Perfect Long Weekend

Weather this weekend couldn't be any better. Sunny, nice breeze and temperatures in the mid-20s. To me, this is ideal summer weather. And the fact it's a long weekend makes it totally sweet.

This afternoon, we decided to eschew the Natal Day stuff down at Halifax waterfront, and get out of town for a bit. So we headed down to Chester, about an hour southwest of the city. Now, Chester is a gorgeous little village. But it's totally atypical of Nova Scotia. It's the kind of place where some of the Upper Canadian, private-school kids at my university used to go for weekends when they felt they wanted to experience the 'real' Maritimes. Heh. As if. Chester is far too rich, snooty and upscale for that. I always wanted to take those people and ship them up to Cape Breton, to spend a weekend at my parents' place in Big Bras d'Or. In February. Now THAT would have been a 'real' cultural experience for them.

But I digress. We had quite a nice afternoon. A little stroll...gawped at the big fancy houses on the hill and the big fancy yachts and sailboats tied up at the wharves. A little shopping...the village is full of chi-chi little shops, which (because they are aimed mainly at tourists) are exempt from Nova Scotia's Sunday shopping ban. And then a little lunch...at the Rope Loft. My lobster sammich was scrummy, but they were having serious staffing problems today - we sat there an HOUR before our food arrived. Became faint from lack of nourishment.

Afterwards, we took the scenic route home, driving along the shores of St. Margaret's Bay and down past Peggy's Cove. Lots of beaches en route, all packed with people enjoying themselves. All in all, a splendid way to spend an afternoon.

In My Garden - July

Lots of colour this month! Plenty of sunshine and quite a lot of rainfall have kept everything looking very lush. Daylilies growing in abundance all over the property, so I've had lots of lovely bouquets inside the house these last few weeks. Pics have been posted over at Flickr.

Drama in the Office

Bit of a bombshell dropped at work today. The Second-in-Command of our unit announced her resignation this morning. Which sucks in a way, because she's the person I probably get on best with, out of all the staff. However, she's only moving across the hall, to a bigger and better position in our sister unit. So we'll hardly notice she's gone. But there's to be a big shakeup as a result, as job descriptions are altered and duties are shifted around. We'll have to see how it all pans out...

Uh...Holy Crap

I honestly wasn't sure if I'd ever see this day. The IRA announced an end to their armed campaign today. All units have been ordered to dump their weapons. It's an unparalleled and historic announcement. I'm completely shocked.

Irish coverage is at ireland.com; also reports here at the BBC, and the CBC has coverage with greater background, for those who aren't familiar with the conflict.

Lookit What I Made!

At long, long last...tonight I finished and hung the Roman blinds I made for the French doors in our dining room. They were actually pretty simple to make. What took ages was figuring out how to hang the bloody things without putting holes in our steel doors. A. finally arrived at an ingenious solution involving wooden battens and rare-earth magnets.

Here's what they look like - one blind raised and one lowered:


And here's a closeup of my handiwork:


I'm well pleased with how they turned out, let me tell you. This is the first time I've ever made blinds. I've already got the ones for the living room cut out and will start sewing them this week. Now that I've figured out all the various design issues, these ones shouldn't take nearly as long.

Meeting the Neighbours

Hosted a highly satisfactory little soiree here this afternoon. We invited the neighbours from the five other houses on our street to come round for drinks on our deck. We had a perfect afternoon for it - sunny and pleasantly warm.

People from four houses turned up, which was great. The people that didn't come, we hadn't really expected anyway - they're the ones who bought the house next door in order to divide it up (apparently illegally!) into three flats, which they are renting out. So that situation made for some interesting conversation around the punch bowl! ;-)

There's lots of young people on our street, which is lovely:

• B. and D. live at the edge of the lane, facing the main road; they are in their late 30s, have two little girls, and are super friendly (they came over to introduce themselves shortly after we moved in last fall).
• G. and A. are about our age, live at no. 3, are immigrants from Australia, and have been in their house about two years. A. works at the same university as I do.
  
• K. lives at no. 5 with his mum L. (!), who also came along this afternoon. He works for the phone company, is in his mid-30s, and seems generally OK. He bought his house last August, so like us is a new arrival to the street.
• J. lives alone at no. 2, is a bit older (in her 50s, I think) and has been in that house for over 20 years. She's a mine of information on the area and works in the planning business. She is therefore keeping an eagle eye on the folks next door to us at no. 4, with their illegal apartment-letting scheme!

Both B. and D. and J. told us stories of all the wild parties that used to happen at our place. We bought the house from three gay men, one of whom owned one of the clubs in town. The guy who owned it before them was a naval officer (and also gay). Apparently, for years, there were some pretty wild and noisy parties here that went on all weekend long, until 3 or 4 in the morning. B. says she often would get very drunk, very attractive young men at her door asking if they'd come to the right house for the party, and she'd gently direct them to go across the road, before trying to put her babies back to sleep... Heh. I think they're all kind of glad A. and I are positively sedate in comparison!

Anyway. Very good to meet one's neighbours, I think. It was really quite a pleasant afternoon.

Must Read

Spotted in last weekend's newspaper book review: an advert for this book, called Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel-Words, and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Language.

I think I need this book. Actually, I'll probably buy it for my father-in-law, who is the only other person I know who gets more annoyed by hackneyed corporate lingo than I do. Then I can bum it off him later...heh heh.

It seems that business isn't the only sector that gets a dressing-down in this book. Academics, too, are slated for their over-reliance on fashionable postmodern gobbledygook (personally, I've always found po-mo speak to be like an audible badge of a certain tribe in academia - if you can talk the talk, you're in). Needless to say, given the ties my own office has to a particular government agency, some of the words and phrases that regularly come out of my colleagues' mouths make me cringe: 'capture', 'outcome-based', 'closure', 'stakeholders'... Aaargh.

Social Butterfly

This week, my social calendar is packed full. This almost never happens. It's so unusual that I felt I should blog about it. Cripes, how sad is that?

To wit:

1. Tonight we have VIP tix for a show at the Atlantic Jazz Festival, on in Halifax at the moment.
2. Tomorrow we're having dinner with friends whom I haven't seen since my wedding, six years ago.
3. Friday night there's a farewell dinner at a Thai restaurant downtown, for the Vietnamese and Filipinos who have been here these last two weeks attending the workshop I coordinated. Now if we can just hold off on the fog Saturday, so their flights all actually leave Halifax Airport....
4. Saturday night our neighbours across the road are having a party. Whoohoo.
5. Sunday afternoon, we've invited all the neighbours on our street (which has a grand total of just six houses) around for drinks on our deck. A 'getting to know you' kind of thing, since we've never met most of them. More libations to the weather gods!

Necking

I don't usually pay much heed to the scribblings of Russell Smith, the men's fashion columnist for the Grope & Flail. Most of his sartorial suggestions are a bit out there, to say the least. But on Saturday he wrote this piece about a Canadian company producing alternative neckwear for men. It's called Tascot (i.e. tie + ascot), and its website features the requisite brooding male models, sporting all the various styles.

Daringly debonair? Or too fey by half? You decide.

They're Back - Again

Eventually their presence won't cause so much excitement, I know. But the racoons came back tonight. This time, Mother and FOUR babies were up in the big tree on our lawn. Really near. It's the closest we've gotten to them yet. We stalked them for a bit, until they disappeared up another tree at the far end of our property.

Here's one of the babies climbing the picket fence between our garden and the little apartment building next door:

Long Weekend

Just in from a long weekend in Cape Breton, visiting with my family. Beautiful day today, so we took my parents and grandmother over the mountain to St. Ann's, for breakfast at the restaurant there. Stopped to take some digital pics at the lookoff. It's a view I never, ever get tired of.

St. Ann's Bay, Jersey Cove and the Englishtown Ferry:


South Gut, St. Ann's Bay:


The restaurant is at the far end of the bay; the dining room has about the best view of any restaurant I've ever been to:


This time of year, it's easy to see why tourists love Cape Breton so much. It's beautiful. I never appreciated it until I left and started travelling myself.

Not that I ever want to move back there, mind. ;-)

More Coon Sightings

I think those racoons we spotted last week may have taken up residence beneath our deck. And it looks like they've brought their kin with them.

The other night, we saw two adults up in the big pine tree next to the house. This evening, while out barbecuing, A. spotted what appear to be a mother and two cubs:


They're quite bold. The back of the house faces onto a very busy intersection, but they don't seem bothered by the noise - or us, particularly. I zoomed in on Ma for this shot:


Apologies for fuzziness. I really need to figure out how to work my digital camera properly.

Tango Diva

My friend Claire just e-mailed me about a website called Tango Diva. It's by and for solo women travellers. Cool concept; interesting travelogues. Should provide some good reading during my ample free time...*snort*

"We've Landed On Our Feet And No Mistake."

Amongst the most treasured books of my childhood are The Chronicles of Narnia. You may have heard that the best-known of the seven books, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, has been made into a film that will be released in December 2005. The official website and trailer are at narnia.com.

Very torn about the prospect of seeing this book adapted for the cinema. Feeling the same trepidation as I did five years ago when I heard Peter Jackson was having a go at making The Lord of the Rings. If it's good...it'll be bloody amazing. But the problem is, if it's anything less than nearly perfect, it will be such a disappointment. Mediocrity can't be tolerated when you're dealing with a masterpiece of children's literature.

Pros?

1. The special effects are being handled by the WETA Workshop, the same team who did the effects for LOTR.
2. The director is the guy who did Shrek and Shrek 2. Wait...maybe this should be a con? This is actually about as comforting as when I first heard Chris Columbus was set to direct the first Harry Potter film. ("But he's the guy who did Home Alone!" Erm...OK)
3. The fabulous Tilda Swinton is playing the White Witch. Pretty good supporting cast also, with Ray Winstone, Dawn French, Rupert Everett and Jim Broadbent.

Cons?

1. It's being made for Disney. Nuff said.
2. The four central characters are all kids. While the little girl playing Lucy certainly looks the part, who knows how she and the others will actually act? Child actors are always risky. Look at the Harry Potter films - out of the three main characters there, only the kid who plays Ron Weasley really shines.
3. The director is a New Zealander, and the film was shot in New Zealand, with a largely NZ and American crew. Am rather worried that the story's intrinsic Englishness (which is the source of much of its charm) will be lost, reduced to a pastiche of tea-time, funny accents and eccentric customs. (Speaking of which - what the hell is with the accent of Mrs. Macready, the housekeeper, in the trailer? West Country? North of Ireland? Middle America? Who knows?)
4. Not much info on the scriptwriters. I'm confident the film will look spectacular, with WETA at the helm, but I wonder how successfully the story will make the adaptation to the screen.

Eh. Just have to wait until Christmastime, I guess. Please please please let it be good!

The Obligatory 'Work Sucks' Post

When I started this blog, I was determined that it not descend into banal, self-obsessed navel-gazing. But this weekend - unusually - I've had to work a bit. And it's been driving me mental.

The project I coordinate is hosting a workshop at our university over the next two weeks. There are fifteen participants from the Philippines and Vietnam, all of whom were due to arrive this weekend. However, about seven of the Vietnamese waited (inexplicably) until the eleventh hour to apply for their visas, which did not come through in time - so we're now sending frantic emails to the Canadian Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, trying to find out what's wrong. And we're now faced with thousands of dollars in penalties due to missed and cancelled flights - no small problem when you're talking about a government-funded development project.

To make matters worse, Halifax Airport is undertaking repairs and upgrades to its runway at the moment. This has necessitated shutting off - for the whole month of July - the navigational equipment that allows aircraft to land in fog. The airport says it chose to do the work now because July is the least foggy month in Nova Scotia. But this is not saying much in a province where it is foggy 364 days a bloody year. The result is that the airport has basically been shut the last two days, with all flights cancelled. I've been on the phone all weekend - to Air Canada, various hotels, taxi drivers, travel agents, you name it - trying to sort things out. Our travellers are presently all stranded in Toronto, Montreal and Moncton. The workshop is due to start tomorrow, and only three out of fifteen participants are here.

ARGH.

On an altogether more pleasant note, today is also my sixth wedding anniversary. A. and I popped out for a very nice dinner earlier. So my weekend hasn't been an entire wash-out.

UPDATE 12 JULY:
Eight more errant travellers arrived this evening. Three others still visa-less and AWOL. Workshop due to start tomorrow, at last. At least all these extra hours mean I'm earning time in lieu to tack on to my holidays next month!

London Can Take It

From Sir Winston Churchill's speech to the crowds at Whitehall, London, V-E Day, 8 May 1945:

There we stood, alone. Did anyone want to give in? Were we down-hearted? The lights went out and the bombs came down. But every man, woman and child in the country had no thought of quitting the struggle. London can take it. So we came back after long months from the jaws of death, out of the mouth of hell, while all the world wondered. When shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail? I say that in the long years to come, not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we've done and they will say, "Do not despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny, march straightforward and die if need be - unconquered." Now we have emerged from one deadly struggle - a terrible foe has been cast on the ground and awaits our judgment and our mercy.

But there is another foe who occupies large portions of the British Empire, a foe stained with cruelty and greed.... Tomorrow...we must begin the task of rebuilding our health and homes, doing our utmost to make this country a land in which all have a chance, in which all have a duty, and we must turn ourselves to fulfil our duty to our own countrymen, and to our gallant allies of the United States who were so foully and treacherously attacked.... We will go hand and hand with them. Even if it is a hard struggle we will not be the ones who will fail.

http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/YrVictry.html

Grim Day...

Horror in London today. Frightening stuff. How many times have I transited Russell Square and Aldgate East tube stations, en route to the British Library and the Women's Library? Sadly, it was not a question of if this day would happen, but when. Still, Londoners are made of strong stuff. They're well used to this kind of thing. Hitler didn't beat them, nor did Gerry Adams, so Osama bin Laden and his mates round the Finsbury Park Mosque won't either.

So. In tribute to the Bulldog Breed, a bit of blogging on utterly inane and ordinary subjects today.

1. We attended the birthday fete of my putative nephew, Dante, yesterday. Today is his first birthday. A notable event, given that he was born prematurely (and under distressed circumstances) to my friend Wendy this time last year. He was just 3 lb 13 oz at birth, but is now a strapping healthy lad.
2. Wonder of wonders! One can now send e-cards from the official Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell website. I especially like this one, as it features one of my favourite quotes from the book: Apparently the film rights to the novel have been purchased and a scriptwriter has been employed. With the right team at the helm, a film adaptation could be marvellous. I wonder who will play the lead roles?
3. Tim, our new bun, had the snip last week and came through surgery with no difficulties. Fawn still attacking him, but it will likely be another week or two before his hormones start to diminish (he still routinely engages in v. rude behaviour with his plush ball). Hopefully, once he gets a grip on himself and starts behaving like a gentleman, Fawn will accept him as a suitable companion. We can only hope.
4. Just finished watching last night's taped double episode of Little Britain. Bwahahahahaaaaa. I think I'm going to like it very, very much.

Little Britain

Great excitement! I've just discovered, quite by accident, that the BBC comedy series Little Britain is making its Canadian TV debut this evening on Showcase (which is also home to that other great televisual classic, Trailer Park Boys - filmed right here in this fine city!). Needless to say, I've set my video to stun. Really looking forward to this...cos God knows there's shag-all on telly this time of year.

Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw

Entertaining little nature show outside our house this evening. Heard lots of crows making a big commotion a few hours ago. Went out to see what was the matter. After much peering into the trees, we espied a large crow's nest perched high in the branches of the big pine tree that arches over our house. And on the branch leading out to the nest - a racoon.

After watching for a bit, we saw a second racoon, actually in the nest. Probably making a tasty meal of whatever eggs or fledglings were there. :-(

A. stalked them with the camera for a bit, and got these pics:


A little fuzzy, that one. As it got darker, the coons got bolder:

The two of them stayed in the tree for quite a while. Eventually, they plucked up their courage and skittered down the tree trunk. One of them stopped to growl at A. before taking off around the side of the apartment building next door.

A. mentioned that he found two dead baby crows on the deck a few weeks ago. Guess we know now who the culprits are!

Live 8 - Saturday Afternoon

Like most people around the world today, I'm glued to Live 8 at the moment. Coverage started here at 8 am this morning, and I've got TVs strategically set up on each floor of our house, so I can keep one eye on the show while I'm doing other stuff.

I missed most of the big opening from London this morning, cos I actually have to work for part of today (boo!), but I've got it recorded so I can check it out later. Duran Duran have already played their set in Rome, and I'm hoping that CTV broadcast at least some of it. I'm hoping that A-ha's set in Berlin makes it (or has already made it) into the broadcast. And the Pet Shop Boys in Moscow might well be good.

Other than that, not many other acts are really turning my crank, except for those in London. However, unlike 20 years ago, there should be lots of places to go online to see the different performances. I'd love to see all of London uncut, but here we mostly have the Canadian show live from...Barrie! whooooooo! (not)

Really wondering what kind of impact this event is going to have. What will happen in Gleneagles next week? Huge exciting announcement from the G8 leaders? Or more hot air? Who knows? Sometimes I'm kind of cynical about all this stuff, but Jesus, can we afford not to at least try and influence the outcome?

And on that note, if you haven't already done so - and shame on you if you haven't - get over to one of these websites, inform yourself, and support the cause...

Canada: www.makepovertyhistory.ca
US: www.one.org
UK: www.makepovertyhistory.org