cause darryl told me to

its not often that i do things my brother tells me too seeing as he should be crowned the king of mr. forgetful, but here's the itinerary for the trip home in case you need it...well, cause some of you have been asking for it.

june 16 arrive home at 19:15 (!) spend night in markham
june 17 spend night in toronto
june 18 spend night in markham; meet up with all the fathers!
june 19 visit terra cotta and spend the night in goderich
june 20 drive to montreal and stay there until...
june 24 spend the night at linda and robert's annual st. jean baptiste bash...porto potty and all
june 25 drive to the cottage and stay at the cottage until...
june 29 take kathy to the airport and spend the night in markham
june 30 fly back to the uk
july 1 wake up on canada day, but *not* in canada

so, hopefully i'll be seeing all of you in the next two weeks, but please don't be offended if i miss you. its going to be a jam packed two weeks.

for you montreal folk who want to catch up, i'll be at brutopia/madhatters on thursday 22 june from 5 pm. sounds like i'm sorta celebrity or something ;)

the london times

its weird how not being a big city for a while completely changes your perceptions of things. i found myself on the tube at rush hour packed in a la metro in montreal and hot with summer. i enjoy my city (town really ;) of liverpool and the fact that you can walk from one end of the city centre to the other in 20 minutes if you hit all the green lights.

but london was great. i went to the v&a gallery and tate modern the day i got there. it was fabulous to see some interesting art, sit outside and watch kids running around in freezing cold water and generally be entertained.

stuart mclean was reading at daunt books in a cozy part of london that night so i went and tried not to get too teary. i did speak to him afterwards - my second official meeting! - and my homesickness was temporarily cured. afterwards i continued on my canadiana tour by heading to the maple leaf pub to catch some hockey and although thwarted by a couple of drunk australians, i did end up meeting a couple of very nice edmontonians that i spoke to for most of the night.

i went shopping on oxford street the next day - always quite the experience - and then met up with dipak to have dinner and go see hawksley workman who was, as always, utterly amazing. the venue was so small and i was so close that i was only 6 inches away from grabbing the set list from beside the microphone.

the rest of my week off was very relaxing. much time spent relaxing in the backyard in coventry, cooking, cleaning and reading...

and now works going to be a little crazy as i try and get ready to come home. hooray!

fun with face paints

so julie (the visual arts learning support assistant at school) was kind enough to give me face paints for my birthday. more specifically my little kids birthday party.

peter sporting a shamrock...you should have heard him say "stay away from my lucky charms" on helium.

well, one of us had to do it...and i had the paintbrush. apparently when val went back to hotel they thought it was blood. i swear, i didn't swing at the pinata *that* wildly.

now, there was some debate over what this actual was by some of the members of the crowd with a more critical eye...but i think its the prettiest darn sun ever and peter's got artistic skills.

last night dipak, peter and i went to the fun fair around the corner after dinner. it was a bit cheesy, but gave us all that warm fuzzy feeling of being an adolescent and having nothing better to do than pay way too much money to go on really crappy rides. but the water raft was fun...and we're going back on friday.

i'm off to london in about 10 mins and will be there for the next couple of days soaking up some culture...(coventry will make you crave it)...and enjoying walking around in the sunshine. the real one, not the painted version ;)

birthday pics

the pinatas before their bashing...

davoud and i pretending we're actually small children

i'd just like to remark on how happy i look to be beating a pineapple (thanks to dipak, abi and peter for their pinata making and decorating skills...much fun). and peter doesn't look that scared, although he is hiding behind a tree...

sam, dipak and kel after some nightime bouncing fun

birthday round up

birthdays are strange. there there one minute - or two weeks if you're talented enough to drag them out for a bit - and then gone the next.

my actual birthday was really nice. my fellow art colleagues at school got me a birthday cake and a load of presents and i left work shortly after lunch to head down to coventry. i got lots of family phone calls in the morning, which made me happy but with a little tinge of sadness...but i'll be home soon. dipak and i went to dinner at brown's before meeting anna and davoud to head to the warwick arts centre to see martha wainwright.

the show was fabulous as usual. she's always extremely entertaining and an awesome performer; everyone should go see her at least once. and to our pleasant surprise her mum kate mcgarrigle showed up after a few songs and was her back-up band for about half of the show. i was quite proud of myself and only teared up three times.

saturday was all prep for the madness of the birthday party on sunday - bouncy castle, little kids pool filled with ice and beer, two bbqs, two pinatas, decorate your own cupcakes, and much fun had by all...

here's some of the photos to prove it...i'll get my up later.

so thanks to the canley crew for letting me use their house and lovely backyard (i did mop the floors and clean up today!) and everyone who generally helped out and showed up. much fun.

off again this week so i'll be heading down to london for a couple of days to see stuart mclean, hawksley workman and go to the maple leaf pub to hopefully catch some hockey action.

the book of stuart

many moons ago whilst at the cottage on a sunday afternoon, i was introduced by my dad and stepmum christine to the delights of stuart mclean. just the name conjures all sorts of nostalgia in my voice now that my sundays no longer really have that special something...its just been missing since i moved to the uk.

but from that one sunday stuart brought me and so many people together. i went to my first stuart show with elaine a few years ago at christmas. there are some moments that bond people together for life and the end of that show was one of them. if i hadn't gone to that show, i probably wouldn't have met erik, tim or michelle. i'd been riding the bus with erik (and tim!) for months, but it took sitting next to them in the *front row* of a stuart mclean christmas show to get us talking. i'll know that family forever too.

there's just something about stuart...

so a few months ago when i found out stuart was to embark on a uk tour, i became quite determined to see him (and i will next week in london!) but also encouraged my friends down in cov to go see him at the warwick arts centre. dipak, abby, ruby, dan and peter (the housemates aka the canley crew) went to see him read up close and personal last night.

when i got the report las night - i couldn't wait to hear what they thought - they all were a bit apprehensive at first because they didn't know what to expect, but apparently it was the raccoon story that swayed them. then dipak told me that he spoke to stuart afterwards about all the canadianna headed our way this week with martha wainwright, hawksley workman, and my own stuart reading in london. you'd think i was trying to brainwash people.

there's a signed copy of the vinyl cafe unplugged waiting for me when i arrive in cov on friday evening and i couldn't ask for a better birthday present. it will kind of be like holding all that i love about home and canada in my hands.

my right foot

so, we all remember how i went to the hospital a couple of weeks ago for x-rays, right?

i went to the doctor yesterday morning for my follow up appointment and surprise! my foot has actually been fractured in *two* places for almost four months. it is now classified as a *healing* fracture and i have to go back in four months for another x-ray to see if its healed.

i am supposed to stay off my feet as much as possible, get some birkenstocks for the summer and some better trainers. i should put *as much between me and the ground as possible.* so, my bike is okay, piggy backs, cars, swimming...

but no dancing for four months and an extreme lack of bouncy castle jumping at my birthday party next weekend.

the rest of the weekend

so, apart from the fa cup i did have quite the fun weekend. andrew and chin were up visiting because of the women's 10k race - which sam, kel and chin had entered - and sam and kel's birthday kick off.

we all went out on friday night after birthday cake numnber 1 - guinness chocolate cake - visited korova and heebeejeebees. as a consequence i was feeling a bit ropey for the fa cup final the next day and only had one pint of beer ;)

val was in town on saturday night with two friends who were visiting from canada so i had the chance to talk hockey and bash the conservative government over some really nice japanese food. we were entertained by this british guy there with his family who swore there was a movie better than deliverance that featured mounties. i think the champagne (CAM-PAG-KNEE) was going to his head.

on sunday morning we went to cheer on the girls for the women's 10k run. inspired us all for a brief moment to want to start running. to be fair, i wouldn't have stopped running had i not hurt my ankle and then subsequently my foot.

with so much happening the weekend passed too quickly and left me wanting more.

fa cup

on saturday i had my first dose of absolute football fanatcism. i joined rich and badders et al at the flute (the pub always frequented for watching important football matches) for the liverpool vs. west ham fa cup final. i still have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that the same team can actually play for more than one cup, meaning that there isn't just one be all and end all competition like the stanley cup.

the game was really tight, even though liverpool played really poorly for most of the game, which meant extra time and penalty shots. in the end, liverpool was victorious and brought home another cup (last year it was the champions league cup). its strange to have the team i support actually *win* things.

what was amazing was the pub breaking into absolutely choreographed football songs and generally doing what sports fans do: getting really happy when they're doing well and swearing at the players when they're playing poorly.

it did make me miss hockey thought because you still can't get *that* excited about it when its not your sport. it was probably a little more painful knowing that hockey is on nearly every night of the week thanks to the stanley cup final. i am rooting from over the pond for edmonton...its all about the underdog.

but apparently i belong in...

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

more edinburgh pix

you can check out a few more pictures from edinburgh on davoud's flickr page

enjoy! and they were all taken with my itsy bitsy camera.

kids birthday party

so this year for my 25th (not 26th mum) i'm planning a little kids birthday party complete with invites, birthday hats, loot bags, cupcakes, a bouncy castle...and of course a party dress.

i was thinking it was time to do something different because i'm not in the mood to just go out on the town. davoud (star that he is) found out that martha wainwright is playing an acoustic show at warwick arts centre near coventry, so the party's moved to dipak's house.

the week after i'm off again and found out hawksley workman is playing in london on june 1st *and* stuart mclean is reading at a book shop in london on may 31st! what great canadian luck and the makings of a marvelous post birthday week.

summerbreeze

so the slight change in british seasons has taken place and its officially summer. the last two days have been sunshiney and warm all over the uk it seems. warm enough to go for a post work pint with sam, kel and lou at the willow bank last night.

i finally went and had my foot x-rayed yesterday. i found myself at broad green hospital, but when you walk into the grounds of this place it looks like a little village. it was loads of little house like buildings and not the massive structure i'm used to. thought i was going to get lost in there to be honest.

feels like i'm back in the swing of things at work and i'm liking this job. there are lots of good things happening.

hooray...twas just a firefox update...

davoud and dipak. i do love these boys.





















the eagles pose, much more enthusiasm than the previous attempt.











had to take this one...too funny.
















davoud's shot of the new scottish parliament. stunning.











the view from our lovely apartment...with my feet.

garden of edinburgh

quite possibly officially my favorite place in the uk. absolutely phenomenal...and the company wasn't bad either.

i've been trying to upload the pictures, but it is taking too long and i'm losing patience. so, the report. friday night we arrived at twilight. i met dipak and davoud at the arrivals gate and have to admit i got a little teary eyed when all the little kids were saying hello to their grandparents.

we took the bus into town, eventually navigated ourselves to the apartment we'd rented - davoud was holding the map - kicked off some shoes and went in search of food. had some thai and then went back to the apartment to work on a bottle of scotch.

saturday was absolutely stunning, which meant lots of park sitting, frisbee playing and a little beer drinking. we ate at our now favorite restaurant in edinburgh, henderson's. its all organic, vegetarian, and wholefood goodness. mmmm. i cooked dinner for the boys that night and we just chilled out at home with some more whisky.

sunday starting out a little cloudy so we wandered up to the scotch whisky heritage centre for some tasting, barrel rides, and purchasing. once the sun came out we were back at the park with the frisbee.

that night we go down as one of the best nights ever...mainly because we found the bartender from heaven - i'm telling you it should be edenburgh - chris who made us the most delectable old fashioneds. amazing.

it was an awesome weekend. great food, great drink, amazing company, awesome weather, card playing - although dipak does need to learn that 8 comes before 9 - delayed flights, amazing photos (i'll try to sort that out soon) and just general loveliness. the kind of weekend that makes you actually believe that the week, that pesky working time, doesn't even exist.

update on the royal tour

it depends on how you look at two months, but i'm going to be home soon! so soon! and i'm really excited. but there have been a few changes in plans.

unfortunately, sam and kel aren't coming any more. they've both had loads of financial commitments in the past couple of months and just can't make a trip like this right now. i'm really upset about it because i wanted to show them home and all the people, places and things i love about it, but as my dad said...canada's not going anywhere and this isn't going to be their only opprotunity to visit.

but...dipak is still coming so at least someone thats close to me here is going to get a behind the scenes tour of the things that shaped lauren. and yes, most of you have probably figured out by now that there's something a little more going on there. i mean, why would anyone voluntarily go down to coventry so often? there is substance behind the saying "being sent to cov."

schedule has changed *slightly* too:

june 16-18 markham/toronto
june 19 goderich
june 20-23 montreal
june 24 oka
june 25-28 cottage
june 29 markham
june 30...fly back

i'm hoping to see as many people as possible as usual. save up the sun, humidity, black flies and nice patches of grass. and start pouring those pitchers of beer...7 weeks to go!

income tax hell

right. so oddball canadian tax rules.

filled out my lovely federal income tax form with quick tax and was all ready for the netfile with my access code and all when suddenly it remembers that i'm no longer a canadian resident because i now live in the uk.

but wait! *am* i a canadian resident still? sure, maybe i don't have any primary ties (ie. car, residence, husband, kids) but i do still hold a canadian passport, driver's license and bank account. well, that's for good ol' revenue canada to sort out.

and then i made the mistake of living in quebec, which has its own set of weird and wonderful tax laws. so after much stressing over doing my federal taxes (i was getting *really* angry and spiteful, wishing i'd never moved from 186 ramona and dreaming of whisky) i called revenu quebec. explained my situation to the lovely french canadian girl at the other end when...

"no, you don't have to file a tax return in quebec. yes, you may have lived here and paid tax for 6 months of the year, but because you didn't reside in quebec on *31 december 2005* you don't have to file a tax return."

riiiiiiiiiiiight.

bring on the whisky cause that's call for a celebration. except i don't have any...going back to edinburgh this weekend to stock up.

this is probably my favorite photo from the whole trip. we stumbled - quite literally - upon these series of sculptures in prague by olbram zoubek.

continental excursion

(first pic: the john lennon wall in prague on the quieter side of the river)

val and i had an awesome little excursion to the continent and were delighted with loads of art, culture, opera, ballet, wiener schnitzel...

starting the first few days in vienna visiting come lovely churches, the belvedere (where we saw the infamous painting "the kiss"...unbelievable), and the prater. i think i have to say i enjoyed the prater thoroughly. its an amusement park and i got to go on rides and play air hockey. much fun.


(second pic: the view from prague castle, maybe from the tower)

prague was awesome. ended up there after a 5 hour train journey and a couple of stamps for ye olde passport. it's definitely more of a working city and you can see how its tumultuous history has shaped its character. stunning architecture. visited the museum of communism and felt very educated; lots of reading of museum panels involved in that one.





(third pic: the giant ferris wheel at the prater)

i like rides. this made me want to revisit my youth and season's pass to canada's wonderland.
















(fourth pic: val)

val sitting in one of the best garden restaurants of all time in vienna. we visited Kunst Haus Wien, which is this building conceived by artist Hundertwasser. *very* cool stuff and may have to post more photos of that place.








(fifth pic: st michaels, petrin hill)

thanks to my keen sense of direction and navigational skills (*skills* haha) we made it down to this little wooden church that was moved from the ukraine to this spot after flooding. it was tiny and beautiful and i wish the lighting had been better. val and i were constantly saying "i know the lighting isn't right, but don't tell davoud."

oh. and don't forget to wish a happy birthday to val...it's today!

spring break

i'm digging this system. the three weeks of work and then two weeks off system...it's great.

yesterday i did work though. i took two students to FACT (new media/theatre centre in liverpool) with the art teachers: miss sheena smith and miss kate challinor. it was really great for the students i spending the afternoon with sheena and kate was fab. i think i've found my new best friends at work. the other plus is that their both artistically active as well which is encouraging me even more to do it myself! i'm even going to set up studio/shop in dipak's basement in coventry and spend some dedicated time painting during my vast amount of holidays.

work has gotten a lot better because i am now actually doing stuff...working on projects and making things happen. its a much better feeling, but i realise that of course it was going to take time to adjust to everything. and i still have to do that too.

so off i go for the first two weeks of my awesome hols. going down to cov today for some painting, then back to the pool to meet up with val and fly to vienna and prague for a few days. back down to cov when i get back for some more painting and sean's record label launch, and then back up to the pool with dipak and davoud to go to a gig in manchester. busy and much fun.

i'll try and post from the continent if val and i find an internet cafe.

happy trails.