When I was doing extensive research on going to Mexico in my elusive search for somewhere with a lower cost of living I knew that if I stayed I would lose my GIS pension because i was out of the country for more than six months. That was abut a third of my income so I knew that I had to find a replacement to survive. 

I searched and searched for websites ab9ut Ajijic but all I could find were sites promoting Real Estate. There was no site that was a city guide for both tourists and locals, so created AjijicToday several months before going. I had talked to my new friend, Francis Dryden, who assured me that it would be easy to generate the very limited income I needed to replace my lost pension.

Nothing could have been more wrong. I spent countless hours building one of the best sites I’ve ever done. It had everything. When it came time to start marketing the site I knew that my Spanish was far too limited to be able to meet with clients so I started looking for an outside sales consultant. I designed a really attractive package for them where they got the first month’s revenue as commission, plus they got it every year the client stayed with us. My plan was to have the same city guide in every community around Lake Chapala and there would be a rep in every town and village and the first rep would get an override on every dime they earned. They could have easily made ten times the average income in Mexico.

Over the first few months I interviewed seven different women, all of whom were very interested and I was certain that one of them would jump at the chance, but I could not have been more wrong. Not one of them took on the best career they could have ever had and I never earned a dime from the site. Huge disappointment and eventually forced me to return to Canada.     

This was my first attempt at building a band site. They were a great band at the time and I loved Sara Weeks on vocals. Whenever I saw them and asked for You Can Leave Your Hat On I always thought she was singing it just to me.

Although the site is long gone and Sara left the band many years ago this is a video from back them. 

Video

This was a site I designed when I was first in Mexico. My friend at the time, Jack Irish, was involved in a very complicated money exchange project that he believed was going to mean millions of dollars for him. We talked for hours about all the great things that we could do in Mexico to help the locals. As it became clear that this whole scheme was a pipedream I decided to try to develop a fund raising project where I asked just a single dollar from anyone. Naively I believed that anyone would be willing to invest less than the cost of a cup of coffee in such worthwhile projects, but I was wrong. The site hasn’t raised one single dollar so far. Sad. 

Website

My favorite band by far. I met these guys back when I was in Belleville several years ago before going to Mexico. I went to pretty well every gig they had, like the Belleville and Trenton Legions, and the Army Navy Club. Although back then I had talked to them about doing a website for them nothing every came of it. 

When I came back to Belleville and went to their first gig I did talk to them again and they were open to it. The drummer’s nephew had built them a site but it was pretty basic and didn’t include things like a calendar of their upcoming dates. 

Although I didn’t want to offend family or push it I did build a new site for them for free. I invested a whole lot of hours in it, just hoping that they would like it and agree to use it. They did. 

Website

Kingston Ontario Classic Rock, Country and Rock & Roll band

Website

‘Back Swing’ band plays mostly country and rock ‘n roll hits. We aim to keep you on the dance floor, have you tapping your toes and singing along to songs we all know and love!

Website

This website serves two purposes; one, it is a diary of sorts of my life and, two, it is just in case my children, who abandoned me years ago, or my five grandkids, ever want to know about my life. 

For all too many years now I’ve moved to various countries searching for a lower cost of living and that elusive dream of finding happiness. I’ve made a lot of costly mistakes along the way and I admit to them on the site. 

I hope you enjoy the read. Maybe you’ll even learn from my mistakes. Feel free to comment on anything, although I do reserve the right to remove any personal attacks like those I’ve had on Facebook. 

My only regret is that despite having maintained this site for over fifteen years I wish that the technology had been around much earlier in my life, like back in those early days before my marriage and when getting married changed my life forever. 

Back before I lost my Mum and Dad they had a huge box full of mostly black and white photos of my childhood, a box that disappeared after my mother passed away. I would have loved to have been able to scan all those wonderful photos so they would have been preserved. 

Even in my own life back then we rarely took photos. I did have one of those early Kodak flashcube cameras but we didn’t have smart phones capable of taking photos and video so easily. I don’t have photos of my marriage, my kids, the people I worked with, the birth of my son or daughter, or all the sports they both played in. It would be so great to have video of my son’s incredible hockey talent. 

No photos of the various places I lived early in life of of all the houses I renovated over the years. No photos of the many trips around Ontario and the States of all the hockey tournaments we went to. No photos of the time we went to Expo 86 or our trip around BC to places like the Columbia Icefields or Jasper. So many good times that are just distant memories now. 

I have always enjoyed writing, no doubt too much, but one thing that has surprised and disappointed me is that rarely does anyone comment on anything on my site. I have expressed many opinions on a multitude of subjects, some that I figured people would maybe disagree with, but I have been wrong. I wish with all my heart that people, like the many friends I have made in BC, Panama, Ecuador and, most recently, Mexico, would share their thoughts. 

I don’t even know if after I’m gone will my kids and grandkids ever be curious about their father and grandfather to ever look at this site? I always try to maintain my hosting of the site in advance so that it’s there if they want to know. Hopefully I can find someone who will let them know about the site after I’m gone.