Lisa Squared

Somehow another month has slipped by without a blog update. Rubbish. I wish I could blame it on Facebook, but it too has disappeared from my daily radar of things to accomplish. Life just doesn't get any less busy.

But being busy has been a real joy. On Pauline's last day in England, we went to France. We had plans to go see Vimy Ridge, the Canadian war memorial near Arras. However, as the ferry shuffled across the English Channel and France came into view, I pulled out the map. A map always puts Europe in perspective. I suppose it puts anywhere in perspective, since that's exactly what they're designed to do. But somehow, it is especially true with Europe. As I plotted our route from Calais (the port where we were to arrive from Dover), it struck me just how close we were to Belgium. It only took a further moment to realise just how small Belgium actually is. Sure, it's bigger than Luxemburg or Monaco, but it only two thirds the size of our biggest national park, Wood Buffalo National Park.

It was a revelation to see that one of Europe's true gems, Brugge, was no further from us than Arras. So, on Pauline's final day in England, we skipped France and went to Belgium. Brugge rocks. Anna loved Brugge (especially the little fun fair in one of the squares). Pauline loved Brugge (especially the chocolate). And Ange and I love Brugge.

After spending the day in the medieval old town, we jumped back in the car to get back to Calais to pick up Lisa Brake. Lisa is a star. Despite being six months pregnant, she decided to fit one last sans-baby adventure in and came to Europe. Flying into Paris, she took the train to Calais to meet us. We rendezvous-ed without too much trouble and caught the ferry back to England. A long day, but thoroughly enjoyable.

One thing about Lisa is that she hates to miss out on anything. Our old roommate, Jason, and I quickly learned this about Lisa when we shared a house back in Hull, Quebec many years ago. It is worth asking Lisa to re-tell the story about Anu 'forcing' her to party one work night in Ottawa. Of course, there is also wildly popular story of Lisa participating in leaving messages on the "federal government Action on Smoking" voicemail, which was recently re-told in this blog (click here to re-live it!). So, when Lisa heard about Lisa Quattrochi (often known as simply 'Q') coming to visit us on the way back from Nepal, it was the impetus needed to spur her to booking the ticket. They overlapped their visits so they could check out England together and so Anna would only have to declare, "Lisa" to get half the room to respond.

Lisa Q arrived the next day from Nepal and suddenly we had two Lisas in the house. Not only that, but they were both a huge hit with Anna. Sowing little preference between the Lisas, Anna would call out "Lisa!" Invariably, the wrong one would respond to her, to which Anna would explain, "No. The other one." We laughed many times at this.

Lisa and Lisa didn't get as much sight-seeing in as I had hoped they might. Q was jet-lagged and feeling poorly from some nasty bug she picked up on the flight or in Delhi airport. She rebounded quickly, though, and they were able to come into Oxford with me one day. On the final day, I had hockey and had to be in Henley. Ange, Anna and the Lisas stuck close to Reading, coming into Henley themselves in the afternoon. It was all very nice, but I remained somewhat disappointed that their visit hadn't been more exciting.

Then, out of the blue, we had the most English of English nights ever. And, I mean ever. It was November 3 and there were advertisements for Guy Fawkes night celebrations. We went to check them out. Sure enough, thousands of people had gathered. We actually drove away to consider our options. In stopping to discuss, we picked up a movie and some dinner from a take-away. We decided to go for it.

So, our fish and chips in hand, we went back to the bonfire party. It was great. Held at the rugby club, it was all very, very British. And, there we were with out fish and chips. The fireworks display was really impressive. However, it clearly was not the only one going on. So, all across the sky--in every direction--fireworks were going off. Anna was mesmerized. I was mesmerised. It was really good.

After the display, we headed back to our little terrace where--to cap off an evening of bure Britania--we watched... Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail. Jolly good indeed.

Lisas and Anna: