This is AFTER the trip to Santa Lucia.
AS FOR THE FLIGHT (to and from Cuba): My dad didn't like it since it was a 737-800 model. He felt cramped like? a sardine. I, on the other hand, didn't mind it one bit.
AS FOR THE FOOD (Rating): 80% on the Italian, Seafood, and Cuban restaurants. 60% on Tuabaquey because they didn't have any real choice in foods for the whole entire week we were here.
AS FOR THE SERVICE: IMPECABLE!!! Great service, so 100%
AS FOR THE POWER GRID: Nothing that can be done on the abrupt power outages that we had, it was out of our control. I will still be tough and give it a 70%.
AS FOR THE TEMPERATURE: Simply perfect! 90% since there were some cloudy periods for like 25 to 30%.
FM and AM stations were 98% Spanish. 1030 WBZ from Boston and 1540 AM from The Bahamas came in. As you read further, I do say something about 1020 KDKA.
Welcome, everyone, to my VACATION edition of The Positive Hedgehog - It will be a nice long one for you guys to enjoy, so sit back and get excited because who knows what the future holds for all of you... maybe you will get to experience paradise, just believe in yourself and if you can make it happen, well then I hope you enjoy the time you have on your vacation wherever you guys wanna go - be it the Caribbean, or maybe Brazil - you know, somewhere nice and warm all year round. Or maybe you are saving up for a cruise on a big ocean liner. Whatever your vacation consists of, just enjoy yourselves.
Starting on the 22nd on the airplane
On the airplane now, and it's been a while now... it's 7pm right now, and my dad hates the 737-800 series of airplane. He feels cramped, and yes it IS cramped, but I am managing well, but my father is a different story. As well, there are no touch screens whatsoever, and only shared monitors. I'm okay, though, because there are music channels that I can plug myself in. There are 2 channels that are used for movie audio, Channel 1 for English and Channel 2 for French. I heard "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift like 3 times already, not a real good choice in the music department, but it's cool... I'll survive. Now on the bus, at 10:06pm we went on our way. There is a clock that is with a big speedometer to the side of the clock, a digital speedometer of course. We landed at Camaguey airport at 8:40, and that was half an hour earlier. The bus is rolling on some rough terrain right now, so I better blog some later at the hotel, Brisas Santa Lucia. We came to the hotel at around 11:30 at night, got ourselves registered and ate a little something at the buffet named Tuabaquey.
Friday, February 23rd - DAY 1
Something tells me I will frequent that restaurant often. I adore this hotel so far! I am sure I will have an amazing week over here. When I told my dad that we'll be going on another 737 at the end of our vacation, he told me not to remind him, lol. Some more later on when I wake up from my sleep. I got my 18-inch Sonic down here, no one damaged him or anything, thankfully. My dad woke me up at 8:15 and I did my stuff like do my necessities and also getting dressed. We then went to go to Tuabaquey for a little breakfast buffet (will be the same every single morning since the other restaurants don't offer breakfast service. We had to hurry because there was a little welcome meeting that was starting at 9:30. I understood it well even though it was in french. Now I dunno what I will do, lol. Go out and explore in a little bit. My laptop's still in airplane mode right now and that is because I can't have WiFi even if I wanted WiFi. There's only certain areas of the resort that I could pick it up, but like I said before I came down here, I was disconnecting from the world and that is what I am doing. No CNN, no news, NOTHING! Only channels over here on the TV are channels in Spanish, and the reception is not the greatest. More later. This afternoon I had a nice walk around, and then came back around 5:30 and at 6, there was a movie on Showtime (Channel 35) and it was The Mist, the 2006 original. Don't know if the original movie was from 2006, maybe before or after 2006. Just waiting for 8:15 to go to an Italian restaurant over here. Lemme tell you folks, there's a heck more AM than FM on the radio down here. After supper, I had to wash my feet, full of sand, in the bidet that is provided for us in the room. While having supper, by the way, my dad hated the food while I absolutely loved it! Eh, my dad is getting to be an old grump. Time for me to wind down for the evening. Day 1 without the Internet has been a success for me. 6 more days still. I want to see on how I will manage myself.
Saturday, February 24th
Day 2 is here and I woke up at like 4:55 in the morning since I went to bed rather early on Day 1. I went back to sleep until 10:30 and we had a mini power outage at 11:15. I skipped the breakfast buffet on purpose because I wanted to have lunch at the buffet. Either that or go at the snack bar for lunch, but it's my choice. At around 12:10, we had a mini rain storm. I'll see what I do later on. I would like Boomer to know that we only have ONE FM station down here, 99.5 FM and that's a repeater from the town of Nuevitas, which uses 103.5 FM, so I didn't touch the buttons to change frequency on my FM frequency. I still have it on 95.5 FM, but the slogan has changed down here from "Sonic 95.5 FM" to "El Sonico, Nueve Cinco Punto Cinco FM". I can't really leave my station on over night because there are mini power outages at any given time. My father just came back from somewhere and he said that he was having trouble seeing where he was going since there was a power outage in the area where he was walking at the time. Over here, I didn't experience any outage, so I guess it's just in certain areas of the resort, and it is a big resort indeed since I walked to the Jazz Cafe/Disco and that was near the road where we turned into the resort. I am slowly winding down for the night. It's almost 9pm right now. For a 2nd day in a row without the Internet, I think I am fairing quite well.
Sunday, February 25th
Day 3 started when I woke up at 3:05 in the morning. I went to bed even earlier on Day 2. I am going to go back to bed after I get some water inside me. I can't drink their local water here, but I did ask them to refill my water bottle, that they provided us, with filtered water. During the day, though, I wasn't feeling too hot until 12:45pm. At lunch, around 1, I wanted to try one of their hot dogs, but they are so famous over here that they were gone. 2nd time in a row that I asked and there weren't any. My dad said that their grilled ham and cheese sandwich was awesome as well. I had that with french fries, and their fries are very good at Brisas. I took a nice siesta in the afternoon - I deserved that after having an upset stomach. Woke back up around 5:15 and then waited to go at a seafood restaurant. DELICIOUS!!! After the seafood restaurant, we both went to the front desk to get some shampoo since they didn't have any in the room. My dad and I then went to the lobby bar and had a Spanish coffee each. We then went back to our room and watched a movie until 10. I had my shower at like 10:15 and now I just winding down for the night, and this time I am going to bed past midnight. More in the morning.
Monday, February 26th
Day 4, 8:03am - Woke up, but went back to sleep until 8:45 when we both went to the buffet for breakfast. After breakfast, we both went to the lobby bar to fill our bottles up with water. Also got some soda water and I got an ice cream cone. Now to enjoy the rest of my day. I didn't type anymore things because I was having too much fun. Well, what I basically did was I went for a hot dog for lunch at the snack bar just a hop, skip, and a jump from here. The snack bar turns into the seafood restaurant in the evening. I didn't have a siesta in the afternoon, but my dad didn't wanna go to the Cuban restaurant, so I went on my own while my dad went to the buffet. I am glad that I went to the Cuban restaurant to taste a bit of Cuban culture. At 6:30, though, before my dad went to the buffet, we had a power outage, and this one was a bit more lengthy. I am turning in for the evening, watching some movies. Before I close this day's blog, I will tell you all something. Channels 3 to 24 are all Spanish channels and Channels 25 to 35 are English channels. Channels 25, 33, and 35 are all movie channels. The English channels don't always work since the are having problems with those channels. Funny enough. though, the Spanish channels don't go off the air when the English channels are off the air. Another thing is I can receive 1030 WBZ Boston during the night over here. I checked for KDKA 1020 AM and nope, I couldn't receive it. I even tried CJAD 800 AM and all I got was a distant Spanish station since Santa Lucia is on the north shore. On to Day 5.
Tuesday, February 27th
Woke up at 9am and went for a light breakfast buffet. After that, we went to the lobby bar for Spanish coffee. I then decided to go back to the room until at least 1pm or so and this is when I thought to take my laptop and take a northern direction video, and then 2 pictures, and then another video. I find myself back in my room now just waiting for supper. I don't really know if I will have supper. I'll see if I feel up to it. Well I did go to the buffet, but I didn't eat too much. The climate here won't let me eat as I would back in Montreal. After the buffet, we went to the lobby bar for a little Irish coffee. Right now (around 8pm) I am DJing for myself in bed since the TV signal is really shitty, even the Spanish channels, tonight. Speaking of DJing, I put on nueve cinco punto cinco (95.5) and loaded a very heavy EDM playlist on WinAmp and just enjoyed the music running on auto DJ, in the bathroom and on the patio that is provided to us while we're here. The auto DJ was with some dead air in between songs. The Spanish stations are fairing a bit better than the English stations. My dad is now just listening to music using his USB key that he plugged into the TV. I am just really happy about DJing for myself at this time and not having to be stuck on that 1 FM station (99.5 FM) and the many AM radio stations, lots of Spanish and one station from The Bahamas (1540 AM). Not a lot of music on 1540, but it's okay. Maybe I will watch some movies on here later on or play some games later on. I will write more later maybe. At 9:05, I started watching a movie, but at 10pm, I turned my laptop off because I didn't want go back home with a lazy battery. Why I am saying this is because I filled my water bottle up yet again, and now I am coming back to watch my movie again, and the movie I am watching is Sesame Street's 1985 "Follow That Bird" movie, and I will tell you whereabouts in the movie I stopped at. There's an overhead sign that reads "Sleaze Brothers Funfair" and that's all you have to know. Yeah, there's some pretty vicious guys that are trying to catch Big Bird that is running away from a "bird family". Now, when the movie will be finished, I will be watching the original "The Poseidon Adventure" movie.
Wednesday, February 28th - THE LAST DAY!
I am going to make this day count even if I have to kick my own ass, and I will have pit stops at the lobby bar every now and then to try out the other drinks that they have. Anyway, The Poseidon Adventure finished at 1:32am and I am going to be going to bed around 2. I am going to be watching some TV right now, that is if the cable has now stablized itself. Along with the power outages, it's not really that much of a luxury to stay here, lol. Tried to fall asleep right after the movie, but there was a mosquito after me, flying in my ear, making this annoying flying sound, felt like I was back at camp in my teenage years, but I hate that sound very much. After a while, I finally killed it, but now there was a second mosquito, but I didn't kill that one. All I wanted is to fall asleep, and despite that annoying flying sound in the ear, I did manage to fall asleep. I woke up at 9:45 this morning and headed straight to the bathroom. Indeed, the bathroom was my friend for the whole week long. After I came back from the bathroom, I masturbated just to see if I still get an erection after all those mosquito and sandmite bites that I have received, and I did this just to make sure I could still have fun with my special Sonic back at home. When I checked the TV this morning, the cable is still messed up, both English and Spanish channels. I went to the pool, and this time I did go in fully. I wanted to avoid the pool the whole week because someone had an 'accident' in the pool mid-week, and I just couldn't go back home without me going in the pool just one time, so I went. I went to the swim-up bar and asked for a Piña Colada. After that, I dried myself the best I could and brought the towel back to my bedroom. Went to the buffet and ate more food than I did for the past week, lol. I found out that they have more choice in desserts than in main dishes, but that's okay. More later. We have an upcoming BBQ that my dad reserved when we first got here on Day 1 after that welcome meeting. I hope it's good. I will come back with a report on the BBQ later on. It was a BBQ plus a small buffet. We ate very light because Transat, the people who organized the event, gave everyone very little time to go back for seconds or thirds. It's fine. I got dressed for the occasion. After the BBQ, my dad wanted to watch a movie, but it was too dark on my screen. The movie was too low in audio using my laptop speakers, so El Sonico was transformed into a station for movie audio. We both watched 7 episodes of Perfect Strangers (sitcom from the 80s).
Thursday, March 1st - The day we go to the airport to go back home
I watched The Terminal with Tom Hanks since I am going to the airport this afternoon. Went to bed around 2am and woke up at 7:10. I need to shave, get dressed and packed up right now. A very funny and stupid thing happened at around 9. As I wanted to take a 2 pills for an upset stomach, if I ever had one this morning, I drank some of my water from the water bottle, and then my tongue flinged them back into the bottle. I wanted to get those pills out of the bottle, but nope they were both down at the bottom of the bottle, so I tapped the bottle to see if that would work... nope. All it did was launch some water on the floor, on my laptop lid, and headphones. I wiped the mess up right away. The pills dissolved inside the water, so I drank all the water. I had too many, but too many is better than not enough - hey, at least it's not hard liquor. I tried 2 more with another juice box that I had in the fridge, but that was frozen solid. I wanted to water it down with some hot water, but that didn't work, so I had to swallow them manually without any liquid, but that wasn't sitting well, so I plopped another 2 more in my mouth, got some of my dad's water, poured it in a glass, and then I drank it and the pills finally went down. WHAT AN ORDEAL!!! Gee whiz. I have to leave my laptop fully charged right now, so I won't be using my laptop on the bus to the airport, and maybe I'll be able to use my laptop after my dad and I get through customs and security. Nope, that's a lie. After we dropped the luggage at the front desk waiting for the bus at 5pm, we both went to the snack bar. I plugged my laptop in... 220 volts, but my laptop's AC adapter can handle the current. Lunch was had so we both would be happy with food in our stomach for the rest of the afternoon. I am just sitting here having a grilled cheese sandwich and a hot dog, both with french fries. Around 3pm, we both will head back to the front desk so that we don't miss our bus if the bus arrives a little before 5, or maybe even 4. On Day 6, Wednesday, I got myself ready for when I am back to my special Sonic plush toy, and this was before we went to the BBQ. I will be packing up my laptop in like an hour or so, so I will be playing some games and leaving this laptop until after passing through airport security. Am DJing a bit right now for the heck of it. I am DJing for a gang on four 2 tables down. I packed up after "Despacito". Arrived at the airport at 6:50pm and I hear that they are playing Despacito yet again. Wow, seems that song is very popular down here in Cuba which is why I am happy that DJ Sonic has the song on this laptop. And yes, my laptop went through security just beautifully went we left Montreal and then when we got past through the security in Cuba. My dad bought a big bottle of booze at the resort, but something happened at security here in Cuba and it was trashed. He forgot to check the detailed info on the website before we headed to Cuba. Now, I am really happy to be flying back home.
This concludes my vacation blogging on The Positive Hedgehog. I hope you all had a very nice week while I was away - even Romeo since I was closer to his place in Daytona Beach in Cuba than when I am in Montreal. Anyway, if Boomer wants to read on, that's totally on him, but I wrote to him and gave a 45-minute time limit for reading my whole vacation blogging and if you guys, the audience... yes I am talking to all of you lovely people... if you want to read all about my Nuit Blanche adventure (either alone this time or with Michael since we both did have that small argument), I invite you all to read on. Montreal, HERE I COME!!! I can't wait to lay my hands on my special Sonic again. We landed back in Montreal by 2am on Friday and got home at 3:20. I was in EXCRUCIATING pain with my ears with the landing process! I guess Canada's air pressure is not at all the same as the tropics' air pressure. Boy, am I tired right now! Night.
Skipping over Friday because nothing really interesting will happen. Just one teenie weenie thing that I need to say on Friday. My ears were still not fully back to normal yet when I woke up.
The rest of the blog will be about the Nuit Blanche on Saturday night heading into Sunday, so Boomer, if you don't want to read it on Doggy Radio since I am only giving you a 45-minute time limit to read my vacation blog, the audience will have to read this section of the blog... but it's all up to both Boomer and Ricochet if they want to cut this and go to the Ricochet Updates. Yeah, I did give Boomer a 45-minute time limit, but still I will let him read my Nuit Blanche story if he really wants to. I mean it is an exciting moment in this hedgehog's life.
My Nuit Blanche story for 2018!
Saturday at 2:05pm - Wow, am I getting so excited right now! I know it will go by in a flash, and I hate that aspect of it, but eh it's out of my control. Going to start off the night with some yummy Taco Bell. McDonald's just lost a customer, and I will tell you all why when I get to the that part (closing off Nuit Blanche 2018). First of all, nothing really amazing happened. I asked Michael if he wanted to join me this Nuit Blanche, but he was no where to be found. I didn't even bump into him while I was out and about. I did a little something different this year - half evening and night under and above ground. Yeah, it was fun while it lasted, but I think I wil go have my own fun in future Nuit Blanches (if the weather co-operates like it did for Nuit Blanche 2018). I even took a night -time bus (350), but going the wrong direction, lol. It's okay, though, because I fixed it by walking to another bus stop nearby and waiting for that bus to start its day. Now for the McDonald's part and the closing off of Nuit Blanche 2018... so I arrived there, I pay for my breakfast meal, I go to sit down and started to fill up my 2 empty bottles with soda water. The machines got turned off. 3 things happened. First, I told the girl that it was only soda water that I was filling up with, and she gave me 3 excuses...
1 - "This is not a free-for all"
2 - "It's not hygenic" (But I didn't even take the bottle directly under the nozzle though)
3 - "It's not a McDonald's product"
HUH! See if I ever come back there again! Like I said, they just lost a valued customer.
Oh! One last thing before I close up my blog for this week... The girl had the nerve of saying "It's your lucky day" when I wanted to pay for that soda water. She gave it to me for free.
The Positive Hedgehog / Sonic out
JaSonic
