November 2015
Sunday November 22
Celebrating Katy's graduation at Les Brasseurs des Temps
Last week Ann and I flew to Ottawa to visit with Katy and Ben. We left in the late morning on Tuesday and arrived at around 1 PM. Katy picked us up at the airport, drove us back to their place and made us lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled then, after dinner, played Exploding Kittens, a rather silly but enjoyable card game, then watched Clue, a movie which is also quite silly but enjoyable. That was the first in what became a mini film festival: a movie every night and quite an eclectic bunch to boot as you'll see.
Wednesday was Remembrance Day. Rather than attend the ceremony downtown, which would have been difficult with my still limited mobility, we stayed at home and watched it on TV. In the evening we went to a VIP showing of The Martian at which you order dinner and drinks and consume them during the show. Apparently this is now a popular way to watch a movie, no doubt greatly increasing the revenue of the theatre, but I don't think that it has yet found its way to Halifax. We picked up Emily after the show and she came back to Katy and Ben's for the rest of the evening.
On Thursday morning, we all went to a bakery for breakfast before dropping Ben at work. Ann, Katy and I then went downtown to look at the poppies on the War Memorial before going to the National Gallery to see the Monet Exhibition. This consisted of twelve of his paintings of the bridges in Argenteuil near Paris intended to demonstrate his methodical approach to painting. The evenings entertainment was I Served the King of England, a Czech movie about a young man who rises through different jobs as a waiter, marries a German girl just before World War II, comes out of the war as a millionaire, then loses it all to the communists, only to realize that chasing money isn't the best way to find satisfaction.
On Friday, I went back to work: I had a meeting at one of the DND buildings in the east end of Ottawa, then visited Dominis Engineering, a manufacturer of propellers. Ann and Katy ferried me between the meetings and spent the rest of the time shopping for Xmas presents. No movie tonight; we played King of Tokyo instead.
Saturday morning was the Carleton convocation at which Katy received her Ph.D., the main reason for our visit. Ann, Ben and I watched proudly then, when it was all over, we picked up Emily and went to Les Brasseurs des Temps, a brew pub in Gatineau to celebrate. Katy and I shared a clock sampler, twelve 3 ounce portions of their beers arranged as a clock (you can see it in the picture). After dinner we watched Millions about two young boys in Britain who find a suitcase full of cash by a railway and have to decide what to do with it. Afterwards Pat and Mike came to visit. Pat was the head of the Physics Department at Carleton when Katy was there but she also started as a graduate student at UBC the same year that I did. We shared an office with six other students and went to several of the same courses. Mike was her husband even in those days though he was a student at Simon Fraser. I hadn't seen them since I left Vancouver in 1980 so we had a bit of catching up to do.
On Sunday I was left behind (my choice) while Ann, Ben and Katy went shopping. They picked me up to go for a beer at the Tooth and Nail, another brew pub. Emily and Noah came over for dinner before the evening shows: the Marx Brothers classic A Night at the Opera and The Princess Bride (which Noah had never seen; the rest of us had seen it many times).
On Monday, while Ben was at work, Ann, Katy and I drove to Chalk River where Katy will be working starting sometime in January. For the first while, at least, she is planning on getting an apartment and returning to Ottawa on the weekends, so along the way we checked out apartment possibilities in Pembroke and Petawawa. We also went to Deep River, mainly to get a coffee (Chalk River itself is so small that it has no cafés) before returning. Ben had a barbecued dinner ready by the time we got back. The evening show was Crazy Heart about a down on his luck country singer; Katy and I didn't stay the course but Ann and Ben watched it to the end.
On Tuesday, Katy drove us back to the airport for the flight home. For the rest of the week it was back to work for both of us.
On Friday, Ann went out to dinner at Jean's Chinese Food with Ingrid, then to see Ben Caplan playing with Symphony Nova Scotia. And yesterday we went to the AGM of the bicycle club with which we toured around the province during the summer. It was held in a bar in Clayton Park and was probably the most enjoyable AGM that I have attended.
Monday November 9
James was home again briefly this weekend to go to another Symphony Nova Scotia concert on Friday evening, this one celebrating the big band era but with a bit of Latin music thrown in. It was hosted by Howard Cable, just short of 95 years old, who arranged most of the music. He sat in an armchair at the corner of the stage and told stories about the music between numbers. We all enjoyed the show. We drove James back to Wolfville on Saturday afternoon.
Ann and I were out again on Saturday evening to see Boom at Neptune. It was a one man multi-media show about the baby boom years between 1946 and 1969; quite enjoyable with a lot of good music. Kim and Glen had us over to their place for a take-away Greek meal beforehand.
I went to see the orthopaedic surgeon on Tuesday. Everything seems to be healing well. I'm now allowed to put half my weight on my right leg and that will be increased gradually over six weeks until it is fully weight bearing. I also started seeing a physiotherapist who has given me some new exercises to do to get my leg back in shape.
Sunday November 1
Our Jack O'Lantern
We have had a fairly quiet couple of weeks since I last checked in, though our schedules are still modulated by the need to get me to in and out of various places on my crutches. I see the doctor this week and hope that my mobility will increase somewhat thereafter.
We are quite satisfied with the results of the election, not that we were great supporters of the Liberals, but we are so happy to see the back of Harper. We stayed up long enough to know what the main result was going to be, if not all the details. I was a bit surprised to see the NDP completely wiped out in Atlantic Canada. It will be interesting to see how well Trudeau handles his majority and whether he will be able to restore some of Canada's damaged international reputation. He should have ample opportunity to make a start within the next month or two.
Ann's mum, Edna, flew home a couple of days after the election, having been with us for a couple of weeks.
Last Saturday we went to see Lungs at the Neptune Studio Theatre. It was the chronicle of a rather dysfunctional couple that manage to sort everything out in the end; quite funny in parts but also full of plenty of moments that made me want to yell at the actors for being so stupid.
We had Dave and Chris to dinner the following Sunday; very low key. I made pumpkin ravioli and Ann made flank steak and a trifle.
On Friday we decided that we should probably get some pumpkins to make Jack O'Lanterns for Hallowe'en but found that none were to be found in any of the grocery stores (it was a very bad year for growing them due to the very late winter). Ann set off to the market on Saturday morning and returned with two huge ones, one so large that she couldn't lift it into the car by herself. I cleaned them out and had just finished carving faces on them when I got a call from our friend Jim asking if we had an extra pumpkin. I gave him one of ours, already carved. He chose the scary face and we were left with the larger but happier one (see the picture).
This morning we drove to Wolfville to pick up James so that he could go to Symphony Nova Scotia's Sci-Fi Symphony concert. Mark and Shirley were going too, so they gave him a ride over and back then joined us for dinner. James is getting a ride back to Acadia early tomorrow morning with Jim.