I’m not sure if it was because I had the vacation blues after such a nice trip and wanted a special treat, or if I was just homesick for the place I grew up in, but I had this amazing crazy craving for some Quebec poutine. I’m not talking about the crap that fast food restaurants in Ontario serve. I’m talking about the real stuff: freshly cooked French fries with real Quebec cheese curds swimming in hot gravy…

And then it dawned on me that this place had opened up downtown boasting real Quebec poutine… I just had to go give them a try. I mean I’d already gained 5 pounds while on the cruise, what’s another extra pound.

So there we went to Smoke’s Poutinerie on Dundas St, just east of Jarvis, yeah, yeah, right across from the topless bar (another Quebec specialty) and let me tell you, if you haven’t been yet, you’re really missing out.

It absolutely compared to the best poutine I’ve had on any nights when after a night of boozing in the clubs or bars we’d manage to crawl to Crystal or other crappy late night dive that served food to those who didn’t want to call it a night just yet at 3:30am.

I’m gonna take my sister there next time she visits. And she’ll let me add ketchup to mine without a horrified look on her face.

Thanks to Erik at gambrinous with griffonage for sending these vintage images of my beloved Disney World my way:

They invaded central Florida for the filming it seems as it also went to Sea World.

…and after more than 10 years collecting dust for non-use, I just put 324 movies on video by the dumpster in the back of our place. Free to grab for anyone that would have any use for it.

I still managed to salvage 72 movies that I know I can’t find on DVD or that hold very special memories… like the actual 1st ever edition of Jaws on video.

Hope they find a good home.

(By the way, our first choice was Goodwill, but I don’t know if you know how much 324 movies weigh, and I’m not about to walk 30 minute each way to bring a bag of 30 – 40 movies at a time… and Goodwill doesn’t pick up apparently.)

* * * * * * * * * * UPDATE * * * * * * * * * * *

I went back to check on the boxes out of curiosity an hour later… poof… empty… all gone. Probably some little entrepreneur… or homeless who can built a shelter with all of them stacked up.

It’s no secret we have experienced some negative moments during our last vacation. Nothing too serious to leave us with bad feelings and regrets about the cruise but still surprising us daily by these older gentlemen & ladies’ actions.

There were lots of groups of seniors traveling from the States and Canada too. It was hard to differentiate them on the ship, except sometimes by their language and/or different accent. Regardless, a lot of them acted selfishly, uncaringly and obnoxiously.

All I know is my father was president of a senior citizen group for at least 12 years and would have never tolerated his members acting this way in public. He would have gladly refunded their membership back and told them to stay home instead of being seen in public with them.

Younger people understand that older people aren’t as mobile or agile or fast as they are, so a “please” or “thank you” can go a long way in helping them get what they desire. Pushing, yelling, swearing, blocking the way, ignoring others, smoking in their room, leaving a mess behind, disregarding simple rules or being verbally rude to others in public places are not becoming attributes to anyone and seniors definitely should know better. One of the worst for me was the constant complaining. Why pay so much money for traveling if all you’re going to do is compare it to what you have home and keep saying how much better you have it there.

“This salad is good, but I prefer the one from Olive Garden”
Really? Olive Garden? Why not stay home and go there instead

“They give you much more shrimps at Red Lobster”
Really??? Because if you ask your waiter, he’s gonna fucking bring you buckets if you want.

“Ponderosa can do a much tender steak”
Oh, that’s it! I’ll see you at 3pm on deck 4. Bring your boxing glove.

“I can’t wait to go to Burger King”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhh…

Service and food and entertainment is what you pay for when you go on a cruise. I have always experienced it to its fullest too. It really feels like eating in a 5 star restaurant every night. You can ask for anything and you will get it. You can have 15 entrees if you want, you won’t have to pay a cent extra. Olive Garden?? Burger King??? Ponderosa???? Red Lobster????? Really???????????

That being said, we did meet with some very nice people that were in their golden age too, people that could hold a conversation, that were interesting, that were kind and fun and knew how to conduct themselves in a group.

Still, I think I’ll make sure that the next vacation is more 40’s friendly. Disney here I come again.

I regret not taking more pictures of our delicious travel mates now that the trip is over, I really could’ve made an amazing “stucrugliot” collage (stupid, crazy, ugly and idiot).

I’ll start with stupid and idiot before moving into crazy and ugly.

There we were, in St-Martins’ French side, on a hill overlooking this gorgeous bay. I asked one of our ATV tour mate to take a picture of DR and I with this spectacular background. I almost died laughing that night when we reviewed our pictures:

If you’re looking for DR, just look at the reflection in my glasses, that’s him standing next to me in a loving amorous way.

Throughout the days, we found ourselves snapping pictures managed to get some gems, in my humble opinion of course.

Here’s me, relaxing in the sea water pool under the warm Caribbean sun, smiling away. Who wouldn’t with those bathing beauties around them:

The fun never stopped. Here we are at Karaoke Superstar… the pickings must have been slim (no pun intended) as this Romeo made it to the finals and couldn’t really sing… nor dance…

Aaaaaah… I call this one Classé:

Here’s a very bad picture of someone standing in the dark, but the reason I took it is because she annoyed the shit out of me for many days during the cruise. Her and her family were incapable of arriving to the shows on time, they’d wait until last minute and as the leader she’d go find a seat, then stand up, her back to the stage, and wave to her family to come join her as she’d point out empty seats in the area around. She would also whisper to them as if that helped in a place that could hold 1500 people (There, sit there… you sit there… you sit there). She was not popular.

Here’s another of our favourites who we quickly nicknamed Lurch for obvious reasons. He had the kookiest outfits too, I mean, just look at these delightful pants specially worn for the midnight buffet:

This lady was responsible for us arriving 10 minutes late at the dock after our Antigua tour. She got a bit drunky during the beach excursion and became a fat lard tub of molasses. She could hardly help herself inside the small boat taking us back to our bus and literally had to be “hoisted” on it with the help of a few other people. Same thing when it came time for the bus. The ship was leaving at 4pm that day and we were asked to be onboard no later then 3:30. We arrived at 3:40. DR and I, and other people with heads screwed on straight ran to the ship… Little Miss Fatty decided to go shopping… I’m surprised they didn’t leave her there. She was the last one onboard that day:

What can I say that hasn’t been said about fat men in their 50’s wearing speedos… Oh I know, a picture is worth a thousand words:

This one takes the cake though as I had to spend every day and night with him:

I’m aware that this post sounds crass, but trust me, if I would’ve had the presence of mind to take more pictures, this could’ve been a lot worse. Maybe next trip. I mean, why should I be the only one bleeding from my eyes?

We left New York (I now say New York instead of New Jersey because the port is really that close and because of THIS…) on the Sunday night knowing it would take 3 full days at sea before reaching our first port of call. We were ready to relax and read and eat and drink and explore and gamble and watch shows and try lots of different activities… We weren’t ready for the bad weather those next 3 days would bring. We expected some medium coldish temperature but unfortunately, we sailed through some stormy weather and the sun was totally absent for rain and clouds.

Finally on day 4, the weather was a bit better, at least warm enough to sit outside on the deck and maybe even use the pools. After an hour reading on a lounger with DR sleeping next to me, I decided to go and test the pool water… IT WAS FRIGID. I managed to sit by the edge and soak my feet, then my legs… it was obvious I was uncomfortable and just as I was about to get up to go back to my reading, I hear this whispering shy voice to my left: “Excuse me. Are you SharkBoy?”

I turned to find this lovely lady crouching next to me with a wide smile on. I replied: “Yes I am, but I want to know how the hell you know that?” She smiled some more and started telling me how she was looking for information about this ship online and fell DR’s blog with this story and started to read on about all the different posts on what he was packing, etc… She easily criss-crossed to my blog and started to read on as well.

I loved Cathy instantly… Not only did she have the “balls” to come say hello and introduce herself, but she was funny and nice and pleasant… the first really nice person we’d met since departure. After talking for awhile, I finally got my frozen feet out of the pool and she introduced me to her husband Raymond. They were on this cruise with their 2 teenagers and her parents as well. I noticed DR was awake by then and I motioned for him to come down to the pool level and joined us. We were relieved to find out they were from Michigan and we had an instant rapport in regards to disliking a large amount of the crowd aboard with us. What DR called the Large Barge, they called SS Geritol, yet all of us were thrilled to still be aboard and enjoy a nice long vacation, at least if we didn’t like the people, we could make good fun of them.

We met up later on for drinks at the piano bar and enjoyed some more conversations for the duration of the cruise.

It definitely was a nice surprise to be able to walk down the promenade or any decks and run into them and chat for a bit. It made a big difference since the first few days had been filled with loud, rude, clicky groups who didn’t care about others around them…

Cathy and Raymond come from good people.

Raymond, Cathy, me & DR on the last day enjoying deals on the Promenade.

We spent one night in New York before embarking on our cruise ship. After a whole day of walking around Manhattan, we bought sandwiches and drinks at a cafe in Chelsea and made our way to the hotel. In the room, we found we could use the business desk as a table if one sat on the bed and one sat on the big chair, we just had to move it closer.

I found this little guy hiding under the chair:

His name was written on his collar: Patches.

We had no choice but to bring him onboard with us and try to show him a good time.

At first he missed New York and kept looking for it through the salty windows of the ship:

We tried to give some distractions such as helping us choose some excursions for the ports to come:

He was still a little bit lost and scared at time:

We found that pizza was a really good way to get him out of his hiding places:

One night after dinner, we found Patches had made friends with a new-comer:

REALLY good friends.

The next morning he was tired and slept with me:

He felt better and requested some cake that night, we were happy to oblige:

Along the way, he made many more friends:

And:

But he wasn’t so keen on the French Bulldog (seriously, we didn’t know what this one was):

One morning, he tried to sneak out of the room to come play with us on the beach, I caught him just in time:

On the last night, the sea was really rough as we went through a storm and poor Patches couldn’t take much more of the ship’s rocking back and forth and up and down:

That night, he never made it back to the bed:

But in the end, he was very happy to leave a little something to Jocelyn who kept him company during her daily visits and made him little friends to play with:

Patches made the trip back to Toronto with us and is now being ignored by two big cats not really happy to see us invade the territories they’ve had to themselves for the last two weeks.

The End.

I’m sad to add French Canadian in the arrogant, rude and ugly people to the New Jersey Group…. Oh la la… I didn’t know my “own kin” would be so embarrassing and such a bunch of cry babies and complainers…

You really can’t beat a vacation in the Carribean at this time of the year. but there are some fat nasty old people from New Jersey that will try to kill any fun you might have in mind:

Thank god for the amazing couple from Michigan we’ve met.

Lots of great food, lots of great drinks and (finally) lots of sun.

Day 6 of 12 – We’re in St Maartens (French keyboqrd1)

I just know one day there will be a video of me freaking out on some moron that just caused my head to explode with their stupidity… but in the meantime, enjoy this: