After flying for three hours, landing and walking out of the arrival airport you are surprised by the different type of air you breathe, and, looking around, by the totally different colours surrounding you. It’s March, and you have just left a green landscape, blooming cherry trees, daffodils and some tulips behind. Now, with a slight little shock, even if you knew about the possibility – you look at leftover snow at the edge of the roads, icy frozen heaps at corners where the snow has been piled up and lots of puddles hiding the potholes and nothing but grey cars. You ask me “Why grey cars?” I should have told you, nobody washes their car here during the winter months because of the chance of frozen door locks. In spring, they don’t because as soon as you enter the traffic it’s covered in mud again anyway. I couldn’t believe seeing part of the residential streets looking like rivers. Why is the water not draining away? Are all the drains plugged up with leftover leaves from last fall? Or is it all the sand washed towards the drains and forming little dikes? Only three hours away from almost ‘paradise’ I was still in the same country: Canada. Several time zones across this land and variations in weather make you feel you are somewhere totally different.
I left Vancouver Island by Harbour Air flying with a float plane. With small suitcases and seated tightly together with only a few people you are flying over beautiful little islands and in just seventeen minutes you are landing on a river not too far from Vancouver International Airport. A shuttle bus brings you there and you are lucky not to get lost among thousands of people milling around you. After passing long lineups in the international terminal, I was actually surprised to see how few people were flying to other destinations at the domestic terminal. But don’t be fooled, the planes are full. It’s just that the check-in is very well organized and orderly. There were lots of self-check-in machines, different places for baggage drop-off and other counters for people who can’t make friends with any machine. I am one of the people who prefers a live person!
Checking into the Clarion Hotel in Winnipeg they were so welcoming as if I were the proverbial ‘lost son’, sorry, daughter. The car licence plates proclaim that you are in “Friendly Manitoba” – if you can read it because of the mud covering everything. The next day I got lost in the shopping center across from the hotel. I couldn’t find my way out. I asked an elderly lady for directions. She started to explain but then decided to accompany me as it was easier. We walked through the whole shopping center and all the way across the parking lot, crossed the muddy streets and jumping over puddles. On the way she told me about, and showed me, her beautiful daughter living and working in Hollywood. We stood outside the hotel door until we shivered and I asked her inside. We exchanged e-mail addresses. That is Winnipeg, Manitoba – were the most friendly and helpful people you might ever encounter live.
At my book signing at Chapters Polo Park, lots of people were standing around my table. They listened to mine and told some of their own stories and, in two hours, I laughed more than I had laughed in two years! My shopping center rescue lady, Dorothy, was among them. And Audry was there, an e-mail friend, who had written to me after she had read and was impressed by my book. The thought that it might be “healthy” for me to move back to this fair city (Oh yes, thirty-two years ago I had lived there) went through my head. What is the weather, the mud, the puddles and the snow when you are laughing? But I realized that I was the cause for the laughter that evening. Why? Because I was happy. I picked funny stories to read. I am a people person, I like to share my stories and I love the people who listen and react to me by sharing their own stories. We all became part of an extended family. It felt good.
The absolute highlight of my trip was meeting the charming and experienced interviewer Dahlia Kurtz at the CJOB Radio Station. She is a rather small and pretty person, but a force to be reckoned with. I would like you to meet her yourself, sit back and listen to our exchange on air. Dahlia has interviewed Nobel Prize winners, world leaders, inventors and many other dignitaries but she is herself, sensitive to the expression of feelings and has a knack of keeping, or getting you back on track.
Here is the link to the YouTube video of my interview:
I ought to have done my homework as I was in a great mood for it. My spirits high, I started the outside work telling myself I did need fresh air after sitting in class for several hours and another one in the car. The workout will be good for me. Take the cobwebs out. Once involved in cleaning up I noticed other things that I ought to do before it rained, so I kept going. I like doing laundry, cleaning or garden work because it does not involve concentration. It is a good way to let your mind run free or to work off stress and even anger. I got lost in my thoughts as it was getting dark. My stomach started growling. I hadn’t even eaten or drunk anything since I started nearly four hours ago. How stupid, I should know better. You ought to feed your body and keep it hydrated. I cleaned my different types of rakes, put them away and went inside. The yard looked great. It gave me a good feeling of accomplishment.
My back hurt. I took a painkiller pill with a big glass of water on my empty stomach and sat down in a comfy chair, resting my back. I ought to have made myself some supper before sitting down because – can you guess? No, I did not fall asleep. There was a book with 852 pages lying on the table next to me. I had picked it up at the library more than a week ago and I had to return it in less than a week. By now I ought to be almost through it. I had finished another thinner book, for which I had waited several months. Seven other people had been on the waiting list. No time to even start this humongous big book. Okay, I might as well use the time sitting and resting to read a few lines. Wow! What a book! Before I knew it I finished the first chapter, glanced at the clock and allowed myself to read another one. It happened to be a rather long one. I ought to have stopped somewhere, the book would still be there later but I simply could not put it down.
whole kitchen smelled like plum jam in the process of burning. I pulled the pot off the stove onto the white counter and let it go because it was so hot. It had enough time to burn a brown ‘ring’ into the counter. I ought not to have opened the pot to avoid what happened next. Lifting the lid, now with heavy oven gloves on my hands, a thunder cloud of burning smoking steam came out and, jumping back, I let it fall onto the floor. Everything in the pot was dark brown and burned. It caused several brown burn spots in the white linoleum, right in front of the sink. Finally, with protected hands I grabbed the pot and placed it outside, closed the screen door but the wind was blowing the smoke right back inside before I had a chance to close the sliding glass door. I was afraid of the smoke alarm sounding and opened the doors to the garage and the front door, waving a towel frantically to keep the smoke away from the alarm area.
Another incredible encounter was in the ‘Art Class’. Elephants were drawing pictures using their trunks. They looked at their teacher and chose colours as if they really knew what was needed. Did they, do they know? The combination of colours and designs were comparable to some of the modern human artists, some maybe even better. The paintings were about 30 by 40 inches and were sold for twenty US dollars and went like hot cakes. I was tempted to buy one too but figured it would be crushed in my luggage.
down’. He was part of the soccer team. At the end of the lecture the speaker asked for a volunteer to sit on the entwined trunks of two elephants. Nobody dared – I did! I felt a bit apprehensive – but looking into the elephants eyes, it seemed they ‘invited’ me to do it. They were behind a flimsy fence, trunks over towards me. One lifted me up and deposited me on their by then entwined trunks. Most of the other visitors snapped pictures, one also with my own camera.
me royally entertain you! I found this incredible funny ‘blog’ from a humorous writer on ‘Linkedin’, asked permission which was granted and hope you have as much fun reading it as I had. Laverne Bardy has written a book with the enticing title “How The (Bleep) Did I Get This Old?”. I checked it out on Amazon and read as much as was allowed by clicking on “Look Inside”. My smile never faded and if you need a smile, a laugh or something relaxing to read – check it out!
After 23 years of marriage I returned to the dating scene and realized that nothing had changed. The men were older, but still motivated by the same primal urges, and forty years and three children later, I was still trying to preserve my virginity.
I will be visiting Winnipeg March 10th to including 14th to do promotions for my book “We Don”t Talk About That” as well as introducing my new book, “Forget Me Not – A Bouquet of Stories, Thoughts and Memories”, telling many personal stories including several of my life in Winnipeg. You remember “Giselle’s Professional Skin Care Ltd”, right? Well, that ‘Giselle’ was me! Once upon a time…
I am pleased to announce that the eBook version of my most recent book, “Forget Me Not – A Bouquet of Stories, Thoughts and Memories” is now available for purchase.
I hope I remember them all! Many were e-books – I could read them in a doctor’s waiting room, on the bus, in an airplane, on the beach and even in a coffee shop. My little Kobo is easy to read in dim light and surely easier to carry in my purse than a physical book. But I do love physical books! I love having my huge book case full of them, standing in front of it, touching the backs, reading the titles, remember the stories each one told. I still have some I want to read again, others – but not many – I haven’t read yet. Each year I sort out the ones I know I’ll not read again and donate them to the Rotary Book Sales Event. They hold one sale in spring and one in fall in a shopping mall. Last year they sold so many books they could bring close to $400,000.00 to the bank. Every cent goes for good causes.
Giselle Roeder 