ancestry

This is the Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England. It was owned and lived in by my ancestors. My mum's last name, Mounsey, is a variation on Monceux. The Castle is now an international study centre for Queens University (Kingston, Ontario). There also appears to be a B & B and apparently (whether at the castle or not, I am unaware) there is a museum with my forefather's paraphernalia. I'm sure it would be shields and swords and such. Items that would have our families crest on it (whatever that is). Tables and chairs. Chamber pots. Boring articles that contain my DNA. No big deal.

Susanna (Strickland) Moodie and Catharine Parr (Strickland) Traill (Catharine or Catherine??),if you haven't heard of them, are two of Canada's most important 19th century writers. Susanna Moodie was a pioneer writer and wrote mostly about living in the bush in Ontario in the mid 1800's and Catherine Parr Traill wrote mostly about nature. Both were also painters. They were my Grandma (Strickland)'s (on my dad's side) third cousins fifteen times removed. Or something. That's just an approximation. The two eldest Strickland sisters, Eliza and Agnes also became famous writers as historians of British royalty and nobility. Before immigrating to Canada, Susanna and Catharine had both also established themselves as children's writers and poets.
This is Catherine Parr. She was the sixth and last wife of King Henry the VIII. She outlived the tyrannous King and apparently, my bloodline can be traced back to her, which is why Catharine Parr Traill was named as such.

So basically my family history is littered with nobility, royalty and upper class. On both sides.

I'm kind of a big deal.

SO BOW DOWN!

calme luxe et volupte

This is my favourite painting of all time. It's by Henri Matisse. I fell in love with it in Paris.

growing old on galiano pt. 2

Friday night at dinner:

Mum: "Mum, you've got beet juice running down your chin. You don't want to get it on your lovely shirt."

Granny: "Oh dear."

(wipes chin)

Grandad: "I guess I need to file that tooth down again eh kid?"

Granny: "Yeah maybe."

Mum: "What are you talking about dad?"

Grandad: "She broke a filling a couple months ago and it came out. Her tooth was sharp after and so I filed it down with a nail file."

Me: "What? Go to the dentist!"

Grandad: "What dentist?"

Mum: "What kind of file did you use?"

Grandad: "A nail file! I offered to glue the filling back in with two ton cement but she wouldn't agree to it."

Mum: "Dad!"

Grandad: "What? you have to be versatile when you live in the boonies!"

Me: "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..."

growing old on galiano pt. 1

Friday morning morning at breakfast:

Granny: "Ken, we need to figure out where we're going for dinner Saturday night."

Grandad: "Where we're going for dinner?"

Granny: "We're having dinner with someone but I've forgotten who."

Mum: "What do you mean?"

Me: "They're so popular and have so many dinner plans that they get them confused and forget who they're having dinner with and when. Am I right Granny?"

Laughter

Grandad: "Last week we showed up for dinner at Anne's and we were a day early."

Me: "You need to get a calendar."

Granny: "No way. What for?"

Mum: "Why is it that you have such an aversion to calendars? You can get such beautiful calendars!"

Grandad: "I know. We throw them out all the time."

Mum: "You mean people buy you calendars for gifts and you just throw them out?"

Grandad: "Well no. Not exactly. These ones are free..."

Mum: "Well that's not the same thing. You can get beautiful calendars and it's like having art hanging on your wall..."

Grandad: "And where would we hang it?"

Mum points to a blank spot on the wall.

Granny: "I think it's the Yorks. I think we're having dinner with the Yorks."

Grandad: "But we should be having them here for dinner."

Granny: "Maybe we are?"

Grandad: "If it isn't raining, lets invite them over for a Bocce game and then hopefully they'll say 'we'll see you tomorrow night for dinner.'"

Granny: "Yes it must be the Yorks because last week she said "We need to have dinner with the Smiths. And you and Ken as well.' I remember that."

Grandad: "Well then we're not having dinner here because we don't want to have the Smiths over. If anyone is having anyone over for dinner it's them. It's definitely the Smith's turn to have us over for dinner."

Mum: "But I thought you said that you wouldn't want to go to the Smith's for dinner...?"

Grandad: "We wouldn't but it's their turn to have us. They showed up at Sylvia's 80th birthday party and called before hand saying 'is it alright if we bring five extra people?'. It's their turn. It's the principle of the thing Yvonne."

Mum: "Dad, how's your ankle?"

Me: "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha."

cabin fever

I'm on Galiano and I've just read my Nylon magazine from cover to cover.



What now?



I am glad to learn that overalls are in for fall.



I've been waiting for a long time.

wasp sting chronicles

On Monday I got stung by a wasp. The last time I got stung by a wasp was 12 years ago, and I got frost bite.
Maybe that needs a little explaining.
I didn't get frost bite FROM the wasp sting per say. Although, that would be pretty amazing. A wasp that gave you frost bite.
It wasn't that cool though.
I got stung three or four times by the same wasp, in the same spot. It swelled, and I was given an ice pack which, in turn, froze my arm.
Apparently I was hysterical.
About the sting. Not the frost bite.
I don't doubt that's true.
I was terrified by wasps when I was a kid.
And fair enough.
I've been stung more times than the average person.


(1). Age 5 (?). while having a tea party with my friend Sarah in our front yard. The honey got swarmed. I got stung. I thought it was pretty cool. My cousins were coming two days later and I wanted to show it off. It, of course, had disappeared by the time they showed up.

(2). Age 6(?). with the same friend but this time in her front yard. Playing on the slip 'n' slide (Remember those? Unending summer entertainment.). Stepped on a bee while running through the clover for what (I'm sure) would have been en epic slide which was trumped by the stinger in my foot.

(3). Age 7 (?). While asleep in our new house. The ceiling was unfinished and there had been a yellow jacket up where the ceiling tiles ended (right above my head). It must have been asleep or just completely dazed because it fell from the ceiling, hit me in the face, I rolled on it and it stung me on the neck. It was awesome.

(4). Age 9. Grade four camping trip. Running around at Catherine Lake, a wasp flew down my black sparkley bathing suit and stung me on the butt. I was in French immersion at the time and one of our French teachers, who used to sing a song that went something along the lines of "OPEN THE CAN OF BEEEEAAAANNNSS OH YEAH OPEN THE CAN OF BEEEEEEEEAAANNNNS OH YEAH. AND A TIP AND A TOP AND A TIP OF KETCHUP. AND A TIP AND A TOP AND A TIP OF KETCHUP. OUVRE LES FEVES AU LARD OOOOOOOOH YEAH. OUVRE LES FEVES AU LARD OOOOOOOOH YEAH. ET UN TIP ET UN TOP EH UN TIP AU KETCHUP. ET UN TIP EH UN TOP EH UN TIP AU KETCHUP...", had to strip me down and apply bug bite cream to my ass. Luckily my mum was there. Otherwise it could have been questionable.

(5) & (6). Age 9 (again). Camping (again). This time in the interior with my parents at a beach called Rag Beach. My brother and I were searching for my parents and happened to walk through a wasps nest. I got stung on the face and leg. Quinn got stung somewhere. My mum got stung on the leg after hearing us scream and running to find us. My cheek swelled up to the size of a baseball. It was so cool.

(7). Age 12. The frost bite incident.

(8). Age 24. Walking out my front door. Wasp hit my wrist. Guessing it got stuck in my bangles. Freaked out. Stung my wrist. I missed my bus. And my ferry. Fuck fashion.

(my brother once, at the age of two, was running on the beach naked and got stung on his penis. I was not unlucky enough to have this happen. Partly because I don't have a penis, but also because I've never been one to run around naked.)

Back to the frost bite though.
It's the weirdest sensation to realise that a piece of your arm is actually frozen.

I showed my teacher. His face went white. He told me to take the ice pack off. Part of me wanted to leave it on and see what would happen. I didn't.

Nobody else believed me. I had my best friend's nanna (reluctantly) take me to the doctor after the day was over. I ended up with a rookie doctor who said it was just an allergic reaction and a big "I told you so" from nanna. My mum also took me to the doctor the next day (MY doctor) who said "I don't know who you saw before, but this is CLEARLY first degree frost bite.".

I had a bandage on my arm for a week. If you look close enough, my arm is still slightly purple.

Nothing cool happened this time around. No frost bite. No swollen cheek. My arm did swell up quite a bit and it is still sore. It's amazing how much damage such a little insect can do to you.



As a kid, whenever I got stung, I waited for an allergic reaction to kick in. I always expected that I was going to be hauled off in an ambulance, die, and then have my wake in my best friend's living room like Macaulay Culkin in My Girl. That, of course, never happened. I am, obviously, still alive and have not yet had a severe allergic reaction to a wasp or bee sting.

Although, every time I do get stung, it gets a little worse and that is a little concerning. This time around, my arm was swollen for two days and sore for three. It's still a little itchy.
It's something I guess I should probably keep an eye on. I should probably (according to my mother) buy some benadryl.
Maybe even an epi pen?
Although, to be honest, I'd almost rather die of a bee sting than stab myself in the leg.

hot soup on a hot day

Friday was the kick off to my ten day holiday and what a kick off it was.
I'm house sitting for Tuba Tara right now and other than the fact that her sister's cats peed on the couch, it seems to be going alright although I need to be there in about twenty minutes to hand over the keys to the next guard. No matter.

Friday after working quite late I went to a little barbecue at third beach with some friends. It was kind of spur of the moment and I showed up unprepared, ending up swimming in my clothes and eating other's food and drinking their beer. It's all good though. I'll hit them back when the occasion arises. After that, I ended up going to a house party near main street with a couple friends. I was a little nervous arriving, as I usually am when entering an unknown social situation, but after entry, I realised that I knew about half the people there, my anxiety subsided, and I had a great night after which, the three of us crashed at mine (Tara's). Then yesterday, we all went for a great little $3 breaky on the drive before we all went out separate directions.

My direction in particular was to work for a bit and then the sky train station, where I met up with some friends and headed out to Deer Lake Park for the Vancouver branch of the Rock the Bells tour. It was great. (Comp ticket provided by my friend Tim). We arrived just in time to see my personal fave Chali 2Na who rocked the house (or park). Slum Village was decent and I didn't really watch slaughterhouse. Common was good but I felt it was the same show I saw last summer. Rza sucked and he sucked hard. I wasn't that disappointed though because it wasn't that different from when I saw him last summer. The surprise guest was B-real from Cypress Hill which was pretty cool. Talib Kwelli showed up late, instilling the fear that he was not going to show. Eventually he did though, three acts late and then only playing for a disappointing fifteen minutes! The highlight for me was definitely Tech N9ne who killed it! He and fellow rapper Krizz Kaliko delivered a high energy, non-stop performance that left everyone in awe. The song of the day was definitely "I'm a playa" in which "I'm a playa I'm a playa, I'm a playa..." is sung to the tune of the German 80's pop song "Amadeus" by Falco. Brilliant. I'm not one for listening to too much tech n9ne but I would go see him again in an instant. Not surprisingly, Nas and Damian closed the night off with a bang. The children of two musical legends (Olu Dara and Bob Marley) who are two completely different artists from their fathers and making a musical mark in their own way. It was pretty amazing to be able to see the two of them on stage together and I look forward to the release of their collab album 'Distant Relatives'.

This evening or tomorrow morning I'm going to head to the coast with Tara's brother Dill. He recently spent a little time on the island hanging out with hippies and decided that's the life he wants to lead, and so he came back to the city and promptly quit his job. I told him that if he wants to be a hippy, Roberts Creek is the place to do it, and so he's going to join me there for a couple of days, after which, I'm planning on going somewhere with my mum. Either Galiano or up the coast a little ways. I've left it up to her to decide.

Now I've got to go and pay attention to some cats and hand over some keys.

It's pretty hot out (not as hot as last week thank goodness) and I just ate a bowl of piping hot udon. Typical.

Here's to ten days of no commitments!