As I type this, Jay, May and the girls are probably waking on the morning of their move.  Jay and May’s brother will be doing the heavy lifting, May will be running around finishing up the paper work and the girls will go home from school to a new apartment.  I hope it’s not as hot in Incheon as it is here today.  I enjoyed a slow morning finishing the Saturday ‘Globe and Mail’ over coffee.  I get it from Mo and John most Sunday nights when I’m there for dinner.  I was at the library when it opened at 10 to have the first of two classes there with Lucia’s kids.  I walked around downtown doing some shopping from noon until about 1:30 and came directly back to the cool dark house to spend the rest of the afternoon.  I’ve been hiking and biking with Mo and John lately; we meet at 8 and are home by noon.  It’s best to be either in doors or in the water between 12 and 6.  I water the cedars every other evening, open the windows when the sun goes down and turn on my new fan in whichever room I am.  I usually keep it running all night and turn it off in the morning, shut the windows when I get up and the blinds as the sun moves into the west.  It cools down to about 15c at night, so with this routine, the house stays comfortable. 

Last night the Vernon Film Club showed, ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist.’  I liked it.  The sets and sound track shifted back and forth from the glass offices and cool deals of Wall Street to the chaos and color of the streets and tea shops of Lahore.  The characters were also torn between these extremes.  The main character, Changez, was played very well by a British actor and rap singer whom I had never seen before, Riz Ahmed.  All the acting was good; the story was gripping and not without nuance.  I’d give it two thumbs up.  Hell, now that I can do it again, I’d give it two arms up. The preview was for a movie with Forest Whittaker called ‘The Butler’, which I will definitely go to.

Moving from movies to the more mundane, tomorrow I get a new toilet.  I’ve put up with my reluctant flusher for as long as I can.  Kristin, the woman who did most of the renovating of this house before Jim and I bought it has helped me with a few things lately, and tomorrow she will replace the toilet that hasn’t flushed properly since I moved in.  I can’t wait.  Even a retired person has enough to do without having to wait after flushing to make sure she doesn’t have to flush again.

Yesterday when I arrived home from biking and going to the market, there was a message from RBC saying that the $500.00 Can. in Korean won and $1,000.00 Can. in Chinese renminbi that I had ordered last week had arrived, so I walked downtown to pick them up.  They are now stashed in my secret hiding place awaiting the end of August, as am I.

Me standing in front of a corn field in the hat and dress I bought last year in Korea.  Jay thought the dress was corny, a house dress.  Perhaps it is.  I hadn't realized how bow legged it makes me look.

One of the mountain bikers in the competition that was going on at Silver Star when we hiked there last Sunday.

Burke Boyce and his bear.