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Now Fred

Not content with having to manage Jack's broken leg, Fred comes out in sympathy, goes A over T at tennis and fractured the radial bone (top/neck end) of her left elbow.  I always thought tennis was a rough game.  

No plaster-cast or brace, just a sling for a few weeks and no driving for four weeks. More importantly, no skiing at Christmas.  Still on the positive side we now have a built-in dogsitter while I go skiing!

Jack on the other hand is now walking and playing normally, no limp, which disappeared a couple of weeks after he hit the car.  If we had not seen the x-ray we would have him labelled as a complete fraud.

Fred managed to arrange the 'incident' a week before we hosted Sebby for five days while Nick and Lizzie jetted off to NYC to celebrate her birthday.  The same weekend (Dec 8 & 9) that I had two concerts with the A Cappella Strait choir I belong to.  It was, to say the least, a full-on weekend.  After dropping him back home Tuesday night, I slept a straight 10 hours without moving!

The A Cappella Strait concert was a great success and our eighteen strong choir were joined by Choralations, a youngsters choir, who sang a beautiful mix of music in between our own pieces.  They are an amazingly talented bunch. This last weekend, Dec 14 & 15, I had three more concerts with another choir, and that's now it until the new year.  

The Rutter Requiem that we performed on Remembrance Day with a professional orchestra was a really moving piece of music and well received by the audiences over the two concerts.  I am hoping the same choir will be doing a major piece of music at Easter.

While on a musical theme we attended a concert in West Vancouver on Nov 30th led by Lars Kaario a conductor, music arranger and voice/conducting coach.  He is the person I have been working with for about a year, to improve my singing.  

He leads a professional group, the Laudate Singers, and an amateur choir called the Paragon Singers. They came together with Vancouver's Baroque Orchestra for an afternoon of "An Italian Baroque Christmas".  

The venue was West Vancouver's United Church, a well heeled building which reaffirms West Vancouver's status as probably the most expensive part of Vancouver.  It was an amazing concert.  Sadly one of his last as he retires next year and the Laudate and Paragon Singers are being wound down.  

It is a great loss to the musical arts in Vancouver.  If you are in Italy next year, you'll have a chance to hear them as they are planning a concert tour in May.  Dates TBC.

The Canada Post strike which started on 15th November is over from December 17th, as instructed by the Govt of Canada Labour Board.   I'm not sure I understand why anybody would go on strike in an industry that is already under threat from emails/e-cards and an ever-increasing range of competitive couriers ...... just before Christmas.  Methinks it will only hasten the end of snail-mail.  This year we have sent Christmas emails instead of cards, with a snow-covered Chaster Park image from last year (below).  It came from a new joint email account we've set up, so if you have not received it, do check in your spam folder.

Chaster Park overlooking Salish Sea at Bonniebrook

Fred is popping back to the UK for a week early Jan, the first time since we arrived in Canada in April 2021.  Sadly it is for a funeral, though she hopes to catch up with at least some of our friends while she's there.

Recent storms have brought quite a bit of press coverage with power losses, property damage and, in a few instances, loss of life.   

The Sea to Sky highway that runs from Vancouver to Whistler and beyond was closed on Saturday morning for nearly a whole day due to a landslide, that took out a house, just North of Lions Bay.  It reopened just after 6.00am on Sunday.  

Normally the 105km trip takes an hour and a half.  The detour through the interior is 475km and takes 6 hours. 

An emergency reception area was set up in Whistler for people due to leave on the Saturday, accommodation change-over day, most will have wanted to avoid the detour with potentially difficult snow conditions.  Two people are believed to have died in the landslide.  

We are driving up to Whistler on Dec 23rd and it looks as though it is going to be snowing most days until we get there!  😀   Good news after the disastrous season last year - the worst in the last twelve years according to news reports.  In fact given the positive snow forecast for the season we are planning to go back at the end of Jan and Feb, and possibly March.

The storms also brought even higher seas on top of King (Spring) tides to our local beach.  Logs were pushed on to the shore and a small section of road has been partially washed-out, which will need fixing before it gets any worse.  There is an unmaintained track down to the beach road if the wash-out gets impassable.  The video is the same location as the snow photo above.

The old ferry, as it is known, a former passenger ferry that plied its business between Vancouver and the Coast, has been moored outside Gibsons harbour for about 2 years.  The owner planned to refurbish it, though it is of questionable salvageability.  It was beached during the storm.  Dashed inconvenient, as it was used as a rounding mark in our races, when sailing the inside courses.  Picture below.  

Racing has finished for the Fall season and we hung on to our trophy having also won the Summer series. 

We have had a few ad hoc races since, which have also now concluded, the next race being on New Year's Day.  

The last ad-hoc race I helmed, we won by large margin beating the slower boats in the fleet by 20 - 30 minutes on corrected time. I put it down to luck rather than skill!

Plans for our trans-Canada trip continue and we have had one enquiry about using the house while we are away.  There is still an opportunity to use us as a base in late July, August and September if you have not yet planned hols for next year. 

There are numerous videos of BC's Sunshine Coast, we found this one last week.  It's not new, we think the Caviar farm has closed, but the scenery remains the same: Sunshine Coast BC

We hope wherever you are and whatever you are doing you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Some other recent images below.

Sebby checking out the Christmas lights at Gibsons Marina 

Sebby & Charlotte on a play date with her Grandpa

Sunset over the Salish Sea

Sunrise at Chaster Park

Full Moon

The old ferry beached during the last storm. 
It's now out of action for a rounding mark in the yacht racing!