The Eve

I have tomorrow off work, as does Kevin. He and Alex are cycling down to Birch Bay, I will be driving down with Whisky - the dog that is, not the drink. Although when we all get there, there will be drink involved, tomorrow being Kev's birthday. Alex has been planning, I have been ignoring more or less. I'm not much of a party-person myself, so it doesn't occur to me that other people like them - and of course, as I knew really, this is not the case.

April has been a whirlwind, what a contrast with last year, and yet there have been moments when I was reminded of visiting my friend Anne in the retirement home. I think it's the cherry blossom as much as anything.

I haven't done the things I had planned this month, yet I have done a lot, and having Alex here makes it all meaningful in any case. She never seems to stop, she has so many friends to see. My baby girl. Such a Gemini.

Because I've stopped listening to the crap eighties music channel on the radio and instead am tuning in to CBC, I seem to have more of a handle on what's actually happening in the country. Getting The Week, also gives me a handle on what's going on in Britain, and what Britain thinks is going on the rest of the world, so I'm pretty well informed.

The interesting thing in Canada this week has been the election in Alberta. Now this sounds utterly butterly dull. The Progressive Conservative party has been in power for 41 years, but all the polls were predicting a win for the Wild Rose party (Alberta's symbol), and to the extent that journos had not only written, but already published articles dissecting the crushing defeat of the Tories. And then the Tories won, by a significant margin. So this week, every journo and every pollster and every Albertan politician, has had to be on the radio eating crow or answering questions about how the crow tasted, or explaining why their party won or lost.
Interesting times.
And for once, even in Alberta.

The Big Events

Sometimes, I forget to mention the big things because they are so much part of my daily life that I don't realise I haven't mentioned them -  like Alex being here for a couple of months, well, almost two months. I collected her from YVR just over a week ago. We both had some tears. She's been out and about, visiting friends, old haunts, shops and places, and it's great to have her here. I'd re-painted her bedroom, made it comfier. It's the only room she has that is just hers right now.

When I left work yesterday, as often happens on a Saturday, I went down to the Static in the States. The border guard looked at my visa waiver and told me to have a nice day,
'And become Canadian,' he shouted after me.

Small Print

At the end of this morning's field trip, I asked if there were any questions. One boy put his hand up and said, 'Why is there an ice-rink here?'
'Because we're in Canada,' said I.

Research in the British consumer magazine Which? has found that terms and conditions on some shopping websites are longer than Shakespeare's longest play. PayPal's are 36, 275 words, whilst Hamlet only runs to 30, 066. Hmmm...

A huge faux pas by Kuwait who accidentally played the spoof Kazakh national anthem from the film Borat when the Kazakh winner of a shooting event was standing on the podium. She had to listen to her country being described as having the cleanest prostitutes in the region. Not good - but accidental. Here in Canada, our athletes have to stand on the podium and listen to our ACTUAL national anthem call for true patriot love from all her sons. Officially sanctioned misogyny from a country that is constitutionally committed to gender equality.

Season of Mellow Blogfulness

Cripes, where do the time go?

The Easter weekend was exceedingly pleasant, four days off in a row. I painted Laurence's kitchen and I planted lots of plants in window and patio boxes. The weather was sunny and warm. The downside to that was that there were people actually playing tennis on the tennis courts, which meant I couldn't take the little dog in there and let him off his lead. Well, I probably could have done, but there would have been screaming and possibly blood.
In the dog park, there were off-lead children, so again, no doggie playfulness. Tears and screams.

Sunday was a day full of chocolate, which is of course, in keeping with the true meaning of Easter.
Today, I was outside, and for the time I was out, it was once more, sunny and warm. The skunk cabbage filled the air with the delicate fragrance of skunkiness, contrasting greatly with the delicate fragrance of the spring smell of Cottonwood. The frogs were croaking like good 'uns out in the bog. And then the rain came. It stopped the traffic, well, that and the fact that the Canucks had a hockey game, a home game. The slip roads onto the main roads into Vancouver were all choked.

But right now, whether it doth rain or shine, the Lower Mainland of BC is luminous with cherry blossom. Makes the heart soar. This is in stark contrast to things I have seen recently where people have described something as an 'eye-soar'. Yes. No meaning there then.