World, Mostly Turning

Geez, I'm all about the picspam lately. And Toronto Trek is next week so there'll be more to come.

The memorial service went very well. The weather was great--sunny and warm, but not humid. The bright sunlight tended to bleach out the pictures a little, but it sure beat the rain they'd been forecasting earlier in the week. Everything went just the way it was supposed to and I didn't trip when laying the choir's wreath (phew). After laying the wreath, however, my skirt got caught in the chair I was temporarily parked in before scooting back to the choir to sing the national anthem and I had two people helping me try to get it unhooked. At least I wasn't on-camera when that happened.

If you were looking for me on TV and couldn't find me, it's because the service was broadcast on CBC Newsworld instead of the regular CBC channel. Which I didn't find out until after I arrived at the site, which meant that I didn't get it on videotape. However, another choir member did and her father has even put it on DVD for me. When I pick it up later this week, I'm going to upload it to YouSendIt so that my relatives in the U.S. can see it. I'll post the link here too.

( Beaumont Hamel Memorial Service Picspam )

Everyone in my choir was so pleased that we were asked to do this. My mother was especially thrilled--my grandfather, a WWI veteran (and former member of the Regiment), often participated in memorial ceremonies here in Ottawa, so that made for a nice bit of continuity.

Remember I mentioned a few days ago that my choir, Atlantic Voices: The Newfoundland and Labrador Choir of Ottawa, would be singing at a ceremony at the National War Memorial on Canada Day? Several groups are going to be laying wreaths at the foot of the Memorial during the ceremony and the choir has been given permission to lay our own wreath. As the founder and former president of the choir--and also because my great-uncle fought and died at Beaumont Hamel--I've been chosen by the choir to be the wreath-layer.

National TV. All those cameras focussing on me. God, I hope I don't trip.

Hmm, these were easier than I thought.

Name a book you own that nobody else on your friends list is likely to: Undertow by Thomas Rendell Curran. That's my Dad. He finally fulfilled his lifelong desire to write a murder mystery a couple of years ago. He even got nominated for an Arthur Ellis award, though he didn't win it. I took the photograph of him on the back cover - I got a photo credit in the second edition. :-)

Name a CD you own that nobody else on your friends list is likely to have: Day by Day by Bet.e & Stef, a bossa nova jazz duo from Montreal. I think they've split up, more's the pity. Also, I have more Monkees CDs and vinyl albums than anyone you know. Trust me on this.

Name a VHS tape/DVD you own that nobody else on your friends list is likely to: The 1992 Yates Cup where the University of Guelph Gryphons trounced the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. I'm a Guelph alumnus (twice) and we Gryphons really don't like Western. The Yates Cup is the Ontario championship in the Canadian university football league. Some of my interests are truly obscure.

Name a place you've been that nobody else on your friends list is likely to: Heiloo, a small town in the north of the Netherlands. I used to date someone who lived there. Also, Beaumont Hamel in the north of France. It's a memorial park constructed in honour of those who died on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916. The Newfoundland Regiment was decimated on that day; my great-uncle Arthur Rendell was one of those who was killed. I was the first member of his family to visit his grave there when I went the summer before last.