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Life as we know it

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All change

March 15, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Ooooooo-kay!

So – it has been most interesting – and not a little nervous making – watching the walls slowly pressing in towards us. This was not how it was meant to be.

I am of course referring to the ongoing and increasingly immediate COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

It has been hard enough watching the headless chickens (however much one might acknowledge their anxieties) stripping the stores of comestibles, but it is sometimes difficult not to roll one’s eyes. As reports filtered back to me of frantic hordes in Costco loading up their outsized trolleys with toilet paper and emptying the racks in the process I was eyeing up shelves groaning with said same items in our local store.

Of more immediate concern has been the situation at the College. There are but three weeks or so of this term remaining – and I do not teach in the summer term. As governments and authorities have taken each faltering and uncertain step towards total social isolation – shutdown in any other language – so the odds have been shrinking of us getting to the end of term without having to step back from classroom teaching.

Well – now that point has been reached. The College remains open but there is a ban on face to face teaching. What this means is that we have to find alternative methods of delivering classroom teaching materials, running lab sessions and assignments and of handling the all important examinations.

The College is well enough equipped with appropriate technology. We have a slightly eccentric but quite usable learning platform and tools for creating and disseminating distance learning materials. The issue is not with the technology. The problem is with the time and effort that must now be put into converting materials meant for face to face delivery in the lecture theatre to online only form. Given that I had still to finish the necessary items for the last few lectures of this new(ish) course anyway I now have double the work to do.

The likelihood is that not everything will run smoothly. Mistakes will be made. Things will go awry. As the students’ education is at stake – for which they have, of course, paid not insubstantial fees – such things matter.

Finger firmly crossed on all fronts? Here we go…!

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Back in harness

March 4, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“Happiness is not a horse, you cannot harness it.”

Russian Proverb

A glance at the postings to this journal containing the tag “February” will reveal but two entries – one on the subject of rugby (unsurprisingly) and one – from when we were still resident in the UK – which bemoans the grim nature of said month at a point at which I was obliged to travel a considerable distance to and from work in the dark each and every day.

This latter post contained this observation:

“February is definitely not my favourite month. To those who – like me – are struggling to rid themselves of their ‘winter overcoats’ in this post-Christmas period it will come as no surprise that February took its name from the Latin ‘februum’ – which means ‘purification’. The Roman purification ritual ‘Februa’ – a form of spring-cleaning for the body – was held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar. In my case there is still rather too much purification to be done, I fear.”

Well – the good news is that for this year February is done… over… gone! Here we are at the start of March, the blossom is starting to appear and there is a distinct whiff of spring in the air. “Hoo-bloomin’-rah for that”, I hear you exclaim. Given all of the other ills that currently beset the world a little hint of the positive can be no bad thing!

And, indeed, some things are looking up – and for that let us be grateful. The Girl is well on the way to full recovery from the sinus infection that did its best to take the shine off our recent Mexican sojourn – and has rejoined the world of work. My sniffles and snuffles have decided not to develop into a full-blown ‘thing‘ and if we are both fortunate neither of us will have passed anything unpleasant on to anyone else (washes hands yet again to strains of ‘Happy Birthday’! – not the Stevie Wonder version).

In other positive news The Chanteuse, the Studio and I have been reunited for the first time since last August and work of a musical variety has been carried out. She is still going through some tough times but hopefully this will prove at least a little bit therapeutic. It will hopefully also provide us shortly with some sparkly new tracks to upload to our Bandcamp site, to which the gentle reader could subscribe should he or she care to be notified when said new songs are available.

Anyway – for all our sakes let us hope that the spring is not long coming, that plagues and pestilence are taken on and defeated in short order, that those of all persuasions who would simply ravage this poor planet for their own selfish ends are taken outside and given a damned good thrashing – and that the rest of us get on with making the world a better, more peaceful and more pleasant place to live.

See you there!

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Equal and opposite

February 27, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Newton’s third law of motion

There are some – particularly amongst those who feel compelled to seek correspondence between their understanding of science (such as it maybe) and their religious beliefs – to seize upon the encapsulation of scientific principles and – by treating them as apothegms – to claim that therein lies the justification/basis for some scarcely connected spiritual practice.

Such folk take – for example – Newton’s third law of motion (“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”) and find a parallel with the Hindu and Buddhist concepts of ‘karma’ – and in particular the idea that one’s fate or destiny is shaped by one’s previous actions.

Now – I have no truck with such notions… except where they afford me with a cheap headline for a blog post.

Such as the one above…

Naturally I also vigorously reject any suggestion that – in The Girl’s case – our cheeky week in sunny Zihuatanejo was repaid by the universe by her going down with a sinus infection the very second that our feet hit the ground back at Victoria International (YJJ). I am sure that all gentle readers out there in InterWebNetLand will join me in saying a heartfelt “There, there” and sending empathetic and positive vibes for a speedy recovery.

Falling ill on immediate return from a holiday is a double edged sword. Not only does one feel terrible – with the contrast to the recent relaxing and sun-drenched delights only rendering the agony yet more palpable – but being off work the moment that one has returned tends to increase the antipathy of one’s colleagues – particularly those that did not themselves recently get away somewhere lovely and warm. Hardly fair given the fact that one is not simply swanning around at home having a gay old time of it!

Of course, the fact that spring has not yet fully sprung here in BC and that this particularly wet start to the year shows no signs of being any less so in the immediate future does little to help.

It is frankly about time that things perked up here!

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Being bad

February 8, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

‘Aging’ has been bad ever since we figured out it led to dying.

Erin McKean

Yup – growing old is no fun at all… as the saying goes.

Actually – it doesn’t, since if you sell your soul to Google in (pretty poor) exchange for some gobbets of insight all you will find on the subject are remorselessly positive platitudes… as though the ‘quoterati’ run scared of being seen to be ageing anything other than gracefully and with an abundance of hard-earned wisdom – rather than having the tough time of it that some of them undoubtedly are…

…but I really mustn’t sound bitter – because I am not. I am in fact surfing the age-wave like a… like a… surfer ‘dude’!

Hmmm! That didn’t turn out so well, did it?

Anyway – ageing does actually have much to recommend it and I am not complaining… except for the physical aspects. There is sadly no denying that – whatever one does – as the body ages bits of it work less well than once they did.

This is currently foremost in my mind because I have just restarted the fitness class that I have been attending pretty much ever since we came to Canada some four and a half years ago. The class is very popular and I could not get a place for the December or January sessions. What with the Christmas celebrations falling in the interim it has been a while since I put the old ‘bod’ under this degree of stress… and it shows. I have – if I am being honest – never much enjoyed the business of exercise itself – not being one of those odd folk that relishes pain – but I do like the feeling of being reasonably fit. It will take a good few weeks to get back to that point.

There is no avoiding the fact that my body now has a few weaknesses. My right knee starts to complain under repeated stress; my doctor thinking that arthritis is the most likely cause. My right shoulder gives up earlier than my left when working with weights; I know from previous explorations that the shoulder joint does have some bone impingement, which doesn’t help.

I am fortunate in that my hands are not too bad. In the winter I do wake up to find them uncomfortably stiff and it takes a while for things to loosen up, but I guess that just comes with age. I need to be able to continue playing both bass and keyboards for as long as possible, so I am keeping my fingers (ever so slightly painfully) crossed.

No grumbles though. This is just the way the cookie crumbles as one maneuvers oneself into the second half of one’s seventh decade.

There are many far worse off than am I – and I am most grateful not to be in their shoes.

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Tone

February 2, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

I find myself taken aback by just how upset I am at the point of the UK leaving the EU.

I am not going to say anything more (just now) as to the rights/wrongs/inadvisability/sheer stupidity of this particular turn of events – feeling it appropriate to let things take their course for now and to try to keep just the tiniest bit of an open mind as to the likelihood of the current administration actually managing to make a decent fist of things… or at least to not cock things up so badly as to render them un-fixable. I must admit, however, that on their track record thus far the portents are not propitious.

I am quite capable of keeping my sadness and gloom to myself and not burdening others with them and I reluctantly accept that a certain amount of triumphalism by those who are never going to know better is inevitable. There are some things that are, however, simply unacceptable – and this is one of them:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/02/norwich-anti-racism-protest-brexit-day-poster

I cannot begin to get my mind around the sort of thinking that would persuade a fellow member of my nation that it was in any way at all acceptable to even entertain such thoughts, let alone to try to advertise them to or to force them upon other human beings. The sort of crude exceptionalism that this represents can sadly be once again found in other parts of the western world and all such examples carry most regrettable resonances of a regime from darker and more dangerous times.

So – in the interests of keeping the tone appropriately light – I leave the gentle reader with an extract from J. M. Barrie’s ‘Peter and Wendy‘. The current UK Prime Minister in particular should have good reason for bearing its relevance in mind.

“But above all he retained the passion for good form.

Good form! However much he may have degenerated, he still knew that this is all that really matters.

From far within him he heard a creaking as of rusty portals, and through them came a stern tap-tap-tap, like hammering in the night when one cannot sleep. ‘Have you been good form to-day?’ was their eternal question.

‘Fame, fame, that glittering bauble, it is mine,’ he cried.

‘Is it quite good form to be distinguished at anything?’ the tap-tap from his school replied.

‘I am the only man whom Barbecue feared,’ he urged; ‘and Flint himself feared Barbecue.’

‘Barbecue, Flint—what house?’ came the cutting retort.

Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad form to think about good form?”

.

.

.

“If Smee was lovable, what was it that made him so? A terrible answer suddenly presented itself: ‘Good form?’

Had the bo’sun good form without knowing it, which is the best form of all?

He remembered that you have to prove you don’t know you have it before you are eligible for Pop.”

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Looking ahead

January 30, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“Remember, the thing you strive for isn’t perfection; it’s not the easy win or the avoidance of failure. It’s the gift of growth, the opportunity for evolution. Life in a box is not life well lived.”

Jonathan Fields

It may seem a little odd to be posting my regular “What’s in the year ahead?” piece when a twelfth of the year has already slipped away, but the start of this particular one has been a little odd.

For the Kickass Canada Girl and I 2019 was always going to be a tough act to follow. Our first trip back to the UK and Europe since moving to Canada turned out to be a huge production, full of joyful memories and exquisite moments. The rest of the year seemed also to be filled with milestones, be they connected to the completion of The Girl’s studies and launch of her new venture or in relation to my own creative and educational ventures. It was always fairly likely that 2020 would start with a period of entrenchment, during which time we figured out what it all meant.

The start of the year has delivered another unexpected quirk in that it finds us acting as hosts to a ‘waif and stray’; providing temporary refuge for a very old friend of The Girl’s who is in need of a home in the short term. We feel most blessed that we are equipped – in our lovely North Saanich home – to offer shelter to those who need it (and – no! – I am not referring to the ginger prince and his missus!).

I am teaching again, but this time a course that is all new to me… or would be did it not contain many elements that I myself studied when I was at college back in the early 1970s. Funny how what goes around… etc, etc. I was, frankly, not expecting to enjoy teaching this course. Naturally I find myself doing so quite considerably. Sigh!

As for the year ahead… We are taking the opportunity of the College’s ‘reading week’ in February to run away to Mexico for a little sunshine, rest and relaxation. We are going to Zihuatanejo – which name will resonate with fans of ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘ (and which was, of course, actually filmed elsewhere).

No major trips this year but we will probably head for the interior of BC. It has been a while since we visited folk there and one such is undoubtedly due. We are also hoping that we will be entertaining more visitors from the UK during the summer. The more the merrier as far as we are concerned.

One lesson that we have had to re-learn of late is that all good things take longer to effect than one might expect. The Girl’s new enterprise is slowly gathering momentum, but we constantly underestimate how much effort is involved in getting anything this significant off the ground.

I will certainly be aiming to indulge my creative propensities in matters musical this year. Having reached a small milestone in getting some tracks online last autumn the Chanteuse and I had intended to finish off that collection of songs and move on from there. Our efforts have been delayed by a sad and most unfortunate run of family setbacks on her part. Hopefully having the chance to get back to some music-making whenever it becomes possible will do a tiny bit to help normalise things for her.

However the year turns out (and we are expecting it to be a good one) we know that we live a blessed life and that our primary response should be – as ever – much gratitude.

As for the rest of the world?… Sadly – who can tell?

 

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Loafing with intent

January 6, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“Review your work. You will find, if you are honest, that 90% of the trouble is traceable to loafing.”

Ford Frick

It has become my habit at this time of the year to post two missives: one in which I look back over the year just ended/ending and one in which I look forward to the year ahead. If I draw a comparison to the equivalent exercise from the previous new year then it is possible to gain some perspective as to the progress that has – or has not – been made over the preceding twelve months.

Without further ado…

Last year I outlined our plans for 2019 thus:

  • The Girl was going to take a brief break in Mexico during January, to recharge her batteries with a little sun-filled R & R.
  • I would not be able to accompany her because I was just starting my third term teaching computer literacy to post-secondary students. I was open to the prospect of teaching two terms – the Winter (‘Spring’ to us optimistic Brits) and Fall (Michaelmas to ‘public school’ types) terms during the year.
  • The main event of the year would be our first trip back to the UK since moving to Canada, which would take place during May and June, followed by a little recuperative diversion to the Greek islands for afters.
  • The Girl was going to step back somewhat from her current job – dropping from four days a week to three – instead putting more of her time into her new venture.
  • I was hopeful that I would be able to mount a theatrical production in the autumn and that I would also have time to expand my music making endeavours.
  • We naturally hoped that we would have a good year – a good summer – and that we would spend much time with friends and dear ones enjoying this beautiful corner of the world.

How did we get on?

Well – the trip to Europe was undoubtedly the highlight of the year. It was lovely to see everyone again and indeed to enjoy re-unions with those whom I (in particular) had not seen for decades. I wrote extensively about the trip in these pages at the time – as well as uploading many, many photographs of the expedition – so I will not repeat myself here. Should such things tickle your fancy there are several month’s worth of postings about the trip starting in mid-May.

On our return to Victoria The Girl duly reduced her days at the coalface and – having earlier in the year most successfully finished her studies (‘hooray’ for The Girl!) – set about getting her new concern on the road. Good progress has been made but – as is ever the way with these things – it all takes longer than one expects. This year’s intentions will doubtless feature further thoughts along these lines.

I duly completed my fourth term teaching just before Christmas, a task to which was added some student project supervision during the spring. Seems that College are at the moment still keen to avail themselves of my services, so more of that also in the new year’s aims.

I did not get to stage my play! Not for want of trying… I put a fair bit of effort into rewrites and setting up a website and suchlike – and then set out to try to find some eager souls who might be persuaded to apply their time and talent to the enterprise. At that point things faltered. I met a good number of interesting folk and pursued a fair number of leads – but at the end of the day found myself cast-less and unable to proceed. It is clearly just not the right time for this particular project to happen and I must thus be patient.

My musical efforts – on the other hand – went from strength to strength and I found myself unable to stop writing songs. No sooner that I had finished recording one than another idea popped into my head. I was greatly assisted in these efforts by the Chanteuse of whom I wrote back in April. Our recording efforts continued apace throughout the year and will – I am sure – also feature strongly in the prospects for the new decade. We were finally able to get some of our creations online and thus available for any who wish to investigate further. They may be found on Bandcamp at:

https://anamdanu.bandcamp.com

Do sign up as a follower on our Bandcamp site if you would like to be informed of new developments as they occur.

The alert reader may have noticed a lack of anything boat-related in last year’s summary. The good ship Dignity suffered the in-dignity of having her main canopy split by the weight of snow upon it in the weather that featured strongly in my February postings. I suffered the indignity of trying and failing throughout the year to get a replacement made – or indeed to recover my deposit from the bounders who failed miserably so to do. I would name and shame them but I suspect that, if they have not already gone out of business, it is a matter of but a short while until they do. Hopefully a new canopy will be forthcoming this month from another source.

We had – as ever – many other wonderful days and experiences throughout the year and we continue to thoroughly enjoy living in this lovely place. It has been difficult – even in this Eden – to avoid one’s mood being affected by the troubles and tribulations that are being experienced in so many parts of the world right now. We can only hope and pray that the new decade will put the old one to shame – in these respects in particular – and that a new, more generous, caring and considerate consensus may eventually emerge.

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Turn of the decade

January 2, 2020 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Just as we did at the same time last year we approached the portal to the new year yester-eve with considerable trepidation, stuck our heads nervously around the door before tiptoeing through with extreme caution into yet further uncharted territory…

‘Unwritten’ indeed – and given recent history our ability to compose and to craft a coherent script for the New Year – let alone for the new decade – would seem at this point to be somewhat in doubt.

Personally I have never been much of a one for celebrating the New Year, preferring instead to raise a glass and to proffer a small ‘huzzah’ in grateful acknowledgement of our having survived the one that has but recently expired.

Let us now, however, be optimistic and to imagine that this year – this decade – many wrongs will be righted, that many false steps and unwise choices will be revoked and that the peoples of this fragile planet might start – by taking in the first instance small and tremulous steps – to heal the ills of the world.

But let us also be mindful that things may well get worse before they improve and take accordingly the necessary and serious precautions that might facilitate any actions required to set things right.

Cheering the birth of a new year is a heavy responsibility. Cheering that of a new decade is many, many times more so.

With this in mind The Kickass Canada Girl and The Imperceptible Immigrant wish you the very best possible new year and – of course – new decade.

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It’s not too late!

December 11, 2019 in Life as we know it | Permalink

I have tried very hard (Oh – how I have tried…!) not to write anything about the UK general election, voting for which will be underway before many get to read this post.

This, however, must be said:

I am shocked at the numbers of people who are apparently intending to vote for the Tory party as led by Boris Johnson.

Their reasons for so doing can have little to do with policy. Aside from Brexit the Tories have done their best to be as vague as possible when it comes to any detail that they may wish later to disown. Further, even the most rabid of Brexiteers must be aware that promises that all will be rapidly over and done are also not worth the paper they are printed on. The process will inevitably drag on for years whatever course it takes.

No – the real worry is that potential Tory voters are doing so for one of two reasons… they either like the idea of a full term of Johnson’s ‘leadership’, or they simply can’t abide the notion of a Jeremy Corbyn administration.

I must entreat any such folk to consider most carefully… before it is too late!

Can you really elect as leader of such a distinguished sovereign country a man who is an habitual liar – fired at least twice for being so – a serial philanderer – a blaggard, cad and bounder of the first order – a man of no apparent principle who appears not even to be interested in the responsibilities of the office, rather just desirous of holding it… or even just of having held it. A man who will do and say anything to get what he wants. A man whose vaunted Brexit deal is not only worse that the one that was previously voted down repeatedly, but also contains elements that he himself previously opined that no prime minister could possibly accept. A man who illegally prorogued parliament to try to stifle debate, who lied to Her Majesty the Queen… and on, and on, and on…

This is the man who would be trusted to ‘get things done’?

Those inclined to take a chance on such insincere and mischievous populism should take a long hard look across the Atlantic at the reputational damage that is being done to the USA (which is at least yet a superpower) by the Orange One – and wonder how Britain (which is not) might survive five years of such fifth-rate reality-show shenanigans.

To those who complain that a Corbyn alternative would be worse I say simply this: Corbyn is not going to win a majority whatever happens. Under certain circumstances he could just find himself at the head of a minority government. In such a case he would not be able to carry out those policies that some might fear and could in any case be removed in a subsequent vote – probably sooner rather than later.

This option has to be better than the Johnson alternative. It has to be!

It is not too late! If you are in the UK get out and vote. This is one occasion on which it is ok to vote against rather than for something…

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Altamont at 50

December 5, 2019 in Life as we know it | Permalink

I remember just how startled I was when I first watched the Maysles brothers’ 1970 documentary on the Rolling Stones 1969 tour of the USA – ‘Gimme Shelter‘ – the which culminated on December 6th of that year with the hubristic free concert at the Altamont Speedway outside San Francisco. I don’t remember exactly when it was that I saw the movie for the first time, but I have watched it many times since.

Now – I never was a great fan of the Stones, though I do get a little of what the fuss is all about. I have only seen them live once – pre-millennium at the old Wembley Stadium in London. I recall being fascinated by Jagger’s ability to control an audience but otherwise being generally somewhat under-whelmed. The best thing they did that day was a cover of ‘Like a Rolling Stone‘.

I do think – however – that ‘Gimme Shelter‘ is a classic song and would be up there on my all-time best list.

I can’t deny that there is a fascination with that particular period in their – and our – history. I have read pretty much all that there is to read on Altamont – from Stanley Booth, Joel Selvin, Saul Austerlitz et al. There has for a long time now been much talk about the event being the antithesis of Woodstock – the end of the 60s – the death of the hippie dream and suchlike, but the main thing that I get from the inevitable golden-anniversary musings is that no-one is really at all clear as to the true meaning – should there be one – of this peripeteia.

I have a fascination for those turning points of history, regardless of the age from which they hail. They are frequently associated (probably understandably) with some form of a loss of innocence – though, given our long and ignominious history, how we as a species can yet manage to hang on to any shred of innocence is beyond me.

Fifty years – seems a good time to reflect on all such that has occurred.

Fifty years?! Where did that go?

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