Taylor is Eight!

December 16, 2012

Poem by Grandma:

Dear Taylor,

It looks like you had a great 8^th year.

You travelled far, you travelled near.
You walked on beaches, saw a mountain or two.
You played in a boat like your grandparents do.

And now you’re turning 8,

With more adventures in store:
Swimming and acting and
Laughs and fun galore.

We’ll see you in the summer,

But if we could get a wish,
We’d be there right now
To give you a birthday kiss.

Happy Birthday, Taylor ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Poem by Grandpa:

Today, December 16th

is a very important date

Someone very special to us
reaches the age of eight
Although his name is Taylor
he is often referred to as Tate
So we better wish him a Happy Birthday
before we are too late
Hope you have a super day
and a cake just waiting to be ate
Wish we lived in a boat next door
and could just open a gate
To give our grandson a big hug
and say “Happy Birthday mate”

Loads of Love

From Grandpa and Grandma Sailor xx

November 16, 2012

Hi Tehja and Taylor. You’ll never guess where we are today. Malaysia! We left Phuket on November 5^th and arrived here in Langkawi on November 8^th. Thailand only lets us keep our boat there for six months (actually, this time they let us stay a year), and then we have to leave their country. But they let us come back right away.

 

Jenny the wind generator taking a rest during a beautiful sunset.

 

Another beautiful sunset on our way to Langkawi.

We will return to Phuket as soon as our boat batteries arrive (four golf cart batteries – like those that ran the golf cart we used in Costa Rica). We bought them here in Langkawi because they are cheaper. These batteries run our lights, computer and all our other electrical stuff when the engines aren’t running and making power for us. We keep these batteries charged by feeding them with solar power, or charging them with wind power, or by sometimes running the engines. We haven’t been “plugged in” since we left the Caribbean.

So on this Sweet 16 day, we are patiently waiting for our batteries at anchor in the big harbour of Kuah. There are lots of other sail boats and scads of ferries, because this is an island and the only way you can get here is by plane or boat. There is no bridge.

Kuah, Langkawi is “duty free” (which means a government tax hasn’t been charged and so some stuff is cheaper), so we have been stocking up on some boat parts and chocolate treats. So today we shopped. And we had beef – at McD’s of all places.

You’ll see from the photos that Kuah is a pretty harbour town. Lots of tourists come here to shop, so the shop owners keep everything clean and tidy to attract the customers. But with all the ferry traffic and as a result of some industries that were here a number of years ago, the water in the bay is polluted. So we can’t swim at all. So we’re looking forward to getting our batteries and setting off for Thailand again.

 

Some colourful shops in Kuah, Langkawi.

Grandpa on his way to the chandlery -
a store that sells boat stuff.

 

One of the main streets in Kuah, Langkawi.
We've walked it many times.

Kuah has a beautiful park to walk through.

Our walks are shaded by nice big trees.

Grandpa chatting with a fellow-Canadian
while a storm approaches from the west.

This evening we had visitors on CanKata – a couple from a Canadian boat, a couple and their 24-year-old daughter from an Australian boat, and a guitar-playing song-writer from an American boat. We had lots of good food, laughs and music under a very pretty sliver of the moon that also had some “earth glow” (the unlit part of the moon that glows just a tiny bit). And we thought of you. It was a good way to end a good Sweet 16 Day.

All our love,

Grandma and Grandpa Sailor xxxx

P.S. A couple of SpongeBob jokes:

 

How did Patrick find his report card on the ocean’s bottom?
He was deep C fishing.

Why did Patrick get running shoes?

To be a track star.

And another P.S.: Here are some photos from the time Kevin and Great-Grandma Merc visited us in Langkawi in 2009:

Kevin, Great-Grandma and Grandpa
at the Langkawi pier.

Grandpa and Great-Grandma and
the big bird "Langkawi"

Kevin and the Langkawi

October 16, 2012

Hi you two. We have been looking at recent photographs of you and your adventures, and it looks like you have been having some pretty good times! You live in a beautiful province.

 

 

 

It sounds like you had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend, and now Halloween is just around the corner. We hope to see photos of the pumpkins you carve.

Grandma in PEI a long time ago

 

Here’s what has happened in our “neck of the woods” since we were last in touch:

·        CanKata has been pulled out of the water to get her bottom painted. We use a special paint so that little forms of sea-life don’t attach themselves to us, which would slow us down as we sail around the world.

·        We have made a decision to leave Thailand this coming February – heading toward South Africa and onwards, all the way around again back to Thailand (we hope).

·        Grandpa has been busy working on CanKata to get her ship-shape for her next big adventure.

 

·        On “Sat Duan Sip” - a special Thai holiday which is celebrated to honour our ancestors - we went to the National Park that is right on our doorstep and saw LOTS of people having picnics and fun on this October 15th holiday.

 

 

·        As usual, we went out for a steak dinner to celebrate Sweet 16 Day.

·        We have booked our flights to Canada! We’ll be visiting you from the end of June until September 3rd. Can’t wait!!!!

It’s been a while since we had a SpongeBob joke. Here’s one that should remind you of your recent trip to PEI:

What do you call a lobster that won’t share?

Shellfish.

Bye for now.

All our love,
Grandma and Grandpa Sailor

September 16: Tehja is Nine

Hi there Tehja.

 

A Poem from Grandpa:

Oh me oh mine

Tehja is nine

Which is a sign

That she’ll soon want to dine

In a fashion that’s fine

But of course not with wine.

 

A Poem from Grandma:

 

In a place called Beaumont

On street sixty-five

Lives a lovely young girl

Who really knows how to dive.

 

Yes, she knows more than that.

Yes, the list is very long.

But this poem likes to rhyme

And “drive” would just be wrong.

 

Here’s to Tehja, who’s a swimmer

And a granddaughter sublime.

And today we’re celebrating because

Today she turns nine!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Tehja!!

We look forward to visiting you while you are still nine.

Loads of love from

Grandpa and Grandma Sailor xx

August 16, 2012

Dear Tehja and Taylor,

 Hi you two. This was a different sort of Sweet 16 day. We were in two countries – Laos and Thailand. We started in Vientiane, Laos and ended up in Nong Khai, Thailand, and were in about the middle of our three-week vacation.

And you were probably wondering about what you should pack for your vacation in PEI.

Grandpa made this map for you, showing (in yellow) some of the places we went.

 

We did lots of moving around on this day:

·        Mini-bus to the Laos bus station

·        Big bus across the bridge between Laos and Thailand

·        Tuk-tuk (small open-air 3-wheeled tax) to the Thailand train station to buy our tickets for the overnight train

·        Tuk-tuk from the train station for a tour of Nong Khai area (to pass time while we waited for the evening train)

·        Tuk-tuk back to the train station

·        Overnight train to the city of Ayutthaya, Thailand

 

Guess what train seat Grandma was in. You guessed it – number 16!

The weirdest thing about this day was the park that we visited in Nong Khai, called “Sara Kaew Ku”. It was full of strange statues. You probably would have thought it was very interesting. We certainly did.

We met a young lady from Okinawa, Japan. Her name was Himi and she joined us for lunch and for the tour of the strange statues. She was sweet and friendly and very brave … travelling around Laos and Thailand all by herself. She said we are lucky to have a granddaughter and grandson. She’s right!

 

We didn't have a good picture of a tuk-tuk, so borrowed this one from the internet.



We passed this street in Vientiane on the mini-bus.

The Vientiane bus station.

Grandma on the bus to Nong Khai, Thailand.

A pretty building in Nong Khai.

Our new friend, Himi, from Okinawa, Japan.

Is this statue playing peek-a-boo?

Looks like the littlest mermaid on this statue.

These guys are riding strange creatures.

Do you think this guy is two-faced?

You're pulling my leg ... um, I mean, my tail.

You'd think one nasty head would be enough.

 

By 9:00 p.m. we were sound asleep in our train berths, enjoying a smooth ride through the night. We don’t remember our dreams, but they were probably sweet, probably about you.

 

The overnight train.

The train from the inside.

 

Bye for now. Hope you having a great time in PEI!

 

All our love,

Grandma and Grandpa Sailor

July 16, 2012

 

Dear Tehja and Taylor,

We have some exciting things to tell you about this July’s Sweet Sixteen Day.

 
Grandpa and I went to the Rain Forest in Kuching (which is in Borneo, Malaysia) and went to a World Music Festival. The festival was three days long, and then we spent one day touring the city and its river, and then another day visiting orang-utans.
 
“World music” is pretty cool … not rock, not pop, not rap, but a combination of many instruments and sounds and rhythms that we enjoy very much. We think you two would love it because it makes you want to dance.

People dancing at the Rain Forest World Music Festival.

 Kuching is an interesting Malaysian city with great restaurants from all around the world, amazing buildings that make you go “wow”, a pretty river running right through downtown, colourful shops, and friendly people. We had a lot of fun touring the city and cruising the river on a little boat called a “sampan”.

Grandma's cousin Elaine (visiting from England!) at a shop at the festival.

Grandpa in a Sampan on the river in Kuching.

Some other little boats on the river.

Interesting buildings in Kuching.

Some other people catching a sampan.

The visit to the orang-utans in a small patch of rain forest was very special. We saw about eight of them, with one being a large older male, another being a small youngster, and the rest being somewhere in-between. They were all show-offs and we enjoyed watching them do their acrobatics in the trees. We visited them in a special park because much of the rain forest, where they like to live, has been cut down for other crops.

This little orang-utan looks like he's zip-lining!

A large orang-utan picking up his fruit.

These critters can really "strike the pose".

 
On the evening of the 16^th, we saw some children in the park in Kuching practicing some singing and dancing, getting ready to do a show for an upcoming “Flag Day” (something like our July 1^st). They were very cute and entertaining, and of course that made us think of you two! But we didn't have our camera so we can't show you how cute they were.

But here are some other photos from our amazing trip to Kuching:

Steve, Julie, Grandma and Elaine at the festival.

Julie blowing up a "Sponge Bob" balloon.
We used them as cushions.

We set up a comfy picnic area for the 5-hour outdoor show.

We were entertained by talented musicians from all over the world.

Grandma and Elaine were born 12 days apart.
We live thousands of miles from each other.
We first met forty years ago!
And we love it when we can get together.

The five of us had a GREAT time in Kuching.

We hope you are having a GREAT summer. Bye for now.

All our love,

Grandma and Grandpa Sailor xx
(TIP: If you click on the photos, you can see larger versions.)