to portland or not to portland?

ok...sorta an uneventful day for me....

going a little stir crazy b/c i haven’t danced in a week...eekkk...hopefully i will get lots this weekend.

i’m considering a visit to seattle and portland! i have sunday and monday off...so why not?

as i mentioned before....i’ve been looking at art. i’ve seen some on the internet at this place called compound. actually the story goes back to when g took me to portland in june...we stopped in seattle on the way and saw some painting by ferris plock. i liked his stuff and kicked myself after for not buying any.

so now that i’m in the market... i would like to look a bit more at his work. they are having a show at compound with him and a woman called kelly tunstall. garn was there today on his way south and gave it the thumbs up....
so i thought i should see it in person.

plus i could see some friends and maybe dance and stop by seattle on the way as well......

ok...it sounds like a plan...i might do it. haven't decided..but i'll let you know.

:)

g hits the (snowy) road...

should have been a snow day today....

i went to work today...but man..it was brutal. the snowy conditions made it almost impossible to drive. it took me 2.5 hours to get from down town to my office. oh boy.

anyway...i cut out early.... to meet garn, corie and riel...a friend of garnets...at topanga. it was garn’s last night in town for a bit. he’s going to drive to arizona stopping i’m sure many places...im sure... on the way. he said he will bring me a rock.....i’ve always wanted a rock from arizona!

(the lynch women and their damn rocks eh?......only some people will get that one.)

anyway, i will miss him while he’s gone. gotten kinda attached to his grumpy guy humour and big old hugs.

have a safe trip g.....

:)

insanity and beauty...

this is what it looked like from my window this morn...



among the insanity of the last few days...stupid drivers and rude christamas shoppers.

try to take a moment and wonder at the beauty...

:)

snow day...

i couldn't let today go by without a mention of the snow. some people like it...some people hate it. i like it today, when i'm cosy inside with the fire on....i will probably hate it tomorrow when i'm driving all day with idiot drivers. oh joy....

here's what it looked like outside my window this evening...


:)

i'm one degree of seperation....

away from mick jagger.

and here's the proof....
my niece katharina is the gorgeous one on the right...


katharina rubs shoulders with all kinds of famous types over in london...including the prince himself...william that is. so i guess i'm one degree away from royalty as well.

peter said he had to crop the mick's walker out of the pic...good one pete.

he sent some others pics as well.
here's a good one of mum deep sea fishing.


:)

views from my apartment...

there have been some pretty nice views from my apartment lately....here are some of them.




i'm liking my place right now...garns been helping me fix it up and it's getting there. one thing i need though is art...i need a couple of big pieces. i'm looking for a big ceramic or glass peice for over the fire place and some kind of painting or print...at least one to start.

so if anyone has seen any cool art lately...let me know. i've seen a few cool pieces in the past that i am kicking myself now for not buying. one i saw in seattle with g and one i saw at cafe soma...maybe i will go down there and ask about them....

i wanta try and get my place looking nice by christmas...if i can...or at least by the end of the holiday's. a little christmas present to myself.



:)

my skin hurts....

ok, so i think i may have had an allergic reaction to something today. i have a rash...kinda all over....not sure what it from. i remember having this last year. never figured it out....

oh well.

:)

if life was like a pie from savoury island...

then everyone would be happy and have blueberry filling on their faces!

just finished eating a lovely pie that corie bought and garnet delivered to me....wow. thanks guys...what a good day!

...the last few days have been actually. i think it started tuesday. i remember shopping on robson street. i looked up at the new lights at robson and granville and i thought to myself...holy shit!...is vancouver starting to become a real city? since then i’ve been almost feeling happy about vancouver....whaaattt? happy....not b/c of the lights and the city it's self...
but because of the people.

i have a little saying i tell people when they go on about how i beautiful vancouver is..."it's not the place..it's the people"

i hate vancouverites right?....don’t i?? do i?

hmmmm....i thought i did. but recently i have been meeting some nice ones...really nice ones...and getting to know them better. it is really changing my whole out look i think...for the better.

lucy and leo do a dance demo at the legion tonight...

it was kevin j's birthday tonight and he did a food drive fundraiser...it was a fun night...danced tons. thursdays aren't as busy as saturdays. it's really just the core group of dancers... it's more casual and social.

happy birthday kevin!

:)

day off for jojo

i had today off...which was great. first priority was sleeping in...of course.

later garnet and garbs came by and and did some work on my apartment. i think the cat door is now cat proof...time will tell. they also put up a medicine cabinet for my vitamins and tweaked the banner garn lent me...oh and i don't have a million wires under my side board...were did they go?....everything looks awesome..

i put some cool magnets on the cabnet to jazz it up...

when they were putting it up i thought to myself how lucky i feel to have to great friends to help me with stuff..it makes me feel good. it's weird how we don't say stuff like that when we are thinking it...well...i'm saying them now...thanks guys...

tonight garn, mishi, garbs, corie and i went to eat. tried to go to lollitas first but there was a line up...it the pouring rain! so we went to guu instead...corie ordered for everyone..and it was awesome!

i stole this picture from garnets blog...i wanted to put it up for mum and dad. if you guys look at the that chair to the left of the big guy...do you recognise it?? it’s one of your old chairs recovered!


:)

return day....

sorta of an odd day....

return day.

mindless work really...sometimes you have to take abuses from the staff...but whatever...i’m not going to apologise or get embarrassed for doing my job.

for some reason there were a bunch of secret service men in pacific centre today...i saw about 8 of them...that was a little frightening ....they are soo obvious too! they dress like no one else would dress... exactly how we would dress them in a film. black trench coat, black pants...and earwig. the black makes the earwig stand out even more....mic in their sleeve. do they want to stand out?

anyway..later i saw a security guard running full tilt too...i was thinking..ok..i gotta get these returns done and outta here... i have no idea what was going on. if anyone heard anything...please let me know...

later on during my tour for returns i was talking on the phone and then all of a sudden i spotted a girl who made me gasp!...oh my god....the person on the other end of the phone wondered what was wrong b/c they heard my gasp.....i had to hang up.

oh man. a girl. the walking dead. i sure the most anorexic woman i have ever seen and i’ve seen and known many. she was probably about 70lbs at most.

she walked passed me....huge amounts of mascara....black smudges under her eyes. like she had cried so much...that one day she just decided to do her make up like that from that day forth. she was wearing a dress....you could see every bone with just a bit of skin stretched over.

i found it so distressing and shocking that i had to go sit down for awhile.

slowly killing herself.....why that way? why not just take a handful of pills and a down it with a bottle of vodka? why starve to death? you hate yourself so much....that even in killing yourself you have to take the long and painful way? punish yourself......

i shed a tear for her....but i know she will die...most likely soon.

can’t someone stop her?

i said a little prayer for her...

:)

i recognise you....

i look into your eyes...searching for something. suddenly i recognise you. a face i’ve seen before...a hundred years ago.

i know that face. i trace it with my fingers....in my mind.

....those lips.

your touch i already know. i know how you taste.



i recognise something in you....what is it?

is it me?

:)

big apple

if anyone is interested...

this is the dance i learned a few weeks back called the big apple. as you can see it's a very silly dance...but lots of fun!

here is franky manning's version as is it was performed in the movie "keep punchin"..i don't know the year...but late 30's i think.

here is the link;
http://www.ocswing.com/bigapple.wmv

:)

r&r and connecting with old friends

i stayed up way too late last night! no two ways about it! but it was oh so much fun. the legion had it’s 3rd anniversary of the swing dancing event we go to. it was an amazing night and i just couldn’t stop dancing. the beers before and after probably didn’t help the way i feel today either.

sometimes i put so much of myself into things that i get kinda worn out. i do it in my dancing too. i think that why i’m such a good dancer...sorry to toot my own horn...but i have always been good at it....that’s one thing i know for sure. i think that’s one of the reasons...i put my all into it. everytime. it takes more energy....but it also makes it more fun. i do that at work as well sometimes...but i’m trying not to...and in my relationships....

how come don’t do that with house work? hehe

anyway. sometimes there ain’t anything left the next day. but that ok...b/c it was worth it!

so basically i haven’t left my house today. which sounds terrable...but i think it’s great!
every now and again it’s a good thing to do! i caught up with some old friends. talked to my lovely friend philipe from paris who lives in montreal....working a million hours a week....doing his residency in orthopaedic surgery. poor bugger doesn’t get to dance at all anymore...i hadn’t talked to him in almost a year. we hung out when he was doing his residency here for a bit. anyway i miss him and it was nice to catch up.

philippe and me at the airport christmas eve last year...or it might have been the eve before christmas eve...

i also sent a bunch of emails saying hi to people and trying to find an email address for cheryl...hopefully linda has one for her. i feel i need to talk to her.

i found this pic of cheyl...she is almost ready to pop with daniel here. i know. you can't even tell...life is so unfair! lol


:)

psychic connection...

there are a hand full of people in my life that i feel psychically connected with. i know no matter what happens they will always be in my life in some way....even if they live thousands of miles away and i never see them or talk to them....i can’t explain it.

anyway....i had an interesting dream last night about one of those people.

i dreamt that i was at robert ashley's agian....the hair salon that i worked at in Toronto. ash was there and so was keath...and cheryl.

cheryl and i were sitting in the middle of the salon on lawn chairs chatting....the weird thing is...she was black, about 80 years old and blind....but somehow i had no doubt it was her. we were chatting i was describing people to her.

when i awoke i realised i haven’t seen cherly in so long and she’s such a great friend. i miss her and wonder what and how she is doing. she really is one of the most beautiful woman i have ever meet...inside and out.

we had some crazy times in toronto together. i remember when we use to go out together cherly use to tell guys...”we won’t talk to you unless you buy us drinks” it was so funny b/c she didn’t even drink really...she just wanted to line them up...see how many she could get!

she also always seemed to know the right thing to say at the right time....even at the hardest of times. actually i should say ESPECIALLY at the hardest of times. she seems to know when it's important to be there.....i think that's what my dream was about.

i think it was cherly giving me advice.

i should dig some old pics of us up tomorrow...post them

i miss you cheryl..i think a trip to scotland is in order...get me a big burly man in a kilt! ...now that sounds like a mighty fine idea!

:)

who stole all my clothes?

or some bizarre reason...i don’t seem to have any winter clothes! how does this happen? sure i was a couple of pounds lighter last year...my pre-tapanga weight!...but i should have something. i had clothes on this body last winter...i’m sure of it! just don’t remember what they were.

right now i’m doing the vancouver custom of just putting a sweater or jacket over my summer clothes...a habit i thought i hated. now here i am...doing it! it’s like socks and sandals ...shorts and long johns..a vancouver on set favourite!

ok...well..i’m suppose to meet a friend for a drink...i’ve changed three...or four times and i still hate what i’m wearing...i’m such a girl!

i better go shopping! hey, isn’t that what i do for a living all week? oh well

:)

a little too much...

sometimes work takes way too much out of me. i was suppose to dance tonight....but instead came home, ate soup, had a beer and vegged. i probably needed the dancing for the exercise and stress relief.......
but it just seemed too much tonight. i will go saturday for sure.

:)

wrap the rain please...i’ve had enough!

i knew we would pay for all that good weather we had earlier in the fall....damn. some vancouverites claim they like the rain. i personally think they are either idiots, liars or pot heads...or perhaps all three...well it is vancouver!

...yeah...i’m still on my i hate vancouver kick...just in case you are wondering ...hehe


the rain made my day way harder today...and i’m exhausted. fighting wind and rain on robson with an arm full of bags just isn’t my idea of fun.
oh and the driving....it was dangerous out there, for sure. i saw a really bad accident on the way to work. i would be surprised if both parties survived.

one positive thing though...thank god i don’t work on set anymore! i pitty those poor buggers...just trying to make a living. i don’t miss that at all!!

:)

today....

...while at lunch a guy knocked over my lemonata ...."oh" then he begrudgingly said "i guess i'll get you another"...."i guess!" i said....then he sat down. didn't even attempt getting me another...didn't apologize...Nothing! What a dick!

the waiter noticed what had happened and brought me a new one...free of charge. which was nice of him.

but really...It's people like you mister....that make me what to move as far away from vancouver as i possibly can...maybe even further...

:)

giving it another go....

i’m having trouble writing my blog tonight. i’ve deleted it a few times already.....i’m going to give it a go.

hmmm..that sounds familiar.....

giving it another go....

how many times can i do that?

i have hope. i do. maybe i shouldn’t. maybe with every bad thing that happens in this life.....maybe at some point i should just say “fuck it”??

....for some reason i haven’t. i’m i stupid?? don’t learn from life's hard lessons? i don’t know. it can be so frustrating sometimes.

how many times can i really keep this hope alive...it does get weaker i think.
a tiny little flame......waiting to see if the next strong wind blows it out or gives it oxygen and make it burn bright again.....

:)

beers, mojitos and paper umbrellas

so i was roger last night in town...he’s had a pretty rainy visit....he says it’s best b/c if it wasn’t rainy he would be too sad to leave....well.....i’m going to be sad regardless ...rain or no rain.

we had a nice night. started off at steam works for beers and food with gosia and rebecca.

roger had a bit of a crush on the waitress..so i took a picture for him

then those guys ditched us. we didn’t know where to go and gosia said they make great drinks at lolita's and it was on her way home...so she dropped us off.

we were rockin out in the car on the way to lolita's....


when we got there...mishi, garbs, pam and toby were there finishing their night...i knew they were going there but thought they would be long gone. so that was awesome they were still there. i got to met pam and toby.....finally. after hearing so much about them and putting my feet up so many times on the coffee table they built for g. weird i meet them now. that probably says a lot.

anyway...they are a nice couple...i hope i meet them again. we had drinks with those guys and then they were on their way. roger and i stayed for a bit longer...until some really loud guys with too much testosterone and booze in them showed up...and we decided to call it a night.

roger and garbs....twins seperated at birth?


i felt a little sad afterwards.....gosia will take roger to the airport tomorrow....i won’t see him. we made plans to meet in the spring...either in london or berlin. i’ve never been to berlin and would love to meet there.

so until then roger.....

what a great friend you are.

more pics to come....

:)

remembrance day dance

today i started my day late...slept in. garn came by to put the cat door up...it will be awsome...it just needs some refining. it will be great...thanks garn. jazz is going to pissed off...for sure!

anyway, after that i headed down to graville island had a wee chat with mishi then did a few groceries...got some nice fish and lamb. i was thinking i really should do my groceries there more often. itÂ’s so much more pleasant and the food is nice and fresh....and i can good meat there.

roger met me down there later on...and we had a drink at granville island brewing co.

after that i had to go get ready for the remembrance day dance at the legion. it was a 40Â’s theme. it was a great night. roger and i met anne at wazzubeeÂ’s first then off to dance. it was a great night and so nice to dance with roger again.

me in my 40's outfit...i didn't get someone to take a photo of me...so i did a garn special...


:)

granny mac

this was forwarded from uncle ian by way of gloria......

it's intersting how grampa leaves the space after the mac..in our last name.



The Most Remarkable Person
I Have Ever Met

By J. Mac Dowall.

Just before the last war, when I was Publicity Manager for a big canning factory, we entertained a very distinguished party of ladies who wanted to visit this new factory. These ladies were members of an exclusive Society and there were Countesses and Duchesses and other titled ladies in the party. Usually visiting parties came to the Cannery in charabancs, but these people came in Rolls Royce and Daimler cars and they made a very impressive entry. I was at the door to receive this party and I conducted them into the dining hall and gave them a quarter of an hour's talk before taking them over the factory. After the tour, we returned to the dining room for tea. After tea, I thanked the ladies for doing us the honour of visiting our factory and expressed the hope that they had found the visit interesting. I expressed the sincere regrets of the directors that they were quite unable to be present to receive such distinguished guests in person, etc.,etc. The visitors' Lady Chairman thanked me for my remarks and for the hospitality extended but said they had no intention of departing from the factory without seeing and talking to our Managing Director who happened to be a woman. My smooth excuses were determinedly whisked away, so I had forsooth to go to the managing director's office upstairs to tell her that my excuses for her non-appearance would not be accepted. "But I'm terrified" she said, "they are all such distinguished ladies compared to me, I simply could not face them. What I cannot understand is why you should take this visit just as a matter of course". In reply I told my managing director that none of the Ladies below had impressed me nearly as much as my own Mother had done and for that reason, I felt quite at home with them. This reply struck my employer quite dumb and she followed me into the dining room without a word.

My Mother brought up a family of eight children in a five-bedroomed house. There were three years between all the children; four boys and four girls. My earliest recollections are of going to school and playing games. I cannot possibly conceive of anyone having a happier childhood than I had. Now that I am a man of fifty years of age, with a family of my own and a wide experience of the world, I have come to realise what a remarkable person my Mother was; how wise, how capable, how knowledgeable, how efficient she was. My Mother was a Scotswoman five feet in height. She was born in Glasgow of shopkeeper folk, but she was very proud of their ancestry. My Father was a zinc- roofing contractor who came from Dumfries. When my parents were first married they had a flat in Springburn Park and a maid to keep the flat tidy. After my two older brothers were born my parents left Glasgow and went to live in Liverpool, where I was born.

Never in all my life did I ever see my Mother flustered, weeping or at a loss. I never saw her do any manual work more arduous than baking scones or bread. She was the most marvellous organiser of labour I have ever seen. None of us children ever went into the house without a job being found for us almost instantly. As we did not employ a maid, the work of the house had to be shared by all its members. As a boy of ten or eleven my jobs were to run all minor messages, to clean the cutlery, keep a constant supply of wood and coal for the fire; to empty the ashes into the waste bin and woe betide me if a single black cinder was found in the waste bin when I had finished. I also had to turn the joint on its spit and key on Sundays when I came back from Sunday morning church.


-2 -

Later on when I was about thirteen or fourteen other jobs would be given to me with clockwork precision, notably, I was entrusted with washing and drying dishes, calling for groceries, meat and fish. If I was a single halfpenny out in my change, I received a sound spanking from my Father after he had finished his evening meal. My Father never asked what I had done, he just laid on and, as he was a very powerful man, my misdemeanours at home were few and far between.

The economies which were practiced in our household would have put a Jewish family to shame. No soap was used until it had been thoroughly dried and hardened by the kitchen fire for at least three months. Any member of the family who left soap in the water, or who left it where the water could not drain off, was soundly thrashed. All boots and shoes were repaired at home and they were all cleaned before going to bed. Nothing was ever done in the morning that could be done the night before. When shoes could not be worn any longer, strips were cut from them for making box-hinges and so forth and they were then filled with cinders and rubbish and slack and used to keep the fire going. I always remembered this. It made the fire burn with a bluish tinge.

We had ten three-pronged clothes hooks in the hall, with my Father's and Mother's Numbers one and two. Your hat went on the top, your jacket in the middle and your overcoat on the bottom. As a matter of fact I didn't possess an overcoat until I went into the army at the age of eighteen. Until I was fifteen, all my clothes were made for me at home by my Mother or by my sisters. If by chance you left your hat or coat hanging about, my Mother would throw it into the coal cellar without a moment's hesitation. Ours was the most orderly house it was possible to imagine.

When my Mother bought tea she emptied the packet into the tea caddy; she then tore the packet open and emptied the half-teaspoonful which lurks in the cracks of the packet into a biscuit box. A similar procedure was adopted with sugar, and flour etc. It was in this way that my Mother built up her reserve stores. If bacon was bought, it was always bought in quarter pounds so that we got the "turn of the scales".

Until we were quite grown-up we all went to bed in the dark and got up in the dark. The idea of using a light in the bedroom never occurred to us, although we had gas in every room. At holiday times, my Mother and Father would take my younger brother and myself to the seaside just across the River Mersey to New Brighton. It was five miles walk to the Liverpool Landing Stage. My Mother and Father travelled to the Landing Stage by tramcar but my younger brother and I would leave home an hour or so earlier so that we could walk to the stage. On our return at the end of the day, my Mother and Father would return on the tramcar and we boys walked back again. If by any chance we got home before our parents, we received a penny apiece. As my brother and I were both good runners and walkers, we often earned a penny this way.

We lighted our houses with gas in those days and bills would come in from the Gas Company every quarter. As a boy of about eleven years of age I remember feeling a thrill of importance when my Mother said to me, " Joe, here's 12/11,(12 shillings and 11 pence), you can go and pay this gas bill. The Gas bill had to be paid at the Gas Company's office at the end of the town about five miles away.

- 3 -

An elder brother drew me a rough map of the route. I found my own way there and back. I came home with the receipt feeling very important. It was quite a day in my life.

Once every month all jam-jars, bottles etc. were collected and taken to the shops to be redeemed for cash. Woe betide you if you broke one! So naturally we soon became deft handed and quick footed. On washing days we all took turns at folding and mangling the sheets and blankets. And in the winter months our youthful patience and powers of concentration were sorely tested when we rolled wool into balls and unravelled the skeins. No parcel was ever untied carelessly in our house. The string had to be un-knotted no matter how long it took. All wrapping paper was carefully folded and put away. If the package was only fit for burning, it would be damped, and filled with ashes to keep the fire burning. The tissue and wrappers which covered apples, oranges and bread were most carefully folded for the toilet.

Our coal was bought loose in two-ton lots and one of my jobs as a boy was to see that the whole cartload of coal went into our coal cellar and that every particle of coal dust was swept away from the doorstep: coal and milk with the only articles which my Mother would permit to be delivered to the house. Nothing was ever bought at the door. No weekly insurance or hire purchases were ever entertained. The only people who called at our house were friends. Casual acquaintances were not encouraged and to be invited to our house was a very high mark of favour. We never knew our neighbours. My Mother said that once you started being friendly with neighbours, you had to continue for courtesy's sake and this could be very trying. Only friends of most ancient standing ever got past front parlour.

As a small boy I was very puzzled by many of my Mother's remarks. One of these was "there is one law for the rich and another for the poor." "a liar and lawyer are the same thing ".
"If you go to law, only the lawyer wins". As a studious and well-informed youth, I told my Mother that she was wrong; that there was only one law in this country of ours. "You think so "she said; "you wait till you grow older, and don't forget what I've told you ". I have lived to see the day when I learnt from bitter experience and with great expense that my Mother was right. She was never wrong.

Shortly after this discussion, there was an outbreak against the Jews in London and my Mother was very upset. Nobody in the family could understand my Mother sympathising with the Jews. We had never known any Jews. We asked her why. My Mother said the reason why the Jews were disliked by ignorant people was because they were jealous of their success in life and abilities in general. My Mother went on to say that Jews were a highly gifted race who led a most upright and moral life and whose methods we would be well-advised to copy. They maintained their own poor and asked charity from no one. Where people were poor but capable they lent them money without security. She enjoined us all to help them whenever we could; never to oppose them and to especially copy their example in business and money matters. She further said that we were children in wisdom compared with the Jews. This advice surprised us all very much and we never forgot this episode because we had all been brought up to believe that there were no people like the Scottish people; they were the salt of the earth.


- 4 -

I reaIly think that one on my Mother's greatest feats was the unfailing regularity with which we attended school and Sunday school. Not one of our family of eight children was ever late for school or Sunday-school. I went to school from the age of three to the age of fifteen. We have only three children in our family but I would be quite safe in saying that our children were late for school on dozens of occasions.

Having studied dietetics, I know now that my Mother knew everything there was to be known about food. We had home-baked bread, home made jam and home-made scones. Bought pastries we never thought of until we were well grown-up. We had oatmeal porridge made from pinhead oatmeal: nourishing barley soups and broths and plenty of milk and buttermilk. Fresh herring and fruits were on our table three or four times a week. Condiments were never seen on our table and no one in the family ever had indigestion. I caught my first cold after I'd be in the army about six months. If any of the older members of the family had a cold, all their dishes were kept perfectly separate and washed separately. And nearly all our medical remedies were homemade. The value of the good feeding which I had in my early formative years was brought home to me when I took part in a forced march from Arras to the Somme in 1916. After resting, feeding and washing my feet, I still had sufficient energy left to play cricket or football until it was dark.
My Mother brought up her children to be tough - for their own good - she did not believe in mollycoddling children. I know now that in spite of her rigid economies that she was most generous. I know now that in spite of her rigid discipline, what she did was for our ultimate good. Her motto was " if you spoil children, no matter how much you love them, you will live to regret it ". She earnestly advised all of her children not to spoil their children and to bring them up tough.

My Mother treated every member of the family alike. To stimulate the spirit of competition amongst us she would ingenuously praise some member of the family who happened to be missing from the company at the moment, but she would seldom praise any of us to our faces. She would point out your faults by saying what a dreadful thing it was to see in such-and-such a person. With her grandchildren, my Mother was diplomacy itself and they all thought the world of their Granny Mac.

When my Mother reached the age of ninety, her mind and brain were as good as they had ever been. Just before her ninetieth birthday she fell from top to bottom of the stairs. The doctor was called in and took her to hospital at once in his car. After two days in hospital, my Mother was bored so she dressed herself, walked out of the hospital without saying a word to anybody and came home, greatly to my sister's alarm. The fall had not harmed her in any way, a most remarkable escape. The doctor came in again; he said my Mother's heart, limbs and lungs were perfect and that she would live to be a hundred easily, but my Mother had other ideas. She had always been of a lively and active disposition and she loved discussion. As time had gone on all her old friends had died off and she had no one to talk to. She told us that she was going and made all the arrangements for her funeral, even down to ordering a bottle of whisky. She insisted that we must not waste our hard-earned money on flowers; We had given her plenty when she was alive and the flowers would be no good for her when she was dead, and so she went. Her contribution to life was a great one and her teachings will live forever.

********************************************** J Mac Dowall 1948

happy remembrance day...think of those who have sacrificed so we can have the life we have...it's important.

:)

pretty good day all around...

well...today was a pretty good day...i have to say. even though it started off with a wall of rain. i planed my work day carefully ...so i would hit the indoor malls and underground parking first..to give the rain a chance to calm down. it work perfectly ..by the time i got to robson st..it was barely raining ...awesome!

got off nice and early from work...almost unheard of early...and met with roger, gosia and robert at the namn....i know..the namn!! not really my kind of place.....

it basically stands for every thing i dislike about vancouver... vegetarians, hippies and slow service...oh..and we can’t forget folk music! there was a woman there trying to play some....not so good.

oh well..it was fun anyway...the star of the show really was the glow in the dark....aniballoon


a very cool toy that i gave it to roger as a thank you for being such a great host when i was in zurich.

this is his counterpart that i bought my self...kozik digi skull


:)

day with roger....

it was my day to hang out with roger!

and what a fine day it was.... a beautiful day. sunny cool and crisp. roger said he’s a little disappointed that he came all the way to vancouver and it wasn’t raining...lol. he should have been here a few days ago.

we met for coffee first and catching up at aritigano....then roger wanted to get some shopping done so we headed to robson st.

i had to take this as proof that roger buy’s lululemon!!...ok....it was mostly for his sister....but there was a pair of fine workout pants in that bag for himself!

so after spending a load of cash there we went to the kids market on granville island to find a baptism gift for his god daughter.

then it was off for a fancy drink and a view at the bayside and dinner at zakkushi


oh and we had to have ice cream at mondo...i had yummy grapefruit sorbet and soy chocolate/vanilla

wow..if this had been a date..it would have been very romantic!

:)

fish out of water....

i went to see my theripist today...and i wore mascara! risky move...but it was fine. maybe some of these changes i've made in the last few weeks are helping. i don't know...how do you know?

she thinks i should concider moving. where?...not sure. maybe london...paris. who knows.

she might be right. i've never felt comfortable here it's true. fish out of water....although there are great aspects...for me..about this city. mainly the fact that i can drive to seattle and portland so easy...where they have the best dance scene..maybe anywhere. londons pretty awesome though. and that reason i just gave has to the the lamest ever!

i wonder what i would do there..to make a living? could be interesting....

:)

heavy rain

i went dancing tonight at the legion and for a few hours, forgot how rainy and yucky it was......it is.....

:)

uneventful day...

a bit of an uneventful day..thankfully i guess.

i got lost twice in coquilum...that was fun. drove by what hopefully never becomes my place of residence...riverview...twice.

....thank's to a friend for few kind words today...i hope you know who you are. ;)

oh yeah...and i took a wee cat nap in my car.

i seem to have a little funny tummy today...don’t know why. i just haven’t felt “right”...in one way or another for about three weeks now. it could be the flu or something i ate, it could be emotional ....or a bit of everything.

hope this is over soon. goodnight

i think i have to buy a space heater tomorrow...my aptment if freazzzing....

:)