Friday, February 22, 2013

Unforgettable


I’ve talked about my mum in a number of my past blogs, but last night as I cooked dinner I was listening to Jazz from the UK – don’t you just love Internet radio (thanks Apple TV!).  

Anyway, as I prepared my world famous (okay, in my world only) Tuscan Ragu and sipped on my glass of wine, one minute I was cooking and the next I had been transported back to my childhood in a way only a couple of things in life can.  It took me a few moments to come around and register but it was the song that was playing....

Nat King Cole's Unforgettable album - just like the
one we had at home growing up
 
I guess I’m no different that anyone else but I’ve always been quite sensitive to smells and sounds and the memories that they bring back to me.  Standing there stirring my Ragu I was thinking back some 40 years…

Growing up mum had an old fashioned record player (turntable), which to be honest wasn’t that long ago :-), anyway she had a few favorite records that she would play over and over….did I say over and over?   Anyway, one of those was Nat King Coles album, which included one of his signature songs - “Unforgettable”.   I’m not sure if it was the tone of his voice or the words but they’re stuck in my memory – to this day!

I couldn’t remember exactly when I’d last heard the song but it was truly fascinating how quickly it took to me back to my childhood – a split second was all it took!      

I can still see the scene in my minds eye – arriving home from school, walking up the path from the garage and hearing the music playing.  The usual scenario would find mum sitting at the kitchen table, cigarette in hand surrounded by a cloud of smoke, which filled the room.  More often than not mum would be in one of her melancholy moods, and I’d learned early on when this was the case it was best to give her a wide berth.   Time to head outside, do my chores and generally keep out of her way as much as possible. 

It’s fascinating that just the sound of a song can take you back all those years in the blink of an eye.

Another recent episode occurred last November when I was in London (UK) on business, I’d decided to go a couple of days early to carry out some research on Grandfather Conolly.

St Pancreas New Church on the south side of
Euston Road, London
As you know if you’ve been reading my prior blogs, Grandfather Conolly had been born in Islington (North London) in 1889, emigrated to Australia, married, started a family then enlisted in the Australian Army (First Australian Imperial Force - AIF) and fought in France during the Great War from 1916 – 1918.  Given that I was in London I thought it would be a nice touch to attend the early morning Remembrance Day service in his memory.  After learning a little more about him I chose a church close to where he grew up. 

Arriving a little early on that crisp November morning I stood on the steps of the St Pancreas New Church on Euston Road, taking in the scene around me, trying to imagine what it must have been like when he lived in this neighborhood and roamed these familiar streets some 100 years before my visit.  I’m sure this would have been very familiar ground for him during his formative years.

I wasn’t prepared for the chilly morning air, fortunately for me the sun filled a cloudless sky and gave off just enough warmth so that I wasn’t completely shivering but it was a close thing J (clearly I need to toughen up!). 

Before long others began congregating on the steps around me – which helped in the warmth department.  We all watched the proceedings unfold with some interest as the military cadets began drilling and preparing for the upcoming service on the footpath in front of the church – lots of flags, a little marching (I think this was to keep warm), quite a bit of saluting and generally forming up into their ranks.   It was fascinating given that they were mostly teenagers.

Shortly before the service was scheduled to begin we were ushered quietly into the church.   As soon I stepped into the church that November morning I was struck with a truly pungent and musty smell that was almost overpowering, and completely unexpected.  In that instant I was once again firmly rooted in my childhood – there I was as a 10 year old in the old Clunes library attending Tuesday night Youth Club with a half dozen other kids – I could see the scene as clear as a bell just by the smell.  

Old Clunes Library where I attended
Tuesday night Youth Club in the 1960's (Australia)
The old Clunes library building had been built in 1874 when the town was a “going concern” primarily because of the gold mining operations underway at the Port Phillip mine in North Clunes.   However, by the 1960’s both the town and the old library were in a state of deep disrepair.   

Conversely the St Pancreas New Church had been built in 1820 and had served as a local landmark for almost two hundred years.

Yet, here I was half way around the world only to discover that the St Pancreas New Church smelled exactly the same as the old Clunes library from my childhood. 

How was this possible I thought to myself when I came around after my brief memory lapse?   I looked around the vast space – the service was well attended.  The church itself was seemingly well used yet here was the very same smell.   The contrast was enormous!

Whatever it was, it had the same overpowering affect on my senses as did the song last night.  

Its spawned a thousand questions for me today - What was it about these ones that make them stand out?   What will the anchor smells and sounds for Zach and Sami?   Does everyone else have the same level of connectedness to sounds and smells from their childhood? …

All day I’ve been trying to piece together the connections in my mind, those déjà vu moments, the sounds and smells from my childhood and why such strong memories to those specific and singular things vs. the thousands of other more eventful or poignant moments growing up.  

I suppose you can put it down to the “human condition” and what makes us all unique, but what really boggles my mind is the speed and distance it can take you - a true time machine within each of us!



Friday, February 15, 2013

Just Breath


I just had to escape the grey…I could feel it building all week.  Perhaps its just this time of year, perhaps its my personal psychological state.   Hence, I’m writing this week’s blog from California.   Clearly I must have been an explorer in a former life, because as you know from my former blogs its one of my favorite things to do.   

Actually, my real goal is to head up the coast from Los Angeles to a place called Ventura where I'm spending the weekend.  I’m sure you’re thinking why Ventura?   No reason to be honest, I literally drew a circle of about an hours drive around LA and given that I wanted the beach - up came Ventura (San Buenaventura is the official name)

The bigger question is why am I fleeing to the west coast for the weekend?


California sun and palms!
I’ve been in a somewhat reflective mood this past week and I fear it’s more that just the February blues that have been toying dutifully with my emotions.   No, my blues are a combination of things, some almost inconsequential others not so much, but that coupled with cold, damp and frosty weather in Toronto is a sure blend for me to want to seek sunnier skies and warmer climes.   

This week we celebrated Valentines Day!   Hey, for the majority of the western world (yes, I know it’s a made up holiday to help retailers after Christmas recoup some cash – thats my story and I'm sticking to it!), but being single on Valentines Day feels like you out of sync with the rest of the world.   I realize most of this is in my head, but it’s a tough day all around and sort of sucks being single on Valentines day, whether you believe in it or not!   So clearly this was a contributing factor to my blahhhs.


Nothing like a little sand between
your toes...
Now, if you had of asked me a couple of weeks ago this wouldn’t have been an issue, but after dating someone for a short time, I’m back to square one on the whole dating thingy…and more confused than ever?   To become a monk or not to become a monk – that really is the question on my mind at the moment?    Perhaps I’m better suited to a life of solitude I find myself thinking? (Hence the monk comment)  Who could really love me given my legion of flaws?   Yeah, I could go on and on…   

I admit it’s a slippery slope, all this self-doubt and really what good does it do in the end.  Just paints you into a corner of negativity, which I don’t plan on doing.   

I guess the other big factor; no matter how much I think I’m over is the loss of my dad, Valentines Day marks the second anniversary of his passing.   Time helps lessen the feeling of loss, but never really takes it away completely.   Although I felt like I did as much as I could for my dad during his illness, and I left nothing unsaid, telling him exactly how I felt about him and his impact on my life but it feels like a void in my life – strangely one of the worst parts that I've felt this past week is that I no longer feel like I have a home base.  Sure I have siblings in Australia, but no parents and indeed home base anymore...

Lifesaving hut on the beach at
Ventura, CA
So my scathingly brilliant idea was to take a break from it all (yes, all of my over thinking about life) so I decided to get on a plane for the weekend and escape it all (as you know travel is my comfort zone).  I wanted to find somewhere that I'd never been before so I could explore without any predisposed plans.  

Initially I wanted to go to Phoenix, Arizona so I could hike around Sedona and Cathedral Rock, but I couldn’t get a last minute flight that worked…bugger!  I'll just save that for another day.

Time for Plan B - all I knew is that I wanted sunshine and a calming locale to take stock of the past few weeks and more than anything take a mental break.  So for those of you who know me will completely understand when my next choice was the beach!  The feeling of the sun and ocean on your skin, the sand between your toes is just too alluring to pass up.    

So my choices included California or Florida, but after a quick look at hotel prices in Florida and the sometimes “-iffy” weather, coupled with the crowds that flock to Florida at this time of year (thank you Snow-birds!) I decided on California was the destination of choice.   Simple really!   California also has lots of Eucalyptus which is a nice touch - just like home  :-)  

The morning started nicely, my taxi picked me up right on time and got me to the airport without too much trouble, I flew through US Customs (thanks NEXUS) and so decided that with plenty of time I could slip to the Air Canada lounge for a bowl of oatmeal on my way.  


Sunset over the Pacific Ocean
Ventura Beach, CA
As I was leaving the lounge and heading to my gate I ran into Jessica, an ex-colleague in the elevator (thanks for saying hi J :-).  She asked where I was off to this weekend and we quickly chatted about our respective destinations, she mentioned that she reads my blog regularly and knowing that tonight was blog night and was just a little curious if I was going to write about my trip to California this week….

So to Jessica and all my avid readers around the world I spent my afternoon sitting under the blue and sun filled sky at the beach in Ventura, taking a couple of hundred photos and generally trying not to think too much.  

My goal for the afternoon was to relax and just breathe.   I have to tell you sitting on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, watching the waves roll in; lapping at my toes occasionally was pretty special – and certainly invigorating!   (Man, that water is chilly!)

Who knows tomorrow I might even drive up the coast to Santa Barbara - its only 30 miles :-)

Here's to a great weekend in the sun!







Friday, February 8, 2013

Did someone say "snow day"?


I just got in from two hours of digging out my laneway during our current snow storm, although I guess over the years since coming to Canada there have been a few.  What makes this one so “special” is that for the last three years we’ve had little to no snow in the city.   Now out of nowhere we have a years worth of snow all in one day – I mean really? 

I was in both Philadelphia and Chicago earlier this week for business, and it wasn’t until I was in my hotel in Chicago for my early morning meeting (yes, that would be a 6:30 am meeting - who does that?) that I noticed the storm advisory on the morning news.   Hhhmmm, I made a mental note to keep an eye on that and to see if I could get to the airport as soon as my meetings were over - pronto!

Chicago looked like it was in for freezing rain most of the morning, with an additional 2 to 4 inches of snow later in the afternoon just to make it interesting...  If you’ve ever been to Chicago’s O’Hare airport (one of the busiest in the world) you’ll know that it doesn’t take too much for flights to get cancelled and once that begins it really does spiral out of control.


Back deck accumulations - and still
snowing!
I checked in for my flight around 8:20 am in the hopes of flying standby on the 9:00 am flight back to Toronto, I was currently booked on the 11:00 am but as I approached the desk I noticed that the later flights were already beginning to be cancelled – especially to Toronto.

However, the flying gods were with me and not only did I get a seat on the 9:00 am flight but also upgraded….score!

I arrived back into Toronto around noon after a slight delay, got directly into my taxi and headed to the office which is in the north end of the city.  As the workday started to wind down, I looked out the window and was confronted with two stark realizations - firstly, the snow had been falling for a couple of hours and looking outside it was almost complete “white out” conditions (not good at all), this was punctuated by a long line of red tail lights snaking its way out of the business park (infinitely worse!).    

Normally its about a 30 minute drive from my place to the office, but tonight was going to be a true test of everyone’s patience as the roads were treacherous (both icy and snow covered), minor accidents dotted the roads as drivers tried to stop on the slick roads, only to find themselves sliding and bumping into others, I also noticed a number of abandoned cars with their four way flashers on, the drivers having left them to get help.  All in all - a complete and bloody mess!

Fortunately John (my boss) was adept at driving in this type of weather conditions and that coupled with his Audi S5 Quattro we made it home safely in just less than two hours.   I’d say that was quite a good pace in retrospect!
Private snow-plow driver on my street tonight

By now the snow was really starting to accumulate, with about 6 cm on the ground and more falling but the minute it was clearly going to get much uglier before it got better.

Sami was staying over last night, and she was constantly checking the school website in the hopes that school would be cancelled, she was all about the “snow day” on Friday :-)   This was all well and good, but conflicting news began to filter in from a number of sources – her friends all hopeful that it school would be closed were busily texting one another and scheming about potentially catching a midday movie at a local theatre, Sami then emailed her teacher who confirmed that school was indeed going to be closed the next day,  she now began to celebrate (the little jig around the kitchen was a little over the top I must admit) but literally at the eleventh hour we got word that school was going to stay open and classes as normal.    Sami was not happy with that news I can tell you!

Fortunately I can work from home and when I got up this morning I was greeted by a winters wonderland….and yes, it was still snowing!   There was now about 20 cm on the ground with more snow falling and accumulating by the minute.   

As the day progressed I was checking both the weather channel and the outside conditions but there was clearly no letting up.   I had no other course of action but to call the Tamarack Lodge in Ellicottville (New York State) and cancel our booking for tonight…   As you know, for those following along at home know that we go skiing every weekend.

I was very disappointed but realistically with 275kms between the destination and us and given the weather, the road conditions and the route (skirting both lake Ontario and Lake Erie – all that lake effect snow) it was foolish to even consider.   I texted Zach late in the day to give him the bad news, with the proviso that we would re-evaluate in the morning and make a “game time” decision early saturday morning.


My infamous lane way...yes its narrow!
The albatross hanging over my head all day had been the job of shoveling the back lane way so I could go pick up Zach for his weekend with me.   Easier said than done, particularly given that now the snow had started to blow around with some strong wind gusts.   

In places, like my back deck for example it was anywhere from a foot to two feet deep, depending on the direction of the wind.   After 20 minutes of shoveling my back deck and path to the garage I was now ready to face the 120 feet or so of narrow lane-way, which separated me from the street out front – my god it was going to be a long afternoon and at this rate – indeed perhaps even a long night!

Now the length of the lane coupled with the extreme narrowness (yes, I have to pull my mirrors in to get down it) made it incredibly hard to clear, with really nowhere to throw the snow it made the job exceptionally tough.   

Its times like this that harken back to a bygone era, because as I was struggling deep in the afternoon light, surrounded by the deep blowing and drifting snow three of my neighbors whom I hardly knew, all donned their winter gear, each grabbing their trusty snow shovels and joined me in my quest to clear the lane-way.   

I awkwardly introduced myself to my new cohorts, strangely everyone was smiling but we all agreed that it had been ages since we’d seen snow like this, I guess it transported them back to when they were kids, and literally they wanted to play in the snow again, and this was as close as it got as adults without taking their kids out tobogganing or skiing.  A good bit of exercise for a good cause.

Slowly but surely with four shovels all pushing, and moving the snow we slowly began to make inroads into the voluminous drifts that had filled in the lane to a depth of 50cm in places.    Now think about the actual volume of snow we moved this afternoon – the driveway is 35 meters long, by 2 meters wide by (lets be conservative rather than worry about the drifts) 50 cm in depth on average….yes, we collectively moved approximately 35 cubic meters of snow between the four of us.   Wow!  I mean that’s a lot of snow don’t you think???   
Yes, you could park cars under the drifts

As we finally shoveled the last of the snow onto the large drift that now served as a sentinel to the laneway, we all stood leaning against our shovels, smiling and exhausted, steam lazily drifting from each of us as we stood in the semi darkness, illuminated only by the street light amongst the ever present falling snow…did someone say “snow-mageddon?” 

It was a wonderful moment of gratitude and satisfaction that passed between the four of us in the fading light, not only had we collectively moved a mountain of snow, but we all felt like we’d helped someone in need (yes, that would be me :-).   

Today was an incredible life lesson - this kind and selfless act truly warmed my heart and gave me a sense of community that I've long since felt.



Friday, February 1, 2013

The Big Renewal


This week I had to renew my Canadian passport.   Its one of those love-hate things where it’s a pain in the ass to have to go get new photos, fill out the paperwork, and in the past find a notary to be your witness (thanks goodness this has finally been changed), but as an ardent traveler I’d be lost without one of my two passports.  

I’m fortunate enough to have dual citizenship in both Australia and Canada, which is great for traveling the globe, but a bit of a pain to make sure they’re both safe and sound and up to date.   
TW's two passports....sweet deal!
Surprisingly the two-passport thing has some great advantages.  When I went to Turkey a couple of years back I got to the passport control in Istanbul and I noticed that because I was Australian I didn’t have to pay for my visa to enter the country, so rather than shell out the $60.00 for a visa I just showed them my aussie passport, smiled my best smile, he in turn stamped it and just waved me through.   I’m not sure how far this arrangement goes back, but it was a nice little surprise all the same.*    

I guess because I travel so much that I’m constantly checking to see the expiry dates and then calculating when the best time to renew, in fact this time my old passport still had three months left on it, but with upcoming trips to the US, England and Hawaii in the next month so there was no better time than this week to go get it done this past week.



I don’t know about you, but finding time to go get a new photo is a bit of a challenge, let alone finding an actual photo store where you can get passport photos taken.  I trudged over to the photo shop at Yonge & Eglinton (about three blocks from home) in a blinding snowstorm last week to get mine done.  

Can you say “mug-shot”?  

Okay, not only is illegal to smile (which is ridiculous unto itself), but I have to admit my photos were not that flattering….in the least!   I’m going with the fact that it was -15C outside and I resembled a frozen Yeti rather than a person when I arrived (snow covering me from head to toe).  It was full on winter weather, so my cheeks and nose are red from being exposed, my hair was wet and flat because of the snow that was piled high and that dripped down my back as I sat for the photo.  I guess some people would say "what how cool experience"…me, not so much!

So with the photo portion now complete (albeit a rather poor facsimile of the real moi) all I had to do was front the actual passport office and I’d be done.   

You know what its like when you really don’t want to do something, you put it off, make excuses, find something else “more important” to do, so that was my Monday.  

TW's very first passport - way back
in 1985
 
Okay, no excuses tomorrow….bring on Tuesday I thought to myself as I headed home that afternoon, confident that I get it done first thing in the morning (can you spell procrastination?).   I was now determined that I’d be first in line, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go first thing Tuesday morning, be in and out before the line was unbearably long.   This is the part where I was congratulating myself on the scathing brilliant plan I’d just devised.

One small wrinkle soon emerged, Tuesday morning dawned, but as I pulled out my paperwork I quickly realized that I still needed two witnesses to sign the forms…how could have I missed this I thought – now fully in chastise mode with myself (completely craaaarazy!).   I now had no choice but to go into the office first, find two suckers (I mean witnesses) who’ve known me for more than two years and get them to sign the form, before I could hit the passport office.   Looks like I'd have to go at the end of the workday.  

All day I felt like I was on death row, constantly checking and rechecking the time to make sure that I left early enough to get to the office before it closed, but not too early to hit the “rush”.  This was not going to end well I could just feel it... it hung over my head like an albatross all day long, and as I watched the hours tick slowly by I became a little jittery knowing that I have to confront the dreaded passport office at the worst possible time of day.

I was dreading it especially since I knew there'd be a huge wait, so as I started my car I even mused that I would have even preferred to be going to the dentist rather than going to renew my passport.

The office is sort of on the way home, so not having to battle peak hour traffic actually was actually rather nice.  Less than 20 minutes later I found myself eyeing a parking spot right out front of the government office where I had to go….can you say rock star” parking?  
My old passport - now renewed
until 2018!

Too good to be true I thought as I navigated the icy footpath toward the centralized parking meter – yep, it was jammed!   I even tried my VISA card, but to no avail – there had been a day-long problem with the VISA network which continued to be “down”…bugger I said out loud.   

I looked at the others quickly queuing behind me and gave them the bad news, after a few choice and colorful comments (completely unprintable  :-)  we all were all now resigned to the fact that we’d be getting parking tickets en masse.   The cold weather just made me feel more miserable...just make it stop!

I headed into the building, up to the third floor and into a relatively short line (this was new) where they checked all of your paperwork first before issuing you with a number.   The attendant eyed my paperwork and photos, gazing into my eyes to make sure I was actually who I said I was – she paused which worried me a little.   Eventually she must have concluded I actually was who I said I was and she issued me my number - D502.   

Great – showing the security guard my paperwork, along with my number he ushered me into the large waiting room where I was confronted with a packed house – damn it, just as I had suspected.   The office was set to close in 45 minutes, so I dejectedly slumped into a nearby vacant seat.

I then noticed that the D line (passport renewals) was a D696 – and my number was D502….OMG!    Doing the math quickly I realized that there were 806 people ahead of me.   Swearing under my breath I got up and found the security guard again, and in a tone which I tried not to sound completely exasperated enquired if in fact the number was correct?   How could I have over 800 people ahead of me, the room only holds about 100 at most I asked?

He chuckled and said that when the number hits 700 it flips to 500 again.   Okay this must be some sort of crazy passport office thing cos none of that makes any sense to me, but non-the-less I sat back down now somewhat relieved.  

Less than 15 minutes later I exited the building, having applied for a new passport (expedited thank you very much – with an extra fee), which I could pick up Friday afternoon no less.   It felt like I had visited some parallel universe where the government department had been really efficient and smart…    Okay, that might have been a little cruel given the exceptional experience I had just been party to. 

I had for sure expect a parking ticket….but no ticket when I got to the car, wow, my lucky day.   I was on a roll, rock star parking, super fast passport renewal and now no ticket – does it get any better than this I thought to myself.  

As I pulled away from the curb I realized that I had created all of my own stress and anxiety - from start to finish, and that in retrospect my consternation had been completely unfounded (well at least this time :-).    Really, who says I’m a naysayer???






* Australians are now required to pay $60.00 for a three-month visa.