bank holiday report

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

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

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...

...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 ;)

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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 ;)

day three

(the view from kildalton)

we woke up on friday 25 may to wonderful blue skies with marshmallow clouds and a stonkingly good breakfast cooked up by mari. ronnie was there to take our order in tartan pants and a glaswegian twinkle in his eye. after finishing our hearty breakfast and befriending our fellow guests at the b&b, we headed off for some whisky and sightseeing.

(the ruins at kildalton...for pics of the cross see davoud's flickr page)

we started out on our first day heading down towards port ellen and our favourite distilleries. it was an experience driving past ardbeg and lagavulin (two of the best in our opinion) and being in awe at how such small buildings on such a small island produce such goodness. we stopped at kildalton home to an 8th century celtic cross and the ruins of a chapel. it was a beautiful spot and we spotted a few deer wandering nearby. after a few pictures, we drove back to ardbeg for our first distillery tour. ardbeg is perfectly situated and has recently had quite a bit of money thrown its way thanks to its previous owners glenmorangie. it is now owned by the same group who own moet and hennessey. the tasting of whiskies that we'd admittedly tried before was great! it certainly tastes better at the distillery and i was just asked to pass a couple bottles of the shelf to our guide to pour from.
(my comment in the lagavulin visitors book. because everytime i now drink it, all i can hear in my head is jimmy saying "it's like a campfire in a glass!")

after a hearty lunch at the distillery, we drove down to lagavulin for our next tour. it was certainly a bit busier and i could immediately see that visits to the island for the whisky were made predominantly by men. it was my favourite distillery of all because it was even prettier than ardbeg and had a certain class and history about it. we were going to be going there the next day for a special tasting with the distillery manager on their open day, but it was really neat to be there with only a few people.
(two sheep that were definitely posing for his shot on our way to loch finlaggan)

we took a few photos further along so that davoud could get the "l" in his shot and then we went to loch finlaggan the seat of the ancient lord of the isles. extremely beautiful reminiscent of canada scenery that was so full of history.

after working up a hunger during our walk to the loch we sought food in port charlotte. although we didn't actually get a table at the preferred pub in town, we did get a spot at the local's local. it didn't have the greatest atmosphere, but the food was good.

i've eaten more meat in the past week than i have in the last year.

day two - three ferries and an island

it was a bit of an early start when we left glasgow, but we had to catch our ferry from ardrossan to the isle of arran. we were *extremely* excited; too excited to eat breakfast. it was quite chilly on the ferry, but a pretty short ride. we drove around arran for a few hours, had a bit of lunch and then made our way up to lochranzra to take our second ferry to clainoig. we barely made that ferry - although they do run every hour - but made it over in time to check out a 13th centry castle and some chapel ruins.

(the first glimpse of the isle of arran)

i still have trouble making myself believe that the buildings i was seeing and walking through were really that old. the castle was quite cool as there was only one other couple there who were braving the pouring rain. by the time we made it back to the car we were absolutely drenched. we drove to kennacraig to wait for our ferry to port ellen, islay and had our first dram of whisky to warm up.(walking on the isle of arran)

the ferry crossing to islay was even *more* exciting especially once we started seeing the distilleries on our approach: lagavulin, ardbeg and laphroaig. as soon as islay was in sight the weather started to clear and the sun came out before it started a very beautiful descent into the sea.

(the sun setting on islay)

our bed and breakfast was on the top of a little hill at the other end of the island, but it was perfectly situated with two brilliant hosts: ronnie and marie. but more on them later ;)

day one - glasgow

(zetty and colin on the dashboard)

after arriving late the night before, we tried to make the most out of our rainy day in glasgow. although the highlight of the road trip was to be islay a day in glasgow was not going to go amiss since it was kind of on the way.

(a piece of grafitti that davoud attributed to banksy)

we started off at the kelvingrove museum, which i'd visited before but it was davoud's first time to the city so an absolute must. it was a rainy miserable day so we had a nice warm lunch at wagamama's before doing a bit of shopping. after a late afternoon stopover at the hotel, we headed out in search of a good bar - on recommendation of a local - called pivo pivo to watch the champions league final liverpool fc vs. ac milan. as an added bonus they had a great beer list that even included mooshead and sleemans!

(action shot of davoud after going down possibly the worst slide in glasgow)

it was basically a rematch of the 2005 champions league, which liverpol won, and i was admittedly gutted not to be in liverpool to watch the game. lfc played extremely well, but couldn't get the ball to the back of the net. we ended up losing 2-1 and i was beyond upset since the ref was an idiot and we truly did deserve to win. i did get over it after a bit of bourbon and proceeded to sing lfc songs in the streets walking back to the hotel. but hey, i was on holiday.

...and we're back

so davoud and i arrived back in liverpool yesterday from our road trip to the isle of islay via glasgow and back through the lake district. i've been agonising for hours as to how best portray the trip in the blog, so the post-trip analysis will be written in daily reports.
the week started off pretty nicely with a wee birthday party for me on monday night with val, harriet, davoud and chris. i opened all of my presents and cards so they did not also have to be stuffed into an already packed oscar - yes, davoud's car does have a name.