a unique perspective on this crazy world

Archive for February, 2012

it’s the end of the world as we know it :)

 

Apparently 2012 is quite the year to be celebrating a milestone birthday!  The movie came out just as I was having a non-significant birthday so was inspired to host a grand party for 50 since it might be the last one all the guests will ever attend  😉  Conveniently R.E.M. already wrote a theme song for me!  Music… theme songs… a big element of my life…

My poor guests are going to be subjected to the soundtrack of my life.  I think anyone with an interest in music has a soundtrack but most people don’t realize it.  Mine has been inspired by a number of events.

First, the fact that as a teenager I had atrocious taste in music, so my transformation into someone with better musical taste was not a casual event.  Second, I live in the city that hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics and when I went to the free Blue Rodeo concert by myself (because Feb is insanely busy for me work-wise and the visit was spontaneous), I realized almost all my boyfriends had a Blue Rodeo song and I could re-live my entire romantic history gratis – with fireworks at the end!  The final inspiration was my astonishing realization that some people don’t care about music.  It is not their form of cheap therapy.  When my dad died, choosing the right music to play at his funeral created a family crisis.  He was this guy to whom I owe so many of my best qualities but I had never appreciated the dude didn’t care about music.

But I do! Truly, Madly, Deeply… one of my favourite films.  And, while music may have not been on my father’s radar screen, my love of cinema is totally him…

So my guests will be subjected to images, sounds and words – all carefully chosen by me – at my birthday bash.  But at least there will be free food and booze… and I will do my best to keep the world from ending 😉

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artsy stuff, eating & drinking - well

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Mr. Dressup taught me how to throw a party

It has been suggested that I am pretty good at parties…  I guess the test will happen in a few weeks…  I’ve learned a few things about hospitality over the years but my first party demonstrates the perils of letting your children watch television unsupervised 🙂  You would need to be old and Canadian to know who Mr. Dressup is but he was a huge role model in my childhood.  And one random weekday Mr. Dressup and his friends had a party.  It seemed really cool – especially because it seemed to be a great excuse to eat cake and drink Kool-Aid.  And, as my mom would tell you, in those days I was a fussy eater and began every meal asking what the dessert was… it was just a strategic plan to see whether it was worth getting through the main course…

But to get back to the party concept… Mr. Dressup did not mention that you needed to clear it with your mother – or your caterer – before you threw a party… so I just ran around the neighbourhood inviting every child that I knew to a party at my house at a specific day and time.  I DID get that part right 😉  Needless to say, my mother wasn’t too impressed when about 20 children descended on our backyard looking for cake.  I explained I was throwing a party!  She explained that party planning involved more than just inviting the guests… but she is an amazing mom so she produced Kool-Aid and some kind of fun food.  Maybe the mini chocolate bars she used to stash in the cupboard to feed her own habit 🙂

SHE is the reason my first party was a smashing success.  And I think I have learned a few things about parties, guests and hospitality over the years.  I am sure there will be more party stories… hey, I almost had a helicopter land on the roof of a penthouse.  I nixed that plan but the party was still dramatic enough for reality TV… which had not yet been invented… but you will have to keep reading if you want that story 😉

Category:

eating & drinking - well, life philosophy

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38 countries and counting…

I recently met someone barely into his twenties who I thought seemed really well traveled but he proclaimed, “I have only been to 10 countries!” I have never done a count but this inspired me so I decided to count… 38 I think… with at least another 2 new ones already in the 2012 plan… Have decided I need to see 60 before I turn 60 as apparently I am a bit behind!

As the posts progress, there will be lots about travel and other cultures. I realize for some that will not be part of their life agenda but if you have any interest, DO IT as Nike would say. My mother always wanted to go places and inspired my love of travel and other cultures at a young age.

There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for travel in my youth… but my mom and I would write to the local chambers of commerce for information and plot out the driving strategy on a map laid out on the living room floor. Maybe it was just South Dakota and the badlands… but it could involve unplanned encounters with biker festivals and sarsaparilla. Or one of my fondest childhood memories, when my Monty-Python-esque mother told a scared six year old, “yeah, those shadows on the hills are attacking Apaches ready to take our scalps”… they were just trees – but it meant my childhood was never boring 🙂

And I developed a slightly wacked sense of humour that has helped me survive all the bad moments in life. The sun may no longer set on the British Empire but having someone with a British sense of humour by your side during a tragedy can be very helpful. I always say, “if things get really bad, I just start cracking bad jokes and laughing.”

Not all of the travels to the 38 countries reached that level of excitement – but there have been a lot of incredible memories that will be described in more detail as this discourse continues… the story about riding a runaway elephant near the Cambodian border when the Khmer Rouge were still roaming around is over 20 years old but still entertains…

Category:

life philosophy, travel stories

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kiva is a little healthier than heroin :)

One of my best friends introduced me to kiva.org a while ago.  I am one of those people who knows a thing or two about numbers so I have been aware of microfinance for a long time.  I first encountered the developing world in 1991 and saw the dynamics and wondered how I could help.  I really think kiva is definitely one of those solutions.  As part of my 50th birthday party, I decided to set up a planetm team on kiva as I have tons of stuff so don’t need any gifts.  So far we aren’t a very big group but I made some loans to encourage others.  And today seven of my loans had their first repayment so I had credits to use!

The concept of kiva is making loans to people in developing countries – loans, not aid.  You can loan as little as $25 so it’s viable to any person in the developed world.  And anyone who has travelled will recognize that while $25 might get you a glass of champagne in New York, in Tanzania it can really make a difference.

I have found the process to be addictive 😉 It’s a well-designed site run largely by volunteers I gather.  First, you read people’s stories about what they need the money for.  You can select someone based on your personal values or interests.  I have made lots of loans in Tanzania because I travelled there recently and fell in love with the country.  One of my friends with a degree in agriculture made a loan to a pig farmer in Cambodia.  I grew up on a pig farm so that made me smile 🙂

Just $25 will make your day.  You get to join a bunch of other people to fund the loan and once it is fully funded, you will get an email and can go on and see who participated with you to make a difference in the world.  According to the friend who got me started, the default rate is almost nothing so, as I have just discovered, you will have the money you have lent returned really quickly and you can re-lend it and continue to make a difference in people’s lives.  Pretty powerful stuff.  An addiction with no regrets.  And no need for rehab…

http://www.kiva.org/

Category:

life philosophy, shining examples, social commentary, travel stories

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the concept

life 

I am turning 50 in March 2012.  When I turned 40 my life was in upheaval. A few days before I reached that milestone birthday I examined my life – my marriage had just ended, I did not have a permanent place of residence and my career plans were sketchy.  I wasn’t sure if any of the decisions I had made in my 30s had any merit.  Or what the hell I was going to do with the next decade!  I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.  Being a newly single, homeless, unemployed 40 year old woman is not exactly the stuff of dreams…

Now, a decade later, I approach 50 and I am jazzed about it.  I have started to do a lot of soul searching as I approach what is hopefully just the midpoint of my life.  It has allowed me to label my decades: the first – my decade of discovery, the second – my decade of discontent, the third – my decade of pain, the fourth – my decade of pleasure and this most recent one, my decade of decadence…  I am hoping the sixth will be my decade of enlightenment.

As part of what I hope will be a great journey I am starting this blog.  I hope to supplement with a website as I find the time to master the very expensive Dreamweaver software I purchased in a moment of potential insanity.  But I like to do things well and every decade has included adding something new to the mix of my life.  I am hoping if I keep learning new things I will keep Alzheimer’s at bay.  In any event, it will mean that the life I do get with sound mind and body attached will be more fulfilling and I will have better stories in the nursing home.

This may evolve as I figure out this blogging thing but as a starting point it will be a mix of memories and musings – a romp that will involve travel stories, history lessons, personal philosophy and lots more – all hopefully filtered through a dry celtic sense of humour about the absurdity of the world.

It will be a place to reflect on the past and envision the future.  But, more importantly, in my wildest dreams, I will take a few people along on my journey to learn more about the world and figure out a viable, sustainable plan to save us all from becoming dinosaurs.  Sure, I could just grab a couple bottles of Dom Perignon and order cake but that would be too easy…

Welcome to planetm… a place of discovery, debate and once in a while decadence 🙂

the enigmatic m

Category:

life philosophy

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