Making It Up As I Go Along #415

Random Moments
Memories are fickle. You never know what will hang within you as the years go by.

My first trip to Europe holds many memories. There’s the night time flight over the Atlantic. Looking down into the darkness and seeing the tiny lights of a ship. The first sight of land soon after sunrise... flying over the coast of Ireland, over towns I’d never seen or known before, but there they sit, in the early morning, older than any town I’ve known before but with a regular day about to begin for them.

There was the decent into London. Being struck by the sight of cars driving on the other side of the roads. I’d known this my whole life and seen it on TV more often than could be counted... but there they were non-the-less. Plain for all to see and seeming to normal for me to comprehend.

The London Eye, Big Ben, and the Tower Bridge drifted under our plane as models. Yet these were real and it was the most spectacular decent into a city I’ve had.

After touching down in Athens, we exited the airport and got a cab into the city. And my first memory on the ground in the ancient city? IKEA. Near the airport sat that little bit of Sweden looking much like the IKEA in Ottawa. Cheap bookcases and oddly named foot stools must also litter many a Greek home.

Seeing the Parthenon for the first time was meaningful. But the moment it most struck me was when we wandered through the Plaka (the market at the foot of the Acropolis) and rounding a corner, there it stood for all to see behind the shops. It drifted out from behind the buildings, reminding you where you were.

There was the evening in a hillside town (Delphi) as darkness crept in and dad and I looked down from our perch onto the valley below... seeing olive trees vanish into darkness and civilization light up along the distant shoreline.

One of the most memorable mom moments on the trip came with a hot chocolate. A cold morning on the Salisbury Plains with a misty fog hanging over the land. We sipped our warmth in a simple parking lot. Me my hot chocolate and her a coffee. What made this special was the fact that Stonehenge stood a golf drive away while we drank.

There were other moments shared with mom on that European trip. Our discussion of what price should be haggled on in a Turkey market... before agreeing to pay what the store owner asked. Our slow spin upon the London Eye while dad stood safely on the ground. And our discussions of the Athens hotel waitress who mom felt was a sweet girl I should take back to Canada with me.

But when I think of me and mom together on that trip, the first thoughts that come to me are of our hot drinks in the Stonehenge parking lot. Quietly together after viewing one of the wonders of the world.



MONDAY...
— Subdued day at work as we learn of one of the nicer people who works upstairs having a stroke. Doesn’t sound good.
— Physio is loud... banging and drilling going on in the room next to ours.
— An evening nap to help me stay up late for the Canuck game tonight. See how that’ll work. Not even worth it as Chicago comes back to win the game.

TUESDAY...
— Legs aren’t happy today. Feeling the bad left knee and the right leg is just tired. Walking isn’t fun today but by the time work ends, I’m pretty well back to normal... well, normal as of late anyway.
— Montreal lose 1-0... tight game but disappointing finish.

WEDNESDAY...
— Work, Physio, Hockey... ok, not bad, frustrating.

THURSDAY...
— A bit tired at work but get through ok. Montreal wins. The team that keeps amazing. Series tied 2 to 2. Still odds against the series win but never say never with this crew.

FRIDAY...
— Canucks are awful tonight. Work and physio go about as is normal.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house. Some video game baseball... some TV... some computer time... and some phone time with Ruby. Montreal loses a close one. But also lose Hal Gill... and that may be a loss too big to come back from.