Post-Bash/8th Generation/Summerland Blues: Sunday, March 30th!

Words are like money ... it is the stamp of custom alone that gives them circulation or value. -William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830) 

Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills. -William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830) 

Hi Fabulous Boithday Goil and Her Toy Boy!

Just a quick note, as I enjoy a piece of purloined birthday cake, to thank you both for the wonderful, wonderful evening. Such incredible food and drink and such a delight to meet Peter's charming sisters and their long-suffering husbands, as well as so many of your other friends, who obviously rank far higher on the social ladder than do we Granville Islanders!

Nonetheless, it was such great good fun that to be included, at all, was more than compensation for the many snubs, insults and malignings delivered throughout the course of an other wise fun-filled evening. On behalf of Flamin', Sarge and Coriandre, I , Patrizzio, bring good wishes and Buona Fortunas for the rest of your Seventieth Year, and beyond, Lovely Lynne, and hopes for better bridge cards, for you, Dom Jugos! Cheers, from the wrong side of the Granville Island railroad tracks, your hard scrabble, noisy and obnoxious, (at least one of us), hard drinking, bourbon guzzling, white lightning trash, yet adoring, (if not adorable), nay loving, friends!
 

Pics: A smattering of snapolas from last night's festivities! PS: More to follow!

Hi Patrick, Many thanks for the wonderful photos and your amusing e-mail. I'm only disappointed we had to wait so long for you to send the pics. Are we going to see you for breakfast? Lots of post-mortems going on here. Cheers from me and the goils. Peter 

Hi Lads! Trust you both enjoyed the weekend, gardening and Kamloops, as the case happened to be. We certainly had a terrific time wine-tasting and Lynne's 70th birthday party was a wonderful, wonderful affair. In spite of all the socializing and sipping I managed to get in two great rides. 

On Saturday, we left our B & B around 9:30 am to head south towards Penticton. Flamin' and Sarge only wanted to go as far as town so I left them when they peeled off Naramata Road to follow the Kettle Valley Bike Path. I didn't want to accompany them on it as it isn't paved at that point. Grade is far less steep so better for Flamin', particularly on return leg, as she hadn't ridden since last September/October in France, along canal/river. I continued on, out of Penticton, on Eastside Road, (east side of Skaha Lake), turning onto Mclean Creek Road, just past Blasted Church Vineyards, a route Sarge had pointed out to me when we drove up from Oliver on Friday. 

They had ridden it as part of their preparation for their biking holiday in italy a number of years ago. This route drops one down into Okanagan Falls and once there I was reasonably familair with roads/terrain, although I did discover the lovely road to Blue Mountain, an appointment only winery so I'd not been there before. Ride back was more than pleasurable as I had been bucking a very fiercesome  head wind, right out of the south, ever since leaving Naramata. Had about 85 km on the clock once I was past Lower Debeck Rd to take me back to our B & B so I knew I had about 8 km more to ride along N Naramata Rd if I wanted to log a 100+ km ride. Had never been on this stretch before so found it quite interesting. 

Had a little more than the required distance when I came to the turn-off for Chute Lake Rd so turned around here. Quite a climb so will have to explore next time. Ride back into the head wind wasn't quite as bad as I'd feared and I was able to maintain the 21.0 km/hr AVG that I'd managed with the wind at my back. Stats for ride:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/469825976#.UzdcOYImlk4.email

On Sunday, Flamin' had arranged to pick up a case of wine from 8th Generation just outside of Summerland but contact couldn't be there until noon. This being the case, I decided I'd ride there and meet gang at winery. 

I wanted to ride that leg as Gran Fondo starts out leaving Penticton by first looping around Summerland before heading down route I'd cycled to OK Falls. I'd ridden section from there to Oliver so I was trying to cover as many of the constituent parts as possibel. Most arduous section is back north, out of Oliver, over Fairview Mountain and thence to Penticton. I've only ridden easiest section of that leg, from Oliver itself to Fairview Golf Course which is basically at the base of the mountain. Sarge/Flamin' did most of it on same weekend they rode part I mentioned earlier. As well, have not ridden from Oliver, about half way to Osoyoos and back to Oliver but that is not overly taxing, relatively speaking, given generally flat terrain, although it is a continuous, long, gradual uphill climb. 

Easiest ride of the weekend as once I'd descended into Penticton, wind was at my back again and I literally whizzed north along the water, on 97, wind blasting me along to Summerland. I was past winery by 11:00 am so I spent remainder of the hour didpsy-doodling through the community bordered by the Okanagan Hwy, aforementioned 97, on the west, Landry Crescent on the north and Stoner Street on the south. Had 51+ km on the clock when I pulled into the winery parking lot at just a few minutes after 12:00 pm. Stats for ride:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/470816954#.Uzj1g5jRsQg.email

Primarily due to flat terrain and very strong wind I was able to achieve a an AVG of 23.1 km/hr so I was quite pleased as this is one of highest ever for me. Only drawback was that I left my clip-ons at winery! I had packed a small bag of clothes to change into, out of my soaked riding togs, and left my jacket and vest on a bench in tasting room, shoes on the floor nearbye. When I was changing in washroom Sarge loaded my bike and when I came out with the bag of dirty laundry, (Not to be confused with nearbye winery of same name!), he was back inside and brought over my jacket and vest to stuff them in same bag. I assumed he'd already packed my shoes and never thought to look for them as I was busying buying wine that Cora Lee had already tasted an insisted I should purchase! 

I was quite thirsty, as you might appreciate, but I didn't want to have any alcohol. Delightful woman behind counter gave me a large glass of the wonderful alcohol-free grape juice they produce and sell so that really hit the spot! Anyway, we loaded our purchases into car and took off for the Connector, 97C just north of Peachland. Had been on the road for about ten minutes when Flamin's phone rang and we were informed we'd left my shoes! Decided not to turn back as I've been thinking about buying a second pair, (Actually a "third" pair as my originals are waiting for me in France! However, I left those there on purpose!), so will need to do that reasonably early tomorrow morning, as soon as MEC opens.

That being the case, wondering if anyone is keen to ride, where and when? Let me know and we'll plan accordingly. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Pics: Birthday Goil, Lynne, and Byron; Peter, Sara, (former grad student of Lynne's), and Sarge; The Sisterhood in full, hostile mode! Joy Road Catering folks who did an incredible job. Sarge and I taking on all comers! Lake in front of our B & B this morning! 

 Just trying to figure out your plans for your Visit to our fair city. Wayne
 

G’day Wayne and Michelle Sorry about not responding earlier but everything seems to be happening here at once. As our tenants have now moved out we are finally at the point of moving to our Miami place this Wednesday with settlement on our Mermaid house two weeks later on the 14th of April. Once these two little events are over we can start finalising “The Trip”. Although there is not a lot left to be organised.

To date we are booked to arrive in Vancouver at lunch time on the 6th of May. On the morning of the 10th of May we board the Crown Princess for 7 action packed days cruising to Anchorage on the inside passage. From Anchorage we do a five day round trip to Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and McKinley Princess Lodge. Seems to be a lot of Princesses up your way? We return to Vancouver on the 22nd of May arriving at 7pm. 

After four more days in sunny Vancouver we fly on to Toronto on the morning of the 26th. After a side trip to Niagara Falls we depart Toronto by train for Montreal on the morning of the 29th. Boarding the overnight train from Montreal to Halifax on the 1st of June we eventually arrive at 6:30pm on the 2nd. At this stage we are proposing one night in Halifax and then hiring car and doing some sightseeing returning there on the 5th to catch our plane to New York on the 6th.

From New York we fly to Paris on the 10th of June with no definite plans till we fly out on the 24th of July to Singapore then on to Brisbane on the 28th.
We are both looking forward to our ”winter” holiday after selling and moving homes, it will be just the thing to recharge our batteries.
 

How’s the wedding plans going should be all organised by now? All the best, Tony 

Hi all. This message is meant mainly for those attending the lunch at Sage
April 3rd 2014.

Our agenda: 11:30-12:00 ... arrive, chat, 12:00-1:00 ... lunch, 1:00-2:00 ... updates: Ingrid Parent - UBC Libraries update, Nadine Baldwin - Heads-up re new extended health/travel insurance option, You - chat For your information, 21 will attend our 2014 lunch: Nadine Baldwin/Technical Services, George Brandak/Special Collections-Archives, Lore Brongers/Macmillan, Pat Dunn/Interlibrary Loans, Laurenda Daniells/Special Collections-Archives, Don Dennis/Systems, Ture Erickson/Sedgewick, Linda Joe/Asian Library, Janice Kreider/Collections,

Iza Laponce/Humanities-Social Sciences, Manny Madewan/Technical Services, Helen Mayoh/Science & Engineering, Doug McInnes/Administration, Ingrid Parent/University Librarian, Anne Piternick/School of Library & Archival Information, Margaret Price/Woodward, Bev Scott/Humanities-Social Sciences, Tom Shorthouse/Law, Allen Soroka/Law, Joan Whitney/Sedgewick, Frances Woodward/Special Collections-Archives. I've given our former Library location as best I can remember it to help identify us to Ingrid and our new member, Manny Madewan.
 

I don't ask people to send me their regrets, but a number usually do. I realize I should give you a list of them as well. They always send their best wishes and greetings to the group: Florence Doidge, Nancy Forbes, Margaret Friesen, Jocelyn Godolphin, Matt Hartman, Theresa Iverson, Helene Redding, Ann Rowley, Julie Stevens, Paul Thiele, Kirsten Walsh, Bill Watson, Elsie Wollaston.

Other details: Cheques: I deposited them all on March 28th 2014. Contract: I signed this and faxed it to Nick Yamada March 29th 2014.

JV: I assume the Library will get this to Nick Yamada early this week. I sent a reminder March 29th. This is a convenience to us as it means I don't have to make the payment until the day of the lunch. My thanks to Ingrid once again for this assistance.
 
Meal & drink tickets: Linda Joe will help me distribute these to you
as you arrive. Please place them by your plate to assist Nick's servers and make checking meal and drink details to the contract for
final reconciliation easy.

Name tags: Linda will also help me distribute these to you as you
arrive. I'll make them up with your name and Library location so all
you need to do is put them on. Please do this to assist Ingrid and Manny.

Lastly, our location on the east side of Sage MAY change slightly to the former bar area. If it does, those with mobility difficulties will not have to be concerned about getting to the lower level where  the Music Room used to be. See you later this week, Nadine