Me, Molly, Friends, Ontario: A Week in Pictures

As many of you know, Molly is studying at the University of Western Ontario in London.  She is halfway through a Master's degree of Library and Information Sciences.  It has been a long winter so I flew out for a week-long visit during Spring Break.

Before I begin, let me brag about my firstborn child.  I am so incredibly proud of her.  She is brave, she is strong, she is smart, she is resilient, she is independent, she is powerful.  Just how I like 'em!

Molly the brave and powerful.

Here is my week in pictures.  With a few stories thrown in for good measure.

- 4 degrees Celcius may not seem that cold, but when you consider the windchill factor IT WAS BLOODY COLD!

Every time we stuck our noses out the door we had to bundle up against the wind and freezing temps!

 Molly and her room-mate Fazia decided on a 'minimalist' look for their apartment.  Meaning they have no furniture!  I dragged out Molly's wooden desk chair from her bedroom to use as a table and she went down to the laundry room to borrow her landlord's camp chairs for us to sit on.

The view from Molly's apartment.

The people of London have a long wait ahead of them for spring.

I have to be honest with you.  London, Ontario is not on my top 10 list of cities.  In fact, I found it rather depressing.  Lots of empty storefronts, crumbling buildings and litter.  This was the most interesting block of downtown I found.

That said, there were some nice spots.  Here is Saint Peter's Basilica...

...and Victoria Park...

...and of course I would find an overcrowded used bookstore utterly charming.  As I did this one.

Western's campus is starkly beautiful in the winter.

Ducks on the 'other' River Thames.

The sun came out for a couple of hours one day and it warmed up to a balmy -3 C!

As always, it is the people you meet that make one's travels memorable.  Case in point:  I grabbed some souvlaki for Molly from this diner one day at lunchtime.  The Greek man behind the counter struck up a conversation with me.  I told him I was visiting my daughter who was studying at Western.
Him:  Where are you from?
Me:  Vancouver.  But I now live in a small town halfway between Vancouver and Whistler.
Him:  Horseshoe Bay?
Me:  You know Vancouver?
Him:  I worked at 12th and Cambie for many years.
Me (laughing):  Then what are you doing here?
Him (shaking his head):  I moved to London 20 years ago.  Bad decision.  Bad decision.

He asked me if I would like fries with my souvlaki and I declined.  When my order was ready he handed me the souvlaki and said, "This is for later."  Then he handed me a small paper plate of french fries and said, "This is for now."

Lunch with Molly.  We needed a bigger table so we pressed my suitcase into service.

We spent the weekend with Squamish friends who now live in Toronto.  We stayed with Robin and Alex who live in a quaint house in Little Italy.

Molly has been best friends with Robin and Danielle since they were little girls.

It's impossible for me to pass up a hot dog stand.  IMPOSSIBLE I TELL YOU!

We ate some great meals in T.O.  I mean, who can resist fried chunks of Indian cheese deliciousness?  Not me!

We went to see their friend Andy Shauf perform as part of Canada Music Week.

Hipsters on the town.

We spent a morning at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  Such culture hounds.

Pondering life at the AGO.

This was my favourite installation.  And guess what it was called?  'Paris Salon' of course.

Well, who do we have here?  Only my baby doctor, Gabor Mate, who was with me and my midwife for the births of Paige and Will.

The girls kindly agreed to be my personal shoppers.  They spent three hours running around gathering clothes for me to try on.  Such good kids.  Check out the cropped pants that Danielle is holding up.  I think every kindergarten teacher needs a pair of pants with lobsters embroidered on them! 

Sunset over the rooftops in Little Italy.

Thanks Alex, Robin and Danielle for showing us such a good time in Toronto.  And a special thank you to Alex and Robin for graciously hosting us in your home.  It was wonderful to hang out with you 'kids'.  You are all amazing adults.

Back in London, I finally got to meet Molly's newest friend Courtney.  This girl had me laughing within minutes of meeting her. She is smart and sassy and HILARIOUS!

I am so happy these two are friends.

On my last day in London, the weather warmed up considerably.  The snow even melted!  Maybe spring was on its way after all.

Molly, you do your parents proud.

And THAT my friends was my week in Ontario.  I loved every minute of it.

Girlfriends

For my entire life I have been incredibly blessed to have wonderful friends.  From the time I entered kindergarten until now.  Many of the girlfriends I have today I had back in the '60s.  And many I have met along the way: in high school, university, the places I've lived and through my children.

The past 48 hours have brought me together with 3 of them.

To Diana, Fran and Julia: We may be separated by cities, provinces and countries, but nothing else.  When I'm with you it feels as if I just saw you yesterday; the intervening months and years seem to melt away.

Diana and I with my mom and her mother-in-law.  Diana and I were Grade One locker partners in 1964 and have been best buddies ever since.

Fran and I met in 1987 when our husbands were both graduate students at the University of Washington in Seattle.  Those three years were some of the best years of my life.

Julia and I met in 2005 when she and my daughter Molly were students at Simon Fraser University together.  She makes me laugh and I am in awe of her musical talent.

I cherish these women's friendship.  I am so lucky.

Synchronicity

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, yet are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described in this terminology by Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychologist, in the 1920s.


Back in September I wrote about having a home exchange opportunity in Taunton, Somerset drop into our laps entirely by 'chance'.  Or so I thought at the time.

You can read about it here:  http://cwm4.blogspot.ca/2012_09_01_archive.html

Since then there have been a few more synchronicity occurrences that have made me sit up and take notice.

Occurrence #1
A few weeks ago, I invited a student's family over to look at our hardwood floors.  They were considering hiring the same floor-layer we used and wanted to see his handiwork.  After a short tour of the house, we sat in Joe's Cafe drinking lattes discussing our upcoming summer trip to England.

The mom, Emma, noticed a book about Somerset sitting on our coffee table.  Without missing a beat she said, "I was born in Taunton."

"WHAT?!"  Both Joe and I said in unison. "THAT'S THE TOWN WHERE OUR HOME EXCHANGE IS!"

Occurrence #2
Last week a friend returned from a trip to Arizona.  She was in a high-end grocery store when she noticed packages of English butter on the shelves.  She couldn't believe it when she saw the butter was made in Taunton.  She bought a package of it for Joe and I.

Occurrence #3
I immediately posted a photo of the butter onto Jo's facebook page telling her the story.  She commented back saying, "My husband and I lived on Billet Street when we were first married."


I can hardly wait to experience more of these occurrences.  I find them fascinating!

CHA CHA CHA!

Friends of ours are dancers.  Real dancers.  Professional ballroom dancers.

They graciously invited us to join them in a night of dance lessons.

We gathered in their home for a sumptuous dinner, followed by a three hour dance lesson.  Not only that, Janice was dancing with a broken rib.  Talk about a trooper!

We started out learning the box step.  "Side together forward, side together back".  Pretty simple, right?  NOT FOR ME!  I had to watch my partner's feet for the first hour or so.  I felt like I was about 10 years old.  Then we had to close our eyes while we danced so that we could feel it, instead of think about it.

Men danced with men, women with women.  We danced with our spouses.  We danced with each other's spouses.

It goes without saying that we had a lot of fun.  Many laughs.  Many squashed toes.  (Sorry Joe.)

Thank you Janice and Kevin for opening your home to us and being so patient.  I promise we'll keep practising.  I can hardly wait for the next lesson!

Until next time, "Side together forward, side together back."

Goodness Jar Update

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of an empty jar, a small pad of paper and a pen.

Instead of making a New Year's resolution, I planned to write about all the good things that happened on a daily basis and place the notes in the jar.  The idea is to tip the jar over on December 31st and read of all the happy things that took place during 2013.

So far, I have added a slip of paper every single day.  Mind you, it has only been 18 days into this project.  I sure hope I can keep this up for another 347!  It is a great exercise to reflect on each day and realize how many good things, both big and small, happen in one's life.

Happy New Year!

"And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us,

                   New, untouched, full of things that have never been."          

                                                                                           Rainer Maria Rilke

We spent a lovely NYE with friends.  I just had to share this photo of their youngest cat batting around some ice cubes while we were enjoying a cocktail in the living room before dinner.

I had seen this idea floating around the pages of Facebook and Pinterest and it resonated with me.  It's called a 'Memory Jar'.  The premise is to write down the things that made you happy throughout the year and collect them in a jar.  On New Year's Eve empty the jar and read about all the wonderful things that happened to you in 2013.

I found this funky old jar (complete with air holes in the lid) that is perfect for the task.  And I already have 4 or 5 slips of paper in it!

Happy New Year everyone!  May 2013 be peaceful, loving and kind to all of us.