We had heard about The NEST so decided today to try it out for lunch. It’s in Nanaimo on Skinner Street just down the hill from Gina’s Mexican. You know, the purple house on the hill.

Having looked at the website of The NEST we were anxious to actually eat some of their great sounding food. We were not disappointed. My favourite girl ordered the Paprika Prawns which arrived in a delicious creamy sauce. She loved them. It was an appetizer but certainly enough for a light lunch.

I chose the daily special which was a Beef Curry Noodle Bowl and it was both substantial and delicious. In fact it was a bit too much for me for lunch. Of course I was saving space for a slice of their in house made Cheese Cake. It was outstanding and we shared it. The House wine is a nice Italian Pinot Grigio at $7 a glass.

The NEST is quite a cute spot on two levels with a small bar as well. We had a window tableso took advantage of the cold blue sky day. The service was very pleasant and efficient. Added bonus is a view of Lordco Auto Parts.

Check out their website before you go.  It includes a good commentary on the Owners/chefs as well as the menu.  Open for lunch and dinner.

Right beside The NEST is a large free parking lot too. It’s a good spot and we would certainly return.

Just saying…

As this single handed sail boat race continues there has been some high drama in the southern Indian Ocean. The only Japanese skipper, Kojiro SHIRAISHI had retired and is heading for Capetown after breaking his mast. French sailor Kito DE PAVANT hit an unidentified underwater object which destroyed his keel housing.
Since he was now taking on water he was expected to be rescued by the French supply ship Marion Dufresne. De Pavant, 55 years old had battled through more than 48 hours of strong winds and big seas.

Sébastien Josse, who was in third place in the Vendee Globe, has had his toughest night of the solo round the world race so far, after his port foil was damaged yesterday. His boat slammed into the bottom of a 4 metre wave. Since the incident his main concern has been for himself, the boat and the damaged foil, altering his route to avoid the worst weather. He has now retired from the race and is heading to Australia.

New Zealander, Conrad Coleman, had an electrical fire on his boat burning up wires to his auto pilot. He was able to extinguish them and successfully rewire the pilot and continue racing.

That puts Paul Meilhat in third place, but he is 1300 nautical miles behind the number two boat of Alex Thomson. The leader Armel LE CLÉAC’H, is now 132 nm ahead of Thompson.

The race is in its 31st day and the lead boat still has 12,571 miles to go. The leaders are now just south west of Tasmania. Armel LE CLÉAC’H has averaged 18.3 knots in the past 24 hours and covered 441 nautical miles or 817 kilometres. Consider that the large BC Ferries cruise at 18-20 knots. For a sailboat to be capable of that speed continuously for 24 hours with only one man aboard is remarkable.

29 boats started a month ago, 22 are still in it.

Just saying…

If you subscribe to Netflix and if you fancy yourself as a foodie there are a host of interesting shows from which to choose. Some feature restaurants and chefs, others combine food and travel, still others are historic or documentaries.

Also, some feature wine. Today, we are watching ‘A YEAR IN CHAMPAGNE‘, which is a semi documentary in the Champagne region of France. It describes the region, the vinyards, the wine and includes a trip in the cellars. All you wanted to know about champagne and more.

Try the series, THE MIND OF A CHEF. It has 3 seasons to watch for a total of 50 episodes. FOR GRACE chronicles one Chef opening a new restaurant. We recently watched the series  AVEC ERIC, featuring New York Chef Eric Ripert who does the foodie thing in Australia, Korea and Puerto Rico. A Netflix original CHEF’S TABLE is really well done. THREE STARS describes the effort required to earn a Michelin Star.

A COOK ABROAD features 6 chefs visiting various countries. CHEF’S TABLE, FRANCE  is great too.

If you enjoy pubs the feature, THE IRISH PUB is for you. Another documentary is SUSHI,THE GLOBAL CATCH, is  fascinating as it explores the history of Sushi. THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO explores the history of the famous chicken dish. FOODIES is an interesting look at a collection of international food bloggers and is worth a watch. If you are a steak aficionado, try STEAK REVOLUTION.

Good, informative shows that you may enjoy. All on Netflix.

Just Saying…

After 26 days of sailing The 60 foot racing sleds are now in the Southern Ocean between Capetown and Australia. The lead boat once again is Alex Thomson driving the HUGO BOSS.  He is 18 miles ahead of  Armel LE CLÉAC’H on the BANQUE POPULAIRE. The third placed boat is 528 miles behind them. The last boat is 5000 miles behind and has not yet passed the Cape of Good Hope. Here is some amazing footage taken by the FRENCH Navy yesterday. It shows the astonishing and sometimes frightening speed of these boats. Thomson said “sometimes my boat is more like a submarine”.

Thomson has covered almost 10,000 nautical miles with 14,500 miles to go.  But in the treacherous Southern Ocean anything can happen. With at least. Month and a half to go. Stay tuned!

According to McLeans article of November 29, a biologist with the RAINCOAST CONSERVATION SOCIETY, one Misty MacDuffee, the Kinder Morgan Pipeline will result in an increase of ship traffic in Georgia Strait and the additional noise generated from those 300 ships per year will kill the killer whales.  MacDuffee says the noise will make it impossible for the whales to communicate with one another and they won’t be able to hunt down salmon. Really?

Perhaps Ms. MacDuffee is unaware that 3500 ships visit Vancouver each year. That means 7000 trips between Vancouver and the western entrance to Juan de Fuca. Add to that all the trips by BC Ferries. They make 86 trips per day or over 31,000 trips per year! And that is only counting the major routes. Perhaps BC Ferries should cut service to reduce the underwater cacophony.  Ms. MacDuffee lives on Pender Island.  Maybe ferry service could be cut on that route to once a week.

While there certainly is a degree of risk when deep sea ships are involved, the history of deep sea ships in Georgia Strait had been almost accident free. The last significant event occurred in 1974 when a Russian freighter collided with a BC Ferry in Active Pass.  Consider too, that modern ships have very advanced navigation systems that were unavailable just 15 years ago. Radar, AIS, & chart plotters all make shipping safer. Already, Every Tanker entering or departing from Burrard Inlet is accompanied by 3 tugs ensuring the ship’ safe passage.

Consider that every week several very large Tankers transit Juan de Fuca Strait filled with Alaska oil en route to Anacortes and Cherry Point, in Washington State.  They pass within a few miles of Victoria beaches and go through the San Juan Islands.  Could there ever be an accident.  It’s possible, of course.  But it’s possible your plane will crash on the way to Maui, but you still get on it.

Ms. MacDuffee’s theory is the goofiest thing I have heard in a long time.

23 days into this epic single handed round the world sailing race the first two boats are less than 20 miles apart. English skipper Alex Thomson, on HUGO BOSS,  led the race down the Atlantic but Frenchman Armel LeCleach sailing BANC POPULAIRE VIII took the lead as they approached Kerguelen Island in the Southern Ocean.

Currently LeCleach is sailing at 21 knots and has covered over 8000 nautical miles. He has 15, 570 miles to go. The third placed boat is 510 miles behind the leader.  The first six boats are all east of Capetown in the Southern Ocean. The last boat is still off the coast of Brazil 400o miles behind the leader. Three vessels have retired due to damage.

Thomson’s boat hit something at night a week or so ago which caused damage to one of the ‘foils’ on the hull but he has still managed speeds over over 20 knots.

The trek across the Southern Ocean passing south of Australia can be wild and perilous.  Stay tuned.

Following Justin Trudeau’s remarks regarding the death of the Dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro, the pile on began. Someone started a Twitter Site #trudeaueulogies and everyone from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Greg Gutfeld to numerous Canadians jumped in. The tweets were hilarious in their mockery of our lightweight PM. Here are just a few.

#trudeaueulogies “Today we say goodbye to Mr. Mussolini, the former Italian prime minister best known for his competent train-management.”

“Osama Bin Laden was certainly a controversial figure, but his contribution to airport security is unparalleled.” #TrudeauEulogies

#TrudeauEulogies “Pablo Escobar’s legacy of opening up Columbia’s export markets & fighting for prison reform won’t be forgotten”

“Stalin was a remarkable figure and one of the fathers & innovators of the strict form of diet better known as starvation.” #TrudeauEulogies

“While a controversial figure, Robespierre led France w/ a clear vision & firm resolve while others were losing their heads” #trudeaueulogies

“Let us remember Jack the Ripper as a great benefactor who worked tirelessly to get female prostitutes off the streets”. #trudeaueulogies

“Osama bin Laden advanced the world’s understanding of Islam.He also provided a valuable service in improving building codes”.#trudeaueulogies

There were dozens more all mocking Trudeau. What an embarrassment he is to our country. He will have a significant PR problem getting through this.

Well, somebody voted for him. Not me!

Just saying.

Is it possible that our Prime Minister is a total ignoramus? His official statement on the death of Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro was shameful. In part he said:

“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader.”

Could the Princeling be unaware that Castro oppressed the poor people of Cuba? That Castro imprisoned and murdered thousands of his own citizens? That Castro was a Communist and a Dictator!

Would Trudeau say that Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Hirohito were also fine fellows! Today I am embarrassed that we have such a waste of space for our Prime Minister.

Just saying…

Christmas is a favourite time of the year for me. Lots of food, drink, parties, family and out door lights and Christmas trees. I love decorating our home with lights in front and in back too. In our area there are some spectacularly decorated homes so a drive around on a dry dark night is a must. Some communities really go all out. Last night the little town of Ladysmith lit up the Main Street with 175,000 lights. Upwards of 20,000 people were expected to be there to see the switch go on. We’ve seen their lights which are quite spectacular. It’s worth a drive to see them.

I have always loved Christmas trees, even the ones we had as kids that were so sparse we loaded each branch with that silver tinsel to make the tree look fuller. Tree stands used to be terrible and I recall once a guy in our home got so frustrated trying to get the stand working he finally nailed it to the floor right through the carpet.

We have friends who flock their tree every year and they usually celebrate the flocking with a party. He puts the tree on the patio, mixes up the white flocking and sprays it on the tree with a vacuum cleaner. Makes a mess but the tree does look snowy.

Until recently we always had a real tree which we usually purchased from the cubs and scouts. Noble pine is our favourite. One year a little cub would not let us take the tree until he ‘twirled it’ for us so we could see all sides.

Ok, I admit that we have capitulated and now have a fake tree. No. Let’s call it a replica tree. A Martha Stewart no less, with a simple but attractive stand that works. But it looks like a real tree! Not like the ones on display at Canadian Tire today. A pink tree! Powder Blue maybe? Gold? Who would have a tree in their home that looked like these..

Call me old fashioned but a Christmas Tree ( not a Holiday Tree) should look like a tree.

Only 6 more days until our lights go up. Then the place looks festive! ”Tis the Season”.

Just saying.

Wednesday night we were expecting to meet friends, one couple, at SAM’S SUSHI in FRENCH CREEK. Much to our surprise, when we arrived there were 3 couples surprising us to celebrate this old guys birthday. What a delightful surprise!

Sam’s as usual did not disappoint. Keep in mind that we have probably enjoyed Sam’s at least 100 times since moving here over 5 years ago. My favourite girl had her regular, Mixed Tempura (Prawns and Vegetables) which is consistently delicious. I chose Salmon & Tuna Sashimi and a Red Eye Roll which is wonderful and I washed it down with a large Kirin Beer. I ordered a large because it was my birthday.

Our friends ordered a variety of dishes including Gyoza, Scallop Sushi, Osaka Roll, Sashimi & Tempura. The plates were empty when we finished so One might assume it was all delicious.

We have never been disappointed at Sam’s. Whether it’s a simple noodle bowl or an exotic sashimi, it’s all good. The service is really friendly. Servers Chrissy, Chigusa, and Emma are wonderful. They treat us like old friends. Sam, who grew up in Japan and apprenticed there, is always behind the Sushi Bar creating his excellent dishes. He has a great smile, and just beams when he sees customers coming through the front door.

Sam’s is pretty simple. Not fancy. But spotless. With really good food. Sam’s does a big take out business too.

If you have not been to Sam’s Sushi and you like Sushi, you need to go. Our nephew, from Vancouver, hits Sam’s every time he and his gorgeous Japanese wife come to the island. She is from Yokohama and really knows Sushi and she thinks Sam’s is the best.

Sam’s is open for lunch (try a Bento Box) and dinner Monday to Friday. Sam wants to have a life so he closes on weekends. Good decision! Not many restaurant owners do that.

Finally, the one other reason to like Sam’s is that it is only a 900 metre drive from home. I know, we should walk!

Just Saying….