Posts by Hyacinthe

Retiring, eh?

Posted on April 2, 2015

Last Friday at two o’clock on a sunny, cold afternoon, I officially retired from the workforce. For now. What started as a simple consulting project ended up lasting for two years of contract renewals. In the end, I finished what I was hired to do – heading a team restructuring the promotional process – and it was time to go.The Big Blue Binder is complete – more than forty documents, a humongous timeline and instructions for next steps. It feels good. Now I’m in the transition phase. Again. But I have a wonderful experience to look back on. As an added bonus, hanging around with police-folk for two years has given me lots of fodder for my novels, Alex the hardwood floor guy and…

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Categories: Modern life, What I'm Doing

Designer veggies & firefighters

Posted on March 12, 2015

Oh goodness. I’m losing my ability to multi-task. This afternoon when I came home from work, I was doing several things at once. Defrosting the chicken breasts, mixing up the mayonnaise and spice coating before dredging them in seasoned panko crumbs ready for sauteing in butter, assembling the ingredients to use the browning bananas I picked up at Vince’s Market yesterday, searching for a recipe for kalettes, some lovely little cross-bred kale-brussels sprouts veggies that resemble lovely little green flowers. Hub was sitting at the counter chatting as he usually does. I tossed the veggies with crushed fresh garlic, kosher salt and olive oil then tossed them onto a baking sheet and slipped them into a 450 degree oven. It was supposed to be…

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Categories: Modern life

Monday motivation

Posted on March 9, 2015

I have to say that being away from the mundanities of daily life was inspiring. The resort we stayed in – Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay – was exactly what we needed. Quiet. No drunken loogans or noisy parties. No schlocky evening shows put on by bored failed fine arts students. Every mourning, we’d get up without an alarm clock (one of the benefits of retirement), wander down to the pool, pick up our beach towels and drape them over our chairs and sit down for a lovely breakfast at the Bistro. Then we’d repair to our little gazebo and spend the day lolling in the shade, listening to the soothing shush of ocean waves against a backdrop of muted R&B and music that reminded…

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Categories: Modern life

Basking

Posted on March 2, 2015

It’s not such a hard life rising at eight o’clock, wandering to the adult pool to pick up our towels then eating a leisurely breakfast against backdrop of crashing tides from the beach a couple hundred meters away. For the past week I’ve wallowed in the pleasure of having someone else making my meals to order, cleaning and fluffing our room, bringing cold drinks in the afternoon when the sun is high and hot in the clear blue sky. Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay has been a much-needed escape from the frigid never-ending grey of Ontario winter. It’s March already, which means that the seed catalogues are probably in the mail – can spring be far behind? I’ve been browsing the negative comments on tripAdvisor-…

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Categories: Travel, What I'm Doing

Manana, manana…OOPS

Posted on February 27, 2015

Gee, I thought I’d posted this from poolside in Mazatlan but when I checked the list, there was a note beside the draft that said “Missed schedule”. Well that’s a bummer. There I was all slathered with sunscreen and excited about doing distant blogging. Didn’t work. Hmmm. Never let a post go to waste, says I….so here it is. Flashback to February 27th. @@@@@@ Oh my goodness. I’m reading Toronto newspapers on my iPad and feeling smug. It’s another record cold day in southern Ontario. How much to do I care? Not an awful lot right now because we’re in Mexico. The resort is stunning – a vast, jungle-like property (without the bugs and lizards) and to get from one end to the other,…

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Categories: Modern life, What I'm Doing