It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust. -Samuel Johnson
Hi Sarika!
Simply wonderful to see you again! I've attached a few snaps from latest email from Ariane, showing Doug, her husband, and the two twin boys, Damien and Corben!
I spoke to Cora Lee, briefly, last night, and she sends her best wishes. Will be in touch once we are back in town, after 27th. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!
P,
Will join you for this ride. I cannot get away at 8am. If you want to go early please do.
Call if this works. W
Patrizio!!
Great to hear from you. You are having a lot of fun. Thanks for the pics, I've sent them on to the (on hiatus) bridge group.
Have fun at the VIFF. A few years ago, I volunteered at the Fringe and head a great time. I even met my wife there.
Cheers, Robert.
Hi Robert!
Just a quick note before I get ready to leave to cycle out to Horseshoe Bay. I saw Peter and Lynne, yesterday, at the Memorial for Basil Stuart-Stubbs, former UBC Librarian. We sat together and before the service started Peter mentioned that the had received the snaps I'd sent to you. He was rather puzzled about how you came into possession of the pictures I'd taken in late August! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi Ariane!
Thanks so much for the wonderful "train" shots! Great to see the lads growing up!! Fond regards and best wishes from Cora Lee to everyone. Cheers, Patrizzio!
I thought Peter might wonder about that. LOL.
Cheers, Robert.
Cody just let me know that he saw on Face book the Annie passed away today, so sorry to hear the sad news. She lived a great and long life and she is off to a better place.
Hope you are all doing OK, hugs and kisses.....Pam
Hi Spumoni!
Thanks so much for your kind words and condolences. Must really apologize for replying sooner.At any rate, fond regards and best wishes from Cora Lee to everyone. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi Patrick,
I just saw on Chloe's Facebook page that your lovely mom passed away today. I'm very sorry to hear of this - she was a wonderful lady and she will be greatly missed.
Take care of yourself, give our love to all.
-Alastair, Kirsten, Margot and Elise
Hi Flash and Super K!
Thanks so much for your kind words and condolences. Must really apologize for replying sooner. Been a bit hectic, of late, as I'm sure you can well imagine.With respect to the program of service for the Memorial, I was wondering if I might "impose" on you to help me put the template together. Chloë, Cora Lee and I met with Janice Guthrie, one of the ministers at Trinity, this past Friday afternoon, to begin planning the order of service. If you have the time and inclination, I thought I'd forward some of the material, both from us and Janice, along with thoughts on design, over the next week or so, part of my "homework" while in Parksville.At any rate, fond regards and best wishes from Cora Lee to everyone. (I chatted with her, briefly, last night, and mentioned I was hoping to seek your professional aid!) Let me know what you think about the template and we'll plan accordingly. Thanks and Cheers, Patrizzio!
I will have to get her email address.
Not sure about plans for this weekend. I have a teleconference about 2013 Worlds on Sat so might not make it over.
Have a good trip and I will let you know. Wayne Sutherland
Hi Sarge!
Thanks. I'm riding to HB with Whirlygig at 10:00am. Will be in touch. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Good morning from the malarial swamps of Richmond to the latte
drenched ski slopes of the north shore and the other domains inhabited
by the denizens of the nrbc.
Before responding to Patrick's legal query I wish to draw your
attention to the email from our friend Jane Henry that I am forwarding.
She is working on a fundraiser at the Rio Theatre for the playground of
her son's elementary school. The rest is explained
if you open the links to the poster and the trailer for the charming
Czech children's film Kooky that has recently been dubbed into English.
Hope to see you there on the 23rd.
As for Patrick's question, while I have great sympathy for his
state of utter confusion, I can only point out the obvious. In absence
of any discernible source of law such as a constitution, statutes,
regulations, etcetera his problem is not amenable
to a legal solution. I can only suggest as a matter of common sense
that if he picks a book on behalf of Dave, then someone else, say Misha,
will pick a book in Patrick's name, and so on. This seems both
symmetrical and fair. After George has picked Misha's
book, the door mouse make wish to serve more tea, or maltage.
I am currently reading a fascinating book that we may wish to
consider for the list at some point. Tournament of Shadows could be
considered background for Greenmantle. It is about what the British
came to call the great game, the competition with Russia
for control of a large part of central Asia from Persia to Afghanistan
and Tibet starting In the early 19th century. It's a great read as they
say, and introduced me to what may have been the origins of the British
intelligence service within the East India
Company's Secrets and Political Department. Also to Kipling's Kim as a
candidate for the first English spy novel.
Returning to more more practical matters I am certainly okay with
changing from Sundays to another evening for our meetings. However with
the pressures of work and all, a distant memory for some of you I know,
I still prefer weekends. Otherwise the date
suggested by George works for me. Guy
Always a pleasure to read the cogent, lucid and otherwise elegantly considered and rendered judgements of our learned consiglieri. Given his "dominoe' solution, (If I might be so bold as to so characterize it in this pedestrian fashion), I put it to the NRBC that we next read David Adams Richards' River of the Broken Hearted. I trust this 'umble suggestione will meet with everyone's approval. Please reply by DDT Post or Espresso Express at your gentlemen's earliest convenience.
I am off to Vancouver Island shortly, (riding with the Steadfast Whirlygig to Horseshoe Bay), house/cat sitting at Madroña Manor, Il Palazzo di Millionaires. Cora Lee went over on Saturday to meet with lady who has been there ever since Grogg and Lurchesca left in early August. This stay, being the case, I won't be able to attend the Kookster showing on the 23rd but hope to take in some of the series upon returning. Cheers, Il Conduttore!
Pat,
Martin Amis is appearing in
Vancouver on Oct.14, two days prior to Writers' Festival. He has just
written Lionel Asbo: State of England. ASBO is an acronym for
Anti-Social Behaviour Order in Britain.
Hope the ride goes well. Ray
Hi Raymond!
I am off to HB at 10:00am, riding with the Steadfast Whirlygig! Our Book Club read Amis' The Pregnant Widow a year or so ago. Much earlier I read his Experience, an auto-biography of sorts. I hadn't known, at the time, that one of his female cousins was the victim of a serial killer. Her terrible death had a profound effect on the family, as you can well imagine. At any rate, I like his work so I think we may well try to attend the event,
Buona Fortuna with the sledgehammer! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Ayn P shared a link:
Hi Lads!
Try this on for size:
|
Yikes that biking is a dangerous sport!! Glad to hear you weren't seriously injured and it sounds like your drinking arm is good to go to raise a scotch or some wine so could have been worse.
We are in the middle of busy the start of the busy hockey season, camps and now tryouts have started for AA, Dustin was on the ice Saturday and Sunday and is back again tonight at 5:00. One of the kids in the group after us fell and got his arm skated over, so was quite serious, ambulance had to come and he might be done for the season...so will wait to hear.
Trying to clean up house and yard since we were away all summer, Greg has been buying interlocking bricks off Kiijji and hopefully we can do our driveway here in the city. Bricks are piled everywhere.
Dustin has taken up buying bikes, dismantling and rebuilding. So the back yard has a bike being painted and 2 more taken apart. Like our yard doesn't already look like the Standards and Sons! (Patrick - that reference is to an old TV show and the main characters were junk collectors) in case you didn't watch that show.
Cody has one week left of work and then will have to start looking for another job.
Hope all are well on the sunny coast, love and kisses to everyone. Pam
Hi Spumoni!
Sounds as if you have your work cut out for you, both on the hockey front as well as on the paving stone lay-away plan! I do appreciate your filling me in on TV reference. I wish everyone was as understanding of my lack of popular culture knowledge!
I left The Islay Inn at 9:50am this morning and Whirlygig and I rode out to Horseshoe Bay. It was another fabulous day so the ride was most enjoyable. Giorgio accompanied me to the BC Ferry Ticket Booth in the village and then he made for home. I ate a couple of mandarin oranges and after washing my hands headed for the spot where bikers wait for the ferry. One is given a password to gain entrance to the enclosed area and I sat on a ledge reading my book, David Adams Richards' River of the Brokenhearted, until it was time to board the 12:50pm ferry.
I found a seat right at the front, on the top deck, and settled in to have a bit of lunch. Chloë had very thoughtfully boiled me three eggs so I enjoyed two of them, along with some carrot and celery sticks. After my delicious snack I continued to read until my eyelids started to droop and I dozed, blissfully, for about an hour, waking up when the sun, streaming through the large window immediately in front of me, was baking me to a crisp. Nevertheless, I felt quite refreshed so continued to read, stopping shortly before we docked to fill my water bottle and vent my bladder, both actions intended to make my coming ride to Parksville as comfortable as possible.
Bicycles and foot passengers are first to disembark so I was speeding away from the terminal, with four other cyclists, well before any vehicles came behind. In fact, traffic was quite light and the climb out of Departure Bay was far more pleasnt than it had been earlier this summer. I was soon at the crest of the hill and making for Departure Bay Road which would take me away from the Island Highway and back down towards the ocean again. Clocked my maximum speed for the ride, going down the hill to Kinsmen park on the water, at 58.9kph and I wasn't even pedalling!
Long grind uphill after that, about 2K's worth, until I connected with Uplands Drive and then it was a roller-coaster until I hit Dover Road which takes one right into Lantzville. Another wonderful downhill into this tiny hamlet and then, through it and out the other side, to return to the Island Highway. Quite busy but shoulders are wide, (as wide as ones en route to Kenora!), and so I steamed along. My new bike makes the slight inclines/grades on this leg rather easy, relatively speaking, so I quite enjoyed this part.
Befoer I knew it I was at the turnoff for Nanoose Bay, a Petro Canada station marks the spot, and I was girding my loins for the ascent up to Red Gap. Since I've done this ride quite a few times before I didn't find it as daunting as when it was new to me. A few huffs and puffs and I was sailing along, heading for Madroña Manor. Bit of dipsy-doodling on the streets nearbye to bring the trusty odometre up to 73.3K over 4:00:28 for an AVG 18.2kpr. Not particularly happy with AVG but there are quite a few hills between The Islay Inn and MM so I chalk slow time up to them!
Found Madame Coraindre watching TV when I walked in the door so after we embraced she went to water the garden and I had a glorious shower in the marble stall, jets coming at me every which way! She needed to do a bit os shopping so while she drove to Red Gap Mall to buy groceries I unpacked and plugged in. By the time she was back I was quite nicely settled in and connected to the wider world.
Coriandre did everything for dinner and we started with a salad, fresh mozzarella with beets, asparagus, lettuce and pine nuts, delicioso. We ate on the deck and it was simply gorgeous, quiet beyond belief. We were treated to two seals frolicking in the water just off the beach in front of the deck we were sitting upon. As the light faded, the attentive waitress brought fried polenta and pickerel fillets, all washed down with a La Frenz 2008 Reserve Chardonnay, 13.5%, scintillatingly flavourful, made even better by the fact that it was purloined from the downstairs fridge, some minor flotsam/jetsam not bothered to have been locked away by our hosts. (Funnily enough, the entrance to the sacrosanct, definitely securely and impregnably bolted wine cellar is literally barracaded with suitcases and a step-ladder. I'm actually surprised that there is no razor wire to further dissuade interlopers from attempting to gain illegitimate access!)
We enjoyed the wonderful meal and shared the experiences of our few days apart, marveling and relishing the star studded sky and the regular sweep of a distant lighthouse's cyclops eye. When the mosquitoes finally made their infernal presence known, we repaired inside, I to do dishes, Coramandel to watch TV. Once the kitchen was tidy I poured ourselves a drop of Kopke Port, Colheita 1997, 20%, my sticky fingers finding purchase in the inviting liquor cupboard, (top shelves, kitchen, opposite sink, for future reference), Grogg's swanky, wall-sized Mac to digitate. Will make for bed shortly but must admit it is truly a delight to be here, very, very comfortably ensconced in a stunning part of the world.
Fondestos and Cheers to the brick-layers of St Michael's Road. Cheers, Patrizzio!
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