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JMB
Vancouver
Retired from hospital pharmacy
Recent Activity
I too enter this year with even less optimism than you I think. My life is about to change dramatically as I am about to lose my spouse/best friend/ companion of 60 years and my home of 45 years. Life has a funny way of upending one's plans and it is our job to deal with whatever it presents as best we can with dignity and grace. And make new plans, in time. It seems to me you have two already so that's a start. One foot after the other!
Thoughts at year end
It's easy to identify wrong choices after the event but it's important not to lose your life to regret. Every door you choose to open, leaves not one but many closed. Who is to say which of the others would have led to better paths? If real life gave us a video game's opportunities to go back an...
Others above have given you very good counsel, I have nothing useful to add. At this stage for me life is about putting one foot after the other, remembering the good things from the past, the lessons learned and having no regrets.
I spent a mere two weeks in Japan quite a few years ago and would return in a heartbeat. You will not regret a journey to that wondrous country, I can assure you.
Happy New Year to you Tom, may it be a better one for us all.
Thoughts at year end
It's easy to identify wrong choices after the event but it's important not to lose your life to regret. Every door you choose to open, leaves not one but many closed. Who is to say which of the others would have led to better paths? If real life gave us a video game's opportunities to go back an...
I am so sorry Tom and deeply shocked. I have no sage advice to give you, just a listening ear as always and a big hug. Life will go on. Remember the good times and there were many. No regrets.
The blogger at bay
The second Mrs P., who led me from my grief at the death of Mrs P. to a new and briefly happy life, has left me. She met a new man at her work. Our age difference (almost thirty years) was always a risk. For years before we married I told her that – good though it was for me – our relationship ...
A very thought provoking post!
Where we are and what we see
Nine years after I gave up legal practice, I have stopped calling myself a lawyer. If you ask me now, I would say I am a photographer. I devoted my professional career to words and now I am trying to develop my visual sense. I don't do it professionally. I don't need to. I just love it and enjoy...
Oh I forgot to say that's it's also been my great pleasure to meet you through the pages of this blog and to form a strong if unusual friendship beyond it, even into meeting several times in real life and I still cherish the occasion when your Ferrari was parked in my driveway for a day or so. Such cachet it earned me with the neighbours!
The Last Ditch Blogiversary
The Last Ditch (Archives): The opening shot. Fifteen years ago today I uploaded the first post to this blog. The link above will take you to it. Almost no-one read it then and you may well think they were wise! I had fewer than 25 hits and remember being rather miffed. In truth, I completely mis...
Congratulations to you Tom. A tome worth archiving for future generations, if as you say they can find it. Laughs. The wisdom of the world as I call the internet is a pretty crowded place and not always easy to navigate.
It's been my pleasure to read it for almost all of those years, although we don't always agree and I've been shot down in flames in the comment section of this blog on occasion. Raises her glass to another 15 years and wonders what the tone of it will be by then. Hopefully not still angry.
The Last Ditch Blogiversary
The Last Ditch (Archives): The opening shot. Fifteen years ago today I uploaded the first post to this blog. The link above will take you to it. Almost no-one read it then and you may well think they were wise! I had fewer than 25 hits and remember being rather miffed. In truth, I completely mis...
Well it will be cool in the champagne cellars at Epernay, if I recall correctly.
I've enjoyed travelling with you and Mrs P II on your honeymoon, especially to many places that I recall fondly. Enjoy the remainder of you trip.
Beaune, idle
Today was one of the more ambitious in terms of driving. Our South of France idyll over, we reluctantly locked the door of our friend's villa and headed to the autoroutes. Our destination today was Beaune, which is 370 miles from Mougins. We decided to make the trip slightly longer by divertin...
One of my favourite cities to visit too. It's also a good city for getting around on foot. I've been there half a dozen times over the years and once spent a month at language school in Florence, doing a homestay with a lovely Italian family. We never seemed to run out of things to see in all that time.
Florence
I am back in my favourite city and Mrs Paine II is enjoying its delights for the first time. After yesterday's stress, we had only a two hour run to Florence, so took a leisurely breakfast and sauntered automotively to the autostrada. South of Modena a convoy of three Ferraris overtook us at spe...
I think your friend is very misguided and achieving nothing by his stand. It's also rather patronizing on his part by putting all the "blame", as he would call it, on you. Apparently he does not believe that the future Mrs P2 is capable of making her own decisions.
I would love to be there to celebrate this joyous occasion with you and wish you both every happiness.
Beyond fake news
Catching up with The Q yesterday I mentioned a good friend I had hoped he would meet at my wedding was not coming because, as a devout Catholic, he disapproves of our match. Given the age difference he believes I am sinfully selfish in denying the future Mrs P2 both the chance of children and of...
Happy New Year to you Tom and congratulations!
Happy New Year, gentles all!
It has been an interesting year, politically and personally. The nation is divided. It seems many of the things we thought we had in common are no longer there. The verbal ferocity against the majority of us who voted for Brexit has confirmed that our decision was correct. It has even changed t...
Congratulations. An incredible achievement.
On becoming less of a man
I am just 100g away from losing 50kg this year. I am off to the pool to swim some more to see if I can make this happen by my “official” weekly weigh-in on Wednesday. My ultimate goal, by June 30, 2019, is to lose 68 kg. Even then, by government guidelines, I will still be 12kg “overweight”. ...
As one of your online friends, although we did meet several times in meat space as you so charminglv call it, I enjoyed this post. Would you believe I was looking for the like button to click for a few seconds till I came to my senses and signed into Typepad?
you do like to pigeonhole your friends with fancy sounding names, don't you? Although you always have miscategorized me. Laughs. I think I am a Left Liberal while you push me far more to the Left into the Marxist camp I fear. I'm lucky you are so tolerant and of course lucky to be your friend!
Friendship
Family friends, childhood friends, school friends, university friends, work friends and online friends; they come in all shapes and sizes but they are life-enhancing. A life thus unenhanced would be an unbearable prospect so – to any friends reading this – thank you. I appreciate your contributi...
I’m not the erudite reader you are but I read this many years ago and count it amongst those books which made an impact on my life. It’s certainly a book that I think everyone should read in their lifetime.
I’ll be interested to see what else you are going to recommend and wonder if I will have read any of those. Laughs.
When I think about the books I have touted over the years to anyone who would listen it is an incredibly eclectic collection. Oh my latest touting is When Breath becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, a bit close to home for me, but a very different look at what makes life meaningful.
Book reviews: 12 Rules for Life / Man's Search for Meaning
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson This is a global best-seller because (thank all gods there may be) the Leftist intelligentsia does not grok the Streisand effect. They denounce the author furiously in every available medium as "Alt-Right", "White supremacist",...
Carcassonne is one of my favourite places in all of France. Unfortunately when we did the tour it was only available in French and while I can still read French relatively well, my understanding of the spoken word leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately my daughter is fluent and she filled in any missing details for me later.
Carcassonne
When planning this trip one of the first decisions I made was to visit Carcassonne. When I posted my planned route on my personal Facebook page two friends of mine from Poland said they would meet me there. We booked into the same hotel, just outside the gate of the medieval fortress town and I ...
Laughs!
Congratulations. Your time share slavery is over for this year
It’s Tax Freedom Day: It may be the latest it’s been since 2001 but you’re finally earning for yourself and not the government | City A.M.. By the way. Its US equivalent was April 24.
Do you know that in Australia Tax Freedom day was April 12th this year? We are both living in the wrong country!
However the discrepancy is so great I think they must calculate it differently.
Congratulations. Your time share slavery is over for this year
It’s Tax Freedom Day: It may be the latest it’s been since 2001 but you’re finally earning for yourself and not the government | City A.M.. By the way. Its US equivalent was April 24.
June 10th for us Canadians, well that was in 2015 and it's been creeping later every year so I am sure 2016 will be no different.
Congratulations. Your time share slavery is over for this year
It’s Tax Freedom Day: It may be the latest it’s been since 2001 but you’re finally earning for yourself and not the government | City A.M.. By the way. Its US equivalent was April 24.
Merry Christmas to you and your daughters, Tom.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a liberty-laden New Year
BBC News - Tweets to feminist campaigner Criado-Perez: Two charged. The Misses Paine and I are off to cruise the Norwegian fjords from tomorrow. Our access to the internet will be patchy. So let me take this - perhaps final - opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, free New Year. ...
Testing, testing, testing.
Housekeeping request
Cascadian has written to me to say his comments here are not appearing. Is anyone else experiencing problems? If so, please email me by clicking on the link in the sidebar. I would like to have as much information as possible when taking the matter up with support at Typepad, my blogging platform.
I'm sorry your Philadelphia sojourn was so messed up. I really loved that city with all the independence hype and of course the very splendid Rodin Museum which wasn't on your agenda.
When I visited the Declaration of Independence in Washington DC I was strangely moved by the whole experience and Philadelphia was a similar experience for me.
You sound quite nostalgic now the journey is over. What an achievement! Those wide open roads were built for Speranza and I'm sure she enjoyed every moment of it too. Especially the admiration!
From sea to shining sea - and back.
I didn't get to see inside, sadly Philadelphia street scene Not to give the two Eds ideas... Old Philadelphia houses Your humble blogger outside the home of the original and only real Tom Paine Tom's plaque and his house's "for sale" sign Slightly over-restored, perhaps? I w...
One wonders if you will ever wear your collection of Tshirts again when you get back to the UK. But perhaps you'll have acquired an American attitude on this trip. Tradition be damned!
I love the American "why not" attitude in the face of 'You can't do that", because some outdated "tradition" dictates one can't.
Victory or death
I like Texas. I knew I would. It's a matter of attitude, really. A picture I saw somewhere of a local Senator posing by the increased speed limit sign on the Interstate. The "don't mess with Texas" anti-litter signs on the roads. The Texan flag flying everywhere or pictured on cars and...
Thank goodness. California will keep for another visit, perhaps not with Speranza but there will be lots of muscle cars for hire next time. I hope that's not an insult to Speranza, comparing her to a muscle car, although we all know she is in a higher class.
Some of the tour's supporters were concerned about...
Some of the tour's supporters were concerned about last night's post. I am pleased to report that, following a flurry of emails between Oregon, London and New Jersey overnight that the tour is back on track. I have to sacrifice only 5 days to get Speranza back to London in time and there is a fal...
I hope you appreciate that I photoshopped the garbage can out of that photo! The OS moved it out of the way for one photo but put it back before I took this one. Shakes her head. He doesn't do photography but he does garbage quite well.
Timing issues
Leaving Vancouver this morning (c) JMB JMB's rather cool vanity plate Entering Oregon Where the above photo was taken Slow but adequate progress - at the old rate anyway I collected Speranza from the Vancouver dealership this morning, settled my modest bill, thanked the team ther...
Those places look familiar! A lovely day indeed. It was good to see you again and show you a few of the highlights of this lovely city, my adopted home. Bon voyage.
A Canadian interlude
Local transport Trade in the offing Stanley Park musician Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games logo in stone Horseshoe Bay J Yacht Club flies the flag MB and "the old scientist" (as she always refers to her life partner on her blog) gave me the tour of Vancouver yesterday. It...
That "island" made by your route lines is actually known as the Cascade Loop minus a tiny bit on the coast and a very well known tourist drive. You can google it.
I've never driven it but it is said to be very beautiful. I think taking the longer route would probably be more scenic. Maybe it won't be more scenic than where you have been but it will certainly be spectacular. You'll go past Mount Baker and Lake Chelan and the North Cascade Highway sounds very scenic. Frankly I would ask the locals when you get to Wenatchee, they'll be better able to give you advice than me.
Don't worry about time, as long as you get to Vancouver in time for dinner. Planned for around 6.30pm give or take. :)
Crossing the border can be a tedious delay as the Canadians return from their cross border weekend shopping sprees, but hopefully it will go smoothly.
Advice please?
Can anyone with local knowledge advise me please? Is it worth the investment of an extra hour and a half to take the scenic light blue route to Vancouver tomorrow? Given the terrain I am traversing, will it even be any more scenic? [As usual, click the image to enlarge to a useful size]. BTW,...
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