New Places to Get Lost

Here are a few blogs and websites I have recently discovered as enjoyable or awesome.  Totally distracting myself from my actual work.  Yay for holidays!

For all you design lovers and home project do-ers out there:

Design Salon

A funny look at life, work, family and sarcasm:

I Am Prepared to Give Up At Any Time

Need a t-shirt?  I have not ordered any and I am unsure of their quality but a quick gaze through these is an historical walk through modern times:

6 Dollar Shirts

Since I am in grad school, here is a person who is on her way to a tenured track professor position.  Funny and honest:

Fumbling Toward Tenure

Enjoy!

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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Perhaps It's Just Me...

....but I find my family hilarious.  From our past family stories frolicking about the globe as a mass of personalities, to the small stories from nieces and nephews that cause me to guffaw, to the little email exchanges we send back and forth.  Here is one of those.  Red Bull and Leonidas anyone?

This set of emails is great because we lived in Brussels for four years from 1982-1986.  We have all returned at least once to reminisce, see old haunts, and walk around in awe.  Three must eats are Leonidas chocolates, une gauffre (a real Belgian waffle), and un cornet des frites avec une brochette (a cone of French fries with meat on a stick).  When my mother and I returned to Brussels two years ago for our first return visit, we ate chocolates, waffles and frites for four days, then I turned to her and asked if we could perhaps find a vegetable or a piece of fruit.  So hard to say no to Belgian delights!

Here are the emails:

______________________________

We are in the hotel in Brussels. One can get free internet in the lobby or pay 11.90 E in the room. So I just messed around in the room and found a free internet somewhere on this computer. I hope it lasts while we are here. We have the room until Sunday at 5 pm and the train leaves at 7 pm back to London.

I got a weekend special so breakfasts are free and everything in the bar fridge is free. The bar fridge stuff adds up to 25.50 E. So this may be the first time I drink Red Bull and I am just not sure about the 2 cans of Stella Artois. Wish one of the drinkers were here.

Somehow I forgot to pack any outside clothes. I have the pants I am wearing plus one extra top. I do have underclothes. How did I miss packing clothes and we have two suitcases with us.

The room here is lovely and large and Blvd Anspatch. It is the NH Atlanta. I stayed here with Arta and Zoe once. We are near the Bourse and very close to the Grand Place. I will look for the hole where there is a missing cobblestone that you snitched from the Grand Place Teague. You snitched it and then lost it somewhere.

Glen and Janet plus others who have stayed in Paris in the Edgar Quinet...the room has two large open doors onto the street which is 5 floors down. And we have lots of room to party. Next time we all come to Brussels, this is where we will stay. Leonidas is just down the block. Right now Greg and I are off the Chez Antoine's for frites and fried meat, no green stuff.

Wish you were here!

Love,
Wyona (my mother)

______________________________

Don't drink red bull! Too much caffeine. Have le fun!

- Lurene (my sister, who has the best family stories, including dancing for muny (money) in Brussels on the fence pedastal at our house)

______________________________

I'm so sad I lost that cobblestone. And Marcia's clarinet. Sad sad sad.

- Teague (my brother)

______________________________

Chez Brussels!

A grad student was headed there for a conference and I gave her a list of things to do including eat many Leonidas.

Consider this my request for a box of delicious Leonidas! Rub the good luck statue just off the Grand Place for me too.

I agree with leaving the Red Bull alone. Not a good drink choice. 

I was so jealous of that cobblestone! Taking one was such a good idea. Too bad it was lost along with a clarinet and the two seater bike and several wallets. :)

Hi ho, hi ho, its back to work I go...

- Tonia (me)

______________________________

... because it would have collected dust.

I took Charise's clarinet a few years ago, and it collected dust. Now Gabe is playing it in Gypsy. 5 lessons from his mother and he can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star just long enough for the "Clarence the Clarinet Player" character.

Don't be sad. I have the piano. Everyone should be sad about that, except me.

I am tired. I need some red bull.

- Marcia (my sister, mother of three young children)

______________________________

...can't eat, can't sleep, can't even wash my feet. Won't someone please bring my hootoofootoo cobblestone ba-a-ack.

Can't wait to see the video you took of Gabe [while he was performing in Gypsy]. You snuck a camera in, right? The secret is to cover the red light.

Are the non-Bates sure they still want to be part of this heading?

- Teague (my brother who loses many things)

______________________________

It's in your bureau drawer, right by your favorite tooth.

And yes, on my cell phone there is a short 2 minute clip, please don't report me.

- Marcia

Why I Adore Wyona

In my family we do not celebrate Mother's Day, we celebrate Wyona's Day.  As my mother, Wyona has always said that we should not revere, praise, adore, and enjoy our mother's only one day a year but every day of the year.  With this instilled in us as teenagers, we continue to celebrate our altered version of this yearly holiday as a family.

This year my mother was on a cruise in some remote sea or ocean and unreachable.  Family members did send emails with funny stories, witty responses, best memories, and the like.  Wyona thanked us and we each took time to think about the amazing woman that raised seven children while moving all over the world, country to country.  She has survived by pure will as we are all different, unique and challenging (yet so entertaining) as children and now as adults.

As an homage to Wyona I rented a movie last week that reminded me of her.  You see, she is addicted to old time movies.  1940's musicals, dance films of the 1950's, and black and white, silver screen movies of the early 1900's.  When she has time, is sewing or completing small jobs we all have to do to keep life going, she is watching Turner Classic Movies (TCM).  When I am in town I plop on the couch, chat, watch, listen, chat more, watch again.  These movies always have and always will remind me of my amazing mother.

The other day at the library I realized I can rent videos for $1.20 so I grabbed a few.  When I saw, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), I missed my mum and had to watch it.  From the film education I received from her, I know there are few musical and dance combinations in the world of film like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  It was the perfect choice.

The dance scene of the two of them, he in a tux, she is a flowing white dress, I watched three times.  The plot presents them as a somewhat agreeable married couple known for there stage talent, have split up because Ginger's character wants to try dramatic stage acting rather than the comedy they have repeatedly performed.  They split up as a couple and he woes her back with this Gershwin song and dance number (with a little help from the friend that introduces the scene.)  Such talent, poise, feet movement and ability.  I am grateful to have a mother that has taught me many things, one of which is an appreciation of older entertainment that remains relevant and enjoyable to watch.

I suggest you watch it once and keep your eyes on Fred Astaire, then watch it again and keep your eyes on Ginger Rogers.  He is so smooth, and she appears as delicate as a flower and knows when to grab her skirt and give it a flip to get it moving.  Love this musical!  Love these types of movies!

Enjoy the wee scene snippet from the movie!
Love your mum!
Enjoy her every day!

 

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

Remembrance Day, Three Thoughts

Thought One

On Remembrance Day I think about my Grandfather Lester Schmidt and the few stories he used to tell us, his grandchildren, about his experiences in World War II.  He never served on the front lines but he did provide supplies for others in the war.  He used to also tell me not to get old, it was hell.  This comment still makes me smile, like any of us have a choice.  Les dies many years ago and he passed away while sitting in his favourite chair.  I did not have the chance to say goodbye but I am glad that I did learn more about him after living with him and my step-grandma, Marjorie, for a year in Calgary.  If the Oral History Archive project had been around while he was alive, it would have been very interesting to have heard his more detailed stories and to have added them to The Memory Project.  I am of the generation in which people say we are in a war and my life continues as normal.  War is an experience that happens in other countries, is a ceremony we have every year at this time, it is a museum I visit whose exhibits I view, an thing with a name that is remote and distant.  Others, who are Canadian and from other countries, have experienced more personal journey's through war.  My hope for them today is that through remembrance, thoughts, tears, we can find a place closer to peace and farther away from war.

I also wonder about my grandfather Lloyd Bates.  He died due to suicide the year before I was born.  From the stories I have heard through family, he bore the physical, emotional and psychological scares of war, and in the taking of his own life, I wonder if those issues were ever resolved.  What supports were there in the 1950's for returning soldiers, nurses and doctors?  Who was helping those with the yet unlabelled issues of PTSD?  How many others needed help and did their best to make their way in life as best they could?

 

Thought Two

I have memories of my father asking me if I wanted to go to Flanders Fields every November, when my family lived in Brussels, Belgium.  Every year I remember saying yes.  On one particular Day of Remembrance, we approached the fields of crosses, row on row, but could not see due to the hovering fog.  As we quietly approached the ceremony area, a trumpet began playing the Last Post, and as we slowly approached the song we began to see shapes of people, crosses and the gathering remembering those who had fought and died, as well as those who had lived.  As a pre-teen I did not understand the broad scope of the ceremony, the graveyard, the uniforms, the sacrifices, the years of repair, but I am fortunate to have had parents who took me to a place that have provided me with a personal connection to an historic place.

After the ceremony, large planes would fly by and drop thousands of poppies across the graves of the dead.  The children, including myself, would jump and run about collecting as many poppies as we could, but there were always too many to hold.  One year the wind was not taken into consideration and during the first fly-by the poppies landed on the highway next to Flanders Fields.  On the second fly-by, the poppies landed on the graves.  I would like to attend this ceremony again some time during my life as it is burned in my memory and to compare a childhood experience to an adult experience would be interesting.

Thought Three

While living in London (almost two years ago) I took the opportunity to go on a guided tour of France's  northern World War II sites.  We visited the D-Day Beaches, the towns first liberated in 1945, memorial museums, and cemeteries.  It was mind blowing as the guide's knowledge was incredibly extensive and he provided us with a two hour lecture of information as we bused from London to northern France.  It brought the previous stories I had heard, the museum exhibits I had visited, the people I had met who had been part of the war all together and connected to a place.  Here were the craters 60 years later, the cannons, the now clean beaches of operation Overlord, the remaining buildings and pieces of history that the French have left in place to remember.  If you ever have a chance to visit these places, please do.  The type of experience that causes you to think deeply and with great care.  Another opportunity to remember and attempt to understand.  

Standing in one bomb hole at Point du Hoc.
Bomb holes all around this entire field close to the cliffs of beaches.

The American Cemetery at St. Laurant

Juno Beach where Canadians first landed.
The first tank to have landed that became stuck and
remains as part of the museum collection.

Pegasus Bridge, the first bridge to be liberated
between Caen and Ouistreham, in Normandy, France.

Utah Beach, one of the locations where thousands of soldiers
who had just crossed the canal in tightly packed ships that landed
and begin the land attack in hopes of ending World War II.

Arromanches, Gold Beach, the remains of the temporary port
built by the UK government and its Allies as part of the liberation. 

Added Thought:

PS.  Listening to CBC's The Current and five grown men just started talking about what they cry from now after having been in a war: Tim Horton's commercials, kitten and Kleenex adds, one man just said he cries all the time.  Love it.  Men letting down their 'tough guy' guards and enjoying a moment honesty.

You Can Take the Woman Out of London but....

Yes I did it.  I watched the Royal Wedding.  After having danced and chatted with fellow graduates until midnight on Thursday at the end of year party, I woke up at 4 AM to head to a friend's house and watch the events unfold.  Here is why I watched:

After having lived in London every summer for 4 years and almost one year after that, 

I miss the vibrant, eclectic, pulsing city at least once per week.  

Changing of the Guard up the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.

I was able to hear the names of the places I visited, the streets I walked, the ones spaces that came to dwell in my heart as historical connections to the past that healed my reckless existence.  

Greenwich Village looking out from the Old Navy College.

Art installation at Trafalgar Square using the roots of trees from a
South American rainforest to increase awareness of the destruction of these forests.

On the London Eye with Marcia and Art, looking out over
Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament.

Almost 30 years ago my Aunts and Uncles woke all us Pilling kids up at 3 AM Shuwap, BC time and we watched Diana and Charles wed.  They had a long stretch of foam mats, blankets, pillows that we cuddled under wondering why we were so lucky to be up partying at this hour.  I  also remember a delicious selection of treats, although I cannot remember what they were.

My Grandpa Doral Pilling in the shores of Shuswap Lake in the 1980's.

To see an inner bird's eye view of a magnificent gothic abbey.  Having been on three tours during my stay with various groups I remember the six crystal chandeliers are 6 feet high but are dwarfed in comparison to the actual height of the 102 foot nave.  I believe 3,000 people have been buried or memorialized inside the building.  A juxtaposition of a new relationship budding from the surrounding lives that have ended. 

From Google Images, goingtolondon website.

Having attended Evensong on several occasions at the abbey, I wanted to hear the boys and men's choir one more time.  Mmmmm....love their soprano to bass voices intermingling and resonating of the stone of the Norman interior.

Thank you CBC for this shot!

Thank you CBC for the live coverage.  Thank you to my father who let me move back in with him while he was living in London and while I was in my late 30's.  Thank you mum my who was our part-time roommate and the one who took me to so many West End shows I lost track of how many times I have seen Billy Elliot, Wicked, Oliver, and Sister Act.

Greg and I on the top of a double decker bus,
just south of his flat on Regent Street.

Wyona, Marcia and I in Camden Town Market, North London.

My time in London was brief but will stay with me for years to come.  

You can take a woman out of London, but you can't take the London out of the woman.

I Pinch

My friend reminded me recently how much we used to laugh and enjoy these Element commercials before movies.  Other than this commercial, I hate it when I go to a movie and am forced to watch 'buy me and be happy' crap when advertising is now even in our bathroom stalls.  The exception is this crab.  Maybe little commercial?!