Shuswap Three: More Pictures!

More Shuswap pictures.
My one cousin just can't get enough.
These are Shuswap, Jasper and Margaret Falls near Sicamous, British Columbia.

Shuswap Part Trois!

Old Jasper

This past October I took a chance to drive from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Jasper, Alberta....OK, I was headed to an academic conference and I couldn't afford to fly so 'took a chance' might be over stating a bit.  I had to drive.  While in the mountains I was reminded how much I love them and how lucky people are who live near them.  When they were in my backyard I certainly did not take advantage of them as much as I should have.

During my drive I pulled over repeatedly for about two hours on the way home, taking pictures, feeling the peace and quiet, and watching the daylight play on the scenes before my eyes.  Here are a few shots that I played with on my computer that remind me of the old postcards you can buy in tourists shops.  Pictures such at these can also be seen on the walls in the old Canadian Pacific hotels as framed tributes to the historical past.  These are new though, and mine.

An old picture in a new time

Like pictures of old with one glaring addition :)

Light and fluff on rock

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.


View all my reviews

Summer 2012: Pig Roast

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.

Three Different Views

Recently I drove from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Jasper, Alberta for a recreation conference.  The event was really good and I met and re-met a number of fantastic people who appeared happy, in love with their jobs and content in their lives.  Yep, those are some of my goals too.

On the way to the conference fall had settled in nicely with its yellows, oranges and even browns, but upon my return 4 days later winter had descended and left a mystical white and green wonderland.  There will be several posts that focus on the pictures I took as I believe I added about 1.5 hours to my journey on the way home as I stopped repeatedly at designated view spots and on the shoulder of the road, as safely as possible, clicking the beauties of the mountains, 360 degrees around me.

One of the most interesting moments was stopping as I ascended into the mountains, removing myself from my vehicle, and realizing that my car and the music I was listening to inside were the only sounds to be heard.  Nature was silent.  There was not a person or vehicle around that could disturb the peace and even near by animals were docile, perhaps sensing the beginning of winter.  I leaned on my car and just observed, listened, and thought for a while.  A delightful treat in the mountains.

Here are three shots taken at the Jasper Park Lodge of a lake near the hotel.  I am having fun playing with my computer photo program.  Let me know if you have a preference.

Number one has a boost of colour and I really like the digital looking reflection of the mountains and clouds in the water.  

Number two looks like it should be in colour, but on second glance the eye notices the only colour is yellow, thus the sepia version of the picture.  Still the gradations of colour are quiet interesting.

In black and white the third shot still gives the eye a sense of the layers of tones, highlights, shadows and hues.  Looks like an old postcard with a modern twist of clear lines.

I like them all but for different reasons.  The joys of photography and computer programs!

Summer 2012: Shot from the Air

Flying from Winnipeg into Kelowna I looked out the window and spied this:

The tops of the Rocky Mountains just peeking above the low lying clouds.

A more distant view

Snow still on some of the peaks, even in August.

Dark Star Safari

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A marvellous read and moving read.  Theroux, having lived in many of the countries along the east coast of Africa, returns to them to find many of them worse of economically, socially and developmentally than they were in the 1960's.  His message appears to be that the aid dollars given to African nations may be helping in little ways here and there, but these efforts are not helping with the overall improvement of the human and economic conditions in many of the countries he visited.  While help from other nations is important, Theroux repeatedly stresses that African countries must help themselves deal with their own troubles and difficulties.  I have only ever been to one African country so I am not familiar with the complexities of many of the issues.  This book shed some light on these issues, and I will watch and learn more about these nations and their work to become more stable environments for their people.


View all my reviews

Love Manitoba: Narcisse Snake Dens

In the winter my brother-in-law sent me a link to a set of snake pits, called the Narcisse Snake Dens, that were not far out of Winnipeg and suggested I go.  As the spring approached, I heard many references on the radio, from friends, as well as at other events that snake were beginning to wake up early this year and try to find a mate with whom to reproduce.  Time for another Love Manitoba trip.  

Only one of my Love Manitoba friends was able to make it to the snake dens but we still had a great time.  As we approached the sight we saw small fences, and I am talking small fences, 10-12 inches high, along the highway.  They were so short but meant for the wee snakes we were about to meet, so that they did not meet their death as squashed long meat on the highway.

We parked, gathered our few belonging and noticed that the first thing we forgot was a picnic.  In the heat of a summery May and with tables available we could have brought a light snack or a lunch, which we were not aware as an option.  Shrugging our shoulders and walking on, we noticed several boards pointing out what was in store for our visit.  

There were four snake pits, all active, but with two containing the most number of snakes.  The dirt path led us through and around short trees and bushes to the first deep snake pit.  With a fence to ensure we would not jump in the pit, we saw the following wee snakes.  I was expecting larger ones to be honest having grown up with the images of Indiana Jones falling into the snake pit with huge snakes, or attempting to get out of quicksand with a snake.  Even so, there were A LOT of snakes!!!  

Many bodies and tails.
One wee head.

Snakes all piled on each other in a frenzy.

In view was a pit about 30 feet around with various levels of vegetation, rocks and small alcoves.  In the midst of this natural setting small snakes piled one on top of the other.  The movement of each pile was never-ending and a soon as a pile was created, is morphed into a smaller grouping until only 5-10 snakes were left, then another pile would build a short ways off.  Quite amazing.

We watched the first den and moved on to the second, where the viewers were higher up on a rounded precipice with a fence looking 20 feet down and out about 60 feet out at another area full of vegetation, rocks, dark dirt, and snakes.  

Snakes appeared to be dripping off the edge of the den.

They just kept on moving up, down, around, all over.

The occasional snake took a break and enjoyed some sun.

We were in luck at the second den as an interpretive guide appeared and my friend and I sequestered him for a while and rapid fired questions.  He explained that this was mating season and there were far more male snakes than females, all with the biological need to mate.  As it turns out there is one, ONE female at the bottom of each pile, and HUNDREDS of male snakes on top of her all vying for her attention as she picked a mate.  We asked if she does get to pick and he said yes, that it is in her biological make-up to pick a mate each spring.  He has seen piles as many as 150-200 snakes large.  Imagine being the small wee female snake at the bottom of that pile!?!  Wow!  Animal behaviour.  Quite amazing!

Our trusty park interpretative guide.

Where is the female?  Who knows!

In the third den there was less activity and more individual and small groups of snakes just slithering about.  The snakes had begun their mating early this year but some were sticking to their usual schedule.  

Calm snakes in the sexual storm.

At the last snake pit I took the opportunity to hold a snake that had escaped its thin, small, shallow pit.  With families about, kids holding touching and shrieking, and pets chasing snakes, this pit was active with humans and noise.  

I really liked the yellow and bright orange stripes on the snakes.
Funny enough, my nail polish that day matched.

Many years ago in the 1980's my two mature and extremely cool cousins came to visit and live with us in Belgium for one year.  They flitted about Europe on various travels (while I was stuck going to grade 7, still kinda bitter) returning with trinkets and presents they had purchased themselves.  Cousin Rebecca was obsessed with the recent trend of snake jewelry and purchased herself a snake necklace, earrings and bracelet.  I wrapped the snake around my wrist and it stayed to hang out.  I remembered the jewelry at this moment and took these few pictures for her.  I wonder what ever happened to those pieces?  

My snake skin/real bracelet

The bracelet begins to climb

If you are ever out this way in late April or early May, head to the Narcisse Snake Dens for fun with some little, wiggly creatures that will put a smile on your face.  Remember, snakes aren't slimy they are slithery.  Two very different things.

Travel As A Political Act

Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As Rick Steves is one of the most seasoned travellers of which I am aware, I had high expectations of this piece of writing, in particular because it branches off from his repeated pattern of reporting on the good, bad and challenges of a particular place or city.  This book appeared to meander into the more tempestuous waters of the politics of travel, which, as a travel and tourism graduate student, I have been researching for two years.

Each chapter presents a country (or city) and a specific topic (i.e. after war, taxes, soft drugs, etc.) through which Steves shares his experiences, opinions and political ideologies about what he has learned from each of the places with regards to the people and their lives in relation to that topic.  There is a mixture of positive, negative, warnings, messages, ideas, and comparisons throughout the book always directed at his largest market, the American people.  This book is full of lessons and suggestions that many English speaking people can learn from as non-Americans will also find this information poignant.  

This book presented some very good ideas about race relations, cultural understandings/misunderstandings, differences in choice, varying life perspectives, poverty, all within the subject of travel.  He is honest as a traveler and points to the places where he, as an American, is welcome, where he encounters harsh words, and differentiates between government propaganda and the people in the same country/city who see through their country's poor attempts at defaming other countries.  While I did not agree with everything he says in the book (i.e. the continued myth that the USA won World War II for the Europeans, and calling the USA America), as a person who was raised in foreign countries and continues to travel, I did see his open-mindedness and joy in meeting other people through his writing.  I would recommend everyone read this book, in particular those individuals who are afraid of travel or a particular country.  Time to set fear aside and ride the wave of mutual understanding and respect.


Best Parts:

I worry that the mainstream tourism industry encourages us to be dumbed down.  To many people, travel is only about having fun in the sun, shopping duty-free, and cash in in frequent flyer miles.  But to me, that stuff distracts us from the real thrills, rewards, and value of travel.  In our travels - and in our everyday lives - we should become more educated about and engaged with challenging issues, using the past to understand the present.  The more you know, and the more you strive to learn, the richer your travels and you life become.  In my own realm as a travel teacher....I take it with the responsibility to respect and challenge the intellect of my tour members, readers, or viewers.  All of us will gain more from our travel partners to be engaged and grapple with the challenging issues while on the road.  Your experience will be better for it.  p. 12

While traveling, I'm often struck by how people give meaning to life by producing and contributing.  p. 45

Perhaps Europe's inclination to be tolerant is rooted in the intolerance of its past.  In the 16th century, they were burning Protestants for their beliefs.  In the 18th century, they were drowning women who stepped out of line as witches.  In the 20th century, Nazis were gassings Jews, Gypsies, and gay people.  Now in the 21st century, Europe seems determined to get human rights, civil liberties, and tolerance issues right.  Instead of legislating morality, Europe legislates tolerance and human rights. Along with all the rights an American would expect, the in-the-works European constitution will include the right to work, food, and education.  All will have the right not only to healthcare, but to preventative healthcare.  In Europe, the "right to life" means no death penalty.  Europeans will all have the right to the protection of personal data, the right to access any data that has been collected, and the right to have it rectified if it is inaccurate.  Everyone will have the right to paid leave and paid parental leave.  And all will have the right to join or form a trade union.  p. 72

That first [travel] trip lit a fire in me.  I realized I have a right, if not the responsibility, to form my opinions based on my own experience, even if it goes against the mainstream at home.  p. 87

Traveling reminds us that contentment is based not on surrendering to conformity, but in finding that balance between working well together and letting creative spirits run free.  p. 125

What I learn about Islam from media and the US can fill me with fear and rage.  What I learn about Islam by traveling in Muslim countries fills me with hope...The centuries-old tension between Christendom and Islam is like a human sharing a forest with a bear.  Both just want to gather berries, do a little fishing, raise their kids, and enjoy the sun.  Neither wants to do harm to the other, but - because they can't readily communicate - either would likely kill the other if they crossed paths.  The world is our forest and we're sharing it with others.  As it gets smaller, more and more cultures will cross paths.  Our advantage over the human and the bear: we can communicate.  p. 147

When we travel - whether to the "Axis of Evil" or just to a place where people yodel when they're happy, or fight bulls to impress the girls, or can't serve breakfast until today's croissants arrive - we enrich our lives and better understand our place on this planet.  We undercut groups that sow fear, hatred, and mistrust.  People-to-people connections help us learn that we can disagree and still coexist peacefully.  p. 193

My travels have taught me that you don't want to be really rich in a terribly poor world...[it is] simply pragmatic to bring compassion for the needly along with me into the voting booth.  p. 199


Interesting Websites from book:

Take Back Your Time
http://www.timeday.org/

www.ricksteves.com/politicalact


View all my reviews

A Year in Provence

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I want to give this book 3.5 stars because I really enjoyed it as a selection of stories from an Englishman who has live in the USA then moved to Southern France, and offers the ready a wonderful medley of stories about the people, weather, construction, markets, wineries and neighbours he and his wife find during their first year in Provence.  This was such a good read that I have another three of his books on order from the library.  It is not a 4 start book, in my opinion, because this is a humorous tale but not a book from which I discovered a new history about a place or was captivated by details of a culture that was shocking or caused me a personal revelation.  Still a delightful and quick read that did make me want to rent a small cottage in Provence for at least a summer or two just to put his stories of oddities and eccentricities to my own cultural tests.  Since I do not have those funds at the moment, I will continue reading his books, smiling and laughing at his experiences and stories.  Perhaps I shall add some French Provence wine to the occasions just to increase the read's authenticity.  

View all my reviews

Doral Pilling In London

I have just spent the last hour scanning parts of Doral Pilling's autobiography into a computer.  I am in the process of sending this information to Dr. Bruce Kidd who is a professor at University of Toronto and researcher the history of athletics, amongst other topics.  He was at the University of Manitoba several months ago and I went to his presentation then provided him with the family story of Doral (my maternal grandfather) helping Percy get through his Olympic events without throwing up etc.  When I read the account in his history (thanks Arta for all your transcribing and work on that book), I can't help but think that Grandpa Doral was using sport psychology techniques with Percy long before the term was even identified.  A forward thinker for sure.

Having just taken a peek at a website dedicated to Percy Williams created by Samuel Hawley, I came across several pictures of Grandpa Doral that I have not seen in any relatives houses.  Once again, I look at these pictures and wonder why my brother Trent is there (or several of the Wood's boys), give my head and shake and remind myself I am looking at Doral.  Here is my favourite shot mostly because many of us have now been in London and here is Doral in the same city long before the rest of us even existed in the flesh.

Taken from website:  http://www.samuelhawley.com/percy1928olympics2.html

From left to right: Doral Pilling, Percy Williams, Stanley Glover

I just love this shot!  Take a look at the website to find even more information and amazing pictures about Percy Williams, with Doral Pilling often hanging in the background.

Pro-Poor Tourism

In completing cultural tourism research for my supervising professor, I came upon a travel philosophy called Pro-Poor Tourism.

Here is a well written definition from the website PPT - Pro-Poor Tourism Partnership:

What is pro-poor tourism?

Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) is tourism that results in increased net benefits for poor people. PPT is not a specific product or niche sector but an approach to tourism development and management. It enhances the linkages between tourism businesses and poor people, so that tourism's contribution to poverty reduction is increased and poor people are able to participate more effectively in product development. Links with many different types of 'the poor' need to be considered: staff, neighbouring communities, land-holders, producers of food, fuel and other suppliers, operators of micro tourism businesses, craft-makers, other users of tourism infrastructure (roads) and resources (water) etc. There are many types of pro poor tourism strategies, ranging from increasing local employment to building mechanisms for consultation. Any type of company can be involved in pro-poor tourism - a small lodge, an urban hotel, a tour operator, an infrastructure developer. The critical factor is not the type of company or the type of tourism, but that an increase in the net benefits that go to poor people can be demonstrated.


No sense in re-writing what is already so well written.

I found this information through a video that piggybacks on the idea of 'this or that'. Meaning, as a member of the industrialized rich world, I can use my money for this thing or I can use my money for that thing, cause, support, service, opportunity. Here is the video titled, Imagine What Tourism Could Do:





In having just watched the movie The Hunger Games, I was disgusted by the people living in The Capitol. Then I realized that in the grand scheme of the real world in which I live, I am one of those people living in The Capitol with colourful expensive clothes, ostentatious hairdos, outrageously large homes, immaculate streets, safe neighbourhoods, busy aestheticizing my life, and my stomach churned. To some people in other countries I, along with others in the developed world, are hoarding resources, money, power, control, all in the name of creating my beautiful life. I then realized that when I travel and I try to buy something in a market, and the first suggested price by the seller is $5,000 for a wooden mask (yes this actually happened) and I walk away shaking my head wondering to whom this individual thinks they are talking, the seller sees me as someone from The Capitol (developed nations), and I had a sense of what it might be like to be from the outlaying districts (developing nations). One group making the rules; the other trying to find then comprehend the rules. A moment where one's life experience clicks with other people's outward perceptions of those experiences.

This is my plug to try and change the balance of this imbalance. Choose a destination for your next travels that actually supports those in the world who live on $2.00 per day. Avoid all inclusive resorts that hide the realities of other people's experiences from your eyes. Participate in tours that support local people overtly. Make choices to spread around some of the money and joy that those paper pieces can bring. Take responsibility for your own tourism and your tourist monetary choices.

Just some thoughts.

Travel as a Political Act, Rick Steves

Rick Steves, a travel guru who has opened up and interpreted European travel to North Americans for 30 years, has written a new book titled Travel as a Political Act.  It is on order at the library for me.  I am the first person in line and very excited to read it.  In addition to the book there is a blog and a video and audio recording of a speech given in California, available through ABC TV.

While I did not agree with everything he said in this video, I do agree with the ability travel has to remind us that our human condition is far more similar than different, and other people who appear different that you or I are not scary and to be feared, but interesting individuals from who we can learn a great deal.  Different lives.  Different choices.  Travel changes your perceptions if you are willing to open to its lessons and get off the beach of a first world resort supplanted in a developing nation.  Get off the beach.  Be brave.  Go further.  

I shall write more when I have read the book.

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


View all my reviews

IT IS MY 40th BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!

Tonia circa 1978

yep

the day has arrived

40 and still living life to the limit

embrace the moments of change

love the new

wave goodbye to an old decade full of changes

enjoy me fitting my own standards

keep living a wonderful life

thanks for having me mum and dad

my siblings are the most amazing people I know

nieces and nephews add to the joy

friends are always a big part of my life

thanks to you all for adding to the joy and contentment 

cheers to me!

Tonia in 2009

An Idiot Abroad

An Idiot Abroad by Karl Pilkington
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Another travel book.  Looks like a person who does not like to travel is being forced to travel by two of his friends, one being Ricky Gervais and the other Stephen Merchant.  We shall see.


This book was OK.  I was a little mad that a person who did not really like traveling was visiting many of the Wonders of the World, and didn't appear to enjoy himself despite visiting 4 or 5 different continents.  This was part of the schtick to make the book and subsequent videos humorous and different than others, but I would have appreciated these visits more.  They should have picked me to go.  Then again, Pilkington did share many moments of deep honesty, and did learn more about other places even though he did not like many of them.  Perhaps the videos, in this case, would be better than the book.


Not my favourite travel book and not as funny as many reviewers stated, but it was an easy and interesting enough read to keep me on the tread mill or stationary bike at the gym longer than normal.


View all my reviews

Out of Oz

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My entanglement with the Wicked series began over a decade ago, and after reading the first instalment, Wicked.  I quickly began to spread the word of an author who took fairy tales we all knew, and provided a deeper story to reveal characters who ethics and morals governed their choices to reveal inner worlds that no writer had attempted to explain.  Maguire's ability to provide fictional, historical reasoning for the characters we all think we know provides the reader with brilliant insights into good, evil, bad, nice, decent, and all the other lessons fairly tales are meant to teach us.  Liir (Son of a Witch) and Brrr (A Lion Among Men) are joined by a host of characters as the story of Oz continues.  Caught in a war between Ozians and Muchnkinlanders, two key elements become the object of desire on both sides, Liir (or Rain) and the Grimmerie.  Even when these two objects are attained, Maguire does not present one side as good and the other as evil, the reader is left simply to follow the choices of each character, wondering what will be the results in the end.  A magnificent ending to a tale that has taken over a decade of my life, and introduced me to an author whose skill I deeply admire and characters that are complex and change with every experience.


One thing I do find difficult about Maguire's writing is that he mixes the fantasy world of Oz with real life references.  At times this is confusing as the two world's are so entwined that a word, a reference, or sentence is at hard to understand as I wondered if I had missed a pop culture or historical reference, or if I was back in a space of fantasy.  This made reading this book more complicated but I learned to press onward and enjoyed these works.

The parts of the book I want to remember:

"Prophecy is dead, and conscience is dead too...If there's no good conscience to trust...no Lurline, no Ozma, no Unnamed God, no standard of goodness, then we have to manage for ourselves.  Maybe there's no central girl in some hall in the Emerald CIty, all bronzed and verdigrised, all windswept hair and upthrust naked breast, lots of bright honor carved in her blind and focused eyes.  No conscience like that, no reliable regula of goodness.  So it's up to us, each of us a part.  A patchwork conscience.  If we all make our own mistakes...we can all make amends too.  No one of us the final arbiter, but each of us capable of adding our little bit.  We're the patchwork conscience of Oz, us lot." p. 182


"The sweet accident of coincidence is the best foundation on which to build." p. 407


"She would make no plan but this: to move out into the world as a Bird might, and to perch on the edge of everything that could be known.  She would circle herself with water below and with sky above.  She would wait until there was no stink of Oz, no breath of it, no sight of it on any horizon no matter how high she climbed.  And then she would let go of the book, let it plunge into the mythical sea.


Live life without grasping for the magic of it.


Turn back, and find out what that was like; or turn forward, and learn something new." p. 563

View all my reviews

The Tao of Travel

The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road by Paul Theroux
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Just picked this up in the library and it is a GoodReads book of 2011.  Very cool!  I shall keep you abreast of my opinion.


My assessment of very cool turned into a disappointment that this is a book of quotes and quick verses on travel writing.  Had I not taken it out of the library I believe I would have enjoyed it more.  This is a book that you can pick up, open to a random page, then read quotes and snippets until you are ready to do something else.  As this was a 'return in three weeks' book, it did not suite my current reading requirements.  Perhaps with a personal copy, or a time when I need short bits of inspiration, but not right now.  I might like this book more another day.


View all my reviews

Flickr

Yep, I joined Flickr.  The thought has been in my head for a few years now but I wanted to investigate the site for a while.  I am adding my name to the really good pictures I post there and will only be posting my favourites of the one's I take.

T. Bates on Flickr

So far, it turns out a know a few people on the site and have started making new photography friends.  Here is the first of what I hope becomes many:

Beauty Surrounds You

Christoph Fischer on Flickr

Oh the rush, joy, fun and high of photography!

Twenty Twelve

Another year dawns and I am still alive and well.  This year there will include several milestones.  I leave my 30's in March and enter my 40's, which I hear are the new 20's.  Lucky me.  I want this year to be filled with a completed thesis of which I am proud, another graduation from University, a bit of travel, a bit of good conversation, a large amount of enjoyment.  Other than this, no New Year's resolutions as I want to live in the moment in which I am currently situated rather than looking too far forward or too far back.  The last decade has sped quickly by and I want the next one to be remembered moment by moment, embracing the good, difficult, painful, beautiful, thrilling and divine.  Here is to another year and completing those 39 new things I was to be doing since last March!

Enjoy a recent trip I took for a conference to Lake Louise, Alberta.
Ever capturing moments through a lens.
Enjoy the beginning of twenty-twelve.

Lake Louise, Alberta

The Edge of the Lake

The Sun Sets