I figure if the Queen and Pope can produce one, then so can I. A little blogging is a dangerous thing! On December 25th, there was a notable event for my website, I'll refrain from using the term "Miracle". I checked my stats page and there were "0" visits which means that people were interacting with families instead of staring at and enjoying this amazing site. Very happy to see that. And like Lazarus from the tomb, I see that the day after, I am back up to 20 viewers. A little higher than my 5 steadfast followers!
Notable events this week were the release of the "Saskatchewan" song which got lots of positive reviews from Ross Gould exclaiming that it had "commercial potential" to Marlene Bernier who said it took her back to her birthplace. I was initially worried as it landed at #9 (#113 Overall) before jumping up to #2 on the country charts. I still have the #1 slot with "Christmas in Khandahar" as well which makes 3 weeks now! Very pleased! Other songs occupy spots 7-10 on the overall charts so that is good as well. Thanks to George for continued advice on production.
Had a good time at the annual Christmas party of Bill Perrin who I jam with on a monthly basis. Missed having Bruce there but the band did an excellent job with leading the partiers through the Christmas standards. Highlights of the night were the " Glee Mash Up" of Holly Jolly Christmas and Rudolph. Doug Borden kept using this terminology even though it is slightly inaccurate. Essentialy what we did was sing the two songs at the same time with the crowd divided in half. It went quite well! Megumi then sang Rudolph in Japanese which was neat. Bill squeezed in my number one hit song towards the end with Daryl's son doing a great job of rhythm. My favourite moment of the evening was Bill shouting out "Tag it" to finish off a song. Very professional! A great time and a good way to end the year.
On a sadder note, male liberation was set back several generations this week in my house. I had not one but two culinary accidents. The first involved me sending my liquid scrambled eggs off the edge of my Foreman Grill and into a drawer of towels and utensils. The pancakes I made were also brutal-a poor start to Christmas Eve. :(
Apparently on Christmas Eve in Japan, kids get KFC and Fruitcake on Christmas Eve so this is the tradition Megumi and I have done for the past 9 years. We were joined by our fried Ami who provided a great potato salad and a cheesecake. Even though Megumi is not German, she has adopted the tradition of opening her presents on Christmas Eve. I really wasn't sure if she would be completely happy with the house insurance I bought her so I got a few extra items for my own insurance! :) Inevitably though, on Christmas morning, she is complaining that there are no more presents to open. I should also add that Megumi drank several of her presents the week before Christmas!
My second culinary disaster has reinforced my opposition to the pipeline that Enbridge is considering putting through the forest here. Again, I was working with scrambled eggs and I went to pour oil into the fry pan at the back but accidentally put the 2 litre plastic container on the hot element that was being used. Within a second, I had oil leaking out the bottom of the container! Actually, "pouring" is probably the better word to describe what happened. It was like one of those races where you run with a collander and try to fill a bucket on the other side. I managed to cover a good section of the floor with cooking oil and I think Megumi's anger was blunted by the company we have staying with us. She kept muttering "Chi Matsuri" which translates very loosely to "Blood Festival". In all my time in Japan, I never came upon this festival but I have a sneaking suspicion it is one I should not attend. I managed to clean it up eventually with remarks abot how shiny and slippery our floor was now. The animals pitched in as well and helped lick up the remenants even after I have cleaned up. This "Oil Spill" will be uttered and I was very compliant today and even went as far as fixing the upstairs toilet that continues to run despite my best efforts.
I have set up the Herculean task of organizing my pictures into a slide show and then using the songs I wrote
as a soundtrack to the slideshow. I've already begun culling several pictures otherwise the thing will be longer than a Tarantino movie! Next song up is "Manitoba" which sounds a bit like "Saskatchewan". No release date as of yet but pre-production will start tonight.
Additionally, I've made some tentative research into Europe and I am debating between staying in one spot or biking around like the homeless guy in Prince George. Quite perplexed. The best announcement is that my new passport finally arrived in the mail today! Aghhh...this has been one huge learning lesson but happy to use the sucker now. Canada has raised the prices but does offer a 10 year version. I think I will for that in 2017 if I am still taking foreign trips.
Hope everyone has a great New Year and thank you for being part of this wonderful year off. I wish you all the best! Cheers!
Notable events this week were the release of the "Saskatchewan" song which got lots of positive reviews from Ross Gould exclaiming that it had "commercial potential" to Marlene Bernier who said it took her back to her birthplace. I was initially worried as it landed at #9 (#113 Overall) before jumping up to #2 on the country charts. I still have the #1 slot with "Christmas in Khandahar" as well which makes 3 weeks now! Very pleased! Other songs occupy spots 7-10 on the overall charts so that is good as well. Thanks to George for continued advice on production.
Had a good time at the annual Christmas party of Bill Perrin who I jam with on a monthly basis. Missed having Bruce there but the band did an excellent job with leading the partiers through the Christmas standards. Highlights of the night were the " Glee Mash Up" of Holly Jolly Christmas and Rudolph. Doug Borden kept using this terminology even though it is slightly inaccurate. Essentialy what we did was sing the two songs at the same time with the crowd divided in half. It went quite well! Megumi then sang Rudolph in Japanese which was neat. Bill squeezed in my number one hit song towards the end with Daryl's son doing a great job of rhythm. My favourite moment of the evening was Bill shouting out "Tag it" to finish off a song. Very professional! A great time and a good way to end the year.
On a sadder note, male liberation was set back several generations this week in my house. I had not one but two culinary accidents. The first involved me sending my liquid scrambled eggs off the edge of my Foreman Grill and into a drawer of towels and utensils. The pancakes I made were also brutal-a poor start to Christmas Eve. :(
Apparently on Christmas Eve in Japan, kids get KFC and Fruitcake on Christmas Eve so this is the tradition Megumi and I have done for the past 9 years. We were joined by our fried Ami who provided a great potato salad and a cheesecake. Even though Megumi is not German, she has adopted the tradition of opening her presents on Christmas Eve. I really wasn't sure if she would be completely happy with the house insurance I bought her so I got a few extra items for my own insurance! :) Inevitably though, on Christmas morning, she is complaining that there are no more presents to open. I should also add that Megumi drank several of her presents the week before Christmas!
My second culinary disaster has reinforced my opposition to the pipeline that Enbridge is considering putting through the forest here. Again, I was working with scrambled eggs and I went to pour oil into the fry pan at the back but accidentally put the 2 litre plastic container on the hot element that was being used. Within a second, I had oil leaking out the bottom of the container! Actually, "pouring" is probably the better word to describe what happened. It was like one of those races where you run with a collander and try to fill a bucket on the other side. I managed to cover a good section of the floor with cooking oil and I think Megumi's anger was blunted by the company we have staying with us. She kept muttering "Chi Matsuri" which translates very loosely to "Blood Festival". In all my time in Japan, I never came upon this festival but I have a sneaking suspicion it is one I should not attend. I managed to clean it up eventually with remarks abot how shiny and slippery our floor was now. The animals pitched in as well and helped lick up the remenants even after I have cleaned up. This "Oil Spill" will be uttered and I was very compliant today and even went as far as fixing the upstairs toilet that continues to run despite my best efforts.
I have set up the Herculean task of organizing my pictures into a slide show and then using the songs I wrote
as a soundtrack to the slideshow. I've already begun culling several pictures otherwise the thing will be longer than a Tarantino movie! Next song up is "Manitoba" which sounds a bit like "Saskatchewan". No release date as of yet but pre-production will start tonight.
Additionally, I've made some tentative research into Europe and I am debating between staying in one spot or biking around like the homeless guy in Prince George. Quite perplexed. The best announcement is that my new passport finally arrived in the mail today! Aghhh...this has been one huge learning lesson but happy to use the sucker now. Canada has raised the prices but does offer a 10 year version. I think I will for that in 2017 if I am still taking foreign trips.
Hope everyone has a great New Year and thank you for being part of this wonderful year off. I wish you all the best! Cheers!