ciao ciao

yup. and there´s the extent of my italian vocabulary. smile and nod, smile and nod....

italy is a land of lovely things. gelato, pasta, hot chocolate as thick as pudding, pink hills with castles on them, tiny cobblestone streets, fields of aromatic herbs, enough cats to cuddle until the end of time and, of course, the wonderful federico as my personal guide to it all.

it´s difficult to drop into another culture and another person´s life but it´s made easier by federico, his family and his friends all being very welcoming to me. i´m doing ok so far, learning what life can be like for me here, trying to keep the right perspective and to not get overwhelmed.

oooo! and the orange trees! beautiful beautiful orange trees lining the streets and decorating the fields. we have one in the yard and i eat from it everyday. wow.

ciao ciao!

the interloper retreats once more

thank you, everyone for reminding me what home feels like. thank you for sharing your couches, your beds and for the times that we walked and talked for hours forgetting to sleep at all. thank you for making me feel so welcome and letting me barge back into your lives after so long away.

some days my heart is sick from missing india. my sandal tan hasn't faded completely and yet, off i go again. a new place, a new set of adventures, problems and discoveries. maybe i fall in love too easily with people places things.

thank you for making it hard to leave, this place is so very dear to me.

visions of victoria

there was an elderly man bicycling in a purple-poo-stained jacket with a rather large parrot on his shoulder and he looked at ME like i'm the weirdo. to be fair i did get within a meter of him and stare, followed with me and kristy trotting after him frantically for 3 or 4 blocks exclaiming and yelping.

did you know that there was once a spirit bear kept alone in a cramped cage in beacon hill park for 24 years? apparently it was captured shortly after people realised that the spirit bear was in fact only a sub-species of black bear and the issue had gone out of vogue and was no longer considered scientifically interesting. anyone know where the cage is?

there's a car in james bay filled with strange baubles, stuffed animals and the antenna is bedecked with a tinselly, evil clown head. i have a photo.

jarrad has an outreach centre for suicidal bonsai arbutus trees in his livingroom/my bedroom.

something to do with rain and the phases of the moon has caused grant's apartment to flood.

it's snowing but the cherry trees across the way are blooming in january. (note: it is snowing! again!)

i've spent the past few months as a pampered drifter and a lot of my time has been dedicated to this place. with no job, a lot of time is left for wandering about the city and the coast. i've talked to many of you about victoria and the strange feeling that it has. there are rumours of satanism, tunnels under the city and who knows what else. why are there so many missing cat signs? why are there so goddamn many astrologers, reiki practitioners, yoga schools? i've seen soccer mums in angels of avalon knowledgeably chatting about magic wands. i've met witches. i've met draft-dodging hippies who live on the gulf islands and drink mushroom tea like it's orange pekoe.

and then there's us. what draws so many strange and various people out here? vancouver is a big city with many big city problems, but it has never given me the heebie-jeebies like victoria manages to. and yet, i love this place.

p stands for poland

that's the problem!

none of us are getting enough vitamin p.

head to oxford foods for some discounted polish chockoberry juice and it'll fix you right up.