Join me at The Popculturedivas for Greeting the New Year With Intention.
Showing posts with label New Year's Eve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Year's Eve. Show all posts
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Friday, December 21, 2012
Virtual Advent Blog Tour 2012
This is my fifth post for the Virtual Advent Blog Tour. I came across it in 2007, my first year of blogging. In the five years since then, it has been a favorite tradition for me here. So it's with a special sense of excitement that I share with you the most incredible tale of wishes coming true.
Last year the three of us had a Russian New Year's celebration. Why Russian, you may ask? I thought you were French Acadian.
Well, once upon a time - 28 years ago, actually, my sister and I made friends with a Russian cadet from a marine college who sailed into Halifax Harbour aboard the tall ship Kruzenshtern as part of the 1984 Tall Ships Festival.
You can read about this romantic tale here:
13 Things About the Most Romantic Story You'll Ever Hear
13 Things About the Most Romantic Story You'll Ever Hear
The Iron Curtain was a pretty big obstacle, back in the day. Although we made plans to visit him in his home town of Yaroslavl, he wrote that he’d been drafted into the army and would be there for two years. This was in the late 80s during Russia’s conflict with Afghanistan.
After that, we lost contact with
Rashid Kamalov and could only wonder what had become of him.
My love of Russian culture (which
had brought us to see the Kruzenshtern in the first place) continued unabated
over the years. Of course my passion for all things ballet can never get enough
of Russian dancers. I love Russian films, Russian actors, Russian singers and
the Russian language.
This led to discovering the
completely magical set of New Year’s films, Ironiya sudby and the sequel. So
last year, we rang in 2012 with a duplication of the feast shown in those films
with a combination of my mom cooking up some dishes, and with us ordering
dishes from a Russian restaurant across the harbor in Halifax.
Then we watched
the movie.
We used all the best dishes, the
best crystal, the best prosecco from the imported wines store.
In my mind was the intention that I would one day make my way to St. Petersburg in Russia to see the Mariinsky Ballet perform at the Mariinsky theatre.
In my mind was the intention that I would one day make my way to St. Petersburg in Russia to see the Mariinsky Ballet perform at the Mariinsky theatre.
The unspoken longing to hear from
Rashid was just a part of me. It was part of everything Russian that I loved.
Fast forward to the late spring. I
stumbled upon a fantastic Russian historical series Bednaya Nastya on You Tube which I then
watched on viki.com with subtitles. My husband became utterly addicted to it and
watched it with me. It was awesome.
My comprehension of Russian really grew. I bought a few learn-to-speak-Russian books, kept watching Russian films, made a Russian-song playlist and listened to it constantly.
My comprehension of Russian really grew. I bought a few learn-to-speak-Russian books, kept watching Russian films, made a Russian-song playlist and listened to it constantly.
In August I appeared as an author at
Fan Expo in Toronto with my two releases, SAINT SANGUINUS and BOUND BYDRAGONSFYRE. I held a contest for local Toronto book store gift certificates
and contacted the winners by email.
I kept checking my spam folder in
case the whole contest thing was driving their replies into that folder.
Otherwise I never would have checked
my spam folder.
I never would have seen this staring
at me:
Рашид
Камалов Hi my dearest girles!!! I very happy get your m...
That’s right. The word that looks
sort of like ‘pawned’ is really ‘Rashid’ in the Cryllic alphabet.
All my blogging and all of my
longtime readers’ hopes that we would one day reunite, all of the searching
online and sending out hopeful ‘Is this you?’ messages
CAME TRUE
Rashid is now my Facebook friend.
For realz.
Friday, December 30, 2011
5 on Friday - Set 100!
The 99-cent December Book Blowout Event continues!
My debut Dark Ages vampire novel SAINT SANGUINUS is proudly taking part in this exciting month-long e-book sale.
Browse through 11 genres by 100 independent authors
For more information,
CLICK HERE to visit the BOOK LOVERS BUFFET [Julia's note: link no longer live]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.
As most of you know by now, 2011 has been one of the most amazing years of my life. I'm a bit verklempt to see it go, if you want to know the truth.
But 2012 beckons.
A very Happy New Year to all A Piece of My Mind readers!
1 - May Each Day - Andy Williams
2 - Counting My Blessings - Diana Krall
3 - With a Little Luck - Paul McCartney and Wings
4 - I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits
5 - Theme from Ironiya sudby - Composed by Mikael Tariverdiyev
This is the theme song that runs throughout the Russian New Year's film, Ironiya sudby, which my husband, my mom and I will be watching tomorrow night. We've also ordered a few dishes from a Russian restaurant here in town - Laura's Cafe - including borscht and kinkhali (dumplings.) Plus, my mom has prepared lobster mousse (to substitute for the ruined fish aspic dish featured prominently in the farcical plot) and Russian potato salad, as we're mirroring the New Year's feast shown often in the film.
At midnight tomorrow night, I hope you'll all be raising a glass to toast the year in! Doesn't matter what's in the glass - water will do perfectly.
Of course, at my house we'll be sipping Bottega Il Vino Dei Poeti Prosecco, for which I made a special stop over at Bishop's Cellar on my way home from work. I had my first taste of this when my friends Dawn, Maureen, Shelley and I had a girls' overnight in Wolfville a few years ago. That was the start of my love affair with prosecco.
Happy New Year, everyone! May 2012 be a year where you dare to reach for the dreams you've kept alive in your heart.
CLICK HERE to watch video
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Thursday Thirteen - 192 - 13 Ways I Celebrated the Holidays
1 - My Eye Candy Thursday Thirteen series will continue in February. I do hope you'll join me again to savor and enjoy.
This week I'd like to share some highlights from my holiday celebrations. They began early with my writers' group Christmas potluck at the end of November.
That's my cousin Julianne MacLean with me above, and below:
Back row - Deborah Hale, Heather D. Veinotte
Front row - moi, Kelly Boyce, Heidi and Pat
2 - At the beginning of December, my sister and I held our annual Christmas Lights party, which always begins with mugs of whisky or wine, some Frank Sinatra playing on the CD player out on the front steps, the tangled mysteries of the light cords and it all working out somehow at the end.
3 - In mid-December, my office held its annual Christmas luncheon, including entertainments concocted by each department. I wrote a new version of Twas the Night Before Christmas, featuring the folks with whom I work, and my team stepped up to the mic to recite it in turns.
That's my work friend Kelly with me above - she's the one who first went to the acupuncturist who has helped me so radically with my chronic pain issues. Thanks, Kelly!
4 - The day after my work party, my husband and I climbed aboard the Acadian Lines bus bound for Toronto. With more time than money, we travelled 26 hours straight, changing buses in Moncton, New Brunswick and Montreal, Quebec before rolling into Toronto Saturday afternoon. We hit two bad patches of snow which were hard driving for the bus drivers, but they took it in stride and got us home safe and sound.
Believe it or not, our all-day-all-night-all-morning bus ride used less fuel than the two-hour flight we took home at the end of our vacation. For people interested in leaving lower carbon footprints upon Mother Earth, food for thought. 
5 - The first week of our vacation was mainly spent with the Smith family. Brad is a Toronto boy, born and bred. His family and his lifelong friends are all in Ontario, so he was a very, very happy guy this Christmas. And do they ever miss their Brad!
We went out to a Thai restaurant along the Lakeshore, just down from his mom's place, where we were staying. His sister corralled eight of us for the dinner so we could visit with our neice Emily, shown on the couch at right, who was due to head for the states to spend the holidays with her sister and brother and their families.
L to R: my sister-in-law Violetta, her daughter Pamela and Violetta's step-daughter Emily 
6 - An intensely joyous afternoon was spent with my blog friends, writer Wylie Kinson, left, (whom I met on a previous trip to Toronto) and blogger Apprentice Writer, center, (whom I met for the first time In Real Life that day!) Four hours dissolved into thin air as we ate and talked and laughed and had a wonderful time together.
7 - Brad and I met up with with his dear friend Lisa and their mutual friend Ted Heeley - all of whom used to work at the Imperial 6 Cinemas together - and had a marvelous afternoon wandering along Yonge Street.
Brad and I spent as much time downtown as we could manage. We love it there.
8 - My favorite night of the year - Christmas Eve! We spent it at Brad's brother Jeff's place in Oakville.
At top: Violetta, Jeff, moi and Brad
2nd shot: Pamela, Violetta, Brad's sister Karen and Jeff
3rd shot: Christmas Eve dinner, clockwise from Pamela, Jeff, Karen, Brad's mom Joan, moi and Brad
4th shot: chillaxin' and watching Breakfast at Tiffany's
9 - Christmas Day at his mom's place, where we spent our vacation.
Dinner, clockwise from our nephew Francis, our sister-in-law Anna, our suddenly huge nephew Peter, Brad's brother Ken, Brad, Jeff and his step-daughter Pamela
Opening prezzies: Ken, Peter, Francis, Jeff, Violetta and Pamela
Ken carting off his son Francis 
10 - We were so blessed to enjoy time with so many friends whom we miss dearly.
1st shot - Charlene Roberts, Chris Szego and moi
2nd shot - Brad and his New School of Acting classmate Andrea, who stood up for him at our wedding
3rd shot - Moi with my former co-workers (we all worked as ushers at the O'Keefe Center/Hummingbird Centre): Alan, his wife Marianne and their daughter
4th shot - My former co-worker Lisa, who survived the trenches of the Simpson's Children's Shoe Department at the Queen Street store with me
5th shot - Moi with Donna, whose daughter I cared for as a live-in nanny (the daughter now having a master's degree with distinction...) 
11 - As you can imagine, an afternoon of bliss was mine when I attended The National Ballet of Canada's performance of The Nutcracker. As an usher at the theatre that was their home for 40 years, I got to see over 70 shows of this Christmas ballet - but do you think I will ever tire of it?
Of course not.
12 - We had a lot of karaoke this New Year's! Brad's brother Jeff is a karaoke DJ, and their sister Karen holds an annual karaoke party at her place for the holidays which we enjoyed - we stayed for six hours!
1st shot - My mother-in-law's Uncle Danny, mid-90's, grabbing the mic and going for broke
2nd shot - My wonderful sister-in-law, Violetta
3rd shot - Brad singing Conquistador
4th shot - Jeff taking the mic, with his beautiful voice and incredible range
5th shot - Violetta makes sure her mother-in-law gets a chance to shine
6th shot - Party hostess Karen and her sister-in-law, Violetta
13 - New Year's all-nighter and leaving on a jet plane:
1st shot - Brad and me joining his brother for his New Year's Eve show on the Lakeshore, trying to stretch time so we can stay in Toronto just a little longer
2nd shot - I head up to sing I Think I'm Paranoid
3rd shot - Violetta and me
4th shot - Brad joining me as I sing Chains by The Beatles
5th shot - After having a coffee with Jeff, he dropped us off at the airport. Brad waits to embark.
6th shot - Our plane ride home, a completely decadent gift from my best friend on Earth, Connie. Her devious plan: to make sure we headed back to Halifax...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
