Wilma's blog: Sorry for my silence

Spanish Music

This band was my favourite - South American music

PACHI - isn't he adoreable?

PACHI - His quills, 41 of them to be exact, represent the nations who will be performing at the 2015 game in Toronto.

Salsa dancing lessons to Cuban music

Notice his brightly colour quills.

I came back from visiting some friends in another city most unwell. It came on in the afternoon shortly after Mohammad and I arrived. Andrew picked us up at the Go Bus station and drove us back to their place.

By the time I got home, I was having trouble breathing and it was all I could do to walk from the Go Station here in Hamilton to home. In any event, I was unwell and unable to do much for more than a week after that.

Thankfully I am back to normal again and on Sunday I met Rosie down at Pier 8. Mohammad and Sami planned to meet us down there too. It was Streetwise and there were some wonderful bands playing. The Pan Am games is coming to Toronto in a couple more years and it was advertising it.

Rosie and I managed to find each other but we could not find the fellows so we spent the afternoon together going around to the different bands and listening to them. She went home about 5:30 I think and I decided to stay down there and listen to the bands when they started again at 6:30. In the meantime, I walked around Pier 8 and found the fellows.

It seems that they took the 2:30 bus and looked for us but with the crowd did not find us. We spent the rest of the evening together, enjoying the bands and chatting with each other. Some Sudanese gentleman also joined us on the patio to watch the salsa dancing. One was a very polite young fellow whose English was perfect so I suspect he was born here.

Sami had brought some food to share with us and I had brought herbal tea so we had a mini picnic for supper. Sami is extremely generous with sharing what he has. Mohammad also but he takes people to Williams Coffee pub instead of carrying food with him.

It was very enjoyable down there, the weather was not too hot and I shall miss being able to go to Pier 8 until next summer as the free bus stops after the labour day weekend which is early in September. It is more difficult to get there as the No. 4 is way up above the Pier and a little hilly so am not sure that I could get back up the hill without problems.

It was interesting to see all the out of town visitors, mostly from Toronto. Some of the performers fished off the pier on their break time and seemed to be having a whale of a time. Most of them spoke Spanish. I also saw a van from the St. Clair Seniors Center and a group of older people sitting together. It was so nice to see a lot of people from Toronto!

Hamilton is so undervalued by people from outside and I hope that their visit here was enjoyable and they will come back and see more of the city and the surrounding area.

Needless to say, I took some pictures.