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The keys

A busy, busy week. The Exultate concert was Friday night, and as President I got nominated to give the opening speech, which concerned me greatly for most of the week. However, Steve Wadhams provided some excellent material for me to write the speech (largely concerned with a brief bio of Benjamin Britten and a discussion of some of the music we were singing) and it flowed out pretty quickly Tuesday night… And fear gave me reason enough to practice it pretty much continuously Wednesday and Thursday nights, which meant that by Friday I had most of the speech from memory. I took a written copy up with me to be sure, but basically it flowed very well and I was greatly relieved.

After that, the concert was a lot of fun — though Britten takes a heck of a lot of concentration to sing — and then the weekend stretched wide and stressfree ahead!

The other big event of Friday afternoon was that we got the keys for our new house in Riverdale. Saturday and Sunday we took Autoshare cars out to the Home Despot at O’Conner and St. Clair E. to get stuff: mainly towel racks and toilet paper holders, but also snow shovels, rakes for leaves, motion sensors for outdoor lights, and a couple of new locks. We’re moving in my stuff next weekend and all of the stuff from Anne’s apartment the weekend after, and then we’ll be in unpacking and cleanup mode for, well, probably the rest of the year.

2003 10 27 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Farewell to Grandpa

Several weeks have passed since my last blog, which seems a bit inexcusable. On the other hand they’ve been very busy weeks.

The memorial service for my grandparents was very nice. Mum and Uncle John put together a very moving service, with lots of music and brief memorials from grandpa’s friends and colleagues. The church was packed with people who knew him from Rotary Club, his bridge club, friends and family. After the service Mum we had a reception at grandpa’s house, which is now up for sale… It’s a bit sad as it’s been the family’s base in England since my mother was 5 years old.

When I got back from England I had three nights in Canada before heading down to New Orleans for a Microsoft Partners Conference. It was huge — some 3,000+ attendees — and lavishly catered in a massive conference centre on the riverfront. I didn’t get to see much except the conference, sadly, but did get to eat out a couple of times and enjoy the fine cuisine of Louisiana.

Last week was a bit less hectic at work, but there’s still a lot going on. On Tuesday I chaired my second Exultate board meeting, which was very productive, and had the distressing realization that there’s only one more rehearsal to go before the concert! It will, however, be an excellent concert, so if you aren’t planning on coming yet, please do! For more details please visit the Exultate site.

On Wednesday I met our real estate agent, Molly, and the seller of our new house, to review the final details of the work that the seller’s contractor had finished. The house is great, though we will definitely have a few logistical challenges to work out. Can’t wait to move in. We take possession on Friday! Molly was there to see if she liked the basement apartment, and she did, though it might not be big enough for all her stuff…

Thursday was my birthday, and my sweetie Anne got me a lovely leather backpack laptop bag to use instead of the Accenture-issued laptop briefcase I’ve been lugging around. It’s very nice… My Mum and Dad sent me a nice card and I have some money towards a washer-dryer. I’m an adult now!

Finally, yesterday Anne Dutton and Andrew Sedman came to visit! They’re in Canada until, well, today, but they abandoned their kids with Anne’s parents and came in to the city for the day. We went down for a nice Italian dinner on St. Clair.

Ok, so that’s me up to date. The list of to-do items is dauntingly long, both for work and for the move. I can’t wait until November when (hopefully!) it will all be over!

2003 10 18 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Operatic

We had a very operatic weekend: Tosca on Friday and Peter Grimes on Sunday at the COC. Both performances were excellent. Tosca’s obviously a bit of a melodramatic chestnut but the famous arias were handled with aplomb and the bad guy was truly evil which really helped. Peter Grimes is a whole different animal, with complex music, complex characters, and an intense plot, and had it had fantastic reviews we might have been disappointed. Fortunately the reviews were bad, so we were very pleasantly surprised. I’m heavily into Benjamin Britten right now as Exultate’s doing a concert of his music so I could pick up on a lot of familiar Britten themes and memes in the work. Great entertainment, anyway.

On Saturday we did a site visit to our new home and spent several hours poking around, measuring and looking for flaws. On the one hand, it’s too late: we bought it, along with deficiencies. On the other hand, the builders are still finishing a couple of bits so we may be able to get the deficiencies corrected. We came up with a fairly long list but they’re almost all very minor, e.g. a bit of missing paint from the baseboards, a light that’s out. We also planned out what would go in each room, and for the most part it should fit our stuff very satisfactorily. The only problem is, of course, the cats: with a rental apartment in the basement we don’t have an obvious spot for the cat litter boxes to go, even with three bathrooms in the remainder of the house, so it looks like we’ll have to put them in the study to begin with and see how that goes.

I’m off to England tomorrow for my grandfather’s memorial service. My parents were there all summer and my sister flew over last week, so it will be a full family affair. Mum’s done a great job with the memorial service and it should be lovely. I’m picking up my suit from Harry Rosen and packing tonight!

2003 09 29 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Gordon Charles Alliston, 1910-2003

First, a sad piece of news. My grandfather died last Saturday. We’re celebrating the end of a long life (93!) well spent. Through to his final month he was playing competitive-level bridge, and watching soccer, tennis and golf, his mind as sharp as ever. I’m going to miss him a lot.

Now the happy news… Anne and I found a house on the weekend and successfully bid on it on Monday night. We’re going to be homeowners! It’s a lovely 3 story with a finished basement apartment in the heart of Riverdale, a popular residential neighbourhood just east of the Don Valley. It’s empty at the moment so we take possession almost immediately — October 24th… And there’s really not much to do before the place will be ready to move in! We have to get closet rails installed in the closets, and buy a couple of appliances, but other than that, we’re all set. We’re thrillled.

So, all said and done it’s been a very memorable week…

2003 09 24 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Still in the hunt

After a good house hunting session last weekend we spent the first part of the week in suspenseful activity preparing to put an offer in on a house. It was a very nice house in the Annex just south of Bloor, with a tiny yard but new electricals, high ceilings and lots of space. By Wednesday afternoon we had seen the place three times including a tour around with a house inspector ($325 plus tax) and were ready to bid.

Sadly, so were three others. We end up losing the house by $10K — and that’s $10K more than the $41K we were willing to pay over list price. So we concluded that we’d fought the good fight and that we weren’t sorry we hadn’t bid more… just sorry that THEY had bid more.

Onwards…

2003 09 13 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Random

Tuesday after a very slow and relaxing long weekend. I basically did almost nothing. I played a bunch of video games, watched a movie, and basically zoned out. Last night I helped Bruce move my home theatre system out of storage into his and Steph’s basement. They’ve kindly agreed to give it a good home for a couple of months while Anne and I shop for a house. We stayed on afterwards for a barbeque (mmm… marinated jumbo shrimp).

Neil Katz and his wife Asako stopped by last week for a visit and we went out for dinner together. Turns out that he knew Anne from the U of T music programme, but even weirder they were friends and he’d been to a party at the place where Anne and I are still living some years ago. The world is this big: >o<.

Not much else of news, except Grandpa has recovered to the point where he’s going to be checked out of hospital soon, but he’s going to need ongoing care for a while so he’s going into a convalescence home. It’s all good!

2003 09 02 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Sold!

A very busy week, but a great ending! The condo has been sold, the project testing is over and we’re going to start production installation next week, and Anne’s residence got occupancy permission (at the 11th hour) from the city.

2003 08 29 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Moving

The main news of the week is my grandfather’s flirt with death. He seems to be fighting hard and is on the road to recovery, a huge relief to us all. I’m looking forward to seeing him again at Christmas.

Other than that, a busy weekend, but everything’s out of 215-80 St. Patrick Street now. Well, almost everything: my dining room table and chairs remain behind in the hope that we can sell them this week, failing which we’ll have to take them apart on Thursday and drag them up to Wychwood.

2003 08 24 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

A minor detail

Oh yeah, the wedding date is June 19, 2004. 🙂

2003 08 20 tom General News Comments (0) Permalink

Yeek!

Ack, a raider! Prepare to repel boarders…

2003 08 20 tom Random Comments (0) Permalink