Bernina’s Eventful Adventures

Bernina and I are good friends

I met this grand old lady when I was 18, and she has been my friend for 55 years. She’s tired and is scheduled for a checkup next week, to see if we can revive her. She is a model 730 Record, Bernina sewing machine. We have been through a lot together.

Like many females of my era, I learned to sew in Home Economics class in Grade 8, making the obligatory multi-pocket apron. As I advanced through high school my sewing projects included several dresses, then in Grade 12 a tailored plaid wool skirt and matching plaid wool jacket.

Wacky grad dress!

Using my mom’s old pedal Singer Sewing machine that lived in the basement of our home, I created my high school graduation dress. The tunic design and the multi-colored fabric might not have been my best choice, but when the artsy owner of the fabric store and my creative mother ganged up on me, I acquiesced to their suggestions; their very persuasive suggestions.

The summer that I graduated, I was chosen as Miss Merritt, to be an ambassador for the town of Merritt at various British Columbia festivals and events. I designed and sewed the costumes for myself and the three young women, referred to as princesses, who shared the responsibility of being ambassadors.

Many events required a long formal dress. I didn’t have a lot of money, so I made whatever I needed. Some of the dresses were cute and some were oddly formal and too mature for an 18-year-old, but again, my creative mother and the artsy fabric store owner thought I looked divine.

A formal dress

That same year, I moved to Penticton, living with a family that was based in Penticton, but scattered. The husband worked as a cook in the camps up north. The daughter was married and living in Michigan. The oldest son was at university in Vancouver. And, the wife and younger son lived in the family home. They had extra bedrooms, and rented one to me for a low monthly rate, in exchange for minding their youngest son while his mom played bridge a few nights a week. The mother let me use her sewing machine to create the formal dresses that I needed.

One year later, Mom decided to buy me a sewing machine. I planned to move to Vancouver with another Penticton girl and share an apartment. Mom went into the Bernina sewing machine dealership at 418 Main Street in Penticton and purchased two 730 Record machines; one for my sister Judith in Vancouver, and a portable version of the same machine for me.

In those days the machines, without the cabinets to house them, were around three hundred, or more, dollars. It was a lot of money for a recently widowed woman to be spending, but she insisted that we needed sewing machines. Judith’s was in a cabinet. Mine was a portable. I was single and moving frequently and I didn’t want to deal with a bulky piece of furniture.

Ladies and me in costumes that I made

My next project was curtains for the Vancouver basement suite that my Penticton friend and I shared for six months.

Then friends asked me to make bridesmaid dresses for them. A year later I made a wedding dress for me, and my first husband, Sandy, requested that I make him several cozy wool shirts.

My portable Bernina sewing machine moved from Penticton to Vancouver, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Bowen Island, back to Vancouver, then strangely enough back to Penticton in 1992, when Lawrie and I bought a home and acreage here.

Lawrie, sofa that I recovered

All along I sewed. Clothes. Reupholstered sofas. Slipcovered chairs. Upholstery for cars that Lawrie restored. Duvets. Curtains. Drapes. Tablecloths and napkins. And repairs of course.

Then when Lawrie and I moved to Mexico, in 2007, I left my Bernina with my oldest sister, Val in Gibsons. I didn’t want to subject the machine’s delicate electronics to the high humidity and salt at our oceanfront home. Val is a fabulous seamstress, and she had several specialty machines and didn’t need mine, so it languished in her basement for twelve years.

When I returned to Canada, in 2020, my sister reminded me that she still had the Bernina but she wasn’t using it. I retrieved it from her home, all thirty-five pounds of it, and brought it back to its origins in Penticton. It seems that both the Bernina and I are destined to live in this city.

The old girl doesn’t respond when I plug her in, and I have an appointment at the same Bernina dealership at 418 Main Street to see if the current owner, Wes, can repair her. Let’s hope she’s up for more adventures.

Cheers Lynda

Sparky sends his woofs!

Topes – the speed bumps of life in paradise

Traffic police and raised tope on Rueda Medina in centro

Topes, the ever-present driving hazards in Mexico, are actually speedbumps designed to modify the Formula-1 habits of local drivers.  Topes come in many shapes and sizes, and in our opinion they are all annoying.  Necessary but annoying.

There are the raised yellow-and-white striped crosswalks, one of the few places in Mexico where the pedestrians have the right-of-way.  These are usually near schools, or busy areas such as the original exit from the passenger ferry terminal on Isla Mujeres.  Usually these topes are controlled by traffic police using hand gestures and several sharp notes of a whistle to snag the attention of drivers distracted by Smartphones, selfie-sticks, or bikini-clad tourists.  Afternoons on Rueda Medina can be bedlam with visitors disgorging from tour boats and passenger ferries.  The combination of well-marked crosswalks and traffic police reduce the number of close encounters of the painful kind, between people and vehicles.

Topes slow down the speeders - a little

Then there are the normal topes, the narrow, recycled-rubber contraptions that are bolted to the pavement.  These hard bits of latex can give drivers a nice back-shaking jolt when crossing.  The good thing about this style of tope is they are visible even on rainy nights as their distinctive yellow and black stripes are part of the rubber compound, not just painted on the surface. 

Hand-made tope sign on right

A nasty unpainted bump is located on the south-western side of the island, near the horse coral, and across the street from the construction site for a new house.  Rubber-necking the progress of the new-build is guaranteed to give you a sharp thump of surprise when driving on this stretch of road.  I’ve done it so many times the construction crew cheers when I actually remember to slow down and traverse the tope at a crawl.  Driving past the crew this morning they pointed at a recently installed hand-made tope warning sign.  That was good for a chuckle, and a photo.

Moto pathway through tope

In that same stretch of road near the never-completed Unik Hotel (Unique) is a series of half-sphere metal bumps.  There is no easy way to cross these teeth-rattling orbs, unless you happen to be riding a moto.  Someone has thoughtfully removed a bump, one each side of the road, creating a pathway for a narrow wheel.  Experienced moto-drivers give a little hip waggle, dodging to the right and then left, whizzing away.

Doesn't look that bad - but our Mini scrapes on this one

There are two extra high topes on the island that cause our low-slung Mini Cooper a bit of navigational difficulty.  One is the muffler-scraping lump in centro on Matamores just west of Olivia’s Restaurante.  With two people and one small dog in the car it’s a slow crawl for us, taken at a forty-five degree angle to get over the steep-sided speedbump.  When we have friends with us in the car we don’t drive on that block of Matamores.   The other problem tope for our car is near the bakery in the Salinas Grande neighbourhood.  It’s a slow, and noisy scrap over that one as well.

Moto slowing for unmarked and unpainted tope

But our absolute least favourite type of tope is the raised bump in the pavement: black and invisible.  The sharp bump will rattle your back teeth if you don’t have all the topes mapped out in your head.  These are the sneaky gotchas, where the original yellow cautionary paint has been worn away by vehicle tires and rainstorms.  The once visible metal warning signs are typically a victim of rust and corrosion, either laying on the ground or missing entirely.  The southbound lane of the double-wide Passeo de Aves, near the YZA Farmica has one of these invisible lumps.  No sign.  No paint.  You have to rely on your memory: or not!

Snoozing in paradise

And finally, there are the warm and fuzzy topes: sleeping dogs.  Snoozing on a warm street is a favourite pastime for local pooches.  

Keep your eyes peeled for these guys.  They are just enjoying a nap on their little piece of island paradise. 

Hasta Luego

Lynda & Lawrie

A wacky week of fun – something for everyone

Just hanging out with family and friends

It’s February in paradise, the high season for tourism, and there is fun for everyone.  

You can buy beautiful crafts, listen to Nashville performers, go deep sea fishing, hang out with friends, or have a visit with a free-roaming crocodile. 

On Monday night the Mexican Artesian Pavilion was officially opened by local dignitaries.  This national exhibition is here on Isla until February 21^st.  

Beautiful crafts from all of Mexico - City FB page photo

The big white tent in centro houses an assortment of beautifully handmade items from several different Mexican states, featuring a tasteful assortment pottery, hats, jewelry and clothing.  

It’s a fun place to do a little shopping in the afternoon, especially earlier in the week when unexpected downpour put a one hour hold on many of the other activities, such as the Island Time Music Fest.

Hidalgo Avenue - after 20 minute down-pour

Now in their 7^th year the Island Time Music Fest – and Island Time Fishing Tournament started rocking the island with music and Nashville singers on Monday February 15^th.  

Originally a smaller, two-venue event it has grown to include a variety of restaurants and bars scattered around the island.  And for the diehards, there is still the exciting fishing component of the event – sailfish, marlin, wahoo, Dorado, and yummy tuna.  

All proceeds from the week-long extravaganza go to funding the Little Yellow School House on Isla Mujeres.

Island Time Music Fest - FB page photo

For us we have had a more personal, but very fun time with family members, first-time-to-Mexico cousins, and an assortment of Canadian friends.  

We ate, drank, napped, ate, drank and napped our way through two laughter-filled weeks.  

If the fun doesn’t end soon, we will have to buy our clothes at Jones Tents & Awnings. 

Richard, Scott & Judy (cousins) Lynda, Linda, Lawrie

The margaritas at the Soggy Peso are now on the “that’s-never-gonna-cross-my-lips-again” list for a number of our friends.  Something to do with memory loss, I think.

As for the visit with the free-roaming crocodile, Lawrie’s cousin Scott and I were driving back from taking the two pooches out for their morning swim, and I spotted a local woman standing beside the pond near the new hospital.  

“Ah ha, I bet she is taking a picture of the croc.”  

Smile - say Tequila!

I did a u-turn and we parked alongside the pond.  Yep!  There was the crocodile stretched out and sunning on a mat of vegetation.  

The crocodile didn’t seem at all concerned at the attention, just continued to sun itself, although I think it was keeping a hopeful eye on the two dogs.  Perhaps it was hoping a little morning snack would just happen to come its way.

Just another fun week in paradise!

Hasta Luego

Lawrie & Lynda

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Tangled - the parade that never was

Pretty Carnaval dancer

A hot salsa beat pounds out of enormous speakers, as a truck and trailer filled to overflowing with Carnaval dancers heads for the parade assembly area.  

The street is stuffed with happy spectators.  The street-side restaurants are overflowing with celebrants waiting for the start of the Carnaval parade.  It’s all part of the fun, knowing that the parade never, ever starts on time.  

And knowing the wait will be worth it when the dancers finally arrive.

Group arriving at the north end near Jax Bar & Grill

Truckloads of costumed dancers drive past our chosen viewing outpost on Rueda Medina.  

The groups lurch forward, then stop as the troupe manager decides they should do an impromptu performance – hoping to make a little more money from the crowd to help pay for their expensive costumes.  

The street is a whirl of pink and purple and green and orange.  

Great-grandmothers and Grandmothers

Great-grandmothers and grandmothers strut and twirl.  Their daughters, granddaughters and grandsons follow with more energetic routines. 

The traffic stutter-steps along the proposed route, inching along in the wrong direction.  Other groups have assembled near the Navy base for the three o’clock start time, while the renegade groups buck the system and party on.  

High flying dancer

By four o’clock we decide to walk south along Rueda Medina, towards the beginning of the parade, looking for more dancers.  

Many groups are still performing in the street, nowhere near the assembly point.  The crowd doesn’t care.  Everyone is having a great time. 

A little further south, directly in front of the UltraMar passenger ferry terminal we finally find a dance troupe that is headed in the correct direction.  This group is also dancing enthusiastically and their forward progress is slow, very slow.  

Energetic dancers outside UltraMar terminal

The street is noisy and awash in bright colours as costumed performers strut, twirl, leap and spin.  

Arriving ferry passengers are caught up in the mad whirl.  

Some are startled by the pandemonium, others instantly meld into the chaos – bouncing to the beat as they weave their way through the crowd, dragging unruly suitcases along bumpy sidewalks.  

For them it’s an unforgettable introduction to Carnaval.

Fun introduction for visitors to Carnaval in Mexico

The south-bound trucks get diverted by the municipal police, the wrong way on a one-way street, to enable the troupes to join the parade line-up.  By six o’clock in the afternoon we have given up on the idea of an actual parade.  

Groups of dancers come and go in front of us.  I snap photo after photo, wondering how soon I will exhaust the camera battery.  The last and the largest group finished their spectacular display in a candy-coloured whirl of pink, orange, blue, green and yellow.  Worn out from all the fun we walk back to where we parked our car. 

Last and largest dance group

The next morning while chatting with friends, we discovered that the parade never did get as far as the corner by Jax Restaurant and Grill - the official end of the route.  

Many groups gave up part way along, too exhausted by their three full days of energetic dancing, and then the energy-sapping long delays during parade. 

Ah well, there is always next year!

It’s Carnaval.  It’s Mexico!  Nothing ever goes as planned.

Hasta Luego

Lawrie & Lynda

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Several of our friends dancing in this group

Something’s fishy on Isla

Beach near Velasquez Restaurante

Isla Mujeres, the Island of Women surrounded by water and fish, lobsters and conch. Until tourism started to boom in the 1980’s the traditional way of making a living for islanders was fishing.  

Even now around dawn the open deck panga-style fishing boats and crews head out to pull in the hopefully-heavy nets.  

If they are lucky, four or five fishermen per boat will be needed to haul the nets into the boat.  

In the evening the reverse happens, the fishing crews return to their favourite locations and reset the nets for the night hoping for a successful catch.

Heading out - watching for the Lady Fish run

When the weather turns grumpy the Port Captain closes the port, restricting the size of the boat that can leave the harbor until he gives the okay to leave.  

These are the days that most island restaurants will tell you that there is no fish for their menu that day.  

Others might have a supply of frozen fish from previous catches, and still others might substitute with a Vietnamese Basa, a river-caught fish, uniform in shape, and softer in texture.   Basa is not my favourite and I will usually change to something that does not include fish for my menu choice.

Cleaning and repairing nets

The good thing about a port closure - it gives the fishermen time to repair and clean their nets.  Sometimes you will see them on the beach north of Velasquez Restaurante on Rueda Medina. 

They string the nets between palm trees searching for rips, pulling off bits of seaweed that have been snagged in the weave.  

Weaving a new net

On very stormy days the net-mending takes place under covered domes where after school basketball games normally happen.  

Watching the fishermen repair tears in the netting is very reminiscent of the folks who weave hammocks.  

Holding a wooden bobbin in one hand and a tough nylon line in the other their hands weave in and out, neatly filling in the torn area.  It’s a beautiful skill.

As you enjoy your freshly caught fish in a local restaurant on Isla Mujeres think about the folks that make that tasty meal possible.  

Cleaning the catch 

Working whenever the weather allows the small open boats to ply the waters, hauling in fish, cleaning the catch at the end of the day and repairing nets on the stormy days in preparation for the next day’s work.  

It’s a physically demanding job, dangerous at times but for those who do the work there is no other job that gives them so much enjoyment.

Cheers from Paradise

Lynda & Lawrie

Crew cleaning up at the end of the day

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When Paradise Gets Wet, Really Wet

A week of grumpy weather

We fooled around with various ideas for a title for this week’s blog.  

Titles like – some days you should just stay in bed, or a little adversity can pull a community together, or when it rains it pours!  

You get the idea.  It’s been a grumpy wet week that has created a few problems for the island community.

 Collapsed wall - TV Isla Mujeres photo

The first problem was an eight-foot tall retaining wall that collapsed from the weight of water in the soil.  Twelve inches of rain in twenty-four hours.  It seems like we are back on the Wet Coast of BC – living in Vancouver, or the American equivalent of Seattle Washington.  

Murals painted in April 2015 - L Lock photo

The wall supported the popular volleyball and exercise area for seniors, located along the double road that runs from the east to the west side of the island, past the newer cemetery and the big church.  This spring local artists were invited to decorate the wall with murals of local creatures such as iguanas, hermit crabs, and turtles.  It was one of my favourite murals, not part of last year’s big Panga Seed fourteen murals painted in one month blitz, but still a well-planned and beautifully painted wall. 

Police cleaning up - TV Isla Mujeres photo

Interestingly enough in Mexico the local police are called out to help clean up disasters such as this.  We have also seen the police painting crosswalks and speed bumps with the bright yellow warning colour, and re-installing broken or missing stop or speed limit signs.  In Canada those jobs are handled by the city maintenance workers, or the provincial highway department employees.  Just another small difference we have noticed between the Canadian or American and Mexican cultures. 

Hidalgo Ave under water, Giovanna Flores photo

As the rain continued unabated a notice was posted on various community Facebook pages asking any able-bodied people to help neighbours in areas that are flooding.  Most of Isla Mujeres is barely above sea-level while the southern end is maybe fifty feet above sea-level.  That creates two problems.  One: water runs downhill, adding more depth to the already saturated areas in the lower parts of the island.  And two: the island is a sandbar in the beautiful turquoise Caribbean Sea.  The tides are currently quite high, and the ocean water combined with the excess rain is creating havoc.  The street corner across from Jax Bar & Grill had an accumulation of six inches of water, as did most of Hidalgo Avenue in Centro. We saw the new fire truck and crew busy pumping out the streets, moving the water into the ocean.  The water eventually seeps back into town: pump, dump and repeat.  But hey, it’s warm water, not icy cold snow-melt.

 

Lawrie with the hard working Isla Animals gang

Also posted on Facebook was a plea from Isla Animals looking for temporary foster parents for several of their stray dogs.  The lake at the Hacienda Mundaca Park was overflowing, saturating the area around the Isla Animals Clinic, soaking in through the walls and floors.  The free spay and neuter clinics were cancelled for the next few days until the weather changed.  Eileen and Doug Regn and a crew of helpful volunteers were moping the floors and moving the animal cages around when we popped by a couple of nights ago.  They are such a hard working group of people.  

 

Crocodile prefers pond across from Isla Animals 

The resident crocodile that has been moved by City workers - several times - from the pond across from the Isla Animals Clinic to the lake at Hacienda Mundaca – has returned to the pond, again.  She likes it there!  

One local humorist suggested it was the availability of a better food source that prompts her to make the trek on a regular basis. 

CFE changing weak power pole on our street

Closer to home we have had an interesting week, exacerbated by the rain and higher humidity.  Our third GE Profile side-by-side refrigerator died during the night.  Then our new hot water heater decided to take a day or two off from work, thinking that Lawrie and I would appreciate cooler morning showers.  Our recently purchased 2005 Mini Cooper also wanted a short vacation.  The engine electronics didn’t like the excessive rain.  

Wet Policeman - while CFE changes power pole 

We decided to take the Mini Cooper back to the dealer in Cancun where we purchased the car and get a diagnostic test run.  The weather wasn’t too bad, it looked like things were improving.  Just as the car ferry was docking in Punta Sam a nasty windstorm blew in with pelting rain and high winds, temporarily grounding the boat in the sandy harbour.  As the Captain applied full throttle to free the vessel a freak wind-squall slammed the boat’s bow into the concrete docks.  It was darn exciting for a few minutes with lots of nervous laughter from the on-board truck drivers and ferry crew.  There was some damage to the boat and dock but no injuries that we know of. 

Pepe and guys struggling with fridge

Once off the ferry our drive through Cancun got a bit interesting as the rain continued to pelt down, flooding streets to a depth of a foot or more, making the ever-present potholes impossible to see.  

We decided that since we were already in the city to get the car checked we might as well search for a new refrigerator.  Starting at Telebodega, then Liverpool, Chapur, and Sears we finally settled for a floor model at Costco.  

All the other stores said eight to fourteen days, more or less, before our purchase would arrive from Mexico City. 

Taking the old fridge out past neighbours' house

Islander José (Pepe) Martinez arranged a truck and two strong guys to take our new refrigerator from Costco to our house.  His quote was considerably cheaper than the Cancun-based fletes y mudanzas (cartage companies).  

As the rain continued to pelt down four guys wrestled the thirty-three inch wide beast into our house through an almost-too-narrow front door.  Lawrie had already removed the door and part of the frame but it was still a very tight squeak to get it inside the house.  The non-working appliance, thirty-six inches wide, was man-handled outside, and over a neighbours’ propane tank and onto the street.   Note to new island home owners: check the size of your main entrance before you purchase a large side-by-side refrigerator.  It’s a small but frustrating detail we overlooked eight years ago when we had the house built.

 

The return of sunny weather

As for the weather, eventually this persistent storm got bored with bothering us.  

It slowly dissipated allowing the warm Caribbean sun dry out our soggy little island. 

Warm breezes, sunshine. It's all good.  We live in paradise.

Hasta Luego

Lynda & Lawrie

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