Havana Trip, Nov 2016: A Hangover To Not Remember – Ugggggh, I’m getting too old for this shit…

Yup.  This trip was awesome.  Great times spent with friends old and new.  With me and Chris N / “ChanceSchmerr” travelling together as the only two schmucks from Canuckistan (although we did end up meeting up with some others down there, like Jason and Amir and a number of others), it was a different style of trip for me once again.  With us staying as part of 12 FOH travelers in two side-by-side mega “casa particulars” (and wisely within spitting distance of both Cira Garcia hospital, and La Casa De La Musica – so we could have fun, and then go for medical shots afterwards, LOL), it was a crazy romp of Canadians, Aussies, and the like.  Plus, with the overall FOH group there for the week also meeting up with some joint-event items with Gino’s AmiCigar group from Italy and other European countries, it definitely was a united-nations-of-glee week to be had.

Most nights, I stayed up WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY past my bedtime with Glen / Aussie Motörhead-Lemmy / Shrektopus; as his fellow Aussie traveler Stan said, Glen was my “date” most nights / early mornings, and I’ve apparently earned a “black belt” title for the night-time long-haul as a nightclub/bar wingman of sorts.  LOL.  Awesome.

Usual nights occurred of staying up until 6:30 to 8 am, getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep, and then going at it again.  One morning got me a glorious 5 hrs of sleep, and another netted a to-be-unheard-of-in-Cuba-for-me 6-1/2 hrs of sleep.  Stellar.  Needless to say, my fat, rounding-the-corner-towards-40-years-old body crashed hard once back in Canada after about 9 days of craziness.  Upon getting home last Sunday (after 24 hrs of partying, followed directly with 24 hrs of overall travelling, with only 2 hrs of sleep between it all), my bedtime was 8pm, and I didn’t wake up until 10:30 am the next morning.  Add to that the hangover remnants / detox trauma didn’t fully subside for another 3 days or so, and my wife the nurse was ALLLLLLLL too glad to point out I wasn’t 20 anymore.

Ahhhhh, but therein is the rub.  Down in Havana, you can FEEL like 20 if you want to and have the spirit to enjoy the moment.

 

Lots to come shortly.  I’ll try to get a cigar-shop general round-up post going later on tonight or tomorrow, and then may have to delay further for a bit (just got tasked with an overseas thing that I’m leaving for tomorrow, which may tie me up until Dec 15th or so).  But will get stuff going here as soon as I can.

Cheers all.

Prepping for Partagas Encuentros again…

The foodie in me starting to “prep” for Cuba…


Enjoying a pint of Strongbow and a bowl of Thai coconut chicken soup at a pub in Toronto, downtown while The Wife is at a nursing exam at Ryerson U, and making plans for next week’s trip down to Havana. 

It’s been MONTHS since I’ve been on here. Haven’t so much as even logged on to the FOH forum since May or June issue. Purposely still stayed unplugged this summer, to continue the family “healing” and such as outlined before. All those “catch up” posts are done and ready mostly; just sone final proofreading before publishing. Planning on rolling it all out after this next trip down to Cuba for this year’s Encuentros de Amigos de Partagas festival week. 

With that, just heard in the last week that Cuban custom cigar prices are likely going up by 20-35%, a result of higher raw material costs. No doubts also due to the massive amount of additional U.S. travelers too! I’ll have to drink the pain away instead!!!

Bring on the liver prep!

Cheers all.