Last night we tried to watch this Academy Award nominated movie on Netflix called ‘Mank’. I fell asleep unfortunately. It was not our favourite show. Maybe we’ll have another go at it tonight, but it certainly was different. The movie assumed that you knew a lot about literature and the history of the theatre. An interesting movie concept shot in black and white to represent the 1930’s era of the movie. Different.
We awoke to a beautiful sunrise over Fanny Bay this morning. I think I’m going to miss these beautiful sunrises right in Newman’s front window!

Stunning sunrise over Fanny Bay, Vancouver Island, B.C.
I had emailed my osteopath while we were in Tofino to see if she might have a cancellation, so that Richard could see her about his back. I’m dreading the drive home on his behalf as his back is not in good shape right now to withstand long periods of sitting. When I woke up this morning Abbie had texted me overnight that she could see Richard in Comox at the same time that I had my strength training with her partner Paul, in Courtenay. I acknowledged her text letting her know that would work for us, Having Jerry as our only means of transportation though meant that we had a logistical challenge. To get to Comox we go through Courtenay, which meant Richard had to drop me off 20 minutes ahead of my strength training appointment, and I would have to sit outside and wait before I could go into the gym with Paul. Luckily the place I strength train has a nice sitting area outside and at +9C and sheltered, I brought my Kindle to read for a bit, before I proceeded to go inside the gym to get killed by Paul. I know he reads this blog, so he can chuckle all he likes when he reads this!
Today Paul had a new program for me, now that we are down to our last 3 training sessions. He explained to me today that we would be doing ‘Bulgarian split squats’ I’m looking at him like he has 2 heads, saying what the heck are those?
Bulgarian Split Squats!
At first Paul had me using a small aerobics type step to do the squats on, and I said they were ”too easy!” So next thing I know he put the bench behind me much like the picture above, and voila, it definitely became a lot harder to do the ‘Bulgarian split squats’. After doing 8 of those I was dying! Then Paul decided that we were going to do 3 sets of the Bulgarians and then the next part of the exercise was to do regular squats with no bench to hit and to count 3 seconds on the way down and hold for 2 seconds at the bottom. OH MY GOODNESS! Paul said he really wanted to have me focused on hamstring, glutes and quads in my last few sessions with him, since that is what has to get stronger still for my recovery.
At one point today Paul said, ”I bet you wish you were with Abbie instead of me right now?” Lucky Richard was having therapy, instead of getting killed in the gym today like me!
Since Richard was still in Comox when I finished my session with Paul, I decided to walk down to the mall in Courtenay from Tin Town, where the gym is. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day to stretch my legs after the torture I’d just been through!

On my walk down to the mall. It’s very nice how they have painted the hydro boxes in town!
Richard met me in Jerry as soon as I made it to the mall. Abbie worked her magic on Richard and also gave him some exercises to do to strengthen his back/piriformis area. Now I’ve just got to get him to be disciplined enough to do them every day! She also suggested having a pillow or rolled up towel behind his back when he drives to help with his posture. Richard got lots of good tips and tricks from Abbie today and hopefully he will feel better soon. He is a ‘repair’ in progress shall we say!
We decided to go to the ‘A Step Above’ store above the Quality Foods grocery store in Courtenay. I had found this beautiful white Le Cruset pot in Qualicum Beach a few months ago, but after we went back to get it, it had already been sold. This morning we were able to find a nicer white le Cruset pot than the one we had seen before, so of course we had to buy it since we’re leaving next week. There is nothing like cooking in Le Cruset! Love those pots!

A very nice colour on this Smeg mixer. They also carry Jamie Oliver cookwear which makes me want to start collecting cake tins all over again!

’A Step Above’ used to do have cooking classes before Covid. What a great kitchen set up above the grocery store! Everything is displayed for Easter, which is coming next week already!

Some more beautiful displays at ‘A Step Above’. They definitely have very good merchandising skills at this chain of stores!
After hitting up the Dollar Store as well as Quality Foods for some groceries, we decided to head downtown Courtenay to our favourite little butcher shop for some meat for the week, and to get some lunch. It is so nice that we now feel like locals and know all of the little spots to go to get our ‘stuff,’ rather than trying to figure out where to get things!

Hilarious sign at our butcher shop - The Butcher’s Block. This butcher store has been locally owned for over 35 years and we found out today that they have ‘TRITIP’! If you have never tried ‘tritip’ it is an amazing cut of meat, cut from the bottom sirloin sub primal cut. Untrimmed the tri-tip weighs about 5 pounds. We were first introduced to this great cut of meat by our neighbour Bob in Florida. Bob, having grown up in California, was used to tri tip as it is a very popular cut of meat there. We have tried to get tri tip back home, but its not usually available, even at the butcher shop.

My ‘best salad ever’ as they call it at Butcher’s Block.

Richard’s in house smoked ham sandwich with all the fixings. This sandwich was very heavy!

Today we ate our lunch on a picnic table in Lewis Park, downtown Courtenay. It was a bit of a chilly wind off the mountains today and Richard went and got his coat to sit out and eat his lunch.

An. Austin mini. We saw this car in Lewis park at lunch. We think it is a 1960’s era Mini but we’re not sure exactly.
We made a quick stop at the Post Office in Union Bay and there was no mail for us today, but the views in Union Bay over to the mountains on the mainland were pretty stunning.

My favourite place to stop on our drive from Courtenay to Fanny Bay. Union Bay boat launch opposite the Post Office. The mountains were gleaming in the distance on the mainland and the Inukshuk is kind of cool too!
Since we were home early enough today, Richard decided he was going to finally tackle putting on the headlight covers on Jerry’s front lights. He had been waiting for a nice warm day and when we would be home early enough to let the glue dry on the lights.

Preparing to start glueing the light covers on Jerry’s front headlights

Our neighbour Jim assisting Richard with the repairs

The final repaired lights. The duct tape is just on the headlights until Richard is sure the glue is dry.
While Richard was out repairing Jerry’s headlights I started to put the laundry away inside Newman and how did I find Richard’s good Columbia pants?

So while Richard was outside repairing Jerry’s lights, I was inside repairing Richard’s Columbia dress pants. A day of repairs for both of us. I guess Richard seeing Abbie was also like a repair day too and me working on my strength training was also repairing my leg. An all round day of repairs!
Tomorrow we are off to golf with Ken & Curtis at Qualicum Beach Memorial Golf Club! We’ve missed golfing with them both and the weather looks good at +9C. We had a frost this morning, so that means there could be a frost delay tomorrow too. These clear days mean frost overnight, that’s why Islanders prefer a bit of an overcast day to end the day, so there are no frost delays in the morning!
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