Home at Last - 

(she said with a sigh.) It was a long haul. Yesterday, I braved Vancouver traffic to pick up my son, drive with him to Hon's for lunch, then drop him off at work before heading back to the grandbabies' house. I don't know that I would have made it without Maggie, my trusty GPS. No matter how often I go there, I still haven't the foggiest notion of the geography of Vancouver and its environs. Anyway, I did find my way back. Robin and I packed up and headed to Horseshoe Bay for the five o'clock sailing. We got there at 4 p.m., only to find that the 5 o'clock was already full, so we would have to wait for the 7 o'clock.

(I was tempted to say something here about men and their lack of patience, but that would be a very sexist thing to say, so I won't. I'll just say:  My husband has no patience.)  "I don't want to sit here for three hours," he said. "Let's go to Tsawwassen for the 5:45 p.m." I didn't even argue. I just made a U-turn and set off for Tsawwassen. At four o'clock in the afternoon. In rush hour. On the evening before a holiday. So instead of sitting for three hours at Horseshoe Bay, taking the 7 pm ferry, and arriving back in Nanaimo at 8:30, we drove for an hour and three quarters through rush hour traffic (which involved a good deal of sitting still in traffic jams) and arrived at Tsawassen too late for the 5:45, which meant we sat there instead, for over two hours, to catch the 8:15 The trip from Tsawwassen takes two hours, as opposed to the 90 minutes from Horseshoe Bay, so we got back to Nanaimo at 10:15.

Fortunately, we were still glowing with joy and excitement over the extra special Christmas present we (well, Robin - but I get to share it) had received from his sons and their wives. Robin's 70th birthday is coming up, and the kids knew we would be heading off to England in the Spring, so for Christmas they gave us brochures on Mediterranean cruises and cheques to cover the cost of tacking a Med cruise onto the end of our English holiday.

"Malta!" said Robin.

"Greece!" I added.

"Crete," Robin amended. Sure. That works for me. So now we have to work out the details. It would be lovely to add a touch of Italy to the stew, but that might not be possible on this trip. But I GET TO GO TO GREECE! Sorry to yell, but I've wanted to go there for a long time.

Happy New Year, everyone - and please check out Yoko Ono's New Year affirmation.(Thanks to Rebecca Woodhead for pointing me there.)

This message says "I love you."

Okay. We haven't done the Christmas thing, but it looks as if that may not happen until after dinner, so I'll check in now. We went out to lunch - to a fish and chips restaurant (not a chippy - a proper restaurant with tables and waiters and everything.) Both the children are just getting over colds, so they didn't eat much - except Jasper really liked the mushy peas. When we got home, he went down for a nap, and Jasmine (that's she in the photo) set about doing some crafts. I mentioned pinwheels, and she commented "When I was a little girl, I used to make pinwheels all by myself!" Then her mom made a pinwheel for her (I guess Jasmine had forgotten how, in all those years since she was a little girl) and she happily pranced around the room, making a breeze to turn the blades. After that, I painted her fingernails pink, so she wrote me that message. I think I'll paint her toenails tomorrow!

WAR IS OVER - If You Want It

Browsing Twitter this morning, I came across John & Yoko's "WAR IS OVER - If You Want It" video, which is forty years old today. Then I was called in to work, so I'm going to let John & Yoko speak for me tonight.

I suffered a temporal disconnect while I watched the video. For a moment, I thought of John and Yoko as kids - as the next generation - I suppose because when the film was made, they were the age that my children are now. Then, suddenly, I remembered that John was older than I - that had he lived, he would be nearly seventy. Film is a disturbing medium. It belies - denies - age, decay, even death. Yet here we are, forty years on. John is dead, I am old, and we still haven't figured out how to settle disputes without sending our children out to kill each other.  I hope our children are more successful at learning to make peace.

Tomorrow morning, we will be sailing to Vancouver for a belated Christmas with the grandbabies. (My camera is already packed.) I'll try to check in tomorrow night, celebrations permitting.