Making It Up As I Go Along #229

Well it’s a day late but a little write up is here anyway. Back from Newfoundland and the vacation I am. Back away from the sea and to the stickiness of Ottawa summer. I like the heat but the time away was nice. Plus it was fun wearing a fleece while hiking in 25 degree weather. My parents seemed amazed by it… it was like performing tricks at a birthday party.

Anyway, I was thinking of doing a basic daily rundown since my last update with no story until the weekend. And there won’t be a story until the weekend still… but I also don’t think I should just write what happened each day. That kind of thing is best for my parents and, I would assume, pretty boring for most other people. And since my parents saw what I was up to, why subject everyone to it.

So I’ll do a bit of a rundown of the things that stood out and let the minor things go.

Vacation 2006
JULY 21…
--- Leave Ottawa. Arrive in St. John’s and immediately say bye bye to good eating habits by partaking in a meal of Ches’s Fish and Chips.
--- Claire (the niece) begins beating me… it won’t stop until she leaves.

JULY 22…
--- I am snotty to my mother. Watching Apollo 13 on TV late at night, she wakes… sees the light still on downstairs… and comes to investigate. Her “You’re still up?” is followed by my “Obviously”. I’m just not that pleasant at 3:00AM am I?

JULY 24…
--- Out for supper and some hanging with some of the softball boys. Del, Steve Frew and Morrissey all gather with me and Frew’s house. First time I see Steve in about two years and it’s good. Walking in to his place reminds me of days of the old ball team where we may get together after a game until the wee hours of the morning.

JULY 25…
--- Family day (Edena and her family go back to BC the next day). We hit Middle Cove Beach and that place is magical today with good waves and sun.
--- The Keg steakhouse is the supper place with my uncle Wayne and his wife, Sylvia joining us. We walk along the harbour front after that and the light hits Signal Hill perfectly.
--- Claire is still willing to beat me.

JULY 26…
--- Jim and his family dominate the day. Watching his son, Will, play soccer and going to their house for a BBQ. Kids under the age of ten enjoy beating me… like Claire, Will and Sam wail away. The most notable moment being a dodged punch to a delicate area after Will proclaims that “I’m going to punch you in the wee wee”.

JULY 27…
--- On a busy day around the bay with the parents and eating supper downtown with friends, the most notable event is the fact that drinks at the Duke of Duckworth bar are in a smoke free facility. I’m not used to being in the Duke without a highly tobacco laden atmosphere.

JULY 28…
--- Fog in town drives us out to Cape St. Mary’s. It’s bizarre to go to such a place and actually get away from the fog. St. Mary’s is one of the foggiest places on earth. But the bird sanctuary there is amazing. Probably a million birds hanging along the cliffs and the sheep! My God the sheep!!! By the way, for those reading this via e-mail rather than blog, there will be pictures of my vacation to be seen there by the end of the weekend. www.chrislbrown.blogspot.com if you want to go see.

JULY 30…
--- Spend an hour hiking Pippy Park in the morning. The only downside with my trip home is that the weekend out of town (this weekend) got fooled up by bad weather forecasts. I mean Fogo Island in the rain is not a nice place to spend a day. But Pippy Park is great. The highest point in the city gives you some great views and I see six people and one wet dog while there. What strikes me most is looking out at the harbour “narrows” (where the sea enters between Signal Hill and the South Side Hills). I look and say to myself “there’s Signal Hill… and there’s the South Side…” and then I look in between, where the ocean extends out to the horizon, and I think “and there’s Ireland.” That’s the thing with St. John’s. You can look out at nothing towards the east and you know that the next bit of land you would come across is an entirely different continent. That horizon is where dreams come from.
--- And I’m corny.

JULY 31…
--- Lunch at the Ship (Used to be called the Ship Inn). This is the kind of bar that puts me back into a time warp on another continent. It’s the kind of place I think of where businessmen of 19th century England would go eat broth before going home. And it’s the kind of place that came to mind when I was reading the beginning part of Moby Dick. Where sailors ate while waiting for their ship to go to sea. With that, I had a Thai wrap and ruin the imagery.
--- Patio time with Jim and Sam is good time.

AUGUST 1…
--- Dad’s macaroni and cheese deserves mention.
--- Hike Signal Hill with mom and dad (again the pictures will be on the blog).
--- Montreal Airport for three or four hours tonight. Not well thought out considering it takes less than two hours to drive to Ottawa from Montreal… but here I stay. And a major lightning storm keeps me there longer than originally planned. In a memorable point in time, I’m at one end of the terminal all alone. I’m just sitting in the lounge chairs looking out the wall of windows and watching the show outside. But once the lights in the airport start to dim, I decide to go find other people to sit with. I don’t want to be alone in an empty part of an airport without a light to see how to get out of it.

AUGUST 2…
--- Back to work at 11:00. I work half a day. And we get a Tornado warning tonight… but no tornados in my neck of the woods. Still, if there was ever any doubt that I was no longer in Newfoundland, a tornado warning put an end to it.