Beijing

I just came across this wonderful blog of this American student living in Beijing. She writes about her experience there and she is funny and writes so well she puts me to shame. In one of her posts, she mentions a "translation" by Ezra Pound. The word translation never applies when it comes to Pound because he was so innovative and creative in his work that they were really another creation inspired by the original. Anyway... the blog is a delight and makes me hanker for my linguistics classes - the only ones that really ever got my full attention for all the possibilities that they harboured (my bilingual dictionary is failing me).

I started a little personal blog on the side - it contains letters by my dog to Paul's mother. She keeps saying I should publish them because they make her laugh. That is my backup for them and I also intend to do little experiments with pictures and layouts, RSS feeds and whatever catches my fancy. When I figure things out, I will port the new technology over to this one... It's like going to the moon - the technology benefits related spheres (or not!)

Yes!

That's how it feels to be back amongst the living. I knew as soon as I awoke that I was better. My head was not as woozy and my ears were almost unplugged and the slight headache was only present when I blew my nose.
Two days ago I almost posted a blog on breathing - I knew only the absence of it at that time and was longing to breathe through my nose. I had a nanosecond of panic when I thought I was out of Breathe Easy strips - little strips that pull your nostrils out and help you breathe through the nose as you sleep.
I read in a book on yoga a few years back that you breathe through one nostril at a time. Something like a 90-minute cycle on one nostril and then the next cycle on the other. You were supposed to become aware of the cycle and control it, if I remember correctly.
I am thinking that if that is true, then you might be oxygenating one side of the brain when you breathe with one nostril and the other when you breathe with the other. Now, how does that affect your dreams? Are they more creative when your right side is oxygenated? What about if you are wearing strips? Does that affect the quality of your dreaming? Of your sleep? So much research to be done still...

This is my brain on cold medicine

Started a new cold. Finished a book* (yeah, they are related items: reading keeps me still.) My other brother is showing off his latest works both at the Galerie Graff in Montreal (I couldn't find my brother's name there so there's not much point in going - as well their site is still under construction - the English link doesn't work yet) and at the Musée de Joliette in, well, Joliette, starting next week. I promised I would go to the Montreal opening on Thursday so that cold better go away. Since I slept most of the day, I am hoping to be rid of it soon.

So - not much to talk about. I had a busy week working and when it's not raining, we are enjoying our BBQ...

* The book is Anna Gavalda's Ensemble c'est tout

Beauty is in the eye...

Dandelions have taken over the backyard. So how do we respond to the invasion? Depending on who you are:
a) You take pictures - and rant about the fact that busloads come to see tulips but no one bothers with dandelions. You just hate discrimination...
b) You cut them and bring them to the banks of the creek. You seed them in the hopes they will fight erosion.
c) You harvest them and macerate them and work them into a decent wine concoction.
d) If you live in my household, you do all of the above!

Mother Day story

We never ate grapes when I was a kid.
Years later, as I was grocery shopping with my Mom, she told me that she had lifted her boycott when apartheid in South Africa was finally officially over. I was puzzled. She explained that the grapes came from South Africa and she did not want to fund apartheid. So she fought apartheid by denying them her money.

One woman standing up to apartheid. I am proud to call her my Mom.

Happy Mother's Day all!

Spring

Spring has sprung a thousand leaves
in shades of light and tender greens

Spring has sprung a thousand colors
from daffodils to trilliums galore

Spring has sprung a thousand songs
Creeks and frogs and birds

Spring has sprung a thousand flies
A buffet set for one and all

Reality is overrated

I had this interesting conversation last night with a friend from Montreal who was puzzled by how our "realities" differ. She was engrossed in the debate of the French candidates and I was busy cheering the Sens. The Habs did not make the playoffs so , basically, hockey season is over in Quebec. On to other things. That is just the latest in a series of disconnects we have been experiencing. It doesn't help that I am not very interested in politics in general or specifically in Quebec politics.
I can't relate to people who always seem to be talking to themselves about themselves - hum, a bit like a blogger, if you see what I mean. But that's a different story.

Anyways, reality is overrated. I believe we each have our reality, our own world and relate well to people who share our world view.

Life is a state of mind is my all-time favorite quote from the movie Being There. It totally captures my reality...

In Praise of the Ordinary

I went looking for inspiration on my favorite blogs and am back here, clueless.
I had a vague idea of talking about the close race in France for the election of the first female President of the Republic and make parallels with Hillary Clinton's race...but I figured, what do I know? It would not be a factual analysis, just me and my prejudices in favour of women in power. What's the point, really? We can debate all we want about differences between sexes and the imbalance of power and the way women/men use power... we are really just blowing smoke. I think I want women in power 'cause we're on the same team! Rah! Rah!

A bar-b-q is not a snowblower

I was reluctant to start assembling the bar-b-q with Paul because my previous experience with assembling something with metal was mounting the snowblower on a tractor. Do they even test the instructions? Anyway - the instructions for the bar-b-q were strictly illustrated - no text whatsoever. If everybody were so clever, translators would roam the streets begging.
But - needless to say - they are not and so I make a decent living.
The pictures worked for us. No mistakes, we ended up with a sturdy bar-b-q and we even got to try it for the first time (the word is "étrenner" and you should get used to it because I won't use the English circumlocution anymore) the same evening with our friend Steve.

Steve brought a nice bottle of South African white wine and his lovely beagle to keep our dog company. Those two had a lovely time and ended up swimming in the creek - and then a bath! I am glad to have had a chance to taste the South African wine - we are usually partial to French or Italian (with some incursions into Latino ones or Californian).

I think summer started today (and I'm not saying that because of the black flies!). Sweet...

Tenth of a picture

The point of blogging is to write, right? In my case, I want to share news with friends and family I don't often see. I haven't been writing much for fun lately and I want to get back to it so I decided I would blog every day because I lurk at this one blog just cause the guy writes everyday. I like the variety. I figure if you stuck with me so far, I should at least make an effort. So I will post short blogs - no pictures, that's cheating - well maybe I will discover I like cheating?

We've been watching the Senators play against Brodeur. Brodeur is awesome. I have always had a particular fondness for goaltenders, a certain kin-ness if you will (the newly discovered spell checker did not allow "kinness" and doesn't seem to keen on this new version either. I hope you will tolerate it).

I know I have had a relaxing day when I actually read through the Saturday paper on the same day. Quite an accomplishment. I actually enjoyed a few articles so it was worth my time.

Oh - we bought a bar-b-q today to replace our old one. Tomorrow we plan to assemble it and hopefully try it for the first time. "Try it for the first time" actually translates in just one word in French. It's funny how languages differ. I guess it shows francophones like to try new things - so much so that they invented a word for this action.

Well, I will try a new thing and write more often...