21st Century Board Game

Showing my age .... it's a while since I've played Monopoly - these days all the players have a pre-loaded debit card; all the transactions are processed on a hand-held device; you get fined for being on the mobile phone in the car; and everything costs millions of dollars. You also collect $2m salary for passing Go. 
Back in the 70's, Old Kent Road cost £60! 

Numbers & Music

One of the features you can access when you've set up a blog is general statistics of who is looking at it.  For example, there are pageviews - which give you a graph of views per day/week/month - reminding me of the spikes on a medical chart; you can look at traffic sources - listed under referring URLs or referring sites [I can't fathom this one]; but my favourite is audience.  This week, the UK is showing as the third largest readership(!) after Russia and Canada, with one each from Australia, France, Cambodia, Netherlands and Serbia.

ជំរាបសួរ   Здраво

(hellos to the readers from Cambodia and Serbia - welcome all)

 

Here's another number; for 3 days and nights last week, this was the temperature in my room; that's how hot it has been, despite my ceiling fans whirring at their highest rpm!

 

 

 

Last Friday night found me in Southam Hall, in Ottawa's National Arts Centre.  I had been given free tickets to see Angela Hewitt who was playing two Mozart piano concertos (as well as some excerpts from Pelleas et Melisande by Sibelius).  The performance was being recorded by Hyperion Records.  She was entrancing to watch, just technically, apart from anything else.  The next morning, I spent half an hour reading some of her fascinating blog, giving a glimpse into the unusual world of a world-famous concert pianist.  Wonderful.  And I had to put a cardi on in the cool of the auditorium!



Outside Fran's Cottage



Boathouse and deck

Boathouse

Stairway from the lake up to the Cottage

The Ice-house

Cottage at Uppadabay

The campfire area with the wood-pile in the background



Things growing at the Cottage

 

Mostly Wakefield ....

Lunch at the café above the General Store



Fran looking floral outside Jamboree






Having an ice-cream from Sur la Lune



This young cyclist had stopped off for a dip ....



Fran's Cottage (Inside)

Sunset over Lac Bernard

 

Cottage cooking!

Fran being ably assisted by Kirsten ...

Views of [beautiful] Lac Bernard



This beaver is off to find breakfast ....



View of the lake from the boat-house dock/shower room!

This is the diving rock



View from the other side of the shower room!

Kayaking on Lac Philippe

Observant readers will notice that there isn't actually a kayak to be seen.   I wasn't idiotic enough to take the camera out, tucked into my life-vest, on my first time in a kayak - but it was fun, and exhilarating, and we actually made some progress when we took the rudder out of the water!  These photos give an idea of the facilities there are for swimmers, rowers and campers around the Lakes in Parc de la Gatineau.











 

"Les Bons Voisins" Cafe

A while back, I decided that as I had plenty of time on my hands I would find a regular activity where I could volunteer (in French).   Someone suggested ringing the local Centre Alimentaire.   So I did, and before my course began, I visited the café and was taught how to be in charge of the till.  Considering they didn't know me at all, this was a quite a leap of faith - letting a foreign stranger loose with their box of cash.

The Centre has been running for 25 years, and they operate various educational projects - for example, the 'seedling project' which helps youths grow fruit and vegetables and teaches them how to care for the plants.  There are collective gardens too (a bit like a group activity allotment, and the crop is divided according to family size).  The Food Centre also serves as a trial workplace for people who have challenges in finding employment.  There is also a food bank, a 'healthy meals' programme, a Christmas sharing store, support for low-income pregnant women,  a community transportation service, meals on wheels, collective kitchens (participants plan the recipes they'd like to prepare and then meet later for half a day of cooking in the Centre's kitchen -  they go home with various portions of healthy meals to share with their families for a dollar a serving). 

And then there's the café!  It is open from Monday to Friday lunchtimes, and offers a three course lunch to recipients of the Food Centre at a very reduced cost.  But it isn't just for attendees at the Food Centre; anyone can come in and have a meal - there are several regulars who come in and pay $5; still very cheap!  Today was my first 'solo' day and it wasn't very busy.  Apparently, that's typical the day after Canada Day.  I spent a very profitable two hours filling in the attendees form and taking the money, one of the employees at the Centre offered me some free tickets to two benefit concerts being held during July in Ottawa (one Haydn and cello and the other Mozart piano concertos - and how many tickets would I like?!).  Lastly, I spent a wonderful 20 mins chatting with the chef at the end of his shift.   He had spotted me knitting (for in between the customers coming in, I passed the time trying to catch up with some rows of the blanket) and we fell into a conversation [in French] about children and various other things.  He and his wife have an 18 month old son called Remi.  Before settling down, the chef spent two years working in France; a year in Aix-en-Provence when he was 22, and another in the Pyrenees when he was 27.  So we had a trip down memory lane talking about the Cours Mirabeau and the Stade Olympique in Marseille.  He also spent four months on an exploring/cruise vessel in the Arctic Circle cooking local fish (can't remember the name) and caribou which he told me is delicious.  He said next time we will have a cup of tea together, and he will ask me my views on having the Queen as Head of State in Canada (well, that won't take long)....

I pedalled away feeling very glad to be spending regular lunch-times there over the summer months, doing something useful.

In these shoes?

Most of my days, I live in the footwear on the left. (I couldn't confine myself to one colour: besides, Saturday was the $1 flip-flop sale at Old Navy)

But, in order not to lose all the habits of my former life, (and to keep in practice) I did bring some heels with me, and I wore them into town for my last day of the French course.   The blisters that I got after one morning have just healed ...

Evensong

On the evening of 29th June, Christ Church Aylmer Choir & Pizzicato Singers, along with the Peace Flame Drummers (the group in the front row of the photo) gave an evensong concert which included First Nations songs (eg from the Mi'kmaq, Cherokee and Ojibway people).  I greatly enjoyed the rehearsals and taking part, and was asked to do a reading.  There were some really talented musicians and soloists.  My landlady and her mum came; nice to have some support.  I made friends with the lovely lady in blue (on my right in the photo) and David, the musical director, is standing behind her.  So that's the group singing out of my system, now it's just me and the iPod when I'm out on my bike.

It's Canada Day! [1.7.13]

Waiting for the fireworks to begin

 

So worth the wait ...

It was, as they say over here, awesome.  Better than Hong Kong Harbour on NYE.