Our morning in PS today….

-Eric Norland photo

But we may be getting some powerful storms in January if this El Nino does what is currently predicted  so we are enjoying these wonderful moments!

Powerful storm to hit Vancouver Thursday….

Basking in the sunshine today….hard to believe it will be so bad in Vancouver….

Canyon Sands Bookclub

It was just so much fun to be back and what a welcome I got as the returning snowbird!   Everyone elso lives here full time.  This time we were to discuss a book with something to do with food and to bring something to eat if convenient.  Wow…wonderful goodies,  wine,  and saki…and lots of laughs.   These gals know how to have fun!

Lest we forget

Itty Bitty Book Review: "The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine"

"The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine"  by  Alexander McCall Smith

I haven't read this series for quite a while but Palm Springs Library has a "Hot off the Press" section that has popular latest titles.  I've missed quite a few in between but thought it would be fun to read one again and it was!  One does tire a bit of them but coming back after an absence made it all the more enjoyable.  At first I thought,  "same old,  same old" and it is but he does manage to charm you in the end.

The Life of Verdi (Mini Series)

I picked this  up at the Palm Springs Library and we began watching it yesterday….bravo!

If you like opera and Verdi,  give it a try.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Life of Verdi
Written by	Leonardo Benvenuti Renato Castellani Piero De Bernardi Gene Luotto
Directed by	Renato Castellani
Starring	Ronald Pickup Carla Fracci Giampiero Albertini
Narrated by	Burt Lancaster (English version only)
Theme music composer	Roman Vlad
Country of origin	Italy, France, West Germany, UK, Sweden
Original language(s)	Italian
Production
Editor(s)	Otello Colangeli
Cinematography	Giuseppe Ruzzolini
Running time	630 min
Distributor	RAI
Release
Original release	13 October 1982

The Life of Verdi is a 1982 Italian-language biographical television miniseries directed by Renato Castellani dramatizing the life of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Castellani also co-wrote the original script with Leonardo Benvenuti and Piero De Bernardi. The English version was written by Gene Luotto and narrated by Burt Lancaster. The miniseries first aired in 1982, and was made available on DVD in 2003.

The production stars British actor Ronald Pickup as Giuseppe Verdi, Italian ballet dancer and actress Carla Fracci as Giuseppina Verdi, and Giampiero Albertini as Antonio Barezzi. Funded by a number of European national broadcasting companies, the series is an accurate portrayal of Verdi's life.

According to promotional material for the production, it was "filmed on location in Italy, Leningrad, London, and Paris...(T)his epic mini-series took several years to create, requiring more than 100 actors, 1800 extras, and 4000 costumes."^[1]

An elephant arrives in our neighbourhood…!

Big Indian wedding at The Parker next door.  The groom arrives on an elephant.  Lots of drumming and dancing….great fun!  Fireworks later tonight.

The bride….who we didn't see.

The ring bearer and his mom.

And I see Hal Castle has already posted some great photos of the elephant!

And there were lots of negative comments on Hal Castle's Facebook page this morning and rightly so.  It is no life for these magnificent creatures.   The wedding was a wonderfully happy joyous event and it was great fun to see it all but….yes….this comment from Tanya Petrovna says it best:

Ok I appreciate how people love the elephants and are commenting but you must know that this is horrid for the elephant. This is no doubt Have Trunk Will Travel, with many allegations against him. They hate to be driven around, it's horrid for their feet and they should be roaming 25 miles a day and be with other elephants. This elephant is chained most of his life or in small quarters. If you have any questions concerning this please contact Carol Buckley at Elephant Aid International. I spend a lot of my time educating on the subject, I spent time in Nepal taking them chain free and we still do it in this country, right here in my home town. I'm sick about this. Riverside County has banned having them on public fair grounds how did they get into Palm Springs. This is not a toy clown it is a living elephant and should be in a sanctuary. If you want to learn more come to the fundraiser in Feb during Modernism Week at a fab modern home for Elephant Aid International. Carol Buckley will be there to answer any questions. http://www.care2.com/.../9-women-who-are-saving-the...

Vancouver's West End wins best neighbourhood contest…

I agree…it's a great place to live!

http://www.vancouversun.com/vancouver+west+wins+best+neighbourhood+canadian+contest/11492307/story.html?__lsa=90ac-a2e2

Very un Canadian like to be proud of our country but….time's are a changin'

Love this description of our new cabinet members!

Feeling like one of the laughing men today…!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-maze-ing_Laughter

This is the first year we've participated in the Canadian Snowbird Currency Exchange Program and our first transfer came in today.  Amazing….but it looks like we're saving about 10%.   I got 10% less yesterday when I changed money at the bank with our debit card.   In the past I've put money in our US dollar account in our Canadian bank in the summer when the dollar generally goes up.  That has worked pretty well but this year  the dollar kept falling so didn't do that.

A good way to start the day!

A very fun day with Stan and Nicki

Stan and Jim played golf and Nicki and I went for lunch at Reuben and Ozzy's.  Now,  google is pretty good as I forgot the exact name and googled "Izzy,  seafood,  Palm Springs"  and brought it up.  Nicki prepared dinner at their place….yum….thank you so much!  We all had a really enjoyable time and look forward to our next outing next Wednesday for "Pasta Night" at Dolly Sinatra Lodge.  A night of pasta and entertainment….sounds like fun.

Dinner tonight from Trader Joe's

First course….

Second course

Third course

Fi

Rick Mercer nails it again….love this rant!

I was really offended by our national newspapers endorsing Harper as were many people I know.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/28/rick-mercer-rant-newspaper-endorsements_n_8408438.html

Lunch at one of our old haunts…The Supreme Dragon

This restaurant is very close to us and they have great lunch specials.  We had our favourites today….pepper beef and roast duck along with hot and sour soup to start…yum!

Canada named the world's most tolerant country

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/11/canada-named-worlds-most-tolerant-country/

Bill's Pizza….busy, busy...

We met Stan and Nicki who are in PS for a month now and also in January at Bil's at 7pm….very busy!  We did get outside which was nice.  It was a great day for them….Stan shot aa 89 in golf and Nicki got lots of great stuff at Stein Mart.

Great to see them and our next outing with them will be Woody's…will be fun to get back there.

So nice to be a little cooler.

Dick's Jack O Lantern...

Now,  Susan creates art everyday so it was great to see something Dick created.  Great self-portrait,  wouldn't you say?   :)

Sounds like it was a pretty rainy Halloween back home...

Linda mentioned there was a cold wind where she was too.

Headline in the TC today:

Local flooding, power outages as storm wallops capital region.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/flooding-power-outages-as-storm-wallops-capital-region-1.2100967

Oak Bay Avenue.

Now,  I got a real laugh out of this:

"Because the sewage water may create a health risk, the CRD advised against wading or swimming in those waters "

I don't think anyone is going to be going swimming….it's too cold in Victoria even in the summer!