All in a Woman's Day .....

We had a gorgeous day to march for International Women's Day! Here I am in Victoria Park with my friend Jules prior to the march. There were a number of speakers telling their stories - it was quite emotional. One woman who spoke is currently engaged in a sexual harassment case against the principal of the school she used to teach at. A fierce woman spoke out about her murdered best friend and how the police were extremely slow to respond due to the line of work she was engaged in. It was a complete travesty and just another of the endless horrific incidents in which women's rights are neglected, ignored trampled on and discriminated against!! It sickens me to my core...

SHAME!!!

As my father used to say....

there, but for the grace of God, go I...

Here we are taking over the streets of downtown London - a great turnout!!  My sign relates to the number of years I worked for The Royal Bank of Canada beside men doing the same jobs for more (much more) money than I earned. That's just the way it was and we lived with it.

NO MORE!!

Unfortunately I got a parking ticket, how ironic! They get it from you one way or another! I am disputing it so we'll see what happens.  And even more unfortunately when I got home Kazi looked like she was on her death bed. After 5 hours in emerg it seems you can get the flu more than once because of the various strains this year. Oh joy! So another round of chicken broth, jello and popsicles. I am washing my hands so much I'm running out of hand lotion! Too bad the Olympics didn't last a couple more weeks...as it is she's watching every episode of "Friends" for about the 3rd time :) I'm keeping my distance...her symptoms are even worse this time around!

I sincerely hope y'all are feeling healthy!!

Since my last post....

...a place for Dougie and Dougie in his place! Parking lot is finished and looks much better now- I swear the paint lines glow in the dark!

Ok, this one needs a little explanation: I saw this on Pinterest. Take a man's shirt - cut off the sleeves and collar to make a lady's tank top. Well...I think I cut the scoop neckline a wee bit too low - I don't usually flaunt my cleavage like this! Not that I'm admitting to on my blog anyways!! I also found the straps a bit too wide for my narrow shoulders. If I did this again (not bloody likely) I would use a boy's shirt instead of a man's.

My second sewing project - FAIL

Here we are early on Saturday morning getting ready to do 108 Sun Saluations for the annual Art of Living Yogathon. In London alone we raised $5,000 to provide education for children in India. We were just one of 55 cities world-wide doing the yogathon. My photo doesn't show the full crowd - I arrived pretty early.

It was bloody hot as we were in full sun for 3 hours - but we made it!! Then we did a group meditation - again in full sun! (I'm not complaining - today it's cold and cloudy and I would love for that hot sun to poke it's head out!)
These are the 12 poses we did for each of 108 sun salutations. My seester wasn't sure what a sun salutation is so this is for you seester.

Sunday was pretty hot and sunny too so I thought hiking almost 20km would be fun! Hahahahaha! It was pretty grueling in places - lots of ups and downs - but we were rewarded by making it to 2 waterfalls. This was outside of Dundas, Ontario. 

We hiked from 10am until 3:30pm. I lost 80 lbs just through sweating alone!

Ask me how my legs are doing today!  Oweeeeeee!

And my shoulder muscles from all those downward dogs, cobras and planks! I just keep thinking about how my muscles are going to pop - just like Popeye!!

A truly beautiful place - I had never been there before and appreciated all that Mother Nature had to offer. Well, not the humidity but everything else.

Then last night I helped set up for a meeting of indigenous people and our local politicians. Very few of our native populations vote in federal elections and we have a biggie coming up in October. We were hoping we could encourage folks to get out and vote. I helped out with tea, coffee and the food tables - the egg salad sandwiches were fantastic!! 

Today is a quieter day - I biked downtown to go to meditation and then did a little sewing - just some mending, no other projects on the go yet...but soon!

I wonder what's for supper??

Big Sigh of Relief

Life has been pretty hectic lately and I don't do "hectic" very well.  However, I've made it through intact and life is looking up.

Before I get into details I want to post a pic:

Val asked a while ago if I was being affected at all by the raging forest fires in Canada and I can reassure you all at this point that NO I am nowhere near the problem areas. This year there have been upwards of 800+ separate fires happening at once. Firefighters have come from as far as Australia and soldiers are also being trained to help in the fight.

I live in the small blue triangle that is surrounded by the Great Lakes though I see on this recent map that there are moderate to high risks to the north of us. Drought conditions in British Columbia have made the situation very difficult this summer with cities in B.C., the western provinces and some northern states being subjected to heavy smoke. Around 13,000 people have been evacuated from their homes so far just in northern Saskatchewan alone.

Fortunately I read today that storms are predicted which will help put out some fires but the lightning may cause more fires to occur. I read one report that suggested some fires could be burning until it SNOWS!! 

Following are some pics from my Class of '75 high school reunion which occurred over the past weekend here in London:


Some of us met for dinner Friday night at a pub called The Morrissey House where we reminisced about all of our old high school teachers and every party we ever attended during our high school years (too many to count!)

Then the next day more classmates & spouses met up in Victoria Park to enjoy Sunfest - a 4 day event with musicians from around the world and lots of ethnic foods to enjoy. In the first photo I'm standing between my cousin Murray and his wife Debra who drove up from North Carolina! Here we got caught up on each other's kids and what they were up to (or NOT up to as the case may be!)

Once everyone had arrived we moved the party over the the beer garden! Here we shared information on classmates who didn't/couldn't attend the reunion; a sort of "where are they now?

In between good friends Martha and Josie.

We paused for a bit to shower and change and then gathered once again to have a fabulous dinner at The Keg. More rehashing of past adventures and funny moments at school, various camping trips etc.
My cousin Murray and I.

Here we are deciding what to eat and drink-such a nice happy bunch!

This weekend was all about eating, drinking and catching up. These are the people in my life that years can pass in between meeting up but we just pick up where we left off. We're looking ahead at possibly having a HUGE 60th birthday next year!

These last two pictures were taken at the Delta Arms Hotel where we had an amazing brunch...

...complete with a chocolate fountain....

which went REALLY well with my DEEP FRIED CHEESECAKE!! Oh my!!

It was a great weekend, very busy. The weather cooperated, thankfully, as I didn't have a Plan B if we got rained out. But all went very well and I can't wait to do it again but with SOMEONE ELSE planning the next one!