Indelible Adventures: The times are a changin...

A big thank you to everyone who attended my book signing at Indigo last Sunday - it was great to see so many people out. As well, I wanted to share with you this article about my recent book signing in a Toronto magazine published earlier today: Snapd

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For the past nine years Zach and Sami have gone away to summer, sleep away camp. In fact, two years ago, Sami at the ripe old age of 12 decided that she wanted to spend the summer with her friends and attended camp for two full months, then last year Zach spent the entire summer. What an idyllic way to spend the summer - 3.5 hours north of the city set amongst the beautiful landscapes of the Algonquin Provincial Park. Hours spent swimming, sailing, climbing, hiking and all the other amenities that camp has to offer without any parental figures to bug you. J

Ah for those long, lazy summer days!

Initially the person that had to make the biggest adjustment to the whole camping situation was me, for the most part Zach and Sami took to camp like a duck to water and thoroughly enjoyed their camping experience from the very first.

Having not grown up going to a summer camp in Australia I pined for them when they were away, year after year I'd miss them like crazy. However, as you'd expect this changed, as they got older and more independent.

So this year will be the first in nine years that neither of them will be attending summer camp outside the city.

As many of you know Sami is quite an accomplished soccer player and has played in U14 Premier League the past two seasons. Last Fall she trailled with the Sanjaxx Soccer Academy with the hope of making the permanent squad which she did. Since that time she’s been working out four days per week, both in the gym and at the practice facilities with her team building her fitness and skill level.

Both her physical fitness as well as her ability to read the game and overall understanding of tactics as a striker has really improved under the tutelage of Coach Laza. She played in a tournament recently and in her second game she scored a wonderful goal and played well overall by providing her team with lots of scoring chances.

Earlier this week the club announced that it was attending the UMBRO Top Rated Invitational Showcase in Mississauga in two weeks time. This tournament has teams from all corners of North America attending, as well, there will be 40+ US College Coaches attending to scout new talent, for which its best known.

As we filled in her player profile for the upcoming event this week I could sense her excitement at the possibilities even though she won't graduate high school until 2019 its quite a thrill to be playing with this level of talent and in front of some pretty important University coaches. J

This summer Zach has decided on a very different approach to how he's going to spend his summer. He applied for a couple of different things including being a counselor at a local soccer day camp as well as possibly attending summer school. I must admit I was a little shocked at first, but after he explained it made perfect sense to me.

To give you some background Zach has always enjoyed debating and politics and so two things transpired over the past week that aligned perfectly for him and his summer plans.

Last week he attended the two-day Model UN event at the University of Toronto and loved it. He was the representative for Latvia within the European Union, and had a significant amount of study to complete prior to attending the conference especially around Latvia’s Foreign Policy and its stance on the EU agenda. Over the course of his two days he formulated a proposal that would assist EU countries privatize aspects of their Space program, which he lobbied, debated and had ratified by the end of the second day by the EU governing body. He came away from the conference completely energized by the entire experience, he was floating!

Then something even more exciting occurred earlier this week that topped off the experience of the Model UN. About a month ago when Zach first floated the idea of attending summer school my ex and I were supportive. He researched the options and found a five week Foreign Policy course at Georgetown University in Washington DC that he wanted to apply for in which he would live on campus and attend classes each day.

To apply for the course he had to get his school transcripts, collect letters of references and write a lengthy essay. Given the relatively small number of program placements and the exceedingly large pool of students applying for the program we were trying to temper his hopes of getting in given the competitive nature of the program, but that all vanished earlier this week when he received an email confirming his placement in the program.

He was over the moon when he called me to tell me that he'd been accepted, such an amazing opportunity for him! The program will not only expose him to a broader array of thinking on the topic but also to a brand new cohort of friends from all over North America.

Clearly the summers have taken on a whole new complexion and so I guess Zach and I are having a road trip to Washington DC at the start of July, so I can drop him at Georgetown for his summer adventure...and you know how much I love road trips! J

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This week I'd like to share with you the images from my photoshoot at the Douglas Coupland exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) last week. Enjoy!