Behind the Tweed Curtain

After a day of sitting behind a reception desk I really needed to get out and take in some air the other night. The weather has been spectacular, and this evening was no exception.

Behind our house (a half block or so away) are several sports fields leading to a Recreation Centre. I can leave my house and not have to walk along a street. Last night I decided to do just that - stay off the busy street - and see what was up at the baseball diamonds. Between the baseball diamonds and the Rec Centre, and in the middle of the parking area lies a plot of land surrounded by a tall, thick hedge. Rarely have I seen any kind of action in this secret place, and most of the time you kind of forget its there. However, tonight - there was activity on the large scale, albeit low rumbled almost whispered voice levels.

It turns out the hidden place behind the green hedges is a lawn bowling pitch. There's always been something slightly mythical or sacred to me about lawn bowling pitches. One part because of the mystery that surround the thickly boarder area, and in part because - you only ever see seniors gaining entry.

Quite by happenstance I found the entrance, which was clearly marked with a "Visitors Welcome" sign, so I walked in.

What to my wondering eyes did I see ....? A sea of white hair, white shirts, and manicured lawn and many many many little black balls rolling down the green. I am by nature a introvert, however my curiosity and the welcoming feel of the elder onlookers drew me in to ask "Excuse me, can someone please explain the rules to me?"

You never know about the older generation. They might likely bite your head off to gain back some misspent youth. I was fortunate to interrupt four of the more kindly kind, and they were more than willing to explain the basic gist of what I was observing.

As they explained, in the obvious Scottish dialects, the basic rules of the game it would appear that lawn bowling is a loose combination of bocce ball and curling. This game is taken VERY seriously by its players, as was evident on the tournament contestants faces, as well as my new found teachers.

To be honest - with 4 of them all speaking at me at the same time AND in varying degrees of brogue I was hard pressed to completely grasp the finer points. However, one thing I did learn is that the balls that are thrown are weighted, and you throw or roll the ball in such a way that the weighted side will make the ball roll to the left or to the right. The ultimate objective being to be the closest a small white ball at the center and end of the alley.

Clear as mud, right?!

I stayed for 10 minutes or so, and was given a warm welcome to return on Saturdays and Sundays and watch again - on a non-city-wide-tournament day. Marie and Mary would keep a lookout for me. They truly were lovely ladies, and they were very quick to tell me that there is a league in the city for younger set - of which I clearly qualified.

I continued on my walk home with visions of lawn bowling possibilities in my future. My far far far away distant future.

Gone! Gone I tell you!

EVERYBODY! Stop what your doing, don't move. I've lost something and I don't want to step on it!

My week has completely disappeared and I can't locate it anywhere. Have you seen it? I know that it was here just a minute ago, but I turned my back for a second and its gone.

The same thing happened last week, but I put that down to first week back after holiday's with a smattering of a statutory holiday in the middle. But this week has no excuses. It's just gone.

If you see it can you please let me know. There is so much more I wanted to do with it, but just didn't get there.

Much appreciated and have an excellent weekend, I at least know its just around the corner.

What I Learned on My Summer Vacation

I always cringed a little when my teachers in September asked us what we'd done over the summer. Having grown up in small towns we really didn't get up to much.

However, I am proud to say that I did in fact learn something about myself over my recent two weeks on holidays. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with this information, but at least I fired off a neuron or two - that's got to be good for the old noggin'.

As I said in a previous entry our first week of holidays were spent up at a rustic cabin on a lake up island. It truly was lovely, and a person could get used to waking up in that kind of setting. However, this particular accommodation was without cable (TV) & wireless connection for my laptop.

That might not sound like such a hardship, and to be honest I can live without TV, and I can live without internet/email (for a week) - but I am hard pressed to live without BOTH at the same time.

I am someone who sits in front of a computer every day and has learned to rely on the internet for news and a great deal of entertainment. And when it comes to TV, its often a background accompaniment to whatever is going on in my home life. The husband is a little more 'addicted' to TV than I, but to when I can't have one, I resort to the other.

To live without both ..... stretched my every capillary!

Although ... I had to laugh when we got home. We hadn't been in the door for more than 10 minutes, the kitchen was where EVERYTHING got dumped and I was beginning the task of restoring order, when I hear the "background" sounds warbling down the hall to my TV deprived ears. The HUSBAND had the TV on and was already watching the recorded episodes of "People's Court" that he'd missed.

NOT 10 MINUTES into out arrival of reality! Our bags hadn't even been unpacked yet.

I digress - As much as I enjoyed our time away, I missed not having both connections to the outside world at the same time. I thank the Lord (truly) that I had a laptop that could play DVD's.

This is what I learned on my summer vacation.

Am I missing something here?

Let me state off the bat that I truly enjoy meat. I am not a vegetarian or vegan in any way shape of form. I love meat!

That said, I constantly struggle with getting enough vegetables into me, and don't even get me started on trying to get vegetables into my husband! Its a common joke amongst our friends to try to trick him into eating anything vegetable-like.

However last week, while I was away visiting a friend, we made spaghetti for dinner one night. Although she is also a lover of meat, she used a vegetable substitute that looks like and cooks up just like hamburger. In fact, the packaging stated "vegetable Ground Round", "cooks up just like meat". (and in another fact - it was delicious).

But it got me to thinking .... why do 'they' have to disguise vegetables to look like meat products? Veggie dogs, Veggie bacon, Veggie Sausage for a few more examples. Who are 'they' trying to fool?

To my recollection I have never seen a meat product disguised as a vegetable .... I can't even picture a meat product masquerading as a vegetable. I googled it! I know!

Do vegetarians have to fool themselves into eating vegetables? Is it a mind-over-matter thing?

Can anyone shed some light on this world shattering topic?

Holiday's End

Well, my two weeks off has almost come to a conclusion. It's a gorgeous Saturday, but my mind is already gearing up for what Monday - back at the office - will bring.

The husband and I had a lovely time away. The first week was spent up at Sprout Lake in a lovely rustic (and I DO mean rustic) cabin. At the end of our weeks stay we were fortunate enough to see on of the Mar's Water Bomber's giving the lake a buzz over several times. I suppose it was working out the kinks before it took off the next day for a 5 month contract to California to assistance in the abating of forest fires down there. This lake is the home for these magnificent flying machines!!

During our week we also took a day trip out to Tofino, Uclulet and Long Beach. Truly the west coast of Vancouver. Stunning scenery in its rawness.



For more pictures from our trip please check out my Flikr pages at the lower left of my home page here.

I will hopefully have more stories to tell soon. I will NEED to share with you something I learned about myself .... but that's for another day.

Top 10 Gripe for the Day

Ok, now that I've got your attention - I'm really only going to talk about one particular issue.

Can anyone - and I mean ANYONE - explain to me the reason behind wanting to hang these from the back of your vehicle?

I'm almost hesitate to name them - men's testicles - but I'm about to say something far more ... delicate ....

I really do not understand why a man (I'm making assumptions here) would want to advertise his wears this way. Is he proving he has the brain the size of a pea - or a 'p' the size of a pea? Does he think this will honestly attract the opposite sex - or maybe its not the opposite sex he's trying to attract? I just don't get it.

I've seen several of these are around recently, and it almost offends me. In fact I will go so far as to say I think it's incredibly crass and tasteless. I wonder what these fella's (assumptions again) would feel like if their daughters drove home their Ford Focus with a model (brace yourself) 'Vagina' hanging off the back of their cars. What then, do you think?

Please - I'm begging you - someone explain this new trend to me.

A little bit of nothin' and a squirrel

I'm having an out-of-body experience when it comes to blogging lately. Every day I come in and check on you all, and everyday I don't update myself.

The last three weeks I've been in survivor mode to make it to this Saturday - when my holidays start. I love my job, but I'm one tired puppy/kitten/reptile/ ... (insert favourite cuddly being).

So even though I've been 'here', I really haven't been here, but my mind is still constantly thinking of new entries that will never get written. Bad Blogger!

However .... I did remember to bring you a picture of one of the squirrels that live in the tree beside our house.



He has no tail, and if you look closely - you'll notice that the back leg that's facing you - has no foot. That is no trick of photography. He in fact is missing his rear foot. But BOY!!! Can that rodent hustle up (and down) a tree at a moments notice. He's actually very cute. I must make a confession - I leave bird food out for them. That's why he's stopped where he is in the photo. There is a little pile left out, just for him.

Cheers!