Back-to-Back Action Packed Vancouver Island Extravaganza!

A local gal got into the vintage spirit! 

Okay, so I exaggerate!  Yet it has been a pretty fun visit.  C blew me off for a trip to the Nanaimo Museum for a talk about Art Deco clothing by Ivan Sayers.  It was too bad because he is an entertaining speaker and can speak without notes...always impressive.  What was also exciting were some of the examples he had.  The best one was a Schiaparelli suit.  It was just as chic and clever as the day she created it. However if you wore it today you'd definitely be thought a bit odd.  It is too bad because I find people take fashion far too seriously these days and there is less humour or fun in their dress. To be sure though,  there is a fine line between wit and plain old crazy lady dressing. ( I think I dipped my toe across that line a few times!)

Nicely curated vitrine.

The "Schiap" suit.

It was fun to also view the exhibit as a recent Museum Studies grad.  It is easy to walk around and say "I would do this and that..." but having worked in a small museum for 5 months you appreciate the restrictions local institutions face.  However...!

Of course this is where we always stay!

So after that I walked around 7 Potatoes (apparently that is what "Nana imo" translates to in Japanese!) Frankly I think it sounds like a much more interesting place to visit...who doesn't love starch!  Anyway the downtown is quite fun to poke around in and then, totally by accident, I found a couple of good thrift stores.  Of course, I got all cheap and huffed at paying $5 for an enamel flower pin.  So what have I thought about since then?  Only how much that pin would've been the perfect foil for so many of my island ensembles!  Sheesh!

Then on Monday it was Canada Day.  The family tradition is to go to Parksville for the parade.  It is always entertaining.  The only sad note is that now I'm at the stage where they don't throw me stickers or candy but flowers!  It is as bad as being called "ma'am" in the States or "auntie" in Asia.  You see that's the problem when you've mentally atrophied at 21 but your body continues ageing.  Life is soo cruel!  Got some great shots and had a fun time and isn't that what it is all about?

What's Canada Day without Mounties?

Or culturally insensitive service groups?

Then later that day G, M and I took a walk around the neighbourhood.  We went and explored under the trestle and then around back by the farm that borders the railway.  It was there that tragedy struck!  I got a stick rammed into my foot!  Lemme tell ya it really hurt!  Of course it all came back to me the lack of sympathy I had shown when G did it to his foot up in the Cameron Highlands and how I had just been sharing some yogic wisdom about walking"mindfully"!  I can laugh now but at the time all I could think about was how far I was from home.  "Why is all the small things hurt the most?"  So I spent most of the rest of the evening soaking and digging deeper into my foot trying to retrieve the splinter but I knew in my heart of hearts it was in there deep and long.  What super bummed me out was I had just begun to get my yoga practice back up to speed (okay not a very yogic phrase but you know what I mean!).  So I'm out of the studio for a while."Poop."  But the beauty of yoga is that you can do it anywhere so I'll just have to do it on the grass.

Gratuitous beach shot.

So we went into Nanaimo yesterday to the Emergency.  I was kind of excited because it's the first date G and I have had in a while!  (How sad is that!?)  Of course our status here in Canada confused people (myself included) but I got 3 stitches and a dearth of sympathy from the attending doctor!  The piece of wood was 2 cm long and kind of pear-shaped and that is why I couldn't fish it out.  But it did make me appreciate how lucky we are to have health care in this country and not to have to feel anxious  or have to debate whether the visit is worth the cost like it is in the US. We all thought it odd that the Olympics in the UK celebrated the NHS but until you had to deal with private health care you don't realize what a gem it is!  Okay, off the soapbox!

So having fun and hope you are too.  Next post:  "Live from the Okanagan!"