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I had a great time on the
Empire Sandy on Sunday 3rd September. I did a set of pictures and also
some videos which you can see in the
Scottish Studies section of the site.
On the previous Saturday
night I went to the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto with Nola and Harold and
two of their friends from Edinburgh. The executive chef there is Alex who
is Nola's son-in-law and we had a fabulous meal. I'm told the meal
for 5 of us was over $2000. Alex also gave us a tour of the kitchen
and it's amazing how they can produce such meals from what is really a
small kitchen considering how many meals they serve up. They also
have a separate kitchen under lock and key for when they produce kosher
meals.
On the Sunday night went
out to Kilgour's with Harold, Yanus and Michael and had a great time. And
so my Labour weekend was most enjoyable.
I met one of the Highland
dancers on the Empire Sandy, I think it was Kirsty, anyway she said she'd
do an article on the history of Highland dancing for me and offered to
arrange a video session at her dance studio so I can video individual
dances. Will look forward to hearing from her as that should be a
great session.
As I am writing this on
27th September I am watching the repatriation ceremony for 4 more Canadian
soldiers who died in Afghanistan on CTV. It's at times like this that you
realise just how many people are affected by this just in the immediate
family. This of course will apply to Americans in Iraq and of course
many Scots and British soldiers have lost their lives as well in both
countries. The world seems to be a much more dangerous place these days.
I was back in Toronto for a meeting of the
Knight Templars where we were organising the annual investiture for new
applicants which is due to take place at the end of the month. Also
attended a board meeting of the Scottish Studies Foundation where we are
looking at ways we might be able to help clan and Scottish societies
around the world.
I've also arranged a
meeting with Michael Corish during October. He's the representative
of Scottish Development International (part of Scottish Enterprise) in
Canada.
Have managed to arrange a
meeting with Dr Kirsty Duncan who runs a Highland Dance studio in Toronto.
She is going to do an article(s) about the history of Highland Dancing for
me and I've arranged to visit her dance studio in November to take videos
of some of the more popular Highland Dancing. The aim is to do a section
about this and so some videos will be great to help tell this story.
Was back in Toronto on 30th September for the
annual investiture of the Knight Templars to bring 12 new postulants into
the order. This is really a most enjoyable event and we had a
banquet at the Royal Canadian Military Institute afterwards. Our own Prior
received a surprise presentation :-)
LCdr Chev.
Alan Williams, KTJ; LCol Chev. Ed Rayment, KTJ; His Beatitude Metropolitan
Theodosius, Archbishop of Washington and Metropolitan of the United States
and Canada for the Orthodox Church in America; and Grand Commander H.E.
BGen Patrick Rea. GCTJ, GMTJ present H.E. Capt. Chev. George McNeillie,
GOTJ with a 'small' token of esteem from the Priory of St. James.
I'll
likely get some more pictures in of the event and will post them up when
they arrive.
I had intended to return on the Sunday
but when starting my car there was a nasty grating noise and all the
lights on the dashboard started flashing at me. I thus decided to
stay another night so I could get the car checked out. As it
happened when I headed down to the garage on the Monday the car electrics
just cut and the car came to a complete halt. The power came back on
after a couple of minutes so I continued as the garage was only a half
mile down the road, mostly downhill. It then cut off again about 100
yards before the garage and I managed to coast into it. I shudder to
think what might have happened if I'd been heading down the main 401
highway.
Anyway it took them to the Tuesday to fix
the problem. They let me see the electric cabling that they took out of
the car and it was a mess. Cable melting and wires just split so they
could add another wire. As George (the owner) said... this is just
pathetic and there is no way this standard of work is acceptable.
Anyway... he managed to find a replacement set of cables and got that
fitted to the car with this time proper standard wiring. He also noted my
battery was on its way out so that got replaced as well. And so
another $750 bill... hope this is the last significant bill I have for a
while... this car is getting expensive to maintain.
As I
stayed over on the Sunday night I did get to go out again with Harold and
his friends for a night out which was most enjoyable.
I thus
got back home around 7pm on the Tuesday.
Also
received some old pictures of Chatham...
A Chatham Car!
House of Refuge in Chatham
Chatham
King Street, looking West
Regular readers will likely know that my ISP,
Steve, in Kentucky has loads of cats but seems he now is also taking in
dogs...
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