i have always been a lay-dee

yup - that's me, 3o-odd years ago.

i haven't changed much.

the joy of jet lag

i was tired all day.
i fell asleep on the train on the way home.
i fell asleep for a minute in the bath.
then i crawled into bed and laid there for two hours wide awake listening to n snore.
jet lag has a sadistic sense of humour.

i've given up for a bit and come downstairs for a glass of wine and a whine (ha ha - see - sleep deprived - sorry). i'm always like this flying out this way. i thought i'd escaped it this time because thanks to going all sunday night and monday with no sleep, i slept ok on monday night. n woke me up at 1030 am tuesday (good thing - i would have slept all day), and last night i slept more or less. but tonight, alas, it has caught up to me.

i will try again in a bit, and will probably just lay there until i do eventually fall asleep. it's more getting up for work that will be nasty, but it's temporary and by the weekend i should be back in uk time all together.

i had a great trip and i'm so glad i went, but it's good to be back home. although winnipeg is not a city i would recommend for its architecture or its nightlife, it does have some things going for it. the rivers are magical to some extent, i think. people are very friendly. i can personally recommend the hendricks gin martinis at the rooster in osborne village after a happy evening guzzling and laughing with the most awesomest geo. (the only place btw that was not playing 80s rock music).

my parents are dealing with dad's illness in a way that makes me so proud of both of them. we needed to be together though - like that - it was important. some things you need to see for yourself to understand. it was hard to say good bye but i left, confident that we will handle whatever comes, together.

flight inconveniences

in winnipeg it is 3 am. in london it is 9 am. i should be landing in london at 1230pm. instead i am in toronto, where it is 4am, and i am waiting for my flight to reconvene. it all started well, my flight from winnipeg left on time, and i made the connection with no problems. we boarded, the plane was full, and then we sat. and sat. and sat.

first it was something to do with the engine. then someone left the flight and they needed to find his luggage. by that time the pilots would have been on too long and they needed a new crew. then after a few hours of waiting for them they booted us all off and gave us hotel or food vouchers. then the hotel coach broke down. i figured i might as well hang out in the airport, and i was starving.

the only restaurant open is a greasy monstrosity called the yorkville grill (the name is by far the most promising thing about it). they had cheeseburgers or chicken finger burgers. that's it. and no beer. or rather, they did have beer, glistening amorously behind glass but they do not serve after 2am. so no drinks, no sleep, and i actually ate chicken fingers.

of course, it could be alot worse. the woman sitting next to me is flying out because her brother died this weekend and she is trying to get to her family. there are alot of families with young children, and older people who will be having a tough time managing this. i am only tired, and will recover easily enough with a night or two of sleep (and BEER!)

the flight will ostensibly leave toronto at 8 am. we'll see. i hope so. all in all, it has been a wonderful trip but dreadful traveling. better than the reverse i suppose.

new typeface?

say it with llamas!

make sure to check out the who/what/why - it's worth it.

winnipeg

notes from winnipeg:

jetlag bites. i am now a morning person. blech. the other side of this is that it is currently 830 pm and all i want to do is go to bed. must - stay awake - must - stay awake...

in canada, everything works the first time. doors, tills, toilets, stoves - everything.

it is impossible to connect from an international flight to a domestic flight in toronto in an hour.

big sky. big big sky. vertigo-inducing sky. and all buildings only one story high so you can't miss the effect.

ok - i'm going to have to go run on the spot or something to stay awake -

ps i finished the socks

it is now official. if your feet are longer than 25 centimetres and you would like me to knit you socks, you will have to resort to bribery.

wow - you really do laugh later

we are sitting at our table, eating a really lovely bean soup that n has made. (aside: this version is with tinned white beans as n has burned the living daylights out of the soaked batch - a fact which a: i could identify walking up the path to the house by smell alone and b: made me laugh rather unsympathetically as i have done the same thing more times than you could count). it is still light, and we have been admiring the sun on the trees - in that particular luminescent spring light that you get at this time of year. suddenly the windows rattle and two cars pull into the rec ground parking lot on the other side of our fence, booming bass and blasting a hip-hop-grime monstrosity. we roll our eyes and make droll comments about others' music tastes.

we then get to reminiscing about other loud near-the-house music atrocities. the winner by a long way, is the couple last summer in the same parking lot. i assume they were a couple. all i know for sure is that at 430 one summer morning, we were flung into a horrible confusing awakeness by the incredibly loud playing of whitney houston's bodyguard soundtrack (i think that was what it was, anyways). it took us a good 5 minutes to figure out why we were even awake, and other 2 or 3 to locate the thousand decibel warble of "and i-i-i--i-i---ii--will always love youuuuuuuuuuu". i think they were making out to this. the mind shudders, really.

i had forgotten about this, and at the time, we were actually considering intervention (it's amazing what seems logical at such an hour, an many circumstances). but it did make us laugh, finally.

obviously!

emailed to me from a friend at work:

Speaking of translations, a translation story, told to me by Greg Doran of the RSC on Friday, dating from the time he was in Japan:

LOCAL DIRECTOR: We hope you will enjoy our Midsummer Night's Dream, though you will understand that we have had to translate the play into terms our audience will understand.

DORAN: How interesting -- what changes have you had to make, beyond translating the words?

LOCAL DIRECTOR: In Japan there is no real forest and no tradition of forests meaning anything special. So our Midsummer Night's Dream takes place on the seashore.

DORAN: I see.

LOCAL DIRECTOR: And in Japanese culture there is no tradition of little magic flying creatures, no fairies. There is no Japanese equivalent word for 'fairy'. So our Midsummer Night's Dream has no fairies.

DORAN: But what about the fairy characters, Puck, Oberon, Titania and all? Have you simply cut them entirely?

LOCAL DIRECTOR: Certainly not. In our version, obviously, they are tuna fish.

spring*

*with apologies to my fellow canadians, to whom spring is still just a vicious unconfirmed rumor...

spring has descended with a vengeance on the uk. the evidence is incontrovertible.

fact: every teenager in faversham is wearing short-shorts and proudly bearing sunburnt décolletage even though they really still need a light weight cardigan.

fact: tesco's is selling half easter eggs, half charcoal (not together - that would be one hell of mixed message probably more suited to christmas)

fact: we've had two bbq's in two days.

fact: birds, bees, and leaves on the trees.

english spring is a beautiful thing, and a "mini-heatwave" (bbc - a high of 22 - unfortunately they very well may be correct) needs to be inhaled and used up as there have been entire summers that never got this hot or this sunny.

so i am sitting outside in our garden, beside a fire and the remains of a bbq. i am still wearing a fleece but i am sockless, which feels like a sliver of freedom. we have spent the afternoon in the elephant's beer garden, and i needed a hat and sunscreen. i can hear random people singing - can't tell if it's football related or the group of (probably now quite drunk) teenagers hanging out in the park. i am full of lamb kofta and wine. katie is leaning out of her upstairs oast window watching her cat being taunted by two magpies. humph is watching developments with interest. the leaves on the trees around the oast are just-out - bright lime zest green and glowing in the late afternoon sunshine.

welcome spring - i missed you. don't forget to ring your friend summer, eh?

another gig,

another set of the butterflies.

you'd think it was me playing.

this is ridiculous.