Blackwater Blues: Wednesday, August 21st

Insanity in individuals is something rare -- but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) 

Siren:

MEANING:

noun:
1. A beautiful and seductive woman, especially one leading others into disaster.
2. Something attractive that is potentially disastrous.
3. A device that makes loud sounds, used for warning signals. 

ETYMOLOGY:

After Siren, one of a group of sea nymphs, whose enchanting singing lured sailors to shipwreck on the rocks around their island. Also see femme fatale. Earliest documented use: 1340. 

Thanks for your email and details of your latest ride! You really seem to be enjoying all those hills. Some would call it "up for a challenge" others may refer to it as "masochism"!! Glad to see from the pictures that you have had some sun. Lets hope you continue to have some decent weather before you leave. Also pleased to see that Spuddy boy has taken a shine to Corrine. I think it's because she is of calm character and does not possess a booming voice!

Glad you liked the local Baccus wine. I think it's probably the best of the whites and, although a little pricey, I think we'll worth it. The reds are dreadful though!

We returned last evening from our week on the boat which was delightful. We spent the week in the Gulf Islands with a mixture of sun and cloud by only a sprinkling of rain. We left the mainland and travelled the four hours across to Maple Bay where we arrived late afternoon. After Alan had docked the boat it was time for a beer so we headed up to the yacht club where we spent  a couple of hours on the terrace taking in the view and then headed back to the boat where we had a very enjoyable BBQ and a couple bottles of Shiraz which we had brought on board. By 11pm we were all pretty shattered so retired to our very comfortable master state room which Alan and Loretta insisted we take over the second smaller stateroom which only had single bunk beds. It didn't take me long to nod off with the gentle rocking of the boat! 

Next morning we had our breakfast untied and headed off to Genoa Bay where Alan and Loretta were to meet 27 other boating enthusiasts for their annual Canoe Cove (the type of boat) get together. We stayed here for three nights enjoying the company of other boaters and although I had to pretend to be interested in marine engines and bilge pumps it was a very entertaining few days. They started their happy hours rather early at 4pm and we headed off with our gin and tonics to enjoy the hospitality of different boat owners.

On the third night we had a BBQ in the marina for all the boat owners. One of the committee members had BBQ'd two very large baron of beef and chicken breasts marinated in his own secret recipe and everyone brought a different side dish to accompany the meat. It was a very pleasant evening exchanging travel experiences. I was amazed at the age of some of these boat owners. Some well into their 80's and still able to handle quite large vessels.

During the day a local painter, Sue Colman, was giving a watercolour course in the marina for $10 which yours truly signed up for. It was very enlightening in the sense that i soon realised this would not be an option for boosting my meagre pension! in the afternoon we took the dinghy around the cove to her home and studio to view her work which is quite magnificent. some of her work was on sale for $10,000 but I did pick up a small lake scene which would fit easily into my suitcase. the house and studio was in a glorious setting on a little point looking out to Genoa Bay. 

 

There is only so much sitting around I can do so I managed to find some trails in the forest which Gayle and I took advantage of. The trails were relatively well marked and took us on a climb up to a lookout overlooking Cowichan Bay. Well worth the effort. There were two other trails that I could see, one took us on another climb in the opposite direction to a point overlooking Genoa and the other which would have taken us to the very top ridge which, unfortunately, we didn't have the time to do.

The final morning we had a large breakfast in the marina, said our goodbyes and headed on to Chemainus where Alan had reserved a spot in the marina. We had a cheese board lunch on the boat then headed up into the town to the theatre to take in a matinee of the broadway musical 'Singing in the Rain' which was terrific! You probably know that starting in the 1980's the town had the bright idea of getting artists to paint murals on the sides of buildings. The practice grew and today they have around 44 murals and sculptures around the town painted by very well known artists from Canada, USA, Scotland and Germany. So we walked around the town to track them all down. Went back to the boat for happy hour and later bbq'd steaks and by 10.30 we were all ready for bed!

On returning to the mainland we stopped off in Stevenston for a fish and chip lunch and got back into Ladner Marina around 6pm. Got Loretta to drive us to the sky train since we didn't want to drag her all the way into town a,d got back to GI around 8pm. I was thirsty so we walked over to the Cats Social Club for a beer and salad. The evening before we left to go on the boat trip, Krissy and Mark came over for dinner and had left their bikes here so Gayle and I rode them back to their place this morning to collect the dog and take him for a walk. Off to Chloe's tonight for a BBQ  

Best wishes to Corrine and Ayne. Hope her stay goes well Bye for now

Meant to say if you like Game if Thrones you may enjoy Rome if you haven't seen it. Two box sets on the shelves! Derek

Hi D, Do you love Game of Thrones?? 

Dear Patrick We are spreading the word for Word on the Street that they are on a quest to find volunteers for their 2013 event at the end of September. Love books? Want to get involved in the literary scene? Volunteer at the WORD Vancouver festival, a free community event and the largest celebration of literacy and reading in Western Canada.
 
Held on the last weekend of September at Library Square in beautiful downtown Vancouver, our festival promotes books and authors with exhibits, performances, and hands-on activities for a wide range of ages and interests, all for free. It’s a great way to get practical experience and meet like-minded lovers of literature. Meghan

Hi Meghan!

As I mentioned in an earlier email we will be away, in France, on a canal barge on the Canal du Midi, for the dates above! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Up at 6:56 am, Wednesday morning, to follow my routine regulare. The Narcoleptic Sisterhood, along with Spudnik, didn't make their respective entrances until around 9:00 am. Cora Lee had booked tickets for the matinee performance at Minack and we wanted to take Ayn to Land's End, one of the sights she was keen to see, beforehand. This being the case, I made my sandwiches, (tuna/oniones/mayo, cheese and lettuce, and, the pièce de résistance, dry cured, beechwood smoked, rashers of British streaky bacon/tomatoe! After breakfast, (Westabix, soggy to the nth degree, drizzled with nothing but the finest of Sainsbury's' pure Canadian Maple Syrup, for me), The Sisterhood piggy-backed on my fixins and then we packed Hotel Sydney's picnic back-pack and set off for Porthcurno just after 10:30am. 

Starting to get to know the route to Penzance and beyond so hadn't a shred of difficulty taking the A 30 past Redruth and Camborne, Hayle and St Erth, spiting on the large roundabout before Penzance and then on to Newlyn, by-passing Mousehole and St Buryan to reach Land's End, (Cornish: Penn an Wlas or Pedn an Wlas), a headland and small settlement, the most westerly point of mainland Cornwall and England. It is on the Penwith peninsula, about eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of Penzance. We parked for £5 in the parking lot of the Visitor Centre, and then hurried past the over-commercialized plethora of fast-food eating places and shopping opportunities and pay-as-you-go family attractions to the paths above cliffs carved out by the waves of the mighty Atlantic, today but calm and quiet. Found ourselves in the company of hordes of tourists, (also a company of army lads on exercise, honing their rock-climbing/survival/rescue skills on a pretty dangerous looking cliff face), but this is the price one must pay for visiting such a noteworthy part of the coastal landscape at the height of the summer season, in such fabulous weather. 

Once we'd strolled a number of the paths running along the cliff edges, (not nearly as precipitous as ones at Tintagel but impressive, nonetheless), we headed back to an ice-cream parlour for cones and then made our escape from the rather disappointing, mini-amusement park, as opposed to The Lizard, (the most southerly point of Cornwall/England), breathtakingly rugged and wild, almost completely untouched by such crass exploitation. 

On to Minack to park, for free, and stand in line for but a few minutes before we claimed our seats on the Lower Terrace, not far from where we had been when we'd attended Wuthering Heights, with former freinds, Gayle and Derek, almost three weeks ago now, this time to see Next Stage Theatre Company's production of Our Country's Good. On this occasion, however, the god of wind and rain smiled upon us and it was an almost perfect afternoon, with but a bit of cloud cover, more light haze, from time to time.

Once seated I took my cheese sandwich and climbed back to the top to visit the Rowena Cade Exhibition Centre to learn more about this remarkable woman, born on the 2nd of August 1893, into Victorian England, and the development of her almost unimaginably stunning theatre under the stars, hanging from an impossibly sheer cliff face. "Minack" in Cornish means a rocky place and "the black headed crag below the theatre has always drawn local fishermen. Until the 1930’s they had the gorse filled gully to themselves and the cliffs echoed to the cries of gulls not actors." The small gallery does a very, very good job of charting her life, from her Derbyshire childhood, to her move to Cornwall and the production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", in a tree lined meadow at nearby Crean, to the six months it took her and two Cornish craftsmen to build a simple stage and some rough seating for the first performance of "The Tempest", in the summer of 1932, lit by batteries, car headlights and the feeble power brought down from Minack House, which she had built for herself and her mother, using granite from a St. Levan quarry, after WW I. What a truly remarkable woman! What an incredible vision! What fierce determination! What strength of character! 

Returned to my seat, past the two friendly couples and their children, on holiday from Wales, we'd chatted with in the line-up, two of them wearing Crocs, to rejoin my own companions. Play itself was riveting and what a setting! (Each time I gazed at the surrounding coast I literally have my breath taken away and on this occasion the tide was out when we arrived so the wonderful beaches to the left of the theatre were completely exposed, all the way to the headland, dotted with people walking, families playing and children digging and constructing sand castles. By the time the play was over the tide was in and all but the beach closest to Minack had disappeared, Atlantis-like, beneath the waves.) Have taken the following from Petra Schofield's review of the play, at The Mission Theatre, during the run prior to its coming to Minack:

Our Country’s Good is running as a double bill, alongside The Recruiting Officer all week, prior to a summer excursion to the glorious Minack Theatre, Cornwall. Where, without doubt, it will have a splendid reception.

The story follows a group of convicts who sailed to Botany Bay. In between their working duties they are subjected to harassment, brutality and ill treatment on a regular basis. There is little humanity in some of the officers. However, Captain Phillips (Andrew Ellison) supports the 2nd Lt. Ralph Clark RM (Richard Matthews) to stage a play believing fully in the power of drama and theatre to enhance and improve the self esteem of the prisoners. He is not fully supported in his philosophy that drama could be redemption for their humanity but continues in the face of adversity and opposition. The play chosen to perform is “The Recruiting Officer” hence the relevance of having the shows running together. 

This is a highly entertaining play, full of wit and despair in equal measures. The company rise to the occasion with great energy and commitment. Much of the dialogue is full of relevance to any theatre lover and the issues Clark faces attempting to direct the convicts a source of humour for most audience members, after all “ people who cannot pay attention, should not go to the theatre.”

Performances are excellent, Richard Matthews (Clark) controls the proceedings with great humanity, being ostracised by his colleagues and ridiculed by many. The company are onstage for virtually the entire time, their focus and stories being continually developed ensure there is never an empty breath in the play.

Couldn't have said it better myself, Dear Reader! Only need add that we were also treated to school of four dolphins, carving their way across the bay which is part of the stunning backdrop to the theatre. As we were collecting our possessions, couple next to me asked if I'd mind taking a picture of them and their boys so I snapped a few shots and then we chatted a bit. Turned out that the wife had taken a course at two at Emily Carr on Granville Island a few years ago so we were almost related!

Back to the car to creep and inch our way through the narrowest streets I'd yet driven, into Mousehole, to shrieks and gasps from The Sisterhood, almost needing to inhale to shrink our vehicle past long, long lines of theatre-goers making their own way to Minack for the evening performance, telling the drivers and passengers hanging out of their car windows in the many queues we passed that the wait was well worth it! Once we'd managed to Houdini ourselves past the tiny harbour in Mousehole, Cora Lee was so traumatized by the claustrophobic streets, (earlier, we'd needed to somehow turn ourselves around in a shoe-box of a dead-end street to the amusement of two high-viz, vest-clad workmen), that all she wanted was a glass of wine and a purring cat, so we sped back down the A 30 for the safety and security of Sydney House.

Before I had even begun to unpack the picnic things she snatched a bottle of white wine from the fridge and with one terrible slash of the keenest knife in the kitchen knocked the top off and almost completely drained it, guzzling it straight from the upturned vessel, heedless of the jagged glass! Nerves calmed she started to prepare our evening meal, a wonderful salad topped with fried Haloumi, fried diced Chorizo over a bed of lettuce and broiled half peaches. Delicioso indeed! Enjoyed the marvelous saladin while we watched another few episodes of Game Of Thrones and then the exhausting day took its toll and we toddled off to bed, barely able to wish one another goodnight! 

Check my fb page for pix. Grandchild # 7, granddaughter # 3 to Grammie & Grandpa.

Katelyn Emily Alexandra Martyn, born August 19, 2013 @ 9:45 pm, 7 lbs 2 ozs, 20", strawberry blond fuzz, gorgeous mouth, to our youngest daughter, Beth & Terry, little sister for Kennedy, 5 1/2 and Oliver, 3.

Hey Patrizio!

Thanks for the newsy email re: your trip and all the cool outings you've had!
No pun intended..! so...  the malts are expensive eh?  oh well what's money..  LOL!

Friday is my last day at work and I am a happy camper! Retirement will be a blast!  ...

As soon as I figure out the Mac air emails..  going to a class tonight to end some frustration!! The teenie print is driving me nuts!  Look forward to further emails from you about your trip!

Cheers!  Hello to Corrinne! (Cora Lee?) JWo

We are waiting for our flight from Amsterdam to Stockholm.  We had great weather here and did the Rijks, Van Gough, Stedjyk, Petite Hermitage, Geelvinck-Hinlopen, Willet-Holthuysen and Van Loon Museums.  Bought the museum  card Amsterdam and got our monies worth.  When we arrived at the Van Gough, the line to buy tickets was two hours long and we breezed straight in with the MKA, a MasterCard moment.  We visited the Rijks five years ago when a temporary collection was on display in a wing but the renos are now done and the collection is now open in its full glory.  The expected floor  was quite crowded but the other  two floors were not and the displays done using technology to its fullest.  We walked everywhere.  Made an attempt on the Anne Frank House but the line was very long, next trip.  We did a canal tour on a boat owned by the hotel.  It was built in 1909 and used by Winston Churchill and Queen Beatrix to tour the city after liberation from the Germans.  The Petite Hermitage had a display of Peter the Great.  He loved Amsterdam and spent a lot of time here.  It was a memorable display, especially his House Party Rules.  I managed to find Dutch designed shoes and other stuff at Marlies Dekker (YAH).  We found a wonderful restaurant with nouvelle Italien /Dutch cuisine, ate there twice it was so interesting.  The Dutch are very friendly and all speak fluent English, an easy place to visit.  Off to see Stockholm and then to the cruise ship on Saturday.  Cimcky has emailed that he is happy and been bribed with bacon.  All is well, Love Francesca and Gregg