Rant and Rave 

Phone Rage

I decided I needed a space to get out my frustrations, just for me, to be able to move on after getting it out.  If it helps someone else in the process, funtastic.   Doesn't it seem as though some days, negative situations just seem to go on and on, one mishap after another in a chain of frustrating happenings? This is why I need a Rant and Rave section, today is the first entry.

Maybe it's just me but I find more and more often I get frustrated with today's phone centre software.  You know the drill, you call a utility company, a bank, or any place really, and you never get what you need even though you research and look for the right number or department before you dial.

Next are the endless recordings and prompts to select 1 for blah blah blah, 2 for blah blah.... and so on and so on. Sometimes after going through them all, there is still no option to speak to a live body, so you select the 0 hoping to get a live person and either get put into the que with the "we're experiencing a high level of calls and appreciate your patience, etc.....recording" or you get the unnerving click and recording "your call cannot be completed as dialled" and cut off.

NO! Now you have to call back and go through it all again.  Endless circles of prompts and nobody there.  Sometimes if you're lucky, you get through to a live person only to be transferred again to a voice mail or the wrong person who asks you for all your information again that you just gave to the first person.

Or, what about the times they get your info wrong, and despite correcting them every time you call, they still have it wrong and insist they will have it corrected this time, but never do.

Or, my favourite, the voice recognition software.  You speak into the phone and they ask you "Is this what you said? If so press 1?"  THESE DRIVE ME NUTS!  It rarely asks what you are calling about, so it gets you nowhere or they keep reminding you to visit their website, well duh, the reason I am calling is because of a problem on their website or because you can't find it there. Sigh.

Teams of people spend endless time wanting to get the best customer service and yet if they would just get rid of the damn software in the first place and go back to good old people talking to you on the first ring, and who aren't reading from a scripted answer like a robot;  customers wouldn't be angry and frustrated when they finally get through to someone and rage at them causing high turnover in employees leaving for stress or because they can't deal with angry people on the phone all day who have to stay on hold for ever after battling with the endless prompts and recorded unsolicited advertising.  Then you go to the place in person and see that they have multiple people working at the reception desk talking to each other, but the software answering the phones.

I avoid calling cell phone companies, utility and insurance companies etc, probably costing me more money in the end;  just to avoid the stress of going through this! 

Gathering the Harvest for this Moment Gillian R Whipp - I wrote this after a workshop I recently did

As I gather the buds of WISDOM and they turn to seeds
I plant them in my garden of SUCCESS replacing the doubtful weeds
I sharpen my rusty TOOLS of KNOWLEDGE with shiny new ones
UNDERSTANDING that the seeds are sprouting 
Making ROOTS in the garden of my soul
I water them with FAITH, CONFIDENCE, and GRATEFULNESS 
Shine some light with HOPE, CHARITY and LOVE
Till the roots attach themselves firmly in my being
Harvesting the rewards by APPLYING them to this moment right NOW

Halloween fun, Falling Leaves and my latest Good Read.......

Here in Calgary we have enjoyed an amazingly mild Fall so far.  With the exception of a freak 3 day snow event in September that left our city's trees  broken and a mess of power lines down, up until Halloween, we even had 18C, the trick or treaters, normally put their costumes on top of coats, toques etc; this year a light jack was enough.

I enjoyed many walks with my friend including the above at Carburn Park in Calgary, one of my favourite spots.  The leaves around the small lake are particularly pretty.

One of my daughters costumes

Some spidey decor action and the treat bowl ready for the trick or treaters

Carved pumpkins with my daughter

Such fun decorating the front of the house and putting out orange lamps and lanterns

Need to work on the carving skills!

Another costume Minnie Mouse is in the House

Son and friends did a theme take on the Kokanee beer commercials with the Sasquatch and Kokanee girls, what a riot, they got third prize at Ranchmans!

Sample Beer Commercial 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Oac1y__jY

So what am I reading at the moment? Several books it turns out, but a biography that I am enjoying is Losing it by Valerie Bertinelli.

I particularly like the genre that relates to Rock Wives/stories. Like the book by Pattie Boyd Wonderful Tonight, there are many parallels like the wife not getting what she needs, drugs and booze, or some other addiction overtaking the rocker, and a thread similar to both stories of sadness despite the fame and fortune.

In Valerie Bertinellis case, a problem with self image and not feeling good enough, obsessing about weight (despite being very low weight) because in Hollywood, the expectation and yardstick for what is considered normal or low weight, is quite different to the norm for the rest of us.  By always being on camera, or criticised by the press or trash rags, theirs is a different hell or stressful situation, though still there are similarities that we can all relate to.

I can't imagine the pain from infidelity, mostly with the rocker in the circumstances of being on the road, women throwing themselves at them, the drugs, the booze, the stress of relationships and egos between band members, managers and contracts being unfair to the very hard working rockers, it seems they do pay a very high price for their fame in more ways than one. For the rest of us at least, suffering these things at least is private instead of being in the spotlight on top of the pain.

Happiness is short lived, and relationships, like in the real world are challenging. For the most part the same issues as with relationships in the non famous persons world are the same. Not paying enough attention to the partner/spouse, lack of intimacy, allowing the addictions to booze, drugs, their work or other things, or types of infidelity, plague the marriage. In Valerie's case, there is a happy ending in that they have a son who is now part of the band, what a gift for Eddie VH, and a great joy for Valerie, and she finds joy with her second husband, something you don't often see in famous people's stories, as does Eddie.  Also she realizes her battle with self image and weight has a lot to do with her needs not being met in her relationships, a lesson that many people need to learn, instead of blaming ourselves when things go array, we need to savour each moment, find the good in the lesson, see it for what it really is and try to honor each other, and try to find what is really going on.

Here are some great interviews and insights into Van Halen talking about their early years, as well as a neat recording of an "unplugged" type session with Wolfie VH, Valerie and Ed's son, together with Alex VH and David Lee Roth. L:ooking forward to Valeries other book, Finding It.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoXYiG0t_H0&index=4&list=RDEXeYL0zVDzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfW4O0IKM_U

Books I am reading

Good Reads......lately some books have dropped into my path through news or other media and I always find great nuggets of wisdom in some books and that makes me want to share them.

 - Soul Survivorhttp://www.soulsurvivor-book.com/ is a neat story about a young boy who was reincarnated and from an early age dreamt, drew and spoke of a past life, through this book one relooks at the classic Many Minds Many Masters on reincarnation through a doctors experience with a patient and several sequels written afterwards by Dr Weiss. http://www.brianweiss.com/about-the-books/many-lives-many-masters/

Maya Angelou quotes 

Through Oprah shows, I have come across many of Maya Angelou's writings and quotes and they always manage to put a smile on my face or to make me think a little, what a great lady.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3503.Maya_Angelou

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.
Maya Angelou

Whenever I want to laugh, I read a wonderful book, 'Children's Letters to God.' You can open it anywhere. One I read recently said, 'Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.'

Maya Angelou

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

Maya Angelou

My Venezuelan Projects

From November  2013 until September 2014 I was fortunate to work on 2 projects with SAIT Polytechnic and PDVSA Venezuela.  I met some amazing people and spent 3 lovely months with each group.

Now that the project is finished I am sad to say goodbye to the people but they will stay in my heart forever!  Here are some memories we shared in slideshows to some of my favourite asongs!


http://www.kizoa.com/Video-Maker/d9933393kP51958557o2/copy-of-copy-of-pdvsa-c6-feb---may-2014


http://www.kizoa.com/Video-Maker/d9933393kP51958557o2/copy-of-copy-of-pdvsa-c6-feb---may-2014

American Hustle Music Steely Dan - Dirty Work

Funny how a song can just send you there, yup back in time like a time machine.  For me it was watching American Hustle, a film based in the 1970's when I was living in Spain as a young girl and attending a private English School called Bellver College. Spain was under Franco's dictatorship, so things were actually very safe and my sister and I have amazing memories from this time as well as many other great school friends who remarkably we are still in touch with via Facebook after many years.

So when I was in the cinema last week  watching American Hustle I was transported back to Mallorca early 1970's and hearing Steely Dan's Can't Buy A Thrill Belting out from the record stores and I still recall the first time I heard it.  There was some kind of shift in my world, as happens only with amazing music, that really moves you.  To my young 10 year old head I was startled and knew that I just had to have that song...think I may have bought the 45 of "Do It Again," but the entire album seems to me to be what I got.  We bought a turn table at a bazaar, and our lives were changed as prior to that all we had was a reel to reel with Cat Stevens Teaser and the Firecat.   I recall that when my Uncle Al and his buddy Rob came to visit, he bought me Paul McCartney and Wings Band on the Run - and Get Your Yayas out by the Stones for my sister. Wow, sure changed our world!

But here is to Steely Dan and Can't Buy a Thrill ..............awesome, thanks American Hustle for stirring up the memories!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALs1ObqeB7o

Favourite things

I am going to start blogging about favourite things,   to share my likes as a way to the path of joy, by coming here and reminding myself about them!

Recently we lost our lovely 3 year old rescue dog Moose, he was only with us for a short time, less than a year, but he brought so much love, laughter and fun to our home and to all our friends that we still miss him dreadfully every day.  I found this link to a website about St Berxers, like Moose, a cross between St Bernard and Boxer. Here are many lovely pictures of them, as a side note, our baby loved to be on my bed, the couch, back seat of my car, or on a stack of blankets (as well as his bed), and in many of these pictures, the dogs are in bed too!

http://www.designermixes.org/pictures/picture.aspx?picnum=16&&srhbrd=828


Here are some pictures of our sweet baby, he brought so much joy and love, a true angel! This is him at the Pet store before we adopted him through Pets for Life.

It was love at first sight for me, and my husband too!

My son was his bestie, as he worked at the Pet Store at the time and took him for walks

There was such a bond between them

Eric played with him every day and we took turns walking him, he sure loved his walks and was well behaved.  The two of them often took naps together on the couch!

So St. Berxers will always be one of my favourite things, someday I will get another, right now our family is still in mourning for this amazing baby!

These old slippers

 A pair of old slippers could be compared to a long lasting marriage

They are familiar, you like them

Because you are so used to them

You don’t want to throw them away or replace them with new ones

Though sometimes you consider doing just that

Sometimes they rub against your toes

At times they make your feet feel hot and irritated

Mostly though, you feel content with them rubbing against your feet

These old slippers are there for you

They are loyal, usually in the same spot

Sometimes they go missing and you have to look everywhere for them

But then you realize they are exactly where you left them

They were there the entire time

Good to know you can always count on them

To keep your feet warm, cozy and content

Sometimes you wear them outside and they get wet,

So you have to wash them and fluff them up in the dryer

You see them again as if they were brand new

That is when you realize why you picked them in the first place

So you keep them around, Year after year

You take them with you on vacations

Even short weekends away

They bring you the comfort and consistency of home that you crave,

Even when you are far away on the road

Recently I stumbled across some old friends from my Ibiza days in the 1970's through the net and DigitalIbiza a webforum! Very exciting as through there I found some Facebook groups where I found photos of our group of friends from those days.  There was a group from Sweden, Liverpool, London as well as us from Canada and a number of others from Germany, Ireland etc...

Mainly people played in the bars and beach parties though my sister and I worked part time with my mother at a fashion salon where we sold leather coats through fashion shows at hotels and our salons in Ibiza over the summer season and Tenerife over the winter season.  Many of the locals also went to the Canary Islands in winter as Ibiza pretty much "shuts down" over the winter.

So it was really great to not only stumble across pictures of some of our parties and gatherings, but even better to communicate with many of these friends again, we have been sharing memories and photos since then. Combined with seeing a Fleetwood Mac concert last Friday at our Saddledome here in Calgary, I have been transported back to the 1970's! Except for the birth of my children, I have to say that these were truly the best and most crazy fun times of my life.  We even met up in London after the season ended in 1978 and had great times then too!

Here is a sample of the pictures BTW Listen to Fleetwood Mac Rumours as you watch, or The BeeGees we danced to them many a night at Nito's Club in San Antonio. I still haven't figured out how to add music............darn! The permed hair was really in,I guess we all thought it was cool..hmmm.

https://picasaweb.google.com/102114540319628119084/IbizaGang1970S#slideshow/5879728526516784018

Favourite Songs For a Fall Day

Is it really September 12th? Wow, can't believe summer is over and the mornings are already cold, can see my breath and Eric needs layers and complains about the house being freezing.  I try and keep the furnace off from May to October but September is already chilly when we wake up.

Well trying to extend that summer feeling, here are some of my favourite songs of all time, timeless I suppose, the kind of songs that bring you back to a special moment or two, enjoy!

Wish you were here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHGbA7I5HZY

Stairway to Heaven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcL---4xQYA

Fly at Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nYvmm0Ofmc

Oh what a Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liyiT_DGREA

Baby I love your way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0nc-hh9viQ 

Layla - Go Eric........Clapton that is.

My Eric, above, still enjoys his wagon, having found more creative ways to enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX5USg8_1gA

On a recent trip to Spain I bought these tiles for our last name

Lilies in the front garden

Though we have a broken fence, it gives it a kind of warn, eclectic feel, n'est pas?

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Patio flowers

A birthday Orchid

Black Petunia, love it!

Geraniums remind of my Mums patio in Spain when I was a child

Sigh, I wish it was early June and not September......

So cheerful these orange Marigolds

Love this combo of colour

Unfortunately, the squirrels or magpies knocked this bunch over, rotten buggers....

Oh well, at least I got pictures before they were ruined

A summer BBQ, perhaps Canada Day?

Andrea, Jaxi and I.

Is that the moon above Randy, or a visiting spirit?

Perhaps smoke, but could also be visiting spirits?

Happy friends

The lovely Jaxi

With Andrea and Rhonda

Richard and Kurt

Thanx for stopping by!