A few more images from the City of Glass!
All of these photos – as well as the images in the previous post – were taken from the window of our hotel room in Coal Harbour.
Cool – huh?!
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To Vancouver last weekend for a work event…
That is one of The Girl’s work events, of course. I only work from home these days – and more power to that – but The Girl’s new venture is sending her darting about hither and thither just at the moment and on this occasion I went along for the ride.
We were kept pretty busy eventing (which all went pretty well, as far as I was able to ascertain) but we still had time to dine out in a manner to which we are no longer as accustomed as once we were (probably a good thing!)
We didn’t get to do much more than that in Vancouver (unless you count a fairly brief visit to IKEA on the way back) but given that the weather was pretty terrible (blowing half a gale in the Georgia Strait) that was a good call.
When the cloud cover blew away late in the day I thought I would take some photos from our room of the early evening light playing on downtown Vancouver’s signature glass edifices. Herewith some examples:
The deep roots never doubt spring will come
Marti Rubin
American author Lionel Shriver wrote:
“February is for curmudgeons, whinge-bags, and misanthropes. You can’t begrudge us one month of the year or blame us for being even crabbier, it’s so short. There is nothing good about it, which is why it’s so great”.
Ah – ha! Not so short this year… this being a leap year!
That aside it is not altogether difficult to agree with Ms Schriver. By the time one has finished exhaustively cataloging all the reasons why February in so darn cheerless (Six Nations Rugby aside) it is almost over.
Hmmm!
However, what we all know – of course – is that under the forbiddingly dark, dank, semi-frozen soil, all of the tender young shoots are working out – gathering their strength ready to burst forth just as soon as spring gets the go-ahead. It may not look as though too much is happening right now – but it is all just waiting for the call to arms.
Now – as it happens this is not too bad an analogy for how things appear chez The Girl and I. To the casual observer nothing much might seem to be happening – but that would be misleading. We are currently both working (so much for retirement!) from home.
Having spent a considerable amount of time (and money) over the last few post-COVID years, driving into one or other of the College’s Victoria campuses, I find myself this year co-ordinating an online course from the comfort of my studio. I say co-ordinating – rather than teaching – because this course is entirely asynchronous… which means that I prepare course materials, make little videos, post all manner of resources on our learning platform and wait for assignments to roll in for marking. It is a not altogether unpleasant way of going about things, though I do miss the face to face teaching a little. It does seem to be – however – what the students require nowadays.
The Girl is also beavering away in her home office, on the project that cannot yet be named. Her endeavours actually also involve some travel (concerning which I am less keen) – but she does have a sparkle in her eye, which is good to see. Let’s hope that it stays there!
So – for now we just ‘sit back’ and wait. Spring will soon be here!
If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started.
Drew Houston
In these recent posts – ‘Adjusting the Sails‘, ‘One and One and One is Three‘ and ‘The World of Work‘ – I sought to bring the gentle reader gently up to date with how things had come to rest for The Girl and I at the culmination of a particularly – er – ‘eventful’ year (though aren’t they all nowadays!). What I have not yet done is to peep out from underneath the metaphorical duvet – to see if I can detect good news anywhere betwixt where we are now and the distant horizon of 2025.
So – this is what we know currently about what 2024 has in store for us…
In terms of travel 2023 was – for us – a complete shocker. Without incessantly ploughing the same furrow it is worth reminding ourselves that there was a point last year when we seriously thought that our travelling days were over. Not so – you will be happy to hear. We are already well advanced with the planning for another expedition for April/May this year.
“Which exotic part of the globe will you be visiting?” – I hear you cry. Well – I’m sure we all have our own definitions of ‘exotic’. This is one of ours.
The Girl and I have for a considerable while now felt drawn to visit the mystical realm of Scotland. Even casual viewers of these witterings will be aware of my love for – and great pride in – the home of my ancestors (the which I inherited from my father). My family travelled many times to the highlands for holidays just as soon as we were old enough. My father was a great hill walker and he and I (and sometimes my younger brother) climbed many a peak in different parts of the land. I have regularly over the years visited both Edinburgh and Glasgow for work and – with my theatrical hat on – ventured to the Edinburgh Fringe on more occasions than I can now enumerate.
The Girl has toured parts of Scotland just once before – with a good guide and great friend – but she and I have not been there together and we feel a very strong urge so to do.
Anyway – more on that trip as it unfolds…
In ‘The World of Work‘ I wrote:
“During the autumn just past The Girl reached the conclusion that her eight years at the volunteer service was enough. As it happens the service was undergoing some restructuring and she was able to do a deal whereby she would hand over the reigns to a full-time replacement, with a negotiated package that would enable her to take some time to figure out what – if anything – she wanted to do next. She is thus once again retired (for now!)“.
Following what might just be the shortest retirement ever… The Girl has just this week started an exiting new venture, about which I can currently reveal nothing at all, but concerning which I suspect a great deal will be said in the months to come. Watch – as they say – this space!
I have already dropped huge hints about creative developments in the musical department. We are firmly expecting a new album to put in an appearance at some point this year – and if we could play live somewhere to welcome it, then that would be splendid.
As ever at this time of the year there are many other exciting prospects bubbling under and – though there are also many very good reasons to feel nervous about 2024 – I like to approach the year under an umbrella of optimism. (Google assures me that – somewhat to my surprise – I am not the first to coin that particular euphemism. Oh well!).
Very best wishes to you all for 2024.
Tags: Anam Danu, Music, New Year, plans, The Girl, Travel, work
In my post of December 15th – last year (how time doth fly!) – entitled ‘A metaphor for endings‘ – I promised updates on a number of the strands of our lives. There is one such left outstanding – the which I feel I must needs address forthwith…
…the world of work!
When The Girl and I ‘retired’ to Vancouver Island back in the summer of 2015 it had been our intention to be just that… retired! So – how did that work out?
Well – The Girl lasted all of six months before she started looking for some form of employment. The tale of her finding a job with a volunteer service in Saanich during April 2016 may be found here:
I held out rather longer – not re-joining the workforce until January 2018 – but since then we have both been willing (if variously part-time) contributors to our local community – and felt all the better for it. Being healthily provided for in the pension department it is not exactly that we needed additional funds (though a little extra is always good to have) – more that we both needed a sense of purpose and to feel that we were pulling our respective weights.
Until now…
During the autumn just past The Girl reached the conclusion that her eight years at the volunteer service was enough. As it happens the service was undergoing some restructuring and she was able to do a deal whereby she would hand over the reigns to a full-time replacement, with a negotiated package that would enable her to take some time to figure out what – if anything – she wanted to do next. She is thus once again retired (for now!).
I have now taught on term contracts at the College for six years and – in spite of trembling on the verge of entering my eighth decade (in but a few days from now) I am quite happy to go on so doing. This term I am teaching a new (to me!) course that will be offered online only. I am scrambling at the moment to put it all together, but I have no doubt that things will settle down – as they usually do.
Imagine my surprise, however, when the Chair of my department offered me a continuing post in place of my habitual two contracts a year. I didn’t see that coming and I am not entirely certain that I really care for the idea – rather enjoying being a free-spirit! I do, however, feel rather flattered to have been made the offer. I don’t need to decide until around April time – so watch this space…
As ever, it seems, very little of what has befallen us has turned out exactly as we predicted when we came to Canada.
Life does contain such riches…
Tags: college, Retirement, teaching, The Girl, work
“Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something’s time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings”.
Henry Cloud
Those who are anything but the most casual of visitors to this digital bailiwick will be aware that this has been a particularly trying year for The Girl and I. The implications of our various travails will inevitably rumble on for some time yet to come, but I will do my very best not to bore on about them too much here.
However, as the prepended Henry Cloud quote aptly reminds us, we are approaching the ending of the year and the changing of the seasons. Things can and do change constantly (of which there is nothing to be afraid) and we must needs indeed carry out some regular pruning, so that the blossoms may flourish anew in the years to come.
Those here for the long haul will already be aware of my habit of looking both forward and back (Janus-like) at this juncture of the year and will be unsurprised to find me taking full advantage of that annual ritual to update the gentle reader on a variety of present topics over the festive season.
These subjects I will certainly address:
- The fallout from our aborted ‘trip of a lifetime’ to Botswana back in May/June. Progress on the recovery of our disbursements is glacial – but just consider what those gargantuan ice-flows are capable of inflicting upon a landscape. It may be a grind but ‘justice’ must eventually be done.
- The Girl has decided that it is time for some major changes in her life. Old doors will be closed but new ones almost certainly opened. Stay tuned for the full details.
- This time last year The Chanteuse and I proposed some loftily ambitious extensions to our musical project. Whereas things are taking longer to realise than we might have hoped, we are making good progress. There is exciting news to report – the which will be the subject of a post very soon.
- Each year I ask myself afresh if I wish to continue with my periodic teaching at the College. Now, I have a big birthday coming up shortly (I do not really celebrate the lesser ones) so the question is particularly pertinent. I find to my surprise that the playing field has altered somewhat since last I gave the matter my consideration.
These – and other pressing subjects – will have lights shone bright upon them in the interests of illumination.
For now – I am writing this at 10 o’clock of the evening in the arrivals hall at Victoria International airport – awaiting The Girl’s timely return from Mexico. As I am considerably less than half the chap that I can be whenever she is not around, this is not a moment too soon.
“Reality is not always dark or positive. It is somewhere in-between”.
Antara Mali
It is Easter weekend and here on the west coast of Canada we are once again caught in between. Winter has tarried over-long and though we have had occasional glimpses of spring it has to be said that we have not yet truly broken though thereto. Even the garden seems unsure as to whether or not to really ‘go for it’ – or to wait for things to warm up a bit. Most of our daffodils took one look at the weather and decided not to bother with flowers this year. The tulips boldly unfurled themselves but are now looking as though they wished that they had not bothered. I have mowed the lawns a couple of times but even the grass seems to be in two minds as to where we are in the seasons’ cycle.
A quarter of the year has gone. The clocks are wondering if they made a mistake with ‘summer’ time, but the planetary movements are relentless and we are already more than half way to the longest day. Hardly seems possible, does it?
Our exciting trip to Africa looms ever closer but the whole thing still seems more like make-belief than reality. It will be real enough, soon enough! We (in truth, mostly The Girl) have focused our minds on the expedition to come by carefully equipping ourselves for the sort of adventure that I don’t believe either of us has encountered before (well – I certainly haven’t). Will it be a life changing experience? Time will tell (and so, of course, will I)!
I am just finishing a fairly tough term at the College, during which I have been teaching not one class but two. I feel sure that the mental exercise of maintaining overlapping schedules has been doing wonders for keeping my ageing brain sparking; a sort of fitness class for the intellect. I have certainly detected a fair bit of grumbling from that quarter – the which is pretty much how I am when it comes to physical exercise also. Ah well – at least the remuneration goes some way towards paying for our sojourn south of the equator.
Well – let us hope that things change for the better and that the year begins to feel as though it has truly sparked into life.
Ah! January…
‘Tis the time of year to reflect on the one that has just passed. Did it measure up to our hopes and expectations? Given the state of the world, did we have much in the way of hopes and expectation for it to live up to?
As ever, the best way to find out is to locate the equivalent postings from this time last year and to see exactly what – if anything much – we were hoping for…
…then we can see if any of it actually happened!
…and after that we can repeat the exercise for yet another year!
Hang on a sec while I have a shufti…
OK – here is our basic wish-list from last year – with progress reports in red:
- To get to see family and friends – …yes we did… see below!
- To be able to entertain again – …there was indeed some entertaining – and not all of it outdoors
- To dine out – again – …hoorah! We can once again eat out (and on occasion, somewhat splendidly!)
- To see some live theatre – …well, yes.. but not so much in Canada. See below:
- To enjoy some live music – …once again – one event only – Barney Bentall’s Cariboo Express in November
- To attend a live sporting event (preferably Rugby!) – …sadly not
- To be able to travel… anywhere – …well – speaking of which…
In addition:
- It is our fervent wish that we get to travel to the UK during the coming summer. Whether or not this happens will depend entirely on the course that the pandemic takes on both sides of the pond over the coming months. We are not holding our collective breaths.
…and this we duly did – emboldened by visits in the spring from good friends in the UK and from an old and most dear friend from New York. The expedition was most enjoyable, even though we did not get to see everyone that we would have liked to have seen. We got to the theatre in London and Bath – we dined splendidly and well – we finished our trip with a lovely sojourn in Paris. The downside? We came back with COVID. Oh well!
- We will carry out some further domestic upgrades – air-conditioning to guard against future ‘heat domes’ – a new hot water system so that we can console ourselves with even longer baths when things don’t work out as we would wish.
…well – we did the air-conditioning – and just in time for a hot spell too. An excellent notion which works well. The hot water tank replacement is still on hold – but will get done…
- Normalised work! The Girl would like to be able get back out into the wider world and to visit clients face to face again – not to mention paying a nostalgic visit to her office! I would like to teach students who can actually see my face as I do so.
…pretty well normalised as it turns out. The Girl is back doing (somewhat cautious) home visits and going into the office two days a week. Last spring I was teaching in an N95 respirator and a headset (for streaming purposes). Not much fun. By the autumn I was back to face to face teaching without a mask – even though I wore one when around the enclosed bits of campus.
- More music! One positive over the last year is that I have been able to write more than enough new songs for the Chanteuse and I to put together another ‘album’. We are currently recording her vocals on these tracks and we are making good progress. Look for further pronouncements in the coming months.
…Last year was indeed a good year in musical terms. The Chanteuse and I finished our third album and at the end of August Anam Danu released ‘Soul Making‘. We were even able to have a lovely reception in our garden to celebrate the release and – for the first time – we played a few tracks from the album live to the assembled friends and supporters. The feedback we have had regarding the music has been overwhelmingly positive and we both have a very real sense of achievement.
So – in spite of all the many troubles in the wider world, 2022 was a good year for The Girl and I. What will we hope to accomplish in 2023?… Check back in a few posts’ time to find out.
Tags: Anam Danu, Music, New Year, Renovation, teaching, The Girl, Travel, work
…Holy Moley – I can’t feel my face degrees!
The winter weather is doing its bit to make the run in to Christmas something of a challenge! Notice that I didn’t qualify that with: “Here on the west coast of Canada“. I am well aware that we are not alone in experiencing exceptional climatic conditions. We have had quite a lot to do of late (as of course have many people at this time of year) and needing to keep a constant eye on the weather only makes things more exacting.
Here are some ‘highlights’ – complete with pictures:
Last weekend we made a overnight trip up island to Nanaimo – for a Christmas visit with The Girl’s mum – stopping on the way back on the Sunday for lunch with a dear friend in Duncan. As ever we took the Mill Bay ferry to avoid traversing the Malahat (always a good idea when there is snow in the air).
We figured that the snow would start to fall at some point during this trip and sure enough it did – whilst we were in Nanaimo. We stayed overnight in the Coast Bastion hotel overlooking Nanaimo harbour – with which we are very familiar from previous visits.
We had a lovely visit with both family and friends – dined splendidly at the Nanaimo Golf Club, the Minnoz restaurant at the Coast Bastion – and, of course, with our lovely friend in Duncan. Happy Christmas to you all.
Once back in Victoria the winter storm really swept in and soon everything disappeared under about a foot of snow. This was the view from my studio window by Tuesday.
The Girl had taken most of the week off as well-earned pre-Christmas break, but the weather put paid to any notions of a relaxing run in to the festival itself. The Volunteer Agency of which The Girl is one of the mainstays delivers meals to elderly folk every week – with teams of volunteers driving routes around Greater Victoria to make deliveries to more than seventy locations. Given the weather it would have been totally unreasonable to expect these excellent volunteers – many of them elderly themselves – to be out on the roads in such treacherous conditions. It fell to a number of us folk with 4x4s equipped with snow tyres to get the food parcels out to the elderly in time for Christmas. This is – of course – is just the sort of thing at which Lorelei excels and she did not let us down. Here we are en route…
I guess the big question now is – will we get a white Christmas? Today is the 23rd and temperatures are starting to rise – though to this point they have only reached the ‘freezing rain on top of compacted snow‘ phase – so today we are going nowhere! We will see how things pan out tomorrow.
Those who have been tuning in to these ‘broadcasts’ for any length of time will doubtless be familiar with certain themes that re-surface time and again with the regularity of the phases of the moon. One such is that of the writer’s (and his delightful spouse’s) state of engagement; to be specific, how busy we find ourselves at any given moment.
A quick glance through the archives shows that ‘state of busyness’ messages are posted pretty regularly and especially at two times of the year – just as August fades into September and the Fall – and then, slightly more desperately, as Christmas approaches.
This is in part, of course, due to our ongoing connections with the world of education. After the indolence of the summer months (should they indeed prove so to have been) the commencement of the new academic year and the return to a fresh term can be quite a shock. Trust me – it doesn’t get any easier the longer that one has been doing it.
So – the term has begun, I have a fresh faced group of students and I have been rushing around getting everything ready for the fray. Come Christmas-time I have no doubt that I will once again be running on fumes and anticipating complete collapse just as soon as the term has ended.
The Girl’s employ is not related to education but, for some reason, this seems to be a busy period for her as well. The end result is that we both feel somewhat weary. An element of this malaise arises from our having used up a considerable fund of energy (though delightfully so) on our our foreign travels during July and – of course – in fighting off the nasty bout of COVID that we picked in the process.
Once home again at the start of August we struggled to recharge the batteries in time for the launch of the new Anam Danu album – ‘Soul Making‘. Having been restricted by the pandemic lock-down at the time of our previous album release (‘Winter Blue and Evergreen‘) to merely raising a glass during a Zoom call we wanted to celebrate properly this time. It was decided that we should have a small reception, inviting close friends and supporters to help us with the festivities.
The Girl volunteered bravely and selflessly as prime organiser and she and the Chanteuse and I – with gratefully received assistance from old and dear friends – put together a rather splendid little shindig (if we say so ourselves). The highlight (should one discount the excellent finger food and beverages – which I certainly don’t) was a short performance of a few of the songs from the album. It was not entirely live – since we were obliged to use some backing tracks – but it was our first appearance in person in front of anyone and we were well aware of the significance thereof.
Come the end of the day, of course, we were even more exhausted than before. Ah well – doubtless we will once again get into the swing of things.
Tags: Anam Danu, Celebration, college, Holiday, Music, Travel, Weariness, work
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