Why I love Canadians - Reason #42

Saturday morning, no wait, afternoon now.  Still in bed because I have a horrible cold.  It's visiting the North West region so Fiona Land, holidaying in my sinus track although indications are that week two will be a visit to my chest via a raw sore throat. I could get up and do stuff - I spent two days at work feeling like this, but maybe a day in bed with the cats is better. They certainly seem to think so.

That's an old picture, but still a goody. They are mahoosive now and still growing. There is talk of getting the a treadmill wheel thing so that they can get more exercise...we shall see.

Second day of Spring today.  Yesterday I spent 9 hours getting home form New York.  A journey that should take less than 3 hours.  A sloppy wet blizzard hit NYC just as my flight was due to take off.  The plane arrived two hours late, but hey, it arrived.  Some people were looking at 3 days to get home.  The lucky ones boarded the plane and settled in for the 55 minute flight.  We were still there three hours later.  Plane had to be sprayed with de-icer, then they found a fault that took 2 hours to fix by which time the de-icer was useless so they had to respray us. But it took off and we got back to Toronto.  Having left Manhattan at 11.30 I walked in the door of my house at 9.30.  

So is there a point to this blog?  Yes, it's another one of those gratuitous " I love Canadians" stories.  As we sat on the runway waiting for hours, I think it was close to 4 hours in all, no one complained. No one shouted at the aircrew, no one talked loudly expressing an opinion hoping for others to start a riot.  It was very polite, very civilized, very calm.  What conversation there was was " yeah, it's annoying but better safe than sorry".  I love Canadians.

Now off to sleep to let the snow bugs travel south for their week two vacation in my chest.  

Namaste.

Friday 13th. Hmmmmm

The sun's out, snow's melting.  I can't really ask for more than that.  Today sees the start of Spring Break, so no school for a week.  Small person is brewing a snotty cold, and having spent the day at school in his PJ's as part of festivities he has come home and taken to his bed with a cuddly Ipad.  He knows that he is not allowed to watch the American MineCraft videos on YouTube because the guys curse and swear, so what does he do?  He has shut his door "so you can't hear what I am watching."  Nice!

I had the day off today which is a misnomer for a home worker in this century I think.  When your home is also your workplace I suspect the only true way to get a day off is to leave the house.  I'm not grumbling, its all in my gift to control, its more of a realisation. I spent a very quite three hours tying up some loose ends at work, then an equally quiet hour filling in immigration forms so that we can stay in Canada a little longer.  Hard to believe that we have been here for 18 months already. 

Small person and I went back to the UK last month, just to check that it is still there.  It was physically unchanged and it felt compact and bijoux.  The bank has turned into Domino's Pizza.  We deposited some cash and withdrew a medium veggie feast pizza and he gave us a free Tex Mex.  I suspect he was trying to entice us back...sucker!

We had a great time seeing friends, colleagues, colleagues who are friends.  I had a few pangs of home sickness, mostly for the countryside and landscape as Kent is very beautiful and Ontario is very flat and dull in places. but 5 days into our trip we were both missing "home".  I was increasingly grumpy about having to get out of the car to get a coffee; and not being able to park near the shops that I wanted to go to.  I missed cheery shop workers and an automatic car.  Oh that poor rental car...the gear box cried real tears.  Small person missed his dad, TVO and the cats but I'm not sure I got the order right.

Without wanting to sound like UKIP'ers, who are screaming loonies with black shirts in their closets, it did jump out at me that most people working in the shops and restaurants that I went into were from Eastern Europe. It was very noticeable, and as an immigrant myself I say good on them but it just felt very different to be in England and to hear so many different voices.  Here I take it for granted - I really hope that the UK can get to where Canada is with newcomers.  Unless I am missing something everyone seems welcomed here and comes understanding the need to, and with a willingness to, contribute and join into society.  To be fair you kind of have to work hard here because there are no social handouts or tax credits like in the UK. 

One thing I do miss here is British TV.  I miss watching John Snow read the news on C4 and I miss programs that make you think and form an opinion. I watched a few "documentaries" I think they were.  Nothing Bafta nominated - one about people living on benefits in the UK and one about Romanian Gypsies looking for a better life.  I have to be honest - if I was handing out the money those kids in Romania would be getting the cash tomorrow.  The contrast between their lives was stark...penniless in a ghetto living in one room of a burnt out building vs. living in a rent paid flat, getting cash for nothing from the ATM twice a month and spending it all on booze and upgrading your iphone.  One couple moaning that they had to pawn the XBOX to get food.  One guy said "I'm only 18, I'm too young to settle down and get a job, I want to live a bit first."

There is something very wrong with a society that lets you leave school with hardly any education; a mindset that getting a job is a life choice rather than a necessity and give you money rather than help to get on a more self sustaining track.  I guess that's easy to say from here eh?

Curly Sue moments

I wrote this, sat in O’Hare airport as the sun set on a long, long but enjoyable week. 

It started well, arrived Sunday lunchtime and spent a calm 2 hours wandering around the Art Institute.  I’d love to sound erudite but in honesty I was very tired so just tried to absorb and get inspired by just being there.  I had my “go where your gut tells you” brain on…not hugely interested in Asian ceramics I ended up there in error and thought about turning back to the main corridor, but some thing told me to keep going.  So I did and that is where I found the coolest artwork.  In the Japanese section there is a darkened room with 16 identical square pillars (can a pillar be square?  Dunno).  It was calm, quiet and it had serenity and soul.  The art was the physical and the spaces in between.  Did I stumble on it by chance? Universe at work?  Planets aligned? ... there is something in this intuitive business.

Storms raged in the East so my trip to NYC didn’t happen.  I stayed in Chicago the whole week; had a great meal out with colleagues and then 4 great meals by myself in my PJ’s.  They were room service rather than a fashion choice in a restaurant.  My need to be in NYC was for a 2 day meeting so in order to participate I ended up dialing into that from Chicago.  Two days, in a windowless room, on a conference call speaker phone.   And then a saw it…the wall of the room was a white board.  14 foot wide and 10 foot high…it had to be done.  I drew a mandala…then it got bigger, then it became a flower.  By last night it was 8 ft high and 4 feet wide, with a flower pot at the base.  Then there was an elephant next to it – a request from a colleague in another State. 

Last night I wandered back to the Art Institute to get a gift for small person, both for my being away and for his achievement at school – he was given an award for his conscientious behavior – best in his year last month.  That’s huge progress from last year when he was miserable and struggling to find his tribe.   So I surfed the gift shop and got cool museum gifts and then I wandered back to the hotel via a different route.  Looking for a tech store, but also getting some air.  I turned right on instinct and saw what looked like a tech store 300 yards ahead.  It turned out to be a men’s clothes store but right next door was the biggest most fabulous art store ever...Blick.   All tech purchases became irrelevant and I had a great hour drooling and buying sale items.  “Look how much I saved!” being my mantra.

So today, back to work – same room, no window, day three.  The white board now clean and white - much to the disappointment of the team sat outside the room.  Earlier today a young guy stopped in the doorway, wanting to see it close up!  I had thought that I was doodling in private.  We had a chat, he asked me if I was an artist and I said “yes, I am” which was cool.

Then as he walked away it occurred to me that if they could all see through the etched glass office window, to see the doodle, then most likely they could see other stuff.  Had they seen those Curly Sue moments earlier in the week when I was wearing a dress and had to keep yanking up my tights like a six year old at a birthday party?  We shall never know.

12 Days of Christmas

According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, "Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year."

Well if that is true, looking at the 2 week forecast for the UK, it's going to be a dry spring, cloudy summer and heavy rain in September.  I guess there may be something in this after all?  If I look at the forecast for Canada that would give us snow in July and August so maybe as a folk law it only works in Blighty.

So, these 12 days are meant to represent a cessation of work and 12 feast days as we say thank you for the year past and set things in place for a great year ahead.  Judging by the number of Out Of Office emails I got yesterday the cessation of work is certainly true.  I have ceased work for the week and am in that limbo of too tired to do anything, too bored to sit still.  Earlier this week someone refered to that as having a "monkey brain"...always moving and bouncing around.  Sounds about right.

Christmas Day tomorrow.  Three days ago I double checked with my husband that we were invoking the $25 a present rule ( I have bought him a DVD, who said romance was dead!). "Oh no, that was last year when we had no money" he told me.  Crap! What to buy, what to buy? And how funny that he thinks we now have money, bless him.  He reminded me that he wants a new razor but could I find the model anywhere? No. So yesterday, defeated, I emailed him at work to go to Walmart and buy it and I'll wrap it up. I found the present that he bought me hidden in the wardrobe.  By accident...honest.  It's wrapped up so I can't see what it is but the smart money is on one of those coffee machines that you put capsules in.   Ooh I hope so.

So back to 12 days and 12 months...every year for the last five years I have created a vision board for the year ahead. Sounds weird maybe but I believe that if you visualize and articulate what you want it will happen. Some say that it is the universe responding to your rhythms, others that the frontal part of your brain is now consciously seeking what you want.  Whichever, thinking about it and planning it will make it happen.  They say "be careful what you wish for" and that is why.

This year for the first time I also created a 12 month wall of activities...post it notes of fun stuff that I want to do each month.  I was staring at that wall planner earlier...it's huge, 5 foot by 4 foot.  And I have completed 38 of the things posted this year, just three things undone, maybe 2.5 because sometimes opportunities come along that are not quite what you wished for, but an interpretation of that wish.  If you fancy trying this visualization and planning then my friend Louise runs a cool online course starting next month.  There is a link to it on the right of this page.  I have taken it twice...it's a really great way to live the life you want rather than have days passing and you are flowing with the tide.

Next week I will visualize 2015...don't leave any magazines lying around as I will be ripping and tearing.  Scissors? No way, I do it old school.

Merry Christmas!

Afternoon nap with Graham Norton

Four more sleeps or is it five. Dunno. Head is groggy with a winter cold. I have taken to my bed on a Saturday afternoon whilst small person watches Stampy Cat on my laptop and my husband is out present shopping. Feels like a hangover but it isn't honestly.  Although alcohol has certainly played a part in my weight gain this last year,  not so much the wine as the snacks I trough down after a class of "sav" as the wine shop lady calls it.  Having spent many long days at work since the summer I have concluded that you can drink too much wine if you work in HR...others will argue that no amount is too much.  So as I recover from or move into a horrid cold I have declared Christmas to be alcohol free chez moi. We'll see how that pans out.  See if we can make it to NYE, then maybe have some fizz.

Small person broke up from school yesterday, and is very excited and shiny. "It's the weekend now for 14 days!". He has Art Camp on Monday which he will love...they will be making wrapping paper as well as splash painting a canvas. Love that place.  Christmas starts on Tuesday for me, when I shall switch off the work PC until 29th.  Christmas Day will start early on 25th around 6.30am then there will be 2 hours pleading to open other gifts before we give in and drag ourselves downstairs.  Hopefully Santa will have left a surprise gift under the tree...an XBOX One.  I have resisted all requests for video games up until now.  He's 48 for God sake, make do with the iPad!  But having seen small person dancing to Just Dance on the iPad I knew what we had to do. There is talk of MineCraft which we have avoided til now, but given that small person watches videos of other people's games I guess it's not a huge leap to let him build his own world. The family farm that we inherited from him, on Hay Day, just doesn't cut it any more.

So off to sleep now for an afternoon nap, listening to Graham Norton on tinternet...I wonder what Santa is bringing me this year?

I couldn't eat a whole one

"I love kids".  Who really means that? I love mine, I like a few others, mostly though I'm ambivalent. At this moment the house is bathed in silence. The cats are hiding as far from little hands as they could be. The 5 children that invaded the house at 9.06am have left. My husband? He escaped at 9.15am favouring a blood test over the screaming.  And here is the dilemma and the need for some boundaries...the 4 kids who invade ( sibling pairs ) can't play together in their houses as three of the four parents work shifts, mostly nights.  So our house is the beacon of space and warmth.  As we get into winter their desire to play inside will increase. So I have have staked my claim as "the worst mom ever"... Yes, he says mom now... And have started blocking their entry.  It isn't win win as instead of 5 screaming kids I get one wailing and moaning one, and I can't ask him to leave!

So, my quite Saturday morning didn't happen.  I can escape soon for a back massage and reflexology, my birthday present!  From me.  And the when I get back I get at least I hours silence as husband and small person "need to get me a present".  Every year my birthday pops up by surprise, unannounced without warning.  Those last minute dashes to the store are inevitable it seems.

Small person is 7 tomorrow so 2 hours at Chuck E Cheese has been bought.  Screaming, junk food, jumping and sliding.  Just like my house this morning, but at Chuck E's they have a large mouse and coca cola. Small person tells me that the three kids from his class that he invited may bring their siblings! I hope they bring cash too.  His chums up the street are all coming and one whispers to me before he left earlier, to tell me what he has bought for a present.  "It's only small, some were $25 and my mom said she wasn't paying that, so we got one for $5". Bless them.

In other news, still overweight needing to diet and do yoga.  Small person is vey happy at school now, but his effort and output is poor. So he's going back to Smart Club for after school lessons. I'm not a pushy mum ( I still speak English ) seeking A grades.  I want him to get at least "satisfactory".  He is not happy about the return but hey ho!  The cats go into the vets hospital on Monday to be spayed.  One has been howling at the boys for 10 days. When they go out to school and work she is silent.  Poor cow!  US Thanksgiving has seen work turn from frantic and wine inducing, to silent and calm.  I spent a lovely 2 days processing paperwork to India; filing and taking training modules. I had two meetings in 2 days and the first 15 mins of each was spent discussing how quite it was. My art is on show at the Alton Mill gallery; the house needs "christmassing up". I have bought plywood and a jigsaw.  The project begins later today...photos will follow, of either the front of the house, or us at A&E seeking bandages.

Remember Remember the 5th of November

It's funny how some things make you nostalgic.  For me bonfire night always has fond memories. The Fire works, the bonfire on the village green, sparklers.  Love sparklers.  We had planned to light some fireworks here in Canada but the local fire service, with the power of telepathy and a keen knowledge of Diwali, headed that off.  Notes were delivered to every house last month reminding us that you need a permit for fireworks outside key holidays.  Not many folks here know about Guy Fawkes Night, but I guess why should they?  My husband explains it using language like "celebrating the thwarting of Catholics trying to blow up parliament" which is factual if a little emotive in today's world.  We forget that all those years ago the religion to persecute was Catholicism.  Society now having moved on to stigmatize other faiths.

I remember aged 4 or 5 waiting for Dad to get home so that we could light the fireworks. Him trying to light a Catherine Wheel with little success. Going back to try again...never return to a firework Dad.  Remember the firework code! That memory is over 40 years old but clear as day in my head.  I think nostalgia comes from having a child around.  I remember things I did at his age, consciously to try to contextualize and understand his behaviour, and randomly or most likely subconsciously At the oddest times.

Over the last month we have been creating memories, traditions, habits. It is now our tradition to go apple picking the weekend prior to Thanksgiving; to bake pumpkin tarts on Thanksgiving day; to go Trick or Treating for the fun of it; to go for brunch at Denny's on the first Sunday after mid month payday.  Then there are the classics - Santa starts watching you from July ( when all the christmas cartoons are on TV) for his naughty/ nice list; no Christmas decorations can go up until after my birthday; the Christmas cake must be made before Grandmas birthday (Nov 25th); The trip to see Santa at the Pioneer village around the 23rd Dec.  "do you think he is the real Santa mummy?" Maybe, although he may be a helper as Santa is very busy.  "No, he is the real Santa because he was really old!" Okay.

Another memory that stirs at this time of year is watching, with my Grandma, the Remembrance Day service on the BBC. Born around 1903 she lived through both world wars, Granddad fought in WW1, lied about his age and sneaked off at 14 and signed up for the adventure. I have vivid memories of grandma telling me about being given tins of condensed milk during rationing in WW2 and feeling terrified she would get into trouble, only for the bottom of the bag to give way and them all fall out right in front of a copper.  I remember dad and her telling me about them arriving home to find that the front door had been blown off by Gerry bombs.  I wasn't there, clearly, but it is part of my life. Remembering and respecting are very important to us and we are starting to help small person understand  and show respect for history.

We are off to the local Cenotaph on Sunday to pay our respects. Small person with his Beaver Scout troop and me close by.  I think that those connections to history are powerful influences. Last week at work someone shared a comic image on the intranet with likely all the best of intentions... A photoshopped picture of Kitchener from WW1 propaganda. It offended me. I mulled over it for some hours...why did it offend me?  It felt disrespectful in some way, maybe it was the ignorance of its origins by the sharer that offended me. The apparent lack of  of education about recent history offended me.  It felt like trampling across graves in a grave yard if that makes any sense.  I felt compelled to raise my concerns. Others shared them and the photo was taken down.  It rare that stuff bothers me that much but we really do need to understand and remember what others sacrificed so that we can live the lives we want to live.

More upbeat next time I promise :-)
Happy Wednesday