Here I will provide a brief description of some of my personal memories. This Odds 'n' Sods page is accompanied by the O 'n' S Photos page that you will see in the navigation links on the right. Captions beneath those pictures relate to the written material below.
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JANICE AND I HONEYMOON IN LOS CABOS, MEXICO
From
November 24th to December 1st, 2007 Janice and I had an
amazing honeymoon holiday in Mexico, staying at the all
inclusive
Presidente Los Cabos
Resort on
the Pacific Ocean about 20 minutes walk outside of the
small quaint town of San Jose Del Cabo. Although this
hotel is one of the oldest ones along this Pacific
beach, it's maintained a steady popularity with people
from all over North America. The staff were all so very
friendly and wished to accommodate to make our stay
memorable. A good looking, very bilingual young Mexican
man named Cesar (who could often be found in the lobby)
was very helpful in answering all our questions and
providing us with useful info regarding activities,
night-life and transportation arrangements. He was even
good enough to do a personal "alcohol run" for us when
we could not get Grande Marnie at the hotel. If you ever
go there, ask for Cesar.
At times we were disappointed with the restaurant food and
buffets at the hotel, and we discovered that the room
service food was the way to go for freshness. Although the
breakfast buffets weren't bad. Not everyone there shared
our opinion on the food. Some thought it was all good.
One of our pet peeves was that we could not get hot water
to shower,... until Janice discovered that the hot and cold
were connected backwards in our room 4107. This was a
beautiful main floor room with large screen TV and a
terrace which included a hammock.
Although the ocean beach is beautiful here, it's not safe
to swim because of the undertow, but with the nice
selection of swimming pools on location, we didn't mind.
For anyone who does want to swim in the ocean, a short taxi
ride can get you to a calm safe beach.
We took a walk with our new found Vancouver friend Julie
Nicholls to the close by town of San Jose Del Cabo to do
some site seeing and shopping. Another Canadian along the
way directed us to an open roof top venue called
Shooters Sports Bar
which
is apparently owned by a Calgary couple. They employ all
Mexican staff and the place is always packed with
Canadians and Americans. The food was great and the
beers were $1.00 each... it must have been "happy hour".
Or maybe it was because the Grey Cup (Winnipeg and
Saskatchewan in Toronto) was on TV and the place was
full of Canadian clientele.
On 2 evenings Janice and I took a 40 minute shuttle trip to
the city of Cabo San Lucas with another fun west coast
couple staying at our hotel (Mark and Patty). We went to
Sammy Haggar's famous bar
Cabo Wabo. The
tequila drinks were strong and and cover band was
amazing. It was the first band I ever heard play Queen's
masterpiece Bohemian
Rhapsody.
Holy crap,... they nailed it - vocals and all. Freddie
Mercury would have been proud. One of the waiters told
me they are called "The Wabos" although I noticed a
poster said they were called "Cabo". I'm not sure which
is correct.
Most everywhere exploring you go you will be approached by
people wanting you to sit through time share presentations.
Some of them, I'm sure are probably okay deals,.. and I can
attest that some of the accommodations that are being
offered are absolutely amazing. The free gifts aren't bad
for sitting through one of these. The most profitable one
we heard of was a $350 cash gift presented to you at the
end of the hard sell, including a free round trip taxi
ride.
A major highlight for Janice and I in Cobo San Lucas was
swimming with the dolphins at
Cabo Dolphins.
What gentle and fun loving creatures. They kissed us,
swam with us, pulled us by their fins and had fun
splashing and showing off for us. We got to feed them,
pet them and even touch their tongues and teeth. I was
amazed to find out that a dolphin gradually sheds and
replaces all of it's skin every 4 hours. To the touch,
their bodies feel like wet very smooth rubber.
Here on our honeymoon we encountered a vast number of west
coast Canadians, many of which we discovered live within an
hour's drive from Janice and I. Many new friends were
made,.. not just with Canadians. The Canadians included
Julie, Danel, Mark and Patty, Jeff and Reena, Bill and
Meemie, Greg and Denise Bullock, and a host of others whose
names are scrambled in my head. There was also a very nice
young couple from Monterey, Mexico, who I was pleased to
make the acquaintance of. Our next door neighbors were 2
friendly guys from California; Markus and Ryan. Leaving
their girlfriends behind this trip they came for a
guy's-get-away. We had some brews and laughs and political
discussions. They were on their terrace one night partying
with Medicine Hat Albertans (and rock drummers), Jeff and
Reena. They invited me over with my guitar and we howled at
the moon.
Another night many of us sat around, I played guitar and we
all yacked, sang and had a good time until the wee hours
out behind the lobby bar as the rain came down. That was
our last night,... and none of us were looking forward to
going home to the snow that we'd been hearing about.
The
O 'n' S Photos
page
shows some of our Mexican honeymoon holiday
photos.
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JANICE AND I GET MARRIED IN SHERIDAN LAKE, BC
Janice
Streng and I legally got married on August 4th, 2007 at an
awesome celebration at Sheridan Lake BC. The entire
outdoor event was hosted by Janice's parents, Martin and
Jean Streng, on their 45 acre property in the beautiful
Caribou country and about 100 family and friends
attended. The ceremony was officiated by BC marriage
commissioner Kim Hunter, who is a good friend of the Streng
family and has known Janice since she was a baby. Janice's
maid of honor and bridesmaid were Rene Berard and Katie
Streng, respectively. My best man was none other than my
son Chris Sleightholm. With the musicians in attendance, we
provided our own live music with a band of our own making
called
The Well Hung Jury,
a tongue-in-cheek name authored by our MC and good friend
Greg Dreysko. I still laugh when I think of that
name. This one time band line-up included, Dez Carpenter
(percussion), Stan Dorsett (bass and vocals), Chris
Sleightholm (guitar, keys and vocals), Steve Kotyk (guitar
and mandolin), Janice Wyatt (mandolin) and me (guitar, keys
and vocals). We were proud to have special cameo
appearances by Greg Dreysko (guitar and vocals) and Debbie
Sleightholm (Tylenol bottle shaker). We were also
pleased to have our pal Trevor Pugh running a pristine
sound with his JBL and Yamaha sound system and adding
tambourine and exceptional air guitar performances. The
wedding party atmosphere lasted the entire August long
weekend with tents and motor homes throughout the property.
No one got much sleep. Photos of this wedding can also be
found on this link.....
Janice and Jeff Wedding
Photos.
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JANICE AND I GET MARRIED IN CAMBRIDGE,
ONTARIO
Both my dear wife Janice and I have family in Ontario. So
it was clear that when we decided to get married we would
want to have a wedding ceremony there as well. This,
however, wasn't the legal marriage because you can only get
married in one Province. Janice's biological father, Ted
Camilleri and his wife Monica generously offered to host
the event at their beautiful rural acreage in Cambridge
Ontario on July 7th, 2007. (Note:
It was at Ted and Monica's home Christmas day of 2006 that
I proposed to Janice in front of them and Janice's son
Steve Kotyk). The
ceremony was officiated by Janice's Uncle Dan Camilleri.
Janice's cousin Karen Kennedy was her maid of honor and
Janice's son Steve Kotyk was my best man. Following the
brief formalities we had a warm and lovely garden party
with live music. There were about 50 or more family and
freinds in attendance. With large tents in place we were
prepared for the rain that didn't happen. But
never-the-less the tents took away the wide openess and
brought us all together. Photos of this wedding can be
found on this link.....
Janice and Jeff Wedding
Photos.
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MY SON CHRIS AND LOVELY DEBBIE GET MARRIED
My son
Chris Sleightholm married his love Debbie Hill in Calgary
on August 20th, 2006. Being the proud father of Chris that
I am, as well as a musician, this wedding celebration was a
memorable event for me. Music was provided by Chris, his
friends and myself. It was a fun, matrimonial and musical
event. I finished our set accompanying
THEE HOOLIES with
a rendition of Neil Young’s classic Long
May You Run.
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JAMMIN' WITH DAVE
You'll
see some pictures of me jamming with my percussion
friend
Dave Fracchia.
Janice and I met Dave and his wife Margie out here on
the west coast in March 2007 through mutual friends Don
and Kim Dewar. Like me, Dave and Margie also grew
up in Regina, but it was a real coincidence when we
discovered Dave and I went to the same high school -
only in different years. A young and budding
guitarist (Clay Dewar) was giving us a hand as
well.
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GUITAR
TALK
poem
by Jeff Wyatt 1990
Most
days
I’d
love to be able to make my guitar talk
Some
days
It
pronounces a few words
Other
days
it’ll
voice
a
lot of noise
without
saying
much
of anything
Or
perhaps
Maybe
I
just don’t understand
the
language
© Jeff
Wyatt 1990, 2008
-
published by the Regina
Guild of Folk Arts in the
Sept-Oct 1990 edition of The
Guild Gazette -
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FINAL NOTE
This
Odds 'n' Sods page is
accompanied by the
O 'n' S Photos
page
that you will see in the navigation links on the upper
right. Captions beneath those pictures relate to the
written material above.
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