We went to see the film 'What the bleep do we know' last night.
It's an unusual film in that interviews with lively but weighty academics is interspersed with a story about a deaf photographer. It's also difficult to say briefly exactly what it's about. One review I saw said 'at last a decent film about quantum physics', but it soon moves on what we consider reality and then how we become addicted to certain emotions.
Although it might sound either a bit airy-fairy or heavy and depressing on paper, it was actually very entertaining and humorous, as well as being very thought-provoking. It definitely made me come out not only feeling more joyful and optimistic about life, but also more hopeful about the potential of human beings as a race, which is good in any case. The website www.whatthebleep.com has more info.
Just for the record I thought I would list all our visitors. It has been great to see folks from back home but a bit frustrating on the first day they arrive when we are pumping them for information from the homeland and they are just wanting to go to sleep :-)
Tricia and Joe from 19th July to 29th July
Jen and Jessie from 1st August to 19th August
Bridget and Robin from 3rd October to 10th October
Jan from 17th October to 31st October
Jane (Keeton) from 14th November to 25th November
Sam from 11th December to 8th January
We have visited Vancouver Airport many times so we are lucky that it is such a wonderful airport with many references to the native american peoples here.
Remembrance Day is taken very seriously in Canada, and is actually a public holiday unlike in the UK. It seems to concentrate far more on the actual veterans, rather than being used to glorify the military as in UK, where current military commanders take part. Many veterans took part in civilian dress which I don't remember seeing in the UK.
There's currently 8 veterans from WW1 still alive, 180,000 from WW2 and 14,000 from the Korean War. Canada joined in WW2 from the beginning, being a member of the British Empire at the time, but perhaps reinforced by the fact that France was quickly occupied.
At this time of year, leaves seem to be everywhere - I guess it's what comes of having so many trees.
Yesterday a man come round with a blower to round them all up. It's a bit like a machine you might carry around to suck up bits of litter, except it's for blowing the leaves around until they end up in a big pile. It does look tidy when it's finished but it's best if you're out when it happens as tends to be a bit deafening in this quite neighbourhood.
Of course, in a lot of places the wind would just blow them straight back again but here it's never windy so I'm not sure where else this system would work. Of course, if the leaves are wet they all stick together and you can't blow them around, so as soon as it's dry and the sun comes out, so do the leaf-blowers.
Like now - which is the reason I'm leaving now.
Here we are in November already. Doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself.
We definitely feel like we are on the home straight now and I for one am really looking forward to coming home to see my friends and family! It's not that we haven't enjoyed our visit here, because there have been some magical times - when we first saw the mountains for instance. But, as with most things, you get a bit blase and find yourself surprised when a visitor sighs in awe at the beautiful views that we have just become accustomed to seeing. There is snow on the mountain tops now, and that is a sight to behold.