Erin's Journals

Welcome to Monday! And just like that, a week of wonders and windmills (and wonderful fellow travellers) has come to a close. After an 8 hour long flight from Amsterdam to Calgary and then a connector to Victoria, Rob and I arrived home late yesterday afternoon to an ecstatic little dog and fresh flannel sheets in our own bed. Ahhhhh.
 
First off, our trip out of Victoria was a breeze and we couldn’t be happier with KLM Airlines. Our 9.5 hour trip to Amsterdam last Saturday and overnight into Sunday was so thoroughly enjoyable that we didn’t want it to end. We even ended up with these little Delft houses (with Bols Dutch spirits inside) as souvenirs! We didn’t keep them, though, giving them away instead at our own private “Oldies Dance” on the cruise.
 

 
Following a smooth private ride to our ship, we boarded the AMAStella in Amsterdam. Interestingly, instead of a lifeboat drill (standard procedure on a cruise ship), we were told where the life jackets are (top deck) and given a pleasant orientation in the 18-month-old ship’s lounge. Here’s that happening gathering spot during a quiet moment.
 

 
To a person, the crew couldn’t have been nicer, but let me tell you about the people who came with us. Our group of approximately 50 flew primarily from the GTA and was made up of former (and current) CHFI listeners. Gerry Koolhof from New Wave Travel in Toronto did an incredible job of preparing everyone for their trip, arranging hotel stays before and after the cruise, as well as transfers, and basically made sure our every need was taken care of.
 
Rob and I have travelled as paying clients of Gerry’s for years and we were reminded of why again and again this past week. A fantastic time was had by all – to a person – a lot of new friendships were forged and we’re already talking about doing this again next year, perhaps in the fall (to give you lots of time to decide) along the Rhine through Germany. But THIS time we want to take over the entire boat. That would mean 150 of us (or so). Do you think we should give it a try? Do you want to?
 
If you’d like to touch base with Gerry, you can email him here. He’s still on the road, so he may take a few days to respond, but I promise he will get back to you.
 
Our first full day, Monday, we were in Hoorn, NL. While some took in this town steeped in Dutch East India trading history, Rob and I (and 17 others) were guided on a terrific bike tour through the Dutch countryside!
 
Did we see windmills? Yes – one under repair and one that’s now a restaurant.
 

 
Later in the week there was a spectacular bike ride through a whole huge area of windmills (some 200-300 years old); more to come in a few days. Did we see tulips? Well, the cruise is called Tulip Time! And although the previous week most of the fields were a sea of green, fortunately for us, the flowers bloomed. This is just one of the spectacular fields we saw.
 

 
Cycling carefully to avoid other bikes (plus pedestrians and cars) made taking pictures almost impossible. But Rob managed to snap a few on our digital camera while he rode.
 

 
Some of our fellow adventurers took in a trip to an authentic tulip farm (if there are farms for synthetic tulips, I didn’t see any LOL) while others toured a museum…
 

 
….and walked the town square. Did I say “square?” Try and find a square corner on one of these buildings!
 

 
There were probably millions more tulips as the week went on, but I can’t go overboard (so to speak) this first day back with you. It was just such a FANTASTIC group experience and we can’t wait to do it again next year. Who’s in?
 
Later in the week I’ll share some pictures with Mike and let you know how he fared on this whole trip, plus the events that were planned just for our special group. I really do love the idea of taking over the ship for an entire week and hope you’ll think about it. I’ll have more details for you – if we are going ahead with a 2020 trip – in a few days, or as we get them.
 
In the meantime, I’ve got some sleep to catch up on. Thanks for coming along and I hope you’re enjoying the trip. “Dank Je” and we’ll be back with you tomorrow.
 

Hello – and Happy Friday! Today we hit up three places in the Netherlands: Rotterdam, Kinderdijk and Schoonhoven. Tomorrow we arrive in Amsterdam and we were supposed to take a canal cruise there, but we’ll be otherwise enjoying ourselves (TBD) and sightseeing until Sunday morning when we disembark. Rob and I arrive home on Sunday afternoon and expect to have a new journal for you here on Monday.
 
I will have a lot of memories made in some beautiful places with some fun, fine people (including our great friend Mike Cooper) for you next week, but today I wanted to take you back to last Friday when I experienced something so extraordinary that I couldn’t wait to tell you about it.
 
We happened to see a poster in a restaurant in downtown Sidney, BC for a concert featuring the Victoria Symphony doing the music of Queen. That sounded fun, we thought, so we got ourselves four tickets for Friday, April 5th and decided to turn it into a late birthday celebration for Rob.
 
What a fantastic move that was! Seated front row in a second- or third-tier balcony in the majestic Royal Theatre, we felt like we had the best seats in the house as the 40-some piece Victoria Symphony began to warm up under their Pops conductor. Then, downstage, we spotted a pianist, guitarist, bass guitarist and drummer. Soon we realized that we weren’t just going to be treated to Victoria Symphony’s renditions of Queen’s hits; we were thrilled to learn that rock vocalist Michael Shotton and two back-up singers would be bringing Queen’s songs to life.
 
Here’s how the show looked from our perch; I didn’t take long to shoot, as I didn’t want our friends behind us or the people next to me to be distracted by the brightness of my screen.
 

 
In the second half of the show, the University of Victoria Jazz Vocal Ensemble (all twenty of them) took the back part of the risers and filled in some of the more anthemic parts of the biggest Queen hits. Here’s how the show unfolded.
 

 
The highlight BY FAR was “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Strings. Horns. A choir. A rocking guitarist. A lead vocalist who owned the songs, not by trying to sing like Freddie Mercury (who could?), but by bringing his own Steve-Perry-meets-Robert-Plant stylings to the show. Start to finish (just about two-and-a-half hours including intermission) it was truly one of the best entertainment nights of our lives, Rob’s and mine.
 
The London, Ontario-based Jeans ‘n Classics, which teams with over 100 orchestras continent-wide and performs everything from Queen to Fleetwood Mac, Eagles to Beatles, Motown to Prince hits, describes its music as suiting (but not exclusive to) those “25 to 65.”
 
I can tell you that while the 81-year-old behind us loved the show as much as we did, there were pre-teens and fans in their young twenties who were equally enthralled. What a fantastic way to introduce the symphony to those who aren’t sure if they like this genre of music. Is there anything Queen can’t do? Yes, everyone was shut down from dancing (which Shotton had playfully encouraged) by the ushers, who would be soundly booed for stopping the dancers – something you can bet never happens on Tchaikovsky night.
 
But nonetheless, it was a great, fun, applause- and cheer-filled evening that just blew us away. You can find out if or when Jeans n’ Classics – in any of its incarnations – is going to be playing near you simply by going to their website. But I guarantee you’ll have the time of your life. It was amazing – with cheers, tears and just so much enjoyment coming from watching a great band and an entire orchestra seemingly having as much fun as we, the audience, were.
 
I’m so glad we saw that little poster. Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be back with you here on Monday with lots of pictures and stories from our Amsterdam adventures. Take good care and thanks for coming by this week!
 

Hello – and thank you for stopping by.
 
 
Just before we get to today’s journal, I thought I might try to entice you to bring the best parts of being on the road into your own living space (room service may not be included LOL). It’s hotel living at home and it’s my post this week on Walmart.ca.
 
I hope you’re having a good week and we look forward to sharing some memories of this trip through Tulip Time in Amsterdam and into Belgium, when I can post pictures and stories here on Monday. In the meantime, today, according to our itinerary, we dock in Antwerp, Belgium and then tomorrow we hit up three places in the Netherlands.
 
Please pardon me for not updating you daily here; I wasn’t sure about how I was going to time journals to post at the times I needed them to. And I can’t take a chance on one not going up.
 
I have read your comments, though, on Facebook daily in response to my journals: the hoaxes, Rob’s nose, the importance of travel – if you can swing it – as a family. And, oh, thank you for your response to last week’s journal about having to let go several emails that I had read but just hadn’t gotten to answering. I so appreciate your understanding.
 
One of the posts I got last week when I was in the midst of what I described as a massive bout of writer’s (writers’?) block was about chores. Actually, a few people wanted to know how Rob and I divide things. And the answer is: we kind of don’t. Even though, as someone suggested, the way things are divided up when you are married, or within the first year or so, are the way things stay, I couldn’t disagree more.
 
We’ve changed in so many ways since those early years – and not just in terms of working – that it would be impossible to nail down our tasks and stick to them. Things change. For example, in the beginning I did all of the cooking. Rob was almost invisible in the kitchen. But as time went on and my life got busier (or I was on one of my stupid diets again), he would fend for himself, for Lauren and sometimes for me in the kitchen. I guess he figured if he was going to eat anything besides cabbage soup, he would have to learn to prepare pasta and make a good sauce!
 
So, cooking is just one of the ways things have changed. Now we love to do prep together in the kitchen or if I’m busy writing on a deadline, he’ll get dinner together. Alternatively, if he’s editing to send out a voice job (I have an audio book we’ll be hunkering down for when we come back next week), I’ll get dinner prepared and then we’ll sit for a bit, catch up with the previous night’s catches on the PVR and then get back to work. We work a lot. Me tapping away writing words at the keyboard, him tapping away editing out spoken words at his keyboard. And making sure this journal gets done.
 
Laundry is mostly Rob’s domain because he’s the hockey player (seems fair). He also won’t even let me make the bed, so sure is he about the abilities his stepmom passed on as an RN. (He does do some pretty superb corners.) We have someone who comes in biweekly to clean, so there’s no dividing there, while Rob’s a Mr. Fix-it in every sense of the word.
 
So I guess, in answer to the question about chores, Rob really handles more of them than I do (including walking Molly if it’s really miserable or early or both). He’s still in charge of making coffee, while I try to be the one to clean out the machine and its parts. And we definitely grocery shop together. I even trust him to do it alone – something that took a very long time.
 
It’s an ebb and flow, a fluid kind of exchange of duties and chores. But there is one thing that has never changed: both of us are extremely grateful and neither takes the other for granted, no matter what. There is a thank you every single day for the coffees that he makes, for the meals that I make, for the cleanup after supper. None of it is “his job” or “my job.” That’s how we roll – and it’s worked.
 
And this week, my job is his job: meeting, greeting, entertaining and having fun. We’re lucky to have a partnership that works so well, so smoothly. Unless he leaves me for Cooper, and I’ll break that to you on Monday if it happens!
 
Come back here tomorrow for a journal about one of the best shows I’ve seen in absolutely ages. And if you’re lucky, you’ll have the chance to see some version of it, too.
  

Today, according to our itinerary, we arrive in Ghent, Belgium at 6 am for a day of tours and exploring. Looking at the forecast before we left on this trip, we saw that rainy weather seems to have settled into this part of Europe, with temperatures in the low teens. Rob and I may not be having the cycling adventures we’d hoped for, but I’ll fill you in when we go “live” with journals again next week. In the meantime, here’s what I prepared for you today.
 
No matter where you are, it seems it’s the time for April Showers, but it’s also definitely phishing season. Having heard of a friend in the US whose business website was held hostage by hackers (and his company had to pay to get it back), and a poorly protected women’s charity that recently lost all of its contacts and the ability to promote an upcoming event here in Victoria, I am shaken when it comes to the prospect of losing touch with you through social media.
 
So, when I got this the other day, my blood ran cold.
 

 
That is, until I got to the porn site part.
 
While I knew this wasn’t me, how many upstanding, church-going, community pillars would flat-out panic at the thought of their after-hours (or even at-work) proclivities being spread out to the world?
 
Then I got one a few days later from no less an organization than the CIA. (Uh-huh.) Again, the focus was on child porn and things I would never, ever associate with, so – having just gotten the “we know what you’ve been looking at” scam just a few days earlier, I was wiser to what was happening. Unlike the first one, it didn’t look like it had been typed up and photo’d or faxed; this one had just the slightest patina of professionalism to it. These people are such slick slime. And for their troubles, they demand 10x the payout: $10,000 US. 
 
I have no doubt that somewhere cowers someone – perhaps a politician, PTA member or a teacher, a student with big hopes or another perfect victim – who is literally shaking and panicking as to how they are going to come up with one or ten thousand dollars to pay for their indiscretion (or crime) to stay silent. It’s a nefarious scheme bent on punishing the target – probably not just once – and as much as I think anyone who has a place in their life for child pornography should indeed be outed and tried, it should be by our criminal law system, not some two-bit crook with a big bitcoin demand and a bigger set of cojones.
 
Be aware. Talk to your children/partner or, if you’d rather not, just send them this journal. While you probably don’t need or want to know if they’re looking on adult sites, make sure they are aware that there’s a phishing expedition going on that’s out to get everyone it possibly can. And it is not legit. Back with you here tomorrow.
 

Welcome to another day of journaling long distance. While Mike and I are hosting our AMA Waterways Tulip Time Cruise, I’ve written a fresh blog here for you. Today we’re in Middelburg, Netherlands and I promise pictures and stories for you from Europe when we return next week, okay? Thanks for understanding.
 
There are a lot of great sayings about not judging a book by its cover (including that one itself) but one of my favourites has to be the one above. And nowhere was that more evident than some recent challenges for Rob that had people coming to entirely the wrong conclusion.
 
It all began several years ago when Rob had an attack of pancreatitis. In that it happened at the end of the Christmas hoidays while we were at our Minden cottage, the staff at our closest hospital figured he’d overindulged in the alcohol department and they weren’t going to give him any kind of pain killers. He suffered – and anyone who has had pancreatitis knows how terribly, awfully painful it is – while it was just assumed that he suffered from alcoholism.
 
Many, many months (and a few attacks later) a doctor in Toronto diagnosed it for the rare condition it was and is: pancreas divisum, a congenital anomaly, and fixed it, thank goodness.
 
Then just last month – not to dwell on poor ol’ Rob, but this is about him, too – he got some cream prescribed by his dermatologist for his previously cancerous nose. This stuff, called Efudex (which can also be injected for different types of cancers), is to be applied to the place of concern for two straight weeks and – to oversimplify here – if there are cancerous cells there, they are prevented from dividing.
 
In the case of his skin, the cream would eventually cause those cells to flake off. But in the weeks before that happened, Rob’s nose, on which he’d had surgery in the past for skin cancer, became terribly discoloured. It turned a very deep red and he was embarrassed to be seen sporting such a rosy, sore-looking schnozz. Of course, cancer is worse than some embarrassment, to be sure, but Rob knew it looked as though he was a full-time drinker. Again with the alcohol, right?
 

 
Now, I take you to the nurse in the clinic where he was having his colonoscopy. After reading about pancreatitis in his chart and looking at Rob’s nose, she admitted that she right away thought “alcoholic.” It was an easy assumption to make and she was grateful to learn, not only about Efudex, but also about this pancreas divisum condition. She’d not heard of it before.
 
We’re glad to be able to enlighten people at every turn. But it also served as a really good reminder to me and everyone else that not everything is as it appears. I remember my friend Lisa was furious when her dad, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, was presumed to be driving drunk. Here’s his story in Lisa’s words:

Dad was driving one evening and he swerved to avoid a deer. (Yes, you’re not supposed to swerve, but he swerved.) He landed in the ditch and his pickup ended up against a fence. The fence jammed his door and he was unable to get out. Instead of helping get him out, the attending police officer questioned him while he was trapped, assuming he was drunk. 
 
My Dad was agitated (for obvious reasons!) and his hands were shaking (Parkinson’s) and he was in his 70s at the time. Instead of having any compassion and assisting my Dad, the cop ignored his pleas and acted like he was on an episode of Law and Order. The thought of my Dad, helpless, feeling unsafe in his vehicle, and no one helping him out, still makes me angry. 

I guess if you were to ask the cop, you’d hear that he sees so many drivers who have been drinking that he just put two and two together and made what would most often be a logical connection.
 
But for the rest of us, it reminds me of the old saying (which I still remember from TV’s The Odd Couple because seeing ASS on the television was something I couldn’t wrap my young head around): “When You Assume, you make an ASS of U and ME.” So true. It’s so easy to add things up and, not only come to the wrong conclusion, but find yourself on the wrong page altogether. Just a thought.
 
Glad you’re on this page, though, and I’ll have a new journal for you here again tomorrow.