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A Ship Called Dignity

February 15, 2026 in Flotsam and Jetsam | No comments

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid“And I’m telling this story
In a faraway scene
Sipping down raki
And reading maynard keynes
And I’m thinking about home and all that means
And a place in the winter for dignity
And I’ll sail her up the west coast
Through villages and towns
I’ll be on my holidays
They’ll be doing their rounds
They’ll ask me how I got her I’ll say “I saved my money”
They’ll say isn’t she pretty that ship called dignity”

Ricky Ross – Deacon Blue

This posting is long overdue and should really have appeared late last summer. The tardiness stems from the fact that the matter it concerns is something about which I feel perhaps unexpectedly emotional.

Let me explain…

My last post featured the rediscovery of The Waterboys’ classic track – “The Whole of the Moon”. This led – as such things often do – to the revisiting of another great Scottish song – Deacon Blue’s “A Ship Called Dignity”. Now, regular readers with long memories might just recall that this song has been referenced in these jottings before – the context for which was as follows:

Back in the day – way before we moved to Canada – The Girl and I had many a discussion as to what our new life might look like; where we would live… what we might get up to… what we would not… It was not always certain that we would end up in – or indeed near – Victoria but one of the things that finally swayed me – after a number of visits and the very great joy of getting married amongst friends and family on the Saanich Peninsula – was that I really loved the idea of living within sight of the ocean. Sweeping vistas of snow-capped mountains would just be the icing on the cake.

But that wasn’t all! To move away from the country of one’s birth – the place where one grew up – and to cross the sea to a whole different continent – is no small matter and the decision so to do was not taken lightly. I suggested that what might really seal the deal for me was to be able to fulfill a very long-standing dream…

…of owning a boat!

I couldn’t help but think that it would be a shame to live within sight of the sea but not to be able to play thereon.

Fortunately, The Girl is who she is – and operates the way that she does – and we agreed that a handy lump sum from one of my pensions should be used for that end.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidIt took a year to find the right boat – an old but characterful 20ft Double Eagle – and I decided that she should take her name from Ricky Ross’s song. ‘Dignity’ seemed to me to be appropriate.

So – what is all this about last summer?

Tune in next time…

 

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The Whole of the Moon

February 12, 2026 in Flotsam and Jetsam | No comments

 

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid“Unicorns and cannonballs
Palaces and piers
Trumpets, towers, and tenements
Wide oceans full of tears
Flags, rags, ferry boats
Scimitars and scarves
Every precious dream and vision
Underneath the stars

Yes, you climbed on the ladder
With the wind in your sails
You came like a comet
Blazing your trail
Too high, too far, too soon
You saw the whole of the moon”

Mike Scott – The Waterboys

 

The other day The Girl and I watched some of the coverage of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony from Milan and Cortina, courtesy of the mercifully still splendid BBC. The program was preceded by a short film featuring former AC Milan and Sweden footballer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, on what it takes to become a champion.

The soundtrack of this diminutive opus included – amongst other musical items – a cover version of The Waterboys’ track – ‘The Whole of the Moon‘. Now, this is one of my favourite ever songs… in other words, I wish fervently that I had written it myself! To my intense frustration, however, I missed the credit for the piece (assuming that there was one) and realised that I had no idea whose cover this was – or where I might find a copy.

No matter! We are, of course, blessed (or cursed!) in these dog-days with a frankly incredible range of services that enable us to discover pretty much anything about pretty much everything. I spent the next couple of days pottering around the InteWebNet looking for clues and hoping to locate a source for the piece.

This I was duly able to do, of course, establishing that this particular version had been created by one Tom Hickox – an English singer/songwriter who is clearly worth taking the time to get to know better.

Whilst I was hunting down this fascinating link in the chain I found yet another cover version of “The Whole of the Moon” – this time by another unknown (to me!) singer/songwriter – this time a Scottish lady by the name of Karine Polwart. This considerably more delicate version comes from an album of covers of songs by Scottish writers – entitled “Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook” – the which I had immediately to snap up.

In amongst other versions of songs that are already well known I found another of my favourite tracks (yes – another one that I would have done pretty much anything to have written!). This song goes by the soubriquet – “A Ship Called Dignity“…

…but more of that next time.

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Safe harbour

February 9, 2026 in Life as we know it | No comments

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid“A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

John A. Shedd

High time to wrap up the New Year’s reflection and to get on with living the year itself:

If there is one thing of which we can be sure in this volatile day and age, it is that nothing now is certain. Making predictions as to how the year might unfold is most probably a fool’s errand. That having been said the following ventures are at least at some stage in the planning:

  • Something that I did not mention in my recent review of 2025 was that both The Girl (and to a lesser extent I) struggled during the year with various health related matters. I don’t want to overplay these issues because we are, after all, both getting older and some of our concerns really do just go with the territory. We are determined, nonetheless, to take steps to ensure that we do better in 2026 and beyond. We will be working on diet, exercise and general health during the year. I will, naturally, be reporting back on our progress.
  • We thought long and hard about spending another week in the sun this February. As ever it would have been good to have felt the warmth on our shoulders, but thus far (fingers crossed) this has been a mild winter on the west coast of Canada and there is not quite the same urgency so to escape the season as has been the case in some previous years.
  • Also, we decided early on to put all of our efforts this year into an expedition further afield. The Girl has been working hard at one of the many things at which she excels and plans are well advanced. Again, I will report back once things have been firmed up. Most likely that trip will take place in September/October.
  • This is the first full year of retirement for us both and we are still adjusting to the fact. Thus far we seem to have been even busier than when we were working (the which makes no sense to me at all
  • We will slowly continue to ‘right-size’ the clutter that seems to attend modern life. More on that soon
  • We intend spending as much time as we can with family and friends and we will, of course, be aiming to attend as many artistic events as is feasible. Some have already been booked and more are to come
  • I have now done two productions with the Peninsula Players (as Musical Director) and I am into my second year on the Executive Committee. I have a new venture to report in this space – so look out for that also.
  • There will certainly be more music making this year and there are indeed already things upon which I should be reporting. Look for further postings soon
  • We will definitely aim to entertain in our garden just as much as the weather allows

OK – enough with the ruminating – let’s get to work (and play)!

 

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Tired of being brave

February 4, 2026 in Life in BC, Photos | No comments

“I killed my ex lovers and buried to my memories’ grave.
It is January and I am tired of being brave.”

Arzum Uzun

It occurs to me that the month just finished was the first January (with just a couple of exceptions) during which I had not worked since way back in the 1970s. Strangely – and slightly guilt-inductively – it has zipped by and disappeared over the horizon with nary a second thought. How odd!

It helps, of course, that though we have been watching avidly the reports of terrible weathers afflicting different parts of the globe, here – on the west coast of Canada – it has been merely wet… not icily, gustily, torrentially or anything else like that. Just wet!

Yesterday – however – there was sunshine as well – and we marvelled at how the shafts of sunlight pierced the forest at Centennial Park.

Naturally, pictures were taken:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid Hey guys – it’s still the middle of winter!!

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Only in Canada (No: 5478)

January 28, 2026 in Life in BC | No comments

Those who live outside Canada – and those who are not Canadians – may very well not even get this allusion – let alone understand why The Girl and I fell about laughing at its subject. For completeness, this is a sign at the entrance to a pedestrian stairway down into an underground car park at Uptown here in Victoria.

Now – just in case there are any who feel left in the dark by this enigmatic epistle – here is a handy explanation that should clear up any confusion:

Enjoy!

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Hope is a feeling

January 24, 2026 in Life as we know it | No comments

Hope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don’t, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you.

Vaclav Havel

I rarely write about politics these days on this blog. That was not always the case. I used to resort to so doing when either I felt the need to poke fun at the ridiculous antics of the political classes, or because I was yet again incensed by some of the malicious, criminal or just downright foolish actions perpetrated by those who we had (misguidedly) elected to serve as our representatives in parliaments and other official bodies.

The reason for ceasing so doing was because things have changed for the considerably worse on this blue/green planet – the political mechanisms of which appear nowadays to have been taken over by lunatics, maniacs and the criminally insane; who jointly and separately appear to be trying their best to destroy human civilization.

Once upon a time is was possible not only to mock the incompetent and the inept – along with calling out the wicked and misguided – but also on occasion to praise the words or actions of one of the few politicians who might possibly have deserved the title of ‘statesman’ (or ‘stateswoman’). It has been a considerably while now since this last was possible or indeed accurate.

Last week two very different national leaders – representing two very different nations – addressed the annual World Economic Forum at Davos. One was the Canadian prime minister – Mark Carney – and the other was… well – gentle readers will need no reminding of who the other was.

Have you not done so (and I would urge everyone to take a deep breath, hold your nose and make the effort) these two speeches really should be closely compared. I am not going to go into the details of either, but I will just say I thank whatever gods there may be that I am a citizen of at least one country that has as its leader a figure that can actually be respected. We do – thank goodness – have an adult in the room!

Here is a link to Carney’s speech in full. I urge you to watch it.

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Jumping the gun

January 17, 2026 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Those who follow these meanderings by gracing the occasional e-mail digest with their precious attention (as apposed to just clicking on ‘delete’) may have been puzzled over the last two days to receive what might at a quick glance have appeared to be the same posting in  duplicate.

A closer look would have revealed that the first version to arrive appeared to be strangely incomplete, as well as terminating somewhat abruptly. In this case the obvious explanation is clearly the correct one. I hit ‘publish’ accidentally and prematurely – but was unaware that I had so done until the arrival of the first draft alerted me to the fact.

Should you wish to catch up with the completed missive please do focus on the second email or follow this link in your browser.follow this link in your browser.

My apologies for the inconvenience…

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Looking back (again!)

January 15, 2026 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“Everything happens kind of the way it’s supposed to happen, and we just watch it unfold. And you can’t control it. Looking back, you can’t say, ‘I should’ve… ‘ You didn’t, and had you, the outcome would have been different”.

Rick Rubin

Ok – it’s that time of year again. Time to look back at the year just gone – reviewing the aims and ambitions that we set ourselves for it – and to effect a reckoning thereof.

Once that task has been accomplished I will post another missive containing some thoughts about the coming year. No – we don’t make resolutions for the New Year – but we do try to identify some of those 2things that we hope and intend to achieve.

At around this time last year, I wrote the following (with updates on our progress in red):

“Though our 2024 turned out to be better than anticipated, for the rest of the world it could well be argued that the year took a dramatically retrograde turn. We are, naturally, not immune to these external pressures and it may prove – as a result – that 2025 turns out to be the quiet – heads-down – dig-in – sort of year that we might have expected last time around.

Well – there was a certain amount of ‘digging in’ in 2025 – though perhaps less than there might have been. However, the fact that The Girl and I finally found ourselves (involuntarily) retired did lead us to spend a significant amount of time testing the boundaries (financial and otherwise) of our new situation. Let’s face it, we had actually come to Canada to be retired, so the fact that it took us a full decade to achieve that status might seem a bit of a bloomin’ miracle. Moving on…

These things, however, we are anticipating:

  • A week in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, during the College’s reading week in February. Right now The Girl and I both need to feel some sun on our shoulders

We duly got our week in the sun – at a rather lovely resort too. Given that we were both in the process of becoming retired this was most welcome. The fact that I had had something of a health scare at the start of the year too, the sun drenched peace and quiet was a great boon.

  • Some overdue maintenance on our lovely home. We need a new hot water tank; the roof needs to be de-mossed; I am contemplating putting underfloor heating in my studio and we are long overdue in making a start on dealing with some of the clutter that seems to accumulate through modern living

Maintenance was done; a new hot water tank installed; the roof de-mossed; a significant start on down-sizing our clutter was begun… We also had a new roof put on our garden shed (shop) – but the underfloor heating in the studio has had to wait until we have a clearer picture on financial matters.

  • We are hoping to host some visitors this year – which is always fun when it also turns into a holiday for us

We did indeed get to see friends, with the additional boon of us getting an excursion to the Rockies and a trip on viaRail into the bargain. This turned out to be an excellent adventure and significant memories were made (photos and reports of this expedition were posted to this journal during July, August and September).

  • The will be music-making – no doubt – and I may serve a turn on the executive of the Peninsula Players (who presented the pantomime with which I was lately involved

There is news on the music-making front, but I will post separately in that regard in a little while. I am indeed serving a term on the executive of the Peninsula Players – and I was closely involved with the 2026 pantomime – for which I re-assumed my Musical Director role.

  • We will definitely aim to entertain in our garden just as much as the weather allows”

I am delighted to report that we were indeed able to spend more time in our garden – and I believe that we were suitably entertaining.

Coming soon – our plans for 2026…

 

 

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Island View revisited

December 30, 2025 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

It seems that the majority of posts to this journal for December feature photographs taken at and around Island View beach here on the Saanich Peninsula. In part this abundance is because Island View is a particularly good place to walk in winter, but also because it is photogenic and constantly changing with the weather. This latest batch of images were taken on a day when the wind was seasonably bitter and gusting strongly from the south east. The Haro Strait rarely sees breakers (not behind Sidney and James islands at any rate) but this was an exception. One could easily appreciate how so many fallen (or felled) trees could end up being tossed onto the shore:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidNow – for me this sort of day calls for a brisk walk and then to scurry back into the warmth of our safe abode – where we can hunker down and day-dream about sun-bathed beaches in the distant south. Not so for these dudes:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidRespect!

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Brigitte Bardot

December 29, 2025 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Brigitte Bardot
1934 – 2025
RIP

For many young men growing up in Europe during the 60s and 70s Brigitte Bardot represented the epitome of sensual womanhood… long before most of us knew what that actually meant. For some – such as I – her recent passing might have introduced to us a fresh perspective on a complex life lived under the fierce glare the of the media attention that we could not hope to recognise or comprehend.

Brigitte’s later commitment to animal welfare might not have come as a surprise but many will have found her pandering to the French far right a far cry from the libertine image that had been (willingly or otherwise) constructed around her younger self.

Well – the sixties might seem (and indeed be) a long time ago, but there will be others like me who mourn the passing of an icon from our adolescent years that – for better or worse – made the world seem like a more thrilling and sensual place. Our fantasies might have been impossible, but at the time it felt as though the impossible might just – after all – be possible!

Rest in peace

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