"We're off on the road to Nairobi....."

Come on, can't you just hear Bing Crosby and Bob Hope singing the famous theme song from one of their popular "road pictures" .... Except on this road trip farce, the female "straight-man" isn't Dorothy Lamour. Nope, it's our girl Rona Ambrose. Yep, our intrepid Minister of the Environment stood up on the world stage, speaking before the United Nations in Kenya for the climate change conference. Now, Ambrose could have used the opportunity to explain what the Conservative government is going to do about addressing Canada's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But not our girl Rona, what does she do.... she used her limited time on the world stage to slam the former Liberal Government. She stated such gems as "When Canada's new government assumed office this year, we found an unacceptable situation" and "We found that the measures to address climate change by the former Liberal governments were insufficient" Fair enough, I understand that it is very common practice, here in Canada, for new Governments to slam the previous government and lay blame or generally just pass the buck but this was no domestic speech given in the House of Commons. This was a speech given to the world, and Ambrose used it to showcase, not Canada's environmental vision, but rather Canada's political bickering and infighting. Way to go Rona....you do us proud.....


On another note: JB and I are "off on the road to the UK" I decided, on impulse, that it has been far too long since I have been to visit family. I was speaking to one of my cousins via e mail and thought to myself "i really should pay a visit and right before Christmas would be a nice time to see everyone" So, I went to the Air Canada website and low and behold a "seat sale on international flights" Serendipity! We leave for London on December 1st and have a jam packed 10 days to visit my cousins in Wales and hopefully I make it up to Glasgow for a couple of days. It has been ages since I have been to Glasgow and I truly miss the place. I am very excited to be going over and everyone over there is extremely excited that we are visiting. Our first two days we stay in London and JB has expressed the desire to visit a really old pub or I should say pubs. A day trip to Bath is definitely in the plans. JB is interested in seeing the ancient Roman baths plus one of my younger cousins is currently studying at Bath University. He has already instructed his Mother to tell me to ensure that we don't visit Bath on the Thursday as Thursdays are all day lab work for him.
So, Thursday may be the day we trek up to Glasgow for a couple of days. I will definitely be hitting Buchanan Street (photograph on the left) I have many happy memories of lots of shopping trips to Buchanan Street with my Mother and my Aunties. I bought my first Burberry trench coat with matching scarf and bag at the Burberry store on Buchanan Street many years ago. I still have the scarf, the coat and the bag.

Will be cluttering up this blog soon with lots of photos and notes from the trip.

Quote of the Day:

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

St. Augustine

Random Thoughts

This is going to be one of those rambling blogs cause a/ I have not been able to update my blog in a while b/ my mind is rambling all over the place (nothing new)


Quote of the Day:

“When (Harper) tells you that this is a clean air act, it’s just something out of George Orwell. I mean it’s like saying black is white, white is black. It is truly Orwellian in its thinking”
Bob Rae, Liberal Leadership hopeful

A brief update from my previous blog about Rona Ambrose and our Governments "Clean Air Act" Mr. Harper allowed Rona to speak (photo is of Rona defending her new Clean Air Act, in Parliament) and it appears we Canadians will have clean air by, oh..... sometime in the year 2050!!!! Yes folks, we can count on nice clean air by 2050, about the time the planet will be running out of food. All three federal opposition parties panned the bill, casting doubt on whether it will ever become law. Dr. David Suzuki has a great "letter to Mr. Harper" on is website this past week.

Catching up on another recent blog...my movie package arrived from Amazon last Thursday and I happily watched "Whisky Galore" on the weekend. It was just as entertaining as I remembered it to be. It was a bit bittersweet for me as I didn't have my parents around to laugh along with me. Along with the Ealing box set, I ordered some Christmas CDs, yes I have a ridiculously large collection of Christmas CDs. Mostly by jazz and blues artists. Along with the Christmas CDs I purchased a copy of Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album. It is an album I have always felt I should own but never got around to purchasing. There are numerous great songs on the album that I remember hearing as a kid on the radio. The songs "Carey", "This Flight Tonight" and "River" are classics. I remember belting out the song "Carey" as a kid as it was very popular back in the 1970's. At the moment. it is my current "anti-stress" cd. I have it playing in the background on my lap top this very minute, as I endure yet another insane, stressful work week. The words from the song "River" are very apropo at the moment and take me far away: " I wish I had a river. I could skate away on. I wish I had a river so long. I would teach my feet to fly" This song is a beautiful song and it gets me thinking about Canada and winter and snow and ice and Hockey.
Yes, Hockey, as JB just did a double take. Some of you have heard my rants about how I have pretty much given up on Hockey in recent years. I hate what the US has been allowed to do to the game. I hate the promotion in recent years of goon players whose only purpose is to fight and batter and bruise better players BUT I recently watched the CBC 10 part series "Hockey: A Peoples History". The series reminded me about all the things I love about Hockey. How it really is a truly Canadian sport and how important it is to our identity as a people and a nation. I was particularly impressed with the amount of time spent on the history of Women's hockey.

As the sales pitch for the series states " CBC’s epic series chronicling the story of a game and the soul of a nation. Born as a game of survival against the snow and ice of a Canadian winter, hockey gave a new country it’s first heroes and champions." If you can catch the series it is definitely worth it. Some of the footage is incredible and the interviews with hockey greats and the great sportswriters are fascinating to listen to. Stephen Brunt's discussion on the greatness of Bobby Orr is nothing short of poetry (Brunt also has a book coming out on Bobby Orr).

The series is one that every Canadian should see. It will take all of you back to those Saturday nights when as a kid you were allowed to stay up late and watch Hockey Night in Canada. In our house we got not only the bonus of getting to stay up and watch the hockey game but we also got the added treat of a big bowl of Hostess potato chips with the best chip dip on the planet and a glass of coke or Canada Dry ginger ale. Bet all of you have the Hockey Night in Canada theme song going through your heads now.......just in case you need a reminder here ya go.....


Hockey Night in Canada Theme song