My dad needs to replicate himself so more people can have a dad like him. All these thoughtful comments while he is on a cruise ship and should be having tons of fun rather than reading my thesis.
Exhibit A:
Hi Tonia,
I’ve read your thesis over more than once and I find it fascinating.
Knowing that you have given all that you have to writing the thesis and yet have it still not considered finished is more than discouraging. After all the sweat, blood and tears you have put in, you are right to ask, “What else do I have to do?”
It is tough to meld academic rigour with heartfelt comments that bubble up from a subject in response to one of your questions. Cold hard dispassionate quantifiable logic is hard to apply to human actions regardless what a researcher is trying to uncover much less the motivation of people who write selflessly about their own travel experiences to help others.
The summary of all that has been done to add to our knowledge about the topic (your thesis) needs to reflect the amount of work it took to gain that knowledge, which it does, but written in a way that meets the precision and clarity of thought demanded of the academic environment, while at the same time retaining the human touch. A bit of creative tension, to say the least.
It may be one of those times when you have to scream, “I’m tough and I am going to nail this thing!” After all, you are not going through all this to satisfy someone’s notion of scholarly prose, but to communicate to fellow researchers, the subjects you studied, and the wider community of the intellectually curious how the paradigm shift brought on by new technologies has affected a global industry, travel and tourism.
I’m reviewing the thesis starting with Chapter IV and will pass on my comments in the next e-mail. Stay tuned.
Life is really busy right now with a new job, finishing thesis, and now a flood in my hometown and I am making sure my house is not being washed away. The good news is, my sister competing in Alberta' Special Olympics this weekend in Devon, Alberta. Despite the flooding, the event is going on as it is further north and not in the flood zone. Here is a blog post my mother wrote about the event. More to come later.
Apparently the Olympics went very well and Zoe won a silver medal and three bronze medals. One medal for each event she entered. Very cool Zoe! I shall call in the next few days to hear her stories.
I can't believe where the past few months have gone. Crazy busy plus I just got back from a trip to visit family and friends in Calgary. The purpose of the trip was to begin taking my belongings back to Calgary as I am near graduation, only having had two work related interviews, and no job offers. My winter gear and all other assorted accoutrements were pack to drive back to Calgary and I received a phone call asking me to come to a job offer meeting. Yep. A job offer and I am not finished my degree yet. This has never happened to me before. All those hours of volunteering, spent typing at my computer, meeting and greeting people in a new province paid off and I was being offered a job.
When I went to the interview I was ready to negotiate but the organization that wanted to hire me was not. They had pulled out of their budget what they could and it was a take it or leave it option. The pay is not great, in fact at my yearly review next summer I will be asking for a big raise, but the opportunity to lead this recreation organization in Manitoba will be phenomenal. I am excited and surprised, intimidated and in awe of full-time employment. For the record, this will be the first time in ten years I have to work over the summer. (No sympathy from you nine readers eh?)
Wish me luck and skill and I venture forward and finish my thesis at the same time!
Good Friday was March 31, 1972 back on the day I was born.
Easter Sunday is March 31, 2013 my 41st birthday. Easter and, as it turns out Holi, has always hovered around my birthday, gone off into April, then returned to hover. This year it is an alignment that is encouraging me to spend time with my closest friends who have shown long term kindness and mutual consideration with a few fun but subdued gatherings. I will chat with family long distance and enjoy their company further afield since none live in the same city.
Nothing crazy like last year. Just a few sweet memorable moments.
Enjoy your weekend, whatever you do or do not celebrate.
Thanks for reading!
Last year around this time, November 2011, I went to a conference and W. Brett Wilson was the keynote speaker. He told the story of his life, including the ruination of his relationships due to the amount of work he was completing while making millions of dollars (follow link to hear this story). While rebuilding his relationships he has told his family that he will answer their calls at anytime, and then his phone rings during his keynote speaker address. He answers it, tells his dad he is in the middle of a speech in front of 400 people, and that he will call back in ten minutes, then hangs up. I tell this story a lot as, in our society, we are still learning how to interact with people, electronics and social media in socially appropriate ways. Here is an example contrary to much of what I have established as socially acceptable, and yet Brett's decision to put his family first makes sense.
This evening I was asked to attend a fundraising concert at which my nephew was performing with his touring choir. I love seeing my nieces and nephews perform and gladly agreed. My father, sister, brother-in-law and I went to the dinner and concert and the performers were the most eclectic mix I have ever encountered. As it turned out, this was a philanthropic evening organized by Brett Wilson and his staff in order to raise money for the Calgary Veterans Food Bank. Here was this former Dragon's Den millionaire who had made his money in gas and oil doing more work in the community. As I looked around I saw a former mayor of Calgary, a few CBC reporters, a Calgary Stampeder (this person was pointed out to me), and several other faces I knew from around Calgary but could not name. This evening while listening to seven different artistic acts we raised $95,000 dollars, $20 of which was mine. I did not expect such professional and well connected musicians or audience members, instead I was anticipating a junior high school type performance. What a night! This is why I write a little, read and little and get up and live a lot. The living part is just so enjoyable and filled with surprises.
The performers are below with comments about my favourite parts of the evening. What a joyous night to be a part of and I did enjoy rubbing elbows everyone in attendance, and I will return next year.
Boys Choir
They performed several pieces written by Benjamin Britten a challenging composer who wrote in the UK around and after World War Two. They were delightful and Brett Wilson actually won a performance by the choir at another charity auction and used the performance he won to earn more money for even more charities. This is a smart man.
Brett Kissel Official website
He is a talented and young country singer who wrote a song in protest of the NHL lockout on behalf of fans, 'Hockey, Please Come Back'. Rumour has it, it is somewhat viral at this point. An interesting micx of songs with several poignant ones written for his grandparents.
Shane Koyczan
I had no idea who this man was but I have been exposed to modern forms of poetry, including poetry slams and the spoken word. He performed at the Vancouver Olympic opening ceremonies with 'We Are More' a tribute to Canada, and is working hard to spread the word about clinical depression and dealing with bullying. His love poems were equal parts hilarious, thoughtful and enchanting.
One of his funny and brief poems:
The Stellas Official Website
A group whose name I was familiar with but whom I had never heard. We were fortunate enough to hear both Brad and Marylynne and their two children, Lennon and Maisy, who recently made a video that went viral and earned them a spot on Good Morning America. As two duos they are incredibly musical, gentle performers and talented people. As a quartet, they sang a few lovely Christmas songs and brought others up on stage to share the spirit of the season.
Here is one of there most beautiful videos which Marylynne wrote after finding a book of love poems written back and forth from soldiers to loved ones back home during World War Two. A moving piece of work:
Also performing were Christian Laurian and his sister Malia Ashely Kerr. Lastly, we received an operatic performance by Sara Staples along with her accompanist, Nathaniel Schmidt.
Such a delightful night that surpassed my expectations.
My cousin is having a new stain glass window made with the colours, shapes, and textures from photographs that the family has taken on the family property on Shuswap Lake. I finally added some of my pictures to the medley. I hope they will prove helpful. It is one of my favourite places to take pictures and I shall continue to capture the natural, least altered beauty of one of my favourite places on earth. Enjoy!
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.
These are the types of cakes Cheri dreams up and creates.
A pirate ship arriving from a water land of cupcakes to a desert land of 'sand' cupcakes on which the pirates will fight with the skeleton crew who have a treasure. Yep. She makes the fabulous creations and then we, her grateful family-in-law, have the audacity to eat them. Truly they should be encased on glass and put on display in a museum. Instead, we eat them. We (un)grateful lot.
The pirate ship is made from rice-crispie treats wrapped in moulded tootsie roll. The masts are cookies.
The water and sand are cupcakes with delicious icing and candies on them. The desert has icing which is them dipped on pulverized graham crackers. So yummy!
In addition to the cake she made cross-bone cookies...because they are so simple to create (?).
The skeletons guarding their treasure
'Come get us and our treasure pirates!'
The pirates descend in a ship to advance towards the booty.
Prepared to fight!
Who will win?!?
This summer I confessed to Cheri that I have a fantastic business idea. She is going to make cakes like these and I am going to sell them. Thusly she and my brother must stay together always, and she needs to make cakes faster...or we can hire minions to create the cakes while she dreams them up. Either way my plan will take some convincing and she just laughed every time I mentioned our new joint venture. There is some work and convincing yet to be done. Wish us luck with our booty!
It happened again this year. The Richard and Miranda pig roast. This does not mean we roasted Richard, Miranda and a pig, this means that Richard and Miranda bought a pig and roasted it for some added summer fun, which has been occurring for 4-5 years now.
Usually the roast occurs around the August long weekend and I was one of the lucky many who watched, visited, partook and played at this years roast. First, my sister Zoe and I went over for a peek earlier in the morning to see how the pig was being roasted.
Glen and Jeremy visited at the same time.
Richard explained to Zoe and I that he uses the slow cook method during which the pig is roasted over 7-8 hours but with only 1 or 2 smaller pieces of cedar added to the fire slowly over time. Either way I am glad he cooks the pig. A quick visit was enough for me as I have a woozy stomach. I eat meat but I really don't like watching the raw version in full form being cooked. Hypocrite I know.
Time to carve the pig. Once again, Richard and Miranda have a butcher friend complete this part. Phew! Glad each cousin doesn't have to take a turn each year or I would be carving a tofu pig in 2018 for the family. :)
Bonjour Monsieur Pig
The pig. His cooker. His carver.
Senya and Wyona posing with some food
At about 12 pm it was time to begin gathering all the food that had been slaved over during the course of the day. Our family property now has 5 cabins full of family members in them. Each house was asked to bring two salads. When you consider that in the Bates cabin alone there are 25 people and there are just as many people in each of the other cabins, that is a lot of people and a large amount of food. The picture above is merely one of three large tables full of food on which we dined.
Thomas trying out the fresh apple juice Uncle David made
I can not tell you the deliciousness of Arta's freshly baked bread. I stood for a while trying to capture the texture, the flavour, the smell, and the bouncy-ness of her bread. This picture is not bad but I shall have to try again next summer. Fresh bread, one of the delights of each meal.
My father Greg bragging to us about my mother Wyona's painting skills.
This summer it was decided that we were all going to sit down and try our hands at Chinese Brush Painting. Now you may wonder where in the world a caucasian Canadian family would learn the skills of an ancient art form from a country on the other side of the world. This is a good question. My mother. When my father obtained his job as Canadian Trade Commissioner with the Foreign Service we began traveling. First to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, then on to Manila, Philippines. While we were abroad we had hired house help which left my stay-at-home mother with some time to pursue other pursuits. One she chose was Chinese Brush Painting whose art influence obviously extended beyond the borders of China, and at which my mother excelled. While she was a teacher, and while I taught, she would show her and my students the basics.
Wyona demonstrating the fine art of bamboo painting
One always starts with bamboo and after several months the new learner is allowed to progress to roses. Since time was limited (the summer was coming to a close), we had a 15 minute bamboo lesson, followed by a 15 minute rose lesson. We practiced for several hours and some of us faired pretty well, creating almost realistic foliage.
Zach doing very well with bamboo stalks
One of the main pieces of information that Wyona always tells the learner is that this type of painting is single stroke with diluted paint. You make one stroke, them move on. You do not go over your work again and again, bad, naughty. The depth of the painting comes from the variations in hues of the paint through the single strokes, from dark to medium to light colour contrasts. Two essential art details.
Needed: water, paint, a place to dilute colours
Sabrina showing us the seriousness of art and bamboo
Alicia focusing on her roses
Then there were those of us who may need a few more summers to get to the Chinese painting part, yet enjoyable images were still created.
Chinese-Canadian-American rainbow?
The serious faces of each mini-artist is so perfect
The group is deep concentration with their roses
We did have a great time and learned that you throw away the first 3-45 sketches, even though they may look anywhere from pretty crappy to not too bad. It is tough to let go of ones art when it has just been completed and a part of ones heart is in it. Another summer, after more practice, we shall save and frame several pieces. Only 41 more practices to go. Until then, we have a semi-professional in our midst guiding our learning and visuals of her work to motivate us.
My niece decided to scare me this summer. She dressed goth. Several days in a row. She is far too cheery, positive and happy a tween to go goth. But she did enjoy scaring me.
As some of you may know, I have 12 (going on 13) nieces and nephews. They are a constant source of entertainment, joy and hilarity for their aunts and uncles. One of my sisters, Marcia, was talking with her two boys at the beginning of this summer about camps they may want to join. Their younger sister, a three year old, was listening in and piped up, "I want to go to Mermaid Camp". Uh? My sister did not know what to do as she had never heard of such a thing. Upon telling us the story, we family members joked that we could tie the kids legs together and throw them in Shuswap Lake, in amongst other sassy comments.
As we gathered at Shuswap for a family gathering, Marcia decided she was going to give her daughter a Mermaid Camp. She went to the dollar store to make a few purchased, we gathered our make-up, nail polish and other assorted elements that could be included in our first ever, Mermaid Camp.
Marcia gathered the nieces and made fin-like invitations to distribute to the family. We were all invited to Mermaid Camp at 2:30 PM on the porch. Be prepared to be done up!
The adults began to put make-up on the girls, paint nails, coif hair and have an all round good time. Sadly I could not find any ocean, sear or Little Mermaid music for the event but as you can see, we were having a great time.
Audra, the little girl who started Mermaid Camp,
having her nails done by Aunt Lurene.
(One of the best pics I took.)
Not aware her hair is on end.
Strike a pose!
We kept decorating each other. Laughing at the feather eyelashes, the sparkled rings, and the fun colours of make-up.
Audra, in the rapture of Mermaid Camp
Our neighbour, Autumn, came to join us.
Finishing touches
A late-comer just getting started.
Three little mermaids from school are we....
...even the adults got into it...
Well hello Cheri!
Adult nail time, care of Sabrina
Funny thing happened on the way to Mermaid Camp, the nephews showed up. With trepidation, at first, they began putting on rings....
....then they let the Aunts start doing their hair.....they did not realize that this was only the beginning....
Stunning smile
With a lovely red flower
With lovely red lips
....next came those crazy feather eyelashes....
Then the Aunts went wild with a no-holds-bar approach to Mermaid Camp. Anyone on the deck was either getting done-up, was doing the work of decorating another person, taking pictures (like moi), or posing for a picture.
Work is kids!
Work it Andrew!
(One of the best pictures from Mermaid Camp.)
....then Ozzy Osbourne Mermaid Camp started....
Group shots were next on the list of things to do at Mermaid Camp.
Love the smiles and other assorted facial expressions.
Pose it children!
Then it was treat time: banana vanilla ice cream milk shakes in fancy glasses.
Thank you to all who made the delish milkshakes!
We had a great time and it was really fun seeing my nieces and nephews participate in some gender bending and enjoying every minute of it. I was even more impressed by my siblings who just watched it happen, provided the space for their girls and boys enjoy doing something new for fun, for family bonding and for a great time.
