Remembering
For as long as I can remember, I have been involved in Remembrance Day activities in some way. If I wasn’t in a parade or attending a ceremony, I was watching Parliament Hill events on TV. Every year on 11/11, at 11:11, I was silent for a full minute.
I have two favourite memories from Remembrance Day:
The first was watching my brother play the Last Post on his trumpet in his air cadet uniform at a ceremony in Cornwall. It’s an extremely hard piece to play, and I was so proud of him.
The second was from a couple of years ago when a few friends and I braved the downtown crowd and went to the War Memorial in Ottawa for the Nov. 11 ceremony. There were thousands of people, long parades of uniformed veterans, cannon salutes, poppies everywhere.
It will be odd this year … to not only be at work, but be in class when all of my fellow Canadians back home are silently remembering the sacrifice of all those who fought for our freedom. I think Remembrance Day is an extremely important “holiday”, to honour those who made our country what it is today.
Today I will not be marching in a parade in my air cadet uniform, covering ceremonies for a newspaper article, watching events on TV or even wearing a poppy. But I will remember.
Blogroll addition
I’ve added a new link to my blogroll: Aiming for Ireland. The writer is an “old” friend of mine from when we were cadets together in good ol’ Cornwall. (Twelve years counts as old, wouldn’t you say, Erin? Can you believe it’s been that long?)
She has been traveling the world and making me drool with her stories for the last few years, and finally began a blog to better record her experiences. One of her most recent posts is a steal from another fabulous blog by … oh wait, it’s mine. Yeah, she has this cool list of 100 things she wants to do before she dies, it’s pretty rocking.
Go … check it out.
Visa
My visa has finally been approved by the Colombian consulate and I am picking it up next week. Whew! Glad that stress is over. I’m leaving in eight days … or should I said, ocho dias.
In the meantime, I am relaxin’ to the max at a cottage in Bancroft. It’s an annual vacation with nearly my entire extended family on one side – there’s about 50 of us that crowd this huge lodge on a lake and have a phenomenal time together. Pictures to come later, so stay tuned.
Away …
I’ll be off spending some quality time with my family at my favourite vacation place ever … that lacks internet. There will be no posting for at least a week! No worries, I’ll be back soon.
Happy Canada Day!
Even as I prepare to leave this country for another, Canada will always be my “home and native land.” I love this nation and am proud to call it home. Though many don’t recognize it, our country was founded on Christian values, and our anthem proves it. It’s only the first verse that’s sung at hockey games or city hall meetings, but it’s the last verse that is my favourite:
Ruler Supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our Dominion in thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the better Day,
We ever stand on guard.
Happy 142nd birthday, Canada!
Watch this
It’s Friday!
Here’s a couple of videos to brighten your day.
A college dorm room light show.
A hilarious prank – I totally want to try this.
Festival frenzy
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve experienced several Ottawa festivals … and I wonder why I never bothered to check them out before. I seriously love this city.
I went to Open Doors a couple of weeks ago and visited several major buildings that I’ve always wanted to peek inside. The Supreme Court was really cool, though I’m sure it would be more awe-inspiring to see during an actual trial. Library and Archives Canada was disappointing – they basically only had one room open. The Library of the Senate was the same. We thought the event should be called Open Doorways. But I also checked out the old train station and a rooftop garden overlooking Parliament Hill – both were very cool. Not connected to the event but still cool was the currency musuem in the old Bank of Canada building, where the new building has been constructed around it.
Supreme Court
The currency museum
Last weekend, the traveling Magnetic North Theatre Festival stopped in the capital. A couple of friends and I tagged along on the Rideau Project – a series of plays in different locations (and both languages) around the city, depicting some of the historial events. Afterwards we heard a couple songs at the Franco festival at city hall. Basically, downtown at night on the weekends is awesome.
Last Sunday, a friend and I braved the threat of thunderstorms and went to Westboro for WestFest. Richmond Road is shut down to vehicle traffic and people set up shop and stages on the street. There was some pretty cool performers, including this duo.
These kids had an amazing sound ... by playing the most random things.
Jen the traveller
I’m living vicariously through my friend, Jen, at the moment. She quit her job and hit the road a few days ago on a cross-North American drive to see friends and the sites. I’m a little jealous, not going to lie.
To follow her adventures on her blog, click here.
New url
Thanks to the fabulous technological intelligence of my lil’ bro, Ryan, you – my faithful readers – now no longer have to type in the ridiculously long url I chose for my blog name. Now, you can simply hit www.cherylbrink.com and you will come directly here to read the most recent rant or latest news. Eventually I hope to have a whole website up on that domain name as I used to, but I’m slightly short on time and software for that at the moment.
Oh, and happy mother’s day to all you beautiful women out there! I happen to have a stupendous person for a mom, and two sisters who are phenomenal mothers as well.
OCNA
On Friday, six Ottawa Region Media Group employees (including moi) headed to Toronto for the annual Better Newspapers Awards by the Ontario Community Newspapers Association.
Our company was nominated for nine awards, and came away with three first place finishes. It was neat to see all the entries and the variety of writing, layout and photos.
Here’s a list of our accomplishments:
- Editorial writing (Kourier-Standard) – first place
- Rural affairs writing (Kourier-Standard) – first place
- Special supplement (Kemptville Advance) – first place
- Best feature photo (Arnprior Chronicle-Guide) – third place
- Best business/finance story (Renfrew Mecury) – second place
- Best editorial (Kourier-Standard) – second place
- Health and wellness (Kourier-Standard) – third place
- Best news story (Arnprior Chronicle-Guide) - third place
- Community service (Smith Falls This Week) – third place
Two retired ORMG managers, Fred Runge and Derek Walters, were honoured with Silver Quill awards for their years of serving the community newspaper industry.
Cheryl