I have a new surname

went to San Ignacio today to go see a dentist for my tooth. after missing the turn-off for the bus stop we discovered that the bridge the bus usually goes over is being rebuilt. possibly due to the recent rain but more likely due to the same way that roadworks are done in Ireland to insure new grants for the coming fiscal year. anyway, we walked back up from San Ignacio over the high bridge that brings us back to Santa Helena where we wanted to be.. turning down a road that would sync us up with the map zees dad had drawn we were halfway down the road when we saw the dentist. in we went. not a long wait. and then i was away jabbering to the dentist whose names is Mercedes. she had a very down to earth manner and steady hands. so i can have the tooth pulled or have aroot canal. she recommends root canal. it seems to make sense from several angles to me. one. it means i still have a chomper. two. it cost around 700 belizean dollars. which is about 250 euro. and we're away. down into the 'oh dear, is that nasty pointy-thing meant to fix my tooth' position.
she says- I'm gonna do this without anesthetic cos the tooth is already dead.
i say- i may scream.
we go on. no problems no pain. she scrapes my roots out and pads the area with a medicated desiccant of some sort that will dry up the puss-bag that has developed in my jaw. caps it of for the week with a little filling and sends me on my way. back next week. she wants to see that i heal properly so two more visits but only one for actual tooth work. the one after that is to check to see that my fistula(a small canal i installed myself running from the abscess to my gum) has healed up and no more infection is in evidence. no problem. and as it is Saturday it is also market day so it makes things easy moving back and forth between towns.
did i mention the bus is just regular if not more so than the dublin buses? definitely more interesting but just as regular. i also may have forgot to tell you about the bus that nearly squished us in the terminal(near feckin fatal!) in Belmopan. well we were waiting behind the locked gate they have just installed that stops people from congregating outside near where the bus parks. and yay! here comes our bus! oh wait it isn't slowing down. and that driver looks very worried. come to think of it i can see the whites of his eyes. swerve, bounce on The kerb, hop over it, crash through metal fence on kerb, crush bike, slam into wall and brake. nobody was hurt but someone was very upset about their new bike. well at least the new gates that stopped people from standing where the bike was worked. nobody hurt paralysed or dead.
i have to say that the buses here are very robust. i think the wall was more hurt than the bus was.
and onto the next bus.


oh and as for the dentists. in a very funny cultural misinterpretation i now have a new Mayan-friendly surname.
Synetl.

i like it.

It has the makings of a hot day

Because we are staying close enough to a highway, bus traffic wakes a person up fairly early here, not that its a bad thing, it means that you can get stuff done while it is still cool provided one is not too lazy to get up. Most mornings I am too lazy to get up as dawn is breaking, but not this morning. I was up at dawn with the intention of spotting some of the local mammals called gibnuts, they are rodent-things, not entirely sure seeing as I have never seen one, I just hear tell of them existing, they are seemingly quite shy and they put in an appearance close to the river at dusk and dawn only. Oh well, one of these days. The only other wild mammal that I have seen here is a squirrel, with a dark fluffy tail, Dee has seen what is thought to be a possum, the lucky beggar, he saw a snake too the other day, put the frighteners on him, poor beggar. Anyway, I think it precipitated somewhat last night, now its all misty, and 29 Celcius, all that means that it is going to be a scorcher of a day, and we are off the the dentist for Dee a bit later this morning. Anyway, its seven in the morning and its by time I started the day. Blessings, Z

If I was Hannibal

today we were out most of the glorious glorious day. not sweltering but nice fluffy clouds passing by at a good speed. we had meant to meet uncle bobby off the cruise ship today but i messed it all up by thinking it was Friday not Thursday i was meant to meet him. so what did we do Friday?
well we went and worked on getting the land ready for a set of terraces on the slope down to the river. we had started the other week but it is mellow here. work when you can and when you feel like it. the terraces are a project that will some day get done.
so on this lovely day me zee and David went out and chopped the bay cedar trees down to use as a guide for the earth in the terraces.zee was making little stakes from the logs we chopped down and i am feeling mighty! due to chopping trees with a machete most of the day. i never liked those trees, always staring at me funny...
well near lunchtime i went to drink some water and needed to rest for a few minutes. it is okay while you are moving but the heat was trying to get me when i stopped being busy. i drank plenty of water!
well after a great lunch made by zee out we went again. chopped two trees and started processing the wood to more thick branches for staking leaving them to the side for zee to process into the right length. so as i continued with the tree slaughtering zee was making great progress putting the stakes in place for the terrace wall. nearly have one frame for the first terrace in place.

so at the end of the day, supping on a coke rather than a fine cigar,

I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER.

today i saw a toucan or two

it was really cool. we saw them the other day but today they were eating bananas from the tree near the shop so i was able to get close to them and they were to interested in the bananas to be bothered with me. so i was able to get within six feet of them! they were the half-pint toucans not the guinness toucans scale. they are around here somewhere too but to see such a strange bird up close is great. they have such lovely colours on them and their beaks have strange patterns on.

as well as that. as i said before i was processing some white clay i dug up. so i came to thinking i needed a few tools for working the clay.
after making a few nice wood tools yesterday i got to thinking. maybe some nice metal ones to work on the finer details? so about two hours later- i now have three double-ended metal modelling tools the likes of which i would pay twenty euro each for in ireland.
all i needed was a bit of small gauge rebar, a hammer, an anvil, a bench grinder, a few cloth backed sandpaper shards and a bit of stick to bend the finer tool heads around.
now i can get to work.

happy new year everyone!!! missing you loads! hope that all your dreams come true this year!