MAC Fashion Show

You know you're old, and "the next generation" when you go back to your old high school and nothing looks the same, you don't know any of the kids and you get little too excited when there is still a teacher you recognize. However change is good, and the addition of this Fashion Show into the school Leadership program is a good thing. They started the idea when I was still there *mumble*years ago, but it never took off for what ever reason. There wasn't the Leadership program then that they have now, so it may have been too much of an extra activity. Nonetheless, the organizing committee did a great job putting it all together, and I was thoroughly impressed by it! If I were part of this event, I would have been very proud with myself, and so should these girls. It takes talent, and patients to pull an event off and I can just imagine all the prep work, design, planning, coordination, and choreographing the whole production involved, not to mention organizing the clothes. However, it came together wonderfully, everyone looked great, and they all walked confidently down the catwalk. Best of all, I am good friends with one of the organizers, Alycia, so I had great seats!

The girls lined up for the "Pragai" line. Alycia's the the one in the middle standing on the box.

Alycia strutting her "Pragai" outfit.

Alycia showing off her "Tiger Distribution" outfit.

...and walking away.

And finally, some of the grad couples wore formal wear from "Christina" and "Moores", only a couple more months and they'll be wearing them for real!

Chapter 13: Next Time, Lie!

Note to all: I am not promoting lying, in any circumstance. This was just the exhausted conclusion we came to at the end of our day...

Some of you may have heard that Mum and I have been going through the exciting process of trying (emphasis on trying) to exchange her UK license for a Quebec one. For myself this was easy: I phoned, made an appointment, brought all the necessary documents they wanted and voila! I had a Quebec license. My Mother on the other hand had a slightly more convoluted route to take. Mum started this whole process which took me a day to complete, way back in November. And it still isn't over.

To give you a rough idea of the "flow chart-esque" direction all this has followed, this is what we've done so far:

Brought papers to SAAQ; ticked "MS" box on declaration form, got sent away to see the Dr. ---> Made appointment with Dr. for letter saying "OK to drive" ---> found out the wrong appointment was made, we made another one ---> came back weeks later, then had to wait a week for the Dr. to fill out the form ---> brought it back to the SAAQ, where the form was sent to Quebec for approval ---> they say they'll mail Mum the result ---> Quebec says on of the parts wasn't filled out, which means another appointment downtown ---> which leads us to today.

So far, Mum and I have been to the SAAQ 4 times between the two of us, just once for me. That's 2 times too many, but we know the way really well now! Today's task was to get a Dr. to say Mum's brace was OK for her drive with. This sounds easy enough, if you can find the place the first time round. After arriving at the right building, we proceeded to turn up a one-way street...oops, then decided to go around the block and come down the road the right way, finding a space. After a nice lady came out and warned us about the traffic cops, I moved the car...twice. Second time into a space we had been told was for blue-badge holders. More of that later.

Once, parked and inside we were told the Dr. was in the adjacent building. Now that we were in the right building Mum finally got to see the Dr. All was well...no oops. He gave Mum a prescription for a brand new brace, and we set out to make that next door (first building we had gone to). They said they could take us today which was good because it would save us another trip out that way. So about 2 hours later, we left...to find a ticket on the windshield. Poop!

Moving on, we decided to go on a merry drive up to the SAAQ to finally get this done! So, confidently with the form in hand we went in and waited to be seen. A nice lady helped us - she faxed the form to Quebec, and again an hour later, we hear back from them...they need more time; Mum will receive word through the mail. Darn. Guess this means another trip to the SAAQ!

Success list so far: letter from Dr, check. New brace, check. QC license....no. Feeling deflated and hungry (remember it's 3:30pm at this point, and we'd left the house at 9am) we headed to Tim's for soup and a coffee. This was much needed, except for the blue-badge door button that wouldn't work going in (I wont take that as an omen).

Now we are home, and calm, and not hungry. After a day like today, and knowing there's still more to do until Mum does actually have her real license in her hot little hands, you can see why sitting in the Tim's laughing from fatigue, eating "cream of noodle soup", you can understand why both Mum and I came to the conclusion that all this could have been avoided if only she'd just lied in the beginning!!

http://www.saao.ac.za/~wpk/gallery/signs/nowarning.jpg

Happy Easter

Tis the season yet again to O.D. on chocolate, wear your Easter bonnet, and decorate numerous locations in various egg-bunny-spring theme. On top of the sweet treats associated with the Easter season I enjoy the religious traditions as well. Being a Vicar's daughter, Easter was spent in a church. Shrove Tuesday kicked things off for Lent which followed, and it all escalated from there: Lenten discussion groups, increased church services, Easter gardens, etc. Until finally we reached Holy Week, the week before Easter. The bells were silent for the whole week, and in England we had a service every day of the week taking us closer to the event of the crucifiction. And finally my favourite service, the First Light which takes place in darkness and light is slowly re-introduced by candle light. Many of us get wrapped up in the bunnies, and eggs and chocolate and often loose sight of why we're marking this day in our calendar. For me, it's new beginnings...that new light. Admitting that you've gone off course and that you're not perfect, but that you want to do better and be better. How many times do we make resolutions at Christmas, and half way through the year realize we kept them for about a week or that you only went to the gym once in the past four months, or you couldn't really stop eating ice cream as you thought. What if you had a second chance? A chance to say "I admit it, I failed" and someone said "no problem, just try again." Easter is our second chance; A time to reassess, and see if you maybe with a second go you can get where you want. Or just choose another goal. Whichever, every time you're unwrapping the pastel-coloured foil on those little milk chocolate eggs think of it as your second chance being hatched, and that you're celebrating your decision with chocolate!

As part of our Easter celebrating, our family makes Easter eggs of our own. Mum taught us to make them our of home made fondant, and Dad taught us how to dip them. These are definitely worth a post of their own.

Happy Easter!

This year's crop of eggs: this year, I made chocolate, vanilla, and butterscotch. I would have made pistachio but they didn't have any :(

Clearly, when Dad was teaching us the delicate process of dipping eggs he needed a beer for support!