You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2026.
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!
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.
Tags: Canada, incompetence, Modern life, Politics
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…
Tags: incompetence
“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:
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.
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 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).
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.
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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