A Big Day

This past weekend has been busy with getting together with old friends, polishing the balls - more of that later -  and trying to get the Christmas tree up.  Why is it even with the tree being pre-lit it still takes 3 days????

Anyway on Friday morning Laurent reminded me just after I got out of bed of what a big day it was. And after rubbing the sleep from my eyes and seeing to a few more pressing ablutions I realized that indeed it was a big day. December 9th, 2011  Stephen Harper became the 9th longest holder of the position of Prime Minister of Canada. He had been in office now for 5 year 306 days which is 4 days longer than that other great Conservative leader John (Dief the Chief) Diefenbaker.  And to think I've lived under both of them.

Which brings to light the other great event of the day - I was finally able to use my Senior Citizen bus pass legally.  Yes I hang my head in shame to admit that for two months I've used a Senior's bus pass, shall we say, a trifle illegally.  But the very nice young lady at the OC Transpo kiosk offered it to me in October and said that it would save everyone hassle when I actually qualified in two months.  So you see it was self-interest on her part and altruism on mine!  Honestly!

On the December 8th, 1946 my father announced that he would not be into work because his wife was having a baby the next day.  Not the sort of announcement that was greeted with credence in those far off days.  Its a long, boring story - or at least was at all those family gatherings - but apparently it was then or never so on December 9th as the snow blew up a treat on Grenville Street in Toronto, Dr Marion Hilliard delivered my poor mother of a pre-mature, mewling tiny creature that was whisked away immediately to an incubator for a few weeks.

Well thanks to pioneers in women's health like Dr Hilliard and her colleagues at Women's College Hospital I'm here today - still mewling, not much more mature than I was in those days, not so tiny and with almost as little hair.  I joke but Dr Hilliard and her ilk were remarkable women in an era when issues of women's health were given little attention and thanks to their work great advances were made.

So here  I am here 65 years muttering at those 64 year old whippersnappers to get the hell up and give me the seat at the front of the bus.  And now comes the discounts at the drugstore,  the Ontario Drug Plan for Seniors, movie discounts and every other cut I can get for making it to 65!  But I will not go for the early bird special at the local diner - no one, not even a Senior Citizen eats at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.  Or at least not this Senior Citizen.

I can hear at least one person I know reading this shaking his head and saying "silly man"; all silliness aside I want to thank all my dear and wonderful friends and family for the wishes, the e-mails, the cards, the notes on Facebook. And to my father-in-law Denis and brother-in-law Stephan and other members of the Leprechaun Chorale - thanks for the singing telegram but don't give up the day job.

One of the great joys of the past 65 years has been the friends that I have made who have given me reason to rejoice in and gave so much meaning to my life.  1000 grazie e baci a tutti!


(Begun on December 9th and finally finished on December 11th.)


09 decembre/December - Juan Diego, nato Cuauhtlatoatzin

One More Year

I always talk about serendipity but I really am a firm believer in happenstance. Just as I was heading to bed last night I received an e-mail from that Calamity Jane of blogdom, Yellowdog Granny. She had sent me a link to a Birthday calculator. So I gave it a whirl and found out that:

As of 12/8/2008 5:10:28 PM EST
You are 61 years old.
You are 744 months old.
You are 3,235 weeks old.
You are 22,645 days old.
You are 543,497 hours old.
You are 32,609,830 minutes old.
You are 1,956,589,828 seconds old.

You were born on a Monday under the astrological sign Sagittarius.

There is 1 day till your next birthday (that would be today) on which your cake will have 62 candles.

Those 62 candles produce 62 BTUs, or 15,624 calories of heat (that's only 15.6240 food Calories!) You can boil 7.09 US ounces of water with that many candles.

This gentleman holding me in his arms would be my father. This would have been taken when I was about 6 months old.

Your fortune cookie reads: Love conquers all.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2432163.5.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/2/1946 and ending 1/21/1947. You were born in the Chinese year of the Dog.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Owl; your plant is Mistletoe.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Menchir, the second month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 16 Kislev 5707. Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 17 Kislev 5707.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.16.12.17.19 which is 12 baktun 16 katun 12 tun 17 uinal 19 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Monday, 15 Muharram 1366 (1366-1-15).

That second gentleman holding me in his arms - hmm is there a pattern developing - is an Officer on RMS Ascania. I would have been around 3 and my mother and I were heading for Belfast to visit my grandmother. The ship went from Halifax to Liverpool - a 7 day journey.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Felicity Huffman (1962)John Malkovich (1953) Dick Butkus (1942)Beau Bridges (1941) Judy Dench (1934) Buck Henry (1930)Dick Van Patten (1928) Dina Merrill (1925) Redd Foxx (1922)Kirk Douglas (1916) Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1909) Margaret Hamilton (1902)Emmett Kelly (1898) John Milton (1608)

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 8.86301369863014 years old. (You old hound dog, you!)

It says this was taken at my Birthday party but I notice we're all in short pants, so unless winter's were milder then ... And we know they weren't, why that winter of 1950 we walked to school barefoot in 20 feet of ... continued old man mutterings. From left to right we would have young Billy John, Harry, Sharon, Doreen, Judy, the big guy I really don't know and Davey. Looks like Our Gang!

Your lucky day is Thursday.
Your lucky number is 3.
Your ruling planet(s) is Jupiter & Neptune.
Your lucky dates are 3rd, 12th, 21st, 30th.
Your opposition sign is Gemini.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

Your birthstone is Blue Zircon.

And as I said to Jackiesue - I've used Clinique for the past 30 years which is why at 62 I only look 60!

09 dicembre - San Juan Diego di Cuauhtlatoatzin

B-Day Ditty

My friends Ian and Scott, who have retired to the town of Banff in the Canadian Rockies - lucky bastards - sent me a Blue Mountain birthday card: its in the style of one of the old Silly Symphonies with a mouse singing a little number called It's a B-Day Ditty. I now can't get it out of my head - thank you on so many levels guys!

In the past I've spent my Birthday in Hanoi, Mexico City, Cairo, Warsaw, Chicago, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and several other places that I can't remember because I'm old. However if anyone had told me I'd spend one at a children's theatre in Roma I would have checked for some of that Castel Sant'Angelo weed Aud Hat was talking about.

It was torrential rain Sunday afternoon and of course the idea of even getting a line through to the radio taxi was absurd. Off we headed five blocks to Via Constanza, umbrellas losing the battle against the driving rain, the 60 Express to Piazza Venizia and a wait for the H Express over to the other side of the river. Our friend Walter was appearing in a production of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince (Il Principe Felice) at Tearo Le Maschere in Trasteverre. Its a small (100 seats) but charming theatre with a professional company devoted to presenting a season of plays for children. We joined our friends Vincenzio and Larry and Walter's partner Robert in the back row with three other men - all friends of the actors... and Dorothy.

Four actors presented the Wilde tale of the Statue and the Swallow in a freely adapted version - Walter played among other things a tramp, an animal trainer, a town crier, an unemployed father and a cruise ship sailor. A cruise ship sailor??? Well yes as I said freely adapted: in this version the statue and the swallow become humans when the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio wanders in by mistake. They leave the cold behind to go to Argentina on a cruise ship - don't ask. It was actually a lovely way to spend the afternoon but my heart jumped when they said there were two people in the audience who were celebrating birthdays. Thank god it was a five year old brother and sister (twins) - the little boy was as unimpressed with the Blue Fairy's kiss as I would have been.

12 decembre - Santa Giovanna di Chantal

51 Years Ago ... and a bit

Happy Birthday Larry.

Love from Willy and Reesie