All Teed Off!!

Danielle and Dad at the Open

Golf, the sport of kings and nobles, of Tigers and Mikes, of Henrys and Danielles. Or at least on Thursday it was. After a week and a half of subterfuge, avoiding telling the truth and of maintaining absolute silence on a most important subject, I arose early on the morn of the 7th to betake myself off to my parent's abode to rendezvous with my male parental figure and to abscond with him for the entire day to watch a bunch of guys whack a small little white orb around a huge park for lots of money. Yes, we joined the masses who thronged to the elite Hamilton Golf and Country Club to participate in that phenomenon known as the Canadian Open.
Apparently i have been to the Open before, only the views weren't so great as they were impeded by my mom's shirt and i couldn't use the bellybutton to see. But this time, the views were wonderful. The day had dawned misty, with hints of sunlight peeking through the swirling fog. But very quickly the day warmed up and we were treated to the wonderful views of the golf course. And what a course it is! Magnificent rolling hills (a very lot of them, my calves and feet could attest to that!), brilliant greens, huge old trees, little rippling brooks, and a plethora of big-name golfers. Dad and I first of all did the grand tour of the place, walking the front nine and part of the back nine, all the while keeping an eye on the golfers and their schedules. We thought we should take advantage of this chance to wander around the place while we could.
Then we headed up to the 10th tee to watch the crowd favorite, Mike Weir, tee off. He was good, but i'll be honest and say i saw a lot of superior golfers that day and even the young amateur performed more honourably than he did. But that said, it was neat to see him play. He's such a face for Canadian golf.
After rubbing shoulders with Vijay Singh, Mark Calcavecchia, Jim Furyk, Vesper Parnevik (the dandy of the course), Camilo Villegas, Justin Rose, or rather with the crowds who were straining to see the power of the drives, the precision of the shots and the finesse of the putts, we decided we might be hungry. After all, why not bring along a lunch to revive the spirits and the soul after tramping all over the park? But security, no wait, fundraising, was such that outside food wasn't even good enough for the Country Club and if you wanted to eat, you had to pay the exhorbitant price of $3.50 for a bottle of water, $5.50 for a Haagen-Daaz ice cream bar and $6.50 for a hamburger. No way that these two Dutchies were going to splash out so we jumped on the handy shuttle bus, ate our lunch which was banished to the car, and then jumped back on our own personal shuttle bus to watch some more golf.
Dad and I thoroughly enjoyed our day, the weather was perfect, not too cold, not too windy, no rain, we came back slightly sunburned but all the richer for watching how the pros manage to pull off such wonderful games. It would take me about 17 shots to get to the tee in the time it takes them 4 or 5! Amazing!! I thought maybe i'd learn something from them, but i only learned that in the game of golf, you need to practice, practice, practice!!! The only time i'll ever see -8 is at the end of my life, piled up on top of me!! Heehee!!
I shall finish with a beauteeful little paragraph. If you'd like to iron out your golf woes, come over to the club and putter around a little bit. Don't turf your clubs if you're not up to par, but rather go to the woods and search for your swing and have a ball!!!

Wild wild west!!

Riding off into the sunset on a faithful steed. Charging through a river with foam and water droplets flying off a horse's hooves. Deftly guiding an equine companion around rough terrain and feeling like a real working team. Digging your heels in and saying "Giddyup!" Or probably rather clinging with all your might to the reins and hauling back on them and yelling "Whoa, stupid horse!" when he decides that he's a little smarter and stronger than his rider and wants to have things go his way - running into the corn field, snatching grass snacks every chance he gets, trying to pretend he doesn't know you're on board and squeezing through spaces that he fits through and not you and your leg. Hmm.. sounds like fun?! Yes, definitely. I think i probably had a huge smile on my face all afternoon Saturday.
As a special early treat for my birthday, my wonderful friends decided i needed to have some more horsey experience so they betook me as an unknowing participant off to the trail-riding farm on Jerseyville road on Saturday afternoon. I was pretty excited when i realized what we were going to do! We got fitted with our ever fashion-conscious helmets and were assigned to our equine partners. My horse's name was Willow and he was a beautiful cream coloured horse with definite ideas on when he wanted to stop and they weren't always in harmony with my wishes, in fact usually about five paces after i said "whoa", he would finally deign to come to a stop, by then nearly sticking his nose up Lauren's horse's butt! But (heehee!) we did get along fine!
When all the would-be cowgirls (Joyce, Carina, Helen, Anne-Marie and Lauren) were mounted up, some of us older fogies requiring a step-up to the saddle, (a fact that made me a little ashamed - i wanted to say i did it myself but that stirrup sure looked higher than my hips and knees could allow!) we did a few practice rounds in the covered arena to get our sea-legs. It was pouring at one point and i was hoping against hope that the weather would clear to allow us a chance to feel like real cowboys out on the range. The owner fellow, who was super nice, told us that he's had people come in there with all grand illusions that they were John Wayne and were gonna show off how to be a proper cowboy, complete with big jangling spurs! Crazy!
Thankfully the weather did clear and we were on our way to an hour communing with nature and our steeds. Our trail leaders took us through woods and up hills and past trees and cornfields and along fields, the horses all the while thinking and planning ahead to when they can snatch the next tuft of grass to munch on - like a huge well-spread buffet just begging to be munched on!! All in all, it was a very great experience, just being able to feel the rhythm of the horse and try to feel at one with that and to sit properly and ride according to all the rules that i had memorized as a horse-crazy kid.
Carina's horse, Comet, seemed to enjoy being an oxymoron - he was the slowest horse of the bunch, enjoying causing everyone else to slow down occasionally to let him catch up, but according to Carina, that was okay because she is older too and couldn't go so fast - whatever, girl!. Lauren's horse was endlessly hungry, always wanting another snack. Helen's was named Dice - a cute white and brown spotted horse. Blaze and Booboo were faithful in the middle of the pack and bore Joyce and Anne-Marie well. A few little stints of trotting produced groans from most of us as our butts came down a little harder inthe saddle than intended. But it was fun to go faster and to be perfectly honest, i would have liked to have gone one gear/gait up and cantered because that's a little easier on the backside! Aah, delusions of grandeur and expectations that i can ride like a pro when i am only a sack of potatoes. When we dismounted at the barn (i could do it all by myself, yeah!), with legs a little wobbly and muscles stretched to the max, it had been a great hour. We spent a little more time wandering around the farm admiring all the rest of the horses on the premises, including a 26 year old pensioner who was given free range over the whole farm - he wouldn't leave since his food and friends were all there. And a beautiful Clydesdale with a blue eye, a cute Appaloosa, a few ponies, a few donkeys, and lots more. I love horses!!!
I want to thank you girlies very much for this experience. I thoroughly and most truly enjoyed it wholeheartedly. My butt however, may beg to differ.....

Here I am

Okay, here I am for hopefully a short update. Tonight Carina and I spent some quality time at Mom and Dad’s place eating some ?chicken for our nourishment and having some really good laughs together about some impossible situations. Poor Lauren probably thought we were nuts, but that’s okay, cause we are!! Lauren and I also spent some time chatting away about the way life is going at the moment and how much things seem to change and how change is not always so fun! I would love to stop the clock sometimes and see how things would pan out if we stayed at the same stage we were at a “happy” time in life. But I suppose also that it is good to keep progressing forwards to find out what is in store for the rest of our time here on earth. We might not like it all but we as humans don’t do well being stagnant either – we would probably rust or mold or freeze up our wobles or eenks and wouldn’t be able to get anywhere!
I’ve also learned some new words this evening courtesy of my youngest sister who seems to teach me a lot of things, things both useful and useless. I learned about the alternative meaning of tool/tulle and she learned about being called a tulip!! Och, it’s so nice to be able to just relax and hang out and enjoy some good sisterly time together. I love both my sisters so much and I sure miss being able to be with the three of us. I guess that’s part of that good old change thing again but it sorta is a bummer sometimes. Well, I guess that’s what phone calls and emails and cars are all for! To keep up communication! So here’s to modern technology and to the future!
Tomorrow is coming soon and tomorrow is gonna be exciting! I’m gonna take Dad to the Canadian Open for the day, only he doesn’t know anything about it yet and I’m super excited about that. I called him up at work last week after I bought tickets and asked him “can you just take the day off next Thursday?” and he was kinda curious but I begged him if it was all right if I didn’t tell him why. He’s been ever so good about the whole thing and so I hope he will enjoy our little outing.
So Mike Weir and the rest of the field, here we come!

Vive le Quebec!!

Quebec City…
C’est une belle ville, n’est pas? Ca ville est tres interessante et marveilleux (best guess at spelling) et elle a beaucoup de personnes qui est tres capable de faire les actions acrobatique et humereux. Ca c’est le fini de mes attempts a ecrire en Francais. Pathetique!
Okay, once more with feeling! Quebec City – a wonderful city with so much to see and do and experience and soak in. I had been in its environs in the distant past (highschool) but unfortunately my normally excellent memory for travel failed me at that time. Perhaps it was frozen in slow absorbent gear at that point since it most likely was very cold at the time since we were there with the purpose of attempting to ski at Mt. Ste. Anne – me with very little success since I ended up lost and on a very difficult slope which unfathomably was positioned directly next to the beginner slope with none too clear marking of the trails (Hmm, a conspiracy by the local hospitals to create some much needed revenue from setting broken legs and fixing concussions? We will never know – but the interesting little factoid for today is that Ontarians and all other Canadians need health insurance coverage for traveling to Quebec. Did you know that? I sure didn’t and was kinda surprised by that info – My Quebec does not include Canada apparently).
Wow, that was a large digression from the main topic – What do I say about the trip? We left early on Monday morning to drive the 9 hour drive to Quebec City, the capital of la belle province de Quebec. We made excellent time, in part due to good weather and traffic conditions and in part due to my superior map reading and navigational skills. Perhaps I could start my own little guide company. Hmm, if I’m ever bored of nursing…
Memories of the trip will just come out in blurbs and blobs in no random or particular order:
- Mom snorting the entire song of Happy Birthday!
- reading Princess Bride, complete with different voices and accents, in the car and leaving poor Westley in the torture chamber!
- loving our B + B located just outside the walls of the city, complete with cool views from the toilet, a wonderful hostess, good beds, a cute couple from Washington at our breakfast table, croissants, old windows and crooked wooden floors.
- wandering around the old city a lot – we sure walked a very lot. Good ting we had good shoes. Here’s to no blisters!!
- visiting the Citadel and driving around the walls twice before we found out how to get out of there – could have been endless entertainment – driving around in circles – would be a good cheap outing since it doesn’t cost anything to get into the fort – only a wonderful salute from the dapperly dressed guard. “So kids, how did you like that guard?” “But Dad, we’ve passed him four times already and I’m sick of waving to him!”
- taking a horse and caleche ride around the city with Francois and Beauty (you figure out who is the horse and who is the driver!)
- eating crepes and croissants and curried chicken sandwiches and gelato by the gallon
- trying to buy a painting on the artist’s street without getting knocked over by the prices
- nearly getting run over and smushed by a horse who was a little thirsty
- getting to see minke and fin whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals on the St. Lawrence – do you all realize how big that river is??
- watching the abundance of wonderfully flexible and distortable street performers who juggled fires, rode infinitely tiny bicycles, balanced each other on impossible angles, and generally kept us quite entertained until the time came for the tips – then we just said “look both ways before you cross the street” and left – just kidding of course, we tipped the ones we really were amazed by and there were quite a few!
- marveling at the European feel of the city and loving it and wanting to move there – I have no idea what I would do there, just wander around and gawp at the walls and windows and feel old
- driving through wonderful little villages along the river coast line, yelling at Dad to slow down around hair pin turns and marveling at stomach-dropping views
- sitting in sidewalk cafes after debating endlessly about where to eat and then thoroughly enjoying our food – fettucine alfredo, salads, soups, steaks and lots of other yummy things
I loved spending time with Dad and Mom and Lauren, just relaxing( well, walking a lot but still out of the daily grind and routine) and experiencing new things together and making memories.
Vive le Quebec trip of 2006!
Bon nuit et je t’aime!