glasto review

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.