Poetry

I was looking through some old files for a document that I need and came across an old worn book with the words "PRIVATE" scratched into the cover. When I was a teenager I was a huge Jim Morrison fan, I read all his books and poetry, listened to his music, had posters of him all over the place and wore tight tee-shirts and jeans just like him. At some point I decided that I would be a poet just like him too. And inside the tattered old book is my poetry. It's all totally entertaining, the teenager trying to come up with something original out of the depths of despair of being a teenager (yes, most of my poetry was quite morbid and full of self-pity!). And not very good. But hey, here's some of it....

Dad
Memories of days long past
Begin to fade.
The mental picture crumbled
long before.

Yearning for a father stronger grow
Beneath the
Anger
And frustration.

Outward strong I seem to be,
Yet inside flow tears of sorrow
For someone I can't
Remember.


In God We Trust?
Events:
Experienced to learn from.
(The details become clearer much later)
But during is when beliefs falter
And then need be reassured.

In times of need for guiding hands,
One looks for something meaningful
In a God that we all trust.
(or do we?)

Varsity Wall
The echoes fill the building,
They bounce off concrete walls,
And amid the smells of morning feast,
The incessant noise of hurrying feet,
Education calls.

I sit alone yet part of them,
A group of people who,
(Some would rather be elsewhere)
Share a common goal.

And yet someday,
When degrees are held,
And roads diverged,
Most cherished friendships (from these echos)
Shall linger still.


And this one is my favorite because I know exactly who I wrote it for. I hope she reads my blog 'cos she'd be tickled pink (and by the way, she is still married to "someone else" today).

Why is it?
Why is it that I always seem to lose,
To someone else?
Why is it that she doesn't notice me,
But someone else?
Why is it that I love her so and she loves,
Someone else?
Why is it, can you answer me,
Why is it?
I know you love her....
But her not me,
Just let me finish please.
I know you love her endlessly,
But she loves someone else.
Someone else.
Oh, how I hate him so,
You mustn't fight,
You cannot win,
Just let her love him.
I can't, I love...
But she not you,
She loves someone else.

Living in crime-infested Toronto

I left South Africa exactly 18 months ago in search of a new life and with the hopes of escaping the horrific crime that Johannesburg had become subject to. To date, life in Toronto has been quiet, safe and free of the stories that I used to hear on an almost daily basis back home. Until this week…

Keith and I were watching the news on Tuesday evening when the headlines came on and we both leaned forward in our seats, horrified at what was taking the lead in that night’s news.

The following was copied later off of a Star newspaper headline:

“Father retrieves stolen stroller in Craigslist sting
Pricey prams are a hot commodity, as Toronto dad learns just hours after a theft”

The basic story reported that a stroller (pram) had been stolen from the front porch of this family’s home at about 1am. The parents had heard a noise and after finding out that the pram was gone, dad quickly logged onto the Internet and began to scour Craigslist for clues. For those that don’t know, Craigslist is an online resource where you can find pretty much anything and is widely used in North America. Lo and behold, at approximately 3am, someone posted a pram for sale, one that sounded oddly familiar to this dad. To cut a long story short, he made plans to meet the seller and ended up retrieving the stolen pram. The Star newspaper article referenced above further went on to say that “There aren’t solid numbers on stroller theft in Toronto, but pram pillaging is enough of a problem that an alert was issued last October in 11 Division, which encompasses High Park and the Junction. After a rash of thefts and two arrests, police suggested that strollers be kept inside or locked up”.

God bless Toronto. May the crimes committed always be opportunistic and for financial gain, without harm to those affected. May the news headlines continue to entertain those that have seen much worse.

P.S. Just in. A horse got stuck in some river and an anonymous donor paid for a helicopter to rescue it and fly it back to safety. I wonder if they will repeat it on the 11pm news later tonight?

Where have you been?

I haven’t blogged in a while. Every time I think about updating my blog I realize that I don’t really have anything earth shattering to say. I guess that must mean that we’ve settled into a happy, routine life. I follow a few blogs, one of them nauseatingly irritating due to an exceptional high level of daily “pat me on the back’s” and that’s the last thing that I would want to do. Who cares what I do every day? Just because blogging is the in thing, doesn’t mean that everyone wants to read about you (or me). Anyway, here’s an update on the last few months (just in case you were wondering)…

I last wrote in October so I’ll try and think about interesting and poignant things that have happened since. I turned 36 in November. It’s actually a nice number and I don’t mind at all being on the closer side to 40; my 30s have been tough years. At some point I thought that I may be having an almost-mid-life-crisis but quickly realised that I just hate my job that I love. Explaining that would be tedious and not something I choose to put in writing at this time.

December brought the long-expected visit of Cherise and Simon and a very well deserved break from the love that I hate but love. Work over the preceding months had been more stressful than ever before mostly due to a nasty client and incredibly bad preparation in a project that ended up becoming my problem. I loved having Cherise and Simon see our life, meet our friends and just enjoyed being together. I loved waking them up in the mornings. I loved seeing them lounging around. We did little more than relax, eat and catch up. Knowing that Toronto would never be their first destination of choice I was so grateful that we were reason enough to spend the money and time.

We took our own holiday shortly after Cherise and Simon went home to South Africa. We travelled to Mexico and spend a fantastic week or so in Playa Del Carmen. It was just what we needed, sun, the pool and a constant flow of alcohol. Did I mention that we were drunk before we even reached the hotel and remained that way for the entire duration of the trip?

Our second winter in Toronto has been a breeze (or maybe a slight chill). We barely had any snow until February and it all seems to be over already. I must be honest; I think I would have preferred a little more snow. It’s pretty and makes winter “feel like winter”. But I’m ok with the fact that its over. Keith has bought himself a 32-foot sailboat and I’m looking forward to being ferried privately to and from the island.  

As I write this I am looking at a snoring Dexter with a bruised leg and slice from knee to ankle. Poor guy tore his cruciate ligament in his right leg two years ago and had major surgery to correct it just before we emigrated. Surgery involved removing the damaged ligaments, breaking the leg (or rather cutting through the bone) and attaching a steel plate and 8 screws to realign his two leg bones (femur and tibia).  The recovery was slow and long, involving 4 months of restricted activity and rehab. Those months of relying on the good leg resulted in the other cruciate tearing a few months ago. We tried conservative treatment of rest and anti-inflammatories because I didn’t want to put him through another surgery but it was inevitable. He had his $4000 (things really are so much more expensive here) surgery last Friday and so far is doing really well. He really is a trooper, seems to be relatively pain-free and resolved to the fact that he will need to heal for a while. Our house isn’t as contusive to this kind of rehab as was our house in Johannesburg because of all the stairs, which means that I have to carry him up and down. But in a few months I know he will be jumping around as if nothing had ever happened.

Daniel came to visit last weekend. What a treat and I was so grateful that he would happily hop on a plane arriving Friday night and leaving Sunday just to come and spend some time with me in between his business in the US. Daniel and I have always travelled well together, we’ve done Sydney, London and other fun things (even a Hindu wedding in Durban where I had to put out so that we had a place to sleep) and rarely tire of each other. We walked around Toronto, we ate and went to gym and we caught up.

Im sure that much more has happened but unless I blog daily, Ive already forgotten! If I remember anything I'll be sure to update you. My 14 registered blog readers are also all Facebook friends so chances are you already know it all!

I think it’s time to wrap things up. I’ll end with good news. We finally became permanent residents last week. While in the grand scheme of things it was relatively quick and painless, it felt long and painful for us. We are one final step towards Canadian citizenship and that feels really cool.