I was looking through some of my old posts recently, particularly with regards to COVID-19 and the first lockdown here in Spain, and realized I hadn’t done an update in a while. Strangely, it’s going on the one year anniversary from when this all started. I had friends visiting from Canada when this all began, and as each day went by more and more activities were suspended in Spain. The first inkling of trouble was that the tickets we had to a futbol match here in Valencia were ultimately cancelled. Thinking nothing of it, we decided to purchase other tickets to see Madrid play, and those ...

I realized this morning that I haven’t really given an update since I was smack-dab in the middle of our lockdown here in Spain. Most of us here spent 98 days essentially locked up in our apartments, only venturing outside to quickly get some groceries or to go to a pharmacy. It was one of the most intense and invasive lockdowns of any country anywhere, and many people here really struggled to cope with it. While I didn’t mind being at home, especially since I had many renovation projects on the go, the inability to even go for a walk or to get exercise was really difficult mentally, and most ...

Tomorrow marks the end of the third week of forced quarantine here in Spain, and unfortunately at this point there still is no end in sight. At the start of this week both the active cases of COVID-19 as well as the number of deaths seemed to be on the cusp of plateauing, but yesterday brought new highs for both. I normally try to stay up each night until midnight, mostly to see what the latest numbers are – while they aren’t complete, usually there is an update shortly after midnight that gives some indication of what the next day may look like. And so far many of those updates haven’t ...

This morning I woke up and like most days since the quarantine started here in Spain, immediately checked the official statistics to see if the curve has started to flatten yet. Today’s update shows rough 5,500 new cases since yesterday with another 443 people having died. roughly the entire capacity of Surrey Memorial Hospital back home in the Fraser Valley. While these numbers are slightly less than the ones from the day before, I’ve learned not to get too excited with a low day on the charts since often the next day more than makes up for it. What these numbers mean, besides the obvious ...

Hey everyone, I’ve started a new website called TapasForever detailing my goal for living for a year in Spain. If you’re interested in the journey, or perhaps want to move to Europe for a year or longer in the future, head on over and check it out. I recommend visiting the Start Here page for information on the various resources that will be available. I’m looking forward to getting my visa and checking off a lot of boxes in terms of things I would to accomplish in life (Spanish language, I’m looking at you!). Cheers, Duane ...

I’ve been in the market for a new outdoor patio table for quite some time. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t really want to spend a huge amount of money on one, which is why I originally was looking at buying a used one. As I live in a cottage, I really wanted a wood table for my outdoor patio as opposed to a metal one. I spent the last few weeks looking at used offerings in the area, but everything looked pretty beat up or just in an older style that wouldn’t really fit in with my decor. I started browsing on Pinterest for some cool ideas for tables, and ended up really liking the look of ...

I realized recently that it’s been almost a full year since I wrote anything on this website. I have tried at various times over the last year to sit down and write, but the words just wouldn’t come. But tonight I thought it was probably best to blow the layer of dust off and finally write an update. And the main update is this: last year my heart broke. As many people know I was in a pretty serious relationship; it unfortunately ended almost a year ago today. As an engineer, I’m trained to solve problems, often difficult ones. But despite my best efforts, I was unable to fix our relationship ...

I posted around Christmas about a project I was starting to build an electric brewery. I realized recently that I hadn’t given an update with it basically since then, and thought it was time to share the progress. Most of the parts were waiting for me back in Canada when I arrived back from Australia, so I laid them all out on my temporary butcher block work station for assembly. That butcher block is actually a 7′ countertop from Home Depot that I got on sale – eventually it will form the base for the brewery itself. The parts for the electric brewery Before working on the brew kettles, ...

In just a few weeks, I’ll be boarding a plane and making the roughly four hour trip to Ontario (seven if you count a quick nacho stopover in Calgary). As I’ve indicated on Facebook, my plan is to move to Hamilton, Ontario for probably a year or so, mostly to work with Dale on some projects at BraveNewCode. Without a doubt I’m looking forward to a new change, as I originally moved out here to Chilliwack to help get BraveNewCode off the ground, something that happened nearly five years ago. In terms of logistics, Ontario is actually quite a bit better for me. It’s closer to Europe, which ...

I’ve been working on a travel eBook for a few months now, mostly on airplanes and during the odd evening. It’s been slow going since I have a lot of other things going on right now, but I’ve managed to make a bit of progress each week. I’m pleased to announce that last night I managed to put the finishing touches on it, and it’s now officially available. My travel ebook contains two main topics: how you can make and execute plans for long-term travel (anything more than a week or two), and how you can redesign your life to make traveling easier. There are lots of great resources include, ...

Another year is almost upon us, and I thought a final post was in order. It was definitely an interesting year for me, the highlight (at a personal level) probably being a third surgery on my eye socket (which I was told four years ago wasn’t possible). But I also did a fair bit of traveling, and I thought a little photo-finish finale was in order for 2012. Las Vegas Las Vegas Samantha in Cape Town, South Africa Penguins near Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa Sunset, Cape Town, South Africa The moon rising over Cape Town, South Africa Me ...

I’m back now from Europe, and taking a well deserved rest from travel for a few months. While I had a good time on my last trip, it wasn’t something I was totally looking forward to at the time, mainly because I had just gotten through recovering from a big surgery and was enjoying life around home. In terms of my surgery, I think the end result is quite a bit better. I had a private CT scan done in Serbia so I could gain some peace of mind with regards to the outcome, and here was the end result. CT scan from after my third surgery You can basically see the titanium mesh which is under my ...

France – the legendary birthplace of Roulette – has a very long tradition of playing gambling games. The popular French game ‘Poque’ is thought to be the forerunner of modern poker. This lends itself perfectly to the story that modern poker derived from French settlers in the Louisiana basin before it moved up the Mississippi. Despite poker being considered an American game which is most famously place in Las Vegas, the poker scene in France is very big too. The online world of poker is just as popular in France as the casinos. Poker fanatics can join a range of forums and brush up on ...

I was doing a Google search the other day, looking for some photos of me at the last company I worked at, when I discovered US patent 7,958,276, Automatic Configuration of Peripheral Devices. When I worked at my previous company I started playing around with an algorithm to automatically configure a voice over IP device. One of the main problems people would have previously is that they would plug in a new audio device and have to spend a pile of time figuring out how to configure it. The same was true with video. So at the time I came up with basically a complicated priority list that would ...

I went into my backpack tonight to look for my good buddy Waddles, but alas he’s nowhere to be seen. I’ve looked everywhere, but I just can’t find him 🙁 So, here’s the official wanted poster. One Argentine penguin. Answers to the name of “Waddles”. Last seen in Malta, but visited Rome briefly. Could be anywhere between Sliema, Malta and Novi Sad, Serbia. A handsome reward, in beer, for his discovery. Thanks. ...

In exactly four weeks from today, I’ll probably be waking up in Vancouver General Hospital after having my third surgery to correct some orbital fractures I received in 2006. I met with the surgical coordinator yesterday to complete all the pre-surgery documentation giving the surgeons my consent to operate on me, one more time. The surgeon performing the operation is one of the best in his field, even internationally. Years ago he helped start Singapore’s eye care centre, and he frequently travels and speaks at international conferences. He’s published several different books on eye surgery, ...

Vancouver has always been the only destination I’ve considered for the past few years to spend summer near. Last year unfortunately was a bit of a bust due to the weather, but I managed to spend four months around the Vancouver area back in the summer of 2011. I came back from Argentina at the end of June and spent a month in my home town, and am now in Yaletown for the remainder of August. Vancouver’s English Bay For the first time in ages, I don’t have any travel plans at the moment. The main reason for that is because I am scheduled to have surgery on September 7th to finally correct ...

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done any sort of update on here, and I thought now was probably a good time to do one. I’m back from South America, and have been staying in Chilliwack for the last month. I just checked into an apartment in Vancouver’s Yaletown, and will be staying here for all of August. I haven’t lived in Vancouver for at least three and a half years I believe, so it will be nice being right downtown again. I currently have no concrete travel plans, other than a stirring desire to see Europe some time in the fall. I haven’t planned anything or purchased any tickets, ...

I’ve been spending a bit of time talking to Dale recently about life, careers, and where we both want to end up in the next few years. During one of our recent iChats, I was reminded of this Mexican Fisherman Story I heard a few years ago and managed to track it down. After I showed it to Dale he suggested I post it up here, because it has a fairly important message in it. An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the ...

Without a doubt one of the hardest aspects of life on the road is saying goodbye to people you care about. Maybe it’s just a person you had an insightful conversation with at a bar one time, or maybe it’s someone that you spent a few weeks with traveling around a foreign country. But with that final hug (and it always comes unfortunately) comes the bittersweet knowledge that it will likely be quite some time before you get to meet them again. I spent eight months on the road this last year, and in that time met many great people. Since being home in December, I have watched on Facebook as ...