I turned 60 in March and wrote about the party I hosted in Canada in a recent blog. However there were three of my close friends at Waterford Kamhlaba School in Swaziland who were not able to be present. The four of us have remained in contact, and in 2006 we celebrated, over a period of time, our 50th birthdays. At the beginning of May this year, John Salisbury, who lives in Plymouth, in the UK, organised his 60th event. It was amazing. He and his wife hired an old fort on a hill overlooking the city. This is a Landmark Trust building. The officers’ quarters are available as bedrooms (in various configurations from two to four to a room), and there is a kitchen, lounge and across the courtyard, an excellent party venue with a bar and dance floor. The walls of the fort have magnificent cannon at various intervals. People who hire the place have it completely to themselves, and once the huge wooden main gate is locked and barred, guests really are completely on their own! It would be a good setting for a murder mystery. I can strongly recommend going to the website and having a look at this magnificent location. It is also very reasonably priced as a venue, if there are enough people sharing it.
Tag Archives: Waterloo
Spring²
Travelling from Waterloo in Ontario to Norwich in Norfolk at the end of April was like moving a month forward in nature’s calendar. In Waterloo the snow piled high in the car park at Seagram Lofts finally melted. On the day I left there was just one small patch of moisture left on the paving. It had been so large it spread across five visitor’s parking spots and was probably five meters in height. The temperature had risen significantly and it was possible to leave my coat in the apartment, at least for the 70 second walk across the car park to the back door of the office building. However there were no leaves or blossom and just a few spring flowers dotted in the gardens and parks around the city.
The Sixties, a Good decade?
Last month marked a significant event in my life. On the 18th of March I turned 60. I must admit to being quite shocked by the fact this birthday finally arrived. It had to be noticed and marked in some way. We talked about Ailsa coming over to Canada, but as I am teaching, marking, and busy with the end of term, we decided she would come over a little later. She, Douglas and I have all been granted permanent residence, and all have to be here and visit the appropriate agency before the 7th June. If we don’t do that then we enter a bureaucratic limbo land. Douglas visits in early April and Ailsa in May.
A (relatively) mild Winter
As the month of February drew to a close, we experienced some heavy snowfall in Waterloo. The temperature was not too dreadful, only just above freezing. It was pleasurable to walk through gently falling snow but not feel absolutely frozen. At the end of the month, it warmed up a little so that all the snow on the grass and roads melted, to leave the piles from the roads and paths. The way it works, (for non-Canadian readers), is that snowploughs push all the snow off the public places: parking areas, roads, and pavements into large heaps. These sit and gradually melt over the course of the first few months of spring. Of course, they are not pristine mountains of white, becoming rather dirty grey.
Snowfalls and Sunshine
This winter in Waterloo has been quite different from the previous two years. Then the temperature plummeted and remained in the minus figures for months. It was absolutely freezing for ages. Today at the end of January the temperature is projected to reach at least 3°, rain is forecast, and some, at least, of the snow will be melted by Monday. Given that we are also experiencing brilliantly sunlit days it means the winter months have been considerably more enjoyable. I am able to venture out without any gloves, although given the challenge of not having hair; a hat remains a crucial piece of equipment. Indeed, at lunch time, I am able to make the 70 second walk from the back door of the office to the side door of the apartment without taking my coat or putting on my snow boots.
Christmas, Cathedrals and Miss World
I went to the UK for Christmas, and returned to Waterloo on New Year’s Eve. I don’t mind air travel, but the time change is tough, especially going to Europe, since effectively one ends up with a night of no sleep. It is however an opportunity to catch up on films. On the way to Amsterdam I watched “A Walk in the Woods”, which is based on Bill Bryson’s book of the same name. It tells the story of him and a boyhood friend attempting to walk the Appalachian Way. Perhaps the most impressive part of this is that they knew when they had had enough and agreed to stop. No false bravery in this tale. I saw half of the “The Little Prince”, the most famous work of the French aristocrat and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is a book I think is significant, and everyone ought to read it. I am going to develop a reading list of important books for students. This will be one of them. Other suggestions are welcome.
Too Much Travel
In November I travelled from Waterloo to the UK, then to Mbabane in Swaziland. From there I went to Durban for two nights. On Friday 13th November I flew to Geneva in Switzerland for four nights. I then headed back to the UK, before finally getting back to Waterloo at the end of November. During this trip, and while I was in Waterloo, I managed to complete the draft of the Very Short Introduction to HIV and AIDS. We actually got it to the publishers ahead of the dead line, just.
Guns, Gums and Games
We have formed a research group of Wilfred Laurier CIGI Chairs based at the Balsillie School. This is called 2030+. At the end of October, we held a public event aimed primarily at potential recruits for the Masters in Public Policy programme. This was somewhat undersubscribed in the 2015/16 academic year, despite there being funding for students, so we are making a concerted effort to improve the situation in time for the 2016 intake. The title of the event was ‘Innovation Challenges in Health and Food Systems’. It comprised five of the six chairs speaking followed by a moderated discussion. Two are recent appointments: Alison Blay-Palmer is the CIGI Chair in Sustainable Food Systems and researches sustainable food systems and economic development; Audra Mitchell is the CIGI Chair in Global Governance and Ethics. Audra added to our normally bleak views on food, health and climate change by talking on ethical issues related to mass extinction.
Writer’s Block
I wish I knew a more productive way of writing than my current style. At the moment it seems that I allow deadlines to creep up on me, and then there is a period of frenetic activity before the article, blog, book or whatever is submitted. I never feel completely satisfied. This is hypocritical, given that the advice I give my students is: “done is good enough”. One thing that became clear over the last few weeks is that I do my best work with other people. I was very fortunate last month in that Gemma Oberth, whose Ph.D. I examined some years ago, and who now lives and works in Cape Town, asked if she could come and spend a period of time writing with me. She was visiting her parents in Toronto and so it was a simple matter for her to travel up to Waterloo. (Having said that though, travelling from Toronto to Waterloo is never a simple matter, the traffic can be horrendous.) This was absolutely great. We were able to settle down, plan out an article, do the research, and actually get close to a final draft. We then exchanged versions over email and submitted it to a journal within a week of her departure. It now goes out to peer review and I will be interested to see what the reviewers think of it. Personally I found this method of writing to be easier than most.
Lobsters, causeways, ferries and biting insects: what we did on our holidays
When we went to Nova Scotia in August it was with enthusiasm and ignorance. There were lots of people ready to encourage us in our folly here in Waterloo. How cool it would be, what to do, etc.
Those three land masses: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island look so small on the atlas, so extraordinary, so outward-bound. What kind of people can survive there and how? The ragged coastline means fishermen and sailors. We knew that lobster and other crustaceans is a major export and that it attracts tourists, though this was a bit of a deterrent to one vegetarian visitor.
Alan Whiteside 