IVN and AQN

Ridiculous.  That's how I feel after finally succumbing to the pressure and selling out the TFSA amidst the most recent rapid fall since leaving for England in the greatest ever stock pick.  At the exact low point for the day, although there is some relief at the thought of banking big gains.  Now safely still exposed in mostly the same amounts, but over in the retirement accounts so come what may.  Shame I could not have timed it better, and made wiser choices in keeping with the instincts over the last few months.

But no matter.  Let it sky-rocket now!

The depression with recent work has been a bit bleak, but always the way when contrasted with glorious vacations.  And hard to get much more glorious than that jaunt from Glasgow International to Islay to Ben Nevis to Scafell Pike to Snowdon to Tintern to Wembley.

Maybe you are looking at things in the near term wrong.  This upcoming retreat in Charlottetown (along with the assignment of a new and potentially significant file referenced in the title due to the old man's departure) may be a time for some deeper reflection, and to more directly put some concepts on the table as part of the firm discussions. 

Pourquoi pas?  As always, more anon.

We'll Always Have Our Day

Well then, where to begin, after that glorious 9 days?  It all went ever so swimmingly, the timing perfect every which way.  From the distilleries to the summits to the standard London classics that you treasure so much.

All leading up to the main event.  It was always going to be a stretch, especially against arch and difficult rivals.  But as that Sol Campbell video so beautifully put it - enjoy the occasion, make it a memorable game, but (whisper) win the game!  

And win we did.  The ticket from le taxi, confirmed within the walls of Tintern Abbey, setting up a potentially hilarious 5 year return in 2022.  The Sampson Cuts' haircut and shave.  The Away Boyz boat cruise to Woolwich on the Thames, under the famous bridges, singing at the tourists.  The walk down Wembley Way, the sorting out of our tickets together in row 24 of the upper tier, which seems a lucky one, right down to the Ramsay winner.  What a 129 seconds in between goals.  The relief at the end after the agony of clock checking throughout.  A win for the ages, worth every penny and such a better story than a Chelski double.  Some days we'll curse our play, some days we'll walk down Wembley Way indeed!  Quite the conclusion to the footballing season.

5 years since the Indy 500, which I'm watching on the final leg of the trip.  Where will things stand another 5 years hence?  Next year or two should go a long way to figuring that out...  Home again.  Now for the official start of summer!

What Would Have To Be True...

Firm strategery sessions, the latest lingo, the lens by which you must test assumptions to see if the decisions taken will increase the probability of success, of achieving your "aspiration".  And what is that aspiration?  I get a palpable sense that it is far different from the others gathered around the boardroom table and on the phone.  To visit 100 countries, to strive to seek to find and not to yield... haha.

Boarding now for Glasgow (and Islay) a trip your 18 year old younger self took an unimaginably long time ago, with a similar opening destination of the Ben Nevis summit in mind, before so much else, so many destinations.  Tintern Abbey among them.  Wembley among them.  Lagavulin among them.  What a way to spend a TFI Friday.  Shame you have to spoil the flight over with the redrafting of the BST (or BS) report.  But those are the compromises that pay for these pleasures.

Off.  Enjoy the next few days of merriment.  And, above all, c'mon on you rip-roaring Gunners!! More anon.

The Unknowable Future

The title this early evening from Master Nasser Al S. a few nights back.  "Last night I went to Whiskey's in Dartmouth and ended up having a threesome in the North End - you cannot know the future!!"  Said in his inimitable accent, of course.  Hope he fares well over Ramadan, and can we convince him to join for a Nashville Saturday night?  Doubtful, but - as his apt saying goes - who knows?

So it has been with MJC, and the abrupt Friday afternoon email signaling his move away from frustration, into (perhaps) further frustration with ye olde and continued enemy.  Freeing up some work opportunities within the group here, we can hope, although again the idea of drafting such applications and the like no longer holds the type of appeal it did in the younger days... Also, it must be said, how nice it is to contemplate the magnitude of expenses that do not show up within your income statement, and allow for the consideration of broader ventures, the freedom of escape, and chance to chart a new course.

I suffer so much amidst the collection of papers gathering upon the desk, the unwillingness to organize, the failure to grow up - to "take ownership", as Mmc would say and as I have been urged to do.  That call is one that makes me realize this path, long-term, is not well suited.  How funny that over two bottles of wine in Calgary, the brother-in-law would bring up musings from the drive to Heritage Park, and be perceptive of the possibilities that lay behind those spoken words.

Gartner saw it once upon a time.  Cara.  The love for words, and for stories, the creation of experiences, and the power in reminiscing on them.  Over and over and over again.  Out in the world.  The stories in poker hands and football matches and dive bars and elections.  Songs you can't rewind.

The pattern holds and, despite one resignation, the desire remains and should not be shaken.  Still some time out until next year under the current plan, and even an opening to plant the seed of the inevitable in the right places.  Today was the day of the Antarctica disclosure to the co-instructor, remember?  How oh how I hope you make/made that trip.        

"I will be leaving now"

Ah, Pushpendra. Great, earnest quote/question, and the double handshake goodbye.  What a journey you are on, recreating your life on the far side of the planet, in this city.  An inspiration in terms of the chances you have taken and the continued bravery in responding to new postings, building a life for you and your wife and daughter.  Not this time, my friend, but my best to you.

The sun has me in a chipper mood, although the crashing value of IVN less so.  Will it rise on the back of the latest investment?  Or are you in the process of squandering your escape plan stash, in direct contravention to the "Sell in May and Go Away" plan you were intent on implementing before the greedy delay got in the way.  Where shall you cast the inculpation - an accusation that you are responsible for some lapse or misdeed; the act of imputing blame or guilt (N. Kruse's Gobi death in the Melanson race) - for a' that.  I know not.  We shall see how the unknown story unfolds.

The same computer, in the same library, 24 hours on.  Gone is the singer, beside you instead the middle aged tutor in the Spanish 2010 jersey and a decent looking apprentice.  Learning.  "You need to ask yourself..."  Self-improvement.  To what end...

Heh.  I am pulling on another string in thinking of MFA ideas.  It is mental health week, the US House has just passed the AHCA, Si in the middle of something that seems mad but the deeper you think on it the less mad it seems, and so I can see how a series of short stories/vignettes tied around a central theme could be made to work as a whole.  With Ginsburg in the foreword and Uncle Walt as the epilogue.  Will explore further on the patio over the French Pinot scored just before the close.

It is happening, and the countdown is truly on.  First to the end of January, and likely the hunt for the Salaar, and then to the summer of 2018, and sweet release into the happy/penniless state.  All in the name of "mental health" - and so why not that as the main theme?

Skeleton Plans

Funny how quickly decisions get made.  A slow 10 days since the return from O'Cann, and the early thoughts of the possibility of fateful changes for next year seem now so definitive as to have formed and set almost into concrete. As if there were never any other alternatives to contemplate.

2017 has been strange in its unfolding - 3 weeks in the Southern Hemisphere in January, a February I can scarce remember, starting March in St. John's and ending it in Grenada, April back in TO for that conference and its old Queen's reunions, and May to bring along the first trip to Islay and a return down Wembley Way.  The June to October months set aside for sailing and some Maritime exploration - including the first glimpse of Ms. Europa and her sisters.  Then the plan to just roll through into the winter, and seize upon a final break before the break.

In these slow and semi-melancholic evenings, the thoughts seem to have narrowed to reveal just one more fork: Before or After.  To take your leave on the way to Antarctica, or to postpone that decision until the return.  I still favour the second choice, marginally.  May-June-July 2018 to sort the apartment, bank some final extra cash, sail the SC, and plan the Fall escape post-studies.  August to start the course.  September to depart for the first four months - for the US? for Nepal? for Ethiopia?  
Even writing this out, that really is the only choice, unless the hand at work is truly forced in some regard.  I do not think it will be, such a possibility being (hopefully) more in your head than otherwise.  Docking in Cape Town is not the time to launch a proper backpacking circuit of that continent, despite the newfound appeal of the Skeleton coast that Fetons tracked along in his absurd and impressive race a night or two gone.  And the idea of swinging through London for another round of Arsenal, the Globe, and this time Hamilton (as well as May Morning at Magdalen?) is too delightful to pass up post the ocean crossing voyage.  You will want to process that experience, and retell some of those tales.

But it just seems to work.  The sailing and the classes and some off-continent hiking.  Back for Xmas/NYE 18/19 in keeping with the biennial traditions. Then to the next low cost escape after the January seminar, likely a Central America trajectory, possibly with even a retracing of the Camino and Greece path pre-40 also in the cards?  That's really getting ahead of things though, you ultra-planner.  Try and keep it confined to this year and next for the moment...  heh.  But the point - so many options, wonderful and fantastic, in which you force yourself to act frugally, but push out funding questions into the future.  Time for money.  Words and the road.

I'm decided, I think.  No lingering cases on the horizon to keep you for the moment, except for the lingering spectre of new rate designs, but that can't be the way forward.  It can't.  So it won't.  Your contribution to a margin lies elsewhere.

(Remember the guy with the picture of Jesus taped to his laptop, singing the songs from his headphones in the library as you typed this up over 75 minutes or so?  "Baby ooooh, give me the time of my life...")

Think back.  Tick tock.  Go flush this skeleton out.