Like the mating calls of sarcastic sharks...

Not really sure what to write today; a quick update will suffice, I guess?

• Wendy MacNaughton - illustrator. A new find for me (see chart above). She's great.
• Saw Jack White's solo tour on the weekend - brilliance. All girl 6 piece band, with very pregnant double bass player - double brilliant.
• Saw a theater piece that involved a woman choking on socks and breaking into a dumbed-down rendition of Seal's "Kiss from a Rose." Thanks, Hive.
• Am doing so much self reflection right now that I don't know what end is up. I really don't. Drowning, people, drowning! Or at least only managing a feeble dog-paddle.
• Bracing myself for another dreaded work trip to TO next week. The saving graces (yes, there are two): Dinner plans with R & MM - I know I can expect a push the boat out, really did we drink 4 bottles of wine with dinner? evening. AND a couple of days with my pal A at her farm - it's been far too long.
• Telling Vancouver to brace for Tui's return from Edinburgh - her siren-loud voice won't be tempered by a Scottish accent after only a year, will it?
• Oh, and I turned a year older. Yay, me?

God, llamas and broncos...

After a week of glorious sun, we are back into the summer rain - typical long weekend weather it seems, but that didn't stop A, L and me from heading out to the wilds of Cloverdale for a day at the rodeo...apparently an event of some significance on the rodeo circuit (who knew?).
The fairgrounds were really more just a big pile of midway rides - woefully underutilized because of the weather, but every now and then you'd see one damp child in a rain jacket, shorts and sandals, skin almost translucently pale, looking incredibly cold, determinedly spinning around in a giant teacup or something equally arbitrary. Couldn't help but feel sorry for the kids, and for the fair, which must have been losing money hand over fist.
We spent some time looking at the animals they had on display - everything from goats to chickens to horses to my favorites - the llamas and alpacas. Ohhh such unfortunate hair-cuts on those alpacas. You just know that they will be getting their own back on someone, someday.

But the highlight? THE RODEO. Luckily the stands were covered from the drizzle, so the weather was no big deal. And heck, warmth was spread throughout the crowd as we were encouraged to join in a prayer of thanks - I guess the Lord doesn't get thanked enough for things as specific as horse breeding and cowboy safety, so who am I to judge? I forget we have a bible belt in BC. And as the three of us discussed, bible belts seem to be closely tied to agricultural land, which is maybe no surprise - success or failure is so dependent on "acts of God" (sun, rain, wind...) that at some level it makes sense, as must as anything ever makes sense I guess.
And though I have mixed feelings about some rodeo sports, I can't deny they are entertaining. There is something about watching men get tossed around like rag dolls on the backs of powerful, beautiful horses that is both horrifying and amazing. What compels someone to choose that as a sport, I will never understand - having been bucked off horses a number of times myself, it certainly isn't something I would choose to do for fun. But that's just me, a city gal with strong self preservation instincts.

And it is just those self preservation instincts that make these two women so incredibly important in my world. Well, it is an awful lot more than just self preservation - my life is made SO much better because they are part of it. And not just because they like llamas, too.

Not Dead Yet

Well, DOXA wrapped up this past weekend. Looking back, I think this DOXA was the best yet - at least for me - in terms of the consistency and quality of the films. Sure, a couple were flawed, but still worth the time - and a few were truly remarkable.
Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet is one of the truly remarkable ones. Good old fashion shred guitar isn't one of my favorite things by any stretch of the imagination, but Jason Becker's story is an amazing one, beautifully told. The guy is still a mischievous ladies man, and an incredibly driven creative spirit, despite the limitations brought on by ALS. Any time you're feeling sorry for yourself, pull this one out of the DVD rack (once it's released, that is!). Truly lovely stuff. In other news, the sun is finally shining, work is too busy and stressful for my liking, and...well, and. That's all for now.

That's the last of that bag of flour...

I have lots to write about the DOXA films I've seen, but I don't have a lot of energy to do it...so we will see how far I get. So far, I haven't seen a dud in the bunch. A few to keep an eye out for... Scarlet Road - a truly lovely documentary about an Australian sex worker/advocate/Masters student who has a client base that includes a number of men with disabilities. A wonderful reminder of the importance of human touch and companionship, and a mind-shifter in terms of what comes to mind when you hear "sex worker." She makes my job feel completely meaningless. Big Boys Gone Bananas* - Ooooh so important to see, for so many reasons - the horrors of corporate manipulation so beautifully laid out. Excellent, excellent film. I will never look at a banana, or journalism, in quite the same way. Hard Light - the trailer doesn't do it justice; a beautiful film interspersing dramatizations of stories from Newfoundlander Michael Crummey's Hard Light with interviews with Crummey. I have to admit I haven't read any of his works yet (not for want of trying, oh reading group - ahem!), but after seeing this I am itching to. I almost wasn't going to mention this one yet, as it resonated with me in ways I wasn't expecting...I need to digest more. And maybe talk more. Not sure. But if you have a chance, see it. And you know eventually the NFB will post it alongside all the other wonderful films on their website... More to come, at least that's the plan...

Today's moment of calm....

Back from whirlwind Toronto business trip. It went as well as could be expected, though the one bright spot in the trip - dinner with my pal A. - had to be cancelled as she came down with the flu. So, it was just me, trying to spoil myself in my hotel room, with limited success. As for life in general - things are still pretty challenging. But, I'm pushing my focus to the forces of good (read: the gym, friends, walks, good books...) and am excited by this year's DOXA festival - I have at least nine films picked out to see, hopefully I will feel motivated to write about some of them here. And in the meantime, I will find my zen with Shiro's help....

Lost and found

Thought I'd share a video from my most recent musical experience - not my favorite Andrew Bird concert of all time, but I'm someone who looks less for the polish and more for the passion. That being said, it was still pretty great. I was there with the Terrible Twosome siblings and a couple of friends, including my dear pal L. She is now an Extra Dear Pal after helping me through yesterday's crisis - which involved a couple of large pieces of jewelry finding their way down my bathroom sink drain and into the comforting hammock of the u-bend beneath. This was upsetting for me for a couple of reasons - the pieces themselves, and the cosmic significance that their potential loss meant, and the fact that I couldn't deal with it myself. The u-bend connectors were too tight - not just hand-tight, as they should be. Luckily, between L. and a huge pipe wrench, the problem was solved. Jewelry retrieved, cleaned, and safe. Emotional breakdown averted. And the cosmic significance of their retrieval embraced. Off to Toronto tomorrow - there for a day of work craziness, then I return. Hopefully it will be so whirlwind that jetlag won't have time to set in. Wish me luck.

If wishes were horses....

One thing I am learning is that life will laugh at you as soon as you think you've got it all planned out. There are changes in my life, and though I'm not ready to talk about it here, know it is a rough and rocky road. The right road? Ultimately I think so - I have to think so - but that doesn't make it easy, trust me.

One thing that seems to bring calm are ridiculous cat videos posted here.  Something about Shiro's (the cat on the far left, of course) face makes me smile every time.

I may be awol for a while, or I may be back sooner than you think - right now, it's hard to quite figure out what I'm doing in the next hour, let alone anything more forward thinking, so time will tell.

It's not like I've stopped....

....going to gigs, it's just that I seem to have stopped writing about it.    So, a quick post about the Magnetic Fields at the Vogue this weekend.   It was a treat.  There, that's the post.

Ok not quite.  As expected, it was a low key gig, but for me that made it all the more engaging.  Stephin Merritt's crustiness came out - I love a front man who challenges the audience about their choice to stand up when there are seats available; but that attitude is something anyone who has seen the highly enjoyable doc Strange Powers would have expected.  Anyhow, his bittersweet, sardonic songwriting appeals to me no end, as does his lazy, crazily deep voice.  I taped a few songs, but Andrew in Drag makes me smile every time, so I'm sharing it here.

And that, my friends, is me dipping my toe slightly into the water of writing about gigs again.  I could say a lot more, but I might get the bends.

And a few more

I'm tired. But I'll be back.

Portland is awesome.

Some photos to prove it.  Well, they aren't awesome, but Portland is.  Hopefully I will have energy to say more soon - and hopefully will have some nice photos from the Boy's collection to share :)

Portland...ia

On a quick vacation to Portland, land of beer, hipsters and coffee - very good coffee, I might add. And the hipsters are a surprisingly friendly and attitude free bunch, unlike their Vancouver counterparts...but I'm jumping ahead here.

We drove down with pals A&J, through some pretty crazy snow squalls and rain storms. I would have been white knuckling through most of it, jut J calmly soldiered along behind the wheel. We stopped for some very good Mexican food In the North end of Seattle - somewhere no non-Mexican would know about unless they were a slightly crazed chowhound, as A luckily is. Also lucky is her command of Spanish, as there wasn't a whole lot of English being spoken. And even more lucky? The super tasty eats (see snap of happy munching Boy below).


We arrived in Portland, and stopped at Ristretto for a cup of house roasted coffee, and a chat with the cheery baristas about coffee in Portland - something taken very seriously in these parts.


We got to the hotel (Paramount - nice place, good deal), then went for cocktails at Teardrop - I had the awkwardly named Artistaint (gin, Cynar, elderflower and lemon - lovely arc of sweet to bitter, so very good), then we headed to Deschutes where i had a gluten free elk burger and GOOD gluten free beer (oh how I miss good beer)....followed by more drinks and snacks at Clyde Common. What has struck me the most is the friendliness of the people here - everyone seems willing to provide suggestions of good places to go in their fair town. Such a different vibe than Vancouver.

So - so far, loving Portland. More later:)


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Location:SW Taylor St,Portland,United States

The Christmas of the Swedish Licorice

Christmas is over, and it was much closer to the relaxed Christmas of my imagination than most.   Christmas day, The Boy and I opened presents with Miss Mags in the morning, then headed to Mum's to get ready for the family - and in The Boy's case, set up Mum's wireless network and iPad (she's hip to the technology, people!)

I could talk about how once again I was spoiled, about how delightfully (?) odd my family is when you get them all in one big room.  About how we missed Kerry and Tui at the table, but enjoyed the extra elbow room.  Actually, scratch that re Tui - she made her presence known through a box of xmas goodies sent to us from Edinburgh.  Lovely home made ornaments, soaps, candies...it all seemed so uncharacteristically NICE.

dip dabs and flakes - oh my!

 

 

 

 

And then her genetic link to the family was revealed through a bag of Swedish Licorice she picked up in a recent trip to Stockholm.  So kind of her.  Her uncle appreciated it - as did I.

We enjoyed the challenge of the salty outer shell of the licorice, leading to the sweet inner chewiness.  We are not put off by the UNBELIEVABLE, fragrant nose of cat-pee that wafts to the back of the palate and cleans out the sinuses with each chew.   We are not afraid of the cat-pee Tui, your evil game DID NOT take us down.

It did, however, take down Grandmere and The Boy

A closer look perhaps?

Such kindness from afar, Tui.  Such kindness.

It's Tree Time again....

Yes, that's right.

The Boy and I headed down to my favorite tree lot (ok, a parking lot with trees stacked in it) to pick out another example of the beauty of uncultured trees.  It was, of course, the first one we picked up that we ended up stuffing into the car on top of a camo-pattern tarp that made the whole mission feel a lot more military and precise than it actually was.

I do look forward to decorating.  It is something I started on year two of life in the Bunkle, and this will be year two of having the Boy assist with carefully placing felt birds on the branches, for which I am grateful.  I love the charlie brown tree, the little decorations, the sparkly white lights, the string of pudding carrying cats that make it all feel like Christmas.  It will also be the second year Thomas won't be around to hide under the tree or decapitate unsuspecting wooden reindeer - maybe I shouldn't be surprised at how much I still miss him, but I really do.  And though he had been missing from the celebrations at home for a few years now, this will be the first real year without Dad.  And without Tui - who is too busy frolicking around Europe to bother with her family *sniff*  (There is no thinly veiled jealousy here.  None.)

The holiday season is always a weird ying/yang of happy and sad, relaxation and stress, calm and frustration.  This year I've decided to try and take a little bit of time off after the holidays, instead of before - which I have come to realize never ends up being relaxing time off, it ends up being thinly veiled chaos.  And this year, time off after Christmas will be dedicated to starting the process of transforming the basement in preparation for the Boy's impending addition as a household fixture in the Spring - this will include the creation of a man-cave for his man-stuff, and more useable storage space for the mass of stuff we have both collected.  Hopefully I will have the energy to track some of that process on the blog for those that are interested.

In the interim, I will continue to try and keep Christmas what it should be this year.  Or rather, what I want it to be.

And I will leave one tiny decapitated reindeer at the bottom of the tree, just in case the ghost of christmas past drops by.

cat heads!

 Tui is once again complaining about my lack of blogging.

She requested a picture of Maggie - so here is a picture of her in the bath (?...), followed by the results of Grand-mère's attack on a dark chocolate cat.

And that, Miss T, is all you're getting tonight.

But I will try and do better next time!

Tui's complaining....

...that I'm not blogging.  So here is something brief.

Here are some photos from my weekend with Tui in London.  If you are having troubles identifying which of these photos is of her - she is the one with the wide-set eyes and expensive handbag.

We had a great weekend, despite the Shining Hotel Experience (the problems continued but I'm not going to go into it here - serenity now!)  The weather was awesome, we did a ton of walking and poking around, meandering up through Regents Park and Marylebone.  I fell in love with a cheese shop - not unusual for me really.  And with Cath Kidston bags - this one came home with me and I love it.  For those that are interested, a more detailed account of the weekend can be found on Tui's blog if you poke around and look for it.

It was great to see Tui and to know that things are going well for her in Edinburgh.  Time goes so quickly, she will be back before we know it.  Hoping I have one more work trip to go bug her before her time there is done.

Down to London...and a Thistle with a few thorns

I'm in London for a few days on business, topped off by a quick visit with Miss Tui. I'm a bit groggy, but I do love this city. But I'm not going to blog about that, I'm going to blog about the joys of my hotel experience, at the Thistle Marble Arch. Now, the hotel overall is fine - it is huge (and reminds me a bit of the Shining), a bit dated but clean and with decent rooms. That being said, here's a lowdown on yesterday's check in:

1 - I check in, and am given a key to room 777. I drag my luggage the quarter mile to room 777 (yes, quarter mile), open the door, and SOMEONE ELSE IS ALREADY IN THE ROOM. I quietly retreat.

2 - I walk a quarter mile back to the reception desk - now, the issue at reception is that their booking systems are down and everything is being done manually - they apologize, and give me a new room, on the 8th floor, that is an even longer walk away. I *think* I hear someone trying to get into my room, but think Naah, can't be.

3 - I unpack, relax. Go for a walk. Go to my room. Decide to go back to reception to get a wireless voucher. A tour bus has arrived so there is a lineup of about 20 people. I decide to bail and go back to my room. Which I do, except MY KEY DOESN'T WORK this time.

4 - I go back to reception. Stand with the other 20 people, get to reception, voice my concern about the security in the hotel and have them check that my room hasn't been allocated to someone else. They apologize and assure me that isn't the case.

5 - I go back to my room. A letter is pushed under my door - a fax with my room number on it. But not my name. Result: angry phonecall to the front desk, followed by a sheepish hotel employee at the door who caught my growing concern about the security of my room.

6 - Phone call from the consierge who was "just verifying' my last name (now THAT instills confidence!)

7 - 9pm, I'm half asleep in bed, and there is someone desperately trying to open my door. I go bellowing like a bear with a sore head to open the door, in my PJs, to be greeted by a terrified looking woman holding an apology letter and fruit tray. Yes, they even messed up the apology.

Ahhh the joys. Really, the hotel is just fine. Just. Fine.


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Things at the zoo

 A quick lazy post - I've been meaning to for days, but the truth is I'm completely shattered when I get home from work these days.  So - tonight, just to get back at it, a quick post focused on pictures of animals.  All but one are in the Edinburgh Zoo - which remarkably is a really interesting, non-depressing, vast, clean place - one of the leading conservation zoos out there apparently.  The Amur Leopard took my heart, that's for sure.

I wish I had a bit more energy as I have a lot to say about the trip.  I will start with the fact I want to go back there, I want to see the rest of Scotland.  And I love the fact that when I look at Tui's blog, I can picture where she is and what is around her.   I've been thinking about what this experience might mean to her later in life - it is pointless to say old people things to her like pay attention to every second, as this is going to be one of the best times of your life.  Those are things you realize only when your life gets cluttered with all the things that it does as you get older.  But I do know she will have an amazing time, and part of me wants to bonk her on the head and take her place.  And the other part of me just wants to bonk her on the head.

 Maybe I'm feeling a bit wistful as I watch friends go through what we all go through as we and those around us get older.   I am so grateful I get to go on trips like this with members of my crazy family.   We joke about our family dysfunctions,  but I know deep down how very lucky I am.

And I also know how very very much I will enjoy bonking Tui on the head when I see her again in October :)

Last day, just about...AKA goodbye Hammerhead Junior

Didn't bother blogging yesterday as I didn't take photos. It was a shopping day, with all the thrills and chills that shopping days involve. Somehow all the womenfolk ended up with new purses; Pete couldn't find one that would work with his new Camper shoes so he passed. We stopped at Henderson's Salad Table for lunch (gluten free items marked on the menu!) -very good Lots of walking, as usual.

Today we moved Tui into her new student apartment. It is new to her, but it's not a new building - so what that means is no elevator, and Pete having to drag Tui's suitcase - which must have weighed 40 kg at least - up the100 steps to her 5th floor room. His enjoyment was obvious.

Tui has lucked out with her room - it's large, with a gorgeous view over the old town and Calton Hill. Her roommates hadn't arrived yet (there will be two), but there are lots of activities scheduled for the coming week, and classes don't start until the 19th. I'm sure her social circle will be fully developed by then.

We went for lunch atPink Olive, pictured below. Lunch was really nice - and all the tables seemed to be filled with university students and their parents. Pete and I have been observing the local hammerheads ( wide eyes, overbite ) - Mum and Tui practiced their hammerhead faces at lunch, though Tui has a natural head start on the local look.



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We've said goodbye to Tui now, and it is strange not to have her sitting on the other end of the couch. Something tells me that she will have a far easier time without us than we will have without her.

Tonight's events? A very brief sleep, cab to airport at 4am...good times!

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Location:W Approach Rd,Edinburgh,United Kingdom

Not quite the Parthenon, but close enough

And if I'd taken a photo of it with my iPad you would be looking at it now.

Today started out grey and rainy but turned into another lovely sunny day. We walked from the condo through the Grassmarket, along the Royal Mile, and up to Calton Hill - Scotland's answer to the Acropolis, topped by a truly Scottish version of the Parthenon, the Scottish National Monument (it all started out well, until they ran out of money after 12 columns...)



These photos are from Grassmarket and the Royal Mile.








The last one is where I start to snap. The full hysterical breakdown didn't happen til after pack-horsing groceries and other sundries along the busiest street in town, catching a cab home where my brother and I started bartering over what photos of each other we would delete. Removed from the history books my "Eggman" photo of Pete, and his Jaba the Hutt "Look, she's feeding" photo of me, which I might add made me laugh so hard I was weeping and close to losing control of other bodily functions. Oh, traveling with family.


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Location:W Approach Rd,Edinburgh,United Kingdom

An addendum to yesterday's post....

We went to First Coast for dinner - really great food, lovely cozy place and nice service (foodie pals at home take note!). Pete and Mum had a wild mushroom and barley dish, Tui had lamb, and I had sea bass, with starters of roast eggplant with goat cheese and other lovely stuff. It helped Pete deal with his Scottish food concerns. Methinks the best place for Pete to stay if he comes to visit Tui is the Zoo, with the chimps, as their diet is closer to that found in his natural habitat (95% fruit veg and grains - including porridge - 5% animal protein). He would also be the oldest male in the group by 2 years, which I think would give him first dibs on the porridge, which is really the most important thing.


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