words stick

the last post

2009-08-14T13:52:00.002+01:00

today is my last full day in my liverpool home. and it feels mighty weird. weird because there are so many people here i will miss and who have said they'll miss me too. weird because there are so many people back in canada overly excited about me coming back, and i'm overly excited too!

i haven't had too much time to fully reflect on my last four years here, but i have been thinking about the first six months a lot. how wonderful, accepting, lovely and beer-loving everyone was. it didn't take long before i was one of the crew...and i still am. i'll desperately miss a lot of people and things, but here's a list so far that i've compiled of things that i've learnt:

1. that people are precious, delicate individuals whose beings no one can fully know without complete openness. that no matter what tortoise shell exterior someone may have, we all need to draw our head inside sometimes.

2. it's okay to grow my hair long and not feel less like i did when i was 18

3. the telephone truly is the greatest CANADIAN invention (many disagreements over whether Alexander Graham Bell was scottish, but we can all agree he is canadian). no matter how great the internet is for keeping in touch there is nothing quite like hearing a loved one's voice. especially if they're a niece or nephew being coached to say 'i wuv you' and 'i miss you'

4. how much i appreciate each and every member of my family, how close i've grown to them over the years, and how much it hurts to lose one of them.

5. there is a song for every feeling and every occasion

6. as they said in high fidelity, sometimes it's what you like more than what you are like (and scousers love to say 'whaddar ya like?'

7. the value of patience, grace and principles. still working on those...

8. that the reason i was drawn here in the first place was my ancestry and that is also the reason that's drawing me back home.

9. how much i love camping and hillwalking (but really it was just a substitute for the cottage:)

10. how generous and loving people are.

11. that scousers truly are one of a kind.

12. you can pack a lot of people into a small country and even more people into a field of tents (a la glastonbury)

13. as much as i complain about british/mersey rail, i really do love it.

14. i can change career paths.

15. i can do my masters whilst working full-time, so maybe my phD too!

it's quite a random list and not nearly as exhaustive as i'd like, but the brain is a bit mushy and scattered what with all the packing and saying goodbyes. i will treasure the text on this blog forever and will probably use one of those nifty sites to make it into a little book for myself.

so thanks for the memories, laughter and lifelong friendships i've established in the last four years.

...and can't wait to get back home! one more sleep.

three more sleeps

2009-08-12T23:05:00.003+01:00

it was my intention to post a lot more in the last few weeks, but it just hasn't happened - my apologies! i wanted to post as often in my last two weeks in liverpool as i had in my first two, but i guess i've been a lot busier in these last two than the first!

i had a flying visit to amsterdam with val, which was really lovely and nice to do immediately after i finished work. there were a lot of walks, a few museums, great food and of course wonderful company. val had kindly given me a spa day for my birthday, which we indulged in the day after we got back. it was lovely, relaxing and resulted in me having hysterical hair.

this past weekend was an extended one down in norwich with sam, kel, nick and dipak. the weather was phenomenal, there was seaside, pubs, more good food, more wonderful company, a bit of a swim and a rowboat ferry!

i've spent the last couple days wandering around my liverpool home. walking up to anfield, running errands, visiting the tate, fact, the bluecoat, the docks and tomorrow a few more walks and hopefully some nice weather. it's a weird and strange time...one that feels absent of the passage of time completely.

i'm really excited to be moving back home and feel incredibly at peace when thinking about it, but i will miss a lot of people and things over here. but it's always nice to have friends everywhere - more free places to stay!

"very often we travel the world over in search of what we need and return home to find it." - george moore

2009-07-30T09:07:00.001+01:00

a few random musings on my last couple weeks at work.

i think there are times when songs follow you. for me it's been 'fields of gold' by sting for some completely unknown reason. it started when i was re-watching aaron sorkin's not so successful show studio 60. the premise is that it's a show about a late night sketch comedy show (think saturday night live). one night the musical guest is sting playing his lute and the executive producer asks him to sing fields of gold. now i like the original version, but with a lute? so much better.

i heard the song again - another cover - when i was taking the train to the airport for grandma's funeral. listening to stuart maclean broadcast a show from 'the canadian' train, the one that goes across canada. it was a lovely acoustic version covered by someone whose name i can't remember.

lastly, i heard it just a few days ago walking from the walker art gallery to the station on my way home. there are several grotty karaoke pubs in liverpool and at this particular one someone happened to be belting out fields of gold. i listened to it that night doing housework to get a lovely voice singing it back into my head.

i've been trying to put together a mix before i leave liverpool, but it's really hard. i'm obsessive about each song leading into the next and that's hard to do when you're not just trying to get a good series of songs together, but to try and weave a story too. i'm sure i'll get there, but it needs a few more takes.

it feels weird that i only have two days left at work. in fact i think it only just dawned on my yesterday. i've started saying goodbye to people and that feels strange. i wonder who i'll keep in touch with and who will just become a memory for me. i wonder if i'll miss schlepping to the train station with bags of stuff to take into work in the rain trying not to let my hair get wet and frizzy. i wonder if i'll ever really appreciate how fortunate i've been to have the opportunities i've had here and if i'll be able to convey that properly to my own little community here.

i found a card when i was cleaning out my desk yesterday. it was left on my desk when i first started at the lady lever art gallery and just welcomed me and wished me well. i remember being really touched by it, but that's just how this place is. everyone helps everyone. it's been my own little family away from home and i'm going to miss them.

i'll be weepy about leaving my friends too when the time comes, but that's not for a couple weeks yet. a word of warning though - i'm not going to keep the blog up when i move back to canada. i thought it would be nice just to have it of a record of my four years here.

Margaret Jessie Gould

2009-07-17T14:53:00.007+01:00

It's been a tough and trying time for my family lately. Sadly, my Grandma Gould died last week on 7 July just over two months since my Grandpa passed away. She had been suffering with dementia and other ailments and it was a relief for her that she suffered no longer and saved her family more pain in watching her drift away. That might seem crass to some, but blessings often disguise themselves. I was home for the funeral this week and arrived back in Liverpool yesterday for my last month in the UK.

The Minister who has presided over both services was Canon Jim Kiddell who knew both of my grandparents well in their time at St Mathias Church in Etobicoke. When he spoke about Grandpa he referred to him most often as principled, for my Grandma it was 'pearl' and gracious. Quite a lot was said about both of them at both services because they were such a team, but I've been reflecting too on them as individuals.

She was an incredibly gracious woman and here's a few random musings...

Remembering her now, I always remember wanting to have her fiery red hair when I was younger. Her house was always impeccably clean, perfectly organised and they did have the cleanest basement I've ever seen in my life. She took pride in her home and I think that is something I've definitely taken from her too. But she loved a good laugh and always seemed on the verge of making a punchline of virtually every story. She shared so much with so many people and from that I take that she must have cherished the wider community she was a part of.

She also loved turtles. For many birthdays, Christmases and Mother's Days I'm sure I bought her a little turtle. I'll always remember her little cabinet in the den at Rowse Crescent and picking my favourites out. Her little bell would ring each morning for Grandpa to bring the coffee presumably. She let me stay up late to watch the Golden Girls and I can still sing every word of that theme song today! She loved stroking my hair, whatever the length, and counting freckles. Whenever I would leave her house in the summer, I'd always leave with an empty margarine tub full of cherry tomatoes.

The other past time I'll take from her is peering into the windows of people's houses at night. I'm not sure whether she was checking out their decor or seeing if she could catch people up to something mischievous, but she loved it and now I do too.

But you cannot help thinking of my Grandma and Grandpa together. They were married for over 66 years so were inseparable. Grandpa would always call me - to dial the numbers - but then I'd quickly be passed over to Grandma - who he called the boss. I think that simply demonstrates how they did always do things as a team. I'll remember them both with the utmost love, fondness and admiration. I'll miss them always but hold dear the lessons learnt.

Finally, I just want to write somewhere so I don't forget, that I mentioned to my cousin's wife Kelly at the service that one of the last conversations I had with my Grandpa was about my masters dissertation. He told me about how he researched his from old newspapers at the central library in Toronto. Apparently, Kelly said he randomly dug it out and told everyone about it and she hadn't known what had triggered it. I guess it was that slightly random conversation with me.

glasto review

2009-06-30T14:07:00.003+01:00

i'm back. showered, laundry in progress, and back to work today for a three day week. i think it will be needed as last week was pretty exhausting! not because i was in the dance tent until 4 am, but because you walk and stand for virtually five days and sometimes through some pretty thick mud. several wellies got left behind...

it was absolutely brilliant though. 25 bands in 3 days including some of the biggest names in the biz - neil young, bruce springsteen, blur, crosby stills & nash, and tom jones. of course there were several 'smaller' names that i saw who were equally entertaining and talented just not as main stream.

there is nothing to prepare you for the enormity of it and a few things that you don't know before arriving. long car waits to actually get on site, trekking from the car to the tent with all of your gear, fires at night filling the air with smoke, human traffic jams, and all of the garbage. i have to say it was the garbage that bugged me most. being a 'green' festival it seemed that very few people cared about leaving no trace on fields that usually are home to the cows of worthy farm.

but the beautiful things you don't quite get either. massive paper lanterns being sent up like slowly reversing shooting stars every night, the huge variety of people and ages, a general no pushing policy, being able to wear whatever you want and get away with it, the park stage, the stone circle and most of all the 100,000 people plus sing-a-longs that take place daily.

it was a once in a lifetime experience that i'll never forget. *everyone* should put it on their bucket list.

going to glastonbury!

2009-06-22T22:19:00.002+01:00

there weren't that many things that i consciously put on my 'uk bucket list', but going to glastonbury music festival was definitely one of them. it's the largest greenfield performing arts festival in the world and *everybody* plays there. not to mention everybody goes too - over 175,000 people!!!

it is lacking a lot of canadian bands this year in my opinion, but i'm a bit bias. neil young is headlining on friday night to make up for it though. you can check out the full line up here.

the weather is supposed to be gorgeous until at least friday, so we'll hopefully stay dry until then. to kick off my week off i'm going to see kelly in bristol tomorrow. she's taking the afternoon off so we're going to take in the banksy show at bristol museum. really looking forward to that.

keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain and that i don't lose my tent amongst the sea of nylon.

le update

2009-06-10T18:26:00.002+01:00

evening faithful readers and my apologies for not being around of late. it's been a busy, tiring time for many reasons and it feels like much has happened since my last posting. the trip home was okay. we, of course, had some laughs, beers and i even got to watch the hockey game on my birthday. the weather was gorgeous, which was much appreciated by me too.

i do have some news to report that i'll make short and sweet. davoud and i are splitting up so it will just be me moving back to canada in august. i'm not going to say more than that, but we're both doing okay despite it being very sad.

the weather here when i got back was glorious, but has taken a turn for the worst. the rain and humid weather has settled in for the past few days making for not very nice hair days. i've been trying to get out for my training walks and did my longest one on sunday at 10 km! so if you haven't donated yet, you can do so by clicking here. i'm almost at 50% of my target and would love to make it to 100% before i get back to canada!

Ross Kenneth Gould

2009-05-21T23:04:00.002+01:00

i'm getting ready to go home for just under a week. very sadly, my Grandpa Gould died two and a half weeks ago and the memorial service is this coming sunday. it's been a difficult time and has reinforced how much it means to me to get home for good. being far away - knowing that even if you were around there is very little you could do - is a burden at times like these. no amount of real ale or rain can wash that away.

i remember my Grandpa teaching me how to use his typewriter. his office in the basement of their house at 24 rowse crescent - i can still remember the old phone number too - was immaculate. there was also iced tea in the fridge, which was my absolute favourite and mini wheats for breakfast. and then there were the fresh cherry tomatoes that i always went home with in a plastic margarine container. the last time i talked to him, we swapped notes on writing dissertations; the vast difference there is between writing one now and probably seventy years ago.

i do need to get to bed though. it's late, i worked a 12 hour day, have been trying to pack and get organised and dissolved into tears when i was trying to cut my fringe/bangs myself so they'd stop getting in my way. a good night sleep will do me good.

the last of the Canadian visitors

2009-05-02T19:35:00.002+01:00

dad and christine outside arguments yard in whitby, north yorkshire

fountains abbey

it's been a busy week. last friday we greeted my dad and christine at manchester airport and embarked on a whirlwind weekend around liverpool before setting off for four nights in the yorkshire dales. we had lots of laughs and what we would all describe as one of the best pub experiences ever at the green dragon in hardrow village in yorkshire. all i'll say is that it involved my dad getting a hug from a lancashire man in yorkshire, a kd lang lookalike, and a drunk farmer.

what's nice about this visit is that they are coming back up to liverpool after their own tour of the south, which is quite ambitious, but no doubt they'll have a great time. we all remarked on how taking them to the train station in liverpool to head down to london was complete roll reversal. davoud and i had armed them with a phone, satellite navigation, more maps and tips on where to eat. "and don't forget to call us when you get there!"

it's a bank holiday weekend here so thankfully we're not back at work until tuesday. i have a bit of school work to finish up on monday and then it will officially all be done. who knows what i'm going to do with all of that spare time...

away to wales

2009-04-12T12:29:00.003+01:00

davoud, karen and i met up with val and paul in conwy yesterday for a hike up conwy mountain. it was an absolutely glorious day - much improved on the day before! - so we tried to make the most of it. there were wild horses, sheep and little lambs along the way, which made things even more enjoyable. val was our official navigator and did a really good job apart from a small hiccup at the start of the journey ;)
after our walk, we sat by the harbour and had some chips. davoud and karen went into the castle, but as i'd just been there last week i opted to sit and read the newspaper. last night some friends came round for food and today we're enjoying a fairly lazy sunday, although i do now need to get some school work done!

canadian visitors month

2009-04-11T07:39:00.002+01:00

karen and i in the cains pub after our brewery tour

april has officially been renamed 'canadian visitors month.' davoud and i have been treated to a visit from janine last week, which was lovely and filled with afternoon teas in harvey nicks, a weekend away in conwy for some tin cymraeg, lots of crisps, and a heartbreaking football match. we're now hosting karen for about a week and thankfully it's easter weekend so i have a whole four days off!

yesterday we did a wee tour of liverpool on the yellow duckmarine, walked around the albert dock, visited the awe inspiring anglican cathedral and then went to cains for the brewery tour. now davoud and i have both done the tour before, but you get two pints at the end of it so it was well worth a second go around.

today thankfully the weather has cleared up and we're heading to wales with val and paul for a hike. which is a good thing really because even though i'm not on holiday i have certainly been eating and drinking as though i am.

some bedtime reading

2009-03-18T09:44:00.004Z

well, as the faithful readers know i have finished my disseration and if you're daft enough to want to read it just send me an e-mail. it's long so i'm warning you now.

i am feeling better and back on semi-regular food. not quite up to my usual intake of fruits and vegetables, but i'll get there soon no doubt. i met davoud down in coventry last weekend so i could visit with his family, especially his father who's been in hospital since late february. one of the highlights was going to the pub and watching a rare win for liverpool fc over arch rivals manchester united. a nice 4-1 win too!

went to the film 'the class' last night, which was a great portrait of young people in france today. i highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get into the heads of a teacher at a tough school or a 14 year old boy or girl.

i'm off to york this weekend to complete research for one of my last two projects for school - i'm getting there! and then i'll have to get ready for the welcome onslaught of canadian visitors in april. we have a week free just in case anybody is keen to hop on an airplane...

stomach bug

2009-03-11T12:00:00.002Z

i had a really lovely weekend. pints at the pub on friday, cleaning, chores and a run on saturday, and a nice long walk with val and paul on sunday. monday i lazed around the house and then went to class after which i came home and cooked myself a piece of salmon from tesco. i'm fairly convinced at this point that it was my downfall.

the last 30 hours have not been pleasant, i'm just hoping that i can keep some nutrients in my body today so i can go back to work tomorrow. not having done any school or proper work for the last five days is starting to drive me bonkers.

anyway, here's hoping the worst of it is over.

eighty weighty pages

2009-03-02T08:56:00.003Z

over the last five weeks apparently my personality and voicebox have changed slightly. karen called me last night - to tell me she was coming to visit in april! hooray! - and didn't recognise my voice. so it's a good thing that my dissertation is almost finished. i could hand it in tomorrow if i really wanted to, but i'm just waiting on a second read and a little bit of feedback.

i've packed all of my papers away in a box, reorganised my one shelving unit in the house, and put away the hats and mitts from the hallway that have been stacked up on shoes for the last four months. it looks positively spring like out there. and hey, we might actually get to use our dining room table this week.

in the end, i probably will have written over 25,000 when all of the drafts and re-drafts are taken into consideration, but the final document will max out at eighty weighty pages. today i get to go pick out a nice presentation folder perhaps the most fun bit of this whole process. although visiting newcastle to do interviews was pretty nice too.

i can now leave the land of the funnel people and come back to the normal side of life. still two more projects to complete for my masters, but i have the feeling they are going to seem positively easy after this.

i'm really looking forward to this weekend. we're going to the pub straight after work on friday to celebrate and then who nows what the rest of the weekend will bring. ideas about hiking in wales, baking bread or watching movies all day have been floated, but we'll see how the mood strikes us.

anyway, a mass apology to all of those i haven't been in touch with recently and a very big thank you to everyone who supported me along the way. especially that very first week in february.

it's a perfect day for writing a dissertation

2009-02-02T14:36:00.002Z

it's snowing outside. really, really snowing outside. this is a rare phenomenon in the uk as you probably know and as usual liverpool isn't getting the worst of it. london pretty much came to a grinding halt today and apparently there is more to come.

so it's a great day to write a dissertation.

i'm taking this week off to try and collect my thoughts on how the deparment of culture, media and sport and the museums, libraries and archives council's policy impacts audience development at museums and galleries. something i'm sure you'll all want to read when it's finished ;)

okay. so back to writing and watching the snow fall outside.

miracles do happen

2009-01-16T13:08:00.002Z

all morning i've been in absolutely awe (in the back of my mind because i've actually been helping children learn how victorian children lived) over the plane landing in the hudson. i've spent my lunch half-hour reading, watching and just shaking my head in amazement.

anyway, just wanted to put that positive vibe out there after my last post before the next round of kiddies shows up.

off to newcastle this weekend and please do forgive me if i fall off the radar completely for the next month or so. my dissertation is due on 6 march and i'm anticipating it will consume my life.

oh...and only four more days till inauguration!!!

2008-12-29T13:08:00.003Z

as i sat in my office researching what precautions the gallery took during world war II to protect the building and collections for a new learning session next year, i'm struck by sadness. i listen to bbc radio 4 all day when i'm here on my own and today all the news is about continued air strikes in gaza.

at a time of year when peace is the message we constantly hear, why, only two days after christmas (and yes, i know that neither of the religions recognise jesus as christ the saviour), have there been more casualities the palestinian territories since israel's last occupation of the territory in 1967?

i know it's incredibly complex and i'm not pretending to know what the solution is or who is wholly right or wrong (i don't anyone is in this case), but it makes me sad that a message of peace and goodwill to all can so quickly be forgotten.

i'm in the wrong business

2008-12-22T21:34:00.002Z

so, a few weeks ago they did this feature in one of the weekend magazines about the best cheeses to get for christmas. i was really, really excited when i saw that one of them was gould's farmhouse cheddar that i could buy at my local marks and spencer! now, i don't ever buy cheese any more, but it's christmas and i have to be connected with this chees *somehow.*

anyway, it was a whopping £6.49 for one block of cheese so i'm thinking of driving out to the farm in somerset and getting them to take me on as a farmhand.

all things christmas

2008-12-22T21:23:00.003Z

this is our lovely christmas house. i spent hours cutting out paper snowflakes the day i was off sick from work with my still never-ending cold. the icicle lights were hung twice because davoud didn't listen to me. but if you ask both of us about that story you'll get two very different versions...

and of course, our wee christmas tree. it's decorated mostly with knitted ornaments my grandma goodwin made and gave to me a couple of years ago. but there are a few other special ones too. the 'canadian, eh?' moose i think my mum and ron sent over the first christmas i was here, and the moose and penguin at the top of the tree commemorating last christmas when we were home in canada. i also made our little angel at the top last year out of a piece of cream coloured card and a gold pen. pretty talented, eh?

next year i envision a tree that hits the ceiling.

val, paul and rich were over for 'christmas' dinner last night. i made a traditional quebec christmas eve dish, reveillion tortiere, which is probably davoud's favourite meal ever. it only gets made at christmas and for his birthday because it involves pastry so therefore isn't very healthy! anyway, that's what christmas is all about: food, family and drink.

i'm off work tomorrow until saturday, so let the food and drink part of the festive season commence!

seamus christopher cranie

2008-12-22T21:15:00.004Z

poppa pete and baby seamus (pronounced 'shamus'...and spelled that way too according to pete's niece)

i was lucky enough to be able to visit seamus christopher cranie, the newest addition to the circle of friends in liverpool, on friday afternoon. val picked me up early from work and we went to see the proud parents harriet and pete. they looked suprisingly rested and well adjusted...i'd be freaking if i had to look after something that small...like...forever.

momma harriet and well fed seamus

auntie val screaming louder than seamus. don't drop 'em!

nostalgia two - last christmas

2008-12-19T13:21:00.003Z

it was a year ago today that davoud and i went home to canada for christmas. we were somewhere over the atlantic by this point i'm sure! i remember the night before we left i slept for about two hours and got up at 6 am because i was so excited. we flew home with val too, which was good fun.

anyway, i was just thinking about that as i read the cbc news story about the massive snowfall taking place in southern ontario and thinking 'man, i'm glad that didn't happen last year.' as much as i love the snow, it does create travel chaos.

nostalgia

2008-12-16T19:33:00.003Z

last night i was thinking back to christmases past.

i was trying to remember the last 'kids' christmas i had. the christmases before my brother went to university when we would all stumble downstairs in the morning for breakfast - cinnamon buns and mandarins of course - and then go into the family room where a roaring fire and a tree load of presents would be waiting for us. stockings were always, always first. we even had stockings that i had made for the dog and cat. there would always be one final present that was extra special and i'll forever remember the year it was a computer. back when old desktops were cool and frogger was in vogue. grandma and grandad would be there for christmas dinner, inevitably arriving an hour later than we expected them.

and that was just the start.

there would be at least two days of christmases to follow where we would go stay with my dad and stepmum, see karen and wendy (and whoever they were dating at the time ;), grandma and grandpa, and any other relatives that happened to be around.

i guess i started thinking about all this because i was trying to feel festive. it just hasn't happened yet this year even though i've watched a couple films, made loads of crafts, starting the baking, put up the tree, and made paper snowflakes for the windows.

so today when i got home from work i put on the christmas carols whilst doing the baking and that seems to have done the trick. this year will be so very different from last when davoud and i were in canada with loads of snow and all the family. there will be no bbqs blowing over in the wind, no tobogganing or mad unwrapping of presents by nieces and nephews, but i suppose it's time to start with new traditions too. i just have to come up with a couple.

my canada includes wendel

2008-11-23T23:05:00.003Z

i remember during the last quebec referendum wendel clark was playing for the nordiques and karen's boyfriend at the time had this bumper sticker on his car that said: my canada includes wendel.

i was thinking about that today whilst reading about the toronto maple leafs retiring number 17, wendel's jersey, and the habs retired number 33, patrick roy's jersey.

you might be wondering what a picture of a cat has to do with retiring hockey jerseys. well, i have a propensity for naming cats after hockey players. my much beloved cat in montreal was named dougie - partly because when i was discussing what to name my cat christine turned to me and said 'why don't you call it dougie?' promptly bursting out into laughter and looking at my dad, but more so after doug gilmour whose jersey is being retired in january. so when a cat wandered into our flat on thanksgiving drawn by the smell of turkey and kept coming back for more over the next few days, i decided to call it wendel.

wendel lives in the basement flat and still comes on occasion for a little visit. we have a box of food in the cupboard just in case and she likes trying to jump up on the table while we're eating dinner. i don't know what her/his real name is, but davoud and i still call the cat wendel.

maybe i'll get her a small wendel moustache for christmas...

canada v wales

2008-11-15T16:43:00.003Z

i don't remotely follow rugby, but when i found out canada was playing wales on a friday night i decided it deserved my support with a trip to the pub. my very proud welsh friend rich and davoud (who also has a welsh last name) came along. i had to ask the manager to put the game on and they were very obliging.

i was holding out quite a lot of hope as almost up to the end of the first half canada was leading 6 to 5. last week they were absolutely clobbered by ireland, so i was pretty impressed by this. in the end we lost 34 to 13, but we held our own i'm proud to say. we made a breakaway try close to the end of the game and i was the sole person cheering quite loudly and attracting a bit of attention.

i really like watching rugby. it's like hockey on grass. loads of shoving, pushing, and the ball/puck either moves a foot or all the way down the pitch/ice. and the guys are really, really big.

why i hate bonfire night and who is snack banana

2008-11-05T19:51:00.003Z

so it's bonfire night or guy fawkes night as some say in the uk today. i hate bonfire night. i don't think anyone really knows what it's about anymore, but now it consists on one big night of fireworks, which the city council pays for. and for the two weeks before and after 5 november, kids run around and set off fireworks whenever, however and at whomever they like. it's loud and people just go out and get pissed.

but this year i can see the fireworks from my window so that's pretty cool. what makes it better is that they're going off as i have barack obama's acceptance speech on in the background, so it feels like they're celebrating that too. the world feels different today and i'm not the only one who thinks so. just seeing some of the pictures in america celebrating is inspiring. they're *celebrating* a politician, something i have trouble conceiving of ever happening in canada or the uk for that matter.

i almost wore my canada pin today for fear that any stranger i might speak to would ask my opinion about it all because they thought i was an american. and it happened and i was still happy to offer it because i like politics and have followed this campaign from iowa back in january. the funniest moment today was when i was working with my group of young people at the gallery and one girl said that at school they can't pronounce 'you know, like, the guy who won's name.' so they call him snack banana.

hilarious.

4th annual uk/canuck thanksgiving

2008-10-17T18:39:00.002+01:00

it was the last uk/canadian thanksgiving this year. it was a lovely gathering as always of about 17 of my nearest and dearest. however, i did predict in the morning that it was going to be *worst thanksgiving ever* that morning.

the fridge was too cold that night, i screwed up my mashed potatoes and generally was quite stressed about the lack of large pots and the fact that 17 people were coming over for dinner. davoud and i fought at least three times before 2pm and i cried for at least a half hour. i should note though that this wasn't as a result of the fighting, but just general homesickness. it's weird because i haven't felt 'homesick' in the strictest meaning of the word since i declared to the world i was going to be back in canada by september 09.

but it was good fun. most people had a seat at an actual table and the last crew left at about midnight when i kicked them out because i was tired. i'm looking forward to cooking thanksgiving for my own family, but not next year. next year i need some time off ;) i suppose i could bring dessert though...

trip pics

2008-10-04T08:05:00.003+01:00

looloo in front of chex loulou

eglise st-sulpice

on our canal boat ride dogding buses in amsterdam

a replica dutch ship and the science museum in the background

davoud took many, many pictures of himself with my camera in amsterdam, but this was by far the funniest. he really had lost the plot.

party pics

2008-10-04T07:51:00.003+01:00

lou, kel, paul, peter (back row) and val, davoud, me, harriet (front)

val and paul looking very scottish. somehow val managed to look really good in her tartan hat and wig!

the birthday boy

me and my balloon portrait. i got bored and started drawing people on them with a sharpie

chris supporting local brewery cains, which is going through some very tough times

a party and a trip

2008-10-03T09:05:00.002+01:00

after a very intense week at school two weeks ago, we had davoud's 30th birthday party on saturday 20th september before flying to paris the next day. the theme was scotland primarily because davoud was scheduled to open a 30 year old bottle of lagavulin and we'd found the perfect gift for him to open on his 40th birthday: a bottle of 1978 ardbeg. oh, and i also bought him a very, very small piece of land in the highlands so he is now lord davoud davies. so help me...i think i'm going to regret that one for the rest of my life.

we then flew out to paris and then flew around it too. it was a whirlwind three days. davoud lived there for two years about five years back so there were many things he wanted to show me whilst we were there. we saw some wonderful art and were blessed with fabulous weather. i also got reaquainted with my love of all things croissant related.

amsterdam was much more relaxed and admittedly reminded me a bit of montreal. there were tree-lined streets, steps up to colourful houses, lots of bicycles and everyone just seemed much too laid-back for their own good. there were also canals and we had a very fun pedal boat ride around them one sunny afternoon. i successfully steered us clear of canal buses and other crazy boats. davoud just walked around the entire time saying 'yesh' like goldmember in austin powers. not as much museum going for us here, just the science museum, photography gallery and the world's *best* library.

you can check out davoud's photos on the flickr link in the favourites box at the right hand side of this page.

a wee look into the past

2008-09-16T20:08:00.002+01:00

so my mum found these photos in her sewing basket, scanned them in and e-mailed them to me. in the name of silly photos a la meshaw falls hat picture, i thought i'd post them here. it also shows two of my favourite domestic duties and their very early beginnings:

1. cleaning the house

2. entertaining my friends

what's going on?

2008-09-13T13:42:00.004+01:00

it's been almost a month since i've last updated and for this i apologise! time seems to be slipping away a bit faster than normal...

we had one last camping weekend in the cotswolds and had a really nice saturday, but on sunday the rain started again. it has once again been a washout of a summer but that's not really suprising is it? nevermind.

davoud as we left the campsite for our 10 mile walk

i also recently ran a 5km race in support of breast cancer since my step-sister was doing the 60 km walk in toronto for the weekend to end breast cancer. so a big thanks to everyone who sponsored me.

me looking quite special in my meshaw falls hat that i've had since i was about six or seven years old

i fear time is going to start going even faster over the next few weeks. i have a full week of school starting tomorrow until saturday. then it will be davoud's 30th birthday party that night and we fly off to paris/amsterdam the next day for 8 nights. i'm looking forward to this holiday immensely! but when i get back it will be go, go, go as i try and complete all of my assignments and struggle with a supremely busy schedule at work.

but what doesn't get done, just won't get done. the sky isn't going to come crashing in on my head either way. i'll be sure to post photos of our trip when we return!

canada boulevard

2008-08-11T21:06:00.004+01:00

a picture taken with davoud's mobile phone camera, so a bit dark

my faithful readers will remember my outrage and sadness at the massacre of my very sacred canadian maples in front of the three graces at the pier head in liverpool. it was the place i went when i was homesick or want to see the water that connected me to the coast of canada.

well, some of them have finally been replanted! there are still more to come, but i am very happy that at least some of them are back. davoud and i walked down there on sunday night after our dinner out and i turned into a tree hugger. i had to give the first one i saw a nice big cuddle and then made sure to touch every single one as i walked down the boulevard. they've put in a new plaque and apparently will be having another rededication ceremony; i just hope i get invited.

camping in july

2008-08-11T20:55:00.002+01:00

we went camping in the peak district at a very wonderful campsite ooooo three weeks ago. i know a very belated post, but they have in general been lacking of late. we had a really lovely one-night camping trip near longnor village. we lucked out with some really sunny and warm weather and went to my very favourite little town in the peaks, bakewell.

i love bakewell because of it's picturesque setting, little river, many pubs and general 'englishness.' on this very lucky saturday we also went to the farmer's market, craft market and discovered a very, very good whisky shop called 'the wee dram.' i can see more trips to bakewell in our future.

my liverpool (temporary) home

2008-07-20T19:03:00.003+01:00

today marks the third anniversary of my move across the pond. i wasn't quite sure how long i'd be staying when i boarded the one-way flight considering that i didn't have a job at the other end and was relying on the kindness of my uncle bill to host me for a while.

i thought it was quite apt today that after davoud picked me up at work we went down to the seacombe ferry terminal. primarly to see if we could spot any of the tall ships docked at liverpool for the weekend whilst avoiding the throngs of people. but as i stood there i started to remember just how many people had entered and left the uk through this very port. sure, more than 100 years ago the two skyscrapers in the picture above weren't there, but the liver, port of liverpool and cunard buildings were.

my time to leave will be coming soon enough as i know a year will absolutely fly by - the last three have anyway! - and by that time i'll hopefully have a masters under by belt along with a few years museum experience, my wonderful man by my side, a whole host of experiences, new friends and several very nice bottles of whisky ;)

somehow i lost a week

2008-07-15T08:33:00.002+01:00

so i thought it was the 7th of july yesterday, not the 14th meaning i lost a week somewhere along the line. it has been rather hectic at work the last couple of weeks since we opened a new permanent gallery and a temporary exhibition. there was a big fundraising dinner that transformed the main hall into what looked like a very posh wedding and i've been working the odd hours on weekends. it's summertime though, so it's all to be expected. i'm quite looking forward to a morning at my desk today to catch up on things truth be told.

val's sister janet is over visiting from canada and i saw them both very briefly yesterday, but they will be coming over for dinner on friday night with paul too. davoud's mum and brother are also coming for a visit this weekend so i'll be busy in the kitchen cooking dinner and baking cakes!

happy canada day? not really...

2008-07-01T19:48:00.003+01:00

i woke up this morning feeling great. i had wonderful plans to wear red and white, my canadian maple leaf pin *all* day at work, listen to canadian music on my iPod and at work. when i got home i was going to throw on my roots canada t-shirt, toronto maple leaf socks and listen to the cbc.

it's not been going well lately. i'm too busy at work, struggling with the concept of a dissertation and wondering if i can do it alongside my coursework once school starts again in september, and arguing with my last letting agent which is over 30 days in returning my deposit of £500 to me and are generally a bunch of useless idiots. yes, that's right...$1000 canadian.

so admittedly i came home today feeling slightly morose and defeated. but i'm still listening to my canadian music, still wearing my canadian wardrobe because if i was back home...i'd be off work today!!! and as val texted me this morning, we should have the day off no matter what.

davoud had secured free tickets to the canada rocks gig in london that kathleen edwards was headlining, but we couldn't go...work got in the way. so this is my official cyber petition that all canadians living abroad should be given canada day off. it's my birth right, eh?

read this!

2008-06-24T13:26:00.001+01:00

for a much more comical version of the trip and pictures of me peeing....

read val's latest blog posting!

ben nevis

2008-06-23T14:36:00.003+01:00

last tuesday, davoud, val, paul and i headed for the lake district for a night of camping in pooley bridge (and a couple of pints at the pub) before heading north to scotland. our first stop was the town of oban on the west coast of scotland known as the gateway to the islands. it was a lovely little place and also home to a distillery, so we made sure to go on a wee tour before we left town.

our days of camping in the highlands were constantly plagued by two things: irregular weather and midges. midges are these little bugs that swarm, bite, get everywhere, but in my mind aren't nearly as bad as black flies. i somehow escaped without any bites!

our site in oban was very picturesque and overlooked the sea and isle of mull. we went for a walk down a dead end road from the campsite towards gallanach and discovered this weird building that was built sometime in 1955. from what i have discovered on wikipedia it was home to the first transatlantic telephone cable that was laid between oban and newfoundland between 1955 and 1956. apparently it was important during the cold war providing a hot line between us and ussr presidents. you can read more about it here.

we packed up camp the next morning and made our way to fort william - via the oban distillery - to set up camp before our hike up ben nevis. weather was incredibly changeable whilst we were here because weather from the atlantic ocean gets dumped on the valley, glen nevis, in between the mountains. we did, however, luck out with the weather for our hike up the mountain, which was quite sunny to start out with, snowy at the top and then rainy on the way down. i seem to be able to hike up forever, but i absolutely hate coming down the mountain. it's too hard on ankles, knees and feet.

since weather wasn't on our side indefinitely, despite the sun the morning after our hike, we drove down to camp on the shores of loch lomond. i love loch lomond, probably because it's the closest to feeling like being in northern ontario i've been since moving to the uk. all looked to being going well so we decided to bbq. as soon as we got back to the sit it started to rain, but then let up a bit so we started up the grill. rain, rain and more rain fell from the sky but in true british fashion we sat there in our coats eating our heavily chargrilled burgers because no one believes in propane ;)

eventually we gave up and headed indoors to drink some wine, have our salad course and play euchre- that is after val and i remembered the rules.

the weather did not improve so we came home a day early amongst really heavy rain and gales across the lake district. everything is still drying and airing out, but life should be back to normal soon. still a really great trip despite all of the rain.

oh, and i should probably say that i had to pee halfway down the mountain. now i'm not afraid to squat, but it is a very exposed mountain so i had to squat behind this little wall. a couple of people walked past, but not in the direction we were expecting them too! so there may have been a little show for them. wooops. val took a picture which i'm sure she'll post on her blog and i've now been christened 'wild pee lauren.'

my treehouse

2008-06-16T20:51:00.004+01:00

davoud and i in our lovely massive kitchen

our whisky collection...well, most of it

davoud in the office/second bedroom. can you tell which desk is mine?

the bedroom

the tub for two

the lovely windows

the living area...take note in these photos of the *vast* amount of dvds and cds, all alphabetised by davoud

life in the canopy

2008-06-16T20:38:00.002+01:00

many, many things have changed since the last blog posting but i guess that's not entirely surprising as it's been almost a month. but let's see what the round up looks like in list form:

1) i got a whole year older on 26 may so i'm officially past my champagne birthday and have reached the ripe ol' age of 27

2) i moved house. i'm now a resident of leafy aigburth - hence the blog post title - and feel like i'm living in a rain forest canopy. the first floor is surrounded by lovely trees and my seven glorious windows that make up the biggest bay window *ever*

3) a boy is squatting at my house. somehow, davoud thought that me moving meant he could move into the same flat and is now living here too. it's not so bad, i mean there is an impressively large living area, two bedrooms, a big tub for two and stairs down to the master bedroom, but where did all this stuff come from?

4) i've officially started work on my dissertation. subject area? why do people in the north west of england visit museums more than art galleries?

5) i have mastered the wii wheel whilst playing mariokart...and discovered i was good at golf

now looking forward to things to come:

1) leaving for a camping trip to scotland tomorrow with the boy squatter aka davoud, val and paul to hike ben nevis, the highest peak in scotland

2) canada day celebrations will need to be planned. maple syrup will be on the menu.

3) st jean baptiste celebrations will need to be planned. i will make a list of all the things that are unhealthy about living in montreal like poutine, chocolatines and pitchers of beer at copacabana

4) i will continue to work diligently on my dissertation

5) i will finish reading river themes as recommended by my dad and christine, which was shockingly on the shelves of liverpool central library

so wish me luck in my new branch of life. even though i'm a little green when it comes to co-habitation, things up here in the trees aren't so bad.

home

2008-05-21T20:21:00.002+01:00

i've been thinking a lot about this word lately. partly because i know i'm not going *home* to canada for a visit until this time next year. partly because i'm reading this book that val lent me called 'writing home' which is a collection of canadian writers sharing their thoughts about home. partly because i'm moving into a new home with davoud in a week and a half.

but to be honest, what spurred all of these thoughts on was the book. there are a few essays and short stories in it that have either reminded me of my spiritual home - the cottage - or have kicked me in the butt saying home is wherever you hang your hat. for me, it's wherever my teddy bear snowflake that i've had since i was about 3 years old lays his grey, worn, button-eyed self.

am i homesick? yes, constantly if you think about it in terms of canadian wilderness, family and my so-called spiritual home. am i happy? yes, because i'm so blessed in life and there are so many good things happening, so many more things to see in europe, and i'm about to make a new house into a home with someone; something i've never done before.

one of the essays i read by sharon riis talks about her friends all over the world lighting up the dark sky just for her. that's how i'd like to think of it too...all across canada, england, australia, my friend rebecca who i travelled around spain with who i just found out is in iran...all those little lights guiding my way to all my separate homes. because as christian morganstern said:

home is not where you live but where they understand you

neglect, again

2008-05-08T09:57:00.002+01:00

yes, i've been neglecting the adoring public again. sorry guys.

many, many things to report on. as you know, davoud is in the process of completing the sale on his house so i've been flat hunting. i finally found the perfect one and we filled out the credit check forms and paid our dues so now we're just waiting to see whether or not we're worthy. it's a really lovely place and i'll be gutted if we don't get it, but i don't see any reason why we won't!

my mum and ron came to visit last week after exploring scotland on their own. davoud and i toured them around liverpool and vicinity for a few days and took in such sites as snooty tatton park, the lady lever, st. george's hall, the cavern quarter and a tour on the yellow duckmarine. it was great to see and spend time with them and really bizarre to be thinking that i won't be making a visit home for about a year.

because of school, work and my holiday time being eaten up by going to school, i'm not going to making the trip across the pond until at least next year when all of my school work will be handed in. but i'm focussing now on all the things i still want to do before we move to canada. it's a fairly lenghty list so i better get started soon!

the weather here has been extremely lovely of late and my fingers and toes are crossed that it stays this way for the rest of the summer. it's now that i start missing home, especially going up to the cottage in the summer months. hopefully there will be lots of camping weekends this year to keep me happy and evenings in the park tossing the frisbee around.

heading down to coventry this weekend to help davoud pack. not the most exciting of weekends, but it must be done!

a bit of clarity

2008-04-28T16:18:00.001+01:00

so i guess i didn't make too much sense in my last posting. i had found a flat but once i'd put in the offer it had already been rented. i'm really not worried as i have two more viewings lined up for tomorrow afternoon and its not even may yet!

anyway, just thought i'd clear that up ;)

it's been busy

2008-04-25T16:24:00.002+01:00

so yes, many moons since the last post but it has been a busy couple of weeks! i was down in coventry last weekend and davoud sold his house, which is awesome. although in the uk you don't actually *sell* your house until the keys are handed over. it's very complicated and, not to put too fine a point on it, stupid.

i've spent every evening this week except for tuesday looking at flats. the new one has been found, but there is one more i want to take a look at tuesday if it doesn't get taken over the weekend. a little thing called school is getting in my way this weekend unfortunately so i can't go view it when *normal* people do.

my first module for my masters is officially finished and i'll be handing it in tomorrow. now to start thinking about the dissertation and it is admittedly already stressing me out. nevermind, davoud just might have to get a well-paying job so i can quit mine and go to school ;)

mum and ron are arriving in liverpool on wednesday so i'm taking a few days off next week to show them the sights and sounds of scouseland. although i'm putting the football out of my mind on wednesday, can't handle another stressful night like this past tuesday!

oh yeah, and we were also blessed with a greenpeace protest in peaceful port sunlight village (where the gallery is) this week. for more details check it out here. so for the time being, don't buy anymore unilever products! you can read all about it on the greenpeace website.

like the weekends of days gone by

2008-04-13T19:05:00.002+01:00

This weekend reminded me of weekends I used to have when I first moved in with Sam and we both remarked on this walking down from the Blackburne Arms this past sunny Saturday afternoon. Friday night Davoud, Nick and Dipak arrived for some one-pot spaghetti supper before we picked Sam up at her place and headed to Room bar for some old fashioneds. On a bit of a nostalgia kick, we headed over to Bumper for a bit of a dance before realised how old we were in comparison to the rest of the crowd. It was one of those great nights though where you all get back to the house and want to stay up until 4 am.

Saturday morning we all woke up feeling slightly fuzzy headed and thanks to my hot water tank it took longer than normal to make it out of the house. We all met up in town, with Sam and Andrew as well, for a bit of food. Craving the Victoria sponge at Green Days cafe we all made our way back to Lark Lane before the boys played a bit of frisbee in the park and I went home to frost Val's birthday carrot cake.

It was wine club last night and we were exploring the tastes of France. We did, however, have a guest bottle this time around. A Parry Sound Vintage courtesy of the Gould & Green winery that was 100% California Syrah, not just 75% as was originally thought. We crowned it the wine of the night and our carefully selected French wines had nothing on their Canadian counterpart. It was the label that really did it.

So we got to spend the night in Oxton Village staying at Val & Paul's fabulous house; my favourite house in the world in fact. A scrumptious breakfast was enjoyed at the Moose Cafe before everyone dispersed. Davoud, Nick and I did take in some culture this afternoon at the National Conservation Centre, which is currently hosting an exhibition of photographs by Stuart Bale from the NML archive. Well worth having a look at by clicking here. We even made it over to St. George's Hall, considered one of the most impressive buildings in Liverpool that I'd never made the time to visit myself before.

After everyone left, I treated myself to a little nap and then a very big salad. Time to restore the nutrients, but it was really nice to have a free weekend. No working, no schoolwork and no worrying about the nutrient content of my food after our very healthy dinner on Friday night. Every once and a while, I suppose that's okay, right?

By the way, you may be wondering why there is so much attention paid to capitalisation, grammer and spelling in this week's posting. Well, apparently Davoud has now joined the cult of Facebook and has been policing people's writing efforts. Just wanted to make sure I didn't invite any criticisms myself ;) I'm sure he's looking for more friends to add to his astronomical 84, so have a look for him next time you log-in.

the day the canadians took over

2008-04-04T11:09:00.002+01:00

the kids are still on holiday over here, so i've been running some workshops at the gallery this week. on tuesday it was a storytelling session that an actress was coming into facilitate and as luck would have it the girl who was covering for our normal freelancer was canadian! from none other than london, ontario.

we had a good little chat about home, the fact that the lake district in the uk should really be renamed the *pond* district, and how we missed proper summers in northern ontario...mosquitos and all.

anway, this got me thinking a bit more about coming home in the summer so i started looking at flights. it turns out that it's going to cost the same, if not more, as it did when davoud and i visited at christmastime!!! outrageous. so might need to think a bit more about that one. i should never have returned to student life.

nothing else to report really. i'm working tomorrow so will spend sunday and monday doing school work as my assignment is due towards the end of the month. it's the grand national this weekend in liverpool and i don't get horse racing, so i will be steering clear of the city centre. although going to slag off all of the fashion disasters would be quite amusing...

now ruz in pictures

2008-03-24T12:40:00.007Z

davoud, massey and amir

the bit of snow that we did get

davoud, massey and me...in a dress, shocked everyone

my secret talent

2008-03-24T12:34:00.002Z

...is apparently iranian dancing. no doubt at some point davoud will get hold of the video and post it on you tube, but in the meantime you'll just have to take my word for it. i should point out that davoud doesn't normally get involved in the *official* celebrations and was dreading going. truth be told he actually had a fantastic time.

the food, as usual, was excellent. we all had a good laugh when amir - davoud's brother - was brought out a specially prepared plate of food whilst all of the peasants in line for the buffet stared him down for this special treatment.

but what i was going for was the dancing and there was a lot of it. i can now pass on this knowledge when i come home next. basically it follows the pattern of *changing the lightbulb* and *shaking the shoulders.* i got myself into trouble when i was telling davoud how much my friend linda would be loving the tunes and decide to mimic the way she dances - whilst seated of course - when i was dragged up with only about three other people. very scary, but i apparently gained the *respect of the community.* these are davoud's words, not mine. he also claims his mum is head of the iranian mafia in coventry ;)

yesterday we walked off our meals along the coventry canal before eating up some of the leftovers at davoud's mum's house. today, i must try and get some school work done and try and keep my mind off of the fact that this time last year we were all getting ready to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. wish i could be home every year.

let it snow!

2008-03-22T19:03:00.002Z

i realise that probably just made every single member of my family cringe, but it actually snowed today in coventry! not for very long, but itwas kind of nice to see snow clouds and smell it in the air.

i made my way down on thursday night for the long easter weekend after 11 days straight of school and work, so it felt like i needed a break yet again. it's also iranian new year - celebrated in other countries in that part of the world as well - and much food and good cheer has been shared. we're off to the iranian restaurant in coventry tonight for the *official* celebrations; a full report will follow.

you can read more about it on wikipedia here

hopefully everyone else is gorging themselves on chocolate and hunting for eggs around the house. i do love a good easter egg hunt.

cov city

2008-03-11T21:20:00.002Z

i am back in liverpool now and last week seems like worlds away. after a 70 minute train delay on my way down to cov on 1 march, i finally made it down. saturday night generally involved intoxication so i could stay in bed all day on sunday, which is exactly what i did. but the rest of the week it feels like i barely sat still.

painting, cleaning, sorting, clearing, arranging, more cleaning, trips to the dump in my recycling t-shirt rolled into some visits with friends and family rounded out a busy week. i finally got to see spaces that davoud and i had been sorting through for over a year get cleared out; the garage and the office to name two.

it was really nice to get away from work - not to mention speak the week with davoud - and be physically busy. work has been frustrating of late for a variety of reasons so it was nice to have some space from it all.

we did get away for a day to oxford on friday. it is one of the most bizarre places i've ever been to. exactly like the postcards, tweed and all. we bought our newspaper at a news agent called *wendy news* and marvelled at all the bicycles that hadn't been locked up...and weren't being stolen! i've been in liverpool too long.

i'm back at school this weekend and my friends harriet and peter are getting married on saturday! very exciting and also means i get to cut class for an afternoon ;)

ready for a break

2008-02-26T21:45:00.002Z

i know christmas wasn't that long ago, but it seems like everything has been moving slightly slower than normal in the last two months. it's not that i haven't been busy. there has only been one weekend that i haven't been working or at school.

i think i'm pretty much recovered from the sinus cold now. i ended up taking thursday off as well and leaving a little early on friday. school was really, really good this weekend. i never really thought i would *enjoy* it so much and i probably won't be saying that when i have to write my dissertation.

so four more days of work - running a workshop saturday - and then i'm off to coventry for a week. i'm feeling quite guiltly for not having been down there since november, but i'll make up for it by painting the living room and getting davoud's house ready for viewings.

dripping

2008-02-20T10:11:00.003Z

i've got a cold. it's a sinus cold so my eyes are watering, my nose is dripping and my head is aching. so, dear blog readers you're getting the brunt of my moaning because there is no one here to moan to! don't despair, i have lemons, oj, gingerale, sugar-free cherry halls, my quilt and some olbass oil to hand. there's a selection of dvd's on the shelf and a couple of books to get through so hopefully i won't get too bored.

there is this fabulous thing called the bbc iplayer that allows you to watch television without having a television. well, not all television just the select shows the bbc decides to upload. i just got through watching kd lang in session on bbc four with the orchestra and all playing at st. luke's church in london. she's pretty phenomenal live and i had the pleasure once in montreal, but this was just as good. i'm not sure that folk in canada can download it, but if you can it's worth watching. i love her cover of helpless, always makes me feel like going straight to the cottage.

do you remember that debacle more than a year again that i had with bt over my phone line? after all was said and done they owed me £50, but apparently weren't going to pay me back until a year of my contract had passed. i never really expected that to happen and was rather surprised yesterday when i opened my quarterly statement to discover that they had in fact credited my account. happy days.

when i used to be home sick as a kid, i remember watching television series like anne of green gables or pride and prejudice to pass the time. so anne may need to go on a bit later today, that's sure to stop the dripping.

recent snaps

2008-02-11T18:29:00.000Z

the place davoud and i journeyed to earlier in january

davoud will give you all the details on these!

inside the victorian palm house in sefton park; where it's always guaranteed to be green

harriet in her *hen* gear

harriet keeping her sister and bridesmaid, emily, in control! too funny

hen nights

2008-02-08T12:30:00.000Z

so tonight i'm going on my first official hen do aka a bachelorette party for those on the other side of the atlantic. stag and hen nights are a really big deal in the uk and i'd probably be looking forward to it a lot more if i wasn't working tomorrow.

unfortunately there won't be the usual 'L' plates, boas and balloons because the comedy club we're going to has a ban on all stag/hen nights. they can get really rowdy and even some hotels in the uk don't allow them. crazy i know, but that's how it goes. most people end up going to eastern europe for cheap beer.

i do have sunday and monday off this week before gearing up for the hectic half term holiday, so with any luck that will give me enough time to recover from the cold i've picked up. feels like spring here already, but i still wish i was back in all the snow in ontario.

oh yeah, the jackpot for the euro lottery is £97 million and all the staff at the lady lever - including myself - have put in a pound. so if we win the jackpot, i'll be home before you know it!

weekend round-up

2008-02-04T13:57:00.000Z

it feels like i had a weekend, which is nice for a change. it didn't involve any work or school, but did involve indulgent things like haircuts, movies in the afternoon and big cafetiere's of coffee.

davoud and i met in manchester on thursday night to see one of my favourite canadian bands, stars, which was really great. i took friday off as i'd built up too many hours at work and they needed to be taken! i got to sleep in before heading into town for a haircut, movie and a mission to find peanut butter that was just peanuts. it's not exactly the bread spread of choice in these parts, but i was able to find one without dreaded palm oil in it.

friday night davoud, val and i went to dinner and a play, 3 sisters of hope street at the everyman theatre. it was good, but a little overacted and dramatic. davoud and i topped the night off at our favourite bar in liverpool. it's always quiet, classy and they make the best old fashioneds in town. i was getting a bit peckish by this point and even though the kitchen was closed they brought out some humus, guacamole and bread. god bless 'em.

it was actually sunny on saturday even though there were "severe weather warnings" in effect, so we walked to sudley house through sefton park. a lovely saturday constitutional. had some friends over for dinner on saturday and spent much of sunday lazing around the house.

and now back to work, 6 days on the trot, and next week's half term holiday to look forward to...

the queen is dead

2008-01-24T11:19:00.000Z

What was supposed to be a relatively happy, easy day isn't exactly going to plan. I decided to walk in today because it wasn't horrible out, just a light shower that looked like it was moving quickly away. It started raining a little as I was walking down Croxteth rd, but I had my trusty queen umbrella to keep me dry. As I rounded the corner at Princes Park it started hailing. And not just straight down little hail, but sideways straight across your face hail...so out came the queen again. We made it through the hail storm, which eventually subsided, and it was just the wind holding me back, ruining my hair and generally making me feel like I'd just gone for a dose of botox.

I got onto Catharine St and it started raining again. The wind was still pretty strong, but I knew the queen could take it. She did not. One of the spokes bent in half so down she came and I put my head down. It was at this point that I decided the only thing to save the day would be a coffee and a pit stop to see if I could bend her back into shape. As I turned down Bold st the wind and the rain started again, more powerful than before, so to save myself from the appearance of a drowned rat I gingerly put the queen up to protect me and was instantly greeted by about five of her precious arms being mutilated. Almost in tears by this point after coming to the conclusion in front of the Anglican cathedral that my queen umbrella was the only thing keeping my life together at this moment in time, the only thing that made the rain bearable, I walked into Coffee Union, threw my wet things down on a table and went to order my coffee.

The guy that looks like a mini version of Terran looked at me quite meekly and brought me my coffee. It's not a good morning. My brown boots are a mess and will now remain so for the rest of the day, I was an inch away from stepping in horse poop in front of Lime St. station and all I really want to do is go back home. I'm this close to giving up, but hopefully at some point today I'll see the humour in it all.

Oh, and did I mention that as soon as I walked out of the cafe the sky was blue?

So the queen is now sitting, quite blatantly dead, next to the rubbish bin in the kitchen at the Walker.

Hope your day has started better than mine...

it stopped raining

2008-01-23T09:27:00.000Z

thankfully yesterday, i was greeted with a gorgeous sunrise and was able to walk to work. i know that probably doesn't seem too important, but it increased my happiness level ten-fold. even this morning it wasn't raining and quite strong, warm winds were blowing last night's rain clouds towards wales and inland.

i was finally able to pay my fees yesterday at the university, although i have very little faith at the moment in their administrative abilities and departmental communication. not that it's too surprising...i think it was the same when i worked at concordia.

davoud and i drove out to llangollen in north wales on sunday cause we needed to get out of the city for an afternoon. i'm sure he'll delight you with all the facts and figures, but it is very cool. i do have pictures, but they're on my digital camera at home so you'll just have to wait for those ;)

so i think i might get a goldfish

2008-01-18T16:40:00.000Z

i've been debating getting a goldfish for about a week. after re-watching the west wing - yet again - i remembered cj's goldfish and just how much fun it is. yes, i know, goldfish can be perceived as boring, but i need something to brighten up these long dark days.

it's darker for longer in england, it rains more and is generally very grey. soooo...i thought that a goldfish would brighten things up and keep me company. there isn't anything wrong with talking to a fish right?

in other news, i had my first master's lecture on monday night and am already entrenched in the student life of invites for beers on a week night, which i declined. although i did go today to pay my fees and they weren't sure quite what to do with me. hmm, going to see if i can get out of that one completely.

davoud and i are going to go to one of our favourite restaurants for dinner tonight, elif, as another effort to brighten the dark days. i'm working tomorrow and would love to do something fun on sunday, so we'll see what i can come up with.

occupy every minute

2008-01-11T09:08:00.000Z

well, i've been back a week now and have slowly adjusted to leaving home again and the jet lag is subsiding. admittedly i have been going into work just a teeny bit later than normal, but no harm done. but i have been trying to keep myself busy for every possible moment in order to distract myself from the post-holiday let down and it seems to be working!

i spent monday at home just hanging out, tuesday was book club, wednesday i went to the movies with sam (saw paranoid park which should be renamed *boring* park), and last night went round to my friend jessica's for dinner. tonight is the people's opening of liverpool's year as european capital of culture, so i think i'll have to pop down to st. george's hall and see what all the fuss is about. i'm not sure how i feel about them theming it around shipping crates, cranes and people playing air guitar, but ringo starr is going to be performing on a roof so it's bound to be a spectacle.

christmas in colour

2008-01-07T21:29:00.000Z

darryl and brian and grandma and grandpa's place. brian is the *biggest* daddy's boy ever

melissa and little amy. davoud is madly in love with amy ;)

the invitation for davoud's 30th birthday party

davoud at the bottom of the toboganning hill

davoud in action - wipe out man.

i know that davoud will have some more photos on his flickr website soon (see links on the right) as he was the official photographer on this trip.

christmas in canada

2008-01-07T18:38:00.000Z

so we're back. we were actually back the morning of january 2nd, but a combination of jet lag and not wanting to be back in the uk has kept me from posting. this christmas has officially been crowned as *the best christmas ever.* don't get me wrong, i've always had wonderful holiday seasons, but i was away from home for the last two christmases and there is a reason that frank sinatra is so famous for singing i'll be home for christmas.

our flight with val was uneventful, although i did get a little bored for the last two hours. davoud and i probably laughed a little too much at the stretching video that the airline suggests you participate in. just who on earth thought it was a good idea to put an airline seat in a lovely sunny park and show it to passengers when they're 35,000 feet in the air?

we headed to london first to visit with my dad and christine, which was awesome. made a trip down to niagara falls, which i did many moons ago with my dad. we acclimatised quite well, watched a bit of hockey, ate good food, drank good booze and then set off for my grandma's.

after picking my grandma up and having a quick lunch with my aunty chris and cousins ryan and scott, we made the drive to my mum and ron's house in brighton (i know, i know....london to brighton and i'm not even in england). it was christmas eve so we watched christmas specials and movies and sat by the craackling fire to get in the mood.

christmas day was the beginning of the chaos. my brother darryl, my sister-in-law (SIL) melissa and their very adorable children brian and melissa came over in the afternoon to destroy the family room. it is great fun watching kids open their presents, but i had no idea what i was in for until my two sisters karen and wendy, and their respective husbands glen and terran showed up with all of their kids on the 28th of december. so add jack, abby and jamie (karen and glen's kids) and chloe (wendy and terran's daugher) to the mix and it's bedlam! thankfully, we'd burned off some excitement toboganning in the backyard earlier in the afternoon.

the next day we drove to oka to visit with linda, robert, pierre, johanne and my once-cat dougie. we had a great night celebrating linda's 40th birthday. late the next morning we made our way to montreal and checked into our swanky hotel the st-sulpice for two nights. we didn't go out on nye, but instead got some snacks and booze in and watched a saturday night live special. i was ecstatic. it was nice after so much company to have a bit of a break. montreal is still a great city and one i'm sure i'll visit often when we move.

we drove through a crazy snowstorm the next day to my brother's in peterborough. the drive took 7 1/2 hours, but should normally only take 4! it was nuts and there is some video footage somewhere of the road. but with my cautious and defensive driving skills, we made it there in one piece.

leaving was really hard, much harder than it has been before. partly i guess because i know i'm moving home, but more so because everything that was important to me in the world was in one place. sure, i have my job and friends here, but i could have easily stayed and hired a moving company to pack my things up and send them over. not that i would give up anything i've experienced over the past two and half years and i am looking forward to doing my master's and seeing what liverpool can cook up as european capital of culture this year.

but as my dad said, i'm moving home next year. it may not be early next year, but at least it's next year.

happy 08 everyone. today is officially the last day to wish anyone a happy new year as decreed by me ;)

hooray!!!

2007-12-18T14:21:00.000Z

sometime tomorrow i'll be over the mid-atlantic homeward bound. i am so very excited to see everyone, especially at christmastime.

i've been sitting in my office absolutely freezing today trying to get the last few bits and bobs done before heading to a meeting at 3:30 pm. i'm officially turning the out of office greeting on in 20 minutes time.

all the prep is done, apart from the packing, which some would argue is the most important. it'll be an adventure trying to cram in all of the christmas presents with my normal allotment of clothes, so there will definitely be some laundry in the offing when i'm home. watched it's a wonderful life last night so will just have to catch up on some christmas specials in canada.

i'm looking forward to snow, snow and more snow so hopefully it won't get too mild at the end of the week! it would be great to get some tobogganing and a couple snow fights in ;)

i'll be seeing most of my canadian readers very soon, but to everyone else have a very merry and happy christmas!

words to live by

2007-12-12T09:37:00.000Z

...for at least the next week anyway. admittedly, i've been getting a bit worked up about getting things done before i fly home for christmas, about my boarded up window not being fixed and the general craziness that ensues at work before taking time off.

last night my friend jessica quite rightly said, whatever doesn't get done before you leave is simply going to disappear as soon as the plane takes off.

so that's the principle i'm going by now. it would be great to have the house spotless, but hey, it's not as if anyone is going to be there. it would be great to have all of the loose ends at work tied up, but nobody is going to be working over the holidays anyway. and all the baking for the weekend will get done.

a couple things have continually brought smiles and excitement:
- the vinyl cafe in podcast format meaning that i can listen to stuart mclean anytime of day or night
- humming the song "driving home for christmas" repeatedly
- watching national lampoons christmas vacation on sunday and thinking, wow...that's what this year is going to be like!
- the thought of meeting my niece amy for the first time
- snow for christmas

...although i just checked the 14 day trend on the weather network and apparently it's going to rain christmas day. drat. but it won't matter, cause i'll be at home.

it can only get better

2007-12-07T18:16:00.000Z

...cause it can't get worse. it was a really bad week and i'm not going to say much about it other than the icing on the cake last night, which was waiting in the rain and cold and it taking 2 1/2 hours to get home from work. it usually takes me 40 minutes max door to door.

nevermind, that's all behind us and everything is coming up christmas. the gallery had their christmas shopping evening, which is always the signal of the festive season. the local primary school comes to sing christmas carols and i usually have my first mince pie of the season. the online advent calendars are in action, which are brilliant because we indulge in enough sweet things at this time of year.

*and* i've wrapped christmas presents, the christmas baking ingredients are all in the house waiting to be made into goodies, and it's only 12 days until i fly home!

hahaha....that just made me think of bob and doug's 12 days of christmas...woot!!!

glasgow girls

2007-12-04T22:11:00.000Z

on one very rainy and windy day, janine, carole and i headed out to the burbs of glasgow to the *house for an art lover* designed by charles rennie mackintosh and margarent macdonald, but only built about 20 years ago. it was absolutely beautiful and a great little attraction. really lovely cafe.

in possible the prettiest setting was this glasswork in a fireplace. a couple was getting married that night at the venue and the room was all decked out. if i lived in glasgow, this is definitely where i would want to get hitched!

carole and janine looking as happy as they do in the food section at marks and spencers ;)

we three in our wee flat called *my place in glasgow*. fabulous accomodation and would definitely stay there again! we had a great time, but as usually time flew by and seemed much too short.

lost the plot

2007-11-28T09:29:00.001Z

just a short post to say i've completely lost the plot and it feels like my head is barely above water....so sorry for lack of postings of late!

but...going to meet janine and carole in glasgow tonight for a mini-break (hooray!) so that should get me back on track.

and also, only 3 weeks till the flight home! aut loo-loo and u voodoo are looking forward to it ;)

and now...

2007-11-21T15:41:00.000Z

...only 4 weeks till i fly home for christmas!!! sorry, *we* ;)

(p.s. happy birthday wendy!)

a few of the best worsts ever

2007-11-20T10:05:00.000Z

nick and davoud were up in liverpool this past weekend and we experienced some fairly shocking things. friday night we stayed in and were joined by my friend jessica for some food and wine. and considering how much fun we had that night, we probably should have spent the rest of the weekend in the confines of my flat. except if we'd done that, i probably would have freaked out *monica* style at the mess ;)

i had to work on saturday, but we three we going to a gig at the academy that night. we went to eddie rockets for dinner - my new favourite place to eat in liverpool - before going to see sons & daughters, a scottish indie rock band. we got there early. i mean so early that there were only two other people at the bar. so we ordered a few pints that tasted slightly off and waited for the main attraction. whilst waiting we endured two of the *worst* live bands any of us had ever seen. absolutely shockingly bad. we got soaked leaving the venue and warmed ourselves up at the everyman bar before heading home for an early night.

on sunday we had a leisurely breakfast at green days cafe - mmm...fruit, honey, yoghurt and muesli.... - and wandered down to the tate liverpool for some culture. the turner prize has moved from london to liverpool for just this one year in the name of the capital of culture. and on top of that it was free! we weren't overly impressed with some of the works, but there were moments of brilliance that a couple artists were able to convey quite well. but the most interesting bit had to be the visitor comments wall.

we were feeling a bit peckish and dinner wasn't planned for another 4 hours, so we decided to make the short drive to woolton village to a highly reputed whisky bar called fargo. it's north dakota/prairie canada themed, but in a very classy way. there is even a life size polar bear behind velvet rope.

first thing i said was: where's all the whisky?

the selection was no better than any other bar i'd been into so we were immediately disappointed. the menu looked good though so we ordered some food. more disappointment with uncooked chicken and some prawns that may or may not have been cooked. after a little tiff with our slightly snotty waitress they agreed to knock it off the bill and we left quite promptly after finishing our drinks.

so fargo is now on the banned list.

the weekend was saved by jill scott who played an absolutely brilliant show in manchester on sunday night, but more on that later.

feelin' it

2007-11-12T16:04:00.001Z

it doesn't feel like i've so much as come up for air in the past few weeks and i'm beginning to feel it. work has been rather insane and life just hasn't felt that restful. or maybe it never does and i'm just taking more notice of it!

davoud and i helped val and paul paint their new house over the weekend, but bowed out at around 2pm yesterday to try and get some errands done. as a little treat we went to this 50's diner in liverpool called eddie rocket's that i've *always* wanted to go to. it was awesome. milkshakes, burgers and a shared bowl of fries. not the healthiest lunch i'll grant you, but that place just makes you *feel* happy and about 16 years old.

i have another long week coming up and christmas shopping on the horizon for next monday. i'm going to try and get my tree this weekend so at least i can enjoy it for a month!

a bit of colour...

2007-11-06T21:43:00.000Z

we didn't actually go see the louis bourgeois exhibition at the tate, but her sculpture maman was outside the tate modern. very, very cool.

davoud takin a rest near tower bridge

the obligatory tourist trap photo

on our lovely london balcony in some sunny and fairly warm weather

and by far my favourite photo! a priest in a hard hat on scaffolding outside a church by trafalgar square

...and

2007-11-06T09:24:00.000Z

SIX WEEKS TILL I'M HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

london town

2007-11-06T09:19:00.000Z

davoud and i went to london over the weekend cause we like to be a bit cheesy sometimes - davoud more so than me;) - and it was our anniversary. we were staying at the hotel we both loved last year when we went down in december and were even upgraded this year to one of the top floor rooms...balcony and everything! it was sooo nice. they even bring fresh milk and ice at 5pm in case you want a late afternoon cuppa.

i was really keen to see the john everett millais exhibition at the tate britain as six of our works are on loan to them. it was absolutely brilliant and our paintings looked amazing. it's remarkable what paintings being at eye level with the right lighting can do. we walked down to tower bridge, took the boat to the tate, caught up with davoud's family friends, had some tasty sushi, and went to the national gallery.

the train back to coventry was a bit of a nightmare and i think i set some sort of record by taking six trains in four days...not including the tube.

city under siege

2007-11-06T09:13:00.000Z

it was bonfire night last night...aka guy fawkes night. i decided to stay in and watch the fireworks from my window so i could keep an eye on the place. it's notorious for everyone buying up fireworks and having their own mini-displays from the time it gets dark to well into the night. from 6pm when i arrived home until i finally was trying to get to sleep, what sounded like air strikes and machine gunfire was going off around my house.

now, if it had just been this one night i would have been absolutely fine with it, but they start selling the fireworks about 3 weeks ahead of time meaning that yobs have been playing around with these things for ages. it does start to get on your nerves slightly.

so if i had dreams of war zones last night i wouldn't be surprised. and that probably wouldn't have been helped along by the fact that i watched blood diamond last night, which was brilliant. a really good film and i love jennifer connolly.

it's been lovely and sunny

2007-10-25T09:09:00.000+01:00

...until this morning. but it has been quite a treat to have the weather getting colder and bright sunny days. i've been kicking the leaves in the street whilst walking around.

there was great disappointment on the weekend when davoud and i visited our favourite little village in the cotswolds: broadway. the many, many kitchen shops were still open for me to drool in and a new deli had opened up selling local produce, all varieties of jam and chutney, and serving very scrumptious sandwiches, but the things are now gone from swings n things!

you may remember a few videos appearing a bit more than a year ago and right after our road trip up north with nick that featured me going for it on this cool zip line thing they used to have in broadway. well it's gone now, probably thanks to the local councils health and safety officer. nevermind.

the kids are on school holidays (again) so it's been a busy week at work, but i don't mind getting my hands dusty with chalk pastels and covered in pencil shavings. beats sitting at my desk ;)

hooray!!!

2007-10-18T12:55:00.000+01:00

9 minutes ago the bbc reported that the liverpool posties voted to go back to work tonight! yes, that's how obsessed i've been with the postal strike. so with any luck my cards and package will arrive before christmas ;) but i guess that means i'll have to stop ranting about it...

i'm also on day one of four days off after working nine days straight. a bit of a blessing really as just yesterday the industrial action of the pcs union - the gallery attendants at national museums liverpool - will be closing all of the art galleries on saturday. militant liverpool indeed.

going to laze around the house today calling plumbers to try and sort out the bathroom floor at davoud's house, which has been an ongoing saga for about 4 months. i also need to finish the sweater i starting knitting for my sean and christelle's daughter months ago. need to get it done so i can start on christmas presents!

went to see rufus wainwright and scott matthews at the liverpool philharmonic last night, which was good, but the gig the night before in manchester - my favourite band: broken social scene - was way too much fun. i love them, i really do.

get back to work ya posties!

2007-10-14T10:17:00.000+01:00

so there has been a series of royal mail strikes over the past week. around the country posties went back to work on saturday after a deal was reached with the union, but in liverpool? oh no, not in liverpool the glorious land of industrial action.

the postal workers in liverpool are staging what the press is calling "wildcat" strikes meaning that the backlog is getting even bigger. i can't stand it, it's driving me mad. the likelihood of my stepmum's 60th birthday package getting to her on time is incredibly unlikely now despite me sending it a month in advance. my grandpa probably won't get his birthday card, nor will my grandma receive her get well card anytime soon.

but i'm also more concerned about the effect it's having on local businesses and hospitals unable to get letters to patients, bill payments to suppliers, and heaven forbid not receiving concert tickets in the post.

stop living up to your reputation to being lazy scousers who can't be bothered to work the hours you're being paid for and get back on the job.

ranty lauren done for the day and off to work day 6 of 9 days working straight. after that i'm going to start tackling the back log of mail sitting in the copperas hill sorting office.

3rd annual thanksgiving dinner

2007-10-09T10:02:00.001+01:00

it was easier this year. i think i might be getting the hang of this whole turkey, gravy, two kinds of mash, carrots, parsnips and green beans feast. although it has to be said there was a serious lack of stuffing in this year's bird.

eleven of my nearest and dearest on this side of the pond devoured the spread and then went through the very pleasing round robin about what everyone was thankful for in the last year before anyone could have their dessert. it was interesting to note that this year most of my friends gave thanks for meeting the love of their life, moving house, advancing professionally or for good news about family health. the funniest moment had to be when peter - harriet's now fiancee - gave thanks first, for the internet, and second, for meeting someone who actually laughed at all his jokes and agreed to marry him. now everyone knows that they met through the guardian dating website so when harriet said, "but why are you thankful for the internet?" we all had a bit of a chuckle.

i had a really wretched day on friday due to a combination of work, my grandma going into hospital, and coming home from work at the end of the day to a very wet apartment because my idiotic neighbour who lives above me had fallen asleep whist running a bath causing gallons of water to flood their place and a good bucket full or two to seep into my apartment.

after my loooong weekend, i'm now buckling down to tackle working nine days straight. i just hope the weather becomes sunny so my spirits stay high!

....10 weeks till i come home for christmas!!!

even i have my limits

2007-10-02T08:58:00.000+01:00

i'm usually a great advocate for public transport, support hikes in taxes for owning gas guzzling cars, and generally quite *green* when it comes to getting from point a to point b. but there are times when the commuter transport just doesn't do what it's supposed to.

i left work at 4:15 pm yesterday in order to get to a mobile phone shop so i could replace my charger that mysteriously died when davoud plugged his possessed phone into it on sunday. i had great intentions of catching the train at 4:25 pm, but this train was cancelled for no apparent reason and the next one wasn't for 20 minutes...then 23 minutes...then 18 minutes. needless to say i was a bit paranoid about not getting to the shop on time - which i did - as i wasn't going to be able to leave work early any other night this week and that would mean no mobile phone. we can see how attached i've become to the darn thing.

so fine, got my charger and made my way to the bus stop to make the last leg of my journey. i love the bus route to my house. it goes through the georgian quarter, past all of the old merchant houses on princes park road and croxteth drive, but some of the people who board this bus have no apparent respect for their fellow passengers.

this poor woman with a buggy was trying to get on the bus and *no one* was letting her get on! i was getting to the point where i was about to ask everyone where their unique british sense of the queuing system was, but she finally made it on.

another woman with a pram gets on after i've sat near the back and does this one able-bodied lady move so that the mother can sit down next to the pram? no, she just stays there desperately looking away.

last i checked, there were signs up without words...only pictures folks...so that people understood who got priority: the elderly, physically disabled, mothers and pregnant women. definitely one of my pet peeves.

normality

2007-10-01T10:04:00.000+01:00

last week felt very *normal*. i didn't do anything special, but there were quite a few notable things...especially movies.

if you haven't done so yet, go and see a mighty heart the movie about daniel pearl, the american journalist who was kidnapped and killed in pakistan. it's extremely emotive and angelina jolie is nothing like she normally is.

and if you have an independent cinema nearby you *must* go see two days in paris. it is absolutely hilarious and perfect, tells all the bits about relationships that no one ever wants to see or talk about except for with their partner, and is an amazing directorial/writing debut for julie delphy whom i've loved for years for the before sunrise/sunset films.

i did do things other than sit in dark rooms and watch moving pictures though. went to a retirement party for one of the staff members at the gallery who worked here for 27 years - yes, longer than i've been alive - which was great fun. there was a wine club *meeting* on saturday night, this time choosing italy, so davoud and i made tiramisu for the occasion. can't remember the name of the winning wine, but i'll try and post it once the list is sent out to us.

on sunday we found ourselves in ikea because i was having the my-apartment-is-too-small-and-no-longer-functional-or-personal breakdown so invested in a bit more storage and some fabric for cushions and placemats.

looking forward to another normal week and thanksgiving dinner this coming weekend! get yer vegetable peelers at the ready...

my queen umbrella

2007-09-21T09:33:00.001+01:00

about a month ago amidst the many rainfalls of summer i invested in a dome umbrella. one that covers virtually the entire top half of my body and is perfect for keeping me as dry as possible. it's clear plastic so i can see straight through it at any oncoming golf umbrellas taking up the sidewalk/pavement with only one person underneath (one of my personal pet peeves). there is a black trim around the bottom and the handle is shiny black plastic; quite classy really.

i like the fact that my umbrella is only big enough for one. i rarely walk down the street with anyone else - sad i know - so i feel like bubble boy when i'm parading around with my pretty parasol.

when i told my mum about this brolly, she exclaimed "you have an umbrella just like the queen?" well yes, i suppose i do. except i'm still not quite sure how the queen discerns facial features through it as she greets her well wishers because i probably wouldn't recognise my nearest and dearest coming towards me on the street walking around with this thing.

but it does make rainy days like this one so much more tolerable.

and appropriate that i'm using my queen umbrella on the day of a *minor* royal visit to the gallery. the duke of kent will be visiting us this afternoon, so i had to iron my clothes. i knew my grandma taught me how to curtsy all those years ago for a reason.

davoud's birthday

2007-09-17T13:26:00.001+01:00

it was davoud's birthday on friday and for those of you who are curious, he was 29...just entered his thirtieth year! his mum and i pointed out to him sunday that he really should be wearing sunscreen as the sun will age you quicker ;) just teasin!

we had a party at the house on friday night to celebrate and there was quite the gang there. luckily it didn't rain so we were able to bring the bbq out, although i did make a couple salads and some healthy dips for those not wanting to indulge in meat. there were also two very lovely cakes if i do say so myself - a chocolate cheesecake and chocolate orange cake.

(the garden we worked so hard on in the spring)

val, paul and harriet even came down from liverpool. so val and paul slept in frank on the driveway and harriet slept in the newly decorated junk room that's not so junk filled any more. and poor nick slept on the sofa...

it didn't take too long to recover on saturday since i had a 4 hour nap, but i have officially lost my ability to drink like i used to. and i don't think this is such a bad thing. it means i'm a cheap date, but also that i'm not drinking nearly as much as i used to ;)

barca photos

2007-09-17T13:18:00.001+01:00

best sign *ever* apparently hamilton is now *in* toronto!

parc guell

barcelonata beach at the end of the day...much quieter than it was last august!

davoud and i pre-dinner on wednesday night

a side street at night. davoud took this one and i usually leave the photo taking to him these days, cause, well he's just better. i'm sure he'll have photos up on flickr soon (see links on left side of page)

in barcelona

2007-09-17T12:58:00.000+01:00

we all know how much i love the place and this year for davoud's birthday trip we headed to sunny spain. i had alterior motives for stocking up on some much needed warmth and sunshine that was seriously lacking in the uk this summer.

we took an extraordinarily early flight on tuesday morning from liverpool john lennon airport. i usually very much enjoy the airport experience, but waking up at 4 am obviously put me in a bad mood. after being told that i was not going to be provided with a clear plastic sealable bag to put my carry on liquids in that were under 100 ml, and after paying 50p (about $1!) to purchase 2 of these bags from a vending machine, i discovered that i stupidly put our sunscreen in my handbag thinking it would save time when we arrived in barcelona as i wouldn't have to go through my checked luggage looking for it.

and even more shocking, boots (aka shoppers drug mart) actually sells items before you go through the security check that are over the 100 ml limit! it's the stupidest rule, no one has ever been charged in said terrorist plot that hampered my travels the last time i came back from barcelona, and it didn't start my day well. davoud also learned the very important lesson that it's not a smart idea to ask me to calm down ;)

but after making it onto the plane and finding two seats together - that's right, no assigned seating on easy jet - i got my iPod out and was happy enough.

barcelona, as always, was beautiful and sunny. our hotel was immaculate for the price and even had a pool on the roof! check out the b-hotel and if you're planning a trip and can get the rate we did, it's incredible value.

it was the catalan national holiday on 11 september so there were many demonstrations in the area i wanted to walk around with davoud - barri gotic - but we muddled through, went to the picasso museum, and then went back to the holiday to relax by the pool before getting cleaned up for dinner.

one of my favourite things about barcelona will always be the food and the wine. it's incredible and tasty and included lots of things i've been depriving myself of lately like fresh baguettes and cheese. i felt i was allowed to indugle after being so good ;) customer service is not a strong point anywhere in the city and it's incredibly hit or miss on who smiles, who speaks, and who just throws food down on the table and walks away. nevertheless, you becoming extremely forgiving once you actually tast the lovely meal in front of you.

also tasted the wine with the best name ever: wrongo dongo. on the back it even says *dongo to the party without it*

the next day was all out gaudi. a trek up to parc guell, the sagrada familia, a long walk looking at much of the modernist architecture past the arc de triomphe, parc ciutadella and finally the beach. davoud isn't a big fan of the beach, but he humoured me for an hour so i could go swimming in the sea.

on our last night we splurged a little bit and went to this whisky bar that i found there last summer, but was too chicken to go into by myself as it was clearly a bar for locals of the old man variety. i'll let davoud describe this bar in the comments, as i think it was the highlight of his trip. the last day we went to the contemporary art museum and a wee walk up to montjuic and the national art gallery. it was a quick trip, but still incredibly relaxing.

the cries of neglect

2007-09-17T12:56:00.000+01:00

well, melissa finally sent out the cry of neglect for my small group of faithful blog readers. i must apologise for not being around of late. after the bank holiday i was just so focussed on getting all my work done before my week holiday. i seemed to be travelling to and from everywhere constantly, working for 8 days straight and just feeling too tired for anything by the time evening rolled around. but nevermind, i will hopefully delight with photos and tales of barcelona.

bank holiday report

2007-08-30T10:01:00.000+01:00

i experienced *sweat* for the first time this summer.

davoud and i went camping down near southampton over the last august bank holiday weekend and were treated to sunny skys and very warm weather. i even went for a swim in the sea. however, the new forest i've discovered isn't really a forest but an area of land that used to be a forest and has been pillaged for it's trees over the years to build the mighty british navy. but you can read more about it here. so there were actually large parts of our walk that only had low-lying brush and heather to look at.

we went to bournemouth to visit rosemary and keith, which was extremely civilised compared to the facilities that we were experiencing at our campsite, but i won't go into those painful memories. i even went for a very refreshing swim in the sea.

on the way back to coventry, we stopped off at stonehenge, which is one of those things in life that you see and your brain can't quite process why, when or how it got there. i discovered a little village on the map called canada, so of course we had to stop there to take my picture. photos will follow i'm sure.

a short week this week before heading back down to birmingham for a gig on friday night and spending the weekend in coventry. i really need to clean the house, but it's just going to have to wait...

apparently it's all about copper

2007-08-24T09:01:00.000+01:00

there are a few things in liverpool that have pet names. the supermarket in town tesco is affectionately renamed stressco. the commuter rail line that i use every morning appropriately named mersey rail is rightly known as misery rail.

for 6 weeks in april/may the trains that run from james street around the liverpool loop - to three other centrally based city stations - was undergoing maintenance. so for those six weeks i hiked down to james street in the morning and back again in the evening and that didn't bother me one bit. however, the throngs of people that usually get on at 4 stations now getting on at one certainly did.

so on wednesday night when some misery rail official decided they needed to undergo emergency repairs to the carriages and take half of their fleet out of service, i was quite dismayed to get to the station on thursday morning to find out that again it was going to be down to james street for me. trying to walk down to a platform where a train has just arrived is probably better done by crowd surfing.

oh, and they are reducing all of the services to only running every half hour, which doesn't affect me so much because i can take two seperate routes to work, but still...get your act together! this morning the staff couldn't even tell me which platform my train would be leaving from and proceeded to argue amongst themselves.

talking to peter last night, he told me that apparently it's all got something to do with production in china and copper. a president bartlett answer if i ever did hear one.

last of the summer days

2007-08-21T10:06:00.000+01:00

or not so summery days as the case was this year, but summer holidays are nearing an end, which means that my work life is about to get a little less stressful. i'll be able to catch up on some boring administrative work and generally feel a bit more on top of things.

i went down to coventry this weekend as davoud and i had tickets to see the penelopiad at the royal shakespeare company. it was actually the last show at the swan theatre before redevelopment. the play was adapted from a book by margaret atwood, which she'd adapted from homer's the odyssey. it was really well done and loads of dark humour.

the rest of the weekend was spend redoing what is affectionately known as the junk room at davoud's house. i took an impromptu day off yesterday to finish the painting of the walls as much sanding needed to take place on saturday and sunday to get the skirting/base boards ready.

camping down south is in the cards for the last bank holiday weekend. we're heading down to bournemouth/southampton and the new forest - still haven't got the story straight on why it's called the *new* forest - and a visit to rosemary and keith, friend's of my mum and ron's. haven't seen them in years, but they've kindly invited us for lunch on monday.

one person's garbage...

2007-08-14T09:14:00.000+01:00

...is my treasure for today.

i was walking from bebington station to the gallery this morning (just a short 2 minute jaunt) and was literally outside the gallery when i looked down to the ground. now, garbage around the gallery usually does catch my eye because it's so rarely seen, but this was a little different.

it was a empty coca-cola can marked with what appeared to be $5 off, not £5 off like i would expect to see. so naturally i picked it up to discover that this empty can wouldn't give me £5 off at alton towers, but $5 off at la ronde! i never went to la ronde when i was living in montreal so maybe this piece of trash was trying to tell me something: i should go to montreal before it expires on 28 october 2007 and ride the rides at la ronde.

weird. very weird, almost on the edge of bizarre...but there it now sits on the corner of my desk until i try to come up with some explanation beyond some crappy french canadian tourist who's left their trash outside the gallery. i mean c'mon, it's gotta have more meaning than that ;)

2007-08-02T20:33:00.001+01:00

first night on the site - val, harriet and paul - the wee tent is mine and davoud's, but the taj mahal is harriet's ;)

near the top of snowdon

val and paul our trusty guides

davoud posing as a hardcore hiker

black rock sands is this beach in wales where you can drive on the beach - which was beautiful - and apparently tow a boat with a tractor!!! how cool

let the sun shine in

2007-08-02T20:28:00.000+01:00

it's actually been sunny this past week and thank god it has been. i've been teaching a summer course with a group of 11-16 year olds and its been a blessing to be able to take them outside in the sun to paint.

davoud, harriet, val, paul, frank and i all went camping last weekend in porthmadog, which was beautiful except for rain on saturday night. davoud, val, paul and i hiked up snowdon the highest point in wales on saturday; a 13 km hike up and down which took us about 6 hours. we let harriet sit that one out as she'd just done a 60 mile walk in 30 hours the weekend prior for charity...some serious walking to be sure!

the kids have been exhausting me this week, but it's been great fun. it reminds me of arts camp all those years ago when i first started going. they all can't believe it's the last day tomorrow and are sorry to see it end. puts a smile on my face to hear them say so.

and after two years, it still rains on

2007-07-21T17:57:00.000+01:00

yes, it is true that some stereotypes are there for a reason...like the one about british weather, canadian tendencies towards peacekeeping, and blondes having more fun. truth be told, we did experience a few rays of sunshine last week, which were much welcomed and celebrated through the act of merely sitting out of doors.

today marks my two year anniversary of landing on british soil. not quite as momentous as the vikings discovering the new world or man landing on the moon, but it's pretty important in my little world. some days it feels like it's only been six months, but lately it has felt more like forever. it is only fairly recently, in the whole scope of things, that i've decided i need to move home; that the other side of the ocean is where i feel happiest. but that is certainly not to say that i haven't relished every minute that i've been here. i am extremely fortunate and i count my blessings every single day even if i'm not aware of it.

i've met some incredible people and seen amazing things like turquoise water in scotland and the top of a mountain that certainly did feel like walking on the moon. there is still purpose to being here like being in love and enjoying my work. i have started preparing everyone for when i plan to move home and they are all probably sick to death of hearing my detailed two-year plan of working one more year at the gallery (yes my manager already knows, so it's okay to blog about it) then hopefully getting into a masters programme at warwick university near coventry and, not to mention, davoud. these things are important to me and in the bigger picture, two years isn't really that long. i certainly don't want to regret not having 3 solid years gallery experience and a masters under my belt before i try to run the canada council for the arts whose annual budget has now increased to $130 million.

oh canada, how i long to meet people and not have to explain why my accent is different and why i moved to this god forsaken country (their words, not mine). how i miss sitting and having a drink with those who know me best and changed my diapers once upon a time. how i can still taste food from some of my favourite restaurants in montreal and can hear friends laughter in my ears.

the grass is always greener on the other side i know. it's most definitely greener here than in canada, but i hear they have some pretty good astroturf.

i've been spending today by myself catching up on much needed sleep, uploading my albums to my external hard drive so that i can then put them onto my ipod, and watching the rain outside my window. but to celebrate, i am wearing the roots canada t-shirt janine and carole brought me in october, a cbc button/badge, and my toronto maple leaf socks. it's going to be their year next season...i can feel it in my toes. literally.

if only it were all lies

2007-07-17T16:29:00.000+01:00

i'd really like to say that the weather is glorious and summer has finally hit the british isle i currently call home, but i'd be lying. it's still raining. in fact, it's been thundering, lightning and storming here all day.

i've been in coventry since friday night for nick's birthday, which was one of the best nights out of the year and i wasn't even drunk! must be getting old...

since i had a training course in birmingham yesterday and a trip down to london for work on thursday, i decided to take my weekend a little early and stay with davoud for the whole week. so today i got stuck in and cleaned out the junk room, painted the radiator that's needed a final coat since january and the window sill that i primed six months ago. i had planned on weeding the garden, but everytime i put my boots on the sky begins to rumble.

heading back up to liverpool on thursday to go see feist with sam - and i'm *extremely* excited, no amount of rain can get me down for that one!

what's that word again? the opposite of wet...

2007-07-03T15:15:00.000+01:00

it is still raining.

for the past two mornings, it has decided to complete chuck it down in buckets about 5 minutes before i leave the house. this is despite the fact that i left at completely different times both mornings leading me to believe that the world is against me. so i've decided that praying in front of apollo is not going to work. although i have encouraged several school groups to do it. they have to practice school prayer anyway, they might as well be praying for sun!

camping on the weekend was very wet, but we managed to have a good time. val and paul led us on a very wet and windy walk down to hell's mouth - literally - near abersoch and then back through the rolling hills. i highly recommend checking out val's blog (there is a link on the right hand side of this page) for some incredibly funny pictures of davoud.

work has been insanely busy, but i'm managing to survive. i'm off this friday, which is much needed.

the country has gone a wee bit batty with armed guards in train stations and some good old fashioned racial profiling on the random bag searches. i'm happy to see that here at the gallery we have to search every bag. a few coppers here and there rummaging through trash bins, but other than that everything is just fine.

had to book a short break in barcelona for september just in case this weather happens to continue and i've completely lost my mind by then ;)

it's time to start praying

2007-06-28T21:19:00.000+01:00

each day from now on that i'm working at the lady lever art gallery, i'm going to start praying in front of this painting called the daphnephoria by frederic lord leighton. leighton liked to paint classical themes and employed a lot of greek and roman myths in his work. this particular work pictures a festival for the sun god apollo. so i figure if i pray in front of it for the rest of the summer there may actually be some sunshine for an entire day.

this weather is totally bringing me down.

i had lunch today with a volunteer who's been working at the walker art gallery, who just happens to live in montreal. i spent almost two hours talking about how great summers are in montreal and how wonderful the weather in canada is....winters and all.

davoud, nick, val, paul and i are going camping in wales this weekend. sam, kel and lou were going to come but have backed out because of the weather. i'm not going to let this rain, cold and unrelenting wind stop me from enjoying myself, but it sure would be nice if we got some sun this weekend.

camping pics

2007-06-23T11:04:00.001+01:00

spinball wizard at alton towers, probably one of my faves

cow blocking the road to the campsite wasting precious time to put up the tent before it rained

the final leg of our walk in the derbyshire dales

looking out over the edge of the campground

a double rainbow over port sunlight village on thursday night. it extended right across the sky, but i couldn't get back far enough to capture it all

i just want to sleep in!

2007-06-22T17:37:00.000+01:00

it's been a bit of a crazy week.

first off, the camping excursion last weekend was fun. yes, it was wet. there was thunder and there was lightning, but we surivived it and even saw enough sun for a walk in the countryside. alton towers was okay, however, it has *nothing* on canada's wonderland.

monday was a fairly normal day at work. tuesday and wednesday i was promoting the learning offer of the gallery at the cheshire agricultural show - think markham fair - which was good fun. it did mean that i was getting up at 5 am and not getting home until 7:30 pm. needless to say i was exhausted on thursday even though i had another long day with an event on at the gallery that night.

so today is my saturday. cleaned the house, got a haircut and generally lazed around looking at the rain outside. i desperately miss canadian summers. week upon week of rain is starting to grate on my nerves!

so it's raining

2007-06-15T07:53:00.000+01:00

well, actually it's *pissing* it down as my fellow country folk would say. but we are still heading out to alton towers in an attempt to enjoy a good day out. and we are still planning on camping for at least one night, but i have told myself that there is no way that i am pitching a tent in thunder and lightening. i don't have a problem with rain, however, there is no way i'm getting hit by lightening this weekend. besides, it's a laughable news headline:

woman struck by lightening as boyfriend pitches tent

i know, it's a litte early for any smutty references, but i couldn't resist that one! anyway. must finish eating my shredded wheat so i can catch my train. it was an insane week at work and next week is not going to be any better.

summer side of life

2007-06-11T21:13:00.000+01:00

i think the summer has finally hit the uk. i think. you never know with this lovely island nation though, do ya? it was also beautiful and sunny at the end of april and that all went to pot within a week.

anyway, life has returned to normal post-scotland. i went down to coventry this past weekend to continue to dig out davoud's garden. davoud, nick and i made good progress on saturday and got all of the soil turned over in the flower beds in an afternoon, compost poured on and mixed. oh, i also weeded the front garden.

on sunday i actually got to put some life into the ground rather than pulling out dead weeds. i planted two nice big flower beds with perrenials for the lowest maintenance garden possible.

the plan next weekend is to go to alton towers (think britain's canada's wonderland) on friday since the gallery is closed for electrical works so i can't go to work anyway. then we will camp in the peak district and see how truly great our tent is. because you just *know* it's going to be raining ;)

day five - the last day on islay

2007-06-04T18:23:00.001+01:00

i woke up feeling a little bit rough on sunday morning. i think i must have had a few too many drams the day before, but it wasn't anything a little breakfast couldn't sort out. not to mention a little post-breakfast nap.

the big event for the day was the opening of the new port charlotte distillery by bruichladdich it's parent company. so we made our way down to port charlotte to join the throngs of people waiting to toast the the new distillery. but more importantly i was waiting for the appearance of the 49th batallion pipes and drums band from edmonton, alberta. because where else would they be?

(me at the opening of the port charlotte distillery with the pipe band up on the ridge!)

after the ceremony, we made our way to the bruichladdich distillery with what seemed like everyone else who lived on the island. it was packed with people, so we just got some food, had a bit of a wander, and then went in search of somewhere more isolated. it's strange how quickly you get used to being the only people around for miles.

(sangiomore bay: you can just about see davoud in the distance taking photos)

there was one more little bay that ronnie had recommended, so out came the map to decide which of the four roads on the island we had to take to sangiomore bay. once we arrived, we walked down to the ocean and saw loads of rabbits bouncing around in the grass on the way.

we had dinner at the croft kitchen then made our way back to the b&b for an early night thanks to our even earlier start so we could make the 7:00 am ferry.

(oh how i miss the view from our bedroom window. look at all the little sheep!)

drove down to the lake district that night, stayed in a very cute and amazing place called the pheasant inn, went to cockermouth and keswick the next day, and then made our way back into civilization.

you must go see davoud's photos, because they're amazing. one of me looking very shocked to be at the lagavulin distillery on my birthday.

it was an absolutely awesome trip and one that i hope we'll do again. islay was such a beautiful island that the whisky and distilleries were really just a bonus.

day four

2007-06-01T21:42:00.000+01:00

my birthday! and i should mention that every night after getting home we would share a few drams with ronnie who would play us jazz, old gaelic tunes, and tell stories about glasgow in the swinger days. absolutely awesome and so amazingly entertaining. we also got to see these lambs run up and down this hill after each other; so very cute.

(god bless the timer shot: davoud and i on the mull of oa)

on my birthday we went for a hike on the mull of oa, which is home to a nature reserve and also an american monument to soldiers who died in WWI crossing the atlantic that died just off of the coast of islay. we took the circular route, which was really beautiful and had to navigate our way through a herd of mean looking angus cows.

(i...can...almost...see...canada!)

after that we drove down to claiggan bay just past port ellen, which was one of the most tropical places i've ever been in my life...except it wasn't warm.

( i swear this is scotland)

then my absolute favourite part of the day: back to lagavulin for a whisky tasting with the distillery manager graham. it was amazing and i couldn't really believe i was there. i had two loads of fresh scallops whilst sitting in the sun with a wee dram after our tasting.

we were smart enough to make a reservation that night at the port charlotte pub and i continued my seafood feast with some scrumptuous mussels and fresh bread. back at the b&b, davoud had arranged for a birthday cake that ended up being baked by the policeman's secretary because the bakery in bowmore no longer did cakes!

(davoud running hasselhoff style)

ronnie and marie stayed up with us for a bit for some cake and a few wee drams before i finally decided i really needed to get some sleep. too much seafood and too much whisky ;)

words stick

the last post

three more sleeps

"very often we travel the world over in search of what we need and return home to find it." - george moore

Margaret Jessie Gould

glasto review

going to glastonbury!

le update

Ross Kenneth Gould

the last of the Canadian visitors

away to wales

canadian visitors month

some bedtime reading

stomach bug

eighty weighty pages

it's a perfect day for writing a dissertation

miracles *do* happen

i'm in the wrong business

all things christmas

seamus christopher cranie

nostalgia two - last christmas

nostalgia

my canada includes wendel

canada v wales

why i hate bonfire night and who is snack banana

4th annual uk/canuck thanksgiving

trip pics

party pics

a party and a trip

a wee look into the past

what's going on?

canada boulevard

camping in july

my liverpool (temporary) home

somehow i lost a week

happy canada day? not really...

read this!

ben nevis

my treehouse

life in the canopy

home

neglect, again

a bit of clarity

it's been busy

like the weekends of days gone by

the day the canadians took over

now ruz in pictures

my secret talent

let it snow!

cov city

ready for a break

dripping

recent snaps

hen nights

weekend round-up

the queen is dead

it stopped raining

so i think i might get a goldfish

occupy every minute

christmas in colour

christmas in canada

hooray!!!

words to live by

it can only get better

glasgow girls

lost the plot

and now...

a few of the best worsts *ever*

feelin' it

a bit of colour...

...and

london town

city under siege

it's been lovely and sunny

hooray!!!

get back to work ya posties!

3rd annual thanksgiving dinner

even i have my limits

normality

my queen umbrella

miracles do happen

a few of the best worsts ever