 |
| Illustration: Leah Palmer Preiss |
You didn't answer my question about Bart.
Pat,
Pat,
Too bad on the dinner date but we'll catch you on return.
We received the message about Peter
from Sylvia's friends in Vancouver, Washington. Her brothers also know
him very well. Tough old boy, Peter, I'm sure.
Speak with you later in the week.
Ray
Patriçio,
All very well, but even one photo of you, a bicycle and your feet
on the ground is disturbing. I felt honour bound to report this to
Guinness, which could severely set back your ultimate quest. Lo siento.
más adelante//bjp
Hi Goils!
This exchange with Ray Banks:
Hi Abdomen of Steel Man!
Thanks very much for putting me smack dab in the middle of a nest of Sisterhood Vipers! Talk about A Superfluity of Sistershood. I was completely outnumbered and surrounded, encircled even, by Krypton Woman and her Three Wicked Helpmates! (Wicked yes, but ever so alluring, in a Siren-like way!)
I'm glad you enjoyed the Squamish muleage! I suspect your own home-brew is bubbling away as we correspond, accounting for the need to empty the large bottles immediately upon delivery! Cost worked out to $7/btl, $25/btl muleage fee! If you are still planning to obtain cinema tickets, or have already done so, (not a big deal if you were unable to acquire said tickets), we can settle up then. I suspect I'll owe you even considering the paltry muleage tax!
I'd be delighted to try to connect The Friendly Ghost with our friends, Harriet and Paul Hart. I assume, hope, they are still in Ajijic. Harriet is a terrible correspondent and I have not received an answer to my last few messages. I can pass along their email address to Casparino. I'm sure he could track them down through the ex-pat community there as they are both very active. Harriet is a volunteer on an information desk and in a number of creative writing groups. Paul plays tennis regularly. When we visited, we were always bumping into their friends on the street or in cafes so it is a fairly small place, quite difficult to avoid the likes of 'Oribble!
Funnily enough, there was a Facebook posting from Corey, (F's/S's son in RCMP), lasterday. He and Rebecca, his girlfriend, were in St Maarten. Think they are on a cruise for a week or so. I'll ask Ski about St Martin's equivalent of Wreck Beach as we are trying to iron out dates of our visit.
Am hoping to dodge the raindrops later as I have been instructed to lose The Shaggy Dog/Wild Man of Borneo/Seymour Demo Forest Look by the Strangle of Sisters here at the Islay Inn! I am planning to ride in my swimming trunks in case I do get caught in a deluge. Will save on Aquatic Centre fee so will have a few more pennies for maltage! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi again, Maggie!
Sorry about not mentioning Bart Sackrule but I was never in contact with him after leaving U of Wpg. Where was he living when you lost touch?
This past Saturday we drove up to Squamish to spend the night with close friends, Ruth/Rick. I took my bike along as I hoped to be able to ride the Sea to Sky Highway back from there, weather permitting. As things turned out, the day was simply glorious so I was able to cycle back to Vancouver. Had never ridden that section of highway before so it was quite an adventure. Very busy, with plenty of traffic so I had to really keep my wits about me. That being the case, I couldn't enjoy the spectacular vistas, (Howe Sound with Gabriola and Bowen Island after the magnificent peaks surrounding Squamish itself), in the way one can when a car passenger. Fortunately, shoulder is reasonably wide for most of the way, (Quite narrow along cliff face near Porteau Cove, going north, and right next to railroad tracks, going south. Trains don't bother me, there are few in any event, but reasonably large stones from railway road bed often find there way onto the highway. It would not be a good idea to hit or even run over one as who knows what might happen, particularly since it is single lane traffic in either direction at this point!), and I managed to reach Horsehoe Bay without any mishaps. From there one takes Marine Drive and it is a reasonably quiet thoroughfare, particularly on the weekends. Furthermore, I am familiar with the route and enjoy it immensely. Arrived home just after 4:00pm to find Cora Lee and her parents, Dusty and Clara, watching the Grey Cup!
That evening we had tickets to a Jill Barber concert at a terrific club called the Electric Owl, on Main Street not far from Science World or the Georgia Viaduct. When I was there for a Macallan's Malt Tasting a month or so ago, I noticed a poster advertising her appearance. This time I was taking Madame Coriandre there for dinner and show as my 41st Anniversary of Meeting, (Halloween, 1971, Champs Motor Inn, beer parlour, Wpg, 1971!), present. She gave me a pair of spiffy, quick wash/dry travel underwear and Rick Steves Eastern Europe, to help with next year's travel planning. Latter is really for her but I didn't make mention of that fact! The Sisterhood is quite sly about managing to buy what they want under all sorts of false pretenses!!!Anyway, dinner was delicious and concert simply wonderful. JIll deviated from her signature lush retro-jazz repertoire for an evening exploring classic country tunes of the 50s with a special tribute to the music of Hank Williams. The evening opened with a set with Steve Dawson and the Black Hen house band performing both archival and contemporary country and Americana material to complement the full set with Jill Barber. Steve is an incredible guitarist and the rest of his band were just as talented so it was a more than a riveting, energized and energizing performance. Audience didn't want to let them off the stage!Last night I attended a public lecture at VPL where I helped Kerry, (Whirlygig's amore), unload the cartons of books on sale for David Boyd's talk on the right to a healthy environment. (UBC Press publishes his work and Kerry works in Marketing there.) David Suzuki was supposed to be there but was taken ill, suddenly, so Peter Robinson, new CEO of the DSF stepped in. Simply spell-binding talk. David Boyd is a wonderful speaker and presented a fairly complex subject in a way that was both accessible and engaging:
It was part of the launch of his new book: The Right to a Healthy
Environment. In spite of the fact that this lecture was the culminating
event in a national book tour Boyd didn't seem at all exhausted. He
spoke passionately, always lucidly and peppered his
talk with humour and fascinating examples of what embedding legal
protection into the constitution can and has done in many, many
jurisdictions around the world. Sadly, Canada is not one of those
national jurisdictions. Place was packed. I invited Kjell, (Swedish friend in town visiting his amore!), along
as Coriandre had another meeting! Sweden was cited specifically as an
example of one of the leading countries with respect to environmental
law and enforcement but ironically, not via its constitution. Kjell was
quite aware of both facts. He was simply delighted
to have been able to attend. Most worthwhile indeed! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Pics and Official stats: Squamish to home, Sunday, 11:22am departure, with a few extra dipsy doodles, around Stanley Park, for a grand totale of 100.4K over 4:59:34, AVG 20.0KPH, MAX 50.2KPH. Ride fantastique! Non-Support Team outside the Squamish Waldorf with Rider Intrepide!
Why did I think you kept up with him! My Mom adored Bart and she used to call him from time to time when she was alive and in good health.He called her Mummy and phoned her often. I think he was the DM or ADM of Human Rights and lived in Ontario, maybe Pickering, not sure. Mom visited them once in their palatial home when she was out east to see her family in London. Bart had a bit, or more, of a roving eye and who knows what happened to the marriage. I spoke to him when Mom was dying in the hospice but he has never gotten back to me after that. I knew that he was moving out and selling the house. Mary Lynn was a cute, petite redhead and they had 2 children together, a boy and a girl, now grown, maybe early 20s. Mary Lynn's family disowned her after the marriage, sad! Bart used to disappear to Trinidad every now and then to build or do what I don't know. I got the feeling that maybe there was someone special down there. He would often come on to me when I saw him. He drove me to the U of W reunion which was the 25th anniversary of the U of W graduating class. A few of our class, the class of '67, the final graduating class of United (U of M) walked behind the class of '92. We wore cap and gown and tossed our caps after the ceremony. It was pretty special. Dr. Robin Farquhar was the U of W President at the time and hosted our group. I can't remember who all came , about 15 of us. We made a weekend of it. I stayed with my parents. Mom came to the tea and was properly charmed by Bart. When I was in collegiate, grade 12 and in Year I, I casually dated a few Trinidadian boys. They used to live in residence and I often brought them home to meet Mom and give them a home cooked meal. There was one name I recall, Yussof Akbar.
The two of you might find this of interest. Ray
Subject: Books news, reviews and author interviews | Books | The Guardian
Margaret uses the guardian books section as her " authority" on new books
coming out....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books=
Hi Raymond!
Funny to run into you today! Even funnier, I had literally just walked in the door when Whirlygig and Tia Maria pushed their bikes onto the patio! They popped down to deliver me a copy of David Boyd's The Right To A Healthy Environment: Revitalizing Canada's Constitution. Kerry wanted to thank me for my assistance last night! I certainly didn't expect anything as it was enjoyable and I was glad to help a bit. Nevertheless, I'm delighted to have his work, particularly since it sells for $30!
Clara had just brought me a container of "overlefts" so I put them in the microwave and had my lunch while Giorgio sipped tea and Tia munched on the freshly baked chocolate oatmeal cookies, again, courtesy of Clarisse! They left about 4:00pm as Tia had to get ready for a Parent-Teacher Conference this evening. Giorgio was going to have a nap as he had wanted one earlier but Tia insisted they ride to HBT, in the rain, no less.
Finally managed to take a look at the link you sent but it isn't available.
The following message comes up:
Sorry - we haven't been able to serve the page you asked for.You may have followed a broken link, an outdated search result, or there may be an error on our site.
Just wondering if it is outdated. I'd like to look at it if is just a question of link being typed incorrectly. Let me know when you have a moment. Thanks and Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi Carmen Miranda and Southside Johnny!
I trust that you are both well. I must apologize profusely for not writing sooner. I simply do not know where the time has gone for I had fully intended to send along my thanks for your kind words and sympathy upon learning of Mom's death, long, long before now.
In mid-August we had planned a short driving trip to Winnipeg. Given Mom's seeming "robustness" at that time we decided we could take the three weeks or so that we had originally planned and spent a wonderful time, visiting other friends and relatives across the country.
We returned on August 26th, in part because Corinne had an important meeting, the following week, for Friends of Vancouver Public Library, a volunteer association she has been President of for past number of years. Furthermore, good friends, from Perth, Australia, were arriving on the 31st for two weeks. It was quite late in the day when we arrived back home and since Chloë had been to visit Mom over the course of the day, we decided not to see her as staff had taken to put her to bed shortly after the evening meal, ever since the time we returned from Japan. Next morning we were just about to walk over to Broadway Lodge to see her when we received a call telling us that she had been taken to Vancouver General Hospital for an x-ray. Staff suspected pneumonia and Chloë had mentioned that Mom's breathing seemed a bit "wheezy" the night before.
I visited her there and in discussion with doctor we agreed that it was best to return her to Broadway Lodge. He said he couldn't say for sure but he didn't think she would last more than a few days, if that. I visited her again, in the early afternoon as I had asked to be phoned when she arrived back in her room. I came home around 4:30pm to pick up a few things to read while I sat with her and held her hand. While her breathing was extremely laboured, her grip was very firm. On a slightly lighter note, I told her that she looked like Mother Teresa when I walked into her room. The staff had wrapped her up with a blanket as she was shivering when she was delivered by ambulance. Coriandre came with me when I went back and she dabbed her forehead with a cool cloth while I cut her nails.
I stayed at Mom's bedside and spooned her an enriched drink. She seemed to relish the thickened liquid and I was very pleased to see that her swallowing reflex was not impaired. As well, she drank about half a glass of juice through a straw. If she could continue to take in such liquid nourishment the staff planned to give her a course of antibiotics. Given her state of health and age, (She was to turn 99 on September 22nd.), IV's were not be used but if she could manage to take in food orally, mixed with the medication, everyone felt she might well fight the pneumonia. She had demonstrated just how tough she was, coming back from the above mentioned a heart attack. Nevertheless, keeping her as comfortable as possible was really our main concern.
I spent about three hours at her bedside on Tuesday morning/afternoon and was very pleased that I was able to spoon her all of her protein shake and a full glass of thickened juice. Her blood pressure had gone up from the night before when Chloë visited so that was a good sign. Her breathing was still laboured but she seem comfortable when sleeping. Cora Lee hosted a Friends of VPL bbq that evening and it was a lovely affair. We went downstairs afterwards to say hello to Flamin' and Sarge, (friends we traveled with in Australia before coming to Darwin), just back from California that afternoon. Chloë came down after visiting Mom, at the end her evening shift, and reported that her blood pressure was holding in spite of her difficult respiration. Everyone was heartened and we all went to bed not dreading a call in the middle of the night.
Sad to report, (as you know), that Mom died the next day around 1:00pm. It was a bit of a shock inasmuch as Corinne and I went over in the morning to see her and staff reported that she was very much improved. She had eaten most of a bowl of porridge, (one of her favourite foods), and downed a full glass of juice. Delighted with the news, we went to see her but the staff were changing her so we decided to deliver Vancouver Writers Festival programs on Granville Island, (one of our volunteer duties), before coming back. Finished around 12:30pm and came home for a bite of lunch and shortly thereafter we received a call to inform us that she was slipping away. We dropped everything and hurried over to find that she has stopped breathing moments before we arrived. Staff were very considerate and left us to sit with Mom after they had changed her gown. Even though we knew things might well happen like this, at any time, it was still tough, as I'm sure you can appreciate. Just very glad that we were home to be with her for even a few days.
As I mentioned above, given her seeming "rally" in the face of the very serious pneumonia, I suppose we all felt that she might pull through, much as she'd done last April/May when she suffered a heart attack while we were in Darwin. I don't know for sure but I surmise that her poor heart may simply have finally not been strong enough after putting up such a valiant fight.
Given all of the above and the Wittwer's visit, (just two days after Mom's death), we never really seemed to have a moment to catch our collective breath, after they left on the 14th, as we had promised to house/cat sit for Gregg and Franchesca from September 15th to the 26th. Weather there was wonderful, an Indian Summer, and we were able to relax and recover somewhat from the loss of Mother. However, once back, I was a volunteer for the Van Int Film Festival, from the 27th to October 12th. My second year as a volunteer and I was able to see many wonderful, wonderful films.
That weekend, Sunday, the 14th, we held Mom's Memorial Service at Trinity United, the church Mom had attended ever since she moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver in 1989. Everything went off very well so quite pleased with the Service itself as well as the gathering at the church afterward and then the Wake at our place. We will have a graveside service in Winnipeg next summer as it was Mom's wish to be buried beside her husband. My Dad died in 1966. Given that Mom died but three weeks or so short of her 99th birthday, she had an amazingly long, full, exciting and adventuresome life and I choose to celebrate and remember this rather than the fact of her death.
Few days later, the Van Writers Festival started and both Corinne and I were volunteers. We've done if for quite some time and this year we were once again in charge of the bar at Studio 1398, one of the smaller venues on Granville Island where most of the events take place. Since we live but three minutes from GI it is very, very convenient for us to be volunteers. The duties are not particularly onerous, indeed, more fun than anything else, and, of course, we were able, as volunteers, to attend any events that are not completely sold out. (Same is true for VIFF.) In fact, we were able to go to every reading that we wished to hear in spite of the fact that this year's festival was the best ever, in terms of overall attendance. Listened to some remarkable, remarkable authors so feel a bit guilty as we feel we hardly did anything for such a wonderful privilege.
I guess all of this is my explanation for not being in touch sooner! No excuses but plenty of reasons! Since then Cora Lee has been attending meetings, sometimes two or three nights a week, (church, Friends of VPL, and the like), and we have had more visitors from France/England and this past Wednesday we had a visit from a close friend, Rhoda Benson, in town from Cape Breton, to visit her eldest daughter, Dinao, who is taking an Art Therapy course here. I met Rhoda when I worked at the Curric Lab, (now the Education Library), at UBC and she was a Student Assistant, back in the late '70's! She came for dinner with her daughter, Dinao. Funnily enough, Rhoda's husband, Ron, was Flamin's paddling coach in Dartmouth when Flamin' was 13. He is now an oncologist and when at UBC, on sabbatical, about seven years ago, now, I invited the Sutherlands to dinner to meet the MacCormacks, as Flamin' had lived in Sydney at one point. We discovered, before the day of the dinner, their connection when I told Flamin' some of the details of how I met Rhoda and how she met Ron, etc.
Over the course of the evening Rhoda mentioned that she and Ron will be spending three months in Saint Maarten/Saint Martin, beginning in January. Ron will be teaching there and they have a two-bedroom place provided. She invited us to visit. We are scheduled to leave Vancouver, (as of this writing!), on December 12th. We want to take our time driving south to LA to spend Christmas with Ayn and Los Horridos. Chloë, Clarisse and Dusty will fly down. We are actually house-sitting for Ayn's cousin, Rick, who has a gorgeous home in Simi Valley. He and his family will spend holidays in Bora Bora to celebrate his 60th. Have already been in touch with David and Nancy, friends in Berkeley, and mentioned that we will probably arrive on their doorstep sometime around the 18th/19th/20th, depending on how long we spend wine-tasting in Sonoma and Napa!
A day or so after the 10th of January we are planning to continue driving south and east with a mind to seeing New Orleans, as one goal. I'd like to visit some bourbon distilleries in Tennessee and Kentucky but whether this transpires or not, remains to be decided. We hope to see Randy and Ruth, formerly living in San Antonio, now in Dallas, en route to New Orleans. Now that the possibility of going to the Caribbean exists, we are trying to determine where best to fly from in the US. At any rate, the thought of seeing some of the places in The Deep South is starting to make us both shiver with anticipation.This past Saturday we drove up to Squamish to spend the night with close friends, Ruth/Rick. I took my bike along as I hoped to be able to ride the Sea to Sky Highway back from there, weather permitting. As things turned out, the day was simply glorious so I was able to cycle back to Vancouver. Had never ridden that section of highway before so it was quite an adventure. Very busy, with plenty of traffic so I had to really keep my wits about me. That being the case, I couldn't enjoy the spectacular vistas, (Howe Sound with Gabriola and Bowen Island after the magnificent peaks surrounding Squamish itself), in the way one can when a car passenger. Fortunately, shoulder is reasonably wide for most of the way, (Quite narrow along cliff face near Porteau Cove, going north, and right next to railroad tracks, going south. Trains don't bother me, there are few in any event, but reasonably large stones from railway road bed often find there way onto the highway. It would not be a good idea to hit or even run over one as who knows what might happen, particularly since it is single lane traffic in either direction at this point!), and I managed to reach Horsehoe Bay without any mishaps. From there one takes Marine Drive and it is a reasonably quiet thoroughfare, particularly on the weekends. Furthermore, I am familiar with the route and enjoy it immensely. Arrived home just after 4:00pm to find Cora Lee and her parents, Dusty and Clara, watching the Grey Cup!
That evening we had tickets to a Jill Barber concert at a terrific club called the Electric Owl, on Main Street not far from Science World or the Georgia Viaduct. When I was there for a Macallan's Malt Tasting a month or so ago, I noticed a poster advertising her appearance. This time I was taking Madame Coriandre there for dinner and show as my 41st Anniversary of Meeting, (Halloween, 1971, Champs Motor Inn, beer parlour, Wpg, 1971!), present. She gave me a pair of spiffy, quick wash/dry travel underwear and Rick Steves Eastern Europe, to help with next year's travel planning. Latter is really for her but I didn't make mention of that fact! The Sisterhood is quite sly about managing to buy what they want under all sorts of false pretenses!!!
Anyway, dinner was delicious and concert simply wonderful. Jill deviated from her signature lush retro-jazz repertoire for an evening exploring classic country tunes of the 50s with a special tribute to the music of Hank Williams. The evening opened with a set with Steve Dawson and the Black Hen house band performing both archival and contemporary country and Americana material to complement the full set with Jill Barber. Steve is an incredible guitarist and the rest of his band were just as talented so it was a more than a riveting, energized and energizing performance. Audience didn't want to let them off the stage!Finally, we are hosting a pre-Yuletide Open House on December 2nd. Starting with a meeting of my Book Club at 3:00pm to be followed by the Open House proper at 5:00pm. I plan a bit of a malt surprise for some of the malt aficionados who will be attending. Not sure if you have heard about this particular malt or not but I picked up a bottle of Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt, apparently a meticulous re-creation of the original malt whisky shipped to Antarctica in 1907 by the explorer Ernest Shackleton to fortify his 'Nimrod' expedition. Several wooden crates of this precious whisky were abandoned to the Antarctic winter in early 1909, then rediscovered over a century later. Quite a story, one that celebrates the enduring spirit of both man and malt.
At any rate, thank you again for your condolences. I only trust you understand how badly I feel for taking so long to acknowledge them . On a more positive note, we do hope you will be able to join us for a glass of wine and/or a wee dram and a bite on the 2nd! Fondestos and Cheers, Cora Lee and Patrizzio!
A couple of pics from our room/deck in St Helena.
15 years since out last visit!
Enjoying the great wines of several great vintages, and found some wonderful eateries, some with free corkage, excellent and reasonably priced meals.
Nice time of year to be here, with no crowds, although we have several major storms coming.
Seem to have some nice breaks between-we just have to pick our times to go tasting.
Sipping a Martinelli 2008 Jackass Vineyard Zin- 16.6 per cent beautiful !
Tasted at Martinelli on way over from coast via Russian River, which may hit close to flood level this week.
It was at 1.5 ft yesterday, and may hit almost 20 ft by Sunday-flood level is about 21 ft!
Remembering our many fun times in the area-can't seem to handle the volume of wine/tastings as we did back in early 90's, but still a great experience here.
See you soon.
Grog and Lurch
(Found Lurch on back deck at 3:00AM curled up with a big format bottle of Night Train!!)
Hi Napa Kids!
Glad you are enjoying being back in wine country! Can only imagine what the Russian River looks like. No wonder the beach area where we often had picnics was changed from year to year, depending on flood levels. Looks like there has been rain from the water one can see in the vineyard.
Been pretty busy ever since we last saw you. Cora Lee has been attending meetings, sometimes two or three nights a week, (church, Friends of VPL, and the like), and we have had more visitors from France/England, (Andre, where we stayed with F/S in 2010) and this past Wednesday we saw close friend, Rhoda Benson, in town from Cape Breton, to visit her eldest daughter, Dinao, who is taking an Art Therapy course here. I met Rhoda when I worked at the Curric Lab, (now the Education Library), at UBC and she was a Student Assistant, back in the late '70's! She came for dinner with her daughter, Dinao. Funnily enough, Rhoda's husband, Ron, was Flamin's paddling coach in Dartmouth when Flamin' was 13. He is now an oncologist and when at UBC, on sabbatical, about seven years ago, now, I invited the Sutherlands to dinner to meet the MacCormacks, as Flamin' had lived in Sydney at one point. We discovered, before the day of the dinner, their connection when I told Flamin' some of the details of how I met Rhoda and how she met Ron, etc.
Over the course of the evening Rhoda mentioned that she and Ron will be spending three months in Saint Maarten/Saint Martin, beginning in January. Ron will be teaching there and they have a two-bedroom place provided. She invited us to visit. AS I think you know, we are scheduled to leave Vancouver, (as of this writing!), on December 12th. We want to take our time driving south to LA to spend Christmas with Ayn and Los Horridos. Chloë, Clarisse and Dusty will fly down. We are actually house-sitting for Ayn's cousin, Rick, who has a gorgeous home in Simi Valley. He and his family will spend holidays in Bora Bora to celebrate his 60th. Have already been in touch with David and Nancy, (Did you connect?), and mentioned that we will probably arrive on their doorstep sometime around the 18th/19th/20th, depending on how long we spend wine-tasting in Sonoma and Napa! Leave some Jackass!
A day or so after the 10th of January we are planning to continue driving south and east with a mind to seeing New Orleans, as one goal. I'd like to visit some bourbon distilleries in Tennessee and Kentucky but whether this transpires or not, remains to be decided. We hope to see Randy and Ruth, formerly living in San Antonio, now in Dallas, en route to New Orleans. Now that the possibility of going to the Caribbean exists, we are trying to determine where best to fly from in the US. At any rate, the thought of seeing some of the places in The Deep South is starting to make us both shiver with anticipation.
This past Saturday we drove up to Squamish to spend the night with Ruth/Rick. I took my bike along as I hoped to be able to ride the Sea to Sky Highway back from there, weather permitting. As things turned out, the day was simply glorious so I was able to cycle back to Vancouver. Had never ridden that section of highway before so it was quite an adventure. Very busy, with plenty of traffic so I had to really keep my wits about me. That being the case, I couldn't enjoy the spectacular vistas, (Howe Sound with Gambier and Bowen after the magnificent peaks surrounding Squamish itself), in the way one can when a car passenger. Fortunately, shoulder is reasonably wide for most of the way, (Quite narrow along cliff face near Porteau Cove, going north, and right next to railroad tracks, going south. Trains don't bother me, there are few in any event, but reasonably large stones from railway road bed often find there way onto the highway. It would not be a good idea to hit or even run over one as who knows what might happen, particularly since it is single lane traffic in either direction at this point!), and I managed to reach Horsehoe Bay without any mishaps. From there one takes Marine Drive and it is a reasonably quiet thoroughfare, particularly on the weekends. Furthermore, I am familiar with the route and enjoy it immensely. Arrived home just after 4:00pm to find Cora Lee, Dusty and Clara, watching the Grey Cup!
That evening we had tickets to a Jill Barber concert at a terrific club called the Electric Owl, on Main Street not far from Science World or the Georgia Viaduct. When I was there for a Macallan's Malt Tasting a month or so ago, I noticed a poster advertising her appearance. This time I was taking Madame Coriandre there for dinner and show as my 41st Anniversary of Meeting, (Halloween, 1971, Champs Motor Inn, beer parlour, Wpg, 1971!), present. She gave me a pair of spiffy, quick wash/dry travel underwear and Rick Steves Eastern Europe, to help with next year's travel planning. Latter is really for her but I didn't make mention of that fact! The Sisterhood is quite sly about managing to buy what they want under all sorts of false pretenses!!!
Anyway, dinner was delicious and concert simply wonderful. Jill deviated from her signature lush retro-jazz repertoire for an evening exploring classic country tunes of the 50s with a special tribute to the music of Hank Williams. The evening opened with a set with Steve Dawson and the Black Hen house band performing both archival and contemporary country and Americana material to complement the full set with Jill. Steve is an incredible guitarist and the rest of his band were just as talented so it was a more than a riveting, energized and energizing performance. Audience didn't want to let them off the stage! Funnily enough, Rhoda managed to get tickets after we told her about the concert on Wednesday. They couldn't obtain dinner reservations so we saved seats for them right beside our table so we had a blast. She was with her brother, Al, a lawyer in Whiterock, and Dinao. They drove us back home as Chloë had dropped us off. Al and Ski came in, after we dropped Diano off, and we had a few snorts of malt for a nightcap!
Finally, we are hosting a pre-Yuletide Open House on December 2nd. Starting with a meeting of my Book Club at 3:00pm to be followed by the Open House proper at 5:00pm. I plan a bit of a malt surprise for some of the malt aficionados who will be attending. Not sure if you have heard about this particular malt or not but I picked up a bottle of Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt, apparently a meticulous re-creation of the original malt whisky shipped to Antarctica in 1907 by the explorer Ernest Shackleton to fortify his 'Nimrod' expedition. Several wooden crates of this precious whisky were abandoned to the Antarctic winter in early 1909, then rediscovered over a century later. Quite a story, one that celebrates the enduring spirit of both man and malt.
Anyway, not sure of your return schedule but if you will be in town we do hope you will be able to join us for a glass of wine and/or a wee dram and a bite on the 2nd! Cheers, Cora Lee and Patrizzio!
Pics and Official stats: Squamish to home, Sunday, 11:22am departure, with a few extra dipsy doodles, around Stanley Park, for a grand totale of 100.4K over 4:59:34, AVG 20.0KPH, MAX 50.2KPH. Ride fantastique! Non-Support Team outside the Squamish Waldorf with Rider Intrepide! Al and Ski; dinner and bridge at the Squamish Waldorf!
NRBC lads, it turns out I won't make it to Sunday's thinkfest. As I crudely hunt and peck at my iPhone touch screen keyboard I am on a flight to New York with Nancy.
A show for which she did the costumes (tempest replica) is at the Joyce Theatre and she couldn't resist a chance to see it there. And me, well, any chance for a break from routine.
Guy
New Yorker cartoon caption under a couple wading through living room with hip waders: "if they want us to take these storm warnings seriously they should give them scarier names."
Guy,
Is Siri unavailable in the air?
While we will undoubtedly regret your absence on Sunday, we shall endeavour to inoculate ourselves against that regret with a wee dram or two. We understand, too, that for you to forgo the Big Apple for an NRBC meeting would constitute a taboo tradeoff. "Give our regards to Broadway [or 8th Avenue]". 8^) cheers, Mark
This exchange with Ray Banks:
P,
Thanks
for helping the sisterhood yesterday. She really appreciated the
assistance. Now you know why I have such incredible core strength – from
carrying all
those boxes low those many years.
And
thanks for delivering the hooch which I finished late last night.
Delicious. Let me know what I owe you in Squamish pesos and I will
bring the money to our
next ride in April.
Spoke
to Casper lasterday from his new palace in Ajijic. I told him you had
friends in Ajijic and thought we should try to connect your friends him.
Also, I would really be curious to know if Ski knows of these famous nude beaches in St Martin where my parents used to go.
Weather looks swimmingly for the next few days. W
Hi Abdomen of Steel Man!
Thanks very much for putting me smack dab in the middle of a nest of Sisterhood Vipers! Talk about A Superfluity of Sistershood. I was completely outnumbered and surrounded, encircled even, by Krypton Woman and her Three Wicked Helpmates! (Wicked yes, but ever so alluring, in a Siren-like way!)
I'm glad you enjoyed the Squamish muleage! I suspect your own home-brew is bubbling away as we correspond, accounting for the need to empty the large bottles immediately upon delivery! Cost worked out to $7/btl, $25/btl muleage fee! If you are still planning to obtain cinema tickets, or have already done so, (not a big deal if you were unable to acquire said tickets), we can settle up then. I suspect I'll owe you even considering the paltry muleage tax!
I'd be delighted to try to connect The Friendly Ghost with our friends, Harriet and Paul Hart. I assume, hope, they are still in Ajijic. Harriet is a terrible correspondent and I have not received an answer to my last few messages. I can pass along their email address to Casparino. I'm sure he could track them down through the ex-pat community there as they are both very active. Harriet is a volunteer on an information desk and in a number of creative writing groups. Paul plays tennis regularly. When we visited, we were always bumping into their friends on the street or in cafes so it is a fairly small place, quite difficult to avoid the likes of 'Oribble!
Funnily enough, there was a Facebook posting from Corey, (F's/S's son in RCMP), lasterday. He and Rebecca, his girlfriend, were in St Maarten. Think they are on a cruise for a week or so. I'll ask Ski about St Martin's equivalent of Wreck Beach as we are trying to iron out dates of our visit.
Am hoping to dodge the raindrops later as I have been instructed to lose The Shaggy Dog/Wild Man of Borneo/Seymour Demo Forest Look by the Strangle of Sisters here at the Islay Inn! I am planning to ride in my swimming trunks in case I do get caught in a deluge. Will save on Aquatic Centre fee so will have a few more pennies for maltage! Cheers, Patrizzio!
P,
That
is too funny about the sisterhood. She gets very twitchy about the use
of the term sisterhood however she stooped to using the term
brotherhood this morning so we are into a new stage, so to speak.
Cinema tickets have been ordered (several weeks ago) but you know how these things go. It is managed (or not) by VRC.
St Maarten: is that how it is schpelt. Are you going to do a bit of training at Wreck Beach?
I
did hear the grizzly story on the radio. I guess Ray did not know the
story or the identity of the victims until after our ride. How
are the victims doing? W
Hi again, Maggie!
Sorry about not mentioning Bart Sackrule but I was never in contact with him after leaving U of Wpg. Where was he living when you lost touch?
This past Saturday we drove up to Squamish to spend the night with close friends, Ruth/Rick. I took my bike along as I hoped to be able to ride the Sea to Sky Highway back from there, weather permitting. As things turned out, the day was simply glorious so I was able to cycle back to Vancouver. Had never ridden that section of highway before so it was quite an adventure. Very busy, with plenty of traffic so I had to really keep my wits about me. That being the case, I couldn't enjoy the spectacular vistas, (Howe Sound with Gabriola and Bowen Island after the magnificent peaks surrounding Squamish itself), in the way one can when a car passenger. Fortunately, shoulder is reasonably wide for most of the way, (Quite narrow along cliff face near Porteau Cove, going north, and right next to railroad tracks, going south. Trains don't bother me, there are few in any event, but reasonably large stones from railway road bed often find there way onto the highway. It would not be a good idea to hit or even run over one as who knows what might happen, particularly since it is single lane traffic in either direction at this point!), and I managed to reach Horsehoe Bay without any mishaps. From there one takes Marine Drive and it is a reasonably quiet thoroughfare, particularly on the weekends. Furthermore, I am familiar with the route and enjoy it immensely. Arrived home just after 4:00pm to find Cora Lee and her parents, Dusty and Clara, watching the Grey Cup!
That evening we had tickets to a Jill Barber concert at a terrific club called the Electric Owl, on Main Street not far from Science World or the Georgia Viaduct. When I was there for a Macallan's Malt Tasting a month or so ago, I noticed a poster advertising her appearance. This time I was taking Madame Coriandre there for dinner and show as my 41st Anniversary of Meeting, (Halloween, 1971, Champs Motor Inn, beer parlour, Wpg, 1971!), present. She gave me a pair of spiffy, quick wash/dry travel underwear and Rick Steves Eastern Europe, to help with next year's travel planning. Latter is really for her but I didn't make mention of that fact! The Sisterhood is quite sly about managing to buy what they want under all sorts of false pretenses!!!Anyway, dinner was delicious and concert simply wonderful. JIll deviated from her signature lush retro-jazz repertoire for an evening exploring classic country tunes of the 50s with a special tribute to the music of Hank Williams. The evening opened with a set with Steve Dawson and the Black Hen house band performing both archival and contemporary country and Americana material to complement the full set with Jill Barber. Steve is an incredible guitarist and the rest of his band were just as talented so it was a more than a riveting, energized and energizing performance. Audience didn't want to let them off the stage!Last night I attended a public lecture at VPL where I helped Kerry, (Whirlygig's amore), unload the cartons of books on sale for David Boyd's talk on the right to a healthy environment. (UBC Press publishes his work and Kerry works in Marketing there.) David Suzuki was supposed to be there but was taken ill, suddenly, so Peter Robinson, new CEO of the DSF stepped in. Simply spell-binding talk. David Boyd is a wonderful speaker and presented a fairly complex subject in a way that was both accessible and engaging:
The Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms provides every Canadian with freedom of expression, equal
protection from discrimination and the right to life, liberty and
security. But it has nothing to say about our right to
a healthy environment.
Everyone needs access to clean air,
safe water, fertile soil, and nutritious food, to survive and to thrive.
The natural environment, made up of complex and diverse ecosystems,
provide these most basic needs.
The David Suzuki Foundation and
Ecojustice Canada are working together to ensure every Canadian receives
legal protection of their right to a healthy environment.
Pics and Official stats: Squamish to home, Sunday, 11:22am departure, with a few extra dipsy doodles, around Stanley Park, for a grand totale of 100.4K over 4:59:34, AVG 20.0KPH, MAX 50.2KPH. Ride fantastique! Non-Support Team outside the Squamish Waldorf with Rider Intrepide!
Why did I think you kept up with him! My Mom adored Bart and she used to call him from time to time when she was alive and in good health.He called her Mummy and phoned her often. I think he was the DM or ADM of Human Rights and lived in Ontario, maybe Pickering, not sure. Mom visited them once in their palatial home when she was out east to see her family in London. Bart had a bit, or more, of a roving eye and who knows what happened to the marriage. I spoke to him when Mom was dying in the hospice but he has never gotten back to me after that. I knew that he was moving out and selling the house. Mary Lynn was a cute, petite redhead and they had 2 children together, a boy and a girl, now grown, maybe early 20s. Mary Lynn's family disowned her after the marriage, sad! Bart used to disappear to Trinidad every now and then to build or do what I don't know. I got the feeling that maybe there was someone special down there. He would often come on to me when I saw him. He drove me to the U of W reunion which was the 25th anniversary of the U of W graduating class. A few of our class, the class of '67, the final graduating class of United (U of M) walked behind the class of '92. We wore cap and gown and tossed our caps after the ceremony. It was pretty special. Dr. Robin Farquhar was the U of W President at the time and hosted our group. I can't remember who all came , about 15 of us. We made a weekend of it. I stayed with my parents. Mom came to the tea and was properly charmed by Bart. When I was in collegiate, grade 12 and in Year I, I casually dated a few Trinidadian boys. They used to live in residence and I often brought them home to meet Mom and give them a home cooked meal. There was one name I recall, Yussof Akbar.
The two of you might find this of interest. Ray
Subject: Books news, reviews and author interviews | Books | The Guardian
Margaret uses the guardian books section as her " authority" on new books
coming out....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books=
Hi Raymond!
Funny to run into you today! Even funnier, I had literally just walked in the door when Whirlygig and Tia Maria pushed their bikes onto the patio! They popped down to deliver me a copy of David Boyd's The Right To A Healthy Environment: Revitalizing Canada's Constitution. Kerry wanted to thank me for my assistance last night! I certainly didn't expect anything as it was enjoyable and I was glad to help a bit. Nevertheless, I'm delighted to have his work, particularly since it sells for $30!
Clara had just brought me a container of "overlefts" so I put them in the microwave and had my lunch while Giorgio sipped tea and Tia munched on the freshly baked chocolate oatmeal cookies, again, courtesy of Clarisse! They left about 4:00pm as Tia had to get ready for a Parent-Teacher Conference this evening. Giorgio was going to have a nap as he had wanted one earlier but Tia insisted they ride to HBT, in the rain, no less.
Finally managed to take a look at the link you sent but it isn't available.
The following message comes up:
Sorry - we haven't been able to serve the page you asked for.You may have followed a broken link, an outdated search result, or there may be an error on our site.
Just wondering if it is outdated. I'd like to look at it if is just a question of link being typed incorrectly. Let me know when you have a moment. Thanks and Cheers, Patrizzio!
Pat,
I just tried the site again and had no problems.
If this doesn't work, access The
Guardian, click on Culture and then Books. Hope that gets you access. It
looks like a worthwhile site.
Ray
Hi Carmen Miranda and Southside Johnny!
I trust that you are both well. I must apologize profusely for not writing sooner. I simply do not know where the time has gone for I had fully intended to send along my thanks for your kind words and sympathy upon learning of Mom's death, long, long before now.
In mid-August we had planned a short driving trip to Winnipeg. Given Mom's seeming "robustness" at that time we decided we could take the three weeks or so that we had originally planned and spent a wonderful time, visiting other friends and relatives across the country.
We returned on August 26th, in part because Corinne had an important meeting, the following week, for Friends of Vancouver Public Library, a volunteer association she has been President of for past number of years. Furthermore, good friends, from Perth, Australia, were arriving on the 31st for two weeks. It was quite late in the day when we arrived back home and since Chloë had been to visit Mom over the course of the day, we decided not to see her as staff had taken to put her to bed shortly after the evening meal, ever since the time we returned from Japan. Next morning we were just about to walk over to Broadway Lodge to see her when we received a call telling us that she had been taken to Vancouver General Hospital for an x-ray. Staff suspected pneumonia and Chloë had mentioned that Mom's breathing seemed a bit "wheezy" the night before.
I visited her there and in discussion with doctor we agreed that it was best to return her to Broadway Lodge. He said he couldn't say for sure but he didn't think she would last more than a few days, if that. I visited her again, in the early afternoon as I had asked to be phoned when she arrived back in her room. I came home around 4:30pm to pick up a few things to read while I sat with her and held her hand. While her breathing was extremely laboured, her grip was very firm. On a slightly lighter note, I told her that she looked like Mother Teresa when I walked into her room. The staff had wrapped her up with a blanket as she was shivering when she was delivered by ambulance. Coriandre came with me when I went back and she dabbed her forehead with a cool cloth while I cut her nails.
I stayed at Mom's bedside and spooned her an enriched drink. She seemed to relish the thickened liquid and I was very pleased to see that her swallowing reflex was not impaired. As well, she drank about half a glass of juice through a straw. If she could continue to take in such liquid nourishment the staff planned to give her a course of antibiotics. Given her state of health and age, (She was to turn 99 on September 22nd.), IV's were not be used but if she could manage to take in food orally, mixed with the medication, everyone felt she might well fight the pneumonia. She had demonstrated just how tough she was, coming back from the above mentioned a heart attack. Nevertheless, keeping her as comfortable as possible was really our main concern.
I spent about three hours at her bedside on Tuesday morning/afternoon and was very pleased that I was able to spoon her all of her protein shake and a full glass of thickened juice. Her blood pressure had gone up from the night before when Chloë visited so that was a good sign. Her breathing was still laboured but she seem comfortable when sleeping. Cora Lee hosted a Friends of VPL bbq that evening and it was a lovely affair. We went downstairs afterwards to say hello to Flamin' and Sarge, (friends we traveled with in Australia before coming to Darwin), just back from California that afternoon. Chloë came down after visiting Mom, at the end her evening shift, and reported that her blood pressure was holding in spite of her difficult respiration. Everyone was heartened and we all went to bed not dreading a call in the middle of the night.
Sad to report, (as you know), that Mom died the next day around 1:00pm. It was a bit of a shock inasmuch as Corinne and I went over in the morning to see her and staff reported that she was very much improved. She had eaten most of a bowl of porridge, (one of her favourite foods), and downed a full glass of juice. Delighted with the news, we went to see her but the staff were changing her so we decided to deliver Vancouver Writers Festival programs on Granville Island, (one of our volunteer duties), before coming back. Finished around 12:30pm and came home for a bite of lunch and shortly thereafter we received a call to inform us that she was slipping away. We dropped everything and hurried over to find that she has stopped breathing moments before we arrived. Staff were very considerate and left us to sit with Mom after they had changed her gown. Even though we knew things might well happen like this, at any time, it was still tough, as I'm sure you can appreciate. Just very glad that we were home to be with her for even a few days.
As I mentioned above, given her seeming "rally" in the face of the very serious pneumonia, I suppose we all felt that she might pull through, much as she'd done last April/May when she suffered a heart attack while we were in Darwin. I don't know for sure but I surmise that her poor heart may simply have finally not been strong enough after putting up such a valiant fight.
Given all of the above and the Wittwer's visit, (just two days after Mom's death), we never really seemed to have a moment to catch our collective breath, after they left on the 14th, as we had promised to house/cat sit for Gregg and Franchesca from September 15th to the 26th. Weather there was wonderful, an Indian Summer, and we were able to relax and recover somewhat from the loss of Mother. However, once back, I was a volunteer for the Van Int Film Festival, from the 27th to October 12th. My second year as a volunteer and I was able to see many wonderful, wonderful films.
That weekend, Sunday, the 14th, we held Mom's Memorial Service at Trinity United, the church Mom had attended ever since she moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver in 1989. Everything went off very well so quite pleased with the Service itself as well as the gathering at the church afterward and then the Wake at our place. We will have a graveside service in Winnipeg next summer as it was Mom's wish to be buried beside her husband. My Dad died in 1966. Given that Mom died but three weeks or so short of her 99th birthday, she had an amazingly long, full, exciting and adventuresome life and I choose to celebrate and remember this rather than the fact of her death.
Few days later, the Van Writers Festival started and both Corinne and I were volunteers. We've done if for quite some time and this year we were once again in charge of the bar at Studio 1398, one of the smaller venues on Granville Island where most of the events take place. Since we live but three minutes from GI it is very, very convenient for us to be volunteers. The duties are not particularly onerous, indeed, more fun than anything else, and, of course, we were able, as volunteers, to attend any events that are not completely sold out. (Same is true for VIFF.) In fact, we were able to go to every reading that we wished to hear in spite of the fact that this year's festival was the best ever, in terms of overall attendance. Listened to some remarkable, remarkable authors so feel a bit guilty as we feel we hardly did anything for such a wonderful privilege.
I guess all of this is my explanation for not being in touch sooner! No excuses but plenty of reasons! Since then Cora Lee has been attending meetings, sometimes two or three nights a week, (church, Friends of VPL, and the like), and we have had more visitors from France/England and this past Wednesday we had a visit from a close friend, Rhoda Benson, in town from Cape Breton, to visit her eldest daughter, Dinao, who is taking an Art Therapy course here. I met Rhoda when I worked at the Curric Lab, (now the Education Library), at UBC and she was a Student Assistant, back in the late '70's! She came for dinner with her daughter, Dinao. Funnily enough, Rhoda's husband, Ron, was Flamin's paddling coach in Dartmouth when Flamin' was 13. He is now an oncologist and when at UBC, on sabbatical, about seven years ago, now, I invited the Sutherlands to dinner to meet the MacCormacks, as Flamin' had lived in Sydney at one point. We discovered, before the day of the dinner, their connection when I told Flamin' some of the details of how I met Rhoda and how she met Ron, etc.
Over the course of the evening Rhoda mentioned that she and Ron will be spending three months in Saint Maarten/Saint Martin, beginning in January. Ron will be teaching there and they have a two-bedroom place provided. She invited us to visit. We are scheduled to leave Vancouver, (as of this writing!), on December 12th. We want to take our time driving south to LA to spend Christmas with Ayn and Los Horridos. Chloë, Clarisse and Dusty will fly down. We are actually house-sitting for Ayn's cousin, Rick, who has a gorgeous home in Simi Valley. He and his family will spend holidays in Bora Bora to celebrate his 60th. Have already been in touch with David and Nancy, friends in Berkeley, and mentioned that we will probably arrive on their doorstep sometime around the 18th/19th/20th, depending on how long we spend wine-tasting in Sonoma and Napa!
A day or so after the 10th of January we are planning to continue driving south and east with a mind to seeing New Orleans, as one goal. I'd like to visit some bourbon distilleries in Tennessee and Kentucky but whether this transpires or not, remains to be decided. We hope to see Randy and Ruth, formerly living in San Antonio, now in Dallas, en route to New Orleans. Now that the possibility of going to the Caribbean exists, we are trying to determine where best to fly from in the US. At any rate, the thought of seeing some of the places in The Deep South is starting to make us both shiver with anticipation.This past Saturday we drove up to Squamish to spend the night with close friends, Ruth/Rick. I took my bike along as I hoped to be able to ride the Sea to Sky Highway back from there, weather permitting. As things turned out, the day was simply glorious so I was able to cycle back to Vancouver. Had never ridden that section of highway before so it was quite an adventure. Very busy, with plenty of traffic so I had to really keep my wits about me. That being the case, I couldn't enjoy the spectacular vistas, (Howe Sound with Gabriola and Bowen Island after the magnificent peaks surrounding Squamish itself), in the way one can when a car passenger. Fortunately, shoulder is reasonably wide for most of the way, (Quite narrow along cliff face near Porteau Cove, going north, and right next to railroad tracks, going south. Trains don't bother me, there are few in any event, but reasonably large stones from railway road bed often find there way onto the highway. It would not be a good idea to hit or even run over one as who knows what might happen, particularly since it is single lane traffic in either direction at this point!), and I managed to reach Horsehoe Bay without any mishaps. From there one takes Marine Drive and it is a reasonably quiet thoroughfare, particularly on the weekends. Furthermore, I am familiar with the route and enjoy it immensely. Arrived home just after 4:00pm to find Cora Lee and her parents, Dusty and Clara, watching the Grey Cup!
That evening we had tickets to a Jill Barber concert at a terrific club called the Electric Owl, on Main Street not far from Science World or the Georgia Viaduct. When I was there for a Macallan's Malt Tasting a month or so ago, I noticed a poster advertising her appearance. This time I was taking Madame Coriandre there for dinner and show as my 41st Anniversary of Meeting, (Halloween, 1971, Champs Motor Inn, beer parlour, Wpg, 1971!), present. She gave me a pair of spiffy, quick wash/dry travel underwear and Rick Steves Eastern Europe, to help with next year's travel planning. Latter is really for her but I didn't make mention of that fact! The Sisterhood is quite sly about managing to buy what they want under all sorts of false pretenses!!!
Anyway, dinner was delicious and concert simply wonderful. Jill deviated from her signature lush retro-jazz repertoire for an evening exploring classic country tunes of the 50s with a special tribute to the music of Hank Williams. The evening opened with a set with Steve Dawson and the Black Hen house band performing both archival and contemporary country and Americana material to complement the full set with Jill Barber. Steve is an incredible guitarist and the rest of his band were just as talented so it was a more than a riveting, energized and energizing performance. Audience didn't want to let them off the stage!Finally, we are hosting a pre-Yuletide Open House on December 2nd. Starting with a meeting of my Book Club at 3:00pm to be followed by the Open House proper at 5:00pm. I plan a bit of a malt surprise for some of the malt aficionados who will be attending. Not sure if you have heard about this particular malt or not but I picked up a bottle of Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt, apparently a meticulous re-creation of the original malt whisky shipped to Antarctica in 1907 by the explorer Ernest Shackleton to fortify his 'Nimrod' expedition. Several wooden crates of this precious whisky were abandoned to the Antarctic winter in early 1909, then rediscovered over a century later. Quite a story, one that celebrates the enduring spirit of both man and malt.
At any rate, thank you again for your condolences. I only trust you understand how badly I feel for taking so long to acknowledge them . On a more positive note, we do hope you will be able to join us for a glass of wine and/or a wee dram and a bite on the 2nd! Fondestos and Cheers, Cora Lee and Patrizzio!
A couple of pics from our room/deck in St Helena.
15 years since out last visit!
Enjoying the great wines of several great vintages, and found some wonderful eateries, some with free corkage, excellent and reasonably priced meals.
Nice time of year to be here, with no crowds, although we have several major storms coming.
Seem to have some nice breaks between-we just have to pick our times to go tasting.
Sipping a Martinelli 2008 Jackass Vineyard Zin- 16.6 per cent beautiful !
Tasted at Martinelli on way over from coast via Russian River, which may hit close to flood level this week.
It was at 1.5 ft yesterday, and may hit almost 20 ft by Sunday-flood level is about 21 ft!
Remembering our many fun times in the area-can't seem to handle the volume of wine/tastings as we did back in early 90's, but still a great experience here.
See you soon.
Grog and Lurch
(Found Lurch on back deck at 3:00AM curled up with a big format bottle of Night Train!!)
Hi Napa Kids!
Glad you are enjoying being back in wine country! Can only imagine what the Russian River looks like. No wonder the beach area where we often had picnics was changed from year to year, depending on flood levels. Looks like there has been rain from the water one can see in the vineyard.
Been pretty busy ever since we last saw you. Cora Lee has been attending meetings, sometimes two or three nights a week, (church, Friends of VPL, and the like), and we have had more visitors from France/England, (Andre, where we stayed with F/S in 2010) and this past Wednesday we saw close friend, Rhoda Benson, in town from Cape Breton, to visit her eldest daughter, Dinao, who is taking an Art Therapy course here. I met Rhoda when I worked at the Curric Lab, (now the Education Library), at UBC and she was a Student Assistant, back in the late '70's! She came for dinner with her daughter, Dinao. Funnily enough, Rhoda's husband, Ron, was Flamin's paddling coach in Dartmouth when Flamin' was 13. He is now an oncologist and when at UBC, on sabbatical, about seven years ago, now, I invited the Sutherlands to dinner to meet the MacCormacks, as Flamin' had lived in Sydney at one point. We discovered, before the day of the dinner, their connection when I told Flamin' some of the details of how I met Rhoda and how she met Ron, etc.
Over the course of the evening Rhoda mentioned that she and Ron will be spending three months in Saint Maarten/Saint Martin, beginning in January. Ron will be teaching there and they have a two-bedroom place provided. She invited us to visit. AS I think you know, we are scheduled to leave Vancouver, (as of this writing!), on December 12th. We want to take our time driving south to LA to spend Christmas with Ayn and Los Horridos. Chloë, Clarisse and Dusty will fly down. We are actually house-sitting for Ayn's cousin, Rick, who has a gorgeous home in Simi Valley. He and his family will spend holidays in Bora Bora to celebrate his 60th. Have already been in touch with David and Nancy, (Did you connect?), and mentioned that we will probably arrive on their doorstep sometime around the 18th/19th/20th, depending on how long we spend wine-tasting in Sonoma and Napa! Leave some Jackass!
A day or so after the 10th of January we are planning to continue driving south and east with a mind to seeing New Orleans, as one goal. I'd like to visit some bourbon distilleries in Tennessee and Kentucky but whether this transpires or not, remains to be decided. We hope to see Randy and Ruth, formerly living in San Antonio, now in Dallas, en route to New Orleans. Now that the possibility of going to the Caribbean exists, we are trying to determine where best to fly from in the US. At any rate, the thought of seeing some of the places in The Deep South is starting to make us both shiver with anticipation.
This past Saturday we drove up to Squamish to spend the night with Ruth/Rick. I took my bike along as I hoped to be able to ride the Sea to Sky Highway back from there, weather permitting. As things turned out, the day was simply glorious so I was able to cycle back to Vancouver. Had never ridden that section of highway before so it was quite an adventure. Very busy, with plenty of traffic so I had to really keep my wits about me. That being the case, I couldn't enjoy the spectacular vistas, (Howe Sound with Gambier and Bowen after the magnificent peaks surrounding Squamish itself), in the way one can when a car passenger. Fortunately, shoulder is reasonably wide for most of the way, (Quite narrow along cliff face near Porteau Cove, going north, and right next to railroad tracks, going south. Trains don't bother me, there are few in any event, but reasonably large stones from railway road bed often find there way onto the highway. It would not be a good idea to hit or even run over one as who knows what might happen, particularly since it is single lane traffic in either direction at this point!), and I managed to reach Horsehoe Bay without any mishaps. From there one takes Marine Drive and it is a reasonably quiet thoroughfare, particularly on the weekends. Furthermore, I am familiar with the route and enjoy it immensely. Arrived home just after 4:00pm to find Cora Lee, Dusty and Clara, watching the Grey Cup!
That evening we had tickets to a Jill Barber concert at a terrific club called the Electric Owl, on Main Street not far from Science World or the Georgia Viaduct. When I was there for a Macallan's Malt Tasting a month or so ago, I noticed a poster advertising her appearance. This time I was taking Madame Coriandre there for dinner and show as my 41st Anniversary of Meeting, (Halloween, 1971, Champs Motor Inn, beer parlour, Wpg, 1971!), present. She gave me a pair of spiffy, quick wash/dry travel underwear and Rick Steves Eastern Europe, to help with next year's travel planning. Latter is really for her but I didn't make mention of that fact! The Sisterhood is quite sly about managing to buy what they want under all sorts of false pretenses!!!
Anyway, dinner was delicious and concert simply wonderful. Jill deviated from her signature lush retro-jazz repertoire for an evening exploring classic country tunes of the 50s with a special tribute to the music of Hank Williams. The evening opened with a set with Steve Dawson and the Black Hen house band performing both archival and contemporary country and Americana material to complement the full set with Jill. Steve is an incredible guitarist and the rest of his band were just as talented so it was a more than a riveting, energized and energizing performance. Audience didn't want to let them off the stage! Funnily enough, Rhoda managed to get tickets after we told her about the concert on Wednesday. They couldn't obtain dinner reservations so we saved seats for them right beside our table so we had a blast. She was with her brother, Al, a lawyer in Whiterock, and Dinao. They drove us back home as Chloë had dropped us off. Al and Ski came in, after we dropped Diano off, and we had a few snorts of malt for a nightcap!
Finally, we are hosting a pre-Yuletide Open House on December 2nd. Starting with a meeting of my Book Club at 3:00pm to be followed by the Open House proper at 5:00pm. I plan a bit of a malt surprise for some of the malt aficionados who will be attending. Not sure if you have heard about this particular malt or not but I picked up a bottle of Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt, apparently a meticulous re-creation of the original malt whisky shipped to Antarctica in 1907 by the explorer Ernest Shackleton to fortify his 'Nimrod' expedition. Several wooden crates of this precious whisky were abandoned to the Antarctic winter in early 1909, then rediscovered over a century later. Quite a story, one that celebrates the enduring spirit of both man and malt.
Anyway, not sure of your return schedule but if you will be in town we do hope you will be able to join us for a glass of wine and/or a wee dram and a bite on the 2nd! Cheers, Cora Lee and Patrizzio!
Pics and Official stats: Squamish to home, Sunday, 11:22am departure, with a few extra dipsy doodles, around Stanley Park, for a grand totale of 100.4K over 4:59:34, AVG 20.0KPH, MAX 50.2KPH. Ride fantastique! Non-Support Team outside the Squamish Waldorf with Rider Intrepide! Al and Ski; dinner and bridge at the Squamish Waldorf!
NRBC lads, it turns out I won't make it to Sunday's thinkfest. As I crudely hunt and peck at my iPhone touch screen keyboard I am on a flight to New York with Nancy.
A show for which she did the costumes (tempest replica) is at the Joyce Theatre and she couldn't resist a chance to see it there. And me, well, any chance for a break from routine.
Guy
New Yorker cartoon caption under a couple wading through living room with hip waders: "if they want us to take these storm warnings seriously they should give them scarier names."
Guy,
Is Siri unavailable in the air?
While we will undoubtedly regret your absence on Sunday, we shall endeavour to inoculate ourselves against that regret with a wee dram or two. We understand, too, that for you to forgo the Big Apple for an NRBC meeting would constitute a taboo tradeoff. "Give our regards to Broadway [or 8th Avenue]". 8^) cheers, Mark
Afraid I'm still pre Siri. Will pick up some decent hooch on the
way home and endeavor to keep it sealed until next nrbc malt meet. G
Hey Patrick, so sorry about not getting back to you. Life has been a
bit of whirl, with Glenn's mother being sick, my Dad had a fall,
company over, teenager and on and on...How I find time to work, heaven
knows! It was a pleasure to reconnect with you.
If we don't see you this weekend (Zoe has a soccer game at 4:00) we
will rendez-vous avec vous in the new year after your adventures broad. My love to Corrine and Chole. Happy Holidays, Donna
Hi Donna and Glenn!
Thanks for your last message. We missed you both but understand completely! Busy time here too. Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you both and Murphy and Zoe! Fondestos and Cheers, Cora Lee, Chloë and Patrizzio!
Hi Rose and Joe!
Thanks for your last message. Trust you are both well. Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you both. Fondestos and Cheers, Cora Lee, Chloë and Patrizzio!
Hi Donna and Glenn!
Thanks for your last message. We missed you both but understand completely! Busy time here too. Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you both and Murphy and Zoe! Fondestos and Cheers, Cora Lee, Chloë and Patrizzio!
Hi Rose and Joe!
Thanks for your last message. Trust you are both well. Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you both. Fondestos and Cheers, Cora Lee, Chloë and Patrizzio!
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