Thursday, November 12, 2015

Hello from Palm Springs!!!

But first one last good bye dinner - from left to right, colleagues Susan and Deidre, and, of course, yours truly.



We tried out yet another Chinese restaurant, of which, of course, Vancouver in general and my neighborhood in particular, has an endless supply.  This one was The Golden Swan, which, apparently, has been here forever and has a great reputation.  Three thumbs up.  And, as I have been requested to recommend dishes of interest, we had an eggplant scallop tofu hotpot to die for!!!

And one last look at the Vancouver apartment.....









.....and then off to Palm Springs.  Neighbor Michael picked me up from the airport, and, as is our habit, stopped off at Manhattan in the Desert for lunch on the way home.  Michael, god bless him, always has the house and car ready for my arrival, and so life just picks up again, except sunnier.....

I am taking five classes this quarter:  America and The Islamic World; Famous Court Cases; Be Smart About Art; The Amazing Mr Sellers (about Peter Sellers); and The Poetics of Oscar - and the winner is...I thought for sure I would want to drop one or two of them, but so far, all seem interesting with good teachers.  Two movies on Friday may have been a bit of bad planning on my part, but hey, this is California, after all.  (This week, the Peter Sellers movie was I'm All Right, Jack, and the Oscar winner in the afternoon was It Happened One Night, both great old pictures.)

And speaking of old movies, I went to the Camelot Theater for the Director Night feature, and saw Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, another great one.  The Camelot is a funky, old independent movie theater not too far from my place, and I try to support it as much as I can, which is not too hard, as they are always coming up with interesting programs.

Of course, bridge is back on the agenda, starting with a session on Wednesday with friend Robin, who beat me to the desert by one week this year and kept the seat warm for me.  And this weekend was The Harvest Sectional, so bridge all day Saturday and Sunday...

....with our crazy directors Scott...


....and Scott...


....and old partner Art, back with the game...


I am trying to play four times a week, and have found two other partners who are willing, for now anyway, to play with me.  I did manage to score some points this week, so I am moderately encouraged.

Actually, it is hard not to be encouraged here.  Everyone and everything is so welcoming....

I'm back at the gym, too.  (No pictures until I've lost the summer fat.....)  Five days a week, one and a half hours a day....

Between the gym, the classes and bridge - enjoying myself is almost a full time job.....  and I haven't even talked about pool time (it is a little too cool for that yet, but soon....)

I will leave you with some picture of Palm Springs, just in case you've forgotten....










Reading has slowed down a bit - too busy preparing for classes, don't ya know - but did read Anita Desai's The Artist of Disappearance, three novellas by this great Indian author.

Oh, and I am still reading, almost finished, Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson.  I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand how we got where we are now in the Middle East. There is plenty of blame to go around - the Brits, of course, the Germans, the Jews (not blameless, no, not at all), and, of course, the Americans (not the Americans so much, at that time, but there was always Standard Oil...)  All I can say is, we are reaping what we sowed.

Next week, off to San Francisco for a long weekend of Opera and dinners and all things city and will try to post from there.  And then, we are already planning the Thanksgiving feast....