Wednesday, January 30, 2008

January 5th,2007-Happy New Year

January 5th,2007

Happy New Year Everyone

After 29 years of living on the Malahat; always having family and friends with us for Christmas, this year certainly was different. We were thankful we had each other and that we could call home and speak to Ash, Sean and Mom. Because we had so many traditions at home we decided to do none of them here. We did go out for a fabulous Italian lunch to celebrate Christmas Day.

On New Year’s Eve we tried to go and see what “DANIA JAI-ALI” (pronounced Highli) was all about, however it was closed. Instead, we went for a nice walk and then had a visit with Harry on the dock.

We go by the DANIA JAI-ALI building almost daily. On the outside it also says POKER so we thought it was like a casino. (Weeks later we did manage to go and watch this centuries old sport from Basque, Spain. It turns out it sort of is like our game of Squash played in teams, where the winner of each point stays on the court and then meets the next player in rotation. The players use a “cesta” which is a curved catching and throwing basket; (sort of like a lacrosse stick but longer and narrower). It is made of Spanish Chestnut and reeds from the Pyrenees Mountains. The “Pilota” (ball) is slightly smaller than a baseball and is made of two layers of goat skin over nylon thread covering tightly wound strands of virgin rubber. Stats are kept on players and teams. This is where the betting comes in. People play the odds. Normally it is $1.50 to get in to watch. We happened to hit” Senior’s” night, which is free and were asked to show I.D. It looks like there is 42 different players and the stats show that the majority are from Spain, Mexico, France and then the U.S. As for the POKER—we never went to see.

New Year’s Day, Derek, Evelyn and Caylin came over dressed up as “Pirates” for a Games Night.

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