Trending..........

 Did you know one of the biggest trends on Tik Tok is reading?  I didn't.  So I guess I am trendy, who knew😉

We had a doctors appointment last week, so called in at the Indigo Book Store while there.  Lots to see of course, in fact I spent a whole hour wandering around the store.  Took random photos of things I liked.

They have such lovely sweatshirts.  Shame I am always too hot to wear a sweatshirt......

I love the concept of book clubs, but generally hate going to them as I never like the books..........

The sign "Read More Scroll Less," caught my eye........I should do that!

I always check out the 3 for $10 books, did pick three up, but put them back.

Loved the colourway of these items, but I am not a journal writing person, are you?

These book sleeves/bags are popular.  I did buy one for grand daughter for her birthday last year, as she is a big reader.

I did pick this book up for $6 as it's one I have never read.  Have you read it?

I love this British magazine, I have bought it regularly since it was first published in the early 80's.  Fun fact, the lady on the front Helen Skelton;  she came from the same village hubby was brought up in.  He played football with her dad, although the dad is 3 years older.  Her brother is or was an assistant coach for the football team hubby supports.  She went through a rough time with her now ex-husband, it was splashed all over the newspapers.

Finally a bit of an update, as we are talking about books and reading in this post.  I have started reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and have to say I am struggling with it.  Probably less than a third of a way through it.  It's the language in it, and the way she writes.  I am having to reread things to make sure I have understood what she is saying.  Did anyone else have to same issues when reading her work?  The rate I am going It's going to take me better part of February to read the one book!

28 Things in 28 Days Part 1

 So I said I would check in with you every 7 days to see how you are doing with collecting things to donate, and I would show you what I had collected.

I am donating three books.  Two I have read and one I picked up "The Joke" while on vacation, in the lobby (as someone else had left it and it was the only English book there), as I ran out of books to read and thought if I were desperate enough I could read this one.  I was never desperate enough......LOL

We cleaned out our sock and underwear drawers before we went on vacation and hubby had enough socks to last him a life time, so we decided to donate these brand new pairs that he wasn't keen on.

I cleaned out the toy box of all the baby toys, and decided to include this one toy that I got for free using points back in the day.  It's a great little toy and the kids all loved playing with it.

So those are my things for this week.  I will donate everything at the beginning of March.

How did you get on?

HIS & HERS | Official Trailer | Netflix

We watched this series the other week and I must say the ending wasn't what I was expecting!!!  Well worth watching........

Also binge watched the first four episodes of series 4 of Bridgerton:

Enjoyed it, but very predictable.......no real surprises........

Nana Power

 

That is the "key" to the room I am wearing on my wrist.  We all got one when checking in, and if we lost it, we had to pay for another one!!  You just held it up to a spot on your door and it opened it.  It was cut off when we left the resort, though the guy let the kids keep theirs.

The kids got a red one and I saw a green/blue one on older kids.  If you didn't have one, you couldn't get served, as it showed you were a guest of the resort.

Now youngest grandson (age 4) decided his bracelet had special powers, so of course I decided mine had special Nana powers as well!!  We would touch ours together and say Nana power, just like the Power Rangers!!!!

We had great fun using those powers.  I must admit I did like this bracelet idea, as they were waterproof and you didn't have to worry about losing your room key.

The gift that keeps on giving..........

 {{{SIGH}}}

As I mentioned before our 7 year old got food poisoning in the Dominican, which resulted in a trip to the doctors and meds prescribed.

Hubby got on the plane and his tummy started rumbling..........fast forward until we got home (thank goodness) and he started with the diarrhea, which lasted a few days.

Next younger grandson started vomiting and had diarrhea.  He wasn't well but made a nearly full recovery.......get back to him later......

Then son came down with it, just diarrhea, but bad enough that he had to go to hospital.  Got the results back and he has salmonella (food poisoning)  The doctor prescribed antibiotics, as in adults, they don't bounce back as fast.

Younger grandson is still vomiting once on a night (??) otherwise he is full of beans and bouncing.  Doctor told son to just let it run it's course, as other than the vomiting he's fine.

As I mentioned earlier this is the third time son and family have been to the Dominican, and twice son has had food poisoning.

Neither myself or daughter-in-law fell ill.  We only drank bottled water.  With oldest grandson we blamed all the burgers he ate.  With the rest of them, no idea.

According to the hospital and other people we have talked too, the Dominican is renowned for stomach bugs.........which is a shame as we had a super time while we were there.

Punta Cana Airport.........

I have never been as overwhelmed in all my life as I was when we went through Punta Cana airport to leave the Dominican last week.  I was so upset tears were just rolling down my cheeks, it was crazy.

We got to the airport just over 3 hours ahead of our departure.  The first line up was at the Westjet counters, where there had to be a few hundred people lining up, as there were multiple planes leaving within a short time of one another........I know poor planning on someone's part.

We then went through security, where there was barely a line up.  We then went into another area where the s*it hit the fan as they say.  We had to go through these kiosks/counters, to have our passports stamped and photos taken????  The place was packed, the lines were huge and half the kiosks not manned.

For some unbeknown reason we got stuck in amongst a huge group of people who we later learned were going back to Columbia.  They were in a panic as the line up was going so slow that they thought they were going to miss their flight.  They kept whistling to one another and they doing these group whistles and shouting which was deafening.  There was mass surges to try and get to the front and pushing and shoving, it was awful.

Meanwhile as I said we were stuck in amongst this with the kids.  The line up where the parents with younger kids was as slow.  Poor women were breastfeeding standing up in line.  Other toddlers were crying.  Our 4 year old went from being rambunctious and not listening to crying and whining, as we were in this line up for probably 90 minutes or more.  Then to add to it all, our 7 year old came down with food poisoning on the Monday night and was doped up with meds (this was Wednesday) and was not well at all, and kept sitting down on the ground as he was so tired.  The adults were all loaded up with bags.

The add me into the mix.  I had been on my feet for a couple of hours at this point.  Hadn't eaten in hours, and had nothing to drink.  I am feeling very lightheaded.  I was terrified the kids were going to get trampled on.  We finally got a few feet from the kiosk and the worst was over with, and that's when the tears started falling.  The kids saw me and then they started crying, so I am telling them to stop crying as Nana is fine, she's just tired...LOL 

What a flipping fiasco.  We got through the kiosk and we were all desperate for a pee.  Luckily the plane wasn't boarding, so we got a pee and the hydro went out while I was peeing.  I could have cried at that point, but was pleased to say it came back on right away.  By the time we all peed, the gate sign was flashing to board.

I quickly grabbed a bottle of water and a package of Pringles ($13 USD 😕 for both)  Son was able to grab a pizza for each of them and off we went to get on the bus to take us to the airplane.  We were all shocked that we were able to take off only 30 minutes late.

Everybody on the plane was saying the same thing; what a horrible experience it was going through the airport.  We also discovered later that it was a software issue that had caused the problem.  However it was just absolute chaos and the security could do nothing about the crowd of people surging towards these kiosks.

Now this is the third time Son and family have been to the Dominican and it has never been as bad as this.  Daughter and family have been a couple of times with no issue.  

Regardless I hope I never have to go through something like that again, it was just awful.

Going through Toronto airport was a breeze, after all that drama.

Christmas Cross stitch.........

 I finally got it back from Michael's just before we left for vacation.

I went for a plain frame as the cross stitch itself is so busy.  It cost just under $145 to have it framed and that was with a 60% discount!  However it does look good, and they did "stitch it" at the back so it came out all even.  I am very pleased with it.  It's just a shame it will be hidden away until next November, but I am not a fan of having Christmas things up year round.