- I set an alarm and got up early (like, 5 a.m.!) on Thursday morning to watch the Trooping of the Colour ceremony (for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee) live from London on CBC News Network -- and then again (6 a.m.) the next day (Friday morning) for the service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral. Nobody does pomp & ceremony like the British! :) (Thankfully, the "Platinum Party at the Palace" concert on Saturday and pageant/parade on Sunday were on mid-afternoon here!)
- The concert and parade did not get the same wall-to-wall live coverage here, and we were out for part of Saturday afternoon, getting haircuts. But I was able to find the Paddington Bear video online later :) as well as Queen (the band)'s opening set (with 74-year-old guitarist Brian May popping up on a riser in front of the Victoria monument at just the right moment!) and Prince Charles's speech, and we did get to see the Queen's final balcony appearance on Sunday afternoon live. :)
- I will admit to tearing up every time she made an appearance over the weekend. How much longer we'll have her around, no one knows, but I think she's absolutely amazing, and it's worth celebrating a job well done -- for 70 (!!) years!
- After watching the Trooping of the Colour on Thursday morning, I (finally!) got out on the balcony and washed the door/windows, inside and out, with help from dh. Looks SO GOOD. :)
- On our way back from voting later that afternoon in the provincial election, we brought the two patio chairs and small table up from the storage locker, cleaned them off and set them out, and then I went out to sit there for a while with a cup of tea and book. It was a perfect day -- not too hot or humid, a bit of cloud cover. Let the summer begin...!!
- Vent: While I enjoy being able to sit outside and/or have the balcony door wide open during nice weather, there's one drawback... we've come to the conclusion that our next-door neighbour is a cannabis addict. :p I've complained here before about the smell of cannabis wafting into our unit through the open balcony door (and sometimes even through the cracks of the door to our unit, when the balcony door is closed). He appears to work from home (if he even has a job?). I've started keeping track of how many times a day we smell it and when, in case we want to file a complaint with the property manager. Five or six times a day is NOT uncommon (I am not exaggerating). I mean, Saturday night, or even every night after dinner or something like that, okay -- but five or six times a day, almost every day?? Dh even smelled it once in the hallway at 6:30 a.m. Seriously??
- We don't always see him smoking on their own balcony (which is a few feet away from ours -- although we do see him out there from time to time). My guess is he's sitting or standing near their balcony screen door when he smokes, in an attempt not to have the stuff stink up their own unit? And part of me wonders whether his girlfriend (who goes out to work every day) knows just how much he smokes during the day, and whether he's trying to hide that fact from her?? (As Justine Froelker has said on Instagram, the stories we tell ourselves to fill in the blanks when we don't have all the information...!)
- Our current provincial government, inexplicably, won -- and not just another majority, an even bigger one!! -- in our provincial election last Thursday. (Not only that, one network called it less than 15 minutes after the polls closed!)
- Little Great-Nephew, triumphantly, after climbing to the top of a small slide in the backyard recently, before sliding down: "Ah-daaaaa!!" Not "Ta-da!" -- "Ah-da!!" lol Too cute! :)
- I listened to another great podcast episode with Jody Day of Gateway Women, this one hosted by Sheri Johnson, who (as I discovered from poking around her website) is a fellow Ontarian. :) Together, they delve into the roles that patriarchy, pronatalism, sexism, ageism and shame all play in our childless journey.
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
That's really too bad about the neighbor. I do not care at all if people smoke pot, but that doesn't mean I want to smell it all of the time. It's too bad he doesn't use a vape pen which doesn't smell like smoking. I remember in my much younger years (yes, I'm going to tell on myself here) smoking and exhaling into a toilet paper tube stuffed with a dryer sheet in order to cover up the smell. Do people still do that? I don't know how you would have a conversation with your neighbor about that though. Maybe your property management can suggest he start vaping instead. Smelling someone else smoking all of the time would give me a headache.
ReplyDeleteOn a happier note, I love hearing about "Ah-daaaa!" That really is the cutest!! Thank you for sharing. :)
Also, thank you for sharing about the podcast. I am searching for more information about pronatalism for my research project. This one looks helpful.
I really don't care either -- and I would probably be just as annoyed if it was cigarette or cigar smoke -- but it is pretty stinky! Yes, it's legal and yes, they have the right to enjoy their property -- but hey, so do I, right? Like I said, it's one thing to indulge on a Saturday night or even after dinner to relax, etc. -- but six times in one day, several days a week??
DeleteIf you are researching pronatalism, you need to read "The Baby Matrix" by Laura Carroll. I don't agree with everything she has to say, but it's pretty thorough. Also kind of mindblowing, if you haven't really thought about this as a systemic issue before.
Thank you! I've heard of that book but have not read it. I will need to check it out.
DeleteThere's a theme this week: sleepless nights - French Open for me, Platinum Jubilee for you! I've watched the Jubilee either live or delayed - in fact, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have realised they were even being televised. So thank you!
ReplyDeleteYour weekend also seems to have had a balcony theme. lol!
And ugh to stinky neighbours.