Vancouver Museum of Anthropology UBC

Vancouver Museum of Anthropology UBC
Another mask...

Saturday 25 September 2010

'Maid of the Mist' and more.....

I was going to tell you about my day at Toronto Rehab on wednesday but this has been eclipsed by yesterday and thursday is very nearly headed for the mists of time! Oh how poetic...READ ON AND DON"T GO AWAY.

It was wednesday last I managed to do a blog and here we are, saturday early morning, before returning the hire car of yesterday and jetting off to Vancouver all being well. I was really really blown away by yesterday at Niagara Falls on A's birthday; that the day before and the one before that I musn't lose track of in this blog - or try not to lose track of - fat chance!!. Imagine being in a boat (Maid of the Mist) that can take several hundred people, the sun is shining one minute, you are dressed ( hundreds of you) in blue plastic sheets, the wind blowing hard and the plastic sheets sound like you're in a factory; and the next you are looking up at a wall of water that towers above you, can't see a thing because the spray from the falls are trying to beat your eyes out. The sound, the mist, the maelstrom of the water seething in whirlpools under the boat which is sedately sailing into, through and out of this maelstrom. The contrast with the Las Vegas cum Scarborough (UK) ( scaled up 100 fold) tatty tourist industry that has grown up around this magnificent and awe-inspiring spectacle - is extraordinary and for me simply awesome. I would not have wanted to miss the experience for anything. I gave up with the ruddy blue plastic and got completely soaked, but did it matter? Like hell it did. It was the best antidote for getting away from it all and experiencing nature in the raw, in its awesome power and making me and Mary feel blown away by it. I remember spontaneously singing 'My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean' followed by 'What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor' at the top of my voice, while leaning out over the prow of the vessel. Bit like the feeling in that old ( not really old!) Titanic film, instead you must replace 'young lovers', in your mind's eye with crazy old sod from England who's out to make a fool of himself.

In contrast, and it was her birthday of course; Amy just hated it - didn't she!  'Dad, this is the worst day of my life!' scenario. This is what is so great about children. I loved it, she hated it, because she worried about getting her hair wet. No point in remonstrating back with, 'but we've come thousands of miles to see and experience this and all your fussed about is your hair!'. This is the reality Richard -  get real and just accept it if you can. I must say thanks here to the calming influence of my beloved.  I am over time gradually getting much better at this. Incidentally both she and I insisted on some big hugs while still on the boat, even if Amy didn't get it at all. She did get the chocolate ice-cream cone later on, and  that made her really happy - till she got 'colly-wobbles' from it later on. I call that Niagara's revenge! Also, to let you knowthat I boarded that boat feeling a bit grotty from the the driving and the 'tackiness' of the town; and both M & I came off feeling like we had just had an ecstatic experience - which of course we had....

Where did Toronto Rehab go?? Oh dear, I forgot that bit.

2 comments:

  1. Gonna meet you on the corner
    Gonna take you out of town
    Out to where the grass is greener
    And no one can be found
    Gonna be there in the morning
    Gonna take you by the hand
    Gonna get out of the city
    Gonna get back to the land
    Waterfall, and it's fallin' down on me
    Waterfall, and it's fallin' down
    But it ain't gonna let me be
    Gonna be there in the morning
    Gonna take you by the hand
    Gonna get out of the city
    Gonna get back to the land
    Waterfall, and it's fallin' down on me
    Waterfall, and it's fallin' down
    But it ain't gonna let me be
    Hey, Waterfall
    Hey, Waterfall
    Hey, Waterfall
    Hey, Waterfall

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  2. SOUNDS GREAT AND YOU DESCRIBE IT SO WELL I FEEL COLD AND DRENCHED, BUT THAT MAYBE BECAUSE IT IS RAINING IN COV.

    Chimes sing Sunday morn
    Today's the day she's sworn
    To steal what she never could own
    And race from this hole she calls home

    Now you're at the wheel
    Tell me how, how does it feel?
    So good to have equalised
    To lift up the lids of your eyes

    As the miles they disappear
    See land begin to clear
    Free from the filth and the scum
    This American satelite's won

    She'll carry on through it all
    She's a waterfall

    She'll carry on through it all
    She's a waterfall

    See the steeple pine
    The hills as old as time
    Soon to be put to the test
    To be whipped by the winds of the west

    Stands on shifting sands
    The scales held in her hands
    The wind it just whips her and wails
    And fills up her brigantine sails

    She'll carry on through it all
    She's a waterfall

    She'll carry on through it all
    She's a waterfall

    ReplyDelete