The never ending adventures of a Canadian who lives in Wuxi and Jiangyin, China with his Chinese wife Jenny and their son Anthony aka Tony
My entries are probably going to be less frequent from now on. I need to make the entry, put it away for 24 hours, and then decide if I should post it.
My Sunday English Corner took place on Father's Day. With my father having only died three weeks earlier, I talked about Father's day briefly. I wouldn't have mentioned that my father had died to the students, but there was a female student who I had happened, earlier this year, to talk to a few weeks after her father died. Stupidly, as I went around the class asking students if they were doing something for their fathers and pointed to her. She told me that it was her first Father's Day without her father, and so I told her that my father had just died especially because I felt stupid for having asked her the question which I should have known not to. Why was she attending that particular English Corner on that particular day? Why do I think her being there eerily coincidental?
With my Dad having passed away, I can think of Father's Day as being a day for me. Tony gave me a cake, compelled by Mom of course, but the stark reality of being the adult and not a child really struck me at that moment.
I have posted more photos to the page dedicated to my father.
I saw nine old men sitting together in the back of an electric bike & wagon. I wish I could have taken a photo.
Trouble with my laptop: after logging into Windows 7, I got nothing but a black screen and cursor. For a while, I thought I was doomed. I was going to lose all the photos I had taken on my trip to Canada. Talking to the I.T. Person at work, he told me that he was going to have to go to a shop for repairs. Talking to the other teachers, I was told stories of how the black screen meant everything on the hard drive being lost or only being recovered for a pretty penny. But I persisted and I read on the Internet that I could access my drives by pressing the shift button five times when the black screen displayed. This five-shift procedure was originally intended to be used when the keyboard had sticky keys. But the menu that appears does let my get into the drives. Accessing the drives, I found I could access photos, watch videos, and use all the programs not requiring Internet access. This was a relief. However, I still don't have the desktop means I will have to reload Windows 7 onto the laptop. And this is not a bad thing after all because the wife has agreed that the operating system will now be in English. My theory is that I lost Windows 7 because I wasn't pressing the right buttons when Chinese menu choices came up.
I smacked a kid that was kicking Tony. The kid started to cry and I felt sorry. How quickly my anger turned to shame.
Six days into my trip to Canada, my father Arnis died. Sad as it was, I consider myself fortunate to have been with him for his last few days. If this had happened while I was in China, there was no way I could have been there with him. As it was, Dad died with all his children and his wife at his side. He was also able to see his daughter-in-law Jenny and his grandson Tony before he passed away
Dad was able to hear Tony call him Grandpa.
Dad told me a story, a few days before he died, of a time when we were in Germany (1964-67) when I was being carried on his shoulders and became entangled in some overhead obstacle -- tree branches. Dad told me he couldn't figure out right away what I was complaining about and kept waling. I told him of a similar episode when I was carrying Tony on my shoulders in Wuxi and walked him into a overhead wire.
Sadly, Dad didn't quite make it to his 80th birthday which would have been in July and to his 50th Wedding anniversary which would have in August.
I wish to thank all those who have sent me and my mother condolences. It is very much appreciated. Thanks to my blog, I have received condolences from some far flung places on this planet.
This trip to Canada, only my second since 2004, has become one of deep reflection for me. Thinking of my relationship with my father and my family and this country of Canada, I am filled with regrets. So many things I wish I could have done differently, and yet I somehow have Jenny and Tony. Life seems to me to be a series of episodes over which we have some choice but not much control. I remember fleeing Brandon and Winnipeg because I didn't accomplish much of anything.
So much I didn't do for my Dad when he was alive; and so much I didn't say about him when I did a eulogy.
The first thing that struck me when I came back to Canada: a large Tim Horton's cup of coffee is the size of a Big Gulp, or at least what I remember a Big Gulp being. The second thing? People in Canada are so fat. And they are fat in ways I didn't think was possible. I saw a fat woman whose body was shaped like a diamond: She was narrow at her head and feet level but in the middle, she had easily a fifty inch waist.
Besides coming to see my Mom and Dad, I came to Canada to eat and shop. I needed shoes and I bought three pairs. I also took two pairs my father won't be using. I bought a Winnipeg Jets cap (bearing their original NHL logo – I hate the new one.) I ate Mozza Burgers from A&W and fries with gravy (not available in China) from KFC. I ate a dozen crusty rolls from Safeway in one evening. I also drank about ten bottles of Sleeman's Honey Lager. I didn't smoke a cigarette – they are too expensive.
I have spent most of my time in Canada in Brandon, Manitoba to be with my Mom.
Jenny has passed her time here by shopping. She doesn't much care for the scenery: it is too flat and there are a lot of trees. I have to admit, I share her boredom. An hour of the flatness seen from the highway between Brandon and Winnipeg can be quite the sight if you haven't seen it in a while. But only for so long. The drive between Brandon and Winnipeg must be the longest two hours one can spend on the planet if you have to do it on a regular basis.
I paid a visit to the Brandon Armories. I hadn't been there since 1987. It seemed a little smaller than I recalled but not that much smaller. I wish to thank Gordon Sims for giving me a tour of the 26 Field Regiment RCA museum in the building. If you are a military buff, I recommend going to it. The museum is compact and yet full of interesting things.
Tony has occupied himself, when not on the computer, with riding his bicycle and playing with his diggers in one of Grandma's flower beds.
The Keystone Centre, the 6,000 seat home of the Brandon Wheat Kings, has a new name thanks to Corporate sponsorship. The locals, I am told, still call it the Keystone.
I have seen Immigrants from Africa, China and India here in Brandon. The makeup of Brandon's population has changed since I left.
I am typing parts of this entry in the backyard of my Mom's house. Tony is playing in the backyard . He refuses to go outside without supervision.
A strong gust of wind forced the garage side-door to flap open. I quickly closed it. Tony was inside the garage and he started bawling – he was terrified. I opened the door and he ran out and didn't calm down for two minutes.
My cousin's husband Pat, the Irishmen, says the world is going to pot. Being a retired bank manager, he has had a field-day discussing the monstrous imbecilities of what has happened in Europe and America.
I watched a live hockey game on television for the first time in eight years. Other than the goalie for the New Jersey Devils, I don't recognize any of the players.
Everyone in Canada dresses horribly. Going through my father's photo albums, I see that people stopped dressing nicely during the 1970s. My father, when he was a young man, dressed far better casually than I did for my wedding.
The weather in Brandon has been sometimes cool (in the tens) and hot (in the thirties). (Temperatures are in Celsius in Canada.)
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