Tuscany and Madrid

 I had a great conversation with a man living in Tuscany.  When I found out he had a 18 year son, we had no lags in the conversation.  I was able to teach him many phrases and new vocabulary like "leave me alone!", "out of touch!", "hope something clicks in his brain", "not good with his hands", and "chauffer."  We agreed that as fathers of teenage boys we were put upon, subject to gross libels, and made to feel like we were bad people.

I asked my interlocutor in Madrid, what he knew about Canada.  He mentioned hockey, lots of green space and that our PM was some young guy.

Wednesday 22:04 PM

 It’s July 1st in Canada. Here is what David Warren has to say about it.

England and USA and Belgium win their World Cup knockout matches today.  The African countries couldn’t hold their leads. T’wat a shame!

Retreat before the Easter Vigil

The Easter Vigil will be next Saturday.  The Mass will start at 21:00 and by the time, it ends I will be in communion with the Catholic Church.  Father John presided over this Mass.

This Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent was a double Mass day.  After doing my two morning classes (Brazil & China), I was able to get to Staug in time for a 9:30 AM Mass which was held for people doing retreats.

The RCIA retreat was held in K of C meeting room;

 We read and reflected on the readings that will be read at the Easter Vigil.  The retreat lasted till 15:00.

At 16:00, I attended the Saturday Mass which was a Palm Sunday Mass.

You can see palms in the photo.  We stood a long time as the story of Christ’s Passion was read.  Father Oliver walked about the chapel blessing palms with holy water.

I was able to borrow some books from a K of C bookshelf and snag some palms that had been blessed.

National Flag Day

 On X, formerly Twitter, I learned it was national flag day in Canada. That’s subject for a rant.  When I asked my son to compare the current Canadian flag with this one:

He said the one above was far more attractive.  I agree.  It has more detail.  It was the flag for which Canadian soldiers died in WW1, WW2, and the Korean War.  It was also the flag of the country to which my parents immigrated.

The current flag is really a liberal party of Canada tag and thus reminds me another national flag of a another one party state:

Furthermore, the current flag has dead shrubbery as a national symbol, and looks so 1970s..

For sure, the current flag stands out, but these days when the elite of this country are a total embarrassment, I prefer the detailed and subtle elegance of the Red Ensign.

Snowmobile

 

Wednesday 6:02 AM: BC Mass Shooting

 I learned about the Tumbler Ridge Mass Shooting from WeChat, a Chinese social media app, from an American contact. Sad.  And I’m sure that the reaction from the Canadian media will be maudlin and stupid. Pray for the victims and their families. 

Parallels between Coming to China and Coming to China

 When I arrived in China, it was still dealing or still reeling about the Cultural Revolution though it wasn’t much discussed.

When I arrived in Canada, it was still dealing or reeling from the Premiership of Justin Trudeau and the Covid debacle.

In both cases, the party responsible never got punished for it.

Between Two Worlds

 I talk to China every Tuesday morning for two hours.  This morning, my partner in this learning enterprise I have a small part in, was describing the atmosphere in China: the economy there is bad with real estate or apartment prices collapsing and a pervading feeling of tension with America.  With my wife being in China now, a ominous feeling came over me.

One of the motivations I heard for Trump's Venezuela operation was to deal with China's presence in the Western Hemisphere.  Whether this will increase the feeling of tension between the two countries or result in a quid pro quo simmering of tension by an acknowledgment of spheres of influence remains to be seen.

This puts me personally in between two or three worlds:  Trump Haters and Reactionaries; China and the USA, Canada and the USA.  My way to deal with these conflicts is to embrace Catholicism and ultimately to have to think what is best for my wife, my son, and me.

Of the three entities: Communist Party China, Liberal Party of Canada, and the Trump Administration; which do I support?  If Trump plays real politick, I will be on his side.  The other two parties are harder to pick from.  CCP China is at least adult and not frivilous.  The Liberal Party of Canada represents stupidity and wilful cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

Best to pray to God and hope for a miracle to get out of my gordian knot.

My time in Canada: an assessment

I have been in Canada since July 21 or so: five months and not enough days to make six months.  Close enough to make an assessment or sorts, although I dare not format it.  I need to put my thoughts on paper and see if they can coalesce or are just a bunch of ramblings with no connecting theme other than I don't know what to do with my time.

My time in Canada has been a mixed bag.  Some good things have happened, but there has been much disappointment and many things that I imagined would happen, haven’t, and I don’t know if I should be sad or glad about these non-things. 

Here are some other thoughts that I will jot down and tinker with as they occur to me:

The RCIA program has been fine and I very much like going to Mass.  If it wasn’t for the program and the mass, my "return" would have been a total bust.  Being able to take proper part in the eucharist is a goal would going for.  All else shouldn't matter, whether it be this blog or fitting in or my video making.

I miss my Jenny.  Women: you can't live with them or live without them.

The price of things is horrific, and so there are many aspects of Canada that are closed off to me.  I have nothing to say about tipping because going to a restaurant with table service is beyond my budget.

The amount of immigrants in Brandon has seemingly nullified my being able to say I have returned.  It isn’t the same place.  Is it better for it?  A difficult question.  The faith they exhibit in Church is something to be said for them.  Their taking over entire industries is not.

As for those things that I hoped would happen: it is just as well they didn't, that they were non-things.  I don't need them. It may be a cliche to say, but they wouldn't help in my quest or even define my quest.

This crazy woman living in my brother's house has stopped me from going to Winnipeg, I hate to say.

The used car I took a chance on has worked out well in that it has been reliable.

My son has not yet blossomed into maturity.  He still prefers to live a settled life, sitting in his room playing on his devices.

I do have good neighbors.

It is nice to not have to use a VPN to access things.  The great firewall of China sucks.

My job hunt has been a bust.  I do on-line stuff and my fund raising job is a solitary thing and isolating, much as I like driving out to the small towns.

Trump hatred is a crazy thing, and I have to avoid those who have it.

I am very much the outsider in Canada, and I have been asked why I have come back.

But I have had some good encounters with friendly strangers.

Letter grade for my return: D minus.

A video comparison of driving in China and Canada

 Above, I  drive in China; and below I drive in Canada.

Numbers without context

 Years ago, I put the CTV News App on my phone.  The idea was to get Canadian news.  At that time, I thought CTV was a neutral source of news.  But then the Covid panic and overreaction occurred, and I saw how CTV was feeding it.  What they were doing was posting Covid case numbers without context.  They were trying to create the impression that a black plague like epidemic was happening by posting numbers saying 125 cases here and 100 cases there.  There was no explanation of what these numbers meant in terms of severity, use of hospital resources and if they were unusual compared to other flu seasons.  Disgusted, I deleted the app.

Now, there are people trying to explain away the inflation in Canada by blaming it on greedy corporations.  Someone told me that Loblaws had made 800 million profit in the most recent quarter.  By quoting the number, they were trying to prove that a company was gouging consumers.  My first reaction was to ask how much profit are they allowed to make and what the number meant.  They made 800 million on how much revenue? One billion?  One hundred billion?  And 800 million is a drop in the bucket for most government departments.  How big is the government deficit this year? 300 billion?  Aren’t those numbers proof of Government gouging tax payers and causing inflation?  Any who.  Numbers without context.  People not being able to think for themselves.

And don’t assume I am shilling for corporations.  The corporatization of much of our lives is not something to be desired.  But the people governing this country are the cause of this country’s troubles.  Their blaming of the corporations is a deflection tactic which the corporations often play along with because they know the government is covering its ass and not really interested in changing existing power and economic arrangements.

Thursday Morning Constitutional with photos and accompanying thoughts

 I drove my son to school.  Tony is his name   After backing my beater into the garage, I went for a walk.  I need to exercise and to exorcise demons, you see.  I got an idea for what to put in my blog: signs and observations.

A sign for a shopping plaza. They don’t have these per se in China, just something close.  In Panda Land, they have to make accommodations for e-bikes and bicycles.

I liked the double A’s in the street name. That’s why I took this photo.

Diamond lane sign: the only ones in Brandon, apparently.  The idea is to reserve the right lane for transit and right turning vehicles. I’ve been told many locals don’t know this.  I hadn’t seen such a setup in China.

No A&W’s in Panda Land.  On my return visits to Maple Land, I would always try to satisfy a craving for their mozza burgers.

OMG!

 What is the liberal party of Canada up to?

Poppy Day and Shopping Day tomorrow

 

In Canada, 11/11 is Remembrance Day. 

In China, 11/11 is online shopping bargain day.

Wuxi, Jiangsu & Gladstone, Manitoba

 Both these places have Tim Horton’s that I have posed in front of.

Something I learned today

 For those who care, the title of this entry is also a song by Husker Du.

What was the something I learned today?  It has to do with time change.  I have been telling my contacts in China about last week’s time change which has lead to discussion of time differences and then ultimately to discussion of time zones

China doesn’t do time zones.  All of China is on Beijing time.  I had often speculated how the people in the west of China dealt with this.  Maybe, a typical work day was 7 to 3 instead of 9 to 5 there. Western China’s situation would be akin to Vancouver operating on Ottawa time.

My student from Urumqi in the Xinjiang territory of China aka Western China aka Turkmenistan told me that there are two times in Xinjiang: the official time (Beijing time) and the unofficial local time, which is two hours different, two hours behind.

Blendr News

 This video asks a good question.

It also says there will be an election.  Will there be an election?

Eating in Restaurants

 In China, we’d eat out five or six times a week; in Canada, we eat out once a month.

Cross my fingers that I can get a new battery for my MacBook

In Wuxi, China, there was a wonderful computer market called Buynow where I went to get my Apple products repaired.  It was cheap and quick.  You could see the tech guy fix your phone or IPad or MacBook in front of you. No need to wait.

I now am smacking myself because I should have gone there to replace the battery on my MacBook before I returned to Canada.

A.I. told me that I could go to Best Buy to get my MacBook repaired. I went there and was told in no uncertain terms that they couldn’t do it.  So no uncertain that I will shudder at the thought of ever going back there.

So, I went to a computer repair place.  They told me that the battery could be replaced in three or four weeks. They had to order it.  

At Buynow, the battery would have delivered from another floor in the building.

China wins on this score.

Frank Vaughan on China