Debbie S. regularly still sees two of her high school friends and they can understand each other immediately. She spent Thanksgiving at John’s sister’s, with 4 little babies and lots of ‘pass the baby’ action.
Chris M. also has a monthly luncheon with high school and elementary friends (including Judy). They have been meeting at Danny’s at Ironwood for years, but it is now closing so they have to look for a new venue. If anyone has an idea – round table, Thai or Chinese food, easy parking – please let Chris know!
Dalbir says downtown Toronto has improved. He saw the building where Rotary first met in 1905 and saw the plaque on the sidewalk. He also worked in a grocery store and shares Moe’s standards about the cans. Dalbir loves Canadian success stories. He recalls immigrants who didn’t speak English, who he hired to cut grass, until they saw a house disappear almost overnight. When told that a new house was going to be rebuilt there, and that people would make a lot of money, they wanted to know how to do that. So, they bought a property in south Surrey for over $1 million, which is now worth over $93 million.
Melinda has had a tough few weeks as John was in hospital with pneumonia, then she got it too. She thanks her friends for the support, calling and checking in. John is doing well although gets tired easily. When in the hospital, he spent time in front of the nurse’s station and overheard a conversation about palliative care, with fingers pointing in his direction - that both shocked and fired him up and set him on the road to recovery. Melinda worked hard for Thanksgiving and was happy to see people come in for their turkeys, as she had been staying home to get John better.
Marg went Friday night with the godsons to Smitty’s Oyster Bar, a hole in the wall on Main St., but good. They had a family dinner with the cousins, one who is no longer with them, but whose daughter came for her mom. They had dinner at Quilchena and on Monday night did their own dinner. It was a fun board meeting on Tuesday. Today she is going to the Richmond Archives, for a fabulous tea and theme – today is about horse racing. She used to take six very senior people and is going with 4 of them today. Malcolm always speaks. It is at the Ukrainian Hall.
Judy loves the monthly reconnecting with high school friends. She has connected with 5 others, and is having lunch with them today. She was at Birch Bay for the day on the weekend, a gorgeous sunset. She is back into the swing of things after her cruise, going to hockey practices, skills sessions, thankful that now the 8-year-olds can mostly get their own gear on, although they still pay attention to her, waving on the side. She saw the downpour yesterday, as the skies opened up, but didn’t get caught in it. Liam is taking a refereeing course.
Debbie M. was picking up Amalia at school, and looking at the beautiful, coloured trees, when the wind came through and everyone in the playground stopped to look at what seemed to be a scene from a horror movie. Thanksgiving was spent with Sammy and family. She says welcome to Moe. She also still sees high school friends regularly – it’s very special!
Kal says there was a tunnel accident on Tuesday and traffic was backed up in front of his house until 9 o’clock. He was in the man cave working on Rotary stuff and Lavina told him to come home, despite the traffic, in his truck. Lavina has gone to Chicago this morning and may do a tour of Wrigley Field.
Bill says (Lawrence) Chu is proud to be a member and looks forward to missing meetings. Bill will be away next week.
Sam had two Thanksgivings, one Filipino (thought it would be pork) but instead ate enormous ribs. On Monday he ate with cousins and had a turkey loaf, predicted for 6 p.m. They got there a little early, but the turkey, needing to be cooked to 74º, was only at 3º. So, they ate at 8:30 instead of 6.
Chris B. still sees a girlfriend from Gr. 9 and when she went to her house for dinner, she was just getting the meat out of the freezer, and she doesn’t remember at what time they ate. She has high school friends and is going on a cruise in April with one of them, although one is for the ‘other’ candidate. Chris has already faxed her ballot in to the USA. She is on tender hooks for both elections. If ‘one person’ gets in, she may have lots of immigrants from the USA. Her friend voting for that ‘other’ person, doesn’t allow CNN into the house., although she is a very smart business owner. Chris will be at work for 7 weeks, so voted here early.
Blair mentions the ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ movie and wonders if we’ve seen it. For Thanksgiving he was a guest at the Richmond Country Club, and was sure he was eating a turkey loaf, as there was no brown meat, and it was perfectly sliced. Kal’s wife called the manager over, who guaranteed it was real turkey. It was a lovely lasagna dinner Marg prepared for the board meeting. He was at Tom’s Sushi yesterday on Davie St. – the best sushi in his life.
Jeannette says her auntie passed away, so she’s flying to Virginia tomorrow night for the cremation. She broke the news to her mom when they were in Newfoundland. Also, her mom’s best friend passed away, then her best friend’s mom passed away, so it has been a sad time. But they had a good time in Newfoundland, and she tried her best to keep her mom occupied. They saw Signal Hill overlooking the harbour, had good weather, did the screech-in at the pub, got a certificate, had to recite the verse, but hadn’t understood the Newfy accent, and kissed the cod, although it was frozen.
Elena didn’t want to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving so they went to ‘all you can eat’ fish ‘n chips in North Van. Her sister is leaving. She welcomes Moe to our club and tells him this is his new family.
Peachy was almost late as there was congestion on the Alex Fraser Bridge. She also has high school friends and has sponsored them to come to Canada and now they live with her. Others are asking to be sponsored. Every day she can laugh because of the connections she has with her friends. Amalda is with her so there is lots of food, and they don’t need to cook for a week.
Micheal had Thanksgiving weekend with the family. His mom turned 80 so they went to the Keg and then to the temple. He brought in a big cake for the whole congregation. Monday, he made English breakfast for the kids, with champagne mimosas. They watched an Adam Sandler movie in the afternoon. He did two whole chickens instead of a turkey.
Danny was a little late due to accidents on the Alex Fraser. He is just back from Mexico, after a humanitarian mission in a remote mountainous area where they gave toys and books and did a feeding program for 200 poor children. It was a good thing to do.
Moe was at the PAC meeting for dry grad last week but as he doesn’t have a child graduating this year, he is just taking a supporting role. He had a family dinner last weekend and has that one relative that stays overtime! His daughter was home from Victoria.
Carolyn told us last time about her friend moving to Nova Scotia. Just before she left for the trip, her granddaughter fell and broke her arm, needing surgery. Carolyn flew to Winnipeg, then drove with her friend to Nova Scotia, a very long trip that she won’t do again. They got to his newly purchased old Victorian style house where the former owner, a successful, prominent woman from Toronto, had walked away and left the keys – with the house full of stuff and likely not cleaned for about 7 years. Thankfully the moving truck was delayed, and they were able to spend the whole week cleaning, painting, plastering, giving away lots of stuff and taking the rest to the landfill. It was a full week just to get the house to where it should have been. A few strategic words inserted into the agreement left them with no recourse, other than spending 12 hours each day cleaning. The truck arrived and they started over again, putting everything away. She is glad to be back, although will return at the end of October for a few weeks to house sit. She hasn’t seen much of Nova Scotia yet, except for Dollarama and Tim Hortons, but when she goes back it will be scallop season. Yay!
Garth says that when you graduate from the Trail high school, the day after, everyone just leaves. His classmates are disseminated all over the place. He spent Thanksgiving learning how to cook gluten free. He had his flu vaccination and voted.
Pat likes to vote early as it is very quiet and efficient. She thanks Marg for the board meeting and delicious dinner and welcomes Moe. Congratulations to Marg for the Paul Harris Award. Pat was in Varadero Cuba for a week with her daughter.
Debbie T. still sees her high school flute-playing buddy and her other buddy (now her husband) so they are all band geeks. Saturday night they went to see Jersey Boys. She bought a turkey from Melinda’s as the kids were going to come on Monday but decided not to because of heavy traffic. So, the turkey is frozen, and they’ll come this weekend. They did a little turkey breast for Fernanda.
Peter says it’s his wife’s 60th graduation anniversary, but as their numbers are declining, the spouses are invited. It’s at Country Meadows as Harry Hogler was one of her classmates at Richmond High. Peter is getting his partial knee operation - day surgery - on Nov. 7, so he might miss a couple of meetings. Hope it goes super well, Peter!
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