So this past few days the pace of preparations has really accelerated, as we close in on our departure date of this monday June 23rd. Lots of time spent sorting and packing, deciding on what we need to take with us to Canada and what goes into a box to be moved into the new place. I understand that this way we do save a month's rent, but it sure would have been a lot easier to do the home move and the Canada trip at two different times, rather than on the same weekend.
Maggie has emptied the boys' bedrooms and the spare room, and has cleaned and polished the floors. We had a window cleaner come in today and take care of all the windows, and we've been attacking the garden with a vengeance. I'm sure we'll get it all worked out prior to departure. We've pretty much finished all the food in the freezer and are almost done with the fridge. There will definitely be lots of dry goods to move though, pasta, canned goods, spices and that sort of thing.
Other pieces of the puzzle involve coordinating the move to the new apartment. We have beds and tables and chairs arriving by one truck around 2:00pm on Saturday, and I'm arranging for the washer and drier and other items to come via a moving company around 5:00pm, and then there's the matter of all our boxes and suitcases here that need to get moved, most probably by the good grace of our neighbors with cars. I still have to verify with the landlord that we can get in on Saturday, but I suspect that should be easy as he has been very accommodating so far.
If that wasn't enough, the Belgian fascination with administrative paper continues. Our identity cards need renewing, since they expire while we are away in Canada. First Maggie's work permit needed renewing, which the administrator at her school did, but then she forgot to give us the additional document, so that necessitated a second visit to the commune house (not counting the two other times I went and they were closed). When I went today and presented this additional document, it became clear that I would have to have another visit from the local police officer (Erik, do you remember him?) to confirm that Maggie and I are still married and living together before they will renew the identity cards. That means that I have to wait until Erik verifies this, then go to the commune AGAIN! GAAAAH! I tell you, all this running around and getting this document and that document and stamping this and validating that, multiple times, sure makes sure that lots of people are kept very busy... it must be a fiendishly clever employment strategy...
I am also preparing for a concert on July 11th, as part of the Music on the Rideau at Glenburnie series, just north of Kingston. It is shaping up to be a lot of fun, and I'll be joined for the first time in a duo recital with my mentor Bruce Kelly, and by the very talented pianist Brian Jackson. There's quite a bit of rehearsing to do on that material prior to the concert, and I hope to do some of it here before I leave.
I did get a little bit of stress relief today by exercising; today I almost doubled my previous distance record in the pool, swimming 74 laps, or almost 2.5 km. The first twenty laps or so were very frustrating due to even more sunday drivers (see last post) than usual. If they'd just get organized into fast, slow and medium lanes that would be something, but it doesn't seem to happen, and today there were so many swimmers that you couldn't safely pass either. Oh well, the frustration is probably what gave me a little extra adrenaline so that when things did open up a bit I took advantage of it and kept going.
Now it's time for some more phone calls and some more packing before Malcolm gets home.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Some catchup photos
Here are a few snaps from the last month or so that I didn't have a chance to post:
... and sizing up his cake...
Malcolm's birthday cake...
... and he and his guests goofing around...
... Duncan at the end of the "duck dance" at the school spectacle (he's right in the middle)...
... and Malcolm in "Quand la musique est bonne", in green t-shirt, stage left...
... and lastly, my delight at meeting this incomparabe gentleman, the man who has won a Stanley Cup ring for each finger, the one and only Jean Beliveau!
Duncan waiting patiently for people to arrive for his birthday party...
... and sizing up his cake...
Malcolm's birthday cake...
... and he and his guests goofing around...
... Duncan at the end of the "duck dance" at the school spectacle (he's right in the middle)...
... and Malcolm in "Quand la musique est bonne", in green t-shirt, stage left...
... and lastly, my delight at meeting this incomparabe gentleman, the man who has won a Stanley Cup ring for each finger, the one and only Jean Beliveau!
* * *
Today I got the kids off to school a little early, and headed straight for the pool. It's been very crowded there lately, with the beautiful warm weather, but there are lots of "sunday drivers" in the swim lanes and it's hard to find your rhythm. If I have the room to find a good pace I can swim for a long time without getting tired, but if I have to keep stopping éand starting because of crowded lanes I get very frustrated. It was very crowded at first this morning but eventually I found a lane that had only two other people in it, and managed to get in 1330 metres, which makes me feel good.
Now I'm off to the commune house; Jonathan brought home Maggie's renewed work permit from the school, so now I have to renew our Belgian identity cards before we leave for Canada, so as to make our return a little smoother. This afternoon Malcolm is off school at 12:00, so after lunch I think we'll head down to the Musées Royale des Beaux-Arts to have a look at the British Royal Collection, on loan from Queen Elizabeth II.
Now I'm off to the commune house; Jonathan brought home Maggie's renewed work permit from the school, so now I have to renew our Belgian identity cards before we leave for Canada, so as to make our return a little smoother. This afternoon Malcolm is off school at 12:00, so after lunch I think we'll head down to the Musées Royale des Beaux-Arts to have a look at the British Royal Collection, on loan from Queen Elizabeth II.
Monday, 9 June 2008
Visit to Canada
Well I'm back home at last, after almost three weeks in Canada. It seemed like longer, but I had very little time to myself...
I was invited back to Canada to fill in for Bruce, who was originally slated to sing at the Queen's University convocation ceremonies, but was occupied with singing Sharpless in a production of Madama Butterfly in London Ontario instead. Arriving in Toronto almost a week in advance of the convocation ceremonies, I took the opportunity to have nice visit with my sisters, brother-in-law and nine-month-old nephew, whom I hadn't seen in seven months. We enjoyed a great evening of dinner, drinks and conversation, and it was wonderful to catch up.
Next I headed down to London to meet Bruce, and do a little rehearsing prior to my first audition the next day in Toronto. That audition went quite well, and that evening I celebrated my brother-in-law Tim's birthday together with him and my sister and their close friends. On the following day I went back to London to meet the rest of the cast of Butterfly and do some more coaching. I also took the opportunity to sit in on the rehearsals, and was deeply impressed with the level of quality of the production, which was excellent in every respect.
I drove to Kingston a few days later, stopping in at my parents' house for dinner and a nice visit, and continuing to my friend Don's place, where I was to stay for most of my time in Kingston. His hospitality was as ever very generous, and Aubrey, his golden retriever, was in excellent form, and greeted me enthusiastically.
The next morning I put on my dark suit and Queen's school tie, and drove into town to sing the first of two weeks of convocation ceremonies...
Maintaining my enthusiasm through eighteen performances of "God Save the Queen" and "O Canada", eighteen convocation addresses, and eighteen halls full of graduates getting their degrees seemed a daunting task at first, but in reality I found them highly energizing. For one thing, unlike the longer, rather spartan ceremony that had happened at my own convocation ten years ago in the Jock Harty hockey arena, these ceremonies were of a much shorter length (about 1 hour 20 minutes each) and carried out with more pomp, held as they were in the historic and beautiful Grant Hall. Of course the smaller venue meant that a greater number of ceremonies were required to accomodate all the students, which was harder on the organization staff and the officials such as the Chancellor, Principal, etc., but the more human scale meant a more enjoyable and memorable experience for the graduands and their families.
I sat on the stage with the rest of the officals, and so had an excellent view of the faces of the graduands as they filed up and onto the stage. Their deer-in-the-headlights blankness soon turned to grateful relief as they were hooded by a faculty member and shook hands with the Chancellor before returning to their seats amid the cheers of their parents.
Likewise I found the speeches envigorating. Despite coming from many different backgrounds and professions, there were remarkable similarities in the advice given by these speakers, although each had their own unique perspectives to offer. A common thread running through virtually all the speeches was the exhortation to avoid too narrow a focus; to instead live broadly and richly, and to pursue one's dreams and ambitions without reservation and in whatever direction life offered them.
Having completely forgotten the speech and even the identity of the speaker at my own convocation, I wonder if the graduands - most of them surely fixated on specific career goals - will remember those ideas, but I hope they will. I certainly found in them a reaffirmation of my pursuit of my dream, and welcomed the chance to meet and talk with the speakers before or after each ceremony.
Halfway through my two weeks in Kingston I went down to London for the weekend, and had a great dinner with the cast (Bruce made four pies, and the company director prepared a 16-pound sirloin tip beef roast, baked yams with sour cream and green onions, and marinated roasted vegetables). Bruce and I worked some more on the audition arias, and then I attended the matinee of Butterfly on Sunday, and was extremely moved by the performance. I sang another audition Sunday evening, and then headed back to Toronto for the night, and proceeded from there to Kingston for the second week of ceremonies.
I also had a chance to visit with a number of other people dear to me, most frequently through being treated to a meal! Let's just say that, in addition to the other people already mentioned above, I greatly enjoyed the generosity and/or good company of:
I regret not having the time to see everybody that I wanted to, but in fact the list of people I did manage to see is rather long. What with singing two convocation ceremonies and working my arias for several hours daily, doing two auditions, swimming a kilometer in the Queen's pool every other day at lunchtime, driving back and forth to London a couple of times and visiting with loved ones, I was vocally and physically pretty tired by the end of the trip. This wasn't a vacation!
I must say I did sleep on the plane. I got home without incident, and was very happy to find Maggie, Malcolm and Duncan waiting for me patiently, and they greeted me enthusiastically. The weather warmed up quickly after I arrived, and so we had a great weekend in and out of the pool, barbequeing, relaxing and enjoying each others' company. Good thing too, as Maggie left early this morning for a week-long trip to Holland with her class. I guess the kids will have to get used to having tag-team parents...
Speaking of the kids, now that I've got them off to school, and have finished this blog entry, I'm going to do some banking, mail a parcel, return some sheet music, start something for dinner, telephone some opera companies, and maybe even go swimming...
à bientôt!
I was invited back to Canada to fill in for Bruce, who was originally slated to sing at the Queen's University convocation ceremonies, but was occupied with singing Sharpless in a production of Madama Butterfly in London Ontario instead. Arriving in Toronto almost a week in advance of the convocation ceremonies, I took the opportunity to have nice visit with my sisters, brother-in-law and nine-month-old nephew, whom I hadn't seen in seven months. We enjoyed a great evening of dinner, drinks and conversation, and it was wonderful to catch up.
Next I headed down to London to meet Bruce, and do a little rehearsing prior to my first audition the next day in Toronto. That audition went quite well, and that evening I celebrated my brother-in-law Tim's birthday together with him and my sister and their close friends. On the following day I went back to London to meet the rest of the cast of Butterfly and do some more coaching. I also took the opportunity to sit in on the rehearsals, and was deeply impressed with the level of quality of the production, which was excellent in every respect.
I drove to Kingston a few days later, stopping in at my parents' house for dinner and a nice visit, and continuing to my friend Don's place, where I was to stay for most of my time in Kingston. His hospitality was as ever very generous, and Aubrey, his golden retriever, was in excellent form, and greeted me enthusiastically.
The next morning I put on my dark suit and Queen's school tie, and drove into town to sing the first of two weeks of convocation ceremonies...
Maintaining my enthusiasm through eighteen performances of "God Save the Queen" and "O Canada", eighteen convocation addresses, and eighteen halls full of graduates getting their degrees seemed a daunting task at first, but in reality I found them highly energizing. For one thing, unlike the longer, rather spartan ceremony that had happened at my own convocation ten years ago in the Jock Harty hockey arena, these ceremonies were of a much shorter length (about 1 hour 20 minutes each) and carried out with more pomp, held as they were in the historic and beautiful Grant Hall. Of course the smaller venue meant that a greater number of ceremonies were required to accomodate all the students, which was harder on the organization staff and the officials such as the Chancellor, Principal, etc., but the more human scale meant a more enjoyable and memorable experience for the graduands and their families.
I sat on the stage with the rest of the officals, and so had an excellent view of the faces of the graduands as they filed up and onto the stage. Their deer-in-the-headlights blankness soon turned to grateful relief as they were hooded by a faculty member and shook hands with the Chancellor before returning to their seats amid the cheers of their parents.
Likewise I found the speeches envigorating. Despite coming from many different backgrounds and professions, there were remarkable similarities in the advice given by these speakers, although each had their own unique perspectives to offer. A common thread running through virtually all the speeches was the exhortation to avoid too narrow a focus; to instead live broadly and richly, and to pursue one's dreams and ambitions without reservation and in whatever direction life offered them.
Having completely forgotten the speech and even the identity of the speaker at my own convocation, I wonder if the graduands - most of them surely fixated on specific career goals - will remember those ideas, but I hope they will. I certainly found in them a reaffirmation of my pursuit of my dream, and welcomed the chance to meet and talk with the speakers before or after each ceremony.
Halfway through my two weeks in Kingston I went down to London for the weekend, and had a great dinner with the cast (Bruce made four pies, and the company director prepared a 16-pound sirloin tip beef roast, baked yams with sour cream and green onions, and marinated roasted vegetables). Bruce and I worked some more on the audition arias, and then I attended the matinee of Butterfly on Sunday, and was extremely moved by the performance. I sang another audition Sunday evening, and then headed back to Toronto for the night, and proceeded from there to Kingston for the second week of ceremonies.
I also had a chance to visit with a number of other people dear to me, most frequently through being treated to a meal! Let's just say that, in addition to the other people already mentioned above, I greatly enjoyed the generosity and/or good company of:
- my cousin David, and his wife and kids
- my parents and my grandmother Rita
- my in-laws Hugh and Sheila Rose
- our Kingston friends TJ and Erica and their kids
- Eric and Kareena and their kids
I regret not having the time to see everybody that I wanted to, but in fact the list of people I did manage to see is rather long. What with singing two convocation ceremonies and working my arias for several hours daily, doing two auditions, swimming a kilometer in the Queen's pool every other day at lunchtime, driving back and forth to London a couple of times and visiting with loved ones, I was vocally and physically pretty tired by the end of the trip. This wasn't a vacation!
I must say I did sleep on the plane. I got home without incident, and was very happy to find Maggie, Malcolm and Duncan waiting for me patiently, and they greeted me enthusiastically. The weather warmed up quickly after I arrived, and so we had a great weekend in and out of the pool, barbequeing, relaxing and enjoying each others' company. Good thing too, as Maggie left early this morning for a week-long trip to Holland with her class. I guess the kids will have to get used to having tag-team parents...
Speaking of the kids, now that I've got them off to school, and have finished this blog entry, I'm going to do some banking, mail a parcel, return some sheet music, start something for dinner, telephone some opera companies, and maybe even go swimming...
à bientôt!
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