I wanted to shake up my life and go sailing (or learn on the job, so-to-speak) so headed to Florida to crew on a catamaran. This is about how it went or, rather, didn't - and my life since. Hopefully it will lead to a catamaran on the clear aqua blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, watching the sunset, a coconut rum and coke in hand. You must START AT THE BEGINNING of the blog, April 2009, to get the whole story...

Friday, December 30, 2011

CHRISTMAS 2011

Christmas is over and now we are in that 'no man's land' between it and New Years. I had hoped there'd be a baby to help fill it in but she has decided that she's not ready to make her appearance yet.

Christmas Eve was fun with the kids over in my little place. We all fit quite well and I think all had a good time. Christopher forgot to bring the board games so we were a bit stymied for something to do once everyone was stuffed to the gills with the buffet of food I had prepared.

One thing we did was watch a video one of my friends had posted to her FaceBook page a few days before. I had watched it and laughed all the way through and my kids loved it, so here it is for you to enjoy: T'was the Night Before Christmas - Drunk. It's not like any other you've ever seen. WARNING: bad language throughout.

Watching Muppet's Christmas - Rob had never seen it so was subjected to it.

Christmas Day my youngest daughter and I went to my friend Fran's house for Christmas dinner. Her youngest daughter is the best friend of my youngest so we had a lovely time. Rob and Ashleigh stayed home for the day in anticipation of the baby's arrival as they didn't want to be far from the hospital she will give birth at.

My good friends, Fran and Tom.

The rest of the week I have spent alone and bored out of my mind. I decided to download season one of Breaking Bad as I keep hearing how good it is and I am HOOKED. I am now almost done season two and have three and four downloaded and ready to watch.

I also downloaded the Christmas special of Downton Abbey - one of my all time favourite TV series. I watched it last night and it was glorious. I highly recommend the series.


Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

I AM STARTING TO HATE BLOGGER

So yesterday I was looking at how to add some features to my blog by searching online for tutorials. It all started with a search to try to determine why comments made through DISQUS were no longer appearing on the blog as they were made. One thing led to another and I ended up deleting DISQUS and trying to add the 'reply' feature to the BLOGGER comment form. This way, supposedly, any reply to a comment would appear directly below it instead of in chronological order.

Not sure what I did wrong. The line of code I was to input needed to come after a particular line of code that did not appear in the HTML code for my template. So I gave up. When I went back onto my blog something had changed and my formatting was screwed up. Everything was bigger. The font, the pictures, the layout, even the BLOGGER bar at the top. It looked like I was looking at it all through a magnifying glass.

Thus began hours and hours and HOURS of trying to fix it. I have come close but what's happened now is a lot of the formatting for older posts is all out of whack. The body of the post does not line up with the pictures I have added. I have just spent about 3 hours trying to fix each post, one at a time but I've given up. This is not the first time I have had to go back through every post and rework them to align everything up properly. Each time I change something, this is what happens and I am sick of it. So, it is what it is. I don't know exactly how many times all the old pages are viewed anymore anyway. It can't be enough to warrant all of this work so I am not doing it. It bugs the crap out of me as I am somewhat of a perfectionist and definitely a detail oriented individual, but I just can't keep doing this. It's such a colossal waste of time, not to mention frustrating to the max.

Please accept my sincere apologies to those of you who have just joined this blog and want to start at the beginning. I feel so bad that it looks so awful.

And - ironically - this happend just after I posted a comment on someone else's BLOGGER blog where they were complaining about how difficult they found it to format each post so that the pictures were where they wanted them. I said I didn't understand why they found it so difficult as I don't have any issues with that. And I don't. But every now and then something in the template format changes and it screws everything up. THAT I can't deal with.

Friday, December 9, 2011

SINGING CRUISE

There is a Christmas tradition that has gone on for years in Vancouver. The Carol Ships. Each night in December several large ships leave their berths and head out, all decked out for Christmas into English Bay and beyond, full of passengers dining on turkey with all of the trimmings and then singing carols as the ship cruises by the city skyline where, hopefully, there are lots of Christmas lights to see.

It's something I've always wanted to do. So when a GROUPON for a 2 for 1 passage came up, I asked a good friend - who I just happened to be working with on a show that day, and who just happend to be standing right behind my chair when I got the Groupon notice - if she wanted to go with me and she did. So I bought the tickets. When I went to book the cruise, I saw that the price I had paid was for passage and a free cup of hot chocolate only. If we wanted the full deal meal, it would cost another $53 each. I called and asked her if she wanted to go for it - I did as I thought it would be torture to be able to smell turkey dinner and not be able to eat it - and she agreed. So I upgraded our tickets and then we waited for December 8th to roll around.

Last night we went on the cruise. When I got to the marina, the gates down to the dock were locked. I had to hang over the rail near the ships and wait for someone to come out of one of them and when someone finally did, I called down and asked how to get down there. A very friendly fellow came and unlocked the gates and, as soon as my friend arrived with the printed tickets, we 'went aboard'. The salon was huge and easily seated 100 people. We had paid $5 extra per person for a window seat and were shown our reserved table. The dinner was buffet style and it was pretty good. Not liked a home-cooked turkey dinner - they never are - but it was a lot better than someone had described to me (a leathery bit of turkey and some soggy vegetables was how he put it). The dessert buffet consisted of profiteroles, sliced banana, a chocolate fountain, and a tray of small dessert pastries (if one wanted the dessert option only it was an extra $13 but was included in our buffet price). In my opinion the meal was far overpriced for what was offered, $20 less per upgrade would have been acceptable.


One thing we noted on the cruise out of False Creek through English Bay and then around the perimeter of Stanley Park and into Burrard Inlet; there weren't many Christmas lights up on any of the buildings. Not the commercial ones nor people's apartments in the high-rises. Usually they're a blaze of lights - especially the high-rises. I wondered if it was because of the incandescents having been replaced with LED strings. I personally detest the LED lights and I think I am not alone. My friend thought that very well could be the reason. There were still a few really nice displays - one was a huge deciduous tree that had been draped from top to trunk with hundreds of strands of blue and lavender lights. It was gorgeous. There was also a nice display in a park close to Yale Town, and some of the boats we passed in the marinas were festively decked out which was really nice. There were also a few cranes on the skyline that were really well decorated with loads of lights and a tree at the end and I always love to see that. It gives one a glimpse to another side of all those seemingly hardened and often crude construction guys.


Another thing that happened on the cruise; when it came time for the carol singing we were handed song sheets with lyrics to 29 songs on them. I later noted that out of that number, only 9 were actual 'carols'. The rest were all about santa and the tree etc. etc. We began to work our way through them from #1 but every time we came to a carol about the birth of Jesus, the guy who was leading the singing would skip over it. He started to ask for people to call out numbers they wanted to sing. One woman called out #11. He said, "Ah, number 11, my favourite." He said that for every number that was called out. But then he looked and saw it was 'Oh Holy Night' and he stammered a bit and then said, "Lets sing #18 - Jingle Bells." I was shocked. This was supposed to be carolling after all. After we sang that song, another woman was calling out #24 - Hark the Herald Angels Sing. She called it over and over and he just ignored her. I was not impressed at all. A bit later he wanted people to be more involved but you could sense that the mood had changed a bit in the room, no one was calling out any numbers. He ragged on us for not being more enthusiastic so I called out, "Well maybe you should stop skipping over all of the good ones." I couldn't help it. I was not happy with the guy at all. I don't have anything against the songs about Santa and trees and reindeer, not at all, but some of the old carols are so beautifully written and perfect for my alto voice and I love singing them. But mainly this guy's blatant bias against religion was getting to me - AND after all, why do we even have a Christmas?? Not to mention it's the only the reason this company has any business this time of year!! He completely ignored me and selected another secular song but, after that, he did not ignore people who called out an old carol and we actually got to sing 3 or 4 of them.

All in all, it was a fun evening. I wouldn't do it again but it's part of Christmas in Vancouver and I wanted to have the experience. I am glad I went. Plus, any excuse to be out on the water.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

NICOLE LEE - A PRODUCT REVIEW

Other than items for travel, I don't review products on my blog as that's not what it's about. But I am so frustrated at a new purse, and more importantly, at the lack of any kind of response from the manufacturer, that I am using this venue as a way to utilize word-of-mouth - a very powerful tool.

I bought my first Nicole Lee bag this fall and I HATE it. I love the look but functionally it is garbage. It is the Crystal in silver/black. When you pick it up by the handles, the front pocket pops open. EVERY SINGLE TIME. It's closed with a magnetic clasp but it should have been a toggle clasp to prevent this happening. AND... if the large compartment of the purse is more than half full, THAT pops open all of the time as well. Just useless. At $69 plus tax (what I paid at LUCY'S in Langley) I expect a lot better than this.

The hateful handbag. Pretty but useless.

Worse... I wrote two reviews on their website about it, the second one when I saw they hadn't posted the first one - the second one wasn't posted to the site either. I sort of get not wanting to post a negative review but.. BUT... not a single email to me to apologise, refund my money, or offer a solution.

I won't be buying another one of their bags... EVER!!

Friday, November 25, 2011

WORK AND PLAY

We wrapped our last night on the show 'running and gunning' which is basically running from location to location and getting the shot as quickly as possible without setting up monitors, chairs, heaters and maybe one or two lights. We got a lot of exterior shots with a very small crew of about 30. The rest of the crew were left behind in Maple Ridge to get a long list of 'insert shots' that we didn't have time to get for the past three weeks. (An insert shot is close up shots of various items that don't involve shooting actors [other than a stand in for a hand or other body part] such as a file folder, a computer screen, a telephone call ID, etc). It was a freezing cold night and what could have been really miserable was made a lot of fun by our fantastic director.



The director waits while camera crew set up a shot. . . . . An unusual sign on a downtown building.

Before we set off to do that, we shot the last two indoor scenes at the warehouse in Maple Ridge where we had been for the past few days. While the director was in a small room setting up the next shot, the producers whisked away his standard rented director's chair and replaced it with a gorgeous bamboo wood custom upholstered one. He used to have a chair like this that he got as a gift when he was nominated for an Emmy but it broke while filming in Montreal due to becoming brittle in the sub zero temperatures. He has mourned the loss of that chair ever since. So he was rather overcome when he stepped out of the room to see the new chair waiting for him, and the applause of the crew. It was a great moment.



Sunday, the day after we wrapped, we had a lovely cocktail party at the Shangri-La hotel in downtown Vancouver. It was a beautiful location and a fun party.



This week I have been driving my daughter to work each morning and picking her up at the end of the day because she is finding taking public transit very difficult at this stage of her pregnancy and as they only have one car, which her husband needs to commute to his job way out in Port Coquitlam, the bus has been her only option. Unbelievably, at 8 months pregnant, no one will give up their seat for her - this I have known for some time. I found out later that, when the bus fills up, she feels very claustrophobic as people press up to her and she hates having her belly up against someone else. She is also rather sensitive to odours and finds it somewhat nauseating to be among all the different ones people carry onto the bus with them. On Monday I was thinking about her having to stand up for almost an hour each way to and from work. I couldn't stand the thought of it and decided to offer to drive her and she was so grateful. When she told me how really hard it has been for her I was very glad I have the time off to be able to do it. This is her last week of work before taking maternity leave, including Monday next week. She was supposed to go until Wednesday but has decided she just can't do it. She works as a daycare worker and the kids she looks after are so hard to handle. One of them sat right on her belly the other day as she was sitting on the floor with another few kids. It really scared her and the baby was restless for a few minutes right after it happened yet it seems no damage was done. But she really is done with work.

For the 'Play" part of this post:

Today after dropping Ashleigh off, I drove back to the North Shore to Lonsdale Quay to meet a friend for breakfast. There was a gorgeous yacht - Attessa IV - tied to the dock, having some work done. We walked over to have a look at it and as we did, I looked it up on the internet on my iPhone. Turns out it has recently had some major refit and renovation work done to it at a shipyard here and has been on a test voyage around Vancouver Island. I guess not all was good because the starboard rear side is being sanded down to the steel and is being re-finished; it looked like the workers were applying a fairing compound to the starboard rear section while we were watching. When it's done, it is heading to the Caribbean!!!! I wonder if I can get them to take me on as crew?!



Specs of Attessa IV:

At 330 feet, she is the largest yacht to be launched in North America!! (and the largest rebuilt yacht in the world)
42.13 foot beam
13.78 draught
Yacht Design: Glade Johnson Design
Rebuild Company: Washington Yachting Group
Project Manager: Captain Ted McCumber
Accommodation: Able to accommodate up to 36 people on board and has 24 crew members.
Classification: Lloyds and MCA Class
Jacuzzi: Yes
Pool: Yes
Helicopter capability: Yes
Yacht Owner: Montana based businessman Dennis Washington
Yacht Charter: No

The refurbish took 250 skilled Vancouver workers and close to a million man hours

She is the 23rd largest private yacht in the world. It recently won the 'Best Rebuilt Yacht' in the 'World Superyacht Awards' in London.

I can't even imagine what it must be like to have the ability to own such a gorgeous vessel. What a 'toy'!!!

With so many photos today, I posted the small version but just click on any photo to see it full-sized.

Friday, November 18, 2011

WEEK IN PICTURES

Here's a few photos that put my week into pictures instead of words.

BABY SHOWER FOR MY DAUGHTER:

Beautiful mommy-to-be.



We each painted a bib for the baby. This is mine.

Guess which is the actual baby and which are balloons!

WORKING ON A LEGAL THRILLER:

Perfect cufflinks on our very nattily dressed director.

Trying to stay warm on a freezing cold outdoor night shoot.

The director and director of photography busy on their iToys between setups.

Staying motivated.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

Nooooooo!!!!!
(this picture was actually taken 4 or 5 years ago in my house in Langley but I didn't get a picture of the snowfall here in North Vancouver - thankfully it wasn't quite this much snow that fell)

WHICH LEAD ME TO DREAMING OF THIS AND SEARCHING THE NET FOR A GOOD DEAL MOST OF TODAY:

I spent an hour in this very hammock. Wish I was there now.

The last picture was taken by a very talented photographer living my dream life in the Virgin Islands. You can see more of his work here: OLD MANGO

Friday, November 11, 2011

A FUN DAY OUT WITH DAUGHTER #1

With three days off in a row (four for me as Saturday is my daughter's baby shower) I have some lovely down-time to spend relaxing. Yesterday I spent the day with my daughter shopping for my big gift to her for the baby - a Dutailier glider chair and ottoman. They are the 'Rolls Royce' of gliding rockers and are made right here in Canada. We were directed to a store that carries a good selection and can also place custom orders. We found exactly what my daughter wanted in stock and, not only that, but it's a special design just for that store and was priced at almost half of what they normally go for. I was thrilled to say the least. We quickly spent the other half of the budget on more things for the nursery and those items will make up some of the gifts I plan to take to the shower for her.

After a White Spot burger lunch, we drove into downtown Vancouver for the Circle Craft Christmas Market. We were both quite excited to go as we have done a lot of craft fairs in the past, particularly when we lived in Seattle, and have always found them to be full of wonderful and affordable creations. As we entered the large space that the booths were set up in, we were immediately impressed with what we saw and both of us found items we wanted to buy, albeit a bit pricey. But as we progressed through the rest of the booths, we both became very disappointed at the offerings. There seemed to be a repeat of the same sort of items over and over, such as SO MUCH silver jewelry, and they weren't very creative at that. Also the prices were astronomical for almost everything we saw. I had fully expected to have to seriously restrain myself from buying out the place but, in fact, I didn't see much that I wanted to buy. I did end up buying a lovely hat to wear when it's cold at work. I don't usually suit hats but this one looked great on me and is fleece lined so very warm. It was expensive at $65 plus tax. I bought a little tree ornament for my daughter and her husband made of fimo depicting a cute couple expecting a baby - $15. My daughter bought some herbal cremes for herself and the baby for post-natal care. I found a necklace I LOVED that reminded me of the beaches in the BVI but at $125 for it and $69 for the matching earrings it was far too costly. I reluctantly left it behind. (The link is to the matching bracelet. The necklace was a larger version of the flat circular bead as a pendant on a silver chain.)

Ashleigh buying hand made soap to add to a Shoe Box of items she is putting together to be shipped overseas to a needy child for Christmas

A coule of the booths had items that really impressed us. One was called 'Alphabet Photography' where you could buy a black and white photograph for $5 that had either an architectural item or some other sort of item (like twigs, or rope tied around a post) that resembled a letter of the alphabet. You could then buy as many as you wanted to spell a name or a word and she had frames that accommodated those letters ('artistic photographs of objects that spell words' is how they put it). Ingenious and her booth was packed.

Another, Janice Lutsenko Flower Art, was a huge assortment of framed pictures that were created from dried flower petals. They were gorgeous; a shoe, a purse, a woman in a flowing dress, a quilt on a washing line, the word 'Family'... all very delicate and sort of French looking. Also very pricey.

Another booth, Toad's World, had a huge selection of animals, all hand made by Diane Jordens, dressed to the nines; 'opulently costumed animal dolls'. That booth reminded us both of the sort of thing we were used to seeing in the Seattle area craft fairs. I wish there had been more like it.


One thing I was sure we'd be able to find there was a small accent pillow in a deep raspberry pink - one of the last decorative items my daughter is looking for to add to the baby's room. Not only did we not see one, there wasn't ONE SINGLE pillow or cushion for sale in the entire show. Very strange indeed.

After dropping a very tired mommy-to-be at her home, I drove back downtown to meet Ron Oliver and another friend, Sean, at Gerard - the lounge at the Sutton Hotel. I gave Ron a gift I found for him at the craft fair; a Belvedere Vodka bottle flattened to make a cheese plate. He loved it and said it ranked as one of the ten best gifts he has ever received. He has gotten some lovely gifts over the years so that is pretty spectacular. I also gave him a package of cocktail napkins I had found at a small coffee shop near where I live. He thought they were pretty great. I thought they were too true.

The cocktail napkins

We had drinks and a small dinner and Ron and I shared a visit to the chocolate buffet.

A lovely end to a lovely day.

Spicy fried salmon tacos - not spicy at all but very delicious

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

IT'S MY BLOG AND I'LL RANT IF I WANT TO

I have been working on a Lifetime movie of the week, (MOW) with my good friend Ron Oliver as director, for the past two weeks (and he is the only reason I am working on this show for reasons that you will see as you read on). It has been a lot of fun (entirely due to Ron), albeit if a challenge, and I am really enjoying it. There are a couple of reasons for the challenge and all seem to stem from one source: for some reason, although the budget is what is normal for these productions, there doesn't seem to be much money to go around. I am working for the lowest rate I have had in 7 years and I was given just one day to prep, normally I get two or three. Consequently, I was unable to do a timing or a thorough breakdown of the script. A breakdown is where I go through the script with a fine-toothed comb and track all continuity as it progresses through the story; wardrobe, makeup (progression of injuries and their bruisings), props, set dec, vehicles etc. and then place it all into a one-line description of each scene. HERE is an example of one I created for a movie I worked on several years ago. This lack of ample time to go through the script and work through continuity has resulted in a few issues on set. Couple that with the fact that low rates usually results in inexperienced crew and it's a recipe for disaster - as we discovered in our first week.

The on-set wardrobe girl seemingly does not understand the requirements of her position and thus, when I suspected a problem with wardrobe continuity after filming a scene where the main character was no longer wearing her suit jacket and I wasn't sure as to why that was - I went to her and asked to see her continuity photographs for three particular scenes. The on-set wardrobe person always takes photos of how the character is attired right before the scene starts. They also make copious notes as to anything that transpires with the wardrobe during the scene, for example: Jessica removed her jacket and hung in on the back of the chair. She fled without her jacket so she will no longer have it for the remainder of the show. When the on-set wardrobe girl couldn't produce any pictures or notes and, in fact stated that she had none, I was flabbergasted. This was a first for me.

Even if I had enough time to do a proper breakdown, there are things that transpire while filming that I am not aware will occur because I have not been party to the meetings between the director and wardrobe (or other department heads) where those decisions are made. Apparently, there wasn't enough prep time for anyone on this show so those meetings never occurred. But, at the very least, the on-set crew of all departments should be taking notes as to what is happening as it is happening. I am there as their safety net but I am not there to do their jobs for them, as I made clear to the wardrobe girl. I told her I needed to see her breakdown for wardrobe and when and where changes would be made. She assured me she would have it when we returned from our day off. She didn't produce any paperwork for me to see until the third day after our return and when she did, it was of no value to me as it made no sense. So now it seems to fall to me to determine when and where wardrobe changes will occur and to track those changes (the story takes place over three days but our main character is on the run and so wears the same outfit for most of the movie - a skirt and matching jacket with blouse, and a camel coat. She also has a sports team jacket and baseball cap that she will wear at one point as a disguise. The camel coat will be left behind in one scene. The jacket issue was resolved by our ingenious director and now needs to be tracked). We had a long discussion at the monitors one afternoon as to when the camel coat will be left behind and I came up with the best scene in which for it to occur. At that point the director turned to the producer and PM who were sitting there listening and said, "From now on you will give my continuity girl at least two days prep and then we can avoid delays like this one and the four hours we wasted yesterday on the jacket issue." LOVE HIM!!!!!

I always time the script as well to give a total - scene by scene - of how long the show is running. Based on my timing, scenes will often be added or trimmed to bring the script to where it needs to be time-wise. Because I had only one day of prep, and almost half of that day was tied up in a production meeting, I had no time to do a timing. I informed the producers and director of this in an email and received no reply granting me an extra day, so no timing was done. Once I was on set, the producer questioned me as to when they could expect to get a timing. I informed her that there would only be the running timing of the scenes as we filmed, that there wasn't, nor would there be, a pre-timing as they didn't give me any time to do it. This did not sit well with her and she claimed she never gives script supervisors more than one day prep. I have been doing this for too long now to be giving away my expertise as I did when I first started out and I told her that I don't work for free as her other script supervisors surely must have, as it is not physically possible to do a timing and a breakdown and attend a production meeting in a 12 hour span.

What I have come to realize is, the lower the pay and thus the less experienced the crew - the MORE I should be paid as far too much falls on my shoulders. And the buck always seems to stop with me. One of the producers, while discussing the jacket issue, said - "this is continuity's fault" (meaning me). Really? What about wardrobe? She only has ONE area of continuity to watch and that is ALL she has to watch. While the camera is rolling, I am timing it, reading along in case the actors get the dialogue wrong or need me to call out a line they've forgotten.  I am watching where they are and what they're doing while speaking to make sure they're in the same place when we go in tighter or else it won't cut together.  I am watching what they are doing with the props to make sure they do it the same way each time and with the same hand and where the props end up.  I am looking at what shoulder the purses are on and when and where they were put down, and making sure they take it with them if they leave.  I am looking at levels of drinks in the glasses and where in the dialogue they took drinks from them; what was on the computer screen when; if we're seeing anything we shouldn't like crew in reflections or a light stand or a logo that isn't cleared... I have umpteen things I am watching for and trying to track and yet when someone screws up in their department and gets something wrong, it is MY fault and only my fault? I don't bloody think so.

I really love what I do, especially when I get to do it with Ron Oliver and his DP Kim Miles, but it's stuff like this that makes me want to get into another area of film. Either makeup where all I have to worry about is MAKEUP, or producing where I get to make the big decisions. I am kind of ready to phase out of script supervising.  It's a pretty thankless job (except for the odd director, like Ron, who really appreciates the effort and tells you so) and often only get noticed when you miss something.  It really irritates me how we can go again (roll on another take) for the focus puller time after time because he didn't get the subject in focus, and no one seems to mind; going again because the camera operator didn't like his move is never an issue; but if we have to go just once again for continuity - disapproval, frustration, and sometimes out and out anger is the norm (I actually did a series where we had not one single continuity error in 22 episodes, until the second to last day of 8 months of taping, and it was because I couldn't be in two places at once - 'B' camera had been left behind to get an insert shot while the 'A' camera moved to a new location for a new scene.  I went with the A camera, making sure with props that they knew the position of a basket that would be in the B camera insert before I left.  When we got set up at the new location and the monitors were turned on, I could see on the B camera monitor that the basket was in the wrong location so I ran back through the studio, dodging equipment, crew, and sets to find that they were just finished and wrapping the camera.  When I told them they had to go again and why, the Production Manager screamed at me and demanded to know what happened and why I made such a 'huge mistake'.  It was humiliating to say the least but I was furious to be treated in such a manner for my first mistake, which wasn't really my mistake in the first place.)

It's time script supervisors got the grace and same consideration that the camera department gets.  After all, each of those people are dong ONE task.  A script supervisors role is multi-tasking in the extreme and no one seems to realize how difficult and stressful a job it really is, even those who should know better, like Production Managers.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

MIND YOUR GRAMMAR

There is a common grammatical error used almost constantly these days that really bothers me. It is particularly bad on reality TV shows when the contestants sit down for an interview. It bothers me so much that I have decided to write about it here today in hopes of educating a wider audience on the correct use of two small words; me and I.

Yes, it's all about the use of "I" when one should use "me" in conjunction with someone else in the sentence.

Rather than go into a long and confusing dissertation about subjective and objective pronouns let me make it super easy.

It is a very simple rule to figure out because there's a nifty way of double checking to make sure you are using the correct word:

"It took George and I just under an hour to finish." is wrong because you wouldn't say:
"It took I just under an hour to finish." you would say:
"It took me just under an hour to finish." therefore:
"It took George and me just under an hour to finish." is right.

"George and I finished the task." is right because you would say:
"I finished the task."

So, to sum up - you take away the other person with you and whichever word you would use without them, you use with them.

See how easy that was?

One use of "I" that really drives me crazy is, "George and Ises relationship is so strong right now." Really? Ises, or Is's, or Is' - there's no way to spell it because it's not a word! It makes my ears bleed every time I hear it.

And while I am on the topic:

Imply and infer are not interchangeable. Imply is what the speaker does; infer is what the listener does.

Wrong: Are you inferring that I am a fool?
Right: Are you implying that I am a fool?

Right: From what you are saying, I infer you think I am a fool.

IMPLICATION: what the speaker has implied
INFERENCE: what the listener has inferred

Now if there was just some way to get this to all of those reality 'stars'. But my guess is that most of them don't read.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

NEW DIGS

I moved into my new little suite a week or so ago and I love it!

It is decorated in a Mexican theme and living here feels like being on a holiday.

From the door looking into the suite(I covered the windows with scarves for some privacy as there's just straw blinds on them - I will find navy matching ones soon to match the fireplace paint)

Looking towards the entrance and kitchen

Pretty bathroom sink

Unfortunately, it's not in Mexico so there isn't a gorgeous beach outside those French doors. Instead, I am way up at the foot of the mountains of the North Shore and right outside those doors is a rainforest. Not exactly my kind of environment.

One feature I really am enjoying is the king sized bed that is suspended from the ceiling with heavy ropes. I have always loved the motion of rocking to go to sleep to - on a boat or in a hammock; now I can rock myself to sleep every night! The only drawback is that it stops rocking too soon and I have to move a bit to get it going again.

Hanging king-size bed

Fireplace & TV across from the couch

The suite comes fully equipped with most everything I need; linens, towels, kitchen utensils and appliances, dishes, etc. I am finding that I would rather have my own can opener, knives, and cutlery as well as I'd like a rice cooker and a grill so come the spring, when I go through the SEVENTY boxes in my friends crawlspace, I will bring those things here and then it will be perfect.

Best part of all, I am friends with the woman who owns the house - we've worked in the same business for years and became good friends. If I have to live in a basement suite, I can only do it if I know the people I am renting from. So this makes me very happy.

Also, instead of 45 minutes from Langley, I am much closer to my daughter - the one who is having a baby in December. I thought she might think I was encroaching on her territory and not be too pleased but she told me that she is excited to have me so close with the baby soon here. Then if she really needs her mom, she can call and I will be there in 5 minutes. It makes me happy to know I will be needed again. The hardest part of the past 5 years or so has been the 'empty nest syndrome' and feeling like I had lost my purpose in life. Granted, I have been doing a LOT better with it all, especially in the past year or two. But I can't help but feel excited at the future and what it will bring.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

SLIDING DOORS

Sliding Doors is one of my all-time favourite movies. One of the reasons being, I suppose, that I often think of how our lives can take a completely different tack than the one we are on by what will seem at the time to be a rather insignificant occurrence. Sometimes it is an event that is far from insignificant but then, I believe, we often have more of a say in the direction we are about to head. I can think of several of those times in my life, but the insignificant ones can go unrealized for a long time.

I had my own 'sliding doors' experience this past week.

I was heading to Yaletown from New Westminster, where I am housesitting for a week, to have my hair done. I had plans to meet a friend later in the afternoon, once my hair was restored to it's preferred state. My friend lives across False Creek in what was the Athletes Village from the 2010 Olympics and if she wanted me to meet her there, I would take my car downtown. If, however, she would meet me in town I could take the skytrain. I called her and she wanted to meet downtown. I still hesitated at taking the skytrain as I really don't like being without my own transportation but, after thinking about having to pay $15 to park for the day, I decided to do the smart thing.

When I got to the New West skytrain station the train was already there so I just walked on with another lady and the doors closed right behind us. Just made it. But then imagine our surprise when the train headed off in the other direction to Surrey instead of downtown! I thought, for a moment, that my infrequent use of the train meant that I had inadvertently walked onto the wrong side of the station and thus onto the wrong train. But I was sure I had seen the sign that said "TO WATERFRONT STATION". This was confirmed when the other woman exclaimed that we were headed the wrong way and was agitated about it. When we arrived at the first Surrey station, we disembarked to find a lot of skytrain employees standing about. We approached one and asked why the train headed the wrong way. He was rather rude and asked "There were employees at the station to tell you that only one line is working so the trains are alternating on that line. Didn't you listen?" I informed him that the train was there when we arrived and we walked on with about three seconds to spare so there was no time for anyone to tell us anything.

We caught the next train and headed off down to Vancouver. I figured the delay had cost me about fifteen minutes, but I had left with plenty of time to spare so I wasn't worried. When I got to the Waterfront station, I got off and boarded the Canada Line which would take me to Yaletown. At the next stop, a gorgeous tall black man boarded. It did not pass my noticing how good looking he was. He sat on the seat next to me and I said hello and he returned the greeting. I was dying to ask him if he was from the Caribbean but didn't like to so, instead, I toyed with my Tortola Caribbean Hook bracelet hoping that if he recognized it he might say something. He didn't. I got off a couple of stops later and as I climbed the stairs to the street level I thought, "Well that was a missed opportunity. I will never see him again."

When I got to the street, I walked around the corner from the exit and stopped to dig my phone out of my purse. I had not had anything to eat or drink yet and wanted to see if I had enough time to go to the Starbucks across the street. I did. I noticed that I had a few new emails so, for some inexplicable reason, decided to read them right there. I was almost done when I saw someone approach me and stop. I looked up. It was the man from the skytrain!

"Hello," he said, smiling, "I was sitting beside you on the skytrain."

"Yes, I know." I said.

"I hope you don't think I am crazy or stalking you but when you got off of the train I thought 'I need to know this lady' and got off right before the doors closed."

I was somewhat taken aback but replied, "That's interesting because I wanted to talk to you on the train but didn't. I wanted to ask if you are from the Caribbean."

"No I'm not but I get asked that a lot," he said. "I am from Nigeria." He had a lovely British/African accent.

"How long have you lived here?" I asked him.

"Eight months but I come from Toronto where I lived for several years."

I asked him what he did here and he told me that he worked for a downtown law firm. He was impeccably dressed for a Saturday so I wasn't surprised to hear he was a professional.

He asked me what I did and I told him. We chatted for a few more minutes and then he said that he would like to get to know me and would I be okay with him calling me sometime for a date. HA! Would I??? I handed him one of my cards and said I would like that.

He called last night. We are going to meet up next week.

So by my reckoning, here's all the things that happened from my side to line this up:

~ decided to take skytrain over the car
~ caught the right bus from the condo to the skytrain station (no small feat as I have no idea of the bus schedule)
~ caught the skytrain running in the wrong direction
~ sat down in the right car on the Canada Line
~ no one sat beside me before he boarded
~ I stopped to read my emails on the street instead of going straight into Starbucks where he would never have seen me and probably walked away thinking I was gone


Here's to Sliding Door moments in our lives!!!
All photographs are mine and not to be copied without express permission from me (click on them to see the large version).
Some names have been changed to protect my butt.



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