Jaime and Shelagh Arrived Safely

It was wonderful to get home from work at 5:30 and get a big hug from Jaime. They had lots of good stories to tell, especially about the various forms of animals they have run into, especially when sleeping at night.

Jaime is now starting her phone calls back home and started with her grandmother. Once again, it's great to have Vonage. After their phone calls home they are planning to go for a swim in the pool. That is after they finish their Cinnabons they picked up at Sunway Pyramid.

We took them their for comfort western food at Nandos. We then loaded up our extra cell phone for Jaime to use while in Malaysia.

TTYL,

Jim

Wednesday and Jaime's here.

Jaime arrived via Cambodia at 11:30 am. By theis time she should be in our condo (probably having a nap). I have 2 after school administrative meeting so I won't be home until 5:30 pm. At that time we are planning to walk up to one of our local (Indian) restaurants for Tandori chicken.

Jordan has an exciting weekend planned. He has a hockey game on Saturday and then he is heading over to Vancouver Island by ferry (first time in 3 years) to celebrate his year anniversary of dating Lauren. He is also planning on test driving a used motorcycle he has been eyeing. He also called this morning with the good news that he has been hired by Coca Cola to work as a marketing representaive for them during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He will get access to all the venues and also make some good money in the 10 days. Pretty exciting stuff as he also gets 2 credits from the university as part of their leadership course.

Jaime is only staying until Sunday at which time she flies back to Thailand for 3 days and then off to Australia and New Zealand for a month. She then returns to us for 2 months. She plans to do some volunteer teaching at taylors during that time frame.

Almost time for my last class,

TTYL,

Jim

Tuesday - Jaime arrives tomorrow!

Shelley and I are excited that Jaime and Sheila arrive tomorrow at lunch hour. Pam, a wife of one of the teachers is planning on meeting them at the KL international airport and accompanying them back to our condo and letting them in. This will make their arrival very easy as Shelley and I both have to work until 5:30 pm and Sheila and Jaime will be tired.

Classes are going great as the students are well rested and fed after a week being pampered at home by their parents. They did, however, admit to having difficulty getting out of bed at 7 am.

Shelley and I have noticed that we get profiled quite often as North Americans. We get honked at by taxi drivers when we are walking down the road. That's good as it is easy to grab a cab. It's also bad as they want to charge us more. There are more subtle problems such as extra items on our retaurant tab that we have to be vigilant for. I guess we are easy targets as we stand out as foreigners. However, most Malaysians are simply great!

Today I am reviewing arrays and introducing 2 dimensional arrays. The students will find this difficult. I would guess it will separate the scholars form the students.

TTYL,

Jim

Monday Morning

It's Monday morning and I am reminded of Robin Williams' performance in 'Good Morning Vietnam'. Some of the Taylor's teachers just arrived back from Vietnam and really enjoyed the experience. Apparently the country is booming but you can still experience the old Vietnam with the new. You probably have about 10 years of this. Enjoy it while you can.

It's just past halfway in the course so I will review the first half today and get a feel for where the students are. I have an online test from the Ontario Educator's resource bank that will help me considerably.

Jaime and Sheila arrive at noon on Wednesday so that should be fun. Shelley and I are looking forward to showing them around and hearing about their travels to date. They leave for Thailand in a few days and from there to Australia and New Zealand.

Time for a Starbucks to prepare me for today.

TTYL,

Jim

Sunday and Ikea

You think we would learn not to go to Ikea on a Sunday. Going to Ikea on a Sunday is a major pasttime for Malaysians who live in and around KL. needless to say it was busy. We had previously taken a taxis to Sunway Pyramid to have lunch with Amy and Michel. We then decided to share a cab to Ikea and back.

I managed to sneak away for 90 minutes and went to Borders, bought a technology magazine and then headed off to Starbucks for a latte and a read.

I thought they would be close to being done but underestimated their shopping stamina by about an hour.

We are now home and have some brekkie things for tomorrow morning as we prepare for the home stretch with this group of students.

TTYL,

Jim

Back at the Condo

We arrived back at the condo about 9 pm. While we were gone we had teh landlord bring in a technician to look at 2 of our air conditions. They were faulty as we expected and they need new compressors. Apparently that will take a month in Malaysian time. I figure with 3 of our 5 aircons working we will be paying 3/5th of our rent.

Tomorrow will be a school planning day as I pushed my courses out of my mind for the vacation week. I also plan on walking over to Sunway Pyramid mall tomorrow to pick up some deent ice cube holders (i.e. Canadian size vs sugar cube size).

I am tired so its reading for a half hour and then lights out. Vacations really tire you out :-)

TTYL,

Jim

Saturday and Heading Home

We fly out at 7 pm today. I managed to get a bit of an extended checkout until 1 pm and then we will store our luggage with the hotel and look for something to do for about 5 hours. It's a hot one out there today so my choice would be the mall down the road.

Penang was an interesting place to visit once. It's one good beach (Batu Ferrenghi) is full of parasailing and jet skis (way to busy, swimming would put your life in danger) and is covered in garbage. The city is prosperous but then again it is a city. It has some great bookstores and I have reading material for the next 2 months or so.

We much prefer Langkawi as a YATI due to its rustic nature, great beach, affordable accommodation, restaurants and cheap scooter rentals with very little traffic. It is also a duty free zone and has cheap booze.

The Evergreen Laurel hotel was great and had the best internet connection yet in Malaysia. We went online and watched the opening episodes of House, NCIS, CSI(s), Grey's Anatomy. Highly recommended if you ever visit Penang.

TTYL,

Jim

Friday - A Quiet Day

We were up about 8 ish and headed off to the Coffee Bean (better breakfast food than Starbucks) and had some lattes, breakfast, and then sat reflecting on life by the patio overlooking the ocean. We then took some pictures by the water and then headed back to the room.

I have some programming to do and Shelley has some marking. We are planning on having high tea at the Eastern Oriental Hotel (fancy 5 starish kind of place with old world charm i.e. British). Apparently I need something with a collar. I think I brought a real shirt.

TTYL,

Jim

Malaysian Weapon of Terror

I have seen quite of few of these while here. I have a picture for proof. Take a 100 cc motorcycle and place 3 propane tanks on the back pillion/seat and take off down the road. You have to see it to believe it

Shelley is off visiting another Buddhist temple and I am programming for 3 hours. I am just heading out to read the newspaper and have a grande latte.

Here is the pic. You can click on it to enlarge it.



TTYL,

Jim

It's my Birthday

Birthday in Penang. It's another beautiful sunny day. I get to choose what we do today so it will be a very simple day. Coffee to start, check my email, and then off to Starbucks. We will then walk the coastal boardwalk for a while. After that I plan to work out in the gym here at the hotel. Lunch will be a simple affair at the Coffee Bean and then I plan to walk down to the mall and visit the bookstore. Supper, will be a hamburger/fries/ and a coke. Doesn't get any better.

Yesterday at the art dealer I came across a statue of the four monkeys. Normally you do not see the 4th monkey. The first 3 are common, see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. They became the 3 chimps, Larry (often referred to erroneously as King Louis because he was always holding court) , Gabe, and Steve. The fourth monkey of course would have been me. The group was known as the BOC and often developed software programs used throughout the Board. One could say, the monkeys were running IT :-)

Here is a pic of my statue (yes I bought it). The 4th monkey is well endowed for some reason. I had best research what he stands for on the net.
The fourth monkey, the one covering his crotch, is usually captioned "Have No Fun", but is actually "Do no evil". You often see the four monkeys as a paper weight in a 'writing set' and it is often labelled 'write no evil'. The 'have no fun' vs 'do no evil' represents the ying/yang forces in oriental philosophy.

Time for Starbucks,

TTYL,

Jim

Botanical Garden Great

The British left a lot of legacy behind in malaysia. The Botanical gardens is one such legacy, complete with all kinds of flora and fauna in the form of 2 types of monkeys. Our day started off with a coffee, bagle and newspaper, followed by a visit to a Buddhist shrine, then Hindu temple, then gardens, then lunch at a beach resort, followed by a trip to an art dealer ($$$). Here are the pics.

Resort we ate lunch at.

Monkey at the gardens.

Hindu stuff.


Hindu bathing statues.

Hindu Shrine from outside.

Shelley with orange blossoms

Child swimming in river in the gardens.

Jim and Shelley with umbrella shade.

Bhudda

Hindu Entrance

Bigger Bhudda

Hindu statues - maybe Vishnu

This dude is $2500 ringgits richer :-(

Best part of lunch

Up river

Coffee and newspaper - as good as it gets.

Shelley at Gardens

Jim at Gardens

Friend of Jims

Another of Jim's Friends

YAM - Yet another monkey

Botannical Gardens and Ferenghi Beach

This morning we are heading out to Starbucks for a latte and a muffin for breakfast. We then plan to catch a cab to the Botannical Gardens for a few hours. I am not too interested in the gardens but apparently there are lots of monkeys and I miss the chimps back home.

After the gardens we are taking a cab to Ferenghi beach. I have this vision of little folks with big eyebrows running around trying to sell you something. (STNG). Shelley wants to check out the hotels along the beach as she may want to switch hotels to be on the beach. However, for me to switch there must be very good internet and a Starbucks nearby.

We really have to stop going out in the noon day heat. It is much more pleasant in the morning and late afternoon. My favourite time is 6 pm to 8 pm. We had a lovely snack on a terrace cafe last night watching the sun go down as we sipped lattes. There are no mosquitos here as they aggressively spray to prevent malaria and dengue fever.

Hopefully we will have some monkey pics by this evening.

TTYL,

Jim

Penang is Great - and a Birthday Pic

We are in a great hotel on Guerny Drive which was stop and go all night. Here are some pics:

This place was a huge outdoors restaurant and they were not kidding. They had hundreds of tanks with live fish in them that they took out and cooked for you. This city seems to be thriving.
If you had to own a stock here it would be 7-11 or MacDonalds. They are everywhere.

There were kids everywhere along the strip. Lots of fireworks and bubble blowing.

Masses of humanity, in the thousands. I do not like crowds that large.

This is some of the Taylor's staff posing for a pic and getting ready to sing happy bday to me.

Arrival in Penang

It was an interesting flight to Penang. I was healthy this flight so my powers of observation were in play again. Observation # 1. When they called passengers seating in rows 1-9 just about everyone got up and lined up. I figured 4 seats per row = 36 max but who knows. Turns out didn't matter which row you were in, rows 1-9 was just a suggestion. It was bucketing rain and everyone was handed an umbrella for cover as we walked out to the plane. Observation #2 - Turns out my intial thought that some of the passengers where intellectually challenged proved true as they tried to walk into the plane with the umbrella open. Go figure. Observation #3 - My assumption once again proved to be true as I arrived at our seats to find a lady in Shelley's seat. Seems she could not count or did not know her alphabet. My true purpose in Malaysia may be to teach those skills to the masses. We managed to move the lady and we we took off into the wild blue yonder Yes, the rain stopped as soon as we were all on board.

We arrived in Penang in due course. The taxi ride quickly showed us that much of the manufacturing and hitech that goes on in Malaysia takes place here. The hotel is lovely and the internet connection is very fast as I would expect in an area that is dedicated to manufacturing. The best news is there is a Starbucks just around the corner for breakfast. Our room has a lovely sea view. I will take a picture and post it soon.

I think I will enjoy this vacation.

TTYL,

Jim

Head Out for Georgetown

We fly out to Georgetown today at 4 pm. It's a quick flight so we should be in at about 4:30 pm and we will probably go directly to the hotel and check in. We are there for 6 nights so we will probably just explore the hotel, settle down for the night, and plan the next day's adventure.

We are hoping to have lunch today with Ame and Michelle before heading out to the airport. I must remember to get a book or two to read so we had best head out to the Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre for lunch and books.

That's about it for today,

TTYL,

Jim

TGIT

Thank goodness it's Friday.

Things are looking good as we head off on vacation to Penang (Georgetown). When we get back Jaime and her friend Sheila arrive for 4 days before they head off to Australia and the next leg of their Asian adventure.

I am looking forward to showing them around and teaching them what we have learned about Malaysia.

Today I swiped a chair out of the staffroom that can actually be adjusted up and down. So I can now type much faster as I am no longer begging at the keyboard. The downside is that it does not roll very well, but I type more than I roll around the staffroom so it is all good.

I think I have mentionned that Malaysian organizational skills are rather different. For example our staffroom has 2 ancient printers (older than 10 years) that are very slow and are forever jamming and breaking down. However the printers make the photocopier look good. I have made it a goal to convince the administration that teachers are the most valuable (and costly) resource Taylor's has and we have to work smarter not harder. That means that collating and stapling is not a good use of our time. We should spend our time teaching, planning, and meeting with students. Technology is so inexpensive it just does not make any sense to try to limp along with 10 year old dinosaurs!

The problem is the folks that have the budget dollars do not actually use the equipment. I am working on it.

My cold is getting a little better and I have requested a hand sanitizer station to be installed in the lab. I would also like the keyboards cleaned at least once a week. With 75+ students going through the lab every day and given the fact that I type on about 75% of the keyboards every day, the keyboards are a petri dish of bacteria, that end up infecting me.

Time to go to Starbucks for my caffeine fix.

TTYL,

Jim

Marching Orders

I have my marching orders. Shelley has booked us into Penang, Georgetown in particular. Here is some info on where we are going.

Georgetown is the capital of the island and state of Penang, on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. It was listed by UNESCO in 2008 as a World Heritage Site, together with fellow former Straits Settlement, Melaka

Founded in 1786 by British trader Francis Light, Georgetown was one of the three Straits Settlements along with Malacca and Singapore. Modern-day Georgetown is one of Malaysia's largest cities with 600,000 inhabitants.

I have always had an interest in the British Empire as my Mother is English and her father was the captain of a sailing vessel at the turn of the previous century. I will have fun exploring Georgetown, the architecture, and the museums. Apparently there is a nice beach nearby called Ferrengi beach which sounds like something out of Star Trek, the Next generation.

Shelley was keen on getting away as my birthday is September the 23rd and she wanted to celebrate.

Wwwwhhhhaaassssuuuppppp

Well Jaime is in Laos and is healthy again and seem to be enjoying herself on her guided tour of South East Asia. She mentionned that the hotel she is staying in is awesome.

Jordan is into his first full week of classes and is also trying out for the TWU Bombers hockey team. Last year he played for the TWU Titans and found their schedule too demanding while trying to maintain good marks. The Bombers play in a non contact league and do not practice but simply play one game a week. He should be able to handle that and was happy to score a goal during the first game. Jordan definitely needs his competitive team fix.

Shelley is still looking to book us for a vaction next week and I am simply awaiting my marching orders :-)

Three more days and we off for a week!!!

We have our 2010 Taylors school schedule so we can start planing our Christmas, February and March vacations. Shelley hopes this teaching stuff does not get in the way of her travel plans. We are still planning to head home in June for 3 weeks to visit friends and families and to tell tall tales of our time in Malaysia.

TTYL,

Jim

Pretty Uneventful Monday

There are times when I miss the many TGIT 's that Larry seemed to invent back home. My favourite was thank god it's three o'clock. I really could use a draught back at East Side Marios at this moment in time and place, especially with the camaraderie of the boys.

My son Jordan seems to be getting back on track in Langley and Jaime is somewhere touring the toliets of South East Asia with a bout of dysentry.

Shelley and I are back in a routine and I really have to get to my routine of lifting weights 3 times a week.

TTYL,

Jim

Monday morning before Vacation

The weekend was indeed short. When you work 7:30 am - 12:30 am on Saturday morning and follow that up with a staff luncheon (provided, thank you), half the weekend seems to disappear. Shelley and I decided to just veg around the rest of the weekend except for a trip or two to local bookstores to load up on reading material for next week.

We are still without a confirmed booking for next week. Lesson learned is, do not leave it too late. The resorts have rooms but all the flights are booked as this week is pretty well a national holidayas Ramadan draws to a close.

We are entering a unit (along with the ongoing game project) where we are designing small applications using the coding techniques the students have been taught. It will be interesting to see how the students do as it stresses areas they are not strong in such as problem solving and thinking/enquiry skills.

My interviews went very well on Saturday. I had about 15 parents and they were quite supportive of what we teachers here at Taylors are trying to accomplish with their sons/daughters. I would think that is why they sent them here.

TTYL,

Jim

Parent Teacher Interviews

It is Saturday morning and 7:30 am :-(

It appears that I will have approximately 20 parents for interviews. Let's see, 10 minutes per interview = 200 minutes = 3 hours and 20 minutes. There goes my Saturday morning. Starbucks is closed until 9 am on a Saturday so here I sit drinking McDonald's coffee. Not so good!

We are still not confirmed for our vacation so it may be a hotel tour of downtown KL for this vacation. The good news is there is lots of stuff to explore in KL and a 5 star hotel room can be had for under $100 CDN.

I suppose I had best mosey off to the MPH (multi purpose hall) and get ready for my interviews.

TTYL,

Jim

Tioman not a Slam Dunk

Apparently our vacation in Tioman is not a sure thing. Booking a vacation and receiving a confirmation of the booking are not a guarantee. Today Shelley is expecting a phone call either confirming or hopefully, some alternatives. The resort in Tioman has rooms, but the airline that flies there is fully booked. Shelley is hoping there will be flights available to Redang (YATI) if Tioman does not work out. We are hoping for one or the other as we purchased some snorkelling gear and want to look at the wee fishes. I am not so keen on looking at the big fishes :-)

As I mentionned before, Saturday is parent teacher interview day and I have to wear a tie. Larry Brown would be proud of me. Speaking of Larry, when are you coming to visit? Ditto for Steve and Gabe!

I am finally at the point in my classes where I can start assigning programming problems to the students. The first is: Write a program that calculates 100 random marks between 50 and 100 and print those marks out (in a text area control). The program must also calculate the number of A's, B's, C's, and D's and print them out as well. Store the marks in an array as you will eventually have to sort them.

TTYL,

Jim

They should be able to complete this in 30 minutes.

31 years - no bball

I just figured out that after 31 years this will be my first year that I have not coached at least one basketball team during the year. It will seem strange, therefore if any of you out there are involved with coaching basketball send me some info from time to time. Dave Wilson at Queens University is excellent in that regard! I get regular updates on the Gaels program throughout the year.

The Carleton University Ravens program looks like it is in for another great year under Coach Smart. I can follow their achievements online as they have a pretty good web site. I let my season tickets lapse as I won't be able to take in a game for at least 2 years.

One thing that Taylors desperately needs is a gym. The students are really keen on sports and there is no place for them to challenge one another other than a single hoop out in the parking lot that is always being used. There is also no shortage of height around here, especially with the Chinese students. Must be the Yow affect or better nutrition.

I am entering a good unit in my classes where the students are writing games. They always seem to enjoy the game creation due to the creative process.

Shelley and I are now booked for next week's vacation. We are heading off to Tioman, a YATI that gets great reviews. It's a little pricey, but you only go around once. Life is not a dress rehearsal. As my son likes to say, 'Everyone dies, but not everyone lives!'.

TTYL,

Jim

Wednesday and Marks sent in

I have submitted my interim marks and hopefully all is good. My class averages are high but then again 75% of my students are government sponsored students and therefore the smartest of the smart.

The weather is noticeably cooler now that we are into September. I guess that makes sense as July and August would naturally be the hottest months as we are in the northern hemisphere (barely). I would imagine December - February will be high 80's all round :-)

I would guess the Ottawa Catholic School Board is in full gear as I write. It seems rather strange not to be part of that after 30 years within that system. It really is a wonderful school system and I find myself constantly referring to 'The way we did it ...". It's good to have been part of it.

It was really cool , the first day back, to hear the buzz in the staffroom as people describd their vacations. Words such as Hanoi, Kyoto, Cambodia, Bali, etc. popped up everywhere. We can hardly wait to get our 182 days in Malaysia for residency so we can start exploring the rest of Asia.

Time for my first period class, so off to work I go.

TTYL,

Jim

More Pics

Jim at Peace on the beach

The Beach at Rush Hour

Dinner on the Beach

Our Favourite Restaurant

Strange Circle Around the Sun

Malaysian FireFly Airline

On the way back home.

Beach near Dusk

Our Place on the Beach

Sunset on the Beach

Tourists - Jim and Shell

Tuesday and Back At It

We started back to school today and parent teacher interviews are this Saturday. Try that it Ontario. Most parents live out of town so we hold the meeting on a Saturday pm to give them a chance to get there. My interim marks and comments are done and I hand them in tomorrow.

I think I will celebrate with a shot of Zambooka courtesy of duty free this past weekend. The little Italian will be happy to see me drinking a fine Italian liqueur here in Malaysia.

We still have not booked our next week long vacation for the end of next week. Shelley's busy getting her marks and comments done so it's my guess she will be booking Thursday or Friday. She is keen on Redang, a YATI (yet another tropical island, my phrase).

Time to call my mom via Vonage as she has not heard from me for a while.

TTYL,

Jim

Langkawi vacation Pics

Here are some Langkawi pics:

Back from Holidays

We arrived back at 5 pm and had supper at Starbucks as we have nothing in the fridge at home. We cleaned it out prior to departing. The score was 4 days sick, 2 days well and I still came back refreshed. We spent the last morning frollicking in the waves and it was great fun and yes we will have pics that I will put up tomorrow. Tomorrow is a holiday (some kind of national holiday) so we don't go back to school until Tuesday. That will geive me a full day to get my marking done and report card marks ready.

The west coast of Langkawi is highly recomended especially for young people wanting to meet other young people from around the world. We met a fascinating 30 something couple from Paris. She was in high tech and he ran a stunt man training school. One of his graduates was the guy in the latest Bond movie who ran across the rooftops. We also met 5 teachers from an international school in KL.

We have 9 days of school and then we head out on another 7 day holiday and we have to book that trip tomorrow. We have to stay in Malaysia to qualify for tax residency but that still leaves about another 5 tropical islands to visit!

You can rent scooters on the islands for $40 ringgits per day. That's about $13 cdn per day. You can also rent BMW GS 800's by the hour and that is something Jordan and I will probably do in December.

Jaime emailed and has started her tour of southeast asia but we have no idea of her itinerary so we do not know where she is. Wherever it is, it should be fun for her.

That's it for now,

TTYL,

Jim

Big Downpour!

A big storm blew in from the ocean and we had 60 minutes of intense rain and then it was done. However it did leave the temperature a little more moderate. We are heading out to out to the Red Tomato Garden Cafe for supper. I am looking at the menu and the Zuricher Geschnetzeltes looks good (strips of chicken breast in thick parmesan cream sauce). We are also researching the next trip in 2 weeks, perhaps Sabah or Sarawak.

It looks like it will be a 2 hour dinner but hey, it's Malaysian time.

TTYL,

Jim

Saturday - Last day in Langkawi

It's been great fun rollicking in the surf on a beautiful sandy beach. There are also some great inexpensive restaurants that we have been eating in. The 'Red Tomato' is simply the best, especially their signature tomato soup with a freshly baked rye bun. They also offer free internet which is quite fast by Malaysian standards.

I had fully recovered from my flue by Thursday morning and even spent 3 hours on a scooter strafing the mountain roads. I did however, end up with a jolly red sunburn for my efforts. However, I'm back! It's interesting to notice that the waiters are all barefoot in this restaurant. I wonder if that would pass muster in Ottawa.

Our room faces the beach (20 feet) and goes for $140 Ringgits per night. We had 4 female teachers from an international school in KL move in next to us last night. Two Aussies, one form Ireland, and one from England (guess). There are many 20-30 ish types backpacking and living the life here on this strip of Langkawi.

We usually have breakfast opposite the tattooed twins which have enlongated earlobe you could hand Christmas ornaments from. Lots of diversity here.

Jaime has landed in Bangkok and hopefully John McGrath picked up our extra luggage. Jaime has moved on to her guided tour for the next 30 days so I doubt we will hear from her much over the next month. I think it is time for a Strawberry daiquiri so,

TTYL

Why No Posts?

Hi Folks,

You may have been wondering why there hasn't been a post for a while. Turns out that late Friday night I came down with a fever, cramps, hot and cold sweats, and diarrhea. As we were leaving on a flight for Langkawi on Sunday I spent all day Saturday and Sunday morning in bed wishing it away to no avail. I managed to get on the plane in Subang and arrived in Langkawi and spent the next 3 days in bed a beautiful resort. Today, Wednesday, I am finally starting to feel human again. I do not think it was H1N1 as there was no respiratory sysmptons such as sneezing, coughing, or lung congestion. However, my muscles hurt, my joints hurt, my eyeballs hurt and even my hair follicles hurt. Whatever I had it was ugly.

Today is our last night at the resort and I hope to be able to get down to one of the 3 pools. One of them has a swimup bar and I hope to be able to have a rye and ginger and contemplate life for a while rather than wonder is it time for the washroom again :-)

Tomorrow we move to the west side of the island to meet up with Amy and Michel aat another hotel. We are supposed to rent scooters tomorrow and tour the island. Hopefully I will be up to it. We fly back Sunday and I will be very busy as the interim report cards marks are due soon and I had planned to get all my marking done on Saturday and Sunday before we flew out.

You really have nothing going for you if you don't have your health. Treat your body well. How is that for Eastern philosophy :-)

TTYL,

Jim