Flashback Friday - The Women's Open Hits Saskatchewan!

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It's Flashback Friday and today we're going to visit the CP Women's Open. The event came to town and we're going to take it in - again! 

It's close to home except there's no getting close at least under your own steam. Spectators can't park at the golf course. Instead there are parking lots set up where you drive to and then hop on a school bus to take you to the rest of the way.

Our Canadian-hope-to-win, Brooke Henderson, was holding one of the leading positions - not first but close enough.  On Friday, it was still early days with two more days left in the tournament. She had some great shots and seemed not to notice the crowd that watch every shot as intently as if it were her last. It's amazing the discipline these golfers have. They're not distracted by the crowd of spectators, nor by the cameraman following them. It's them and that little white ball and nothing else matters. A lesson in discipline, for sure.

Note to writer - keyboard and paper is all that matters. Yet there are no crowds and still I can be so easily distracted. 

Beer samples from a pseudo golf bag out of this redone truck.

So, great day - glad we went.  It was an experience to be on the course, actually touching the rope that kept us off the fairway, being the one doing the clapping instead of some fan on television. My fingers are crossed that Brooke will pull off a win. There's a lot of Canadians cheering her on.

Hours later and we're back on the school bus. This time our volunteer driver is looking not at all like one might expect of a bus driver. She's wearing a cheery sundress, a brilliant smile and a pony tail - and greets us all as we enter the bus that is rocking with music that I'm not unfamiliar with - I've heard it in another era. DH looks at me as the school bus lurches into motion, smiles and says "Rather appropriate. The last time we heard this we were riding one one of these to school."

Past meets present yet again. 

                                         Ryshia

                                                               www.ryshiakennie.com

   ...a world you never imagined!      

The Dead Sea, a tourist and a whole other  story!

Check out my latest release:  The Tears We Never Cried

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Flashback Friday - In the Lap of Luxury!

It's Flashback Friday and a trip down memory lane. We're going to a time, that some of you might not remember. A time when air travel was fun and when airport security didn't look at you as if you might be the problem!

Do you remember those days when riding a plane was fun?  

        ...When seats were wider and actually spaced with adequate leg room? 

       ...When the man reclining in front of you didn't land in your lap and when being assigned a middle seat didn't involve an intricate dance of dodging elbows?  

Airport - Seoul

I remember when water was free and not something you purchased after being frisked in a security line up.  Although this is not such a bad procedure.  I mean, from a writer of romantic suspense point of view, it gives me a sense of what frisking is all about.  Seriously, while I realize that the world has changed and we need a certain amount of security, some days I long for what was.  I think fondly back to days when I wasn't scrambling for plastic baggies for my midget size toothpaste and a man in uniform wasn't scowling over my mascara while I juggled my shoes and slipped on tile floors in sock feet.  Days when, should my luggage have been lost or the in flight meal insubstantial, no problem, my carry on had it all.

Hawaii 

So fast forward backwards, my second plane ride ever was to Hawaii.  Wardair was a Canadian airline that provided luxury even in economy.  An airline that like many things, is now history.  I remember a 747 with wide seats and excess legroom.  There was a circular staircase up to the lounge area that was open to all passengers.  There was a bar complete with bartender in the main passenger area in the forward section (economy) that served free drinks for the entire flight.  The drinks morphed into Mai Tais as we neared our destination.  

That journey included a tour of the cockpit for a few passengers chosen at random. I ended up being one. I can still remember my first encounter with the concept of auto pilot.  I think shock registered at walking into the cockpit, being overwhelmed by complexity of it all and then realizing that both the pilot and co-pilot faced me with their back to the wide open sky.   "It's on auto-pilot," the captain assured me with a smile.  And really, his smile wasn't wide enough.  Auto-pilot had me uneasy for the duration of the trip.  Thank goodness for the Mai Tais.

A Staircase in a 747 - leading to lounge

It's amazing how quickly what was once reality slips into the realm of history.  It's hard to imagine a plane now where the cockpit would be that open, or where a lounge would be available to anyone other than first class or where there would even be a lounge at all.  For better or worse, it's another world. 

For a writer, nothing is really over.  Those times that fade into history can come alive again with a pen and a flight into imagination.   And you - any memories of travel past?

                                                                            Ryshia

                                                               www.ryshiakennie.com

   ...a world you never imagined!      

The Dead Sea, a tourist and a whole other  story!

Check out my latest release:  The Tears We Never Cried

Don't miss a thing - Sign up for my newsletter The Walkabout!         

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Flashback Friday - Around the World and Back Again!

It's Flashback Friday where I pull an adventure from my blog and we relive the journey. Today we're going to do a hop skip across the world and back on our imaginary plane. Fasten your first class seat belt - request your beverage of choice, and we're off! To where you ask or maybe you didn't as you're just happy to go somewhere. With that in mind, we're heading to a few places; scuba diving in Thailand, horseback riding in Cuba and renting a motorbike again, in Cuba. 

First up - Thailand

Scuba Diving - Note to self - Twenty minutes in a pool does not prepare one for open ocean. On the upside, just because you think you're going to drown, doesn't mean you will. And that was before I got there - swimming against the waves along the width of a boat meant for open water (large) was no fun - I finally put that snorkel to good use and did the old paddle with your face in the water trick I'd do as a kid.  Then there was the actual going under, way under and staying there. Yes, open ocean was a bit traumatic to begin with but it all worked out in the end. 

Moving on to Cuba:

Horses - taking pictures on a moving horse - not recommended! There's something about balance, stirrups, height and creature with a will of its own that doesn't really transpose well for a city bred person. No, I didn't fall off but every time I tried to take a picture the horse would start walking and I had to concentrate on staying on and forget the picture. The horse finally won. And the only pictures I got were, off the horse! 

Motorbike Rental - when you question the notice "No brakes" and and are told, "That's okay." Maybe its not! It's really not that hard to take out the side of a third world house. Or for that matter, come close! It took a last minute swerve to clear the back half of someone's hut. I sure hope they weren't looking out!

And that's memories of past trips. Things to remember for future - when getting on a plane is actually something we all might consider.

Stay safe - take care!

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

   ...a world you never imagined!      

The Dead Sea, a tourist and a whole other  story!

Check out my latest release:  The Tears We Never Cried

Don't miss a thing - Sign up for my newsletter The Walkabout!         

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Flashback Friday - It's Off to Angkor Wat

Four years after my first journey to Cambodia, the illusive t-shirt has been bought. Angkor - no not the I saw Angkor Wat t-shirt but Angkor beer the national beer of Cambodia. It's been tested, it's good and we have the t-shirt.


Well here we are, Flashback Friday - where did the week go? I know I spent alot of it outside, on the deck, writing. I'm working on a women's fiction/romance right now. But I was aching to go on a trip. And with Saskatchewan COVID numbers going up, well - it wasn't going to happen before, or later. So we're still doing a virtual trip. This trip takes me back to internet glitches - internet cafes and a whole lot of sun and fun. We're going back on a virtual journey to one of my favourite places - Cambodia...


This is my second trip to Siem Reap. It's just a brief jaunt, an interlude in the midst of our trip as we juggle arrival times into Myanmar. At Angkor Wat there are changes, long awaited restoration has begun on major portions of the structure leaving portions off limits. There are signs now that map out a logical viewing strategy with the usual arrows and signs. Somehow I'm disappointed. The mystery is disappearing with each new sign and regulation. The temple in the inner courtyard where the treacherous three story high, ancient, uneven, worn staircase - terrifying for us height challenged individuals - is now off limits. Apparently it was as dangerous as my overactive imagination had anticipated. Still, despite the changes, when I stand in the centre of Angkor Wat beside a Buddhist shrine with incense wafting around me and a man begins a chant that echoes through the ancient chamber I'm transported back in time when this place was alive with another people. People who built something fabulous not just for the Gods they worshipped but for themselves and for the people that served them. It is all rather overwhelming.



In this picture to the right a little boy is climbing an ancient relic like it was his own set of monkey bars.


At Tonle Sap lake just a little further away - it's that unusual time of the year when during the rainy season the lake floods a major portion of Cambodia as the Mekong river overflows into it. The villages that lie near the lake are on stilts and during the floods they resemble floating villages as the water rises right up to road level. Children, dogs and livestock all roam the roads and make it nerve wracking to negotiate the narrow dirt strip that separates one row of roughly built stilt houses from another.


And then....
Tomorrow we are heading to Myanmar - a repeat of three countries one day - news flash - we're doing it again. January 4 - Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar. I don't know what internet access will be like. I'm assuming for sure no more pictures. I may be going under for the next week but if I can I'll post to the blog. In the meantime should I have to abdicate my role as trip journalist for a week or so standby - at some point I'll be back.

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

   ...a world you never imagined!      

The Dead Sea, a tourist and a whole other  story!

Check out my latest release:  The Tears We Never Cried

Don't miss a thing - Sign up for my newsletter The Walkabout!         

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Flash Back Friday - Out of the Comfort Zone and Over the Edge

Today we're going to head over to Thailand. On this imaginary trip I thought we'd book again book that private jet. Might as well have the elite of trips, after all, in the land of fiction, money is no object.

While that part of the trip is fiction, what happened next, what follows, was real - a handful of years ago. Welcome to Flashback Friday!

Yesterday was a scuba diving adventure. The first time in scuba gear since certification four years ago. Although it seemed like I had forgotten everything, it all came back. Let me say that scuba diving was not on the top of my list of things to do. With only four dives under my belt I may be certified but still a beginner. But I'm so glad I didn't listen to that little voice that screeched something about remaining comfortable, dry and on shore. Instead, I stepped off that boat and dived into another world that I thought I had long forgotten. But how could you forget such sights.

Sting rays scurry for cover. Jelly fish float with delicate tentacles that bob in an undersea exotic dance. Sea urchins waft in silent currents. Cliffs of red and orange and blue hued coral undulate in hills across the sands. Brightly coloured anemone harmonize with the urchins and schools of fish flit here and there. A sucker fish follows, biting one of the divers as he cleans off anything that may have lodged on our equipment. An hour and a half under water will be part of this trip that I'll long remember.

Take one step out of your comfort zone - you'll be glad you did.

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

   ...a world you never imagined!      

The Dead Sea, a tourist and a whole other  story!

Check out my latest release:  The Tears We Never Cried

Don't miss a thing - Sign up for my newsletter The Walkabout!         

Follow me on:

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Flashback Friday - Border Crossings - Beneath the Law?

For Flashback Friday, I thought this post was interesting. Another take on border crossings. This time we're traveling to the Myanmar/Thai border (at a time when Myanmar was just Burma - times, borders, names change but some things never do). Here's a look at that border crossing...

Borders are tight in most parts of the world.  They've been tight for awhile and only today are they, well - tighter.  Actually, I've entered few countries in my travels where forms weren't required and passports not expected to be at ready.  There's always the stern looking officials.  But it's all in the presentation, some checkpoints are just a little more intimating than others and on the northern border of Thailand - the Burmese/Myanmar checkpoint was one of them.

Or so I thought.  But in that little village in Northern Thailand that butted up against Burma, borders took on a completely different meaning.  While officials manned an immigration point on a bridge that marked the border between Thailand and Burma/Myanmar, commerce thrived on both sides of the border.

Mae Sai, Thailand was bustling with people wanting to sell everything from cigarettes to t-shirts.  And on the other side of the bridge, for those a little more adventurous - Burma/Myanmar.  But no one was going there without filling out the forms, answering the questions and facing men dressed in military fatigues holding automatic rifles.

No one that is except for one man who was desperately trying to sell us a t-shirt on the Thai side of the border.  When he had none in the size we wanted, he held up his hand.  Told us to wait in that universal sign language and bolted toward the bridge.  While people lined up or even debated whether crossing into Burma/Myanmar was a wise thing, our t-shirt salesman ran under the bridge, right underneath the immigration stop, crossed the border into Burma/Myanmar and within minutes returned back into Thailand with the correct size t-shirt in hand.

Daring to us.  Just another day at the office for him.  Anything daring in your day?

Take care, keep safe!

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

   ...a world you never imagined!      

The Dead Sea, a tourist and a whole other  story!

Check out my latest release:  The Tears We Never Cried

Don't miss a thing - Sign up for my newsletter The Walkabout!         

Follow me on:

Bookbub        Instagram      Twitter:  @ryshiakennie     Facebook