It’s My Birthday and I’ll Eat Dim Sum

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And, no, I am not revealing my age. As soon as one does that, one gets lumped into a category and there they stay.

Lance took me out for dim sum, one of our favourite meals when we lived in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.  Richmond, B.C., (near the international airport) has many excellent Asian restaurants - and dim sum restaurants are excellent.

We found an Asian restaurant here in our town of Grecia - Restaurante Sian Wei. It is really nicely decorated. There is an attached parking lot.

We started off with a Bavarian beer for Lance and a glass of red wine for me. 

All meals come with a complimentary bowl of broth and it was very tasty:

We ordered min pao de lechón (steamed buns with a meat filling), ja kao (dumplings with shrimp filling) and wonton frito relleno con camaron (fried wontons with shrimp stuffing).

I was so busy eating that I forgot to take photos but everything was quite good. And there was enough left over to bring home for another meal. They have a lot more than dim sum on their menu so we’ll return to try other dishes.

All in all, an excellent birthday.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - March 2025

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During March, visits to this blog were received from the following 9 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.

From the time I started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 137. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - for example, Hong Kong - a special administrative region of China from which 13 visits have been received.

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The following is a summary of the weather for March in the area where we live:

Similar to January, February and now March there was an unusual amount of cloud cover on many days in March. Generally, the result was again lower daytime high temperatures and higher overnight low temperatures. But, consistent with the "dry season", not much rain.

Part of the reason might be the Poas Volcano which is not far from where we live. Lately, it has been erupting and producing large volumes of fine ash.

Information on current and recent weather conditions, climate change and more in various parts of Costa Rica can be obtained from the website of IMN: Instituto Meteorológico Nacional de Costa Rica (Spanish) or National Institute of Meteorology (English). IMN also has a Facebook page which may be of interest.

Cats and More Cats

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Don’t ever say: “We don’t want to have any more cats”.

It immediately attracts the attention of the Cat Distribution System (aka CDS). In the last several months, we have had a Siamese cat stroll in and out of our house at will. He’s a snob. Doesn’t really acknowledge us - just flicks his ears at the sound of our voices. Walks through the entire house to inspect it, probably judging us. If you try to touch him, he is super quick with his front paws, claws extended. He belongs to a neighbour - he’s clean and well fed - so just a visitor.

Next up for our selection: Little Orange Cat. A small female, a bit nervous but affectionate to a point. She showed up every day until:

This unneutered tom came waltzing into the kitchen one morning. He has the longest legs and is quite pushy. Orange Kitty and this tabby didn’t fight but he established dominance immediately.

So we don’t see Orange Kitty very often now. Now Big Tom is here all day every day, but goes somewhere else at night. He too must be someone’s pet because he is super cuddly and in good shape.

Here he is airing out his “trouble puffs”:

And an art lover:

Lance set up a bird video on my iPad for him to watch:

So all this visiting was working out fine until the day he got underfoot. I tripped over him and fell down, hitting a cabinet on the way. Right arm partially skinned! Bump on head, sore right shoulder. One very red toe. 

The next day we decided I should go to a clinic to have the arm cleaned up. And off we went to Clinica Medica Sanchez here in Grecia.  You can see a general practitioner without an appointment. They also accept MediSmart, a discount medical plan.

Not all doctors at this clinic accept this plan so I waited for one that did, and she arrived at 10:00 am. Dra. Estefany Pacheco is really nice. She asked the usual questions, made sure nothing was broken, then passed me over to a nurse to deal with the arm injury. Well I have to say that debriding a wound with a cleaning solution of some sort does involve a bit of pain! That done, she covered the area with bandage and then ten feet of gauze wrapped around.

I left the clinic with antibiotic cream to put on it every 8 hours. You will not believe what this visit cost me! Doctor consult: 8,100 CRC (about $23 CAD) and 5,000 CRC (about $15.00 CAD) for the infirmary treatment.

Too bad we can’t sue cats for bodily harm.