World Enough and Time

I've only been working here a week. Love the place, but I still worry about getting things right; remembering the right things.

Yesterday at lunchtime I treated myself to another picnic by the river, enjoying the sunshine, watching the squirrels and gulls, and eating cheesecake decorated with cream and a strawberry just because I had a good excuse. Making the lunch break festive.

I wasn't back in the office long before I was called upstairs, where the Director has his office. "Come up for a meeting," said his assistant. So I grabbed my pen and notebook, running up, wondering how or why there could be a meeting I didn't know about - and I admit, somewhat paranoically, wondering if I'd done something wrong. More likely they just needed me to take notes.

They were all sitting around a table with a beautiful birthday cake on it. One candle, lit. It was gorgeous! "Make a wish!" they said, so I did, and blew it out. My wish was to keep this job.

Now I'm having a leftover piece for breakfast before work. The cake is from the Swiss Pastry Shop; they make wonderful cakes. A white cake with strawberry cream, and strawberries on top. And no calories on birthdays, either. (This includes the leftovers on the day after, as a buffer zone.)

Woke early enough, and with energy enough, to entirely clean the apartment. Well, almost entirely. After I thought I'd finished I found spilled birdseed under one of my tables. How does that happen?

Thomas phoned me with birthday greetings; he was puzzled that he hadn't been able to reach me on my actual birthday. I explained that I'd been in Turkey, and since he'd been there a couple of decades ago, we had a nice chat about it.

Went to Dim Sum with the Saundersons, who gave me a wonderful book for my birthday: Don't Know Much About Literature, which is essentially trivia quizzes about famous books and authors. fun. And, true to form, they managed a wonderful birthday card. The outside says:

The Birthday Rule of Three

1. Food
2. Entertainment
3. Wrapped gift

There's a picture of s buffet with the words "Food: Check"; of Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller from Frankenstein with the words "Entertainment: Check", and then: "Only one thing left under the rules. Happy Birthday, Elizabeth. Hugs, Marion and Vicky.

I loved it. And the Dim Sum was delicious, as Mandarin Ogilvie tends to be; this time I had (among many other superb dishes), pig's ears, which was new to me. maaseru teased me about eating cartilage. Guess I like eating cartilage.

After the Dim Sum, maaseru and I went to Costco for groceries, though I also bought a sim card for my tablet. and socks.

In the afternoon, Beulah came over with plants for maaseru and a cup of tea and conversation.

Then I worked on the next issue of Apaplexy, and on scrapbooking my trip.

Today was the longest birthday I have ever had - a 31 hour day.

It started in Istanbul at the Taksim Gonen Hotel, and continued through the long drive to the Atatürk Havalimanı Airport, and the long flight on Air Transat to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, and then the drive from Montreal to Ottawa - hampered by a large traffic jam in Montreal where a light standard had fallen across the freeway to stop traffic entirely for a while.

But. Home now. Safe and sound. And tired.

To msilverstar:



Wishing you a wonderful year!

To filkferengi:



Wishing you beautiful music, interesting books, stimulating friends and lots of cake!

Morning: I was at work. As so often happens, the unexpected kept happening. I think, I hope, I stayed on top of it all.

When I left work, I went to the Silver Snail and picked up my comics. It was one of those weeks where a bunch of comics I read came out all at once, including a hardcover graphic novel I'd pre-ordered, so it cost a bundle. There were comics by my three favourite writers in comics: Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, and Warren Ellis. ( I got... )

And the hardcover graphic novel: Castle: Deadly Storm, a Derrick Storm Mystery by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue Deconnick. I hope this is as good as I'm anticipating.

Then I met duncanman for lunch, and we had a nice time chatting.

I had to meet maaseru on Eddy Street in Gatineau so we could go together to our chiropractor in Kanata. It's been years since I've been to Gatineau by bus (if ever) and I had to switch to the Outouais bus system. I asked the driver, in French, if we were at the right stop for where I wanted to be, and he said, not. He explained how I had to get off the bus and take a pedestrian overpass into one of the buildings on the big government complex there, then catch another bus behind the building, which would take me to Eddy. On the one hand, I was proud at my ability to handle this full complicated discussion in French. On the other hand, I was completely confused by his directions, and I'm sure hearing them in English wouldn't have made it any easier.

So I set off on foot through the government buildings there, and it's a maze of seemingly endless food courts, all closed up after 5 p.m. I couldn't even find an exit to get me back to ground level or out of doors. I tried phoning maaseru but got only her voicemail on both work and mobile numbers. So I wandered further. I found an exit and a stairway at last, that let me back onto the street at the junction of Laval and Portage, face to face with a statue of Samuel de Champlain.

My Blackberry rang. "Where are you?" asked maaseru.

"Lost!" I wailed. "At the corner of Portage and Laval."

"Where's that?" asked maaseru, as mystified as I was.

"I don't know!" I wailed. "I just hope it's close to Eddy! I'm standing beside Samuel de Champlain."

Luckily, she remembered the statue, and picked me up. Then after a traffic jam on the Queensway, which we avoided, and traffic lights on Carling Ave., which maaseru hates and complains about mightily, we got to the chiropracter absolutely spot on time to discovered they were in the middle of a power failure, total blackout. Well, intermittant blackout.

Then when the belated chiropractic treatment was over, we went to Panda Gardens for Chinese food, and met up with Marion and Vicky, and then went back to their place for presents and birthday cake - a candle each for maaseru and I, since they hadn't seen her since her birthday in August.

It was all quite wonderful. They do good birthdays. They gave me a book I've been seriously wanting: Shadowplay by Clare Asquith, about Shakespeare's hidden beliefs and how they are expressed in his plays. Will I be convinced? We shall see.

They also gave me a letter opener of incredibly beauty, which, without in any way being a real knife, has the heft and aura of a serious work of blademanship.

To laitosto: Have a happy, happy birthday - and a fabulous year.



Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

To acampbell:



Happy birthday - I hope you have an excellent year.

To laitosto:



Happy birthday to a wonderful person - wishing you a year of good music, good studies, good travel, and lots of fun. Bonan naskightagon at vi!

To acampbell:



Wishing you a year full of good times and happiness.