Jazz Fest

Every year a mini jazz festival is held in one of London's nicest neighbourhoods - it's called "Wortley Village".  It's not special because the homes are big and pricey, no, it's just a great family neighbourhood with it's own stores and businesses. A few streets get blocked off to traffice and various bands play in front of the neighbourhood garage:

...a local pub aptly named "The Wortley"... (and where I just happened to be hanging out :)...

...and a church (among other venues) (actually it's not a church any longer - it's apartments)...

Whoa! Do you see what I see?   Pardon me while I zoom in...

Is that not one of the cutest sax player you've ever seen??

I found lots of neat people to hang out with - my friend Cheryl who bought me a pint at The Wortley which led to several silly selfies!

Todd - one of my most favourite people of all time - I've written a few posts about Todd - you may remember if you've been reading my posts for a long time Todd was one of my very special pupils - he still knows how to make me smile :)

And then I connected with Troy and Jules - we enjoyed the great weather, the great music and had a great meal at the other village pub - aptly named "The Village Pub"!!  Yes...it was all great!

 Okay...just one more...

Okay...two...  :)

Annoying Things

Some annoyances in my life:

• #1 annoyance in my life right now, well not right now because with my daughter's help it is now fixed but it would still be annoying me IF I hadn't taken a mental health day today and IF she didn't come home during my mental health day because usually she's gone to work by the time I get home from work, except for today...
• run-on sentences that don't make sense...
• confused yet?
• now you know why I needed a mental health day!!

OK, back to #1...

Ever since I bought my nice shiny new Macbook Pro my blog has been loading EVER SO SLOWLY which has been driving me CRAZY!! I thought something was wrong with my new laptop because as my daughter got sick of me saying "my old Dell laptop loaded my blog REALLY FAST! so why doesn't it load quickly on my shiny new Macbook???

She made a few suggestions and quickly got tired of telling me IT ISN'T the COMPUTER that's slow it's the internet for some reason. Before she got tired of me completely she suggested trying another browser. Really?  Yes, the Macbook had Safari already on it so that's what I was using. It hadn't occurred to me that on the Dell I was using Internet Explorer for some things and Google Chrome for others and I didn't realize I could download those to my shiny new Macbook! 

Kazi suggested Firefox as that's what her boyfriend uses and it's fast for him. Well, I downloaded it but it was even slower where my blog was concerned. Then I tried Google Chrome and VOILA!! It loaded quickly again!! Happy dance happy dance!! So now I am in the process of downloading Google Chrome on my iPhone and iPad so we can all be in sync.  It really pays to take a mental health day once in a while. It gives you time to deal with annoyances.

Other (not annoying) stuff going on:

• I was pricing flights from here to Halifax for my friend Jules (the activist) as she's coming to see me in PEI this summer and we had talked about a side trip to Halifax. Turns out there are NO flights east from London (on Westjet) but there are from Hamilton, just down the road a ways. I found her a relatively economical flight ($237) and she was really excited! Then I found us a gorgeous inn called Mary Queen of Scots for $50 each per night so we're staying 3 nights. Woo hoo!! Excited for TRAVEL PLANS!!  So I will drive to Halifax Airport, pick her up and off to our Inn (heritage building) we shall go! Yippee!

Mary Queen of Scots Inn

Close up of Queen Mary, poor dear, all that's left of her is her head!

• Going to see The Budapest Hotel again tonight!!  I wanted to see it again and enough time has gone by so it will seem fresh again. About half of it I didn't hear because of the shrieks of laughter some annoying person kept emitting...oh yeah, that was me...
• Trying to make plans with my brothers and sister-in-law to get together in June but not sure if it'll work out. My one brother is actually travelling east on his motorcycle but is leaving early June so I won't get to see him while he's travelling. He'll visit my sister who has moved to the eastern side of PEI but as I won't be leaving til July we won't intersect. That makes me sad rather than annoyed. 
• This one IS annoying - I've had to put my furnace on today!! Waaaaaah!!! I am so NOT happy about that but it's only 4c out and the house was so COLD!! So I guess I would have saved a few cents if I'd gone to work today :( Everything balances out doesn't it?

That's it for now...is anything annoying you today??

What do you stand up for?

I have a near and dear friend - her name is Julie but her friends call her Jules. We met in university about a century ago when we were both working towards a degree in Visual Arts. I lost Jules for awhile when she lived in Mexico but happily she's been back in London for a few years now.

Jules stands up for a lot of things; especially climate change & against the big GMO monster - Monsanto. She has evolved over the years into an eco-warrior/supply teacher and artist. Jules helps keep me honest and involved. It's not always easy to stand up for something and make your voice heard. Nor is it easy to put thoughts and ideas into actions. So I'm proud of Jules for speaking out and not being afraid to put herself out there.

On Saturday I joined Jules and the local chapter of  Council of Canadians as they marched in support of protecting our fragile climate. And last night Jules arranged for Tzeporah Berman to speak at our central library.

Tzeporah Berman is a Canadian environmental activist - you can find out more information about her
here.http://www.tzeporahberman.com/biography.html

Jules and Tzeporah

This isn't a rant about climate change, pipelines or oil spills; it's just an idea, a goal perhaps, of standing up for what we believe in, whatever that may be.  I look forward to having more time on my hands (boy do I ever!) and am curious about what my passion will be. Climate change? Perhaps. Pipelines and the ensuing environmental damage? Perhaps...

I don't pretend to have strong feelings one way or the other right now - I just want to be open to the possibilities as they present themselves. I know my cause/my passion will reveal itself to me in good time.

What do you stand up for?