Gratitude coming home

Thank you God. Thank you Lord. Thank you.

Thank you for providing me work and the wherewithal to plan this expedition and adventure.

Thank you for the dreams and inspiration. Thank you for the motivation. Thank you for the vision.

Thank you for the training and planning and all the solo and group trips I’ve made prior to this.

Thank you for the internet and tourist industry. Thank you for the clinics that made it possible for us to be away.

Thank you for Karen who cared for Madigan and made it possible for us to leave feeling our baby was safe and well loved.

Thank you for air planes and pilots and staff and administration. Thank you for Delta and Air France. 

Our flights and service were all impeccable. 

Thank you for Flight Centre  Coquitlam, Linda Nankov and Shaelagh Chauncey,  with the Coquitlam teams.

Thank you for the Hilton in Edinburgh, the Marriott Residence Inn in Aberdeen, the mercury Hotel,Oxford, the Thistle Picadilly Hotel in London and the Citadines Apart’hotel Saint Germain des Pres Paris

Thank you for the British Northern Rail trains , the train from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, and the from Aberdeen to Oxford. Especially thank you for the Eurostar from London to Paris. Thank you for all the taxis.  Thanks you for iPhone with the maps.

Thank you for Pringle Edinburgh. Thank you for all the stores and shop keepers who were so helpful. Thank you for the bag pipe musician and salesman in Edinburtgh.  

Thank you for the art galleries and museum. The Military Museum of Scotland in the Edinburgh Castle, the Holyroodhouse, the Modern Art Gallery and the museum of Edinburgh with tribute to Grey Friars Bobby. Thank you for the hike to Arthur’s Seat. Thank you for the National Art Gallery and the Opera House of Scotland and the National Opera. 

Thank you for the Aberdeen Maritime Museum. Thank you for the Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Thank you for Angus Beef.

Thank you for Old Slains Hay Castle and New Slains Hay Castle.  Especially thank you for Delgatie Hay Castle and Joan and the Hay Society and tea and lunch and the tour of the castle, the ballroom and the view and the highland horses.  Thank you for the moving experiences I had there and at Old Slains. Thank you for the heritage and connection. Thank you for feeling close to my grandfather and father and brother all gone but near. Thank you for my mother.  Thank you for universities and Marischal College and the churches, St. Machar’s.

Thank you for the sheep and the golfers aside the railway and the North Sea and the town of Oxford. Thank you for Magdalene College and Christ Church CAthedral. Thank you for communion again and the the moving sermon.  Cloud of Unknowning. God God God

Thank you for London and the Book of Mormon musical and the National Ballet in the National Opera House. Thank you for Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace and ST. James Park and Picadilly and the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery and the British Museum. 

Thank you for Eurostar.

Thank you for the Seine and Pont Neuf and Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysse, the Arc d’Triump, the Louvre, Mona Lisa, the Muse’ d Orsay, the Van Gogh, Starry Starry Nights and the Renoir and Gauguin and Pissarro and Monet and Manet. Thank you for the Maison Sauvage omelettes. Thank you for the window in our ceiling and the moon at night

Thank you for the fabulous weather. Thank you for the pharmacist in the Latin Quarter who did our Covid tests. Thank you for her understanding and knowing English and being so gracious. 

Thank you for all these people and all the people whose shoulders they stood on .Thank for the hundreds of years of history and thoughtfulness and organization. Thank you for the governments and peace and the corporations and businessmen and business women and the genius and collectors and those who appreciate the finest and all the advances in art and science.

Thank for all the little pieces. Thank you for all the moving parts. Thank you that I was able to save the money and take the time off . Thank you for my companion Laura who too could be off work for a month and come with me through this cultural and historical intense learning elevation of heart and mind and soul.  Thank you for the rest and raising my spirits and consciousness. Thank you for showing me all the wonders of mankind and renewing my appreciation for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for lifting me from the grief of losing family and so many closest of friends.  Thank you for helping me to decide whether to retire or carry on. Thank you for giving me purpose and direction for another year. Thank you for bringing me home safely. Thank you for keeping Laura safe and thankful you for keeping Madigan safe.,

Thank you for the good people on my return, my neighbours, seeing Dave and Mac and Helena and Nicoletta and Peter and the dogs , Bella, Luka. Thanks you for the psychologist and his wife and our friend grandpa and for the dogs. Always thank you for Emory. Thank you again for Karen. Thank you for Mary Lou and Belinda who I communicated with through out keeping my patients safe.  Thank you for my work. 

Thank you that my home was in tact and not violated. Thank you nothing was stolen. Thank you that my car and truck and motorcycle and scooter were all safe and working .Thank you for there being money in the bank and pay cheques to pay the horrendous tax and rape the government takes in Canada for it’s elitist folly and mismanagement and waste and narcissism.  Thank you that I can kowtow and pay the price.  Thank you that my mail and bags and everything got home safe.

Thank you for coffee and the near market and food for the fridge and a stove to cook. Thank you for me and eds’ pizza.  Thank you for a safe place to walk Madigan.

Thank you that my back pain hasnt’ become worse though it persists .Thank you that I was able to walk all over the towns and museums and galleries and that my back only hurts in transition from standing and lying.  I ‘m thankful that I could walk and that I could find relief lying down

Thank you for bringing Laura and me home safely

Thank you for the iPhone and it’s camera and the ipad and my blogs andd the fun of travel writing and photography.  

Thank you for your blessings and your presence and your love. Thank you God!!!!

Another day in Paris

Yesterday was a great day visiting the 5th floor of Musee d’Orsay to see the Impressionst Collection. After I hired a cyclist to take me to the Champs Elyses.  On the way back I stopped at the Macdonalds there, bought lunch for Laura and I.  The taxi had me back at our place while the burgers and fries were still warm. Laura was delighted.  She’s twisted her ankle at the Louvre a little and decided on a day off.  

Today we both felt great passing our antigen home kits. Her ankle was back to normal. I had a good sleep dreaming of being with Madigan.  We stopped at the Pharmacie and the lovely lady there said, 

“Yes, yes, we do the test right here.  A day before you fly out. No appointment. 25 euro.  Just come by tomorrow.”  I liked her a lot.  So here we were with a home negatives and a test spot a block from our hotel.  We certainly didn’t want to be quarantined the day we were about to return . 

We had bought more refridgerator magnets. Laura was carrying them in my grocer bag. I carry a bag with my lap top.  Every urban European carries a bag for such.  I thought Laura would look better in another purse.

There’s an special orange fashion colour that has  just appeared.  “ I said, “I think it would carry the magnet swag better than my grocer bag.” 

“I’d love one,” she said.

The sales girl agreed  “They just came in yesterday,” She unwrapped one and Laura put it on, filling it with fridge mag swag and giving me back the my grocer bag

A cafe with convenient seats appeared.  I love French cafe’s.  The waiter, another delightful young man, arrived.

“Dieux cappuccino, “ I said.  

Laura not speaking french looked through the menu and leaped at the word ‘omelette’.

“I could have an omelette, “ she said .  “It comes with salad but I’d rather fries. I could just have fries.”

The waiter came back and I ordered dos omelette and pomme Frits. 

“You want Omelette and fries.” He asked

Yes,

So one omelette and one bowl of fries came. 

“I really just wanted fries,” Laura said, enjoying the mayonnaise and ketchup condiments that came for dipping.

I had the ham and cheese omelette that tasted so good.  It’s so true. The food tastes better here. The air or sunshine, street life, being on holiday and of course great chefs. The French treat their chef’s like rock stars.

While we ate we watched the ever present street fashion show. I love Europeans because they care how they appear in public.  We saw this in Italy, in Edinburgh and of course Paris.  We saw a sweater in Laura’s new orange and some high end boots.  I loved the mini skirts. Laura pointed out some goth boots.  

“I love that dress pattern. I’ve been seeing similar all week,” I said to Laura, pointing to a lovely lady walking by. 

“That’s the pattern and colour Kate’s been wearing”. Laura said.

“Kate?””

“I guess Duchess Kate. You know the one you like. Kate of Kate and William.” 

‘Oh that Kate’.

“Yes, the women here all wear long wool coats too.” She said. “   My friend said she’d never go out without her coat. Make up and coat and she could wear pyjamas under that to get milk or whatever she needed before rushing home to her apt when lived in  Paris.”

“I know. I see a lot of the wool coats.” I said. “  The guys have 3/4 length wool coats a lot too. I suspect it works well with the climate here.” 

We finished lunch and coffee and gathered up our stuff to leave. There’s no pressure. We just wanted to move along.  

Our next stop was a luggage store. We’d planned to check in a bag but had yet to get one. I could have got a cheap duffle bag but instead bought a French made leather over the shoulder bag that will go well with my Vespa.  I still haven’t seen a Harley here.  The biggest bikes are BMW’s and not the biggest.  The most common are the scooters 100 to 600 cc.   Bicycles are most popular with lots of electric styles.  They also have these electric skateboards.  

We saw a grocer and I loved that they had a fresh orange juice making machine that took oranges like a coffee bean grinder and squeezed our the freshest juice.  We bought more baguettes as well.  I suspect there’s a Baguette Anonymous meeting here. 

Then I showed Laura why we’d taken the longer way back. There was the Norte Dame Cathedral.  She was so pleased to see it and wanted a picture of herself with the baguettes. “That’s a perfect Paris picture, ‘ she said.  “Me with baguettes in front of the Norte Dame. I love it.” 

It was 2 pm when we returned to the rooms where Laura opened the window immediately enjoying the sunshine, fresh air and cooing of the pigeons.  

   

Maison Sauvage, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Paris

I stopped here at Maison Sauvage . In my mind I remembered it as the ‘savage house’.Laura and I had a lovely pancake,egg and bacon brunch here earlier this week.  I’m an hour earlyfor the opening of Apple 5 minutes from here. This cafe has outdoor heaters. My hair was still wet from the shower.  It was a warm day for March, especially in the sun, cool yet in the shade. The waiter Laura and I had when we were here was a handsome young man with a great sense of humor.  I ordered in my bastardized French Spanish and he answered in French Spanish before translating in English. 

.This time a gorgeous slim and petit black girl with braided hair took my breakfast order. I’m pathetic in French. 

“Je desire ‘oeuff’ 

“You want eggs,”

‘Si’

‘An omelet?’

‘Yes’

With cheese or bacon’

‘Oui”

‘And toast.’

‘Toast?’

‘Pan.’

‘You want bread’

‘Oui’

‘Okay.’

I would say her English is far superior to mine. The food came. It was perfect. The Chef again is a genius. 

I watched people passing on the street. Mostly young. Mostly well dressed.  This is the Latin Quarter. Lots of galleries, high end shops, cafe’s.  Also tourists.  

A couple of stunning well dressed young women sat down next to me. They were so chique and savoir in their manners  I assumed they were French.  But then  they spoke English with a slight London accent.  I can’t tell.  The stereotypes are all gone.There’s homogenization and diversification in overlying levels of sophistication. 

I passed a sign  that said ‘tribal Paris’.  That probably says it.  

 

Paris

It is morning here in Paris. Another sunny day. The weather has been a true blessing. There is smog in the air. Not so bad as Delhi or Vancouver in the summer of fires but it is here. My throat is sore. I thought it was omnicron. The air was better in London. I did have a sore throat and runny nose. But it persists here despite whatever flu like infection I had passing.  

Laura and I worry about return. I know worrying is wicked. Jesus said do not be afraid repeatedly.  I do not want to nocebo.  Laura is more anxious. Trudeau has extended the testing mandate before return to April 1, April fools day.  The truth is the tests aren’t true.  They have too many false positives. The whole Covid issue has been more political science than science. Stanford studies and cruise ship data early showed the ubiquitousness of the virus. It spreads. It interacts with the human immunological system as all viruses do. The weak hosts and nasty virus kill each other in a struggle to the death. Moderate more conniving bugs survive and become endemic. We’re at the endemic phase.  Interesting that zikka, sars and Ebola all took about 2 to 2 1/2 years to come in like a blast and then settle down.  So dropping the return testing requirement April 1 or today has no more validity than the 72 hour test decision about going to Bellingham. These are arbitrary. Of course public health enthusiasts would argue that at population levels they have relevance but I no longer trust their ‘computer projections’ for climate change or covid.  The methodology has been too far off too many times.  So I’m a skeptic. Right now all the world is dropping restrictions and getting on with life.  

We’ve had triple vaccination.  The vaccinations were key. I believe in those but not testing after vaccination Especially given the militaristic approach to vaccinations.  If vaccinations are warranted then why the test.  If you are going with the test then the vaccination should not be necessary. Either/or.  

Personally I don’t like the uncertainty about whether we can go home later this week.  Laura is very anxious about being quarantined and not being able to return to work. She catastrophizes. I would just see it as another week of vacation and be sorry but financially I’m more stable than she is though I promise her I’ll take care of her.  The modern woman doesn’t want to acknowledge that. The modern woman insists men are unnecessary.  A man is as necessary to a woman as a bicycle is necessary to a fish. Yet I’m generous caring  and working  and have lived responsibly with sufficient savings to get me through.  Most live at the outer edge of their means.  

Today I know many men who are still dependent on their mothers while I know many more women who are dependent on men.  I know so many men who are dependent on the state. I feel my back ache is related to the idea I have of carrying the world.  It’s that self pity whine that flares up and is sometized.

The latest fear is the WEF.  There was the who Communist Canadian Strong and IPCC deceit upon deceit. The skies falling, give me money climate change swindle. Then there was the this ‘great reset’.  I simply don’t trust the UN.  The ability of Mob units within that body that can come up with the anti Israel rants all the while a group of Muslim men say they are the committee for women’s rights should tell anyone that the UN is a circus at best. So many grandiose Beurocratic types, little Hitler’s and Little Napoleons. I remember working in government and encountering these control freaks.  

Personally I’m like Wallace and Bruce.  Scots whae Hae!!!! 

Then the evidence that two corporations or Black something and can’t recall the other are the committee controlling all money. Then the idea that Klaus says everyone should have no money.So more communist destruction of the middle class turning society into the pre Magna Carta world of the godless dictatorships and the dictatorships of pagan and Islam variety.  I’m Christian. I prefer Jesus. Christians are the most persecuted in the world. I’m white. All of the rhetoric is ‘anti white’.  Third columns and fourth columns and shame and blame. But who chooses the ‘terms of reference’.  We just saw that the aboriginals killed off the precursors in North America .  Homo sapiens beat the Neanderthals and Denizons.  Why work when corruption and thievery can get all the gains. Steal a little and they put you in jail….steal a lot and they make you king.

I feel threatened and pressured in the middle and have done every test and jumped every hoop but now I’m old and vulnerable and tired. The slackers have done that matrix thing stealing energy.  Sucking souls. 

Now I’m in Paris. Before I left on this ‘vacation’ I was ready to give up.  Retirmentmen is an option but now that I’m rested and renewed I ‘m ready to go back into the jungle and take up my cross.  My back hurts, my body is weary. I’m 70 years old. I don’t think it but I do feel it.  I have been enriched with all the museums and galleries and inspired. When I feel the human race is lost I just have to get on the Eurostar and see the achievements man is capable of. It all gives me hope.  Each of the inventions in the museums, each of the achievements in science art and living fills me with renewed faith in my fellow man and woman. This too will pass.

I had watched the media of London and Paris and the journalists are a depressing lot. Being among the people I am restored with the ‘buzz’. There’s so much life and fun.  Babies being born. My grand nephews and the god kids are the future. It’s the nature of my work that I’m with the marginal and those of little faith. I’ve spent a life time lifting people up who don’t want to go anymore.  Of course we all die. I’ve even provided quality of death experiences but not yet.  Repeatedly I’ve seen people recover.  My depression, if I want to call it that at Christmas, was the product of two years of lockdowns and fear mongering.  I was ready to retire because I couldn’t join in the ‘blame the victim’ approach that dominates government health towards psychiatry and addiction medicine.  

All the data show that when therapists don’t believe in the potential of abstinence for patients they don’t get abstinence. Abstinence is the treatment of choice but you’d never hear that in the harm reduction sell booze and drugs, better living through chemistry government supported system. I’m a maverick in the community struggling with competing interests always with a beurocrat with a gun to my back telling me to smile and dance and if you aren’t popular we’lll shoot you. They College of Phusicioans love drug pushers and psychopaths and sociopaths. We all in the trenches seen how they promote the evil and are the evil.  

Who am I to judge. Live and let live.  I much nip the unhealthy thoughts early and focus on the good. All shall be well. All Shall be well. All manner of things shall be well. That’s again the mantra as I go forth.

Tomorrow the Louvre.  Today a slow day with a visit to a church.  Laura wants a day of rest.  She’s afraid of getting covid before she has to take the mandatory test.  That’s her placebo.  I don’t know. God is good all of the time is mind.  This too shall pass.  A rest day is good.  We’ve only done a few hours each day of ‘sight seeing’ so by no means is it onerous and a change is a good as a rest but she likes to lie on beaches and I like to climb mountains.  Amazing we have such fun together.  We do.  

All shall be well. All manner of things shall be well.

I love that the French are restoring Norte Dame after the arson attack by the radical Islamist.  Trudeau the tool has done nothing about the 50 churches that were burnt down in Canada last year.  

I love being on the Seine.  We’re staying on the Left Bank. It’s endless cafe’s.

Moon from our window sky light

Eurostar - London to Paris

We are on board the Eurostar London to Paris train, 1022 departure with 13.56 arrival.  We are in coach 12, seats 33 and 34 . Laura is at the window seat and enjoying the view.  We’re travelling at 225 km/hr. I’m excited to be taking the tunnel under the strait through the land called Doggerville,  that used to connect England with Europe. I’m just amazed at the extraordinary advances in engineering and tunnelling.  I have taken the ferry across the strait. It took a couple of days to go from Paris to London back then. I followed the building of this tunnel with fascination and now am experiencing one of the wonders of the world. The train should get me in Paris in 2 1/2 hours. Amazing.

The checking in process wasn’t daunting at all. They scanned all the luggage and we passed through metal detectors but we didn’t have to take our boots off. The customs check was just showing passport and vaccination certificate.  Canada is a first world country and the v accinations we received are acknowledged in France as they were in England. The unvaccinated or those with less acknowledged vaccines still have to have a Covid test in addition to their vaccine passport.  We just sailed through.  

We’d arrived early and ther train didn’t announce platform until the last half hour.  I’d tried to enter with my phone ticket two hours before only to learn that we had to wait till one our before at earliest.  As usual neither of us slept well before another trip. Now we’re here and our concerns about this or that was needless worry.  We’ll soon be in Paris and the last leg of our journey will begin. A West Bank hotel.  

Tomorrow church. The next day a tour of the Louvre with tickets to pass the line up. I have those with me.  The next day we take a day tour of Versaille. That’s all that’s planned.  We’d like to sit outside in the sunshine which is forecast and people watch in Paris.  Buy some souvenirs.  Eat croissant.  Rest.  It’s been a full schedule to get here.  We’re speaking more of Madigan。

Book of Mormon, Prince of Wales Theatre, London

The Book of Mormon is playing at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the same block as our Thistle Hotel.  I’d heard it was hilarious and that young Mormons loved it but the church officials considered it suspect. Institutional folk especially the old have never been known for their sense of humor.

Erickson described the Parental, Adult and Child aspects of the mind.  Institutional folk like police and beurocrats and the officious in general have clearly overdeveloped Parental functions to the detriment of their child function.  The play actually dealt with this.

It was simply hilarious. There was so much absurdity that really only a child could appreciate the truth of it. The songs were catchy modern mixes of African American and the dance, which I love, was cutting edge.  The play was Constantinian Christianity or Cargo God, a challenge to all who worship the ‘book’ of any kind, especially those who cherry pick and somehow miss something.  

Exclusivity and inclusivity. The gay debate and the slave and women issues of St. Paul.  It didn’t speak to the book of Islam but it was by no means limited to the Book of Mormon.  

All the First World  religions  were there in this microcosm of a  Mormon American ministry to Uganda.  What a fabulous interface.  Warlord’s ,Aids, superstition and the dreams.  Hollywood pantheon versus the Greek pantheon and the saints of Christianity and the Joseph Smith

All around us were young mormons thoroughly enjoying the play.  The audience was primarily young people but that could just be my perception.  Nothing funnier than hearing a missionary passionately talking about ideas to a man who responds “I’ve got maggots on my scrotum.”  

The prevalent problematic machismo African belief that intercourse with a virgin cures aids leads to infant intercourse but is cured by displacement  to fucking frogs.  It’s so bizarre with Star Trek and Darth Vader incorporated.  I loved it.  Nothing is funnier than seeing what the village believes they have been taught.  The church officials are beside themselves. 

Is God man made or is man God made?It’s a breath mint and a candy mint. Only time separates but to the omniscient there is no black or white.

 Did you get the ‘hell dream’. The hell scene is priceless.   The right and wrong of childhood becomes the corporate curse  of the American underbelly.  The future is Africa.  

The cast was black and white.  I loved it. Laura loved it.

“I couldn’t stop laughing, ‘ she said after. I’d heard her literally snorting behind her mask beside me.  

So no it wasn’t sacriligious. I’m not Mormon.  But I don’t have a problem with Jesus appearing in America or on any planet after crucifixion. I don’t keep God in a box ,even a shrodinger box.  The Collective Consciousness is the ‘in the beginning was the Word’.  This play is so funny it should  be required reading for all religions.  Maybe it would stop girls having their clitorus removed. The baptism duet was perfect.  It’s today’s Life of Brian.  

  

The British Museum

I’ve been here 3 hours now. There’s a museum map. It says if you’re going to just do an hour then these are things you must make a point of seeing.  So the treasure hunt began. I never found them all. It’s easy to get distracted in a museum.  The Celtic exhibits caught me. Then the Viking exhibits. The Islam exhibit is half a floor. I was interested in the tourquoise pottery. I don’t know what’s going to capture my attention in a museum. 

I liked the Thorn religuary with the thorn from the crown of Christ. That lead to me looking at more items from pilgrimages then it was swords and shields of Romans.  I think the police here with the radios and stab proof vests are weighted down. Then the modern soldier has all that gear. The Romans and Egyptians and Greeks had shields and heavy swords.  History wasn’t made by intellectuals and academics. Thankfully museums were.

The lay out is excellent by different period and collection. 

I don’t know where the time went. When I lived here 50 years ago I used to take my lunch breaks walking about the exhibits.  There’s so much of interest I really don’t know where the time went.  Indeed I started today in a room of clocks.  Amazing world.  

Now I’m having a egg sandwich and Latte waiting to do the Stonehenge tour. I bought some Stonehenge swag in the gift shop and it would be fraud not to take the tour.  I think after that it will be time to walk home. We have a musical to attend this night. A nap  would go well before that.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day

Caesar and I