It’s been six weeks since my last update and a month after the last cruise. This blog will be just a summary of the cruise with a few other tidbits thrown in. Kelly’s sister Biz joined us for this cruise – Biz had never been onboard Holland America before and she was excited to be experiencing a new cruise line 
. The cruise onboard Konigsdam was excellent – great weather, excellent ports, excellent food, and a fun time onboard .
I’ve separated the ship activities and ports visited into separate pages:
Note: the writeup on 'Food on Ship' has not yet been completed and is TBA
Food on Ship: Writeup TBA - pictures are available on page
The weather back home was … and has been … horrible 
. Most of Southern Ontario has been hit with severe weather conditions over the past month – the two weeks that we were gone saw over 1.5 metres of snow and ice accumulate and extreme sub zero temperatures and winds that caused extensive damage and numerous power outages over the region. Since we have been back there have been more snow squalls, ice storms, high winds, and more power outages. 2025 was an extremely strange year for weather – very unpredictable with more snow than usual; heat waves one day, bone-chilling temperatures the next; extremely dry spells followed by days of flooding; crops being planted late due to inclement weather, harvests not occurring until late November – in the snow. Hopefully 2026 will be better but the last six weeks have been bone chilling, the temperature has been below -5C the whole time, mostly averaging -18C with wind chills going down as far as -35C . The next 6 weeks should be warmer but then there will be the risk of flooding . One bright note has been the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina / Milan Italy – the opening ceremony was amazing and there have been many exciting events to watch . Canada is off to a slow start this time – only 7 medals so far – but they are expected to win a lot more medals in snowboarding, speed skating, curling, and of course… hockey .
The Ukraine / Russia war continues … and continues … and continues and will probably continue indefinitely. Peace talks continue; false hope that an agreement and ceasefire will occur shortly; Putin keeps stalling and lying; Zelensky keeps saying peace is possible (but only saying this to keep the US on his side, he knows Putin will never agree to the 20 points); Russian soldiers keep dying for no reason; Ukrainian civilians keep dying from massive drone and missile attacks; this useless and senseless war will continue until: A. Russia runs out of military resources B. Ukraine gives up the Donbas. ‘A’ might happen although Putin will run the country into the ground financially to achieve his impossible aim of subduing Ukraine and using it as a launching pad into the rest of Europe. ‘B’ will never happen as giving up the Donbas will ensure Russia will attack again shortly using Ukraine as a gateway to the rest of Eastern Europe. And as always, there is Trump. Both Russia and Ukraine look on Trump as helping to achieve their aims: Russia because they know they can play Trump as the fool he is; and Ukraine because pretending to follow his advice and help they will continue to receive the finances and weaponry from the rest of Europe required to stop Russia. So how will this play out with an insane sociopathic dictator (Putin), an insane sociopathic dumbass (Trump), and an honorable representative of his country trying to keep his country alive (Zelensky).
…And now, some of the latest from President Donald Trump:
- CIA assets and the military did a strike on Venezuela and basically kidnapped the president – Maduro – and his family and extradited them to the US. Did this really have anything to do with protecting the US from Narco Terrorists? Of course not – the US is now in control of the vast oilfields and resources of Venezuela
- Venezuela was the major exporter of oil and fuel to Cuba – so now Trump has blockaded Cuba which has resulted in a nationwide crisis – no fuel, tourism plummeting, air travel to the island crippled, and the power grid suffering even more extreme outages
. Mexico has started shipping humanitarian supplies to Cuba but they have been prevented sending oil by Trump. - Ongoing threats to annex or seize Greenland – he backed off by saying that the US would take Greenland over by any means necessary in order to bolster US security from China and Russia but he still intends to buy it. The US already had a deal in place from the 1950’s that allowed them to place military resources anywhere they wanted to – again this is all about grabbing the vast amount of natural resources that Greenland has .
- The Trump - Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Trump announced that the center will be closed for the next two years for renovations; do you think that this might possibly have anything to do with all the cancellations by performers at the center after Trump added his name to the marquee?
- The best yet – Trump went into a rant about the new Gordie Howe bridge between Canada (Windsor, Ontario) and Detroit, Michigan and threatening to keep it shut. He accused Canada of treating the US unfairly during construction, that the US wants their money back, and there was virtually no ‘US content’ in the bridge. Well, dumbass, the problem with that is that Canada paid the entire multi billion dollar cost of constructing the bridge; the use of steel and construction workers was split 75/25 between Canada and the U.S.; the ownership is split between Canada and Michigan – once Canada recoups the construction costs from tolls then the profits will be split between Canada and Michigan. Again Trump is using a false outcry in order to get more concessions when the renegotiation of the CUSMA contract comes up this summer. Prime Minister Carney explained to Trump what the actual bridge contract was about – he might have had to use finger puppets and an etch-a-sketch to make Trump understand .
- Impossible to keep track of his idiocies so I won’t even try … the man is plainly crazy.
The tragedy of the war in the Middle East is still ongoing between Gaza and Israel. Phase 2 is still taking place – part of that involves up to 8,000 soldiers from Indonesia being deployed to Gaza as peacekeepers. However, the major focus in the Middle East now is about the massive unrest, protests, and crackdown by Iranian forces against the protesters – thousands of Iranian people have been killed or executed out of hand . The US is weighing potential military action against Iran as it ramps up pressure to negotiate a deal concerning its nuclear program and protesting against the execution of innocent civilians. The US has already deployed 2 aircraft carriers and their escort vessels in the region. The threat of the US declaring war against Iran is high – but don’t be fooled; this possible land grab has nothing to do with the safety of Iranian citizens but with Trump once again going after the natural resources of a country.
On the cooking front over the last three weeks we have had: a lot of food on the Konigsdam in the specialty restaurants and the main dining room . At home trying to survive this brutal winter we have had the usual: Steaks; Hamburgers; Chicken Curries; Chicken Paninis; Smoked Leg of Lamb; Cabbage Roll Soup; Fish Tacos and Homemade Guacamole; Chicken Salfriza; Tamarind Pork and many other dishes . I’ll be trying some new recipes in the near future .
On the Netflix front: we’ve watched a few series in the past month - finished ‘Dexter – New Blood’ – which features the comeback of Dexter and the reunion with his son Harrison, and started ‘Dexter – Resurrection’ – with Dexter coming back from the dead and Harrison new career as a serial killer; finished watching ‘Landman’ Season 2 – which brought in Sam Elliot as Tommy Norris’s father and was even better than Season 2; can’t wait until Season 3 . Finished Seasons 3 of ‘Tulsa King’ and we watched the first 3 Seasons of ‘From’ a sci-fi horror series supposedly somewhere in the US Midwest but completely filmed in and around Halifax NS - Excellent; Can’t wait for Seasons 4 and 5 . We are almost through the middle of Season 2 of ‘The Pitt’ – a medical emergency procedural drama starring Noah Wyle, who won the Best Actor award at the 2026 Golden Globes for his role; the series received the Best Television Series drama award as well. We just finished watching Season 4 of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ – an excellent procedural and murder investigation drama. We also watched the 3 part documentary ‘Narco Mennonites’ about Mexican Mennonites from Canada and their connection to the drug cartels in Chihuahua. Interesting, considering that we live in an area surrounded by Mexican Mennonites .
On to Sports:
On the NHL front –the Toronto Maple Leafs are tied for 11th place in the Eastern Conference and 15 points behind the leaders Tampa Bay and Carolina Hurricanes. The Seattle Kraken are in 6th place in the Western Conference 19 points behind the Colorado Rockies.
On the MLB front – Nothing going on until April .
On to golf … The regular 2026 PGA Tour season began 4 weeks ago with ‘The American Express’ in La Quinta California and won by Scottie Schleffler – top Canadian was Nick Taylor( T27). Two weeks ago was the ‘Farmers Insurance Open’ in Torry Pines, CA and won outstandingly by a 7 stroke lead by Justin Rose – top Canadian was A.J. Ewart (T49); this is Ewart’s first year on the tour. Last week was the ‘WM Phoenix Open’ won by Chris Gotterup for $1.7M US – 4 Canadians made the cut; Mackenzie Hughes, Nick Taylor, and A.J. Stewart all tied for 28th and $62K US, and Sudarshan Yellamaraju tied for 54th $22K US. This week is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with 4 Canadians entered: Taylor, Hughes, Conners, and Taylor Pendrith. Next week will be one of the Signature Events – The Genesis Invitational: last year’s winner Ludvig Aberg took home $20M US.
NFL news – The regular NFL season ended a few weeks ago – the playoffs resulted in the New England Patriots winning the AFC Conference and the NFC Conference being won by the Seattle Seahawks !! Superbowl LX saw the ‘Hawks take on the Patriots in a rematch of Superbowl XLIX eleven years ago – well, kind of; the Seahawks were in complete control and won 29 – 13 over the Patriots !!. Jason Myers – the place kicker for the ‘Hawks’ – set a Super Bowl record for the most field goals in a Super Bowl, and the most points scored in a single NFL season (206); Kenneth Walker III (known as K9) won the MVP for the game . Next season will see the Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak go to the Raiders as head coach so the ‘Hawks will have to find a good replacement for 2016/2017 if they hope to repeat as Super Bowl Champions . Go ‘Hawks!!
Have a great and safe month … we will see you in a bit!!