Since our ferry ride over on Wednesday, Pater’s chaired a Strata Council meeting, fit in a few teleconferences, and squeezed in a very chilly bike ride, while I’ve lunched with my sister, shopped for jeans, enjoyed several glorious, if frosty, runs, and babysat a brand new 3-year old and her little brother.
Together, we’ve taken a Just-Turned-7-year old out for a birthday lunch, done a Scotch-tasting at a friend’s, watched the most disappointing opera of our opera-going lives, had ringside seats at a 3-year old’s birthday party (a delightful production directed by my daughter in rented space at the Community Centre, kids, babies, parents mingling in a happy preschool-ready space), and spent several hours with a realtor sizing up the Vancouver market with an eye to the future…
Not too much time, then, for analysis or contemplation, but perhaps I might just bookmark my awareness that my time in Vancouver is marked by another iterations of the Liminality I’ve been pondering lately. Many important pursuits or activities get left behind on the island, not least because they require material props that aren’t easily transported. I’m working on this, trying to figure out how to maintain continuity and also to discern when continuity is neither necessary nor desirable. Work in progress….
Perhaps this is why I’m so consistent about my running here. It’s a manageable way of asserting my priorities, a modest enough claiming of time and identity but satisfyingly clear, for now.
Knitting and reading are easily portable as well, although they require slightly more advance planning, careful packing. Luckily I got that right this visit, so that I was able to finish this little sweater here and give it to the birthday girl at her party today (she really didn’t want to slow down to try it on, but her very influential cousin suggested they both wear their Nana-knit sweaters, so sweet)
And now I can settle happily into the last instalment of Elena Ferrante’s marvellous Neapolitan series.
What does it take for you to feel at home, no matter where? What keeps you in touch with yourself, connected? Or do you prefer to surrender, to give up the familiar completely, leaving all behind to make room for discovery?
Your girls are so sweet in Nana's sweaters and the combination of colours together ,did you think about it?
To feel at home for me means to establish some kind of approximately order and adjustment around me,small things,and to be alone with myself for some time during the day,to feel in touch with myself,as you put together. Then I'm more than ready for discovery . I like to explore,meet people,see places but it feels better when I feel ready to submerge. So,I can understand your need to run,it makes you content and crystal clear-minded,no?
What a busy weekend you had! I was very disappointed with the ballet Blue Beard lately,too
The real estate situation in Vancouver,is it hard to buy or sell? Prices here dropped a lot after expansion
Enjoy your fourth Ferrante book
Dottoressa
The sweaters do coordinate well, thanks, but Nola's is about 3 years old, so not planned at all
I also need to find some sustained solitude daily to feel comfortable, always have. As for real estate in Vancouver, it's a very tough market, overheated, has been for years. If you like something, you need to offer within a day or two, and have financing all lined up, so we're trying to familiarize ourselves with neighbourhoods and with the general range of possibilities well in advance of a possible purchase.
So much to think about and so little time! It is monday morning and I'm running off to school. But I have to congratulate you on the little sweater. The colour is perfect with the bithday girl's hair.
I admire all the people who manage to live in more than one place. I sometimes even resent the time I spend on packing for a weekend in the lakeside garden. But that may be due to general lack of time. Hopefully I feel more relaxed about it when I'm retired.
I do find it a bit easier now that I'm retired, but it's still too time-consuming and fraught. Maybe I'll get better with practice, or begin to care less
My biggest problem is, like you, remembering to pack knitting, work-out gear, and things that are not street clothes. Especially now that I'm spending more time with my mum in New Brunswick.. and flying instead of driving. My sister and I have started leaving things at mum's house. Heavy sweat shirts & sweat pants for power walking, or for just lounging around, rubber boots for those spring walks, extra blow dryers. When I'm there I wear her stuff and vice versa. Saves lugging some things in our suitcases. Last time I remembered to pack my knitting and never even took it out of my bag. I'm not sure I'll ever finish that scarf I started last winter! Especially because I find the mohair yarn finicky to work with… and I'd much rather be knitting a Lopi sweater!
That's a smart approach and it sounds as if it would work for what you do while there. I find the city gig tough because I want my good stuff here but if I leave it here, there may be an occasion I want it for back on the island. Sigh. #firstworldproblem
I've never made a Lopi sweater but would like to
Sounds like a good kind of busy. I'm looking forward to reading the Ferrante books. Mary
I think/hope you'll enjoy them. Although note Lesley's comment below…😉
Oh what a wonderful weekend! Rich and full just the way I like mine too.
I have just started Elena Ferrante's series and am enjoying her work.
What jeans did you buy? I could stand to replace my 3 year old pair soon.
I'll have to do a reveal of the jeans soon–they're wide-legged, cropped, a new silhouette I really like.
Love the sweaters. Cousins are awesome, cousins in matching sweaters even better.
And, we have a suburban place and a city place. I always, weirdly, take a file of papers that I almost never touch. But in terms of continuity, just about everything I do creatively or administratively is on my laptop, or iPad, so electronics covers me. I do find it hard to negotiate the different wardrobe thing. Packing for 2 days in the city seems as tough or more so than packing for a trip to Europe. Probably because we never know in advance what we're going to do in the city.
Cousins, yes! I never really knew, but yes!
And I think the same thing about dressing for the city, and I pack as much as would get me through several weeks in Europe because I'm not resigned to just managing. I want to have fun with my good stuff.
As for the electronics, I really miss my desktop when we're over here, finding the iPhone and iPad not as convenient and/or quick. Thinking I might need to get a great laptop…
If I bring my knitting, iPad and slippers I'm pretty comfy. Low maintenance these days when I go visit my grandson. It's all about enjoying him.
Have slippers (and iPad and knitting) Will travel. .. A Grandma's motto!
We have a vacation place and a city place that we navigate between six months of the year. I have workout shoes and clothes at each place as well as a full supply of "health and beauty" (!) items. I transport makeup and most street clothes back and forth because I always end up having the wrong shoes, etc. to go with the outfit I left at the other place. (And, I tend to forget what's at each place, even if I'm gone for only a few days, so I keep a list of what I left to help me repack). Food is my problem….hate to waste anything so much goes back and forth in a small cooler. Ipad and laptop also go back and forth. I feel guilty to be complaining because I am so lucky…….Janie
Yes! I'm not alone. Similar complaints, similar guilt about said complaints. I keep thinking I should organize a list-making system so I can remember what I've left where and what I need to bring, but so far, just bumbling along.
Hi Mater – are you thinking of selling up on the island and moving to Vancouver completely? I for one would miss the beautiful photos of your views!
There are one or two things I always take with me on a trip – my tea bags and, if space allows, my favourite cup. I always like to have a cup of tea on arrival anywhere.
My, those girls are cute!
That is probably an eventual goal, Parricia, but for now we're trying to get educated given how tough a market we have to contend with.
I'm not happy without my tea either, and very particular about what I drink it in, although I've never brought my cup along with me when travelling. Yet😉
I'm halfway through the second Ferrante book and I have to tell you I'm finding it hard going. I will persevere though. So many rave reviews can't be wrong, can they?
I remember that about parts of the second but there was also much I recognized in the narrator's self-doubt and her early tendency to be so derivative. The third was more interesting with its look at some of the intellectual and political foment of the 60s and 70s and I'm really caught up in Book 4. I'm glad you'll persevere…😉
Laptop and books for me. The girls look sweet. It sounds like a very busy weekend.
Reading and writing, right? That's what we need access to, mainly, we book nerds.
Enjoyed the pictures taken during your run. I visited Vancouver for the first time this past summer and loved it. What a splendid place for running!
By the way, if you ever get into Italian, Ferrante's first book is available on Audible.com in Italian. I was so surprised when I saw that just a few months ago, downloaded it right away and am 3/4 through it. The reader is excellent! And – I am not sure you know, they also have quite a selection of French books on Audible. This is quite a new feature as I was looking into downloading books from the European Audible sites and it was impossible two years ago (that's when I did my research into this) if your residence was outside of Europe. That part is still impossible, but they have now added quite a selection of foreign-language books to the American site, limited yes, but much better than nothing. I have purchased several French books and am listening to them during my 10k speed-walks.
So glad you liked our city — the weather was phenomenal this year with shockingly little of our usual rainfall.
Thanks for the info about Audible.com. My hearing's not great (I wear hearing aids) so I'm not sure how that would work, nor is my Italian good for much beyond ordering a glass of wine right now. But the French books might work and be a good way to practice listening skills. . .