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New Year

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Connecting the dots

January 7, 2021 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”.

Steve Jobs

Yes – it’s that time of year again. Time to look back at the good intentions that I enumerated in the equivalent post last January – ahead of the first year of the new decade – and to determine just how well or how badly we did in our efforts to accomplish them.

Now – I hardly need to point out that 2020 did not turn out the way that it was expected to – for anyone… so, when I look down last year’s list I really don’t expect very much to appear in the ‘tick-done’ column.

The first point of business on last year’s list was actually a reference to the fact that we were – at that point – pleased to be playing host to a very long-time friend (particularly of The Girl’s – they having done some of their growing up together in Kamloops) who had been in urgent need of somewhere to live. It was truly a delight to have her with us, as she was until well into the summer. She is now working in Vancouver and we are delighted that she found considerably better fortune as the year progressed.

I mentioned that I was teaching a new course – an introduction to Computer Science – about which I had been quite nervous. As things turned out it went a lot better than I had expected and I found myself rather enjoying it – in spite of the fact that the shutdown with which we were inflicted in March resulted in my having to teach the last three weeks of the course online. I taught again in the autumn – this time entirely online – for upwards of thirty environmental science students whom I never met face to face. Strange times.

I also mentioned last January that we were going to run away for a week in February to Mexico. This we did – and had a lovely re-charging break there – though the COVID-19 lock-down undid a fair bit of the good work that had been done shortly afterwards.

The pandemic has disrupted so many lives – in some cases, of course, tragically – and The Girl and I feel particularly blessed in that we have been affected way less than have many others. We are very fortunate in that our property here on the peninsula affords us a very benign environment in which to be locked-down. I found teaching online to be less of a challenge than I expected, though it did take a fair bit of work in terms of preparation. The Girl works pretty much exclusively from home and that works reasonably well also. She thought at one point that her new business would have to go into hibernation whilst the pandemic lasted, but meeting clients in video-conferences has proved more effective than she expected it to – and she has found herself with rather more work than she anticipated.

I professed the hope, in last year’s missive, that I might get the opportunity to do some more music-making with The Chanteuse. As regular readers will be aware, things turned out to be considerably better than we feared might be the case – and we contrived to record a whole new album purely working online. I will post more news on that front in just a few days from now.

Naturally all travel plans (post-Mexico) went out of the window, something that we don’t expect to see changing anytime soon.

I rather suspect that the companion post to this one – in which I look forward to the year ahead – will be considerably harder to write and probably also considerably shorter, as it is very difficult to tell how things are going to pan out over the coming months.

I will, however, do the best that I can.

 

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Here comes the rain again

January 3, 2021 in Life in BC | Permalink

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion

Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart

First things first… The Imperceptible Immigrant and the Kickass Canada Girl wish you all a (slightly belated) Happy New Year.

This Christmas period was always going to be an odd one, given that the necessary response to the pandemic was to curtail much habitual yuletide activity. We attended no gatherings of friends or family – we went to no Christmas-tide theatrical or musical events – we entertained no gatherings of like-minded souls for Christmas feasting.

In the circumstances perhaps the only Christmas-related activities in which we might have been expected to engage would have been the bracing and frequently blustery walks that we use at this time of year to help us counteract the expected surfeit of good cheer (too much food and drink!). Regular readers may recall that I normally take a camera with me on such jaunts – the resultant snaps featuring routinely within these postings.

This year – sadly – there have been no such expeditions. Not – I should hasten to add – for COVID-19 related reasons, but quite simply because for the last week (and more) it has not stopped raining…

…and raining – on occasion – in what can only be described as a biblical manner. Well – we do live on the we(s)t coast of Canada!

Bah!

Oh well – one really mustn’t grumble (no – really one mustn’t!). Things could be much, much worse – and at least we get to sleep in, cuddle up in front of the fire and watch old films and satirical reviews of the year (laugh? I nearly… er – didn’t!).

So – that’s all good then…

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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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Looking up

January 7, 2019 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward”

Charlotte Bronte

Okay! Here we are – a week into 2019 and how is it looking thus far?…  and let’s not have any of that negative thinking, “Doesn’t look any different to me!” sort of thing. Now is the time to accentuate the positive – or at least to look forward to the year ahead in the light of plans in the making and schemes being dreamt up. This is time of year for thinking outside the box – particularly if the box in question is quite such a tatty beat-up old thing as the one in which we currently appear to be stuck.

So here’s what The Girl and I are planning:

After a quick recuperative jaunt to Mexico for The Girl (I am otherwise engaged!) the start of the year will follow a familiar pattern… well, familiar in that it carries on where 2018 left off. The Girl works four days a week (when not gadding about south of the border) and has another three months of her course to complete before she is fully ready to strike out on her own. I have one more term of teaching at my post-secondary college – albeit on a slightly reduced timetable as enrollment is down. It may be that this turns out to be the last term that I will teach, but I have learned from long experience not to make definitive statements about such things. This unexpected return to work has certainly served its purpose and been a lot of fun in the process, so you will hear no complaints from me.

Once we are fully into the spring – however – everything changes. Come the middle of May we are heading for the UK and for Europe. This will be our first visit to those shores since leaving in 2015 so will definitely be a big deal. There are multitudes of family, friends and acquaintances to be visited, as well as places that we would love to see again and experiences that we will want to have. We end the trip with an expedition to Greece for a short recuperative cruise around the Greek islands.

Much, much more information about our jaunt will be forthcoming over the next few months, so – should you have an interest – watch this space. Let’s just hope that the country is still there when we get back!

Once back in BC in the middle of June there is much more to look forward to. At work The Girl steps down to a three day week and starts ramping up her new endeavour. “Bon chance“, say I!

Festival season will then rapidly be upon us and this year for me there will be an additional thespian enterprise to be anticipated. I came to the view at year end that it was high time that I made some theatre again. I have thus booked the Intrepid Theatre Club for two nights in October and I intend to stage one of my pieces there. At this point there is still much to be explored – much to be decided – but 2019 feels to me like the year to once again dip my toe in the water.

There will surely also be more music to be made this year. 2018 was particularly creative in this regard so I have high hopes. Further news on this front will also emerge as the year progresses.

There will doubtless also be other breathless things to anticipate but this would seem to be quite enough to be going on with for now. It is going to be a big year all round.

Let’s hope its a good one…

Let’s make it so!

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What the hell…

January 1, 2019 in Life as we know it | Permalink

…just happened?

2018 – that’s what!

The Girl and I spent a very low-key Hogmany last night, staying up barely long enough to greet the new year as it poked its head nervously around the door. Who can blame it? After 2018 was dragged from the room, kicking and complaining, punching the air with all of the self-possession of a drunk going down for the third time, 2019 was pushed and prodded into the limelight, most likely feeling anything but ready.

I am reminded of an occasion many years ago at the Edinburgh Festival. The Youth Theatre with which I was heavily involved had taken a show to the Fringe. Fighting – as ever – for any publicity we could get we had taken a late night slot at the Fringe Club to parade our wares. As we waited nervously in the wings – instruments at the ready – we could hear the previous act going down a storm. As soon as they finished there was a mass exodus from the hall, with hundreds of souls pouring out and heading for the bar. Nervously we tiptoed in. Magically the place was still packed to the rafters, with considerably drunk and extremely raucous revelers, all armed to the teeth with heckles! The less said about our performance the better, but as we left one of the young thespists turned to me and said:

“Don’t ever ask us to do that again!”

OK! So this is traditionally the point at which I look back at the outgoing year and summarise what has happened for us. Given that everything at the moment is overshadowed by the scary goings-on in the wider world it must be admitted that – though the year has thrown up more than a few surprises – we have done pretty well for ourselves.

2018 was always going to be the difficult year for us. When we did our retirement projections well before we left the UK we could see that there was going to be a financial dip, caused in part by the fact that my state pension does not kick in until part way through 2019. The collapse of the Sterling/CAD exchange rate that followed the Brexit vote made things worse, though being able to purchase ahead gave us something of a buffer up to this time last year.

It was clear that I was going to need to earn some extra monies to support our adopted lifestyle. By this time last year I had failed to find temporary or part-time work and it was not clear how I was going to do so. I was most fortunate to land the teaching contract that I did, and even more fortunate that I got another one for the autumn (Fall). With luck I may have another for the coming spring. Of course, none of this had been planned at our point of departure and I really had thought that my working days were over.

The Girl has had a difficult year at work as a result of changes to which I alluded in my equivalent report of this time last year. Change is never easy and as a species we tend to handle it poorly. She has persevered – something that is a most admirable strength of hers – and it does seem that the situation with her agency is now greatly improved. Fingers crossed.

She is not, however, one to sit back and to let things come to her. She has thus spent much of this last year planning her slow withdrawal from the world of work as she currently knows it. To this end she is undertaking a year’s course of study which will equip her to set up her own business, which will then gradually supercede her current role.

With regard to matters artistic it has also been a somewhat varied year. I got to teach a term’s worth of drama to a small but keen group of youngsters up here on the peninsula, but it rapidly became clear that there was no easy route to making this into something more permanent. My efforts in the realm of theatre have thus been primarily been devoted to wearing my Board of Directors’ hat for Intrepid Theatre. I have been able to spend a fair amount of time making music and I am hopeful that developments towards the year’s end might result in a further collaboration in the new year.

2018 afforded us little opportunity to travel aside from the excellent short trip that we made to Montreal during the spring. It is our intention that in this regard – as in many others – 2019 will be different.

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…looking forward

January 7, 2018 in Life as we know it | Permalink


"Janus"- watercolour (and photograph) by Tony GristAs I indicated in my last post there is good reason at this point not only to look back at the year just passed but also towards things already on the cards for 2018. All of a sudden a great deal is going on.

I have not posted any photos of our renovation since those I uploaded before we went to Mexico at the start of December. Much has happened. The floors have been laid, the kitchen cabinets installed, the bathroom floors and walls tiled, the trims and the baseboards installed and painted and various electrics second-fitted. The huge task of painting the walls throughout has also been started.

This week the countertops go in along with much of the bathroom equipment. We are approaching the end game. I have not posted photos because, once the floors were finished, everything was carefully covered to protect it from damage and things thus look less ‘done’ than they actually are.

Not long to wait though…

Now – when I retired and came to Canada I had no intention of working again. What I had not calculated for was the UK referendum on membership of the EU. Should the gentle reader wonder as to the connection the answer is simple: post-Brexit the Sterling/CAD exchange rate tanked and the two-year transfer deal that I had set up expired at Christmas. Since my State Pension does not kick in for another year there is a slightly uncomfortable gap.

I have – therefore – been looking for a part-time job to ensure that things remain comfortable. Furthermore, I have already found same. I will – as of this very week – be teaching Computer Literacy at a post-secondary college in Victoria. The contract is for a single term (though more teaching may be available later in the year) and essentially for two days a week. As far as I can ascertain at this stage this is pretty much the perfect setup. Let’s hope I have not forgotten how to do it!

In addition, it looks as though my ongoing attempts to get something started on the youth drama front might also be about to bear fruit. Fingers very much crossed that this is indeed the case – but I am most hopeful. It does mean that this will be a busy period, though.

That is no bad thing of course…

Whatever your own personal situation I hope that your 2018 has gotten off to a good start.

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Looking back…

January 4, 2018 in Life as we know it | Permalink

"Janus"- watercolour (and photograph) by Tony GristHerewith the promised 2017 update!

It feels as though a great many things happened over the last twelve months. The turn of the year feels like a pretty good time not only to take a retrospective glance at where we have got to but also – in an immediately succeeding post – to where we might be headed in 2018.

The Kickass Canada Girl’s job has occupied her greatly throughout the year and though much has been good about it it has not all been plain sailing. As is often the case with one’s employment, situations can change and not always for the better. The Girl is still tip-toeing around this particular evolution endeavouring to to determine exactly how it will effect her. It is very much her nature to start looking for alternatives when things are less than optimal, so keep an eye out for developments in 2018.

One of the great delights of the year was entertaining guests in our lovely home – both those traveling from the UK (two sets) and from elsewhere in BC. Being a new boy on the island I take great pleasure in showing off its delights to other newcomers and with the summer being really rather decent we had a splendid time both in our garden (yard) and out and about around Greater Victoria and the on island. I got to revisit Long Beach and Tofino, which is always a good thing, and we were able to dine out an impressive amount.

Further travel developments found me in December paying my first visit to Mexico. If you have not yet taken the opportunity to have a look at the photos that I posted herewith you would be most welcome so to do. I love the colours and the light, and the whole trip was a delight.

This has also been my first year on the board of Intrepid Theatre. Not only have I met a great many fascinating and inspiring new people but we have also experienced some really good theatre. It has definitely been a positive year on the arts front (as spectators at least) with theatre and music providing many splendid moments of enjoyment, emotion and thoughtfulness.

A major issue hinted at in previous year’s retrospectives has been our long-running legal battle with the vendor and realtor (estate agent) who sold us our house. I am much relieved to report that the matter has finally been settled (in the immediate aftermath of Christmas) though considerably less content to reveal that the settlement was for a significantly smaller sum than we believe it should have been. Having been obliged to sign a confidentiality clause I cannot reveal the terms, but I feel strongly moved to cavil at a legal process that makes it extremely difficult to get a fair settlement without investing a considerable sum of money (with no guarantee at all of any return) to push the matter through the courts. As it is the defendants have paid us a not inconsequential sum whilst still protesting that this does not admit any wrongdoing on their part. I leave the gentle reader to try to reconcile these two apparently antithetical positions.

The monies have, of course, been most welcome in support of what has been perhaps the major happening of the year – the extensive renovation of this house into a potentially exceptional home. Regular readers will have observed the pictures that I posted at the start of the summer, as we had the back of the house torn off and a wonderful new deck built. At the end of October the second phase commenced and The Girl and I became basement dwellers for duration as this extensive project has steadily inched nearer to its conclusion. More on that in the next post.

Well – that is goodbye to 2017. It always felt as though it were a transitional year somehow, and it still does.

2018 though… That’s a different matter!

 

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Happy New Year

January 1, 2018 in Life as we know it | Permalink

It has become a habit for me to post – usually upon New Year’s Eve – a bit of a retrospective on the year just passed. In such missives I am wont to muse in a suitably contemplative manner on the happenings – joyous or otherwise – of the previous twelve months, with a view to wrapping up that which is past and wishing it a tremulous farewell before gazing nervously ahead into the murk of the nascent year before us.

This year I have done none of this.

The reason is simple – there are things going on right now that are taking a fair bit of my attention and for which the outcomes will not be known for a few days yet. I will provide such a conspectus of 2017 – in a short while when things have settled!

In the meantime The Girl and I naturally wish you all a very Happy New Year – and hope fervently that 2018 eclipses 2017 in all the right ways.

Slàinte maith, h-uile latha, na chi ‘snach fhaic!
(Good health, every day, whether I see you or not!)

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