Canada Reads 5/5

I am all ready for Canada Reads 2021. It was only a week or so ago when I realized that I wanted to read all five books prior to the debates this year ... and I finished the last one last night. I listened, via Audible, and that’s what made it possible (otherwise I’m a slow reader),

Which is my favourite? It’s hard to say, as I enjoyed them all. They were all so different! I could see any one of them winning. I confess my heart lies with Johnny Appleseed. Not only is it a truly great book, at this time of Truth and Reconciliation it gave me a greater understanding of the indigenous experience in Canada, which is important to me. As the Canada Reads 2021 is a book to transport you, I am not sure it will win, if the panelists take that theme literally. If that’s the case, Butter, Honey, Pig, Bread really did that for me, as I really left Canada. I could make a case for the others too. 

Should be more fun to lister to the debates this year. 

On boredom

Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom,
by James Danckert and John Eastwood
Listen to the interview on CBC's The Current

Heard an interesting interview today with 2 Canadian experts on boredom, prior to their upcoming book launch. It's a topic that would always be interesting to me, but of course, in the time of isolation, it is particularly timely. I don't often experience boredom, and sometimes express disbelief when people say they are bored... there is always something to learn about! Give me a stack of books, some art supplies and an internet connection and it is hard to imagine getting bored. Yet, it does happen occasionally. And when it does, I think about the creativity to come, as it inevitably does. But it is uncomfortable in the moment. This interview, however, had me rethinking my frankly holier-than-thou attitude about when others are bored. Jeez, Roberta, give people a break, eh? Everyone experiences boredom differently. And for those who normally are running all the time, I have new appreciation for how they may be experiencing boredom at this time. I particularly enjoyed the aspect of the interview of how boredom emerges when we have a lack of agency over our own lives... interesting stuff. They didn't get into whether this differs for introverts and extroverts, as I suspect it does, but maybe that's a reason to get the book (no audiobook yet, fingers crossed...).

Anyways, it was fascinating, and worth a listen.

CBC's The Current's Matt Galloway interviewed James Danckert and John Eastwood, co-authors of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom.
Listen to the interview (recommended)
About the book

Audiobooks on The Sunday Edition

There was a great story on CBC's The Sunday Edition today about audiobooks (you can listen to it here).

This is what I doodled while listening to it.

Last Sunday of 2019

I wake early, in this new pad of mine. I slept well, grateful for my long breakwater walk yesterday.
I spend an hour or two in light therapy, listening to an Audible book, and drawing and puzzling. I get up, have a shower, and sip some of yesterday's cold coffee, and remember that I forgot to add peanut butter on my food order (I make a note on my hand, my reminder for the Thrifty's call).
By now I am listening to North by Northwest - aka NXNW - on CBC radio, just how I like to spend most weekend mornings. Drawing and puzzling.
Then listen to the the Sunday Edition on CBC, this time a 3-hour long special, looking back at the decade that was. How interesting, this 2009-2019 time window, as it aligns with the time since I last had my own place. All that has happened in the world, superimposed on my life during that time, not at all what I thought it would be (Europe, a few months in Vancouver for the Olympics and work, moving to Sidney, living with and loving mom, then caregiving ~ some of the best and hardest times of my life ~ getting a studio for awhile, selling my art, some contract work, meeting Steve and doing the IHT gig for 7 years, starting the cruise work, then changing offices, so much drama and empty pockets, watching myself turn to junk food as soon as I had wheels, meeting Maui, becoming a kitty-mom, so fabulous, loving, and losing him, just after losing mom, so much sadness, wrapped in sweet memories, moving with my sister, short-term becoming long-term, only recently extracating myself, my new job, various gigs, writing two books as a ghostwriter, mystery shopping, 2 cruises, and of course dog-sitting Lucy and Palm Springs, and a NYC trip, and 2 Mexico trips, the start and peak and end of social media gigs, blogs, when did I stop taking pictures?, cataract surgery, missing Vancouver then getting used to it here, just a few trips over, beoming so broke I stopped going to concerts, a couple trips up island, car 3 at present, discovering Audible, getting and becoming addicted to my iPad, from a simple phone to smart phone to my Blackberry (I miss it!), back to smartphone, Aunt Dawn's visit, a couple weddings, nieces and nephews having babies, I practically stop reading physical books, but come full circle and have been actively unplugging, new friends, finding old friends, losing my mind after long long long stretches without 24 hours alone, unable to recharge my batteries, recognizing that I was falling into such a deep depression, exhausted by a year of 3-3.5 hour daily commutes, money issues, now starting a new life downtown Victoria, its a lot over 10 years....).
At some point, I am up making coffee in my Bodum, boiling water in a pot, and having breakfast with Kakuro. Puttering in my kitchen. Remembering now that I was unpacking boxes at 5:00 am.
Groceries come at noon, my new usual cheery guy.
Lunch is leftover pasta fom last night, made by moi, with pesto, and reheated in my new microwave (thanks M!), while I read (Richard Bach's The Bridge Across Forever, one of my fav books ever), more kitchen puttering, washing mom's old kitchen cannisters, thinking about how I will use them....
My day so far in a nutshell. Felt sleepy, was going to take a nap, but thought I might write for a bit.
Now, perhaps, I will walk....

My audience with Peter Mansbridge

So, Peter Mansbridge is coming to Sidney, and I managed to snag one of the last tickets.

I think I would always have been interested in hearing him speak, but in the context of today's fake news, attacks on the media and whistleblowers I think it will be fascinating.

Creative Commons Image thompsonrivers on Flickr

Preparing this post, I learned these things I didn't know previously:

• Among his hobbies, Mansbridge collects small mementos from his travels around the world, including rocks, soil and other “sentimental” items from various prominent historical places. He kept pebbles from a visit to the Battle of Dieppe site in France, dirt from Vimy Ridge, and sand from the beaches at Normandy, as well as pieces of the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China.
• Mansbridge had a voice cameo in the 2016 Walt Disney Animation Studios film Zootopia as "Peter Moosebridge," an anthropomorphic moose news anchor.
• Peter Mansbridge was awarded the Order of Canada in 2008.
• He has a cottage where he disconnects and watches NO NEWS (though he'd answer the phone if work called to say, interview Obama)

More
Mary Winspear Speaker Series: Peter Mansbridge, September 27 - it's the last in the series *
Why Truth Matters - My short blogpost when he accepted his lifetime achievement award
Order of Canada story
Peter Mansbridge voices moose in Disney film 'Zootopia'
Famous Canadian Cottagers: Peter Mansbridge

* darn, I missed Andrew Coyne back in May... he would have been great.

The secret on page 101

Great story on As It Happens tonight, and it reminded me of something from my Kamloops days...



This story reminded me of something my mother used to do, when she worked as the "book doctor" at the Kamloops library in the 60's and 70's.

Part of her job was to put the library's rubber stamp on page 101 of every book. If the book was shorter, the stamp went on page 51.

I think it had something to do with people stealing books, then saying it wasn't the library's, that it was a book they owned. As I write that now, it seems illogical, because if that was the case, why would the thief even appear at the library with said book?

Maybe there are librarians out there that know more about this.

Why truth matters

Peter Mansbridge's acceptance speech when presented with a lifetime achievement award, standing up against fake news and attacks on journalism. Well said Peter.

Listening to suicide

Not mine, or any thoughts thereof... but reflecting on a very interesting interview on suicide on The Current. The story is around our new right to die legislation, and whether those with mental illness should be given this option. I sat in my car to listen to the end of an interview with Graeme Bayless, a rather brilliant twentysomething young man with clinical depression arguing for this option.

• An open, 'uncomfortable' conversation on mental health, suicide and doctor-assisted death

All this while Canada is reeling from the surge in First Nations teen suicides (the Attawapiskat suicide emergency), such a tragic situation. The panel discussing the interview, and putting it in context, offered some interesting perspectives.

What's on my mind as I am listening is my friends who have been suicidal - including what it's like to be on the other end of the phone when a friend is suicidal. I've learnt the textbook things to say, but they sound so hollow at the time, and one feels so helpless. I won't say more here, but I am thinking about these people. I was also thinking about friends and acquaintances who have taken their lives.
And the evening I supported a friend whose brother had just taken his own life. And who have I impacted, positively or negatively, when they were in such a state, unbeknownst to me.

Heavy stuff, and not what I am normally reflecting on, but it's all part of this world we live in. A reminder that we never know what is going on for someone, what their private pain is, and the difference one can play in just being there, or how we respond.

I will continue to listen to these debates and explorations, I am learning a lot, from different perspectives.

Reading, reflecting and a bit of radio

Last night I found a beach bar and sat under a big umbrella (which would eventually come in handy when it started to rain) and had a beer, something to eat and a couple hours of people watching and relaxing reading...
This little bar is actually IN the sand, steps from the promenade, lots of folks wandering onto the deck dripping wet in their bathing suits.

Not far from the beach bar, walked by this plaza and it looked kind of cool. I love public art, so shall probably come back at some point to see the sculpture when the weather is clearer. It was 30C but windy, so the air was full of mist and sea spray, quite pleasant actually....

Earlier, musicians on the promenade and lots of people dancing, including these fun loving girls (got several good pics of them, so offered to email them) and this dude in his wheelchair... and babies and all ages... There are lots of waterfront musicians here.

Oh, and just in case you decide to take off your bathing suit and wrap yourself in a sarong... and then after a couple of beers decide you want to go swimming again, this is how the re-donning of the bathing suit is done at the beach bar:

A few random reflections 2 weeks into my trip:

• I am incredibly appreciative of the CBC at the moment; while I am very happy to be abroad, there is nothing like Canadian news and familiar voices to ground me. While watching The National happens a day late, podcasts such as The World at Six, The Current and As It Happens are available immediately. Just one of the things that makes Canada so awesome.
• This is the first time I have travelled with a full suite of technology and I love how it facilitates things like the above, as well as to keep me doing a bit of contract work. Email would be accessible anyways, but it is nice to have it at my fingertips. I am quite enjoying random comments from people I know who are reading my blog - often with their own tips on what not to miss.
• The sparrows I enjoying in the mornings appear to be, on reflection, swallows...
• I wonder if seagulls are a North American thing, as being able to hear the above birds without seagulls in the background made me notice their absence... hmmm.... I've been down by the beach a few times now and I don't remember them.... will have to pay attention to that...
• I may not be into the rhythm of the formal siesta here, but I seem to be mastering the ability (and inclination) to just lie down and sleep whenever I am drowsy....
• Aside of books/postcards and food/drink/transportation, I have spent a total of 27E since I got here: a watch with Salvador Dali's melting clock face on it (20E), and a little bracelet from one of the seaside artisans (7E)
• I should write some of those postcards soon.....

About reading..... I am totally enjoying time to read again, I have no idea when I stopped reading regularly, I think it's something I didn't even admit to myself. Having always been a reader, I think I was shocked to notice that I had allowed my world to be taken over by tv (mostly news and documentaries, but still...) in my spare time. Skimming travel books is not reading! Anyways, it's such a pleasure and I am seeing that finding English books will also be one of the themes of my trip.

I finished my second book here, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery (which I enjoyed immensely), on Saturday night .... (If you have read the book, you'll understand why I chuckled when trying to decide where to put that second comma in the preceding sentence!).... so my mission the next day was to find a new book. Oops! The shops are all closed here on Sundays, many restaurants and bars too, so I figured out quickly that finding a bookstore open, that also had English books, was just not going to happen. Interesting that later, when wandering near La Ramblas, I stumbled across a place called "Travel Bar" that had inside it a book exchange for travellers. Marvelous! Well, in theory, anyways. Mostly French, German and Spanish books, and the few English books were texts or bibles.... Eventually found a series of three novels that didn't really look like my thing, but, what the heck, any book in a bookless storm!!! So grabbed one.

I got probably 1/4 of the way through "Eclipse" before I figured out life was too short to spend this much time on a weak story about modern day vampires and werewolfs in the Seattle area.... (funny, as I looked it up on Amazon to put in the link, it says it is not being released until August, but somehow I have a copy... I guess I should feel special, but I don't.... someone else will, I'm sure, be delighted by the find when I take it back to the lending bookshelf...).

I used to resist not finishing a book, always holding out the hope that it might get better, but I now think that's rubbish: if a book is not connecting with me (or me to it?) best let it go and find something else....

So Monday I was off to find a real bookstore with a real selection, however modest, of English books. I found a couple (which I'll post a list of at some point), and am presently reading "The Bay of Angels" by Anita Brookner. I am engrossed and immersed -- that's the book in the pic with my beer above.

Lonely Planet has a tip about a 2nd hand bookstore in Poble Sec that apparently has a large cache of English books, shall swing by in the next day or so to check them out... cuz books that are both good and cheap would be good!