As I was telling him the saga of my need to return to Canada before the border closed, my cab driver from Edmonton airport to my house said, “Your country called you home.” I thought that was a pleasing way to think of it. I had originally planned to return in May but when COVID-19 […]
This is my first day in Playa del Carmen in Mexico and I am exhausted, delighted, and overwhelmed. I arrived here with my son Ken and his family, Julie and Hayden, at 7:15 AM local time which was 4:15 in our heads. We took a shuttle to our hotel and left our bags there until […]
When I left Winnemucca, Nevada on Wednesday the local radio station described the area as Buckaroo Country. I thought about that for a while and decided that it probably did not mean that all the residents are cowboys, but they do probably have cowboy affiliations. They certainly listen to country music; it’s on all the […]
At some point today I crossed the imaginary line that separates Pacific Time from Mountain Time, and in doing so I was suddenly one hour in the future. There is no sign that tells you when this happens, but I think there ought to be one. My phone knew about our journey through the time […]
This is day one of my spring drive from San Jose to Edmonton. I am currently in Winnemucca, Nevada having driven for over seven hours. The first half of the journey was all traffic and the second half of the journey was all mountains and windy northern desert. You know how when they show tumbleweeds […]
In May last year, my sister Carol and I decided to take a cruise so that we could see her granddaughter Bethany perform as a lead singer in the musical entertainment on board a cruise ship. The shows were fabulous, and we luxuriated in the whole experience. For us, that was the whole trip. As […]
Here is a selection of pictures taken in the past year on the theme of lines and spaces. They were taken in New York, Edmonton, Norway, San Jose, and Monterey.
Which would you rather have in your country, guns or tourists? Because you can’t have both. Yesterday I was chatting with a couple of women and mentioned that I planned to spend winter in the United States. They looked horrified. One of them asked, “Aren’t you afraid?” When I said I wasn’t, she replied “But […]
This is the story of how a bracelet goes missing and a hairdresser gives good advice. How It All Started The morning that I was due to leave London and return to Canada, a bomber in Manchester killed twenty-three people and injured one hundred and sixteen others. It was horrific. I turned on my sister’s television […]
Imagine you have gone to a foreign country for a visit and you are enthralled by the clothes, the customs, the food, the culture. You find it delightful to experience even briefly the unusual and unexpected. You visit national monuments and attend cultural events, and you smile at the songs and dances that are so […]
When I was on a plane last week, the young man seated next to me struck up a conversation just as we were about to land. It began because I caught his iPad as it slipped off his knee, just before it hit the floor. In doing so, I inadvertently touched his leg, which was something […]
This morning, I had coffee with a new friend and in talking about travel he asked me if I had ever been to Italy. I said that I had, but the most striking memory I had of the place was of the pinching, patting and propositioning that I experienced while walking in the streets. That […]
You know how it is. You come back from your vacation (or from working or studying abroad) and you want to tell everyone all about it. You are so full of thoughts, memories, and experiences that you think you might explode if you don’t talk about it. And that is wonderful…up to a point. We […]
I have figured out what air miles are good for. They are very good for inspiring creative expletives. Years ago I realized I would never buy enough groceries to make my air miles worth anything of value. Nevertheless, they keep slowly adding up to the point where I think maybe, just maybe, I might actually […]
