Ukrainians had to withdraw due to a lack of artillery shells required to repulse the attack. Zelensky puts partial blame on the American Congress withholding the passing of a $95 billion dollar bill that would provide aid for Gaza, the Mexican border, and $60 billion for ammunition and weapons for Ukraine. The Russians have intensified drone, missile, and aircraft attacks against pretty much all of Ukraine over the past couple of weeks. However, the Ukrainians are continuing to manufacture more drones and are targeting Moscow and several oil refineries – four were damaged in the last week alone. The Russian landing warship Tsezar Kunikov was sunk last week in the Black Sea – this leaves Russia with only 5 serviceable ships in the area. News about the death of Valery Gerasimov – the Russian general commanding all forces in Ukraine –has still not yet been confirmed. There has been a lot of intelligence lately that later this year the Russians might be planning to provoke an attack against the Baltic States and Poland – they would probably start by closing the Suwalki corridor (a 100km border between Poland and Lithuania) by an attack by Russians acting from Belarus towards the Russian enclave of Kalingrad (a heavily fortified Russian Oblast with access to the Baltic Sea). This would completely isolate the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from Western Europe. However, as they are all NATO members this would require a response from other NATO countries and probably result in World III ☹.
… Not a lot of cooking going on as we just got back from Mazatlan – we have had Spinach and Feta Ravioli with Veal and Sausage Ragu; a Shepherd’s Pie that was Mexicanized; Chicken Pad Thai; a Mexicanized version of Egg Foo Yung that we call Egg Foo Juan; Stuffed Jalapenos with Chicken Tostadas; Steaks; and of course burgers. We did have a lot of amazing meals while we were on vacation.
Not a lot going on in Netflix or TV the past few weeks, while in Mazatlan we were pretty limited in our viewing options – mostly reruns of ‘Modern Family’ and various game shows. Since we’ve been back we watched ‘Griselda’ – a fictionalized account of Griselda Blanca, a former prostitute originally from Columbia, who was notorious back in the late ‘70s in Miami for starting her own drug cartel by taking out rival gangs. Played by Sofia Vergara of ‘Modern Family’ fame ‘Griselda’ is an excellent depiction of how violent and ruthless cartels operated in Miami and Columbia. We are now watching ‘The Grand’ – a 1997 British series set in the Roaring ‘20s about the scandals, schemes, romance and intrigue among the guests and staff members of The Grand Hotel in Manchester. It’s very reminiscent of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ and ‘Downton Abby’. Some of the script is a little far fetched but we have found it very enjoyable to watch. I watched all six episodes of ‘Forst’ – a Polish mystery series where a disgraced police detective tracks down a serial killer in the Tatra Mountains. Very dark and moody, and a little hard to follow, it nonetheless has stunning visuals of the scenery in South East Poland. It turns out that Forst originally came from that area and has some very close ties to the killer. The script and the acting are rather mediocre, but ‘Forst’ is worth watching just for the stunning views of Poland’s southern highlands. It looks like there will be a Season 2 as Season 1 ended with a lot of unexplained story lines.
On the NHL front – the Maple Leafs are still kind of mehhh, in seventh place in their division (26-16-8) thirteen points behind Boston in first. Seattle Kraken (19-17-9)pretty much suck – they are in eleventh place, twenty four points behind Vancouver.
On to baseball – Well, nothing happening on the MLB front –However, in the Mexican League of the Pacific (professional baseball) the Venados (Deer) of Mazatlan made it to the finals against the Hermasillo Narjaneros (Oranges). Venados got swept in 4 games by the Narjaneros ☹. So, no … we didn’t get to see any games while we were in Mazatlan.
On to golf … Adam Hadwin was the top Canadian finisher at the American Express Tournament – 6th for $310K U.S. . The winner, Nick Dunlap, didn’t win any money as he is still an amateur – only professional golfers can win cash ☹ . Two weeks ago was the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California – top Canadian was Corey Connors – 31st $107K U.S. Last week – being Superbowl weekend – it was the WM Phoenix Open. The first two rounds had to be suspended due to bad weather and late starts. The third and fourth rounds had to be both completed on Sunday. The tournament winner for first place - $1.585M U.S. – was….. Nick Taylor of Canada!! He won on the second playoff hole against Charlie Hoffman. This was Taylor’s fourth PGA win – his third being last year at the Canadian Open!! This week was the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles. Tiger Woods dropped out; Jordan Speith was disqualified for a wrongly signed score card; and two Canadians finished in the top 10 – Adam Hadwin finished fourth ($866K U.S.) and Adam Svensson finished tied for tenth ($450K U.S.).
NFL news – Kansas City won the Superbowl over San Francisco ‘49ers – does anybody really care? Well, Taylor Swift might, after seeing boyfriend Travis Kelce basically losing it and screaming at Andy Reid over a bad call. Anger management required, Kelce? I think Taylor should make a Swift exit out of this relationship 😊 Oh, the half time show with Usher? Quite possibly the worst ever in my opinion. Mike Macdonald (Baltimore DC) was hired to take Pete Carroll’s place as Head Coach for Seattle Seahawks☹. Even though he has no experience as a HC ☹. Basically all coaching spots in Seattle have been replaced. Most fans are treating the new hires as the second coming of Jesus Christ and are expecting a Superbowl appearance next year. Really, people? …And they resigned Geno Smith!! This keeps him on the roster and guarantees his $12.5M pay for 2024, whether he stays with Seattle or gets traded to another team. – which has partially restored my faith in the team – so if they keep Geno I figure they can go 10 – 7 this year; if they don’t I would be surprised if the ‘Hawks go better than 5 – 12 next year ☹ But either way I’m a diehard ‘Hawks fan, so I’ll still keep supporting the team
Have a great and safe month … pray for Ukraine … we will see you in a bit!! 😊