pbehr

I'm 75 !!!!

2018-03-22T19:25:09Z

Happy Birthday to all the March 22 boys. Here we go again. Especially warm birthday greetings to mrdreamjeans in Minneapolis.

I am in Altea and celebrated with a lunch for "the girls". The celebratory dinner for "the boys" will be on Saturday night when everyone is down from Madrid.

This lunch picture encapsulates what is wonderful about Altea.

Upper row from left to right:

Estelle moved here from London just over a year ago, loves it here, and plans to stay forever. Sara is from Southern California and moved here with her husband 10 years ago. They opened a wonderful bar, AlteArte, which has become a true cultural centre. Dawn moved here three years ago from San Luis Obispo, CA, loves it here, and plans to be here forever.

Lower row from left to right:

I am spending most of my Spanish time here in Altea and love it. Meryl moved here from Los Angeles 6 months ago and plans to be here forever. Ruchamah and her husband manage the condo that we live in. They have lived here for four years, had twins three years ago, and just bought a wonderful finca (small farm) with its own little mountain. They will not be leaving.

Add to this that lunch today at Sabor was delicious and fun and there we are. :-)

Made a Wish!

2017-03-23T10:13:41Z

My herculean effort to blow out THE candle at my birthday dinner last night.

A wonderful evening at Market Madrid, our favourite restaurant here.

Birthday Greetings

2017-03-22T14:43:21Z

It's March 22 again, so Happy Birthday to all the March 22 boys (especially to mrdreamjeans).

As for me, today is my first day being 74. That´s so old that I think I am finding it quite charming. LOL

Wayne, my best old high school friend, and Nancy, his wife, are here in Madrid to celebrate. We are all turning 74 this year. I am just the first.

Wayne and I met when we were 13 (That's a friendship of 61 years!). Wayne and I met Nancy when we were all working at the Banff Springs Hotel when we were 18. So that's a lot of shared experiences with multiple years and levels of meaning.

We are going to celebrate with dinner tonight at Market Madrid, Ricardo's and my favourite restaurant here. Tomorrow we are all going down on a high speed train to Altea for a long weekend of more celebration.

Pictures to follow. :-)

Guess whose backyard we just flew over.

2016-03-24T12:04:28Z

But there was nothing glinting that I could see. So I guess she was inside enjoying a late lunch. 😊

It's my party and I'll fly where I wanna.......

2016-03-22T19:46:40Z

In 64K upstairs on a British Airways 747 from Vancouver to London on the way to Madrid. The flight attendants made the card for me on the left. "Good" friends in Victoria gave me the card in the centre to open on the plane.

Best wishes to all the March 22 boys. 😊

It's all about the view!

2016-01-08T13:06:26Z

We closed on the condo in Altea yesterday.

This is the view from the shower in the en suite on level 2. I love it. I can see the Mediterranean and I can watch the construction continuing on the condos across the way. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy hot showers? LOL

I don't want to go back to Madrid tomorrow. I don't want to get onto 3 planes on Tuesday to get to Victoria. I just want to stay here in Altea. I just want to enjoy more showers. 😊

Another long weekend

2015-06-05T14:28:45Z

We have rented our favourite casa in the hills above Altea again and it's wonderful. Juan Carlos and Luis have come down to stay with us and we are having a great time. They have gone off to a gay nude beach near Benidorm and we are just relaxing on the deck. Actually Ricardo is now asleep on the deck.

We are entertaining ideas of buying the place as the Dutch owner wants to sell. It's quite unnecessary and somewhat incovenient. But we love it and you only live once. Vamos a ver.

We just rented an apartment in Sitges for the long weekend

2015-04-30T17:12:41Z

And this is the view from the balcony. Some of you might recognize the beach. 😊

Ricardo has just driven back to Barcelona Airport to pick up Juan Carlos and Luis who will be staying with us. Looking forward to a great weekend.

Happy Birthday for the March 22 people.

2015-03-22T15:19:01Z

Had a wonderful birthday dinner last night with friends at The Marina Restaurant in Victoria. The Happy Birthday plate looked much better before Ian started licking the letters and tickling the truffles. Note the single candle. LOL Great food. Wonderful wine. Close friends. Too much fun.

Wishing a good year to everyone whose birthday is today. :-)

94th Birthday Lunch with Memories Attached.

2014-07-26T22:05:56Z

Pat Sampson turned 94 last Friday. I remembered the day before and realized that I could actually go over to Vancouver if the family had planned something. They had planned a restaurant lunch so over I went.

Pat and I have known each other for 67 years! I was 4 years old when we all moved out to a post-war Montreal suburban development for WW2 veterans in 1947. Pat and my mother became good friends as did my father and her husband, Jim.

Around age 10, I became the baby sitter for their two children, Glen and Janet. At the end of my baby-sitting career, a baby named Brad suddenly appeared but after a gig or two that included baby Brad, I moved on. :-)

Very sadly, Glen died at age 15 when he was hit by a car. But the rest of the family carried on with lots of new and fun twists in the road.

By the early 80's both Janet and Brad had moved to the west coast. Brad and his wife had also provided grandchildren. Pat and Jim decided they would move, too, to be closer to their children and grandchildren. (Janet had provided a couple of ex-husbands but no grandchildren. Needless to say, I felt very close to Janet.)

My parents and the Sampsons had remained the best of friends decade after decade and they always had time together whenever my parents were visiting Vancouver.

One especially dramatic evening, I had Pat, Jim, and Janet at my place for dinner with my parents. During the first course, Jim had a seizure and we had to call 911. As the two medics put Jim into the stretcher, one of the medics and Janet exchanged guarded remarks which set off my radar. As we went down through the lobby to the ambulance, a crowd in the lobby wanted to know if my bad food had been a problem again. Such friendly neighbours! LOL Meanwhile my parents were still sitting back at the dinner table wondering what was going on. Pat and Janet went off to the hospital so my parents and I concluded with dinner for three. Years later. Janet told me that the medic was at that time one of her clients in an alcohol treatment program.

In 2005, Pat and Janet arrived in Victoria on a cruise ship from San Diego to Vancouver. Jason (my then partner) and I met them at the dock and took them out for dinner. As soon as I saw Janet, I knew there was a serious problem. Her cancer became very serious shortly afterwards and, the next year, the family had a funeral back in Pointe Claire where we had all lived so many years before.

As I happened to be in Montreal at the time, I offered to do a photo book of the service and met with the minister before the service. It turned out that he had officiated at both Janet's weddings and was now doing the funeral. He was also very gay so I thought he would laugh when I said that we would have to settle for just Two Weddings and a Funeral. He didn't laugh. Maybe he wasn't as gay as he appeared. :-) I also met Brad for the first time since I had seen him as a 12-month-old baby in a crib. He was now a very big guy indeed.

All this to explain the occasionally sad but mainly very happy memories that came along to this lunch. Pat, her son, her daughter-in-law, her granddaughter, and her first great-grandchild were all there. I'm very glad I was there, too.

At 94, Pat still doesn't miss a beat. As we both ordered wine, she said, "I'm so glad you're here. They're all teetotallers."

Happy Birthday to the Chicos of March 22

2014-03-22T08:21:00Z

Happy Birthday to you all (and to me, too).

I'm 71 today which is a bit of a shock but there we are. I think that I am now through the kidney drama of the last two years. I saw my urologist a couple of weeks ago and he said that he was amazed how good the right kidney was looking after being in such a pathetic state during surgery (4 hours! ) last November. I have been very lucky.

And now I am back in Madrid. The picture was taken last Saturday in an old hill town north of Madrid called Patones de Arriba. 6 of us (plus Bruno the dog) had a wonderful day exploring.

Tonight the same gang of 6 (but without Bruno) will be having dinner at a new restaurant, Market Madrid, to celebrate my birthday. I am really looking forward to it.

Special wishes to Neil mrdreamjeans who is in Texas today on his 60th birthday where he and his family will be having his mother's memorial.

First 2014 post.

2014-01-25T01:31:46Z

I've been busy; first with kidney surgery; then with periodontal surgery. In the midst of it all Ricardo came over for three weeks for
Christmas and New Years.

Now I have time to get back to some of the things that have fallen off the table over the last while.

So here's a picture taken from the balcony of "our western apartment" in December with BEST WISHES FOR EVERYONE for 2014. :-)

It was great having Ricardo here. He needed the break to get away from work stress. For medical reasons, I have been here in Victoria rather than Madrid for most of 2013. So we also needed to have some relaxed time together. I will complete this round of medical fun in late February and will head back to Madrid on March 12. I will come back to Victoria in early July then back to Madrid at the end of August as Ricardo has booked a family vacation for 10 of us the second week of September.

Celebrating Alice Munro's Nobel Prize for Literature

2013-10-10T23:36:28Z

I woke up this morning to read that Alice Munro had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Although I have always been amazed by her writing, I was surprised by my reaction which was extreme glee mixed with some emotion.

I thought to myself I have to celebrate this day.

So I started by going through my books here in Victoria and found five of hers.

The book on the left has a boarding pass as a bookmark. It's from 1991 -- Toronto to Montreal in Business. Talk about life history. LOL

I think I have three more in my bookshelf in Madrid.

It turned out that Ms. Munro is actually in Victoria right now. The Nobel committee phoned to tell her that her win was about to be announced. But they couldn't find her so they just left a message. Apparently her daughter, who lives in Victoria, woke her at 4 am to tell her that she was a winner. CBC then phoned her for a very early morning interview which she did very gracefully.

So, on to my celebration. Alice Munro takes her family name from her first husband who continues to own a wonderful bookstore here in Victoria. In fact, Alice worked there as well while they were still married to each other. I decided that I would walk downtown to the bookstore and buy her latest book.

There were a number of TV cameramen lurking around the entrance to the store. Not sure whether they were expecting her or "just" her ex-husband.

In any event, in I went to get a copy of her latest. I had to dodge two shoots of commentators and finally just asked one of the clerks where I could find the book. Oh we're already out, she said. But we'll have more tomorrow.

Well, I had to buy something. I found one of her older books that I don't have and headed out of the store a happy camper. Then I did what I always like to do when I'm particularly happy. I went for a nice lunch. 10 Acres is a great indoor/outdoor bistro a few blocks away with very good food. That's where Alice and I completed our downtown adventure for the day.

Alice, my heartfelt congratulations! And you make a wonderful lunch companion. :-)

I want this chair.

2013-07-04T07:39:41Z

Actually I want four of them.

I am finishing the long trek from Madrid to Victoria later on today (Madrid-Munich-Vancouver-Victoria) and am sitting in my hotel room at Munich Airport. This is the desk chair. It is very comfortable and, I think, very elegant and beautiful.

I rented a Victoria apartment April 1 but was only there long enough to have my "stuff" delivered out of storage. Now I am going back to actually set it up. Bookshelves were delivered from IKEA a couple of weeks ago, so I can now unpack my books.

My dining room table and IKEA office chairs as dining chairs are set up and waiting for dinner.

The living room has four old bentwood chairs (bought in Toronto 45 years ago LOL) as placeholders for something new. I'm thinking old ship look for these (Normandie, Ile de France, art deco, Jean Carlu) but four of these desk chairs would work, too. Another idea would be pastel painted Adirondack chairs with wide arms as drink holders. Hmmm. I want the chairs to be able to move toward the view (Strait of Juan de Fuca, Olympic mountains in Washington state) or 180 degrees in the other direction for movie night. (I'll deal with the flat-screen later.)

The Victoria apartment doesn't make any economic sense but it makes great psychological sense. It allows me to enjoy Victoria for Victoria and Madrid for Madrid (without trying to recreate in Madrid what I already have in Victoria).

Ricardo is coming over on August 4 for three weeks, so I want to have our "western" apartment ready enough to enjoy when he arrives.

One of the things I have been up to.

2013-06-17T06:28:08Z

If you want to live in Madrid, you really do need to be fluent in Spanish. So I have been working on that and have found a really good Spanish school here called Tilde. They publish mini-lessons on the web and I have started doing videos for them. This is all a learning experience for me but I am having lots of fun. Here is the latest one that I have done. I am slowly learning how to shoot, how to do the sound, and how to edit. In this one I also appear. The bad posture and annoying mannerisms will be repaired on the next one. :-)

Happy Birthday to all my March 22 Buddies.

2013-03-22T03:35:00Z

This afternoon in Victoria looking out over the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the windsurfers and the ships while looking forward to tomorrow for all of our birthday celebrations.

I will turn 70 tomorrow. I can't believe it. How did it happen so quickly. Guess I just wasn't paying attention. LOL

I'm starting with a pedicure in the Willow Stream at The Empress at 9:15, then lunch with friends, and then dinner with friends. Lunches and dinners will continue through the weekend.

Next week I will get possession of my new rental apartment in Victoria. it doesn't make any economic sense but it does make great psychological sense. I can get my things out of storage and have a place of my own even if I don't use it that much. I should have everything set up by the first week of April and then will head back to Madrid. Best of both worlds works for me. ;-)

Happy birthday to everyone tomorrow but special thoughts for mrdreamjeans who will be in Texas this weekend for the celebration of life for his father. Neil, best wishes to you and everyone in your family at this important and thoughtful time.

¡A todos, cumpleaños feliz!

Jean Paul Gaultier at the Fundación MAPFRE

2012-12-02T08:18:43Z

On Friday afternoon, I went to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the Fundación MAPFRE here in Madrid.

It was much more fun than I thought it would be. The clothes were as interesting as I expected (for a non-fashion person like me who shops at Marks Work Warehouse and, for something special, at Eddie Bauer). What was more interesting were the facial features projected onto the blank faces of the mannequins along with very subtle audio. Initially, I couldn't tell that the mannequins were not real people, especially since their expressions were so personal and provoking. I came up to a few inches away from them to see how it was done and it still wasn't obvious until I looked back at the ceiling and saw the little projection beams. I couldn't resist shooting some of them with my iPhone. I will also go back to see the exhibition again before it closes.

Clever Halloween Yard Decoration

2012-10-26T15:16:23Z

From my morning walk a couple of days ago. Very clever I thought. :-)

Guess who's coming to lunch -- again!

2012-10-24T14:25:54Z

I'm in Victoria for a couple of weeks and went over to friends' for lunch. I wasn't the only one who appeared. The deer have very nonchalantly taken over the city. There is a battle between those whose idea of natural is "don't do anything" and those whose idea of natural is "predator and prey". I'm in the venison festival camp. Community development. Get to know your neighbours. Eat locally. :-)

Friendly Friday in Madrid

2012-08-11T12:09:36Z

I had a great time yesterday.

Jim arrived late morning on the fast train from Barcelona prior to heading home to Victoria today.

paulintoronto arrived on Air Canada at noon from, not surprisingly, Toronto.

Jim and I had lunch in the restaurant at CaixaForum near his hotel.

Then I went home and cooled off in the pool. This was essential as the temperature hit 41 C (105 F) yesterday afternoon.

Nicely cooled down, I went back to El Centro to meet Jim and Paul for drinks in Chueca Square (the centre of gay Madrid).

Here are Paul and I enjoying ourselves. Thanks, Jim, for the picture. :-)

Some Madrid friends were sitting at another table across the square. They were heading off for supper. We joined them.

After eating, the Madrid friends went off for coffee, Jim and Paul went off to a bar, and I went off home on the Metro.

With a big smile on my face.

( Saturday update: Jim now has a big smile on his face, too. He just sent an SMS; upgraded to Business Class Madrid to Toronto; thank you, Air Canada! )

A weekend in the country.

2012-06-28T17:01:35Z

Ricardo and I spent last weekend in Guadalupe, an historic town in Extremadura, in the western part of Spain.

Guadalupe has a population of about 3.000 and is famous as the starting point for Christopher Columbus's trip to the "New World" back around 1492. It was in Guadalupe that Queen Isabella gave him his "traveling money". Several years later, he brought some South American natives back to Guadalupe where they were christened in the fountain in front of the cathedral. The cathedral is still there and so is the fountain. Traces of Isabella, Columbus, and the natives disappeared long ago. :-)

Here is the cathedral with an even larger monastery attached on the right (now a hotel with a restaurant where we went to dinner on Saturday).

We were in Guadalupe to visit Juan and Eric. Eric was one of the first friends that I met when I moved to Vancouver in 1980. He and Juan met in the early 80's and have been traveling back and forth between Canada and Spain ever since. In 1990, they started building a small B&B in Guadalupe. After a few years, they found the Extremadura bureaucracy too difficult (making breakfast for people every morning was also wearing thin) and stopped having paying guests. However, they loved living there and have continued to develop the property as it's own unique little world.

Here is the view from the porch of our guest house.

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time. One of Eric and Juan's best friends is Marga, who owns a restaurant and cafe on the main square looking out at the central fountain. A big event in the village had been her party for the the restaurant staff and their friends at her finca up in the hills on the night before we arrived. The other big event on the Thursday night had been the Madonna concert in Barcelona, which a number of Guadalupanos had attended. Both the concert and the party were the big topics in all the bars we went to on Friday afternoon. :-)

We went back for more on Saturday afternoon and here is Ricardo taking Marga, Rita (chef at Marga´s restaurant) and Eric for a tour around the town and the fountain. Juan is busy looking the other way.

The whole experience was a sensory and cognitive overload that I'm still processing. Too much fun. :-)

At last, the sun.

2012-04-02T15:32:09Z

I arrived in Vancouver last Tuesday. It was raining and everyone said it had been raining all month -- the worst month in memory. Well, yesterday was April 1 and out came the sun and everyone else.

Taken at the foot of Denman Street looking out over English Bay.

Off to Victoria this coming Wednesday. :-)

Happy Birthday to all the March 22 people.

2012-03-22T07:50:26Z

In my case, the number is 69!! Somehow it just sounds too trashy to celebrate. LOL

I think I'll save the balloons and streamers for 70 which really does mark a transition.

This is my first birthday where I'm actually in Spain. The Spanish tradition is very different. The birthday boy is expected to take everyone out for dinner or do all the work on a dinner in. I prefer the tradition of the birthday boy having to do nothing but enjoy. I like doing birthdays for other people. I really don't want to have to do my own.

All that being said, it still feels good to celebrate on one's special day. And my sister is going to take me out for birthday cake in Vancouver next week. :-)

My sister in the Plaza Santa Ana 10 days ago, recovering from a nightmare week of work in Berlin.

Follies Tonight.

2012-03-18T22:10:40Z

I saw the new Teatro Español production of Follies tonight. It was lots of fun. The last time I saw it was in Berlin in 1991 at the Theater des Westens. Then, Eartha Kitt sang in English; everyone else sang in German. Tonight everyone sang in Spanish. :-)

I asked my friend, Antonio, if the language was as razor sharp in Spanish as it is in English. He said that it was. The woman sitting beside us overheard my question and confirmed that the translation was really excellent.

I also realized part way through the evening that this was the perfect week to see something by Sondheim as he is yet another of the March 22 birthday boys. He will be 82 this week.

Parejas de hecho.

2011-12-12T05:28:14Z

Juan Carlos, Ricardo, Brian, and Jose.

Ricardo and I are now domestic partners or "parejas de echo".

We had our ceremony of official registration at the City of Madrid on Wednesday, December 7. We applied last May and we finally got the December 7 date in July. That meant we had to get all the papers all over again as papers expire here after 90 days. That being said, the event was lots of fun.

Juan Carlos and Jose were our witnesses, Carlos was the photographer, and Antonio came along for amoral support.

We met for tea before the 6 pm ceremony. Then went out for drinks, wine at Carlos' place, dinner at Da Maria on Hortaleza, more drinks at the roof bar at Mercado San Anton, and, finally, nightcaps at a neighbourhood bar close to home. Thursday was a VERY quiet day around here.

I have to say that it does feel good. :-)