Sojourn in South Africa 2010

It is with somewhat of a heavy heart that we take this trip to South Africa in July 2010.  Mom J is moving from her own apartment where she has been mostly independent and free to make her own choices about when to eat, what to eat, when to go out, etc.  The only thing she still broms about is not having a vehicle any longer - from her perspective she needs it to gad about.  From our perspective - with her compromised vision, slow reaction times, directional challenges - amongst others - not least of which is being 78 years old - we think that the roads and highways and their various motorists may do better without her chorrie being added to the mix.

She has had a few set backs that have required hospitalization and while she is now medically stable, she has become frail and weak.  She really does need to have the 24 hour assisted care level that comes with her retirement home.  

So we have made the journey to close down the apartment, sell up or store her possessions and mover her down to 24 hour care.   It has been made a little easier as she recognizes that this move is in her best interests and she is not fighting it.  We have set up her TV, her phone and mobile, her clothes.  We have bought her a wheelchair so that she can still "gad about" on four wheels.

It was wonderful to have Tiffany with us this time.  We showed her some of the sights of London on our stopover too.

In Cape Town, we did all the usual sights: up Table Mountain, down to Stellenbosh to the Wine Farms - we even met Halle Berry and her daughter at the Leopard Sanctuary.  We took multiple walks on Blouberg, and had the opportunity to watch Tiffany surf.  We spent some great evenings with family in restaurents eating our favourite prawns, kingklip and South African steaks.

The best part - reconnecting with family: Lesley and Garvin, and even Leigh and Jo-Anne flew down to be with us, and Mom H stayed with us at the Blouberg apartment that we rented.

All in all, a very good trip - despite the reason for the trip we all had a very good time!

Sliding into Summer.

The school year end has approached very quickly, and I will join the privileged ranks of education staff around North America for my first eight week summer vacation.  It has been a joyous experience working with children.  There have been some stressful moments to be sure, but for the most part a smooth, valuable, and positive work life. 

I have sometimes wished I could parachute into a lost island somewhere in some vast ocean complete with tiki hut, fresh fruit and fish, with an extra tiki hut for a library to while away my days.  But then I would miss out on some of the finer points of life in the fast lane.

Some of the funnier moments of walking the hallways of elementary school: A little munchkin in Senior Kindergarten spies me walking past in the hall: slaps his foot down in front of me and says "Please tie my shoelace".  Then in the playground a group of Grade 3's are playing some kind of ball game and the ball bounces over the fence into the front of school car park where I am busy unloading my equipment: "Miss, miss! Will you fetch our ball? And then the delighted shouts of "She's doing it!" and then the little girl who came up beside me as we walked in the same direction in a corridor: She slipped her hand into mine, looked up to me and said "Please walk me to my classroom".  (This last one because no child is allowed outside of a classroom on their own). 

These steal your heart moments would be lost and what would I do without filling myself up with such pure innocence and sweetness.

And so a year ends on a high note.  More to come as I now have a new contract for the next year of school!

From my tiki hut in suburbia to you.

The 3 R's.

Re-use, reduce, recycle.

We are trying our best to follow the rules of best practice when it comes to waste management.  It is one thing that Canada has taken on quite successfully, barring a few glaring omissions.  I believe the blue box system is nationwide which allows us to recycle glass, plastic, paper, and cardboard.  Our black bag garbage system for all other refuse only happens every second week (although we are allowed up to six bags to be placed on the sidewalk - if we place all six, just how much waste are we accumulating - and our household is guilty of doing that occasionally - particularly with visitors, or after we have geared up for a clean up.). The brown bag for garden waste comes in real handy and allows us to forego a trip to the municipal dump to get rid of the offending items ourselves.  Finally, the latest in the line-up is the green box which took some getting used to in the beginning, but is working quite smoothly for us now.  It allows us to place kitchen compost in compostable liners to be picked up by garbage collection each week.  Apart from the chore of sorting and getting to kerbside garbage disposal is a fairly painless operation that hopefully is having a positive effect on our Canadian environment and the world in general. 

What they haven't yet figured out is the small problem of trucking some our waste to the States.  I think that each community should be responsible for disposal of it's own waste within that community - we should not be transferring the problem elsewhere, even if it is easy dollars for both donor and recipient.

The most difficult to control of all, is our society's consumer driven quest, that is coupled with our propensity to own more and more goods.  The worst part of consumerism is the lack of quality and the built-in fail mechanisms that keep us on the hamster wheel of continuous replacement - my grandmother's washing machine lasted all her married life; while mine is lucky to make it to five or ten years, whilst I shell out huge sums of money for warranty insurance services (that inevitably do not amount to anything due to the number of exclusionary factors that always seem to crop up in the fine print).

Hopefully, in time we will become more discerning shoppers, and more vociferous in our demands for quality.
C'est la vie.

The Perfect Retribution.

Usually it's the giant corporations, oligopolies and monopolistic companies of the world that always gain the upper hand.  They set rules and regulations that are Draconian, Lillipudlian or British Farce in intent.  All the while they seduce you with mission statements that always state the importance of customer care.  When push comes to shove, however, it is always their profits and bottom line that interests them most - try getting after-care service or monies owed from them once you have anted up the cost of whatever 'service' they are supposed to provide.

Not this time though! Talk about David slaying Goliath!  Here's a story about a musician who trusted his prize Taylor guitar to United Airways cargo hold.  He and other passengers witnessed baggage handlers mishandling his precious possession by throwing it around and in the process, broke it in half.  I think we have all been on this receiving end - conjure up the view of all those anxious passengers hovering anxiously around the baggage carousel in the endless wait for your luggage, hoping that there will be no missing handles, split seams, ripped fabric when you can finally drag it off the belt.  We have all seen those bags disgorging a trail of dirty laundry, errant shoes, alarming toiletries, and shoddy souvenirs, and can spot the owner by their red faces, while they scurry in between the legs of fellow travellers, arms stuffed with an assortment of possessions.

Despite long months of trying to resolve the issue, United adamantly and steadfastly refused to re-imburse him.  (Been there, done that).  And then he used ingenuity and creativity.  His answer was to write a song which immediately took off on You Tube.   United scrambled to control the damage, by offering him money to pay for the repair, but too late - the video had gone viral.

It really is worth watching - click on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Lessons to be learned although I don't think I will ever be as clever in my own responses to perceived slights and silliness by those big corporations.

He has even earned a spot in Wikipedia...and best of all he and the band Sons of Maxwell are reaping the rewards of fame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Breaks_Guitars

Woodbine Racetrack

After almost 25 years in Canada, we have finally entered the hallowed domain of horse racing enthusiasts in Toronto.  A cornerstone of Canadian society since its opening in 1956 - The Woodbine Racetrack has hosted the Breeders' Cup and the Arlington Million.  It was also a venue for the 1976 Summer Paralympics.

It is the home of the Queen's Plate which is the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.  At one and a quarter miles, it is the longest race in North America.  It is home to the Canadian Hall of Fame for Horse Racing.  Queen Elizabeth II is due to visit here in July 2010 as part of her state visit to Canada and will attend the 151st race of the Queen's Plate.

We had a sumptuous meal with a longtime business associate and his wife, while watching, and betting on, a few races. 

Fun! and I even won a few dollars betting on horses with interesting names, and jockeys in pretty colours.

In Appreciation.

I have just finished reading another post on a friend's blog and it leaves me humbled and heartsore.  Friends since high school, we have followed each other's lives over the years - she and her family emigrating to the shores of Australia, and ourselves - departing in the opposite direction to Canada.  

Full of expectations and exuberance for the future, we thought we would always have time - time to actually meet physically in their home in Australia - time to sit down and enjoy catching up over coffee and breakfast, or relaxing on a couch reminiscing about the old days, and time to get to know 'us' all over again.

Now it seems that time is no longer on our side.  Mike is still courageously battling cancer, but I can read between the lines - that awful disease is ruthless and I fear that our time to meet as a foursome is nearly up.

And what do you say to someone who has fought, pummeled, and cajoled with the cold and soulless monster that is cancer?  My friend and her family have faced that onslaught with passion, with humour, with determination, and with dignity.  We salute you!

It just makes me think: Make the most of your time each day.  Appreciate each moment and never pass up an opportunity to say 'I love you', or even 'Let's meet'.

PostNote: Mike passed away in October.  Rest in Peace.  Go with God.

King Tut Toronto

A weekend in Toronto - King Edward Hotel on King Street with the aim of seeing the King Tutankamen Exhibition ... hmmm - "We three Kings of Orient are..."

A lovely getaway weekend - far from the madding crowd - no chores, no meals to prepare, no animals to take care of, no phone calls, no computers - bliss!  The hotel is splendid and luxurious, the room cozy and comfortable.  Dinner out and then relaxing.  Saturday morning - up early, breakfast round the corner and then a pick up van right outside the hotel to convey us to the AGO - Art Gallery of Ontario.  Thank goodness we had prepaid tickets which allowed us to bypass the long snake of people waiting patiently to get in.  We joined the hordes and shuffled our way along the designated route of the exhibition. 

It was certainly interesting and vibrant, but the downside of crowds of people leaning into exhibits that ran 4 and 5 lines deep had a major dampening effect.  You were stuck behind 4 layers of people trying to glimpse snippets of views between peoples armpits and shoulders.  Some intransigent viewers would hold up the shuffling minions for minutes at a time trying to absorb who knows what. 

All in all, we came away from the Exhibition with two feelings: One - determined to make a vacation destination to the real site in Cairo and the Valley of the Kings.  Two - unimpressed with AGO management style whose goal was to squish the maximum amount of people into the minimum amount of space in the quickest time for the biggest buck.  And maybe number three: to leave TO to TO's.  Busy, expensive, mediocre restaurants and 905ers made to feel like strangers in the wilderness.

Nevertheless, a good time was had by all - it got us away from the usual after all!