Merry Christmas!!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone that has a chance to look at my blog a very Merry Christmas!

It's a time for family, travelling and enjoying each others company.

Isn't that what happened over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem?
People travelled to be together, to enjoy each other's company, share in a meal (or libation) and be with family.

Remember: "Jesus is the reason for the season".
Cute I know, but it's something I think we forget about.

Last evening I attended the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert at the Air Canada Centre.
It was awesome.
If you don't know the TSO it's not the TSO you may associate with Toronto, it's a fusion rock orchestra that takes well known Bach or Brahms and literally blows it up. There are pyrotechnics and flames and lights and it's just WOW!
The first part of the concert is a narrated Christmas story.
It was really effective and made you really think about why we are here on this planet and what we should be doing with our lives.
The 13,000 + people in attendance thought it was pretty neat too. There was a real sense of quiet and calm at the end of the Christmas story. Very neat to experience.

This afternoon I am off, with The Mother, to the usual visit to Lambeth Ontario for the Christmas Family gathering. Christmas day is spent with 25 + other family members over turkey, and the fixings in a little hamlet of Shedden, just west of London. There is much coming and going and presents and wrapping paper and catching up (some cousins I only see once a year at this event). It's fun, intense and crazy all at the same time. The Mother has spent Christmas with this side of the family since the beginning of time (save for a couple I think) and this is tradition.
This is one of the things that Christmas is all about. Tradition and being with family.

The Man is working Christmas Day and Boxing day, as he has since time began so to give others the chance to be with their families. I think that's such an amazing thing to do and a really, really nice gesture. Our Christmas is a day later on. We decide on the day and we have our own traditions and our family (Ubu LOVES opening presents).

So from my families to yours I wish you the best of the season.
Merry Christmas!

The Silence of Snow

There is a certain silence in snow.
Profound?
Let me back track.

It's the week before Christmas and EVERYTHING is going crazy.
The people, the malls, the travellers, the communters.
You name it.
Just have a look around.
Everyone is frantic.

Then it snows.

Everything has to slow down, lest it run into, over or just down because of the speed at which is was going.
One little snowflake multiplied by a ka-zillion causes a bunch of humans (and animals too I suppose) to slow down.
Even stop (because the roads are closed for it's too dangerous to continue).
Then, with stopping, there's silence.

We walk slower because of the snow.
We still wonder at the fact that these little flakes of frozen water are descending from on high.
How we still test our breath to see how long it lasts in the cold air when it's snowing.
Though the wind blows, seemingly a little more fiercely, when it snows it's all quiet when it does.
A different kind of silence.

As I begin to imagine my tour for next year I am reminded that much of it might be in silence. I will have to road, music or what ever else I may use to occupy my brain while I travel. But this is a solo journey. Most of all it will be interesting to be in chosen silence.

Right now, most of my day is with noise. Lots of noise.
My job is noisy (walk down the hall of 6 Bond North during our lab operation hours and you'll know exactly what I mean).
The other techs and I tend to be noisy, recently it's be cause of the chocolate high we've been on because of Christmas treats.
Really, I've never been known to be a quiet one.
My commute is noisy. The bus is noisy, the people on the bus are noisy (mostly talking on phones) the subway is especially noisy. The downtown streets at rush hour are noisy.
What's it like to be quiet?
What is quiet, really?

Over the past couple of years I've been practicing (oh boy is it hard to practice sometimes) the art of being quiet.
Not having any music, the radio sports program I listen to when I get home, or the 680 news before bed and just being quiet. I'm doing something, like reading, a crossword puzzle or surfing the web but I'm quiet.
It gets hard to do sometimes. We seem to need noise in our lives. I'm not sure why.

Sometimes in the quiet I'm much more productive than when there is background noise.
Sometimes I'm tired so without any noise I go to sleep. Oh dear.

I'm so looking forward to hearing things that we'd consider part of silence. Like the flowing water sound of a creek in the mountains near Prague. Maybe the sound of a canal boat going down the river through Prague. Or the sound of the ocean moving against the piers in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Or my horse at the Three Bars Ranch taking me up a mountain side.

Those are all silences I hope to hear.

Quietly, on to the next....

Another Booking!

I now know where I'll be in part of September of 2011!

The Three Bars Guest Ranch outside of Cranbrook BC.

One of my bucket list things. Something I've always wanted to do.
Go to a dude ranch.
Don't really need to herd cattle, though that would be interesting to learn, but want to spend some time wandering in the moutains on horseback.
Always loved horses and love to ride.
Maybe because I was born in the city.
I love the moutains and horses and the outdoors.
This ranch offers it all.

As I read through the requirements and amenities I discovered that I need cowboy boots or something similar.
Well, if you know me, my body type just doesn't lend itself to cowboy boots.
Really!
Thanks to my inherited bow legs (thanks dad) and shortish stature (I'd love to think I'm 5'5" but know I'm not) the addition of cowboy boots is simply laughable so what to do.
Alas, Three Bars RENTS cowboy boots.
Phew!!
Yes, there will be pictures when the time comes but for now I leave with you the image of what it would look like. EEWWW.

Today is Saturday and I've taken a day off.
Really took a day off.
Worked on a few Christmas cards to send out but other than that not a whole lot.
Though rested I can't see doing this nothing part for very long.
Due to some bad weather coming in tonight The Man and I decided that I should stay in Toronto to attend a family dinner and not have to worry about trying to fight through a white out to get back.
Hence a day off.
I know a year is a long time. It's a lot of days.
But I also know that I need to have some things (many things?) lined up to do. Resting is nice every so often but I'm not going to let the days go to waste!


More later...

BOOKED!

Well ladies and gentlemen it's finally happened.

I'm booked!
I fly to Frankfurt on April 13th in the evening to catch the train to Prague. I should be there later in the afternoon on the 14th of April.
Then I fly back to Canada on the 30th of April.
This is something that been in the works for simply years.
Though I don't have the tickets in my hands yet, the agent is looking after all the logistics for me.
Wow.
That's all I can say at the moment.

Over the past few days I have been going through all the paper in my life.
It all started with a friend D wanting some binders for courses she teaches.
I have many binders. So many I didn't really know how many.
Oh dear!
It's amazing how much we do electronically and how much we didn't years ago.
So, I started going through the piles of documents, safely stored in binders in bins in the basement.
Some were 15 years old.
Oh dear.
After 4 recycling bags (the big ones) I have reduced my paper foot print significantly.
Now I'm thinking that I when I go away, I want to come home to a nice neat place.
I know some of you are laughing.
Neat?
Okay, so neat for me.
I'm not getting rid of some of my nicknacks. They all have meaning.
I have reduced them significantly though.
I'm proud of that.
The Man bugs me about that, especially since I "nicknacked" his entertainment centre with decorations last weekend. :-)

Christmas is coming. I don't usually decorate in Toronto much, save for a few lights and some bows and things on the blinds to jazz it up.
This year I've decided to do a little more as I don't know how long I'll be in here next Christmas, I may only be passing through on my way to another adventure.
I have my glass sleigh out, Christmas lights all over the place (in the kitchen too!) and the cactus plant has garland around it.
It's starting to snow outside, just lightly but that helps with the whole decorating mood.

As each milestone comes along I think that I might not be around in Ontario next year to see it.
What a feeling. Where will I be? What will I be doing?
At this point, who knows.
It will all come together.

Next booking is for Three Bars Ranch.
They are calling me back next week to confirm the time and duration I am selecting.
Again, it's all starting to come together.

My manager, K , saw me the other day and she said again how excited she is for me.
Seeing her joy and the support of my friends (thanks A for the suitcase, it's gonna be perfect, hmmm, wonder if it's been to Germany and the Czech Republic before) makes the planning all that more exciting.

There certainly is a sense of relief having the travel plans made more concrete.
Phew!

Off to find more decorations...