Did a little more exploring on Wednesday evening. The timeshare resort where we are staying is in the section of the island, called Nord. I wanted to see the section with the “High Rise Hotels”. They even call the section by that name.
That section is just a mile away from our timeshare, close to where our timeshare shuttle drops us off at the beach. During the middle of the day it’s too hot to walk that distance – even with the breeze.
Once the sun goes down, it’s a lot more comfortable to walk. And I was feeling a bit less tired today, though I’m still suffering from a chest cold. I enjoyed walking with Micha and getting a better look at the strange assortment of Chinese mini-markets (it seems that all the groceries are run by Chinese), laundries (also run by Chinese), neighborhood bars, defunct and open restaurants serving Chinese, Japanese-Caribbean, Italian, Dutch, and other food.
We walked to the beach that was near the Westin and Rui hotels. It looked very nice, maybe a little nicer than the Moomba beach that we get taken to by our timeshare shuttle. But Moomba beach is nice, too. The water here is so calm that you can swim in it as if it were a swimming pool.
After walking on the beach, we headed back and stopped on the way at a surprisingly good Thai restaurant. Sawasdee didn’t look like much from the outside. But it was decorated very nicely inside. Looking at all the pictures and statues of Buddha and elephants reminded us of our own trip to Thailand last year.
We ordered two dishes to share. The steamed fish with ginger sauce was delicious. The second dish – stir-fried basil eggplant with chicken—was more mediocre. But I was satisfied with the meal and enjoyed the walk home, too. Full moon, strong breeze, but still pleasantly warm.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Welcome Party at the Caribbean Palm Village Resort and Bon Bini Festival at Fort Zoutman in Oranjestad, Aurba
This is not one of our adventure vacations even though we are staying in a location that we’ve never visited before. The main advantage of being in Aruba right now rather than someplace else is the weather. It’s perfectly balmy every day. With a gentle breeze that ruffles our hair.
We are spending our days at Moomba beach or at the resort pools. Doing a little swimming and a lot of sitting in the shade, reading books and just relaxing.
On Tuesday evening, we attended two welcome parties. The first one was held at the resort. They had an “open bar” (for one hour), free appetizers, and some games. I didn’t volunteer for any of the games, but I didn’t make a fuss when the activity director put a hula hoop over my head and pulled me over for the hula hoop competition. I can usually keep a hula hoop going for a reasonable period of time. But not this hula hoop. The winner was a teenage girl – the only one of four of us who managed to get the hoop going at all.
Afterwards, Micha and I took a taxi into the main city of Oranjestad and went the island’s Bon Bini festival held weekly at Fort Zoutman, which also houses the National Historical Museum. “Bon Bini” means welcome in Papiamento, which is the local language. It’s a mixture of Spanish and Dutch, but it’s considered a language rather than a dialect because all classes of society speak it. They also speak English, Spanish, and Dutch. It’s a very multi-lingual society.
The entrance fee for the Bon Bini festival was nominal and I was able to buy a tasty Caribbean supper of chicken over rice with plantains and salad for just $6.50. There were different groups playing typical Aruban music and doing Aruban dances, including one group dressed up for Mardi Gras.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Still Possible to Make Changes?
It’s the first week of the new year, 2011. Guess what? I didn’t set any resolutions for this year. Did you?
If not, why not?
Are we so content that there is nothing we want to change? Or have some of us decided that we’re too old to change?
I noticed that I had lost the aura of contentment that I felt earlier this year. It seems that I have been spending less time doing some of the things that are really important to me – like writing this blog.
But I felt a spurt of the old juices starting to run again when I was reading my monthly issue of Toastmaster Magazine this afternoon. The January issue, in particular, is full of inspiring articles about setting goals and overcoming obstacles.
Last June, I joined the Toastmasters club at the company where I work as a part-time tech writer three days a week. This is my third time being a member of a Toastmasters club and my goal for the immediate future is to finish the basic Competent Communicator manual before June 2011.
I didn’t manage to complete the basic manual in my two previous clubs, although I think that I must have got pretty close to finishing at least one of those times.
My improvement is tangible. I am now able to give speeches without memorizing every single word beforehand as though it was a script. But I am still not the confident speaker that I would like to be. During our last meeting, I was filling a functionary role that involved introducing other speakers and after the meeting I started feeling bad about some fumbling that I had done.
“Why am I doing this when it is no longer something that must do?” I am not trying to advance my career in high tech, which was the situation when I joined my first Toastmaster club many years ago. I didn’t really need to do this.
But did I really want to quit without reaching my goal of finishing that basic manual?
Today, when I was reading the Toastmaster magazine, I admitted to myself that there is another reason that I returned to Toastmasters beyond my desire to stand up and give toasts at the weddings of my daughters.
I still haven’t come to the end of my “bucket list” of things that I’d like to accomplish before I die. Even though I am approaching what was once considered the standard retirement age, I would actually like to do some sort of work – just not the kind of work that I’m doing now.
There are at least two things that I have always wanted to be able to do. One is to publish a story that people will read and the other—despite my innate shyness—is to be some sort of entertainer.
I read in the Toastmaster magazine about people whose active participation in the club enabled them to change their careers and become professional speakers. Some of these people write inspirational books encouraging other people to overcome their fears of public speaking or other issues. So I’m going to keep attending Toastmasters. When I fumble, I’ll try to do better next time. As long as we keep trying, we still have the ability to change.
If not, why not?
Are we so content that there is nothing we want to change? Or have some of us decided that we’re too old to change?
I noticed that I had lost the aura of contentment that I felt earlier this year. It seems that I have been spending less time doing some of the things that are really important to me – like writing this blog.
But I felt a spurt of the old juices starting to run again when I was reading my monthly issue of Toastmaster Magazine this afternoon. The January issue, in particular, is full of inspiring articles about setting goals and overcoming obstacles.
Last June, I joined the Toastmasters club at the company where I work as a part-time tech writer three days a week. This is my third time being a member of a Toastmasters club and my goal for the immediate future is to finish the basic Competent Communicator manual before June 2011.
I didn’t manage to complete the basic manual in my two previous clubs, although I think that I must have got pretty close to finishing at least one of those times.
My improvement is tangible. I am now able to give speeches without memorizing every single word beforehand as though it was a script. But I am still not the confident speaker that I would like to be. During our last meeting, I was filling a functionary role that involved introducing other speakers and after the meeting I started feeling bad about some fumbling that I had done.
“Why am I doing this when it is no longer something that must do?” I am not trying to advance my career in high tech, which was the situation when I joined my first Toastmaster club many years ago. I didn’t really need to do this.
But did I really want to quit without reaching my goal of finishing that basic manual?
Today, when I was reading the Toastmaster magazine, I admitted to myself that there is another reason that I returned to Toastmasters beyond my desire to stand up and give toasts at the weddings of my daughters.
I still haven’t come to the end of my “bucket list” of things that I’d like to accomplish before I die. Even though I am approaching what was once considered the standard retirement age, I would actually like to do some sort of work – just not the kind of work that I’m doing now.
There are at least two things that I have always wanted to be able to do. One is to publish a story that people will read and the other—despite my innate shyness—is to be some sort of entertainer.
I read in the Toastmaster magazine about people whose active participation in the club enabled them to change their careers and become professional speakers. Some of these people write inspirational books encouraging other people to overcome their fears of public speaking or other issues. So I’m going to keep attending Toastmasters. When I fumble, I’ll try to do better next time. As long as we keep trying, we still have the ability to change.
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