The Big Day

Had a really good sleep last night and woke up raring to go! In spite of 16 cancellations, it will be a good time!

Food is all prepared and ready to be taken downstairs, jewellery just needs to be taken there also, plus decorations and music.

I am pretty calm about this as I feel quite prepared.

Saturday - Santa Claus Parade and a bake-a-thone

It may be that this year I cannot attend the Santa Claus Parade as I still have plenty to do in the baking department for tomorrow.

However, I can see it from my window which will be almost as good!

I had to cancel two events, no actually three events today, to carry on with my preparations for tomorrow.

Andrew, my neighbour, took more baked goods downstairs to his apartment and will put them in the party room frig before he goes to church tomorrow.

Mohammad will come at 11 a.m. tomorrow and help me carry things downstairs and also help me set up.

Hosea will bring the extra chairs after 4 p.m. today and we will stack them in the party room until tomorrow. I have permission to do that.

I have had a few cancellations due to the Tiger Cat game tomorrow plus sickness and other things. So far, only one friend will be coming from Toronto after all and she will need to come a little earlier so I can take her up to the roof to park her car. I will only know today if Sonia and Rene are coming as Rene may have to work. In total, so far it is 15 cancellations.

Everything is going smoothly though and it should be great fun. Kevin will videotape the talent show which will be great!

So many details but attention to detail if essential to make things run smoothly!

Just catching up with the blog

I haven't written anything for a while so thought I would catch up now.

My preparations are going very well for the party. Just have to pop over to the mall to get some divided trays again. I have found a marvelous use for those trays for not only the party, but for after the party in my daily life.

I shall use one of them to hold the float money. Prepared it all yesterday and all sorted out into plastic bags. I had saved a lot of money just by putting my spare change in bottles over the year and yesterday went to the bank near me to get some rolls of money to have on hand in case the small change is not enough. I think most people will give a cheque which is fine by me. They are all friends who are coming.

Alas, Mary and Joe are sick and cannot come from Toronto. She called yesterday and she sounded terrible. We hope to get together once they are well again.

Now back to the subject of the divided trays! Another one, I have used to keep my every day jewellery making things in it as they are very strong and there are compartments. It keeps everything handy and this way I can keep my tray free for lunch or supper!

Now onto another matter! Last night Alvaro picked me up at my back door and we went to the Poetry Center workshop. I have missed those folk as we have plenty of good laughs and they critique very nicely and very kindly. I think it is because many of them are used to doing that as they have their university students work to judge.

Liz was there and she told me why Whitehern was not open the night we all went as a group. It seems they gave it up as nobody showed up on the Wednesdays before that, and they just forgot to put a sign out to cancel the event.

At least we now know why...

I thoroughly enjoyed myself last night and took my poem "My child". Tony remembered it from before. I had forgotten that I had taken it. In any event, they gave me some good suggestions and when the party is over, I shall work on their suggestions. Speaking of poetry, the husband of the lady who did the self expression portrait of herself in Dundas, asked via the organizer if he could keep the framed copy once the artwalk show was finished. It seems that he was very touched with it. Naturally, I said yes. I am glad that he liked it.

What a nice evening I had at the Westdale Library with the group and how sweet Alvaro was to offer to pick me up and bring me home from the group each time. Since I had that scare near home, I won't go out at night by myself.

Now onto another matter. My friend Nor and I have been communicating via Facebook. she is in Japan right now giving a talk on cancer. Of course, we communicate via e-mail most of the time as she lives in Malaysia. I had the pleasure of interviewing her for the paper when I was Staff Reporter. Later on I interviewed two of her Malaysian colleagues as well - both lady doctors and very sweet and kind. They were at Sick Kids in Toronto at the time and had come as "fellows". Nor and I have been in contact ever since and have a very nice relationship.

I miss interviewing interesting people sometimes. I have interviewed politicians, professors, doctors and other fascinating people who are doing something in this world.

I don't miss the stress of deadlines though!

Had better sign off now and get on with the baking.....

Have a great day to all those faithful people who read my blog!

Zimbabwe Fund raising event

Project Zimbabwe Fundraising Concert - Nov. 7,2009. Held at Community Living Hamilton, 191 York Boulevard, Hamilton, Ontario.

The evening opened with music by Paul Hogeterp. At 7 p.m., the Master of Ceremony, Scott Crawford, welcomed people and invited them to put bids on the many lovely articles set up attractively on tables. This was the silent auction and it closed at 9 p.m. The live auction started at 9:05 p.m. but unfortunately my friend wanted to leave.

Music was provided throughout the evening by Paul Hogeterp, Jason Pluim, Melissa & group, and Isobelle Gunn.

I particularly enjoyed the African group who sang and also the young girl and the gentleman (name unknown) who sang back up for her.

The African people "thrill" like the Middle Eastern people do when they are happy. I love to hear that. I believe it is only women who are capable of doing that.

Light refreshments were provided throughout the evening.

Mr. Michael Alemu gave a very interesting speech outlining the work done by Christian Horizons in Zimbabwe, and stressed the need to continue building a dormitory for those students who are developmentally challenged so that they could live at the school. There was also a short video which, unfortunately, went too fast for me to catch everything. It was an excellent video aside from that point.

There are 2,2400 people supported by CH on an on-going basis as well as people given emergency assistance when needed.

Mr. Alemu stated that Zimbabwe used to be known as the 'bread basket" of Africa and he believes firmly that Zimbabwe will rise again.

Although I had to leave earlier, I do know from last year, that the live auction handled by Neil Cudney tends to be lots of fun as people get into the spirit of things. I also know that Joel van Arragon would do a bang up job of thanking the performers as well as the guests for coming.

On a personal note, I was delighted to see so many of St. John's people come out and pleased that they sat with my friend and I. That doubled the pleasure of the evening for me.

A nice evening for a very good cause - raising money to build a dormitory for children who are mentally challenged.

I have just learned that CH raised $2,600 for this project! Congratulations to the organizers!

Christian Horizons do excellent work both in this country and in the world.

Remembrance Day at St. Paul's

My shot is crooked, not the Cross.

Two young boys from the congregation, 8 and 10 years of age, who carried the flags.

As is usual, each Sunday before Remembrance Day, St. Paul's has a little service at the Iona Cross on the front lawn.

It was very well attended and very meaningful.

Seeing oneself on a DVD

I found it quite interesting to see myself on the T.V. via a DVD.


This was the official launch of the Photoshoot at the Freeway Cafe in downtown Hamilton, Ontario.

The people who run "Monkeybiz" got a grant and several community groups were given a disposable camera to take pictures of what interested them and what they wanted to share with the rest of Hamilton.


I chose to go to Pier 8 as I spend a lot of my summer time down there. Some of the group chose other places, such as stone building landmarks, pictures of flowers etc. etc.

The Flamborough seniors group took pictures of themselves and some of their rural beauty. Their group is run out of a local church and there are six of them.

Younger people were also involved and they did some fabulous work as well. I was glad to see the work of the Women's group. This work was done by women who have been through extremely hard times, particularly with regards to their spouses. I believe it is run out of the Good Sheppard Center but am not sure about that.

I was extremely impressed by the excellent qualify and editing job done by the young man who took the video. It was all done very professionally.

It was a potluck for our little seniors group so I brought some of my surprise rolls and they seemed to go quite fast so I assume that people liked them.

For the main event, people came from all over to view the photos.

It was a great deal of work for the organizers but, in my view, it was great as it brought people together! They also had a lovely assortment of food to nibble on for the guests who came to see the photos.

Well done, photographers, organizers and participants!

Preparations are underway

Time is running out and I am getting quite anxious about the food preparation for the party. Certain things I can only do on the same day as I don't have space to keep them, other things such as cakes, I can make ahead.

I have prepared tickets for the door prize last night. It is a donation from Carmen and I think that people will love it! She has wrapped it up so attractively!

I have decided to make open faced sandwiches, fruit trays, vegetable trays , cheese and crackers trays, homemade scones, preserves, cakes and sweet loaves. If I have time, I also will make cucumber sandwiches.

Mohammad will bring falafel, dip, and pida bread and a Middle Eastern salad.

I also plan to make a lovely non-alcoholic punch. Unfortunately, I no longer have a punch bowl but have two pitchers I can use instead. I can always use my large pot to make it in and keep that in the frig in the party room so the pitchers can be refilled.

I will go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and get the fruit, cold cuts and also cucumbers, the rest my shopper will be getting for me tomorrow.

Once that is all done, then I can concentrate on getting it done. I am expecting at least 50 people but the room has a capacity to hold 100 so it should be fine. Hosea will borrow some chairs from St. John's for me and be in charge of that.

I had to make up a little introduction for myself as well of my writing experiences. It was an interesting thing for me to do. I generally don't like to "blow my own horn", but I have done more than I realized. Once I saw it in black and white, I kept remembering more and putting it down on the introduction sheet.

I have to learn to be more assertive and put myself forward more. Mohammad said that to me, after my reading at Philpott!

It is hard for me to do though as I was not brought up that way.

If the party is not a success, it will not be for lack of effort but I am sure that it will go very well as I have invited some very nice people!