Halfway Through My Time Off

Good morning. I am halfway through my time off. I love being off in September. The weather is beautiful, the leaves are starting to change, and the air is cool for sleeping at night, the perfect kind of day. I like to have some structure in my days when I am off and try to get up at the same time each day. I try to go to bed at the same time each night and not give in to the temptation of "just one more episode" of the current series I am watching. This past week, I sent a copy of the last entry in my discharge book to the Union. I am hoping to get a call for a job directly from the office, but I thought I should register at the Union Hall too. When you complete a job, you have to send a copy of your last job in your discharge book so that the Union knows that you completed the job and did not quit or jump ship. I looked at the last few jobs on the page with the stamps and names of the ships and thought I had worked more than that. I thought about it and then I remembered that I spent the month of February on the Tadoussac. The ship was laid up at the time, so the job was not recorded in my discharge book. It's nice having a record of the ships I was on and the dates I was there.

I love the September weather! It’s my favorite time of the year. Warm during the day and cool overnight.

My discharge book helps remind me where and when I was on a particular ship. The ships I work on during winter lay-up are not recorded, so I have to remember that on my own.

I have been spending a lot of my time off writing the Premiere Edition of the Ship to Shore Chef e-magazine. I come across photos and use my discharge book to look up the dates that the photo was taken to remind me which ship I was on. There are a few that are easy to recognize. The CSL Niagara has a beige floor so I am able to remember (if the floor is in the photo). If the bowl has a red edge, I know that is the Rt Hon Paul J Martin. I always try to guess which ship a particular photo was taken on, and more often than not, I am wrong. Each day I can't wait to open my laptop in the morning and continue to write. Looking through 100's of photos and selecting the ones I think you would find most interesting is so much fun. I've picked out recipes to share that I think you will like and I think back to the recipe requests you asked me for when I posted a particular meal that I made that you thought you would like to make too.

I am sharing my version of tuna casserole in the e-magazine. I am also sharing my mom’s tuna casserole. I am always surprised how popular tuna casserole is when I make it.

Starting a new project always requires a learning curve. It's amazing what technology offers, but knowing how to use it can take some time, requiring research online and watching multiple instructional YouTube videos. I am using the same program (Adobe InDesign) to write the magazine that I used for the cookbooks and children’s book, but I had to find a program that would allow me to share the magazine with you. I googled digital interactive magazine and clicked on a few. Thankfully it only took three tries before I reached one that might work for me. I clicked on the "Book a demo" button and could not believe when an actual real person was looking back at me from my screen. The young man was kind and did not consider any of my questions to be silly. He gave me unlimited time, and I thanked him for all the information. I signed up for the two-week trial period to try out the program. All the things that I wanted to include in my interactive e-magazine were readily available in the program: unlimited photos, embedded videos (You don't have to go through YouTube to watch videos.) My favorite feature is flipping the pages. The first time I opened the program with my own magazine, I just hit the page-turning button so that I could hear the swoosh of the pages as they turned. I did this multiple times and I made Lorraine (my sister, best friend and publisher) listen to the swooshing pages a few times before I slowly went page by page for her input. My two-week trial period was coming to a close, and my real-life support contact from the program offered me an extended two-week trial to ensure I was completely satisfied before making the investment to purchase the program. He reached out to me a few times during my first two-week trial, asking if I needed any assistance or help as I worked on my project. I was so impressed with the service. It's rare to find that. This morning I purchased the program and I am one step closer to being able to launch this new project. I have a few stories to complete and a few recipes that I need to make so that I can add additional photos. I have lots of video clips that are just waiting to be loaded. I am having so much fun and hope you will too. I decided to write an article about my favorite ship of all times in the first issue. It has been entertaining looking back at the younger me, and looking through the photos brings back memories.

I was 32 years old in this photo. It is so much fun to look back at all my old photos.

I will include the table of contents that I set up to give you an idea of what you can expect in the e-magazine. The page numbers of each section have not been added yet because it's quite possible that we will be rearranging pages. That's Lorraine's specialty. I build the pages and when they are finished I show them to her. The other day I showed her a page spread which I liked and she said looking at it "hurts her head" so I reworked it and agree she was right. The other version of the page was too busy. We make a great team.

The table of contents of the e-magazine is interactive. Just clicking on the title will take you directly to the article. The page numbers have not been entered yet because we may rearrange the pages after Lorraine looks at it for the best flow.

Sharing the table of contents will give you an idea of what will appear in the seasonal e-magazine.

On Thursday Lorraine and I took a trip to one of my favorite places to visit, especially in the Fall; Upper Canada Village. It was the perfect day! We arrived after lunch and as we were entering, there was a steady stream of young people leaving. We later found out that there were 500 students there for the morning. The afternoon was very quiet and we felt like the entire place was reserved for us. The Village is set in the 1860's and I love to go through the buildings and dream of a time long ago. We packed a supper to enjoy when the Village closed for the evening and chose a picnic table in the park adjacent to the old Village. We sat under an Oak tree remembering that just a week before we sat under an Oak tree every day during our Lakeside Cottage Vacation. I had made a Broccoli salad for both Lorraine and myself. I added cheddar cheese to mine. It was a treat because I don't usually add cheese, but since it was considered supper, I thought the cheese would be good and more filling. It was the perfect day and the weather could not have been better.

Sitting under the Oak Tree in the park adjacent to the 1860’s Upper Canada Village, reminded us of sitting under the Oak Tree during our Lakeside Cottage Vacation. There were no squirrels dropping acorns on us.

I love broccoli salad and it was extra good with the old cheddar cheese I added to mine. It was delicious.

This coming week we will spend the day in Montreal. We always enjoy a day in the city and we plan to walk to Chinatown and pick up some of my favorite KIWI knives. (The brand is KIWI, they are not for cutting KIWI) When I sail with a second cook, I always encourage them to try my knife. It is inexpensive and works really well. I bring a few extra and will gift them to the second cook if they like the knife. I am down to two knives and will have to replenish my supply. Chinatown is very close to the Old Port and I always enjoy a walk along the boardwalk. I checked and the weather forecast looks good.

Bottom left in the photo is one of my KIWI knives. They are inexpensive and sharp. No matter how careful you are, your knife sometimes fall to the floor. The ceramic floor usual causes a chip in your knife. I have had expensive knives in the past but prefer my inexpensive KIWI knife. If it falls, I simply replace it at no great expense. I like the wide blade which makes it easy to pick up the items I have just chopped.

I gave myself until 11h30 to write to you and will load the photos and get this off to you. Next week I hope to have some exciting news to share with you. It's Lorraine's news, but I am excited about it and I know you will be too! Check back with me next week. I hope you have a wonderful day and upcoming week.