Random Thoughts by Ktownbuddha

So Christmas came and Santa delivered. I even heard that Santa tried to deliver me a stocking but Santa's little helper wouldn't deliver the goods.  Next time no excuses. What an amazing week.  I don't think I could have hoped or planned or dreamed for a better vacation. The weather was perfect.  It was hot, a little breezy at times and sunny.  Everybody walked away with a tan and there was very little sunburning to be had.  I think we have our little sunscreen captain to credit for that, so please take a bow, job well done.  She made sure we kept applying sunscreen, were in the shade or had a sun shirt on.   However I feel like we are getting ahead of ourselves.  So let's start from the beginning.  The gf and friends were up bright and early on Sunday to start their journey and I was up around the  same time.  Hard to sleep when you are waiting for Santa.  So they start their journey and I started packing and trying to make myself nap before I hit the road.  I

Today is the long awaited day that my gf and my friends arrive in Cuba.  The last few weeks have been so annoying having to wait.  I have patience but for this kind of thing it gets a bit taxed.  I'm so happy to see her/them and show them around my little bit of Cuba.  Also this is the start of the summer trips and it's going to be an amazing summer.  I'm just about packed up and going to try and have a quick nap and then make the 3 hr drive to the resort. So you will not hear from me for just over a week.  Be jealous be very jealous.

Ruts, routines, systems, whatever you want to call them.  Yeah they seem boring and mundane but they keep things moving in the right direction.  My first day back in Cuba this rotation we lost our coffee machine in the restaurant. Normally not that big of a deal.  Well let me take you back. For the last several years me and one of the other expats would meet for coffee at about 6:30 in the restaurant before going to work.  We'd have a nice quick espresso, americano or just a plain large coffee. I'd always have a bottle or two of water as well. This was my routine.  It was ingrained. Sometimes when I was hungry I'd have a granola bar as well.    It became part of my day.  It was how everything started.  Well when that disappeared both of us starting having issues.  My morning went to crap.  I was less productive and easily distracted.  I honestly don't think I did a much before 10am without our morning routine. So I changed that.  We decided to bring our own coffe

So as previously mentioned my gf and my friends are coming to Cuba on Sunday.  I'm uncontrollably excited.  Another friend of mine keeps saying that "Santa Claus has no chance competing with this" and she is right.  To me this is better than Christmas.  As most of you are aware I'm not a huge fan of Christmas to begin with, but even if I was this would win hands down.  Sunday night can't come soon enough. I want this to be a great trip for all in involved.  I feel like Cuba is kind of my country now too. So while I know Cuba has it's issues and we don't always have stuff, I'd like to make my friends trip as enjoyable as possible.  I don't want them to want for anything.  While we are staying at a Cuban 5 star resort compared to other countries 5 star resorts this isn't even close. Technology is a big limiting factor of being on the island.  While you can use your Canadian cell phones to surf the internet (at much slower speeds) and you can

Writing on a blog makes you feel like you have an obligation to post.  Not just that but your audience is expecting to be entertained.  I understand that.  You need to be interesting and entertaining or else why should people spend their time reading some mindless drivel that somebody spews out into cyber space.  Exactly I wouldn't.  So while I know I haven't posted in several days I feel an obligation to those that spend their valuable time reading what it is I have to say, to make sure what I write gives them some value. So update from the week.  It's been very quiet.  Some would say too quiet.  Our Canadian boss in Cuba has been in Canada this week and there seems to have been lots of Cuban secret meetings.  Of course we as Canadians are always the last to know what's going on.  The Cuban side shares information willingly to one another but the Canadian side is always tight lipped.  There have been rumours circulating for over a year that our Canadian boss in Cuba

Saturday after work we went to Baracoa.  By we I mean myself, another expat engineer, his translator and the translator's gf.  We don't require a translator for this kind of trip but we are all friends and they often come with us on our little excursions.  They have family in Baracoa and they stay there while we typically stay at a hotel called El Castillo. Baracoa is only 70km away but it takes a tad over 2 hours to get there as the road is terrible.  Plus you need to stop for the occasional rest (one of the cubans get's car sick and I need to relieve myself from the excess beer).  I normally have to drive but this time I was able to sit back and relax as a passenger as the other expat was driving. Now then I haven't been to Baracoa since mid-January.  Back then the air was cooler, the hotel was full and the town was busy with tourists.  On this night the town was teaming with locals celebrating some kind of festival, the hotel was empty, and the number of touri

I'm not sure what to title this entry.  Normally the title comes first and helps me to focus my writing.  I'm not sure how well it works because I tend to lose track of where I was going.  I think this post will have several different slants to it. First of all we use a code word here for a derogatory term.  Normally most people don't use the word retard anymore as it applies to a person.  It's no longer politically correct to do so.  However if you look up the definition of the word it can mean to slow, delay or hinder.   http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retard The word we use instead is beaver.  Now then we aren't using it as the Merriam Webster dictionary defines it.  We are using it in the politically incorrect context.  "That person is such a beaver".  That being said, when you think of the person in terms of the country we work in, we really are using the dictionary definition.  It's not that these people have any mental, physical or

Ah Cuba.  Things seem to be chugging along smoothly and then the trouble starts.  You can really tell how the economy is doing by the level of petty crime and theft. At the end of May one of our guys had his spare tire stolen from the back of his truck overnight.  The tire was locked in the back of his truck with a wrapped cable and a good solid padlock.  Obviously they cut the cable.  They then proceed to fit the tire through a hole in the fence.  Now we do have guards and they are supposed to be patrolling but in all honesty they are helping the thieves and getting paid for their help.  We thought it was a one of event and moved our trucks to a different location closer to where the guards sit and sleep (they are supposed to be awake). So this trip in I expected that everything would be ok.  Well I was wrong.  After work today I got a call from one of our guys to come over to his room.  He proceeds to show me a pile of wooden blocks.  I asked him what they were for.  His answer,