Canada Reads! Yes We Do!

It is Canada Reads time!

Five more books to add to my reading list.

One or two are twenty years old; several new to literature.

I love Canada Reads, in particular the radio debate.

Keeping books and radio alive!

The contenders:

(Excuse the fuzzy books.  Read them anyway.)

Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a book I could not put down and spent several nights in a row during my Christmas holidays staying up far too late to finish it.  Every morning I would wake up and wonder what it would be like to not remember anything, the panic, the fear, the attempts at reconciling information others gave about who I might be and how I came to have no memory of such a person.  The main character suffers from such a plight as has no memory of her life or who she may be.  As the book moved on, Watson, the author, shocks the reader with a few surprises and as the reader, I could not help but try to find a part in the book when the heroine understands her life through the journal she is keeping.  Read this book for the excitement and nervousness that will seep through your imagination.


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Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada

Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada by Stuart McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Twenty years later this book is still a relevant piece of Canadian literature reflecting on the lives of those individuals who live in rural communities.  Working hard to survive and communities these people share with McLean what they love about living in small towns, what endures them to their community members, and the various ways in which they are attempting to survive together as urbanization increases and their rural populations decrease.  From a hockey town in Manitoba, to the historic town of Maple Creek, to the far reaches of a bay town of Sackville, the reader is taken on a soft and melodious journey through the eyes of those who live and work in rural communities.  I wonder if he has written an updated version.  I think McLean should.

The most interesting part for me was the meeting McLean secured with the person who created the Canadian flag, George Stanley living in Sackville, New Brunswick.  He was asked to create a version of a potential flag by a member of parliament as he had strong interests in history and heraldry (a means of identification, usually focused on country or familial commitment).  He based his single maple leaf design on outfits Olympians wore during the 1928 Olympics, the games my grandfather Doral Pilling and his room mate Percy Williams both competed in.  "One of the images I have carried with me all my life is a photograph I saw when I was a boy.  It was a picture form the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam of Percy Williams breasting the tape and winning a gold medal for Canada.  He was wearing a white jersey with a red maple leaf on his chest.  It's an image that has always struck with me."  Recently a book was written about Percy Williams by Samuel Hawley titled, I Just Ran: Percy Williams, World's Fastest Human.  Another book to read especially since the author consulted with my Aunt Arta Johnson who was instrumental in documenting her father's, Doral Pilling's, oral history which included stories about the 1928 Olympics and the athletic tours he participated in as the team returned to Canada.  I also have two cousins who have taken this maple leaf motif from their Olympic uniforms and had tattoos made from them.  Family stories and choices coming full circle.  Thank you McLean for shedding more light on a family story of which I was unaware.


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Remembering

As I posted several years ago, I took the opportunity to go on a tour of the Normandy Beaches in northern France while I was living in London.  As November 11 is commemorated today, here are a few more pictures and stories of this experience.

This shadowed plaque reminds the reader that it took several years for the D-Day plan to come to fruition.  The amount of tanks, guns, vehicles, food and people that had to be amassed in order to cross the English channel to create an artificial port in order to defeat the Nazis is incredible.

Fifty years later the pieces of the port still rest in the sand, slowly being eroded or encrusted with ocean creatures.

An encrusted container on the beach with more of the port structures behind out in the ocean.  The sea claiming what used to be claimed by people.

Arromanches-les-Bains the heart of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.

Pointe du Hoc at which soldiers who landed did not find a beach to run across as they dodged bullets and grenades, but who found rock cliffs they were required to climb as they were shot at and bombed.  Such an incredible series of tasks in order to defeat the occupiers.  

Another portion of the Point du Hoc cliffs ready to be climbed by the soldiers.  

A sculpture called Les Braves, which was erected on Omaha Beach near St. Laurent sur Mer.

Moving to the US Cemetery in St. Laurent it is a peaceful place replete with memorials, reminders, crosses, starts and many art pieces reminding the visitor how many Americans died as the country joined in the final chapter of World War II.  This also reminded me how many more people had died from countries who had participated in the war since its beginning.  

The names of those who lost their lives during World War II.

 A water sculpture with a submerged map of the Normandy Beaches connected to a flat, extended pool of water that reaches out, visually, into the ocean from which the soldiers appeared.

A single cross in the US Cemetery.  Note the lack of a name.  A reminder of so many of the unknown soldiers, those who died but who were never identified.

Leaving a rock on a Jewish grave.  Symbolic of remembrance, God as the rock of Israel, acknowledge recent visitors, and adding their piece of rock to the ancient mound of a grave.

A copy of an old picture in one of the Normandy museums.  I love this picture as it juxtaposes the old with the young, the daily tasks of life with the task of unique events, the lack of acknowledgement by each of the main characters toward each other....just doing what needed to be done for survival.  Side by side.

Random Photos

We all do it now that access is so much faster.
We take random photos of things we find hilarious, meaningful, interesting or crazy.
Here are a few shots I have taken over the last few months with quick explanations.
Enjoy!

Green Eggs and Ham!

Well the closest I may ever get to it.

Thanks to Stella's Cafe and Bakery and their delicious Eggs Benedict topped off with a lemon spinach sauce.  The flavour was effervescent and I loved the eggs and ham that Sam grew to love, even if he was in a house / box / train.

Learn to what?!?

How does one do that?

Thank you rideuacanoeclub.ca and the loss of letters that put a smile on my face.

Graffiti reads:

"Jesus loves me but I just want to be friends so it's awkward."

Graffiti in the washroom of the politically left wing University of Winnipeg,

located in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba.

More graffiti that reminded me of a book I just read about blogging, Blog Theory by Jodi Dean, and how we have become a 'whatever' culture, referring to:

"The whatever blogger just wants to get something up there, to connect, to be counted, to leave her mark, to start a meme. Dean calls this “reflexive communication”: communication caught up in its own excited loops of chat. Personalization, she argues, shapes and neutralizes every act of participation by putting the focus not on a sustainable collective identity but on the giddy “look at me” moment of the Instagram and the status line. The whatever blogger is, like, fifteen, forever." - Julia Lupton, Los Angeles Review of Books.


I am like, so, like, blogging, like, forever.  Whaaaatever!

Sing You Home

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To be honest, I have never picked up a Jodi Picoult book as I always thought she wrote romance novels which are not my literary thing.  In the past few months I have joined a new book club and this was the first book I actually had time to read before I attend the club meeting, and at first I was not excited.  Romance?  Really?  I decided to give Picoult a chance, picked it up on a Saturday and had it read by Tuesday night, staying up late one night due to sleeplessness and wondering what would happen to this book's characters during the turmoil of their lives.

(Warning: contains a few spoilers.)

The book begins with Zoe and Max, a married couple, both working full-time jobs and trying desperately to become pregnant and carry a baby to term.  A fifth failure late in her pregnancy causes Max to leave the marriage as he feels second to Zoe's need to have children, a position he no longer wants to hold.  While recovering from the break-up of their marriage and the end of another pregnancy, Zoe and Max take two very separate roads.  Zoe finds and deepens a friendship with Vanessa with whom she begins dating and eventually marries, and Max joins his brother and sister-in-law's ultra-conservative Christian religion.  Zoe and Vanessa decide to have a child, with Vanessa carrying the three zygotes that Zoe and Max made while they were married.  Max is unsure what to do and confides in his religious leader who convinces Max to take Zoe to court to obtain the zygotes himself.  A vicious battle over the zygotes ensues as we see the rights of two lesbian women legally married (in a different state from which they live), pitted against the forces of  ultra-conservative Christian right-wingers whose belief structure slowly unravels in Max's head.

This is where I shall leave my review and encourage you to read this book.  The tapestry of characters who share the narrative of the book (it moves between Zoe, Max and Vanessa) present lives that have intersected, separated and intersected once more.  Much more than the romance (the ones that Picoult does not write), she takes the reader through a host of ideas and beliefs that people hold about challenging ideas, revealing the differing views of each person and their perspectives about life, love, self-understanding, legal rights and acceptance.  A beautifully woven novel, but not always easy to read.


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Twelve Drummers Drumming

Twelve Drummers Drumming by C.C. Benison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A well written read by a Winnipeg author, C.C. Benison.  I would give this book 3.5 stars but that is not an option.  A tale of a pastor who has moved from London, UK to the more remote and quiet village of Thornford Regis, until a body turns up murdered and hidden in a Japanese drum.  Bringing back recent memories of his own wife's murder in London, Father Tom Christmas becomes the recipient and hunter of information to try to solve this crime.  With the help of a host of interesting, unique and well developed characters, the mystery is solved after the village has been turned topsy-turvy by the events surrounding the murder.  I will be awaiting C.C. Benison's next murder mystery, Eleven Pipers Piping as well as seeking out his other mystery novels.  A delightful read that gives one a glimpse into a small village in England that also has its drama.


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Travel As A Political Act: Part 2

As I really did enjoy this book, I was even more impressed that a travel novel, written by an approachable individual with accessible language, finally presented many of the difficult topics that have been debated within the academic and practical spaces of tourism for decades.  One of the first papers I wrote for an basic introduction to travel class concerned the sex trade and the use of young girls in countries as captured sex slaves for the purposes of pleasing middle and upper class Canadian, American and European travelers in order to draw and increase tourism.  I believe my professor handed me back my paper and said, 'interesting topic'.  That was it.  I think he was surprised about the topic and the criticisms that were evident in the paper.  I wish I still had it, I would give it another read, redo and update as sixteen years later, these countries continue to enslave young girls, boys, women and sometimes men as sex slaves but now have begun to reward them and provide them with an understanding that they are contributing greatly to their country's economy in the best way they possibly could (even scarier really).  Well, in my opinion this is crap and the institutionalization of the poor and down-trodded through ideologies of slavery, misogyny and seeing women/people as sex objects, but I digress...again...

Rick Steves within the last chapter of his book Travel As A Political Act shares with following idea with the reader then proceeds to share a list of books he has read that has influence his opinions about the economics of poverty and the politics of power and corporations.  I am sure he would be OK with me sharing this quote and list (even though I don't know him at all personally) and I have added to each book title a link to the book, a related website, or the authors webpage.  Voila!:

"Read books that explain the economic and political basis of issues you've stubbled onto in your travels.  A basic understanding of the economics of poverty, the politics of the empire, and the power of corporations are life skills that give you a foundation to better understand what you experience in your travels.  Information that mainstream media considers "subversive" won't come to you.  You need to reach out for it.  The following are a few of the books that have shaped and inspired my thinking over the years" (p. 203):

Bread for the World

Arthur Simon

Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity

Frances Moore Lappe

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

Future in Our Hands

Erik Dammann

Manufacturing Consent

Noam Chomsky

War Against the Poor: Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer

Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes

Robert McAfee

The United States of Europe

T.R. Reid

The European Dream 

Jeremy Rifkin

(Click here for Rifkin website and foundation)

The End of Poverty

Jeffry Sachs

Several of these shall be added to my reading list as I have only read the last one while I was living in London.  Off I go...

Dish

Dish: Midlife Women Tell the Truth about Work, Relationships, and the Rest of Life by Barbara Moses
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As I push 40, I have pulled out this book given to me by my sister during a Christmas several years ago.  She is a thoughtful gift giver and I am really enjoying this book thus far.  I look forward to my 40's when my opinions of myself and my life are far more important to me that are other opinions.  More later.

Finished the book and I plan on returning to my sister and she turns 40 next spring.  I have now reached 40 and as usual, a birthday does not make me feel any different.

According to this book, it seems as though I went through my mid-life crisis a little earlier than most.  Three years ago I was in a profession (elementary school teacher) that I enjoyed for several reasons but could not see myself content in for the next 30 years.  I bailed, moved to London, UK to play, applied to graduate school, am now completing graduate work, no longer religious, befriending a larger swath of people, enjoying the occasional rendez_vous, and living in a city that never thought I would even visit.  Strange how life takes on its own plan once you start rearranging yours.

That is what this book is about.  Taking time to stop and assess your life.  Acknowledge the good, address and let go of mistakes, plan a better future after some deep thought, and proceed with life, living it better than before.  Inspiring and a reminder that I am one of many who have left a past life, reinvented myself and am enjoying life so much more than before.

Some of the best parts:
"Sometime in my forties, I realized how important it was to be one whole, integrated person.  I did not want to work in an environment where I would have to segregate a work personal and a personal persona." - Writer p. 45

One [employee] of a bank provides a regular check and balance for herself.  She makes a 'date' with herself at the end of every workweek.  She reflects on the week past and asks herself questions like: Is this work meeting my needs?  Did I do anything significant this week?  Did I have fun?  Did I feel good?  And then she thinks about the coming weeks and what she hopes to accomplish.  p. 116

About 75 percent of the women said they did not have the financial security that they had expected at this life stage - they didn't want a lot, just some latitude or a safety net for taking risks.  Virtually all of them said one of their major life regrets was "buying too much crap and not starting to save earlier."  p. 127

For goals to be meaningful, like our lives, the must be dynamic and changeable.  Do you see yourself as being on a journey, or are you on a fixed path to a predetermined destination?  Many women in midlife see themselves as moving toward a state, such as being debt-free, or leaving a legacy, but their goals are implicit, not explicit.  They trust they will get there.  p. 133

The great British management thinker Charles handy coined the idea of a portfolio career.  He wrote that he balances '"core" work, which provided "the essential wherewithal for life" with work "dome purely for interest or for a cause, or because it would be stretch me personally or simply because it was fascinating or fun."...Every year I take on one new activity that stretches me, and absorbs me completely...I think this is one of the most organic types of career configurations available to midlife women, especially those wit multiple interested or the drive to explore new territory.  It is based on the assumption that we have many needs and desires and play many roles.  p. 154

I asked women I interviewed, "Looking back over your career, what regrets do you have?  What are you most proud of?  If you had one piece of advice to a younger woman, what would it be?
- know yourself
- act on what is most important to you
- maintain your integrity
- distinguish between the big issues and those that are a matter of taste
- find a mentor / be a mentor
- don't make work the centrepiece of your identity
- be able to navigate the political currents
- confront the fear reptile and take informed risks
- invest in yourself
- be financially literate
- be yourself
- never be deterred by lack of confidence
- don't worry if you don't know what you want to do "when you grow up"
- think trade-one, not trade offs (forget having it all, prioritize what is most important in your life)
p. 157-161

The nature of our relationships with our partners is shaped by who we are, what we want from our lives, as well as our partners' personalities, what we project onto our partners, and what we accept in our partners.  p. 221

Although we all have different expectations of our relationships, we agree on the big issues:
- create a life that is not dependent on a partner
- don't allow yourself to be swallowed
- don't swallow your partner
- enjoy and accept your partner for who she/he is
- make time for each other
- recognize and discuss your feelings when they occur
- be realistic
- monitor your thoughts and your speech when you have a disagreement
- know what is important to you
- don't tolerate any kind of abusiveness or behaviour that makes you feel belittled
- take your own counsel when it comes to ending a relationship
- get support through a bad period

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Ah Alanis!

Ah Alanis!
The second most famous woman who taught us that getting mad and angry can be therapeutic.
Sinead O'Connor was the first of course.
Which is why when this song popped up on my iPod as I was working out, I listened to it several times.
Such lyrical therapy can be purchased for as little as $0.99.
Delightful.

This video is really not of any high quality but the lyrics, it is all about Alanis' lyrics.
The woman who started dancing and singing in malls in Ottawa has come a long way.
She has taught us all a thing or two about anger and crazy people.
And oh those users.
She has taught us a great deal about those people too.

Thank you Alanis and Sinead.
Thank you.

The Lyrics

Something so benign for me construed as cruelty 

Such a difference between who I am and who you see 

Conclusions you come to of me routinely incorrect 

I don’t know who you’re talking to with such fucking disrespect 

This shit’s making me crazy 

The way you nullify what’s in my head 

You say one thing do another 

And argue that’s not what you did 

Your way’s making me mental 

How you filter as skewed interpret 

I swear you won’t be happy til 

I am bound in a straight jacket 

Talking with you’s like talking to a sive that can’t hear me 

You fight me tooth and nail to disavow what’s happening 

Your resistance to a mirror I feel screaming from your body 

One day I’ll introduce myself and you’ll see you’ve not yet met me 

Grand dissonance 

The strings of my puppet are cut 

The end of an era 

Your discrediting’s lost my consent

Be Careful

Be careful what you take to final exams.

Things fall out of back pockets when you sit for three hours.

Then again, it sure added some joy to the supervision part of my day.

(Psssst!  In case you can't see the yellow object, it's a condom.)

Still Too Busy?

Gargameg,

One thing you should try it out

Hold a mirror shoulder high

When you're older

Look you in the eye

When you're older

Look you in the eye

- Tsmurf

Projection Ruined This 

or

Dance to These:

Sarah Jarosz - Run Away  

Imaginary Cities - Manitoba Bossa Nova 

Mary Chapin Carpenter - I Have a Need for Solitude 

Sarah Slean - The Right Words 

Spirit of the West - Political

Dar Williams - Closer to Me 

The Swell Season - Two Tongues 

City and Colour - Sam Malone 

Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know  

Keane - My Shadow 

Sarah Slean - Set It Free

Sapphire Bound! Add It!

While I am reading methods books to pump up the research section of my thesis, and I have delved into the thick and hearty text, The Handbook of Qualitative Research by Denzin and Lincoln (Sage Publications, 1994).  This is the big mama of qualitative text books so that I can write a methods section and complete my mixed methods research with some flare and accuracy.  As I have been reading through the first section I came across a quote that caused me to pause and ponder.  Then ponder more.

Viola the quote written by Regina Austin (1989) in her book Sapphire Bound!:

"When was the last time someone told you that your way of approaching problems...was all wrong?  You are too angry, too emotional, too subjective, too pessimistic, too political, too anecdotal and too instinctive?  I never know how to respond to such accusations.  How can I legitimate my way of thinking?  I know that I am not used to flying off the handle, seeing imaginary insults and problems where there are none.  I am not a witch solely by nature, but by circumstances and choice as well.  I suspect that what my critics really want to say is that I am being too self consciously black (brown, yellow, red) and/or female to suit their tastes and should "lighten up" because I am making them feel very uncomfortable, and that is not nice.  And I want them to think that I am nice, don't I or "womanish"?" p. 76-77


I am adding this book to the list of 'To Read' in my mind and on GoodReads.

My Sweet Curiosity

Amanda Hale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Once again, I found this book walking back from the bathroom to my study carrel at a University library.  Two books caught my eye, both by the same author, this one called, My Sweet Curiosity.  Blending the history of Andreas Vesalius, the author of De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body), who is considered the founder of modern human anatomy; with the story Natalya, a medical student and her tumultuous relationship with her mother beginning with a bizarre birth story; and Dai Ling, a gifted cellist studying music in university with parents who sacrificed their lives in China to bring her to Canada.  Natalya and Dai Ling find each other and fall in love, and Dai Ling has to work through this revelation of being a lesbian within a traditional Chinese family structure.  Lost in tumultuous history's, each character, Natalya, Dai and Andreas, must navigate a labyrinth of ancestral choices that influences their current conditions, and reminds the reader that we come from a place we may not have chosen, but this history filled with people is desperate to hold on to us, despite our attempts to set ourselves free.

I will be looking for more Amanda Hale books as the intense research she completes on topics that I am unfamiliar with, teaches me about subjects I don't have time to research, as I turn each page.  Sounding the Blood, her first novel, is next.

http://amandahale.com/


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Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism by Thomas Kohnstamm
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To all people who want to be a travel writer: this will broaden the knowledge you have of what this work may hold for you.  With Lonely Planet and its professional cohorts the budgets are smaller than you might think, the deadlines arrive sooner than you thought, and rather than enjoying a beach, restaurant, cathedral or art gallery you may be busy gathering data.  This data may include open and closing hours, costs of entrance, what type of travellers visit this place, and food menus.  Thomas Kohnstamm plays by the book and does not take freebees at the beginning of his trip.  Then his budget runs out and he must create means of raising funds to complete his trip and writings of Brazil, including finding and taking any freebees possible.  The mayhem he finds himself in is astounding and the way he able to deal with the issues is equally hilarious....well, at times scary with the black eyes to prove his travel struggles.  Despite his struggles and frustration with Lonely Planet, he continues to travel and write for this organization.  He is a nomad at heart and can not lose his thirst for movement around the world.  He is an entertaining and funny writer who uses approachable language.  Check out this book and his written works for Lonely Planet for stories that will make you laugh, gawk in shock, and shake your head in surprise.

Best parts of the book:

This book is not intended to be an expose and it is not intended to discourage the purchase of use of travel guidebooks.  I almost always take a guidebook with me when I travel, and it invariably helps me in some way that makes it worth its price and worth its weight in my pack.  It is my hope that this book will help to demystify the origins of travel writing and show that when thousands of travellers follow a guidebook word-for-word, recommendation-for-recommendation, in not only harms contemporary international travel but can also do serious harm to places in developing countries.  Maybe if people see what arbitrary bullshit goes into the making of a guidebook, they will realize that it is just a loose tool to give basic information and is not singular or necessarily the correct way to approach a destination. p. 3

So, travel writing, like any job, has its issues.  However, travel writing is particularly disorienting since you are expected to work in a tourist environment that is built for pleasure.  You must find a way to make yourself effective in that peculiar limbo between work and play.....We travel writers live in perpetual motion.  Relationahips are transitory and fleeting.  Friendships, even more so.  Home is where you are on a given night.  It is at once glamorous and pathetic, exciting and perversely routine.  The longer you do it, the harder it is to return to normal life, and one day you wake up and realize that the road is your permanent address.  There's no going back. p. 3-4

The majority of travel book fall into three basic groups: 1. There are the earnest writers who become enlightened through contact with the simple, honest live of Mexican peasants or the unparalleled tranquility of the Tuscan countryside.  A more holistic approach to life is discovered and the universe is balanced....2. On the opposite side of the spectrum are the smug writers who mock how backward plumbing and transportation are anywhere outside of North America....3. Last but no least are the Charlie Bronson guys who attempt solo ascent of mouton without telling anyone where they're going, are forced to amputate their appendages with a sport, and then expect us to appreciate their triumph of human spirit. p. 54

"Parachute Artist" is a name given to a certain type of travel writer, particularly itinerant guidebook writers.  Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet, defines a parachute artist as "someone who can drop into a place and quickly assimilate, who can write about anywhere."  You must be able to wake up in Thai Hill Country, Kaliningrad, the Ganges Delta...or Port Moresby and quickly wrap your head around the place.  You must determine its character and capture the so-called zeitgeist in a way that can be explained in a 300-word section introduction and 250-word city and regional introductions - even if you've never set foot on that continent before.  You must find the best accommodations, activities, restaurants, and practicalities; write pseudosagacious, balanced reviews on all of them; and then flip the channel to the next destination and do the same thing all over again.  Efficiency is of the essence. p. 73


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40 Fun or New Things in 40 Hours

Over the years I have had many friends and family members organize and celebrate wonderful birthdays with me.  Twenty-one roses and 10 helium balloons, a wake, surprise dinners, distracting movies to a surprise party, 24 cupcakes a cake and many family members, and many more wonderful events.

As my 40th birthday approached I wanted it to be memorable and a real celebration of life and the many wonderful experiences it can posses.  As my brain is wont to do, it connected the dots and in a flash I decided I was going to try and do 40 new and/or fun things in 40 days.  Since that seemed a little long and I am poor (in graduate school), the idea shrunk down to 40 fun or new things in 40 hours, faster, zippier, smaller time frame, shorter things.  The planning began.

I sent out invites asking friends and family to send me ideas and let me know if they wanted to do something specifically with me.  Many friends contacted me and participated in the planning.  At one point I was ready to give up but my Love Manitoba friend's, Christa and Stephanie, would not let me.  They planned much of the last minute new things and saved the day!  As well, my sister Lurene flew in from Calgary for the weekend and things I had done before became new because I was doing them with my sister for the first time (freebees).  See how this works.  None of these new things have to be huge, they just have to be inventive and creative.

So in the end, this is the list, most of which occurred the actual evening of my birthday, March 31 at King's Head Pub in Winnipeg.

40 Fun New or Fun Things in 40 Hours:

1. Drinking Chololate

2. Eating Manitoba

3. Eating Bacon Bark

4. Backwards lunch (started with dessert, ended with main course)

5. Wore steel coloured nail polish

6. Had Henna done on my hands

7. Went rock climbing in Manitoba (indoors, there are no mountains or hills to climb here)

8. Attempted geo-caching

9. Received a flower delivery at home (thanks Marcia!)

10. Visited the crazy purple poster shop at the end of Osbourne Village
(turns out it is not my type of shop)

11. Walked down Osbourne Village streets with one of my sisters

12. Received a mug from my sister (caveat: Marcia - another sister - gave me a mug when I was 19 with her picture on it so I would not miss her.  I still use this mug but I received it on Christmas morning, not on my birthday.)

13. I was hit on by a random stranger on Facebook on my birthday (thank you some guy named Richard or Raymond or something)

14. Ate at the Bonfire Bistro

15. Ate at La Bamba (this is where I had the backwards lunch and the item below)

16. Ate tequila ice-cream

17. Purchased rainbow tights (ready for Folk Fest and other exciting events)

18. Tried Don Jolio tequila (wow, smooth as silk)

19. Played with interactive lights in Central Park, Winnipeg