Pat and I were enjoying a lovely evening dinner on the patio overlooking the golf course.   Perfect evening.  Temp in the mid 20s, not humid and the mountains in view.  By now the golfers have gone by and all we watch are the occasional soccer kids and the strollers.

We were reminiscing about last summer on evenings like this.  We would police the area and then take Reese and Jackes onto the golf course for an evening stroll.

Off leash and let them chase the occasional rabbit (with no hope of catching).  We would walk and they would scramble but never going far away.

We would follow in a loop around the 3rd 4th 5th and 6th holes and back to our 7th.  The dogs would sniff out golf balls and we would return home where Pat would do the dishes and the dogs and I would relax in front of the TV.  Wonderful evenings.

Kind of miss the dogs for the evenings (the cleaning of the poo off the lawn and the constant attention during the day less so)  I can see why some people like dogs.  If only we could rent them for the sunny evenings.

I am known by my friends as the guy with the workshop and tools.  While most men in our social group admire the shop, very few would actually make use of it.

I was approached by a friend at a party on Saturday night asking me for help on a project.  He owns a boat and has a platform at the aft that folds down and normally holds a seat.

Now on a major yacht this bracket would be made of teak but on their more reasonable boat this is just a metal tray.  This is supposed to hold a pad for seating but when they are anchored they try to use it to hold the bottles of champagne or wine, glasses and canapes on it, but even with a small swell, they slide around.

So Paul comes to me with a concept and a piece of Yellow Cedar.

Now I have never worked with Yellow Cedar before.  Despite it being a cedar it is as hard as oak.  Great wood.

I designed a simple bench that fits into the space with holes that could hold wine bottles and glasses.  Locks into the bracket but lifts out when not needed.  Fairly easy peasy if you have the tools.

He sent me the picture of the bracket in use.  Nice but even better is that Pat and I get to go on their next excursion.

As I have learned in the past, it is far better to know someone with a boat, than to own one yourself.  And they have a nice taste in champagne.

The golf course that we back on have a program in the evening after the regular golfers have gone by.  They set up a course where you kick soccer balls to goals (off the green)  18 holes of soccer golf on the front nine.

Most evenings nothing happens but tonight must have been a special for all the under 10 teams in the valley.

Lovely evening as we dined outside watching teams go past kicking to see who could get to the goal with the fewest shots.  Coaches and managers walking behind.

Now there is no skill training in this, just pure joy for the kids.

I coached kids soccer for 17 years many of them girl teams.  This would have been a fabulous special activity.

The coaches are going by with the biggest grins.  I am so jealous.

I only put this title because if I put BREXIT I would have received thousands of hits.

Now like most people, we have been following this brexit diatribe in the news for months.  It reminded me of the Quebec separatist issue years ago.  Do you follow an emotional, Nationalistic view of your future or do you take the financially secure position.  Go for Britain first with isolation or retain the financial security of the group?

Granted I could appreciate the attitude against the EU where everything in your life was dictated by Brussels.  The inefficiency of thousands of bureaucrats flying around on first class from meeting to meeting with no concept of the cost (sort of reminds you of our Senate).  The EU parliament in Strasbourg and the massive group of  staff in Brussels just makes your mind boggle.  They justify their time with a million little details and restrictions on trade.

I was once on a flight from London to Milan (business class) where at least half of the passengers in the section were EU clerks, well maybe not clerks but non elected bureaucrats.  I sat next to one of them and she told me that everyone in the Brussels office staff flew first class or business class no matter where they were travelling in the world.  Kind of reminded me of the Olympics committee members.  A lifetime of generous benefits.

Still, I would probably been a supporter of the remain if I had a vote.  I am of the age where security of life is more important than nationalistic fervour.

This morning I picked up my copy of the National Post where the headline was predicting a Remain decision.  Got to be up there with the Dewey Wins headline.  I am looking forward to picking up the paper on Saturday Morning to see what they have to say.

Pat and I were in Costco today and met with a couple that we know from our Probus and Miata friends.

Mike is from England, but retired here.  He was furious about the Brexit decision.  Could not believe they would take this non logical, xenophobia position.

I guess this is going to be one of those experiments where emotional issues are balanced against logical financial decisions.

If the emotional nationalistic position works out, than it could lead to support for the Quebec and Catalonia separatists.  Going to be an interesting next few years.

Pat and I were scrambling today on what we should prepare for supper.  The last couple of nights, since we returned from our trip, have been busy.  Yesterday, Wednesday, we joined a hike to Hornby Island that meant that we did not get home until late so we just made home made pizza.

This morning we went off shopping and purchased thin sliced pork chops (on sale) and I decided that it would make a great stir fry.  I have a good recipe where you used slices of pork with slivers of apricots and red peppers in a simple sauce.

Unfortunately I had this great idea of putting a Pork BBQ rub on the slivers of pork before the stir fry.  My mix was in a little jar and it had about a tablespoon and as I was dumping it I thought , well there is only a bit left in the container so why not use it all.  I forgot that the rub included very hot chili and where 1 teaspoon would have been nice I ended up probably with 2 tablespoons.

Even I found it too hot.

Pat was very polite during the meal although suffering, and while she did not declare that she was going to leave me, there were some glimpses that made me wonder.

Fortunately we had yogurt to mix in.

You would think at my age I would learn not to screw around with a good recipe.

I apologize to my blog fans for the prolonged delay in expressing my Views from Paradise.

It is not as if I have lost the ability to have an opinion or enlightenment that I could share with my audience, it was mostly a technical issue.

Pat and I have been on the road.  While many of you travel with a computer that allows you to type on a Qwerty keyboard, we travel with a an simple flip cell phone and a mini IPad.

So here I am home with a full screen and a proper keyboard.  Anyway to the point…

We returned to Ontario to visit our old neighbours and friends in Oakville and Markham.  Great friends, couples we have known for decades.  People that you can share memories and discover new reasons why old friends are still the best.

Unfortunately this did require us driving hours on the QEW and the 401 freeways in the Toronto area to meet them.

Now these highways were horrid when we lived there and they have since gone ballistically atrocious.  6 lanes each direction and all stopped no matter what time of day.

Hours to get anywhere.

Despite the great time we had with our old friends, we realized that we made the right decision to retire to Paradise where the worst is a 2 light delay to turn left on Cliffe.

We are ensconced at a hotel at the Vancouver airport.  Watching a Jay game preparing for an early night as we have to check out at 5:00 am to catch our flight.

Lovely day in Vancouver but it just confirms why we selected the Island for our retirement.  From the time we drove off the ferry the driving was terrible all the way to the airport.  Good thing we had lots of time.

Why anyone would choose to live in a big city and experience the traffic when you could live in Paradise,   I do not know….