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.

why i hate bonfire night and who is snack banana

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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...

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!

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

read val's latest blog posting!

ben nevis

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

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

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

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

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!