Yeah! School's out for me! Another Friday and the kickoff of Winterlude begins tonight here in Canada's capital. The weather is finally going to warm up and Marie and I might even make it to the canal for a beavertail this weekend! - that's a deep fried pastry thing that is flat and looks like a...you guessed it! Tomorrow I am off to a gallery in Chelsea, Quebec for their annual Valentine's art show entitled "Erotica V". I have three pieces submitted, a picture of one of them above. It's a triptych about 8"x20" and I am asking $200 if anyone is interested. Comments?...Ok I promised myself I wasn't going to comment on what's been going on with one of our homegrown terrorists Momin Khawaja but now this swarthy Ottawa lad's defence lawyer Greenspon insists little Momin has been punished enough for his 4 year and 10 month jail sentence! Greenspon wants a sentence of time served - this for a supporter of jihad who was found guilty of five terrorism-related counts after being found with detonator components (remote-controlled bomb detonating devices known as a HiFi Digimonsters),assault rifles and ammo which little Momin says wasn't planned for blowing up people here but in Afghanistan. Now how the hell was he going to get this stuff through customs and on to a plane for Kabul??? This lowlife boasted that he could easily build 30 remote-controlled devices to bring terror to London! He left a trail from Ottawa to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan to England (where he was in cahoots with the bombers)and back here and there is a chance this animal can be walking about Ottawa again. I shudder to think who else the Government Dept where he worked (I don't dare say which one but it is common knowledge that is available online), has let slip through their fingers...But if you read my comments yesterday you'll understand why I like to look back to a time when terrorism and hatred amd Islamic fundmentalists were not part of our lives and growing up we needed only to worry about being late for supper. I found some more photos of that era - of me and my bother and sisters in the late 50's and early 60's in colour this time, taken in Comox on Vancouver Island, Grigy (near Metz), France where we lived for eight years and in Luxembourg where we used to go for a day's outing. I think it was the Parc Merveilleux where Dad rented us these little cars. That's Grandpop Arman, Mom's Dad, in one of the few pictures we have of him, in Luxembourg as well. The funny looking car is a Triumph Mayflower, trying to look like a poormans Rolls Royce that Dad bought some time after 1953 I think (they only made these things from 1949-1952 so not too sure the year of ours!) The picture of Rich, Lyn and me dressed up in front of the red trailer was taken in 1963. I remember it well as we were living in the trailer park when we heard news of President Kennedy's assanation. We had no television at the time and I vividly recall huddling around the radio listening to the news flashes - I was 13 at the time. That is a neat picture of Mom, me and Rich on the stoney beach in Dieppe, France, in 1965, reliving the Allied invasion of 19 years earlier. We also got a chance to see the concrete harbours (Mulberry Harbours) the fleet dragged over from England and were still there being battered by the waves. The Mulberries were created to provide the port facilities necessary to offload the thousands of men and vehicles, and tons of supplies necessary to sustain Operation Overlord and the Battle of Normandy. Can't say for sure if there is much of it left today. I'd like to tour the area again with Marie one day soon. That's Richard smoking one of those candy cigarettes that were so popular when we were kids. It felt so good to emulate the adults and my didn't we feel all grown up when we had one of these in our mouths. I can still taste them! That's me being butted by a goat - seems I was destined to have goats in my life again when we bought our hobby farm in Nova Scotia! One of my favourite pictures is the one of me outside our PMQ in Comox, reading. Note the plastic water jug (pre-water bottle days). And Mom or Dad took the picture of us all, minus Carolyn who was yet to be born, getting ready for bed in 1958. I'm not sure what time of year or where but it doesn't matter. We do not remember days; we remember the moments and that is so important...So till next time, peace and love. gws
