You can call me Dennis as it's the name my parents gave to me at birth. I'm likely called a whole host of other names nowadays. A few might be deemed inappropriate in such a public space though. I was born in time to witness just a few months of the 1950s with tiny, blue eyes. After that, I grew up, went to school, and eventually became prepared to earn a living as a teacher. In the early 1980s, at the age of 22, I ventured out into the world at large. And it really did turn out to be big! A few years later, I met my partner when we were employed in Saudi Arabia. More time and few other Middle Eastern teaching positions passed. Then, after almost a dozen years in the Gulf, we moved to western Canada. That was in 1996.
My final and longest employment experience was at the BC Institute of Technology. I was a language instructor there for seventeen years. I taught technical and business English to adult, international students and new Canadians. It was a fascinating career move and an emotionally-rewarding experience. Yet, I stopped as soon as it became financially feasible. My liberation from work was granted in the latter part of 2014 at the age of 55.
Since taking advantage of early retirement, Jay and I have lived overseas during our dreary, wet, west-coast winters. We have saved money but spent many extraordinary months in countries such as: Mexico, Egypt, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, the UAE, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Mauritius and South Africa. As you may have guessed, we love summers in beautiful British Columbia but now savour part of each year in freshly-adopted warm and sunny spots.
This daily, online journal has been active for well over twenty years. It's how we now remember things we did and when we did them. I'm honoured to be able to share our experiences here with you.
Navigation Hints
Several decades of text and photo data are accessible here. Ordinary navigation options are located under the header near the top of each page. However, in order to quickly locate additional entries, the area near the footer becomes important. First, in the lightly-shaded green, you'll often see the words:
Newer Posts ---- Home ---- Older Posts
These are self-explanatory as they allow access to a more recent entry, the current week of entries, or one with an older date. Anyone can start at a particular entry and go forward or backwards a single step at a time.
Furthermore, in the darker grayish area, the number of monthly visitors is shown. Under it, a user may easily select any archived month of their own choosing. For example, September 2022 (30) on the drop-down list will force the journal to jump to the 30 entries found in that month and year. All archives are organized in reverse chronological order, so September 30th will appear at the top of the page. Monthly archives will always contain several pages of data.
Lastly, the search function is where the magic can begin. A visitor can simply see if I've ever mentioned a particular word, phrase, or topic. Enter any word and select the search button. For example, I typed in the word, stumble and discovered I had used it in 10 different entries between 2007 and 2023.