The Only Way To Keep It

Life comes at you fast.  Always appreciate this annual pilgrimage to Peggys as one signpost to stop and take account.  Brilliant afternoon sun for the “winter special” of rum and hot cider, having been granted entry to the open restaurant as I have not left the Atlantic bubble in the last 14 days.  

Yes, there’s been a global pandemic.  But incredibly, it has been a boon in the craziness of this wonderful life, time home to reflect on time’s passing and what you want from the future.  And to patiently wait, until options opened.

Open they did - Go Back to Zanzibar said the button, and so I did, through old unfamiliar haunts, into the joys of a sandbar proposal.  Then back to start the rounds of disclosures and immigration research, until the conclusion, reached naturally and without pressure, to get married in lusaka with honeymoon at the Falls in Livingstone.  

Everything falling ridiculously into place, up to the Friday night bachelor party last night well hosted by Inch.  Joyce, Kerouac, Gibbon original on display, moose bell, rum, oysters, Guinness, such an enjoyable send-off and chance to tell the stories.  A perfect way to see through this year.

Now to re-read the tales of Halloween’s past from this very location from the rocks in the sun, then to return to Moncton for Old Trafford and tell stories about an old ring...

Just keeping it real in this mad year.  As Roz said, it’s the only way...

Enjoy the Ride... While it Lasts

So, wheels are in motion.  Things are happening, Babu.  Calls with family, bachelor party intimations, virus testing requests, printing of forms, invented affidavits emailed, letters to be drafted, Zambian resident rates, pro flight and venue options, requests for and offering up of pearls passing each other, unaware.  References to pimps and grandchildren.  Ancient certificates signed by a loftsman and a spinster.  An old ring to rule them all.  Even the somethings old, new, borrowed, and blue all seemingly accounted for...

Quite the immigration consultant you’ve found.  He’s a keeper.  The internet once again as oracle, swami, etc.  Haircut to come, with a tie back to Rogues and the old days.  United v Arsenal, because it always comes full circle.

Get some sleep.  The fortune cookie at the end of the cousins’ dinner said “You’ll accomplish more if you start now.” And isn’t that the truth?  Go on, my son.  Life is for the living.  The Yacoub cynical quote that tops this post is just tremendous.  Remember this high-point, says Kath, years later on the day, to see how the optimism for the future pans out.  

I’ll say something that might surprise a younger version of myself.  Faith.

That combined with the old familiar... etchings of Moby Dick and Ishmael, “tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote.”

This is a Marriage...?

 ... so sang our lady Kate on her solo record, years and years after Flamenco with Gord.  His voice echoes on 3 years after passing.  The tick tock tick of resolute time, marching.

The last week has been a lull of foggy and overcast skies, insipid motivation, the nervous waiting out until Election Day and uncertainty over departure.  No money in the overseas account, no grades, and no steady income, all leading to the discovery of the FB group today.  

Surely not coincidental to see the successful efforts from 2018-19 of one other Zambian couple.  Nor is it random chance to see the use of biometrics temporarily now allowed.  The arrows all thus point to one outcome.  Get the certificates and criminal checks and photos and signatures done following Lubono while you have the chance, so you can feel the clock and calendar days begin to creep toward success.

The three weeks gets put to good and frantic use in such a scenario, with the idea of an email “save” the date for Paris to be issued as a form of Xmas e-card to be sent upon emergence from quarantine...  Why the hell not?  Need out of this malaise and this is a good way to find yourself there.  Because 2020 can be just that bit more memorable...  how fun to drop that Dec 31 post and let the shock and awe roll in?  

Make it so.

Three Pillars

In challenging, innovative, and (frankly) unheard of times...  The directional, stress-tested, "transformed" 2021 budget October discussions.  How lovely of MM to note her endorsement of the "engagement" pillar.  Heh.  Irony alive and well, particularly as bullet 5 focuses on developing a forward-thinking workplace strategy that incorporates flexible and remote work arrangements... Otherwise, hear the jargon.  Forecasting as art not science, the layers of complexity, the alternative approaches built from the bottom up, and always always always ready to Pivot.

15 days until Election Day.  Slow and steady for Biden.  The final phase of "Let Trump be Trump" wrapping up.  If he wins despite of everything?  There's still a chance.  Please.  Send us to Zambia with that sweet mental health release.

Arc of the Wine Bottle

I care not for the struggle against the utility on meaningless confidentiality questions, as historic fights are being waged over the US Supreme Court.  These long games amidst historic, unpredictable factions and factotums.  Pawns.  Always pawns, swirling about for relevance.  

What will the future look like?  Who can say?  What do you want it to look like, and how can you influence it, and if you can do, so what?  We are creatures of such arrogance, such egotism, such selfishness, such pride.  Such unchangeable natures.  Pets over neighbours, familiarity over foreign.  These slow realizations of the limits of Personal sacrifice.

Resolved.  To be ready with wine bottles for quarantine.  Think I’ll get drunk at Nick’s tomorrow night for old time’s sake before the “cleanse”.  More then.  If I remember, I’ll explain the title of the post.

Orion, and other poems

The prospecting reference pops up again, and so the $3 DVD is purchased from the antique shop as part of the “eclectic” postcard and horseshoe mix.  I fully intend to steal some quotes for the story I will write on the return.  I have begun to stockpile the first of the wine bottles for quarantine as well, Diablo and Blue Moose.  Managed 10 dry days, but this political reunion in the city of birth is too much.  Yendys is such a fabulous name for a street, Anthony Daniel for the confirmation win.  Father of Canadian poetry book with Miriam poem, the Mazda 3, the time past since the last two memorable treks here...  hard not to aim for Chéticamp via the Englishtown ferry tomorrow.  Moncton into the “orange zone” as you prep for another transatlantic.  My oh my.  This magic box is going down silky smooth, smart to leave the remaining bottles in the car.  What will tonight bring?  A letter from our man of the Domus?  Stay tuned.  If the frog pond is open tomorrow, I’ll update from there.

Divining Rod

Image that struck me at the Wooden Monkey tonight, an eerily lonely week as you wait for the credit cards to arrive by mail.  The randomness/coincidence factors of old, what instruments we put our trust in to will out what forms part of our one solitary life.  Amidst all the potential music and poetry and people.  All the cities and landscapes and offices.  Happenstance.  And so if the twitching of a foreign object can be said to lead toward an outcome, why not infuse it with meaning, and if it has some actual merit given intuition’s powerful abilities, then all the better.

I need angles to write and I have not found them above my waffling and lethargy, amidst my curiosity and sloth.  Keep refreshing until you tire, Biden wins, and you can begin.

Keith's

8 minutes before tredging off to the ferry.  The first 10/05 in many a moon in which I do not partake in the ancient brew.  Improper thing.  But a week off to a decent start, and potentially some new hours on the horizon via Mr. Stin-ger and the bridge.  We shall see what comes of it, but if we can find enough unique ledges to monkey-bar our way through 2021 on a decent wage and terms as riotously flexible as the pandemic, then bring it.

Onward we must.  A lazy weekend, but still no booze.  If not even AK can provoke it, then holding strong on the mission through to the end of the month should be possible.  Roll on to the Frozen Farsi, as you await the credit cards in the mail.  On the day Arsenal signed Thomas Partey.  Hooray for a' that.  The bright future awaits.

But don't dally.  As Hera Lindsay Bird writes: "Life is real / And the days burn off like leopard print..."