Category: canada

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Arrived

I finally got my suitcase Monday afternoon, I was sure my underwear would not appeal to Ms Quinn in New York, so now all is well in the mutual lingerie department. I am safely installed in Silver Spring with Jessica and her family.

My son and his family arrive tomorrow the 19th from Boston and will stay for 4 days, this year they will spend Christmas Day with his wife Adrienne’s family in the land of the Bean and the Cod where the Lowells talk only to Cabot’s and the Cabot’s talk only to God. So we will have our family Christmas on the 23rd.

On Monday we will be celebrating Hanukkah with Jessica’s husband Mike’s family, I have decided to forego Kwanza on the 26th but still need to make plans for 25 Jan. and the Chinese Lunar New Year which will probably be spent with my ex-wife’s Vietnamese-Canadian family in Vancouver.

Yes please post my recent effort to my web site and I look forward with great pleasure to finding an apartment in Kerrisdale and whiling away my days working on and sometimes redacting my paragraphs on my travels and the people I have met along the way.

Time to go admire my grandchildren in the bath.

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Walking around Kitsilano In The Morning

Feeling poorly and failing recently with my attempts to make an appointment with a doctor, they are not taking any new patients I looked up a nearby Walk In Clinic and strolled over being sure, since it was Saturday morning to get there at 09:00 when they open. 
When I arrived the young receptionist assured me that there was an open slot at 14:30and as I don’t yet have a government Medical Services Card, if a fee of C$125 was acceptable then I could walk back in at that time.

Currently the government sponsored medical insurance scheme costs C$37.75 a month. Next year there is no charge to users.




I opted to walk back on a quite street and encountered 5 young men who greeted me with good morning sir. Well I said I can tell by your accents that you are Irish, where are you from. Dublin they said, and I told them I am from Belfast and we chatted for a bit. I asked if they were moving here permanently but they said no they first had to return home to finish their university studies but they might move here as it is a beautiful city.

Saying goodbye I commended them for getting an early start to their day. 
Oh no they said we are walking home from last nights outing. 
So that merited a picture.

Made me feel cheerful about Ireland and maybe the world 



The main obligation is to amuse yourself. S. J Perelman
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Life Is What You Make It

He is frequently seated outside the Kitsilano Community Centre in a Vancouver suburb around noon. 

When passing I inquired as to how he had succeeded in life to the point where most mornings he was sitting in a comfortable chair in the sun having a cold beer while most other people are rushing past prisoners of their mobile phones.

After a minutes reflection he allowed it hadn’t always been easy, there had been some rough patches but he stuck with it and here he is.

He agreed that if I stop by again he will share some history on his accomplishment. 




Want what you have. 
Do what you can. 
Be who you are.