Weather...

Last night there was a stunning thunderstorm. I can't recall a storm like that happening so late in the autumn; I wasn't sure, at first, that it really was a storm. But the sound of thunder is unmistakable.

In the end, I turned off all the lights and sat by my open window, just enjoying the atmosphere and the sound of the thunder and the rain.

Today: it was mild enough, and no rain when I walked to work, and I was hot in my heavy coat. Walked with the zipper open. But by the time I was walking home, the wind had picked up bitterly, and I was wishing for heavier gloves, and the snow was coming down in gusts.

So I think fondly of Eddard Stark again. Winter is coming.

Sandra Shamas....

"Wit's End II: Heart's Desire" is the title of Sandra Shamas' new show, which I saw at the National Arts Centre tonight.

What a great show.

Sandra Shamas is a Canadian comedian who talks about her life. Her last show was about living alone on a farm, newly divorced. This show was about... living along on a farm, having been divorced for quite a while, and turning 40. She is now 46, but the show reflects over the past decade of her life.

Very funny, but what's good about her shows - and what stays with me - isn't so much the comedy as the comments about life. Her comments on gender relations here were particularly fun. Much of it is about environment - her environment on the farm, the fields around her, the view from the farmhouse, the project of clearing brush from the forest in front of her.

And possibly the point of the stories was that, having learned to be self-sufficient, she had to learn how not to be self-sufficient any more. The funniest part (next to the jokes about paying off the mortgage) was about taking a course in using a chain-saw.

You wouldn't catch me doing that. But then, you wouldn't catch me moving to the country to live in a farmhouse surrounded by fields, with a view of the woods.

I don't do housework when I'm upset, either. Well... not very often.

Her punchline - her wisest advice - was "eat fudge at the fair". Make of the metaphor what you will.