Birthday Celebrations and other Week's Events

I am falling behind with the ever growing list of topics I want to blog about and I do need to figure out a way to write shorter blogs. It is already noon and I haven’t written today’s blog – I spent the morning reading and also went out walking with Bella (more about that in another blog) and I want to get out to what I am thinking of as “The Rice Exhibit” at Harbourfront this afternoon. So I am allowing myself 30 minutes – 20 minutes to create content and 10 minutes for photos and editing. It is now 12:02 – here goes!

Firstly, I need to catch up on this week’s evening activities. As mentioned in the Tuesday blog, Laura and I went to a reading by Chuck Palahniuk on Tuesday night. I lucked out that he happening to be on a book tour to promote his latest book and doing Toronto the week after Laura’s birthday. It was very interesting – although I am guessing that I will not be reading any of his books soon – and Laura enjoyed it a lot. It was held in the Isabel Bader Theatre, which is a 500 seat leacture hall/concert venue at U of T. It was a sold out event. The format was quite unique – he did not actually read from his book. He had rewritten 3 children’s bedtime stories in the misspoken and broken English spoken by of the novel’s protagonist (bedtime stories as he would have had been read in his early years in his homeland) and Chuck read each of these instead of a section of the novel. His versions of Goldie Locks, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood were interesting, to say the least! In between each story he threw blow up penguins into the audience and had blow up contests. At the end there was a question and answer session, which I found quite interesting as he talked about the unique writing techniques he uses in his novels. I guess you need to read the book to understand the significance of the penguins.

We decided that we did not need to stand in line with the 150 wrist band holders to get an autographed copy signed as Laura’s inscribed copy was going to arrive by mail. So we were able to slip away quickly after the reading was over and go out and have a bite to eat. It was a great Mother-Daughter bonding event and I was even more pleased when her copy arrived in the mail on Thursday. The inscription reads “Wishing Comrade Lilly Execute Best Top Punching Penguin!!” …Chuck Palahniuk. In order to understand what that all means you will need to read his book titled Pygmy. BTW Laura’s nickname is Lilly – so please don’t be confused about that.



On Wednesday night we had a family dinner in belated celebration of Laura’s birthday. This had been postponed from the previous week, which was Laura’s real birthday, but Jeff and Amanda were in Dominican that week and Tegan had to work. So we all met at the Spaghetti Factory for a get together this week instead. The Old Spaghetti Factory is a place that "the kids" like to go even thought the food is mediocre. They are no longer kids but the phrase still is used as a collective noun for our adult children. But I guess what can you do wrong with spaghetti? So I guess it would be fairer to say that the food is neither good nor bad.

Sad that Eric and Kara are so far away so could not join (they live in Phoenix), but we did have 4 of our 5 children plus the addition of 3 of their “significant others” and David, the children’s Dad, and Maria rounded out the group so that almost all family members were present. I might add that I have the seemingly unique circumstance of getting along well with my x and his long time lady and so most of our family events include 3 amicable parents and this was no different. The talk was happy and the adult children had fun. David and Maria are happily in the middle of detailed wedding preparations - they are finally tying the knot this summer and so conversation about dresses, invitations and wedding speeches were high on the agenda. I am still trying to sort out whether I will go solo - I am assured that there will be other unaccompanied folks there. Jeff and Amanda were sporting nice tans and gave us the low down on their trip to the Dominican.

The younger adults have graduated to ordering shots for dessert with a bit of abandon, I am suspecting, confident in the knowledge that the bill will be shared by the 3 more financially secure members of the family, myself , their Dad and Jeff – our eldest son. I guess that is ok for a few years – but what goes around comes around and I shall have no pangs of guilt if at some point I become a burden to them in my dotage!

After the meal I met a friend just 2 doors down at Fionn MacCool's where I frequently go on a Wednesday night to hear Greg Wyard play music. I have blogged enough about this guy's music that you can just click on the side tag to get more info if needed. The night finished off with a bit of nice music and company and got me over the hump of mid week.

Thurdsay night was also a busy one - I had made arrangements weeks earlier to meet work folks for patio beers and a night out at Crock Rock (I have also blogged about this place before). The night was warm and great for a patio night! Perfect weather. Unfortunately there was a poor showing, attendance wise, but I was able to meet with two other contract PMs who have moved on to other companies and catch up on old times. We went out to eat and ended up at a place on Queen West which was very nice and I got home just in time to see the last piece of the Grey's Anatomy season finale.

Alas! My 30 minute timeslot for blogging ended up taking over an hour! I have got to go see that rice exhibit - and it closes at 3:00. Actually, the installation is titled “Of All the People in All the World,” and it is at Harbourfront Centre’s Brigantine Room until May 24. The exhibit features rice, where one grain of rice represents one person. Will be sure to blog about this later!

A Pilgrim's Walk Along the El Camino in Spain

I had a wonderful evening last night.    My friend Yvonne (one of the ladies I went on a cruise with) kindly offered to set up a night so I could meet another friend of hers, Brigitte, who had completed the Pilgrim’s Walk – the El Camino Trail - through Spain in 2002.   Barb, my Collingwood friend, was able to come down to the Big Smoke and join us.  Barb and I are talking about – no, let me rephrase that – planning to do the Camino sometime in the next 3 years.

 You might be wondering, what is the Camino Pilgrim’s Walk? 

El Camino de Santiago or St. James’ Way is a pilgrimage  route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in north western Spain, where tradition states that the remains of the apostle Saint James, are buried.  In ancient days people made religious pilgrimages on many different routes throughout Great Britain and Europe.  While the custom of a Christian pilgrimage has been well documented, there is some evidence that the Camino has been travelled even in pagan times.  There has been some claims made that the route was a Celtic death journey, westwards towards the setting sun and terminating at the “End of the World” (Finistera) an the “Coast of Death” (Costa da Morte) and the “Sea of Darkness.”

 Today, there are tens of thousands of people from all parts of the globe who do the Camino walk each year for various reasons.  Of course there are a large group of Christian Pilgrims who do the walk as in penance or just plain devotion.  A good number of pilgrims are not there for religious reasons, some just want to experience a different sort of travel, others  are there for the challenge of a major hike and some do it as their own a spiritual quest, removing themselves from modern convenience and comforts to gain some perspective on life.

 There are many different originating points and they converge at various points along the route.  There are starting points throughout Britain and Europe, although most would consider to have done the entire walk one must begin at least no closer to the end point than the Pyrenees mountains at the Spanish/French border. 

 The trails are sometimes very difficult but the Pilgrim’s walks are well serviced and reasonably safe for travellers, with water, cheap food and lodging at frequent enough intervals.   There are hostels available at the end of every long day and they charge only about 3-7 Euros a day (about $5-16 CAD)  for a dorm style bed for the night.  Pilgrims are only allowed to stay one night at each location and so you need to press on to the next destination every morning with all you need on your back.  No lingering over coffee and cake and “what will we do today” discussions.

 According to Brigitte they have not extended the servicing of Pilgrim’s needs to toilets, so it is not for those who want to be pampered.  It is an all terrain hike which is very demanding and not without inconvenience.

 Pilgrims need to obtain a passport (of sorts) which identify them as a Pilgrim and provide the credential to access the “refugios” (hostels) and obtain a “Pilgrim’s Meal” at restaurants.  Brigitte said that the meals were good and cheap and included either a bottle of wine or a bottle of water.  After a few days most Pilgrims would opt for the water.  The passport is also a record of the places you stayed at and is necessary to obtain a Compostela, which is a certificate of completion of the pilgrimage.  According to Wiki, you need to walk at least 100 km to obtain the certificate.  Interestingly, the certificate is considered by the church as an "Act of Indulgence", which means that it can get you to heaven if you did something big on the "no, no" category.  

 The route Brigitte took brought her along 800 km  of trail and this required 30 days of hard walking.  She is Spanish and she did the walk because of her Spanish heritage.  She did it alone, but said she soon met up with people to walk with and had constant travelling companions.   Speaking both English and Spanish she had an advantage, but she said many people did not speak Spanish and just English would not cause us any difficulty.  It was obvious in talking to her how difficult and challenging the route is.  She almost gave up once.   However the other thing that came through clearly is that she was glad to have done it and counted it as a wonderful life experience.  She also said she met a tremendous number of wonderful people who were from all over.  Some of which she still keeps in touch with.

Maybe 2010 is the year I should do it.  When July 25^th falls on a Sunday it is said to be a Holy Compostellan Year.   July 25^th is said to be the day that Saint James, the patron saint of Spain died.   The next Holy Compostellan Year is in 2010.  Hmm, next year?  A bit soon – I have another adventure I want to do first and that will likely be in 2010 and I need 7 weeks off work to do that adventure.  Will tell you about that one in a future blog! 

To continue with the account of last night’s fun, we 3 women had a great couple of hours chatting with Brigitte over dinner.  We were at to Quotes Bar (at King and Front St)  where I had a reasonably passable steak.  Yvonne’s sister works at the bar and she joined us at 8:00 when she finished.  Once the conversation ran out we decided to carry the party over to the Crocodile Rock Bar. 

The Crocodile rock is very much a ladies bar, and on any one night there are at least 6 women to every man.  It is decidedly heterosexual, and I have heard it called a “cougar bar”.  No matter, women go there to have fun.   Often the dance floor is just women.   While we were there we saw at least  2 limos pull up and deposit a bunch of ladies who were doing a send off for a lady friend bride to be.   The music is great, drinks flow and I am sure there are more than a few ladies who get lucky.   The rest are happy just to get out and dance and have fun with their girl friends.  Such as the case with us 5. 

After a few drinks and a fair bit of dancing my friend Barb and I left – enough fun was had and we older ladies need our sleep!     The evening was  such fun from start to end and I now have a renewed enthusiasm for my  future adventure, my long walk through Spain.  

For More Info on the Camino:

 If you want to hear one account written by a couple of ladies who did the walk:

http://www.travelwithachallenge.com/Spain-Camino-de-Santiago.html

 

For all sorts of other information you can go to these sights:

http://www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/camino-wiki/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.santiago-compostela.net/

http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/

http://onthecamino.squarespace.com/what-to-bring/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James