Thursday, June 18, 2015

Last night Pat and I were down at Willingdon Beach to take part in one of the PRISMA (Pacific Rim International Summer Music Academy) celebrations. I was expecting a concert in the park but what we ended up with was a little music, a little excitement and a lot of speeches. One of the international conductors comes from the Netherlands, although he is currently with the Moscow Symphony orchestra. Last night was a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. It was an honor to have a veteran from that liberation on stage – he received a standing ovation.

This was a very patriotic event – we stood and sang Oh Canada no less than four times, and it was performed once more in the Tla A’min First Nations language. There was a four-plane fly past as well as a mini air show. The focus performance by the PRISMA orchestra was the 1812 Overture, and we even had a Canadian warship in the harbour to fire off cannons at the appropriate time in the score.

Needless to say there were a number of dignitaries at the event, and every one of them made a long speech. I guess we’ll have to catch another of the concerts if we actually want to hear some music.

I did a bit of house cleaning this morning – there are times I miss the regularity of the house concerts. I had time to do some accounting before heading to my Red Cross shift. It was a quiet day; there were a couple of items that needed to go to the shed so I decided to take them out at the end of my shift.

I’ve only been out to the shed once so I had my fingers crossed everything would work. My swipe card worked in the door – first hurdle overcome. I was able to get the padlock off – okay, this is going well. I couldn’t for the life of me get the doors to the shed open though. I pulled, I twisted, I tugged but had no luck. I called a maintenance fellow to see if he could help; he pulled, twisted and tugged but had no luck. The maintenance fellow called over a security guard and they pulled, twisted and tugged and finally got the door open!

They waited with me to be sure I could get the shed locked up before leaving me. I may never try that again, although I did see what they were doing so I may hold my tongue differently next time and maybe it will work!

I’m off to the Guild’s final pot luck of the year tonight. It is a beach theme so I made Aunt Gertie’s Cottage Cheese Salad.