July to England - London/Southwold

We spent the month of July in Europe. First to London with sister Mary & Ivan then to visit their Georgian seaside house in Southwold.
From London we had a wonderful visit to the famous opera centre at Glyndebourne (photo left) for Falstaff and sister Mary's wonderful uber-picnic lunch and many of Ivan's bottles of wine. (How we stayed awake on day 2 in England for that I'll never know...)
Mary had all the family over for a BBQ in the garden one hot evening, great to see everyone and the fast growing Frank and Hannah/Nacho's new home by the Thames in Chiswick.
Later that week we spent a few days in Southwold. A typical English seaside town, hot and sunny while we ere there so fun going down the old fashioned pier for trinkets and ice cream. Lovely beach houses, supposedly the cost of a house for some, but no power or water!

Aug 2009 Up and running again - May/June USA

Welcome back to my blog! Life has resumed this year to its standard level of many trips and gatherings. We spent May/June travelling for the month in our 22ft RV Lupita (LUP111). WE spent he time in southern colorado and Utah and northern New Mexico and Arizona. gorgeous country. Many fantastic national parks - Mes Verde, Arches, Canyonlands, Canyon de chelly, Bryce Canyon to name a few. Weather was varied, some very hot, at 8,000 ft cold! Lots of rain at times too and huge winds.
We revisited many old favourites. Spent my birthday in Santa Fe, one of the most fascinating cities in the USA, dinner at Coyote Cafe, still great after 10 years or more. Hiked up and down canyons and did well. the RV worked marvellously, didn't have to resort to a hotel once and mostly ate in and BBQd a lot of the time. We are gradually finding all the bells and whistles to make it totally self-sufficient.

Celebration of Life

We had a most wonderful celebration Sunday with Gary and Sam Marx. I met Gary at Mount Royal College where he was one of my subjects in photography class. Since then we stayed in touch, though his marriage to the beautiful Samantha, shortly thereafter his diagnosis with testicular cancer and the long journey back to health. Last year, they successfully completed IVF and have gorgeous twin baby girls (i months) Sophie and Zoe. Sam threw a party for Gary's 5 year anniversary of end of treatment so we were thrilled to be part of that.
(See photos of Gary with Sophie, friend Jason with Zoe and Mum &
adoring grandpa.)

It was also great to see Kathleen Popiel-Long with daughter Aurora and partner Jason (right)

Apr 28 Update - Fundraising

I've been touched by many of you who have donated either to Ali, who will walk for the cure in July when I am in UK, or others. Notably, Vicky Hughes in England completed the London Marathon in 5/44, raising over L3000 (pounds) for breast cancer research in the process. Thank you Vicky!
You are on my honour wall now!

Boomer to GenY

At my ACDS board conference this month,l I sat on a panel to discuss differences in inter-generational values in the workplace. With a Traditional, Boomer, GenX and GenY on the panel, we all changed places. This required a crash course for me on what Generation Ys are all about - that's roughly age 24 and younger. They are different! fortunately friend Cynthia's daughter Lauren (age 15) took me in hand, see results left. Note iPod in ear, cell phone in hand, lots of eye, big bag on shoulder, long blonde hair(?). I don't think I'll be mistaken for a GenY any time soon! HaHaHa

Wedding Plans

As we are invited to nephew Neil's wedding to Jo in England July 24, we are busy planning a trip to Europe around that. I have weekened and bought a new outfit, complete with Fascinator - a feathered frisson for my head, since I don't have much hair any more. I also found a black/beige outfit with a long skirt, perfect for excessive eating and drinking with an elastic-waisted skirt!

Mar 24/09 - My new motto

Enjoyed sushi yesterday with my pal from IABC and president of Fuzzy Logic, Micky Gulless. She is a cross stitcher. She made me a nice gift while waiting for husband Gary to recover from brain tumor surgery. I love it. It may offend the odd one but...It's my new motto.
Happy Birthday today to my big sis Liz in Cambridge.