We had a time change over night so again we were up early.
The weather was starting to look warm, but it wasn't really.
This was late afternoon. No one out there. It was windy!
In the morning we went to another Ian Wright talk, about John Lennon's sailing adventure to Bermuda. It was quite the story! It left off with a cliff hanger, it was right before his death.
Maybe this was the day we say David Tait's "Strike Up the Brand" talk. We didn't know who he was but he's Canadian-Scottish, and hired by Richard Branson to start Virgin Airways. Quite the story! Funny stories about the first flight, and their advertising wars with British Airways.
I may have gone to the knitting group. There was a lot of little events happening and I wish we had done more of them. Scavenger hunts, speed puzzle, trivia, etc.
For dinner we went to Gunbae. It was an interesting group. Most had been there before and were non-drinkers or just didn't want to do the drinking games, so we didn't. The lady beside me and I ordered a non-alcoholic drink and they brought the wrong one and it took forever to get the right one but they only brought me one and not her and it turns out mine was alcoholic and hers wasn't (which was fine), and in the end I didn't really even like it. They also had issues with the food. We wanted to order individually but they just kept cooking different foods and offering it to everyone. So much food. The music was too loud, it was hard to hear our cook....it was just a weird experience compared to our first, even though it was the exact same table and cook.
Tonight was "We Fancy" night. Again, the planner doesn't say much, I don't think even the app says much. However, being in the FB group was so helpful. I knew it was a time to get dressed up and there is sort of a black and gold theme. My SIL had this dress she was giving away, so I thought it would be perfect!
I think this was the drink menu at On The Rocks. Look at those prices on some!!
It was held in the Manor. It's basically a dance party.
Some said it was great, a few repeat cruisers said it wasn't as good as other years. I enjoyed the music but I can't get Rob to dance, so we didn't stay too long. I think it would be an awesome event if it was more like Scarlet Night with other things going on.
Rob always find the quality control and build issues LOL. This is at one of the elevators. Most of the ship was in excellent shape though.
There was no time change overnight so we felt a bit better. Everyone said going east to west is the best way to do a Transatlantic, because you get an extra hour every couple days. Some ships do it mid-day, some overnight. Maybe mid-day is better. We just found that there were too many close together, and then a few days without them. Maybe they could have been spread out better but also, the first 6 days, we didn't travel very far west (it felt far but apparently not for European time zones). I don't know why we needed two so close together after leaving the Canary Islands. I would have preferred one closer to when we got to Miami.
I didn't circle anything in the day plan (but maybe I had two and kept the wrong one). Not much in my journal either. However, looking at the planner I see several things we did! I was really slacking in taking photographs. Came back to edit: we went to the spa!!
The spa on cruises (or in real life) is not something we do. I do get massage therapy, but not "recreational" massages, or treatments, etc. A 3 hour pass was included in our Splash of Romance package, so we thought it would be a nice treat. On the first day, we went for a tour. The lady was very detailed about the order to go through the rooms in, and even how to breathe in the rooms. When we got to the spa this morning, we were pretty much just given a robe and slippers/sandals and told to enjoy. We asked about the sequencing, and she said it didn't matter, just do the mud room last.
Rob's robe did not fit very well, even after getting a larger size. We found it hard to keep track of the robes. There were hooks outside the rooms, but often other robes there too. And they became damp and unpleasant. Just using a towel was easier because there were ample dry ones around.
The steam room was quite nice. Or was this the salt room? Be careful in you go in, some parts of the wall are VERY hot.
What a dreary day outside!
The heated loungers were just flat. Felt nice but not very comfortable.
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The cold "pool" was tiny. You have to sit on your bottom, and it'll come to your chest. Kind of awkward for two people because of the size, unless you were tiny. The "hot" tub was also awkward. Not jetted, just a shallow round tub to sit in. Who wants to sit cross legged? Not even all that hot. The large relaxation pool was a little cool too. Just like going to the cottage, "it's fine once you're used to it". Rob sat in it for quite a while conversing with other couples, including the Australians we met in Casablanca. The mud room was fun, though crowded and the shower wasn't working properly and there was a long line up as we were all near the end of our 3 hours. I don't know if we're spa people. Rob did buy us a pass for the new Thermea spa that opened in our town. It'll be fun. This just wasn't as relaxing and tranquil as I expected. It was also the only time I saw motion sickness bags, strangely.
This was the second talk by Ian Wright. Again, a fascinating lecture!
I probably went to the Knit Happens meeting after this lecture, but maybe not because at 12:00pm we went to "Strange Buildings" in the Red Room. I must have looked at the app today because how would I know to go to this, except that it was in the theater? It was a woman, an architectural historian who looked at strange buildings around the world. It was cool. These lectures are all under an hour, which is great. I love going to talks like these and was NOT expecting them at all on Virgin!!
At 2:00pm we went to "Eric's Tales of the Sea--A Submariner's Yarn". I had no idea what this was about but he actually has a Wikipedia page! He was a member of the Royal Navy and had story after story about incredible adventures, near deaths, etc. I was surprised at how on the edge of my seat I was. I highly recommend it if you're somewhere he's performing. (After note: I have this circled for Nov 7 as well. In my notebook Mike Tait, which is the Virgin Airlines talk, which wasn't on the schedule for Nov 7. I don't recall who we saw, when, but it's quite likely we saw Eric's show on Nov 7).
For dinner we went to Extra Virgin. Here's Rob doing some balsamic vinegar art.
This is Rob's whole chicken. It was tiny! It was listed as a chicken, not a quail or Cornish hen. I had bucatini carbonara. As usual, it was very good. I don't think Rob was filled up though!
We went to the theater to check out "Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle--First Come, First Serve". It had already started so we stood at the back for the last half. It's an interesting show, very polarizing if you liked it or not. British humour, it was meant to be a farce on magician shows. Terribly cheesy, you either love it or hate it. We went back to see the start of the show but they wanted us to fill in a card with a secret and I really didn't want to get pulled in to the show. We left and tried to go up top to sit but they wouldn't let us. We probably went for pizza instead.
The time changes were getting to us. Rob was up at about 5am (today's time). I slept a bit more but I was still really tired. In fact, I only took 3 pictures all day!
This is the "Well Being Pool" near the Galley (remember, it's round, the Galley will make you round). The water level was getting low and it was sloshing pretty bad!
We played Jenga for a bit in the Social Club. I have nothing circled in the day planner. In my notebook I wrote we went to see "The Beatles Before They Were Famous". That's all it said in the planner. The speaker was Ian Wright, a British photographer who took the first known photograph of the Beatles performing. He stayed friends with them their whole lives. He is quite the fascinating old fella. I had seen him on the ship and thought it was quite quirky--funky glasses, dressed very stylish, a little diva-ish. Keep in mind, he's like 80 now. Go look at his profile. He's a really cool guy who got to do and see a lot of cool history. We were probably some of the youngest in the theater, but I don't care! Music is my religion.
We went to Razzle Dazzle for dinner. We had incredible tomato soup and grilled cheese. It was so good and excellent comfort food. Rob had the sirloin and I had the pork schnitzel. Very good. We sat next to Paul and Sandra again! Learned more about his van build and got his YouTube channel info. He is a retired electrical engineer, so you know him and Rob got along great! I wish we had exchanged more contact info.
We tried to see Lola's Library but it was packed. The planner lists Andre Vincent in the Red Room. He's a comedian but I honestly don't think we went to the show. Maybe we watched a movie in the cabin. The ship was moving quite a bit, we were tired.
I see that I never finished writing about our week at the Muskoka Soul cottage. Life got busy when school started up again. Hard to believe that was the Covid summer. In November (about 6 weeks after the last post), I ran into the VP at a school I was working at for the day. She had been a teacher/SERT at the kids' school when we were trying to get Megan's IEP started. She saw my name on the board and said if I'm willing to come there often, she'll request me when possible. I was skeptical. This was my 4th time there, it wasn't my favourite, it was all French Immersion except kindergarten. I had been told I'd be requested a lot at my kids' schools....and that ended up with nothing. But I told her sure, however, I was having ankle surgery in mid-December so I had only a couple more weeks to work before taking off at least the first 6 weeks back.
She kept her promise though, and in February I started going to the school quite often, for all different teachers (previously it had been just music). Then in March, I landed a 0.2 LTO which was 2 afternoons a week at a school that started their afternoons at about the time MPS started their lunch--so there was no way to do both in one day. However, in only 3 weeks, schools shut down again and things went virtual. I managed to get in 8 half days there before virtual. Then I started doing virtual supply which was pretty cool but also challenging. When school started back up in September 2021, I started going there a lot. About 95% of my jobs ended up being there!
In October 2022 I got Covid (thanks, Megan) and as I was recovering, got asked to fill in for the music teacher who also was recovering from Covid. I was able to do a couple days. Then she (the music teacher, lets call her Christie) had a death in the family and needed to take off a week. It was sudden and I couldn't do the entire week (had a few other commitments), but then there was a second week. Then it was two more weeks. Now it becomes an LTO automatically. It was music and science, and a bit of art. I had kindergarten (just a SK class of 13 due to kindie being phased out at FI schools), 8 periods a week. Some of that was for music and some was for centres (which I didn't have to plan). I had a 5/6 class from hell for 3 periods of music and a double of art (which followed a period of their music, but with recess in between). I had a grade 6 class for 3 periods of music but it was a single and a double. Then I had 3 7/8 classes, each had a single and a double of music and each had 5 periods of science.
It was a lot for me. Megan was in grade 12 and there were her work and skating commitments which meant me driving her. I hadn't worked fulltime before. It was so stressful. It kept getting extended (sometimes with a week's notice, sometimes two days) until May, when it was declared she wasn't coming back that year. It's hard to plan when you think at anytime the original teacher was going to come back.
By the end of June (we get out at the very end), it was announced Christie wasn't coming back the next year. She was supposed to have 0.5 English and 0.5 Music. I did NOT want the English, but there was another supply teacher who had been doing LTOs there who was fine with that. So we each got a 0.5. This time I had a grade 4 for one double, a 4/5 for a single and a double, two 5/6s for 3 singles (and one of them, I had a period of art where I went in to release the teacher doing the first period), and 3 7/8 classes for 1 single and 1 double each. The terrible grade 6 students were now in grade 7. They were still terrible and brought out the worse in the previous year's grade 7s who had been pretty good that year because the grade 8s were awesome. There was one class in particular who were terrible. I'm pretty easy going but every teacher struggled with them.
In winter break, one of the full time intermediate teachers went on maternity leave. She was teaching math and science. I would have loved to have just science, but they couldn't re-work the entire schedule. The English teacher started covering the mornings (and keeping her afternoon English), and I covered the afternoons (keeping my morning music). It was horrible. I'm not a math teacher. The kids were suffering from all the changes. Finally, a new English teacher was hired at the start of Feb, and the original one switched to full time math/science (she had been adamant in the beginning of the year she didn't want full time!). I was back to half days.
In late February, I was told Christie was coming back as the music teacher. The insurance plan had said she didn't need to be on long term disability anymore. She would start with coming in a couple mornings a week but not being in the classroom. Then she'd start shadowing me, and then at the end of March, be back completely and I'd be out of a job. I was really upset. When Christie started coming in, she didn't seem committed. The Principal wasn't sure if it was going to work. The insurance agreed to pay me to be at the school for 2 weeks after she totally took over, "just in case." Of course, those two weeks were both 4 day weeks. I filled in primarily for the primary gym teacher, which was not good for my ankle. It was awkward being there. The kids kept asking me to come back. I went back to being the supply teacher.
And then, in May, I find out Christie is moving to another school for September. Can you imagine my anger? She hadn't continued the plans I had made for the classes (one was supposed to get ukuleles, one was supposed to get recorders, etc). She went back to her way, which was a lot of reading and handouts. The kids hated it.
There's been a lot of changes at the school with teachers. Half day sick leaves, maternity leaves, a year off leave...the English turned Math/Science teacher got a permanent position at another school for September. The art (and a few other classes) teacher who was 0.6 is going on leave but is being replaced with a 1.0 LTO. One other teacher is coming back from a long sick leave due to cancer. A grade 6 teacher, new to the board, was surplussed but got recalled and is moving to intermediate. Several teachers said there'll be a 0.5 permanent music position available. However, the principal went on partial leave in May and wasn't around much to ask about it. It hasn't been posted yet.
And...we have a 2.5 week trip planned for Oct/Nov! She asked me if I had plans to apply to permanent jobs and I said I wasn't sure because I liked the flexibility and I had this trip. She said not to worry about the trip if it was booked before being offered a permanent job, it shouldn't factor in. Was that a hint?
The terrible grade 7s are going to be grade 8s, but the incoming grade 7s are an interesting mix with some awesome students. However, the incoming grade 4s are a terror.....
Okay, I hadn't planned to write this much! It was pretty hard to give a short synopsis of why I haven't written! Oh, and I opened a Teachers Pay Teachers store, so I'm spending a lot of time creating resources! Fun! With that also came a blog. It's summer again, I'm not on chaperone duty for the kids anymore, so maybe I'll try writing here once in awhile!
Today on my walk/jog ("walg"? "wog"?), "No Time to Kill" by Clint Black (1993) came on my mp3 player. I decided to actively listen to it, instead of passively. I found the lyrics quite motivational and thought I'd share them today as part of a new series, "Music Monday"
No Time To Kill
(Clint Black/Hayden Nicholas, 1993)
There's no time to kill between the cradle and the grave
Father Time still takes a toll on every minute that you save
Legal tender's never gonna change the number on your days
The highest cost of livin's dyin' that's one everybody pays
So have it spent before you get the bill, there's no time to kill
If we'd known ten years ago today would be ten years from now
Would we spend tomorrow's yesterdays and make it last somehow
Or lead the cheers in someone else's game and never learn to play
And see the rules of thumb are all the same that measure every day
The grass is green on both sides of the hill, there's no time to kill
No time to kill, even I've said it and probably always will
But I can look ahead and see that time ain't standin' still
No time to kill but time to change the kind of hurry I've been in
And quit this work and worry lookin' back at where I've been
If you don't look ahead nobody will, there's no time to kill
If we had an hour glass to watch each one go by
Or a bell to mark each one to pass, we'd see just how they fly
Would we escalate the value to be worth its weight in gold
Or would we never know the fortunes that we had till we grow old
And do we just keep killin' time until there's no time to kill
This song came out while I was dating Jim, and we also saw Clint Black on the tour for this album. If I had known then what the next 10 years would bring, what would I have done? Continue to enjoy the time we had until it ended, or just give up then? We did have some great times, but I could have been having those great times with someone else! Dr Phil often says that time is going to pass anyway, so why put off what ever it is that you keep putting off for a better time? How do you know there will be a better time to travel/have kids/get fit/learn Spanish?
Ten years ago, 2001, well, we all know what that September brought. For me, I was still emotionally recovering from a 13 week miscarriage. Hugh was 15 months old and a handfull and we were still trying to figure out our lives together, LOL.
Ten years from now, what do I want to look back and remember? That I re-found the inner strength in me, and really, truly started pushing myself when I exercise! That we went through some rough times this summer but came out WAY stronger and better! That the kids could go through another major change and start taking a bus to a new school! Life is really good right now and I want to be able to remember this in the future when hard times come around again. I'm trying not to waste my days, but I'm also not trying to "save time". The kids are going to grow up; I can't save time and deny that. Enjoy time!!
I'm pretty sure I've written a bit about the importance of music in my life. I'm not a big techie....I don't have surround sound and wireless connections and all that; I'm not a big groupie; I don't go to many concerts; I've never bought mp3's from iTunes. But I do love music and have a decent size CD collection (it's growth slowed after moving to Orangeville/the boonies) which has a wide range of albums. Looking at the albums is like looking at the history of my life. Different people brought different genres to me; some I couldn't get into, some I've adopted as "my" thing.
Last night I started ripping all the CDs onto my computer that I haven't done yet. So, I heard bits of Air Supply, Jann Arden, Chris de Burgh, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Phil Collins, and Genesis. This is just a typical cross section of the CDs, there were other albums in that section of the alphabet that I've already ripped.
This morning, I've picked up again with Genesis. They were my first band crush; the start of listening to new music because someone else (usually a boy) was. The year was 1983, I was 12. I'm sure I probably heard a bit of their previous album, but it was their self-titled album (otherwise known as the "Mama" album) that really catapulted them to mass market. They had finally been able to create songs short enough for radio play but with their distinctive sound and humour. My brother had a friend who was 16 and "cool". We'd known him for about 4 years by then, and you know how I described how my mom felt about my other friend in the last post? Well, this guy, Mr Slick, was totally this way. Cheesey, slimey, smiley while helping move your new TV in and doe eyed when it went missing the next month type of guy. But when you're 12 and Mr Slick smiles at you...LOL. Anyway, he was already a big Genesis fan, so of course, I had start listening.
Then Genesis went on tour and Mr Slick got tickets. Oh, did I want to go into the big city on the train and see the show with him. But I was not allowed :( In retrospect, I know I wasn't ready for a big time concert then...back then you could smoke inside the arenas, and on buses and trains, and (esp. on concert days), it wasn't always tobacco. If you catch my wiff. LOL.
Mr Slick was in and out of our lives over the next few years until he met his real sweetheart and somehow, she got him to settle down and shape up. Now he's a business owner, father of three, and a far cry from the skinny, smoking, pierced hoodlum of the neighbourhood. Strangely, when Rob and I were house shopping in 2009, we looked at a couple in his neighbourhood, but didn't know that's where he lived. That could have been interesting!
(This is my best friend and me at the end of our Grade 9 band trip, May 1986, with some dude that took a liking to me...)
Anyway, I kept up with my Genesis fascination, and on Sept 22 1986, my best friend and I went to their Invisible Touch concert, on the bus and train into Toronto, all by ourselves! I'm still not sure how I convinced my parents (or her's; she was a year younger than me!). It was at the old outdoor, open roof Exhibition Stadium. The smells were flowing freely that night. LOL! Exactly a year later, I was back at that stadium with my boyfriend, Paul, watching Pink Floyd. Oh boy. We were right at the top of the bleachers, catching wind of everything that got blown up our way. I had had a huge fight with my parents about going....if I had gone the year before on a school night, then why was this one such a no-no? Oh yeah....my parents are older than me....LOL.
Near the end of Grade 10, a couple friends and I went to Toronto for an outdoor performance by the cover band 1964, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sargent Pepper and the Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of those friends, Sanjay, was the smartest guy in high school; went off to MIT, and just had his third baby. The other friend, Mike, or "Boom Boom" as we called him cause he was a drummer and we knew too many Mikes, has become a radio DJ/music director at stations east of Toronto, and just started up a new station in Peterborough that plays the most eclectic mix of songs from the 80s onwards....pop, rockish, light country...I love it!
In July 1987 Mike and I went to see Peter Gabriel, again at Exhibition Stadium. We had awesome seats. Instead of putting the stage at the end of the field like usual, it was mid-field, facing the long side of the stands. They did this because right beside Exhibition Park was Ontario Place, and they were having a fireworks competition. This meant our almost crappy seats became awesome. It was an incredible show, especially as he started singing "Red Rain" with a backdrop of red fireworks (supposedly unintentional...).
I hate the way Blogger works now, this WYSIWYG is not true!
If you can, watch/listen to the duet with earphones. They are so in sync you can't believe it's two drummers, yet it gets so intricate you know it can't be one drummer.
Huey and Rob are learning to play the drums, and I played this video for Huey at lunch time. He seemed impressed, LOL. I could listen to it over and over. And watching it is cool too. Phil is SO at ease on the drums. Just like when I wrote about the one-legged swimmer last month....it's the same thing. The music flows THROUGH him, not just from him....he doesn't just "play", he IS the music. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I posted about listening to music, and this video, today on Facebook, so I thought I'd go into more detail. And that takes us only to 1991....LOL! There were big changes when I started dating Jim....stay tuned?
I don't remember listening to any particular type of music while growing up, we listened to just about anything it seemed. In high school, I was a strange mix of hippyness, rocker, 80s stuff, but no country. I had a good friend who did listen to/sing country and people teased him and called him "Dwight (Yoakum)" and "Randy (Travis)" and I never really understood who they were referring to. Later on, I started to date him, in June 1991, in the early days of "New Country" and I was in for some major eye opening...and ear opening, LOL. New Country was cool! The singers were hot! The jeans were tight! When we broke up in 1995, I kept listening to country, as well as popular music.
I don't know when I first heard of Jason McCoy. Surely I had heard of him before "The Road Hammers" (2005). Looking at his album/song list, his first was in 1989, before I knew about country. The first songs on the list that I recognize are from 1994-1995 (so why did he have a mullet?!) but I wasn't a big fan back then (I'll admit I wasn't; there was something holding me back...the mullet, the too slick sound combined with the mullet and forced styling? Something just didn't jive with me.) The first song I really liked was "Still", from 2003. What a difference in those 9 years!
When I heard that he was having a "concert" here in Whitby, at a small dinner theater, I jumped at getting tickets. I had no idea what the show would be like...then I started watching his "Monday Minute" videos on YouTube and got more and more excited. It's a concert, but interactive. I still didn't know exactly what it'd be like until it started. We walked into the theater and to our table....FRONT ROW, off to the right. We later learned that it holds only 150 people for shows like this. Wow. The show is unlike a regular concert, and I suspect the small theater makes an impact too, much easier for audience interaction. We really loved the slide show of personal photos of his (and his wife's) youth. He's a great example of how you never know how someone will turn out during those awkward teen years, LOL. I wish I had gotten a photo of one of those screen shots, LOL. He started out singing along while his early videos played on the screen. It was awesome to see the contrast between the confident, handsome man on stage, and the young guy in the videos. I had guessed he was around my age, but watching those videos made me wonder when he had gotten his start, so I found him on Wikipedia and was stunned to see that while he was indeed my age, he was MUCH older than I thought in the early videos...around 25-27!
It just goes to show what an impact facial hair and dentistry can make! LOL (I'll admit I have a thing for country singers with facial hair....Tim McGraw and Gary Allan....oh my! Perhaps that's why I don't really remember Jason's early songs?).
Some parts of the show were interactive with video of other people. Here he is with Johnny Reid in the background. Now, you know he's not there live, and that Jason has done this "routine" at all the other concerts, but his personality REALLY shines and it sounds fresh and not contrived/routine at all. Jason is really funny! Not in a "Have you heard the one about...." but with a true love of life, ability to see life as funny, a quick wit, etc. Now, I will say, I was a little surprised at the number of seniors at the show, and perhaps some of the jokes about Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan went over their heads, but everything else was funny. It was great to see him interact with the audience.
Here's a short clip of Duelling Banjos (despite that he's not playing a banjo):
It was a fabulous show. I would have loved to hear even more music, but getting to "know" him a little bit more was also REALLY, REALLY cool. Not to mention just getting out with Rob for the night, LOL. If you get the chance, check out his YouTube channel and watch some of his Monday Minutes! Even better, go to a show! I can't guarantee that it'd be the same in a large theater, but music is music and it will still be great!
Huh? MJ? You're asking, what's he got to do with TracyKM? LOL. I was never a huge fan although I recognized he was talented. However, I watched the Oprah episode after he died, when she looked back on her earlier interview with him. It was one of those "I don't really need to watch this, but it's interesting". However, he said something that I found extremely profound, meaningful to my life. He was responding to Oprah's question about what he thought his purpose on earth was.
"I believe that all art has as it's ultimate goal, the union between the material and the spiritual; the human and the divine; I believe that to be the reason for the very existence of art; and I feel I was chosen as an instrument to just give music, love and harmony to world".
When I'm playing an instrument, I feel that there is something greater than me, greater than the notes on the page, greater than the sound in the air, vibrating around me. I'm not a believer of "God" (in the sense of a spirit that created earth and life), but I am a believer in spirit, in energy, both good and bad. Music can bring out the good spirit in anyone. Sometimes I think too much...about how we look at these 5 lines/4 spaces and little circles and squiggles, and I get lost in the amazingness that it can all become something that I can understand and share and that others can understand what I am sharing. I feel spirit in me, and the need to share it.
I hope, when you hear (good) music, that you feel the spirit too. And I hope that you let the music-giver know. It means a lot to us.
