Holiday Mindset

Well, we’re back from the wilds of Muskoka Ontario. Had eleven lovely days up North, with pretty good weather – mostly sunny, with rain occurring generally at night. Lots of time on the dock and in the lake, going for walks down country roads, doing yoga in the boathouse looking out at the lake while listening to Ravi Shankar, or Kiran Aluhwalia, or Mogwai, or Rachid Taha, or Gregorian chants, or…

Had a great time with my sisters. One lives here in Toronto – waaaay up in the North end requiring a relatively long subway journey from downtown to get to. The other lives in Montreal (second best city in Canada!), and I see her only a couple of times a year. We three get along soooo well and I laughed more than I have in months, just hanging out with them.

The kids, now all becoming pretty grown up, spent most of their time avoiding us. The guys built picnic tables for my father’s birthday, which we all signed and then varnished. He loved them. We celebrate multiple summer birthdays while we’re there on vacation, including mine (!), and I received multiple gift certificates for a new camera purchase. Brother in law Peter from Montreal, who is a graphic artist and avid photographer, has been incredibly helpful with the selection process. Am pretty sold on the Canon SD700. My other sister’s partner brought up his new Nikon D50, which was absolutely awesome. So although my cottage pics are now posted, they pale in comparison to what others have been taking, but I’m hopeful that fabulous images are coming up soon. The current camera has been wonderful to start playing around with digital, but I want more. It’s obvious how this can develop into a mega$$ hobby!

So the city is hot and steamy (and smoggy, and smelly), but it is alive in a BIG way with World Cup soccer. When driving in yesterday, Italy had just won against Germany – we live in the part of Toronto called “Little Italy” – say no more. Was party central. Second largest neighbourhood population is Portuguese, so every eye around here is right now tuned to the France/Portugal game in progress. If Portugal wins, the party will be on again tonight. The final game next weekend will be insane. Is all great fun!

I still have several days of vacation left before returning to work next Tuesday. Have a shiatsu booked for tomorrow afternoon. Did some market shopping today and think we might head down to the lakeshore on the weekend. Still moving with the slow, out-of-city pace, but things will speed up soon. It’s okay – it’s all good. Off to do yoga on the back deck before making dinner, bye!

Sue