Hi friends,

I have had a few comments from you that my blogs from deep in the heart of the Quintana Roo province of Mexico seem a bit dark or negative.

Well...tough. (just kidding!)

I have been making an attempt not to pile on the stories of sun and family joy etc. here and in Facebook partly because we are on a long journey here (three months!) and you will surely grow tired of that type of reporting.

So I pour myself another tequila while the family tries to go to sleep in the other room and give you all the latest. (if it is of any importance to you, I have Neil Young's latest CD Le Noise really loud in my headphones)

We have a few more days here at our idyllic beach house and believe it or not we are all looking forward to moving to new surroundings.

It is quite something to wake up to ocean every morning and to play banjo on the beach as the waves roll to my feet. However, there is a limit to our activities. I guess this is one thing that I have learned so far about the amazing life I lead back in Toronto; there are very few limits to what I can do in a day there. Every evening includes a menu of the performing arts, usually a friend or two involved in the proceedings as well as a great little group of friendly and willing individuals to hang out with.

Partly because of the mosquito situation here, we go to bed quite early and usually a bored game or some extended reading is about all that is in our after dinner repertoire.

Today we broke things up by driving 18 Kilometers further north and to the end of our remote beach road. It was fun to wander around a new beach that is even more remote than where we live right now. We were trying to make the kids realize that so many people will never get to experience something like that. I know it is my first time being in places like these.

I am really enjoying all the reading I am doing. I finished a book about Country Music, then I finished Angela's Ashes (which I found here on the bookshelf) and now reading something loosely based on a type rope walkers life in New York. (trying to save the books I brought for later in the trip when there is nothing else to read)

Did I mention we are going through a lot of beer? Sol beer is a lot like drinking water only I feel slightly better after having two of them. ha!

I am trying to ride a bike about 20KM every other day and hoping that and my daily snorkeling excursion will stop me from getting really fat and not come home in terrible shape for hockey.

Not having a TV (we have one but we don't turn it on) and rarely watching DVDs has really forced all of us here to engage with each other. This can be tricky at times as you can imagine but I am glad we are doing it.

I figure I am getting way too much sleep. Every night I am up for at least an hour doing way too much thinking. I guess the 12 or 13 hours that I am in bed are a little great compared to the solid 6.5 I was used to getting back home.

However, the thinking has brought me to a new idea for the upcoming year. I am going to celebrate (even if only with myself) the 20th anniversary of Guildwood Records by writing an essay about each one of my CD releases. Try to give some insight about what was going on for me and in music in general when they were recorded and try to put them in perspective in todays musical climate.

The big idea (this one might be a bit far fetched) is to do my own redux of my first Cd; Hoser City twenty years later. I want to play all the instruments but this time it will be guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin and bass.

I guess that is it for now. I wish you all a Merry Christmas. I don't think we have an internet connection next month. This could be a good or a bad thing; we shall see.

I am glad to be missing this terrible season with the Leafs however I may try to tune in to Hockey Night in Canada this weekend and catch a period and coaches corner as it may be my last for a while.

Go easy on Don Cherry too okay? Is anyone really surprised that he is a Rob Ford supporter? Come on...Don has always worn it all on his sleeve.

tp