My, Myself and the Ceiling!!!!

Well, after spending some time writing about mobility issues and products for our new US Mobility web site, it seems I am now conducting some real empirical research!!  Frolicking on the bed, I managed to strain a muscle or tendon in my neck, and collapsed in acute agony.  I am now suffering with absolute limited movement, to such a point that it is painful to even move and go to the toilet!!!!  Poor old Nick is trying his best to ease things for me, and make me comfortable……..but I feel a right useless noggin, and look a right site!  Unable to purchase a neck brace, we have improvised with a large towel, tied around my neck with one of Nick’s ties.  For my heat treatment, we have filled a plastic water bottle and sheaved it in a sock.  This is then stuck in the right side of my neck-towel. 

I spent most of yesterday lay on my back immobile staring at the ceiling going a little (more) crazy!!  Having too much time to just think is not really what I need, or want, however luckily I managed to prop myself enough that I could hold up a book and start reading again.   AT LAST I have finally finished Fahrenheit 451….an accomplishment at least!

Nick even took to completing re-organizing our room at 10 pm last night in an effort to move me out of the direct line of the cold air form the air-con.

Today is a much better day J  Although still suffering somewhat, the chronic pain has eased and I am capable of much more movement.

If it isn't broke...don't fix it!!!!

I have long had my reservations about the oracle that is Google.  My concerns arise form the uber power Google has gained as THE authority on the Internet.  Not only are they now revered as the No. 1 search engine on the planet, that has their fingers in so, so many pies!  Whatever you require, be it maps, images, translation services, analytics……..Google dominates!

But all is not right with the guru.  Google has tried to get too clever for its own good.  Or more likely, it has now become such a money-greedy corporate that it is solely driven by monetary gain, and not just the aspiration to be the BEST at what it does.  Although, by no means a webmaster, I live with a semi-webmaster and our observations are that something is very, very wrong in the Googleplex!

Google introduced ‘Caffeine’ back in April, a new indexing algorithm that was supposed to sophisticate Google’s search results (SERPs).  Well, I wouldn’t say it has stimulated them at all, in fact quite the opposite.   What does seem evident is that Google is playing with new algo’s that somehow are privileging web sites that run Adsense.  Which kind of means they are more interested in getting web sites that they can make money from into the SERPs. 

No longer are great organic sites featuring where they should, or getting the right key word traffic.  What does this mean?  Some webmasters are reporting more traffic from Yahoo and Bing, and believe this is due to consumers switching to an alternative search engine when they don’t find what they want on Google.

Combine this with Google's other great recent change, fondly referred to as 'Mayday', and it seems that the outcome is a major shift in traffic patterns and many glitches with Google's matrix.  In an effort to supposedly refine the Great Google, and keep the Internet SERPs fresh, we seem to be witnessing completely inconsistent and at times random, in not irrelevant, results!!

What is going on Google?

What we have witnessed is content added to our blogs, or article-writing sites, can be in Google almost instantly.  Whereas genuine, fresh, quality content added directly to our web sites can take days to index properly.  Why is this?  And how can content added on 'social media' sites be regarded as more important than quality content on authority web sites?

Guess this could be Mr Gates big chance to guzump the Googleplex…..or maybe it is some industrial espionage???  I bet the guy that plugged in Caffeine is hiding under the table now!

Runner of a different kind!

So since leaving Belize our plans changed somewhat.  We had planned to exit the way we had come, and return to the States for now.  But instead we ended up spending time in Mexico.  I really could never have imagined that I would end up living in Mexico, but guess what……if it’s good enough for Train Robbers, then I guess they must have known something eh?!!

Yesterday marked my first ‘Mexican’ tummy, and meant I spent the whole day (and night) running to the toilet.  Nick played Florence Nightingale wonderfully, ran out for Eskapar (the local recommended remedy), and gently administered love.

My experience was made worse by the fact that our water had gone off here, yet again, so I was running into the block behind us to use the toilet!!

Fortunately our water came back on later in the afternoon, and although still delicate, my stomach seems to be settling down.

Where Did I Go? I Got lost in Cyber Space....but FISH is back!!

Well, I have been away from my F.I.S.H blog for 4 months now, but have decided to get back to FISHing again.  

We left Belize back in February doing our third 'runner', which I aptly named "The Betta Belize it Great Escape!"

We left Ambergris Caye at the crack of dawn with true ‘Bon Viveur’.  Yet another instantaneous rekindler’s decision enacted with precision timing!!!  Our ultimatum being the issue we have had with our delayed payment from Blooms, along with our deferred payment to our landlord and our growing distaste with San Pedro and its’ Americanism.

We booked our tickets on the water taxi yesterday morning, with a super plan to get ‘sensibly’ packed ready for our early morning clandestine departure.  This plan for our great escape quickly devolved into complete organised chaos when we decided to partake of a beer or two at the bar.  A beer or two led to a rum or two…or more…and a large joint….and no intake of food!!  Mr and Mrs Sensible in full blow-out mode which eventually resulted in the familiar pissed dibarcal.  We sat at the end of the local pier stoned and pissed disposing of our sensitive ‘paper’ and surplus laptop by shredding in into the Caribbean Sea.  We then retired to our apartment at the BYC for the last night at well past midnight, me ready to sink into bed, Nick insistent on packing before submitting to sleep.  Nick led our packing, and I followed in a daze, and once everything bar toiletries required for the morning were packed, we fell into bed ready for our 4 hours of sleep!!!  I managed to ‘shed’ a few more items of clothing, something that I have long struggled with, but had to see reason that a few items that have remained unworn could easily be shed.

Our challenge was to exit the BYC without being detained by the local residents and queried over our sudden departure.  Unfortunately, as I had guessed this was not to be, but Nick did an excellent job of side-winding people whilst I hailed a cab.  We leave our little BYC apartment a little untidy, but with more ‘stuff’ in it than when we arrived.   Nick even leaves the door open in our haste to leave without facing questioning from the breakfast club crew.  I cannot imagine what gossip we will create around the BYC pool today…….

Once at the dock to board the water taxi and leave Ambergris Caye, we started to relax…..and even enjoyed a brief distraction feeding the Tarpon at the edge of the lagoon.  At 7:30am we got to board the boat paying our exit tax to the immigration control in Belizian 5 cent coins, and here we are departing our little Island after nearly three months.  Goodbye to a pretty world with too much Fat Cat corruption at its core.  No more Barry Bowen and his monopoly on beer, water, soda, shrimp strangle-holding a country!  We congratulate our existentialist selves on exiting Belize without paying all our ‘debts’, another little twist of rekindling fortune!!!  I welcome the spontaneity of just doing what appeals to my heart and soul, even if it is a little reckless.  I cannot help but reflect on how kindred Nick and I are when it comes to our egos, as I savour the once-again sweet taste of a swift exit from a place with a ‘sting’ in our tails!   My sober mind starts to try and replay our packing fiasco in the early hours of the morning, as I realise I have little idea of what is packed where, and exactly what was left behind.  This is at least the third time we have ‘flitted’ upon an immediate decision to leave, but I have previously been in control of the packing process.  My mind wanders to the irrelevant details of essential items left behind like our corkscrew (which has travelled with us since Orlando) and our pepper mill, that I have carefully packed with us since Calgary.

After arriving into Chetumal, Mexico we are greeted by armed Border Guards with a sniffer dog and all our luggage is checked by a cute drug-sniffing black Labrador.  Kind of highlights how smuggling is still a major issue around this part of the world, and caused Nick to quickly check his pockets for any rogue little buds!!!    Bags collected we head for a hotel, changing our plan to go straight to the ADO bus station and a 6 hour bus journey to Puerto Morelos.  Feeling somewhat jaded as the alcohol is diffused out of our system…..by 10:00am we are back in bed in a rather stylish hotel at the bargain price of £30.  Time for some ‘rekindling’, and Nick lays claim to having made love in two countries before lunchtime!!!

A Day for some Musical Therapy!!

What another strange day in paradise!! Started out the day at 6am with an amazing sun-rise, to then spending the next 40 minutes contending with bank bureaucracy in the UK. Don't you just love the way the banks are so good at taking peoples' money, and not so good at caring about how they can blatantly be so uncooperative.

After a glorious pink sun-rise, the morning was cloudy and overcast. Nick beat me at scrabble today, although it was a much better game than the attempts at scrabble we played with Jan......

Family Friction!

Yesterday was an up-and-down kind of day, emotions running a mock and hormones raging!! I took the leap and emailed my mother the long letter I had composed, with the intention of trying to honestly and openly express many of the things that have always been left unsaid. BIG mistake!!!! Within minutes of sending it the phone rings and I am talking to my Mum....who has already read the 4 page letter......and is on the defensive and lashing out back at me.

I try and talk and explain that I am not interested in dredging up the past, that I am merely saying things to get them in the open but I end up in the place where I always do.......wishing I hadn't said anything as my Mum doesn't listen but attacks with her "poor me" guilt invocations!

I manage to lift my mood by chatting with Nicole for a good couple of hours in the afternoon, she can go from too-wise words to complete 'blond' moments......but certainly gave me the right 'fix' to get me smiling again.

With a large rum and orange in hand, Nick and I sauntered over to the BYC Happy Hour at Ann's. Boy what a lively one it was tonight, and we got our first 'formal' invite to visit some folks in Canada........so this created a good buzz!!

Nick has almost finished all the work setting up the new funeral company, and Paul has already expressed an interest in a joint business venture and extended an invite for us to visit again........so things are cooking!!!!

And talking about cooking.........shrimp BBQ tonight!! Ohhh big juicy shrimp cooked ala Nick style!

Coconut Juice for Inspiration!!

There is not a breath of the Caribbean breeze stirring tonight, and we are out on our veranda sprayed up with bug spray, red candles flickering and BBQ a sizzling. “Wild Thing” weekend so far has been a blast…….relaxing and enjoying sun, sex, smoking a little weed and sleeping!!! I do enjoy the decadent sensual pleasure of being numb, of just feeling so relaxed I am not stimulated to think about anything. I embrace the Rastafarian rhetoric and let go of the feeling that life should be anything but about purpose and pace. 

We have inspired our “excellent adventure” Canadian friend Al to read Napolean Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and the cogs are now turning in terms of how we can truly make the right connections here to make our new funeral company a reality! Re-visiting ‘Think and Grow Rich’ [T&GR] has also inspired me somewhat, as I hunger for that buzz of making something happen! It is strange to see how so much of Nick’s philosophy is underpinned by T&GR yet how he can waiver from the self-discipline to absolutely focus!

My stoned realization has been that I should focus my energies on my own goal (if not dream) and that is to write a novel about our rekindling story. I know that I sometimes get frustrated with my lack of my own goal (baby) and can often take out these frustrations on Nick. I therefore want to empower myself, and see the ideal way to do this as writing a book. This also fulfils my burning desire to write, and a secret ambition to become a writer! Alas, my stumbling block is my writing skill and style, and writing a novel requires a mastery of novel-writing.

The Lebanese continue to press us for developing their web site, but we are still wrapped up working on our new funeral empire!