Just a Little Rant

Can someone out there please explain to me why it is people put little quotes at the end of their e-mails? Honestly, I really don't understand why. I mean, I'm not stupid. I get that it's supposed to provoke deep thought on the part whoever it is who gets the email. But have you ever noticed that it's the people who forward emails that say crap like "if you pass this on to all your TRUE friends you'll win a million dollars, and if you don't forward this to everyone in your address book in the next 5 seconds Santa Claus will die" or something equally vapid that end their messages with a deep thought? There it is, at the bottom of the email: "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable" -Sydney J. Harris (I should probably know who this person is, but I don't). Honestly. I mean really. What. The. Fuck.
People who pass on retarded emails like that should be barred from having "deep thoughts" as part of their email signatures.
O.K.
I'm going to bed now because it's 1:30 in the morning, and I'm sick. And tired.

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The Weather Outside...

Oh the weather outside is frightful... This week we had the first snowstorm of the season. In less than 24 hours, more than 18 inches of snow fell. It was also pretty darn cold out for Deroche at a chilly -13° C. More than -2o° C with the windchill. I stayed at home for 48 hours straight (unheard of in normal circumstances). 48 long, boring, can't-even-get-to-the-store-to-buy-milk hours. Don't get me wrong. I like snow. Snow is one of the few things I miss about Northern Ontario (where I lived for 5 LONG years). Of course, when it snowed there it had the annoying habit of sticking around for months... Still, every time it snows here it creates absolute havoc. People panic, drive off the road and flip their cars. In our defense, the snow in the Lower Mainland is nothing like the dry, powdery stuff that falls in the rest of the country. Oh no. We get wet, slippery snow, frequently followed by freezing rain (as if the weather gods suddenly remember that it's not supposed to be cold enough to snow in lotus-land). To make things worse, cities and municipalities have tiny budgets for snow removal, and if we get a really big dump of snow there aren't enough plows to keep the roads clear. I have, however, come up with a fool-proof method of ensuring it doesn't snow again this season: I am buying a pair of winter boots. The second I spend good money on something, it's guaranteed that I will not need whatever it is I have bought. You can all thank me at the end of the snow-free-rest-of-the-winter.
I have included a picture of my back deck. I suppose I really could have put the patio furniture away sooner. In fact, the reason it probably snowed in the first place is that I left the furniture out. If I had made the effort to put it in the barn, there would have been no need to do so, because it never would have snowed...

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The Grand Master of Indian Trivia

I have come to realise that a lot of people have an overinflated opinion of their own intelligence. Fortunately for the sake of my ego I am forever meeting people who are way smarter than I. In fact, it happens on a pretty regular basis. Just recently I met a fellow by the name of Tim. He is a lawyer from England and was travelling in India, apparently something he had thought of doing for many years. Tim was (in my mind) the quintessential Englishman: quiet and reserved but with an absolutely wicked sense of humour. Tim is also uber-intelligent. Not to say that he was vain in any way. Quite the opposite in fact. Tim's rather uncanny ability to retain information came to light one night when we were having a friendly little game of India trivia. There were very few questions that Tim couldn't answer. How many times does the average Indian driver honk his horn in a kilometre? What, don't know the answer? Ask Tim. I'm sure he would be happy to let you know (the answer is in fact 15). What day did India become a country of one billion? Tim knew that too (sadly I have already forgotten). No matter how obscure the question Tim was rarely without an answer. Needless to say he won the game. Thank God I was on his team. Otherwise my poor fragile ego wouldn't have survived...
The picture here was taken at dinner in Amritsar. We had left Chamba at an ungodly hour and travelled all day, first by jeep and then by train in order to get to there. Upon arrival it was straight off to the Golden Temple. We didn't get back to the hotel until about 10:00 p.m. Tim was looking remarkably fresh, all things considered...

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Bill

I wrote a blog about Bill and sent it off to him to ask if it was o.k. to publish. He never answered. So either:

1. he doesn't check his email all that much
2. he hated what I wrote
3. he really doesn't like me
4. or all of the above.

So I won't say anything about Bill.

I'll let him speak for himself.

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Mountains & Mystics

Well... This was the third and final leg of my trip... Saw alot of mountains. Not so sure about the mystics. I have to say the hellish thing about group tours is travelling with people to whom you would not give the time of day under normal circumstances. Although it is quite possible that I am being exceedingly ungracious. My fellow world travellers were nice people for the most part. In terms of places visited this tour was excellent, with only one town that I didn'tmuch enjoy. I'm not too sure what I expected of this trip (the Dalai Lama? He wasn't in town...), but the people I met along the way were charming and friendly (the glaring exception being the evil Tibetan child who punched me in McLeod Ganj) which I have discovered is the norm in India. Of all the tours I did this is the only one I would consider repeating.
The picture is of Christ Church in Shimla.

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