Christmas 2012

‘Tis the night before Christmas and mom’s in the shower, dad’s taking the recycle down to the basement with his walker and I’m sitting in the diminishing light of what was a beautiful cool day in Victoria.  Life always falls into a pleasant pattern when I’m here:  a slow morning; coffee and a chat with Barbara and Terry around 9; arrive at mom and dad’s around 10; do something and have lunch out; home for a rest for them and a walk somewhere along the ocean for me between about 2 and 4:30; a drink and snack with the news from 5 to 6; dinner, usually including a long discussion of matters we have talked of many times before and will never resolve; a look at one of my slide shows and then the drive back to Barbara and Terry’s in Vic. West for the night.  Today we are deviating a bit.  We stayed home this morning and did some preparations for tomorrow’s dinner.  We were going to go to B and T’s but B got a bad cold which she doesn’t want to share with the aged Ps, generous though she usually is, so we will have muted celebrations separately.  I went for a walk today and discovered what everyone knows; once you decide to collect something, you can’t stop.  Yesterday I had started a drift wood collection and today I couldn’t leave the beach without more wood.  I staggered back to the apartment, dripping in sweat and weighed down with unique bits of twisted flotsam.   It was almost 3:00.  I was supposed to Skype with the Pollocks and all the gang at their Christmas Eve dinner at 3:00pm my time, 6:00 theirs.  As mom and dad were still resting, I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and went out on the balcony.  The celebrations were hectic in Ottawa, so we just had a quick peek at each other and conveyed a few garbled wishes.   Mom woke up in time to see everyone on Skype and was amazed again.  Caroline’s hair looked really good, but she was wearing an apron.  Ella was wearing a dress her mother had bought her that I thought looked beautiful but she didn’t.  Next year she’ll choose her own dress.  I only saw part of Sadie.  Don looked great in his ‘iconic’ joker’s hat. Thomas was handsome beside him.  Mela looked festive and beautiful, as did Mara.  Albert as always kept the show on the road setting up the Skype.  I missed Gabe, but was happy to see the rest.

Now it’s 8:30 on Christmas night.  I slept last night on mom and dad’s couch.  Our day started at 8:00am with oranges and the opening of some gifts; then baked eggs and mini cinnamon buns and the opening of the big box from Jay.  That took ages as I read words out loud in Korean, much to mom and dad’s delight, but I didn’t understand any of them, so we had to open things and taste them to find out what they were.  There were some surprises, for mom and me.  Dad wouldn’t try those things on a bet.  Then we had small glasses of Korean/French instant, sweet and creamy coffee and talked about our gifts.  This was followed by a long phone call with Bill, Patrick and Marley.  Then we went for a drive by the water.  It was a warm but wild and windy day in Victoria.  I went out again for a walk while mom and dad had a rest.  It was invigorating walking along the beach in the blow.  I returned around 4 with another treasure of driftwood under my arm, my glasses so clouded with dried sea spray I could hardly see and my hair blown around in outrageous angles.  We were all starving, having eaten nothing since breakfast, so mom made a snack, for the second day in a row, of our favorite smoked oysters on soda crackers.  Dad and I opened a cold bottle of Okanagan white wine and mom had a Presbyterian beer.  This was followed by a left over Christmas dinner, Christmas cake and Stilton cheese and the usual chatter.  I am back in Vic. West where I am looking forward to having a read and an early night.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Ducks on the pond at Polson Park in Vernon, the day before I left for Vernon

Mom, Barbara, Terry, Dad and me after lunch at Kate's Place in the Oak Bay Beach Hotel 

Dad preparing to cut the Christmas beast.

Mom and dad behind a bewildering array of treats from Korea on Christmas morning

Matti and his son Burke, born Dec. 13, 2012

Dec. 15, 2012

I didn’t suffer from postpartum blues, but I think I have Jay to thank for that.  He was born after only 7 months, so I hardly experienced ‘prepartum’, and as he was in an incubator for the first 3 weeks after birth, I was too occupied going back and forth from Wakefield to the hospital in Ottawa to be aware of any let down.  But today I’m suffering from ‘post party’ blues.  I guess preparing for and throwing my 2^nd annual Christmas fete got me more wound up than I was aware of.  The evening was a success, and I was really happy to see so many of the people I’ve got to know and like in Vernon.  Everyone ate, drank and enjoyed each other’s company.  When there were only 4 good friends left, I finally sat down and started to eat, drink and be merry, a bit too much of all three, perhaps, but it was a good laugh.  The usual potion before bed, a pinch of salt, large glass of water and 2 ASAs, was less than effective.  When I awoke at 7:30 this morning, my head felt like a fog enveloped in an ache.  More ‘Life brand’ ASA and some nuked last night’s coffee finally ate through the ache, but the fog lingers. My hangover has manifested itself mostly in negativity.  Even though Mo and John helped me last night with many details, like coats, coffee, etc., I had myself close to tears remembering the pre and post party routines, chats and laughs that Jim and I used to have.  It was often my favorite part entertaining.  Living alone has many advantages, but I still miss Jim’s company, the comments he would have and his wording of them.  In the afternoon, I entertained myself for much longer than I usually do with my silent, one woman rant about how relentlessly pedantic and politically correct children’s t.v. is now.  This was sparked as it always is by the bit I watch on PBS as I program the PVR each day.  Today, in my delicate condition, I actually had to mute the sound as I did the programming.  I couldn’t bear the high-pitched righteous lessons being mouthed by the brightly colored creature on the screen.  I’m becoming dangerously intolerant. Imagine what I’d be like if I lived with kids who played ‘Angry Birds’ or listened to PSY Gangnam Style all day.  Actually, I might be better if that were the case.       

I’ve spent the entire day shuffling around doing clean up.  The house now looks pretty good, but I still feel muzzy.  Tonight I’m going to a local Glee Club production called ‘Across the Universe’.  I hope it’s as good as it’s supposed to be because the memory of pain is so fresh in my head it could be revived with one badly rendered Beatles’ song. 

Matti with his son, the newest member of the Boyce clan.  He still doesn't have a name.

Lindsay with her son.

Me skiing at Silver Star

with John and Mo

Dec. 5, 2012

Today I swam and had a sauna at the Vernon Rec. Centre where I met Lusia, my new Korean best friend.  This time I took her to the Bean Scene for coffee and our second lesson.  In spite of the fact that I couldn’t connect to the site that she had sent me for learning Korean, we had a good class and helped each other.  I am so far behind her that I’m sure she will benefit much more from the language exchange than I will, but I’ll be happy to learn ‘survival Korean.”  I got that expression from her; she says that her husband has, ‘survival English.’  I met their son Martin at 4:30 today for our first tutorial; he’s in grade 11 and seems to be a willing, if not overly eager student.  He told me that the move to Canada 4 years ago was based considerably on his desire to escape the stress of the Korean school system.  We worked on the basics of essay writing, and for our next class, he’s going to write a five, paragraph essay comparing Korean and Canadian societies and their educational systems as he has experienced them. 

All this working with Orientals has encouraged me to think about my stand on Canada’s position in relation to trade with China, Chinese takeovers of Canadian companies and the hiring of Chinese miners to work in BC mines.  It’s a complex issue, and I’ve been encouraged by Avaaz, of which I’m a member, and some of my friends to sign up against the takeover deals especially.  But I’m not sure.  Our economy needs the investment.  There is, of course, a difference between a take over by a private company and one by a state owned company.  It’s the latter that most people seem so worried about in the case of China, but we have eagerly accepted the same type of investment by Norwegian state owned companies.  It makes me wonder if we’re going back to the old days of William Randolf Hearst and the fear of the ‘yellow peril’.  I read a good article in the Globe a couple of Saturdays ago in which a book, China’s New Confucianism , by Daniel Bell was reviewed and the ideas in it discussed.   I don’t know enough about the subject to make any serious comment on it, but I was interested in the fact that he thinks that what is happening now in China presents the world with an alternative to Western Liberalism that is worth considering, given China’s vast population and consequent economic and political challenges.  Oh well, I’m not going to sign any ‘no truck or trade with the Chinese’ petitions yet. 

Now to the weather report.  I went cross- country skiing again on Monday at Silver Star.  It was sunny, and the downhill conditions even looked good.  There was a light layer of fresh white powder.  I talked with the Walkerton Van de Vyveres this week, and Cathy told me that Mark and David were both off hunting.  It’s black powder season there.  Yesterday, Jay sent me a photo taken with his iPhone of the snow in Incheon, and this afternoon I took a picture of a violet blooming in Vernon, a rather lonely little specimen, but none-the-less a violet in December.

Snow in Incheon

A violet in Vernon