Trail des Trappistes Chimay; getting ready for our party; Luxembourg

Maggie at the start

We had a great trail race last weekend!  There were six of us running, and between us we managed to have a runner in each distance category.  Our friend Jan ran the 50km distance, and managed to make a very exciting 5th place; Bryan and I each ran the 29km; Claire and Kiana ran the 22km, and Maggie at the last minute did the 11km.  It was by far her longest ever run, and she did it much faster than anyone anticipated! 

celebrating afterwards with her complimentary Chimay

For me the 29km was also my longest ever run, and we did it in well under three hours.  I found parts of the trail pretty hard; most of it was great, and Bryan and I kept up a steady conversation most of the way, but I had some difficulty on some of the steeper descents on very rocky trails, which is hard on my knees.  But I wasn't in any discomfort over the next couple of days so that tells me I was well trained.  Maggie's hip had been bothering her last week but after her train run, a Zumba dance class and a good yoga class this past week she's feeling much better.

Interestingly enough the official website just published a selection of photos from the race today... the page features the moment when I just finished... honestly I don't remember things being this dramatic!

"¡Qué emoción!"

longest run to date

We haven't seen much of Malcolm these days.  He was home last weekend for a bit, and that was really nice; he surprised us by making an apple pie, with the crust recipe out of Edna Staebler's Food that really schmecks Mennonite cookbook.

He's working away quite enthusiastically in his classes, and seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit.  Most of his free time is being spend doing music: he rehearsed with a hard rock ensemble last weekend, and is feeling good about it; I think that they have a gig coming up next month.  As well he's made friends with a number of people on the violin-building side of ILSA; it turns out that his classical training and discipline has made him a little bit intolerant of disorganised musicians, which a lot of casual rock and rollers at this age seem to be.  He's started playing his sterling silver flute again (good thing we didn't sell it), and is trying out some trios with flute and two violinists from the school.  I think he also might investigate resuming music lessons at the local academy in Laeken, or perhaps at the Conservatory in Brussels, either for flute, or more probably upright bass, or possibly 'cello.

I got a little bit of work done on my guitar on Tuesday morning, drilling holes for the electronics and installing the steel guitar pickup, but frustratingly I have to now put further work on hold, as Ben is leaving for California with a ton of harp guitars to sell, and won't be back until after the 18th of October.  I could do the last bits of work myself but he suggested that I wait, and I am not in a huge hurry to get it finished.  We have discovered that the body/neck joint dimensions that we used will leave the fingerboard a bit too high, so we plan to shave down the heel of the neck so that it sits a little deeper into the body.  This actually will improve the appearance of the guitar, as it will completely hide a flaw on the end of the neck that is minutely visible now.  The disadvantage is that then we'll have to retouch the finish on the heel of the neck, but that's not a big deal.  After that is done we can solder the pickups to the controls, and then after a setup and adjustment, we're done!  I did a little dry assembly though, to see how it will eventually look.

Duncan has had two days off this week because of a francophone holiday, followed by a teacher training day, but he's back at school today.  He has a bit of a cold, but managed to ride the bus into town yesterday and took part in his karate class, so he's not suffering too badly.  I think he's settling into school pretty well.  It's interesting having only one kid in the house; I'm sure that he's enjoying not having to jockey for airtime around the dinner table.

the rosebush from our terrace is flowering again

We've been spending quite a bit of time getting the house ready for our housewarming party this weekend.  It would appear that we have almost 90 people who have confirmed their attendance, which will make feeding and watering them a bit of a challenge!  But I think that we are up for it, and will provide a lot of snacky things, like hummous, crudités, chips, nuts, cheese, charcuterie and things of that nature.  On tuesday I went for a long drive to the Sint-Sixtus Abbey in West Flanders to get two cases of the Westvleteren 8, and afterwards drove down to Lille, where I knew I could stock up on Hecht and Bannier wine for the party.

It's too bad that there is no convenient distributor here in Belgium, but it is important for us to share this special wine.  As I have explained before Gregory Hecht is a friend of ours, who was introduced to us many years ago by our late friend Phil Kaegi.  We first enjoyed the H&B rosé wine in Toronto, on Endean Avenue, and I recall that Phil walked that first case over to our place himself.  It was so good that it didn't last very long, so we ordered more, delivered to Collingwood, where we were house-sitting near the beach that summer.  As well I met Gregory at a big Halpern wine-tasting festival that autumn, and we've kept in touch over the years.  I went by their offices on an audition tour back in 2008 when they were located in Bouzigues, before they moved to Aix-en-Provence, and when we were holidaying at the Bastide de Richaume last summer, Maggie and Bruce and I had an epic wine-tasting at their new offices.  So it has kind of become a multi-part history of its own, and every time we open a bottle or share it with friends we remember how it has intersected with our own story.  Now the latest chapter will be written as we share it at our open house...

This week has been pretty nice, with temperatures in the high teens/low twenties, but the long-range forecast unfortunately predicts rain... I am hoping that it will be delayed slightly; that would be far more convenient so that we can have people outside in the back garden as well as inside the house.

It will be a pretty busy weekend I should think: on Saturday I sing a concert with classical guitarist Ayman Jarjour in Brussels, in aid of displaced persons in Syria.  Sunday afternoon/evening is the party, and then on Monday I will meet with my pianist friend Marie-Claude, and we will drive to Luxembourg City, where we will perform at the Canadian consulate there.  It's the same gig that Marie-Claude and I did in Brussels in June, but this time I have to learn the Luxembourg National Anthem.  I've been listening to the text, and trying to get my mouth around the sounds of the Luxembourgish language.  It is actually pretty close to German, with some Flemish-sounding sounds in there, so I hope to be ok.  I met a number of Luxemburgers while on tour in China and so I'm going to record myself speaking and singing it and send it to them for a critique.

P.S. Belgian solutions (good ones for a change):

I am reminded of the story of how during the space race the USA spent 40,000 USD developing the space bullet pen, with a pressurized CO2 cartridge that allowed the pen to write in zero gravity, or underwater... and the Russians spent ten cents and used a pencil.

We read back in 2014 that the installation of smart meters by Ontario Hydro cost about 1.9 billion CAD.  Then they had to remove a bunch of them for safety concerns; then they had issues with the meters not sending wireless signals effectively, so they needed to send people out to read about 40,000 of the meters personally.

This week we received this pink card in the mail.  We are supposed to write in the numbers of our electricity meter, and tape it up to the inside of our window.  The meter reader will come by and record the numbers, and then leave us a slip in the mailbox to say that we can take it down.  Simple, and cheap.  Sometimes the lo-tech option is the better one...