Blogging Status in Jeapordy

FRAUD UNCOVERED ONCE AGAIN?

As part of our ongoing campaign to maintain the honesty and integrity of blogspot.com, we have  implemented a system of monitoring our bloggers for honesty and integrity. We are especially vigilant with bloggers who have had their honesty and integrity previously called into question. Once again we must question brettandnonie's blogging for honesty and integrity.

A close review of their posted pictures has revealed some anomalies that once again requires us here at blogspot.com to make you, the reader, aware.  The pictures on the left are claimed by brettandnonie to have been taken while they were purportedly traveling in China while those on the right have been prepared by blogspot.com. Our in-depth research and close examination of their pictures has led us to believe that they were taken a little closer to home.  Our research found that Canada is home to many "Chinatowns", some very close to brettandnonie's current location. We ask you the readers to examine the pictures closely, review our findings and make your own decision as to the veracity of the pictures.

The Truth About Grandparents

Just returned from a trip to Central Canada and a visit with the grandchildren. Started this blog while enjoying the comfort of Via Rail and sipping a inexpensive glass of red wine. Be aware, my inhibitions had been lowered.

All right, lets get it our there, the unvarnished truth about being a grandparent. Be aware that all grandparents are fibbers. Not liars, that is too harsh a word to describe what grandparents do. Fibbers evokes a kinder gentler portrayal of our deceit when discussing grandchildren with others.



When faced with the obligatory pictures of other grandparents, our vocabulary is suddenly filled with adjectives like beautiful or the 100's of other synonyms. (cute, delightful,  pretty, gorgeous, adorable, handsome, angelic, lovely, etc., etc.)  Antonyms fade to the furthest reaches or our brain never to reach our lips. As grandparents, we believe that unattractive grandchildren do not exist, some are just cuter then others, specifically when they are yours. When shown pictures, we not only see the grandchildren but we also see the faces of grandma and grandpa, beaming with pride at what they have had half a hand in creating. Some would suggest that it is the same look as displayed by new parents but I would say  that those looks are more ones of astonishment mixed with pride and joy over what they have created but at the same time, eliciting similar descriptive commentary used for grandchildren. See adjectives above. Sadly for grandparents, astonishment has long been beaten out of us.



Grandparents are genetically disposed to fibbing and are mandated too believe their grandchildren are the bestest, with all other grandchildren ranked accordingly. As well, we are convinced that they have inherited only our best genes, splicing out all the others. A grandchild's flaws are quickly overlooked or blamed on outside influences  such as their parents. As Gore Vidal said, "Never have children, only grandchildren." 











I have attached the necessary pictures to meet the requirements of the Grandparent Handbook, Section 5, Article 3.8.

Visas:Don't Leave Home Without Them

QUESTION: Are visas an efficient way to control people accessing your country or just a cash grab?







A visa is an official document, usually stamped or glued inside your passport, giving permission from  authorities to enter their country.  A fee may be charged for issuing a visa; these are often also reciprocal, so if country A charges country B's citizens for a visa, country B will often also charge the same amount for country A's visitors. Quite often, the fee will be reciprocal as well, country A charges $50 then country B will charge $50. Canada requires entry visas from 168 countries with 53 countries having visa exemptions

 A quick review of both lists indicate the following. If Canada does not require a visa from a certain country then that country does not require any paperwork for a Canadian traveling into that country. If Canada requires a visa for a country then that county requires either a visa prior to entering the country with the resulting costs or they require a reciprocity fee that is payable in cash, credit card, or by traveller’s cheque prior to clearing immigration at the airport.


Additional review of the Canadian lists clearly show our bias for European, British and Commonwealth countries for visa free entry to Canada. But to be fair the list also includes a number of Asian and African countries. The USA only lists 36 countries that do not require a visa with only six countries not found on or attached to the European continent. Looking at countries  whom seem reliant on tourism,  we mostly find that visas or reciprocity fees can be purchased or paid for upon arrival to the country, no trips to an embassy required.  

Based on the above, I would put forward the answer that visas are both a cash grab and a method of control. As well, I would like to add reciprocity as another reason. Do unto others as they do unto you. Our experiences with the staff who man these stations and collect your money has for the most part, never been a positive experience. Perhaps they attend the same schools as the customs officials.

As we stood in the line at the embassy waiting to hand over cash for a visa to a country who shall remain nameless (wink, wink, nudge, nudge),  I asked myself this question, "Who wouldn't want a Canadian tourist visiting their country and why are they making it so difficult ?"  Alas, the question went unanswered. Probably better that way. I suspect the difficulty is reciprocal. 

Borderless World??

We went for a quick post New Years trip down to the US of A.  This required a trip to the bank to retrieve our passports. Since the events of 9/11 Canadians have to produce a passport for entry into the States. Prior to that all you needed was smile :), be reasonably sober and able to produce a valid photo ID.  I once used my Block Buster video card to slip down to Bellingham, Washington for a beer.  With our dog eared passports in hand, we sat in the US line waiting to talk a customs officer. Bored,  I got to thinking about all the factors we face to cross a border into another country.

We have crossed a lot of borders in the last ten years and faced dozens of surly customs officers. Except for one or two exceptions, surly customs officers have been the most consistent factor we have found when crossing borders. There must be a school somewhere that specializes in giving customs officials those sneering looks of suspicion and unspoken accusations of smuggling. 





Surly (adverb), Surliness (noun): irritably sullen and churlish in mood or manner
Sullen (adjective): gloomily or resentfully silent, repressed
Churlish ( adjective): marked by a lack of civility or graciousness

I think you get the idea. The prize for surliest is awarded to? Ah, too many to fairly award it. Although the borders where custom officials carried big, scary looking  rifles, dramatically enhanced our experience and perhaps coloured our perceptions of the levels of surliness we were subjected to.

Another factor faced is the valuable time spent to cross borders. Anywhere from under a minute to 10 hours. The clear winner for the most time spent crossing a border was from Mongolia to Russia. To be fair, the train we were traveling on,  required a complete wheel replacement due to the different track gauge size between the two countries.  While this was going on, we were left to wander around a quaint little Russian town, that doubled as a giant souvenir shop. The winner for the least stressful crossing was from Estonia to Sweden. We arrived on ferry from Tallinn to Stockholm. Disembarking from the ferry, we had passports at the ready. We quickly found ourselves outside on the dock, not seeing a soul who looked like a customs officer. We kind of freaked a little, thinking that we had somehow bypassed some form of control point and that we were illegal immigrants on Swedish soil. Not to worry, but we did have to deal with surly taxi driver that took us to our hotel. But that's another story and fodder for another blog.

There was a brief thought back in the late sixties, when peace and love was rampant, that in the future borders would become non-existent. Sadly, we are no closer today to a borderless world and the chance of that happening in the future is about as doubtful as finding a friendly, smiling border official at any border crossing. But, lets for a moment imagine a world without borders, what would we do with all those border officials?  Armed taxi drivers perhaps.


 Visas, a legitimate way to monitor people entering your county or a cash grab. Stay tuned.



Merry Christmas To All

CHRISTMAS PASTS  

 

CHRISTMAS 2010

The ornaments for this tree were created by a number of nationalities. Canadians, Americans, Chinese, Russians, Japanese, Phillipinos, Iranians and Italians. Match the ornament with the nationality.












CHRISTMAS 2009


This Christmas saw us enjoying a traditional warm and mild Christmas in Vancouver. A sad precursor to the no snow Olympics that required snow to be trucked in and helicoptered onto the hills so the free style competition could be run. 

CHRISTMAS 2008


Our first Christmas in China saw us spending Christmas day at a preschool playing with the kids. The school was extensively decorated with a Christmas theme which included a huge 8 foot Christmas tree in the lobby.

We were still smiling four hours later.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT 2011

Merry Christmas to all and to all, see you in the new year. 

Home Is Where Your Heart Is

They say that "home is where your heart is". We can certainly confirm that but with one caveat. It seems that your heart can live in two places at once. We left our home in Harbin on July 4th and when we did, we left a little bit our heart behind. It was even more difficult to leave this time then the last as we do not know if we will return as we knew we would last time. Saying goodbye if it might be forever is so much more difficult. Our extended Chinese family will be forever part of our lives.

It did not take us long to get back into our Canadian lifestyle. Thanksgiving was celebrated with  family in Victoria. Assorted aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and the matriarch of the family, Nonie's mom who turned 86 this year.  Nonie and I took a few hours out on Thanksgiving day to run the Victoria 1/2 Marathon. A not so well thought out decision made 6 months before. Nonie finished in 2 hours 15 minutes and I limped across in 2 hours 5 minutes. The run endorphins combined with the turkey's triptophan and a couple of glasses of a cheeky Chablis had me sleeping on the couch while the grandnieces and grandnephews toyed with me.  

Halloween once again saw us donning our finest red dresses for the annual Penticton Pounder's Red Dress Run.    It involved running 5K which is quite a feat if one is wearing a slinky little red number with all the accessories.  Well perhaps, slinky may be an over statement.

Again, due to another not so well thought out decision made 12 months ago I have signed up to compete, delete "compete", make that "attempt" to finish Ironman Canada. Ironman Canada is annual race that has been held in Penticton for the last 30 years. 3,000 athletes swim 3.8 kilometres, bike 180 kilometres and run a full marathon before dinner. I turn 60 next year and so felt the need to do something to mark that special occasion. So this year my motto is "60 and STUPID". Training in Okanagan Lake and missing my swimming buddy branson, I have had to make do with whom ever was in the lake. Meet Ogie or Ogopogo as he is know by the world. He been swimming laps in Lake Okanagan since the ice age. Normally a shy and reticent creature, today he was especially chatty.


A cheap and environmentally clean way to travel or a last desperate cry for my lost youth. Either way, who cares, driving my scoot is a hoot. While driving I can't stop myself from humming Steppenwolf's " Born To Be Wild", sometimes in my outside voice, which can be embarrassing at stop lights.

And it is interesting to see the looks that I receive when I am stopped. If the driver is an older man, I get a gentle nod that says, "Way to go Man". A younger crowd and I get smiles of silent derision that say, " Look at the geezer" and the most hurtful of all, older women. Their looks of disdain says it all, screaming "Sure glad that's not my husband!" but with the occasional "Hey Sexy." when my ego needs a fix.  Well fie on them all, I just hum Steppenwolf and give them all a look of steely eyed determination that says "I am secure in my self and you can all go  +#$!  yourself man!" Oops, sorry, I was channeling my inner Dennis Hopper.

And the adventure continues. It was 38 years ago when we met on a cold Fort Nelly night in November in the local cabaret/bar. Depending on who you listen to, one of us picked up the other. So from a bar pickup, to the mother of my children and the grandmother to my grandchildren and the best of all, my Scooter Bitch once she gets the courage to get on the back.

This catches up the blog. Thanks for your patience. Not sure what life will throw at us but I suspect it will be throwing something. Keep posted.

Are We There Yet

The  week with our grandchildren went far too quickly and before we knew it, it was time to board the train and continue our journey home. Still a few stops to make before we are in Penticton.

We have over time developed a serious fondness for train travel. Over the past three years, we have flown mega air miles,  circling the globe three times and we have come to one single defining conclusion regarding air travel. Flying coach sucks. The seats are small and crowded even for one of average height and weight. The air quality on board the plane  should be considered hazardous to your health and on occasion so can the attendants. Don't get me started on carry on luggage. Trains are so much more civilized. Of course, civility can depend on where you happen to be catching the train. The top picture is the train station in Harbin and the adjacent picture is the train station in Ottawa. Who can spot the differences of train travel between the two countries. E-mail us your answers.

The train ride to Toronto was four hours downtown to downtown. Cost was about the same to fly but with out having to be frisked or your luggage pawed through. The attendants were not surly and even helped take one of our bags on to the train. The seats were enormous, comfortable with leg room that Kobie Bryant could relate to. The beverage and munchies lady was by every hour and with reasonable prices. Everyone lined up nice and politely with no pushing or shoving and our reserved seats were not filled by strangers . Ahh, Canada,  a more gentler and kinder rail travel. Sadly it is only available in Ontario.

A short overnight stay in Smith Falls to visit an Aunt with another overnight stop in Toronto for another Aunt and cousin then landing in Beamsville with Nonie's sister to complete our obligatory family visits in Ontario. No rest for the wicked as I had agreed to install a simple light fixture during our stay. It turned into an ugly, all day job with nothing simple about it. My Crazy Uncle Brett title was reinforced big time with perhaps a little blue language for effect.

. We did have time to make a whirlwind trip to Windsor, Ontario to visit Mr. Doctor J who was currently working as a Visiting Scholar at the University there. He and his wife Mrs. Doctor J were a significant part of our extended family in Harbin.  Spent a lovely sunny day in Windsor, walking along the Detroit River after enjoying a  fabulously home cooked Chinese meal.  Doctor J rooms with three others, one of who can cook up a storm. Nonie and her sister tried to bring some elephants home but they were not cooperating.

One more stop before we land in Penticton. Two days in Vancouver to visit with our youngest son and another Aunt then home to Penticton. I am so looking forward to becoming intimate with my LazeeBoy once again.