Ah the sweet addiction of having a watch again. I went to London Drugs last night and picked up one. It is still in the same Ironman series I always buy, but it is slightly upgraded. The water resistance is the same, and I will be abusing it at the same level as before. It does have an interesting watchband that I’m worried will be a headache to replace when it wears out.
It’s nice being able to see the date and time whenever I want. It just gives me that moment of peace that I need.
I also bought a camera yesterday. I didn’t really need one except for a project I’m working on. The one of taking a picture of the building across the street being built. It’s getting harder though because it is fairly dark when I leave for work, and completely dark when I get back. I probably should have just given up and saved my money for other things.
A problem with the camera is that it, like all cameras these days, uses SD memory, instead of CompactFlash. So my old media is worthless to me now. However, I did buy one less than 14 days ago from BestBuy. I’m going to see if I can return it. But first I have to get the data off of it. I’ll try and do that at work today. A co-worker has a CompactFlash reader I can probably borrow.
As an aside, I started working in Edmonton on November 13th, 1995. So I’ve been gainfully employed in this town for ten years.
I’m thinking of re-evaluating my priorities that have been keeping me here.

At the resort they were handing out rum like candy. When I left I had three 1L bottles. I purchase what I’m told was 1L of good rum from the duty free store.

Canada customs only allows 1.5L. Based off of parental example, I hid the free bottles and declared only 1L. They searched and found them. I got fined $32.68. The customs guy was friendly about it and did tell me I did indeed have good rum.

Afterwards he said if I had admitted I was over, they would have just waved me through.

My gut instinct is usually that honesty is the best policy. Wish I had listened to it.

I’m waiting an hour for my flight to Edmonton. I’m still fairly alert, even though I didn’t sleep. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was more interesting.

I’m in my nice big spacious Air Canada jet with many empty seats waiting to go to Toronto. There I will connect to another flight that will get me to Edmonton after 1:00 AM.

I was happy with that plan. I had a small concern that it would be too late to catch a shuttle bus home, but I can always pay a bit more and take a taxi.

That happiness is in question now. As I look out my window seat, I see a WestJet plane sitting on the tarmac, two gates down. The airline that prides itself on serving western Canada. I have no idea where its going, but I suspect that that flight would have been much more efficient. Probably passing through Calgary.

Meh. I’ve got lots of space here to try and sleep, and the Toronto stopover is short. I’ll check with WestJet and find out what plane 201 was doing in Montego Bay later.

No worries, Mon.

I napped on the bus to the airport. I don’t know exactly how long it took to get here. I think it was over two hours.

Part of me is hoping there is a bad inflight movie that I actively don’t want to see. Last year, both flights had interesting movies so I stayed awake all day. An almost total lack of sleep meant I was unconscious for most of Sunday.

Tomorrow, if I’m conscious I want to do a morning run and then attend a brunch at a friend’s place. I did however RSVP with an escape clause of being awake.

I checked out of my room an hour before the bus left. I asked the receptionist if I could fill out a report on the theft of the camera. They called security and the chief met me.

One of the first questions was “Why didn’t you report this two days ago?”

…

What the hell have I been doing for the past two days everytime I go to reception asking about it!

The laid back Jamaican attitude is totally incompatible with my lifestyle choice. That I have to adopt it since my watch broke is infuriating.

I don’t know what it is, but my improv skill set is starting to surface. A worker here made a comment about being my girl when I said I didn’t have one. I took that and ran with it. The truth was out, I always wanted her. In improv terms, I accepted her offer.

A few seconds later a beautiful German girl asked me if I was involved in the show tonight. I was only a teamster, but I showed her the schedule I had. She didn’t like it. She needed to go at a different time. Nothing I could do about it, but she started up in German with what I believe was swearing. So I joined in and also sounded upset in German. Since I don’t know the language, let me emphasize “sounded.”

I’ve gotten from Tom a CD of all the pictures I lost. I checked them on Sophie’s iBook. They are there. Now I just need to stop locking myself out of my room.

I did more juggling too.

I was stiff this morning. I guess I had too much fun yesterday.

I still don’t have a camera, but I’m having a nice time sitting in the shade updating my journal. My time estimates are getting very vague now, because I was using my camera as a back up watch.

I found my PADI card, which means I don’t need to replace it, but might have been the only identification in the camera in case the thief got a conscious.

I brought two pairs of sunglasses and I can’t find either.

I’m going to buy some personalized shell souvenirs. I just need to figure out who I like enough to give them to.

I decided to go to bed early. Then I realize 2:30 AM is not early. Tomorrow is essentially the last day, so I’m hoping for a good sleep tonight.

During the Karaoke, there was someone who must have been confused as to which resort she was at. The lyrics had changed to something raunchy and she became rather upset.

Go to “Breezes” if you want a family atmosphere.

I think I may have found a use for alcohol. Last monday I was still drinking and I thought I was tolerable for Karaoke. I just did another and didn’t sound nearly as good.

Or was that just the impression alcohol gave me?

In either case, I’m glad I wasn’t drinking. Otherwise I would be suicidally depressed over the camera loss. Mind you, the pity attention has been nice, but I need to rise above that.

I’m pondering how to handle the loss. I’ve been taking daily pictures of the construction across the street from my condo. Do I stop that now?

I think my PADI card was in the case, so is it worth getting another. I may not dive again after the last burn.

Well, be careful what you talk about. My camera has been stolen. There was a pool party. I put it with my stuff and later, my stuff was still there, but the camera was gone.

I’m not too concerned about the pictures because a friend here wanted copies so I let him download them onto his computer. I just need to get them back. I’m only missing less than a dozen pictures, and they were taken at the same time as a friend was taking some too.

But still, I lost my camera.

The pool party was fun, but it feels tainted now. They had wrestling matches. I watched Amrita take down a Canadian far too easily, so I went up to defend my country. Then the referee privately told me to take a dive. Really, I’m bigger than her, have more reach and weigh more.

I did put up a better show and actually won one of the bouts. She is light enough to lift off the ground.

Afterwards I talked to her about wrestling and she talked about how in fake wrestling she never wants to wrestle a drunk person and there were a lot of those there.

Another reason not to drink.

For dinner I was invited to join a bunch of people at Pastafari restaurant. I wasn’t the best conversationalist because I was sort of depressed. I’ll try and get over it before Karaoke tonight.

I think I’m beginning to see the camera I brought as a curse for several reasons.

Instead of enjoying a performance, I take pictures, usually not of magazine quality. So later I can have a bad picture of an event that I forgot because I wasn’t paying attention to it, but the camera instead.

Also, during the party tonight I took pictures instead of mingling. It broke the ice, but I never got to know anyone better. I would come into their orbit, snap, snap, and then move along after a few minutes of conversation.

I sleep now. No scuba diving tomorrow, no excursions. I finally get to sleep late.

My watch died.

It feels like losing an arm. I use it all the time, and it bothers me when I don’t know if I’m late. For instance, tonight, dinner is at 7:00 and I’m supposed to help with a fashion show at 8:10.

I don’t need this pressure.

It is proudly labeled Water Resistant to 100 meters. That is apparently a lie. This morning it didn’t go deeper than 2 meters during an excursion to Dunn’s River Falls.

We clambered onto a bus and took a 45 minute trip to Ocho Rios. There we boarded a 60 foot catamaran. It took us out a bit and then let us snorkel in a reef area. That was nice. So far I haven’t been able to swim properly here. The beaches at the resort are very shallow, and scuba diving isn’t floating, but more controlled sinking.

The best part was when the guide took a sea urchin and did something to it so that fish wanted to eat it. Little fish swarmed all over it. He passed it around so I got to hold it for awhile. Urchins are prickly, but don’t sting. Of course I can’t speak for the black ones which I’m told are a different story.

Off the side of the boat I bought a conch shell from a guy paddling around on a kayak. I don’t know why, my mother has two of them.

After that, the catamaran took us to Dunn’s river falls. It’s a treat because you don’t climb up a trail, but up the river itself. It was surprisingly easy, and not very slippery. But you do get very wet.

Too wet for a watch.

My camera survived better. I had it in a plastic gift shop bag, knotted at the top and it still seemed to work.

After the falls, we cruised on the boat, drinking and having fun, before going back to Ocho Rios. That’s when I noticed my watch starting to die.

It reset itself on the bus back. I set it to the correct time, but it kept resetting to midnight. At the resort I thought I would try to dry it out under a hand dryer. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. No screen now, just a humming when you put it up to your ear.

On the bus I heard Robert make an observation about how when someone is talking to a beautiful woman, other men will come up and talk to her as if you weren’t there. Ironic, because he did the same thing to me later.

At lunch I went on stage for games, which involved putting people in lewd positions.

I did some juggling lessons and swam in the ocean. I’m tired, so I took it easy.

Tomorrow I’m going on an excursion to Dunn’s river falls. It should be a good change of pace.

The scuba diving was bad. The waves were getting large so they were only going to do the deep water dive. We all got in the ocean, but I couldn’t equalize fast enough going down, and I was told to leave the pool.

When the others came back, I kept hearing about how it was the greatest dive ever. A tame sea turtle came up and allowed itself to be touched.

My consolation prize was that some dolphins swam with the dive boat. I got to see them leaping from the water in front of it.

Veronica was in a different boat. She was taking the training course.

Funny story about the snoring.

My roommate, Anthony, moved out and Bart moved in. Bart didn’t show up until 8:00 AM this morning, so I had the room to myself.

However, I talked to Bart’s old roommate, John, at breakfast this morning. He was a snorer and was supposed to be able to stand the rumblings of Anthony.

He couldn’t. After 45 minutes he left and slept on a hammock. He was amazed I had stood it for two nights. I feel a bit guilty, but not enough to tolerate a snorer again.

My roommate situation might be working out. Bart, two doors down has the same problem, so he’ll move into my room. Last night my roommate showed up late and did the snoring, but I was deep enough in sleep to mostly stay there.

This morning I did some scuba diving. The first dive was to 92 feet for 27 minutes. It didn’t go well because I had trouble equalizing the pressure, so it took too long to get down there. And there wasn’t much to see anyway.

The second dive was to 41 feet for 36 minutes. It was much nicer. I was better at equalizing and it was to a shipwreck. That was cool. One diver had an underwater camera and took both pictures and a movie. I need to get a copy of them.

I didn’t trust my watch, so I left it on the boat.

Veronica is going diving tomorrow morning so I’ll join her for that.

This was a good evening.

I helped with the fashion show. It was hot and sweaty and there were twelve girls there in need of help tying up their fabulous corsets.

I was a gentleman the entire time.

No touching or feeling inappropriate places. No lewd comments. Just being helpful and bringing them water when they needed it.

Afterwards I joined them for dinner.

The organizer of all the fashion shows, Indra, knows me now and seems eager for my help on other nights. My only regret is that I didn’t see the show.

At the disco after, Nicolette complimented me on my behavior and that it would play well for me during this week.

At midnight there was the Karaoke party. I think my singing has improved since last year. I’m trying to focus on singing properly instead of belting out as loud as possible.

The event was hosted by Veronica. I helped her with her equipment and wandered with her awhile after. When she joined the other singers for the midnight (after two?) buffet, I wished her goodnight and left. I have to scuba dive early tomorrow and I can’t guarantee a good night’s sleep. I hope I don’t regret that later. A book I read about picking up women says to think of yourself as the prize and don’t bend to a pretty women’s every whim.

This not drinking thing is working well. I haven’t been depressed and I’m having a good time.

Like I said, hopefully no regrets. Otherwise I’m going to hate scuba forever.