I have difficulty naming a favourite place.  While I know the choice doesn’t depend upon having seen the entire world, I am nonetheless aware of having confined my voyages to North America and Europe (and a bit of what is in between, including the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and two voyages by sea across the Atlantic Ocean). I say this not with remorse but rather as acknowledgement of the divine views which I have no doubt are otherwise attainable. We have friends living in New Zealand who have invited us to visit. There is little in my mind more exotic than the South Pacific. But it is not likely to happen.  Of greater likelihood – and of equal attraction – is a return jaunt to Sardegna where I have already frequented the north and south parts of the island. It has for me the allure of being remote (or perhaps I should say infrequent). There is as well – at least on the south coast – a Bohemian character which I like. Plus there is something staid about lingering in the airport in Rome just long enough to leave!

Continue reading →

The casualty of clean living is an early awakening. We saw the sunrise today at 6:20 am.  Following a violent wind last evening we were rewarded this morning with clear skies; and the temperature pointed to a high of 7°C. The air was dry. Though I am recovering from the disturbance of two flat tyres in as many days we mounted our bicycles and filtered onto our regular pathway.The early morning travellers included a parked rumbling truck, a dedicated young female jogger, an F-150 Ford truck and a gentleman walking his French bulldog Zoey. Portions of the road were finely glazed with ice but predominantly the pavement was dry.

Continue reading →

It is prescriptive that things will change. For some the transition is regrettable, essentially one from good to bad. There are naturally special circumstances surrounding such misfortune; and often others presume to tell you how to improve your life or even worse, how to return to the way things were. Rewinding the clock is one thing; going backwards in time is another. The only thing phelgmatic is the step ahead. In some respects every one of us has had to endure complication and crisis, things beyond mere ineluctability like old age.  Life is never a breeze. Hearkening back to what was and comparing it to what now is can be staggering – on either count, up or down. How did we get from there to here? What enchanting process is it by which we threaded the detail of the past to get to the woven fabric that is the present?

Continue reading →

Today marks the fulfillment of an agenda of objectives, three things I’ve had on my mind for the past many weeks. They are in truth things, no more than that, not ideas or plans or meetings, just things, things no more dignified than any others. Forgive me for appearing to be coy about what in particular the things are. The thesis and consequence that arises from the attainment of the objectives is the lesson, not the objectives (or things) themselves.  What after all does it matter in any event what the things are?  If I were to say one thing or another, the credibility is likely no different; and the magnetism of one thing or another is highly unlikely at least universally.  In any event, as I say, what matters is the outcrop of the so-called seeds that were planted. Clearly the episode has affected me both intellectually and emotionally. As someone who considers it is the little things that so often matter, I am provoked to analyze this tertiary dénouement.

Continue reading →

I am reminded today of the huge importance of certain relationships in my lifetime.  While I am tempted in a moment of gushing enthusiasm to embrace everyone with whom I’ve participated on any level (on the theory that it’s all good), my corresponding level of gin is thankfully not as high and I shall therefore sidestep the “I love you, Man!” proclamation for the entire universe for the time being. Instead I am presently mindful of those singular and refined associations which continue to percolate in my memory notwithstanding sometimes long periods of absence and silence.

Continue reading →

Yesterday morning when bicycling I became aware of what sounded like a flat back tyre. By the time I was returning home on Country Street it was more than a merely “noticeable” impediment.  Accordingly I stopped at the first corner and got off the bike to examine it closely.  It was indeed going flat but there was yet some air in it. I remounted the bike and attempted to cycle a further distance.  It was no use ignoring the dilemma any longer.  I walked the rest of the way home, clinging to the handlebars as I did so, thankful at least that I had the bike to hang onto.  Walking I knew was not my favourite exercise. This however was not the end of my punishment.

Continue reading →

Although it is flippantly posited that neither the past nor the future exists, that is a frightfully discreditable proposition during a pandemic when both the past and the future are very much alive in one’s mind. Everywhere around the globe people have been talking about this period (actually it’s March 11th) as the anniversary of the declaration of a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. After what for most of us has been a year of motionless endurance, a deeper question is beginning to surface from the usual slam of the past and hope for the future; namely, people are starting to question, “What if things don’t get back to normal soon?”

Continue reading →

As I am certain you know, it is often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I quite agree though perhaps not for the nutritional or medical reasons that are as regularly recited. Mine is rather a preference which combines social, psychological and cosmetic elements. Breakfast has for me the equivalence of a religious ceremony, an amalgam of zealousness, fastidiousness, piety and tradition. Its celestial nature is captured in its recognizable purification and overall uplifting character. He or she who is well and properly fed at the start of the day is ready to undertake the challenges of a devoted aspirant!

Continue reading →

The putative reason for going to Montréal was always something lofty like taking in the latest collection of an art show at the Musée des Beaux Arts on Sherbrooke St W.  The real reason was far more iniquitous; namely, eating, drinking and generally gallivanting. We assembled ourselves throughout the city. The younger members of our conventicle reunited with friends who fortuitously lived in central Montréal close to all the action, perhaps Westmount or Outremont; while we older members opted instead for the caretaking of the Four Seasons or the Ritz-Carlton on Sherbrooke St W where we were assured in addition proximity to our primary targets – other that is than the night clubs which always entailed a cab there and back. We preserved the time-honoured tradition of propriety during the day but rapidly dissolved into darkness at night!

Continue reading →

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Mass in C Minor (“Grosse Messe“) performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Bernstein is the stimulating ecclesiastical background to this morning’s gratifying breakfast of crisp green apple slices, creamy Suisse Normande ripened cheese on a toasted “Everything” baguette bagel and double-thick bacon. The music is the reward for our earlier brave and decidedly unique venture on bicycles along Country Street and back around the subdivision, in all 8.53 km over a space of 1 hour and 5 minutes. The temperature was about -10°C and a wind NW 14 km/hr. What better way to stoke an appetite and legitimize the indulgence of fat! Perhaps a smattering of maple butter too!

Continue reading →