Go Betty

Votin' Green

That's me! I hate the tree-huggers and the dirty hippies. I want the jobless to get jobs, damnit! Show some spirit. Get out there and start paying taxes. Stop sucking me dry. I want to pay extra for better healthcare. I want all the crooked freeloading Liberals to be fired and made to stand trial for all the scandals. I want conservative, responsible government. I want more military funding. I want someone who shines on the geopolitical stage, who can stand up to the U.S., and help those in need through peacekeeping.

But I also want more greenspace, serious commitment to the environment, environmental world leadership, serious investment in alternative energy sources, more love and less hate.

So I'm votin' Green.

I don't even know who my conservative rep. is, and the party leader scares and alienates me. The Liberal riding guy is the incumbent and one of the old guard scandalous dudes, so he's gotta go. The NDP guy in our riding happens to be the party leader -- Jack Layton. He's kind of a freakshow who I don't think is ready to represent all of Canada. I don't see him as a world leader. He's more the mayoral-type, city councilor, green but unrealistic about his national leadership capabilities. He notionally should be a good fit for me, but every time he speaks he just angers me. Also, he's all about taxing and spending - not a priority for me.

So, I'm voting Green Party. Yes, it's a vote "against", perhaps even a protest vote. But I refuse to NOT vote, however I can't in good conscience vote for any of the mainstream people.

(By the way, that Green Party link is too busy to load today - national election day) .

And here are my ideas for the Green Party, should we end up with an MP.

- Please don't make an alliance with another party .

- Fill ugly old Lake Ontario with those windmill electricity generator thingys. FILL IT! Fill the tundra, the bogs, the clear cuts, Lake Winnipeg, Slave Lake, and the Great Lakes with those turbines. The one at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds helps to power the neighbourhood of Brockton! Every neighbourhood in Canada should have one.

- Make everyone have a treadmill, stationary bike or something like that in their house. Hook it up to a giant battery somewhere. Then make it a bylaw that everyone who is able has to get on that thing for 20 minutes everyday and generate some power, man!

And that's just the beginning of Betty's green revolution.

The 10-Minute Rugby Career

Yeah, my season is over. That funky popping noise was the sound of ligaments tearing and cartilage getting wrecked. I have been to see two doctors and now need to see an orthopedic surgeon and get more tests. I am not supposed to do any sports except walking and swimming but I think I'll take the risk and keep on with goaltending and softball (which hasn't started yet, but soon).

Trip Notes -- England & Tuscany

Sat. June 5
Slept the whole flight. Nick could not sleep because he sat beside an Anglican nun who had smelly feet (she removed her shoes).
Took train from Gatwick to Victoria Stn. (easy).
Got 22 pound week-long tube passes for zones 1 & 2.
Tube to Russell Square.
Russell Hotel very convenient and check in was fast and easy. Room was small and basic.
Nick flooded the bathroom by not tucking in the shower curtain.
Walked around Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus. Visited the Maple Leaf Pub (Canadian hang out) but didn't stay for a drink.
Had a small fight trying to find a pub in Rose Lane -- Lamb and Flag Pub - 2 pints and an order of fish / chips / peas.
Had a fight on Old Street because we got lost, went to King's Cross / St. Pancras to get re-oriented.
Went to Regency Indian Restaurant - 23 pounds for 2 pints and a huge dinner.
Watched Stanley Cup finals (game 6 Calgary vs. Tampa Bay) and went to bed.

Sun. June 6
Tube to Waterloo Stn.
Bought sandwiches, coffees, etc.
Tix to Twickenham - 4 pounds.
Rugby 7s at Twickenham - 20 pounds.
Beers at Twickenham 20 pounds - Carlsberg in plastic bottles.
Train to Balham / Clapham to meet friend Ian.
Another fight about directions with Nick -- Nick thought Ian had said "Clive Street" when Ian had actually said "the High Street".
Walked to Ian's house which was a disaster because they had had a huge party the night before.
Walked through Clapham Common (large and lovely).
Young's Windmill Pub on the Common -- beers, natchoes, fries, 10 pounds.
Bought kebabs on the way to the tube and ate them whilst watching telly.

Mon. June 7
Tried to find a Working Man's Cafe (like the one in Quadraphenia) that we saw on Old Street but could not find it. Old Street hereby cursed.
Then tried to walk to Brick Lane.
We found a tiny alleyway with dustbins and the street sign had been vandalized to say "Prick Lane".
Had another fight due to poor directions re: Prick / Brick Lane.
Eventually discovered that we had approached Brick Lane from the wrong end, so happily wandered up it going the wrong way.
Found a very old-school curry joint; had a huge meal for 14 pounds (ordered far too much food but it was amazing).
Tube to Notting Hill; walked all around.
Duke of Wellington Pub - 2 pints - 6 pounds.
Walked to Ladbroke tube and returned to hotel to attend to bad chafing due to extremely hot weather (hot, sunny, 30+ degrees every day and all we brought were spring weather clothes and an umbrella).
Nick went to the British Museum; I had a snooze.
Had a cheap kebab dinner / pints near Leicester Square.
Went to a show in Leicester Square (Harry Potter & the Prisoner of A.) .
Watched hockey (game 7) in the room. Calgary lost.

Tues. June 8
Walked to Carnaby Street. Cool shopping streets.
Down Regent Street.
Piccadilly Circus to Embankment.
House of Parliament, Big Ben, St. Margaret's.
Small street market near Artillery Row.
The Greencoat Boy pub - 2 pints - 5 pounds.
Buckingham Palace.
Rose Garden, Hyde Park, Speakers' Corner, Carriage Drive.
Marble Arch.
The Bricklayers Arms Pub.
Montague Square.
Marylebone.
Baker Street tube.
Strand, Southampton.
Dinner at Strada.

Wed. June 9
Checked out of hotel v. early.
Tube to Victoria coach station.
Coach to Notts. 8:30am.
Uncle Harold picked us up at Broadmarsh Station.
Car to Cotgrave.
"Salad lunch" of tongue, lettuce, tomatoes, etc., basically Nick's worst nightmare.
Walked about the village.
TV, book reading, naps.
Good pub supper at The Bridge Gamston Pub.
Pints at The Manvers Inn pub. Only a handful of drunk locals about.
TV and bed.

Thurs. June 10
Uncle Harold's house was very musty and the bathroom was too scary to wash in.
Uncle Harold made a "cooked breakfast" of black pudding, beans, bacon, mushrooms, bread and homemade jam. Scary... but good.
Short drive through the countryside.
Had fish and chips for lunch.
Drive to bus depot in Nottingham.
Bus had no air con on the return journey!  We died.
Hot and crowded tube ride down to Heathrow.
Took "Hoppa Bus" to Thistle Hotel. Very very nice, clean superior room.  Such a relief after the coach and tube & Uncle Harold's, bless him!
Walked to a gas station nearby for cans of lager and McDonald's.

Fri. June 11
Up at 4:30am.
Checked out and took cab to Heathrow for 7:20am flight to Rome.
Nick went to stay with Ian in Clapham for one night.

Tuscany Reunion Weekend...
I arrived in Rome around 10:30am; Met my friend Sarka from Czech Rep. We drove up to Tuscany together chatting all the way.
We found the place and it was gorgeous -- La Moscadella is a huge old farmhouse converted into a hotel with a full restaurant and wine bar. It was an absolutely breathtaking location. We had a large room with a loft -- 2 queen beds. We were sharing with another friend of ours -- Cherie.
We then walked into town (tiny and not even on the map, Castelmuzio) and had a couple of beers, then walked back and met our friend Cesare. He is driving the same green Lancia car that he crashed 10 years ago. We then started smoking and drinking in earnest.
Then as the afternoon went on more and more people showed up and more wine flowed. We drank until about 9pm just talking and catching up on what everyone did for the last 10 years. We then had a banquet at the hotel. All the courses... regional specialties... more wine... Then we went back to the bar area and Paolo Angeloni broke out his guitar and we were singing until about 2am... Then we all jumped naked into the pool.

Sat. June 12
On Saturday we all drifted down for breakfast and eventually got into gear to tour the countryside. We stopped in some towns and took some walks. We eventually ended up in a Montelcino wine cellar and proceeded to drink wine and eat regional treats for about 4 hours. Then we ended up back at the hotel, resting, chatting, drinking even more... We had a late relaxed dinner around 10pm. There was live music and Alessandra and her husband Antonio sang quite a few numbers (they are both in bands in Bologna).

Sun. June 13
Planes, trains and automobiles. I had to leave the resort at 7:30am in a mini van driven by the grandfather to make a train in a town an hour away (Chiana). Made that train to Rome just in time to make the next train to the airport. Made THAT train just in time to catch my flight back to London. Then I had to catch a bus to take me from Heathrow to Gatwick. A full day of travel which took me 10 hours. I stayed in a hotel at Gatwick, again so weary and grateful just to be somewhere quiet and clean. Bought a sandwich and cans of lager at Gatwick north terminal convenience store and watched France beat England in the Euro match.

Mon. June 14
Slept in and then made my flight home.
Was constantly annoyed by a young Englishman two seats over who drank constantly for 7 hours -- mini bottles of rye he brought and cans of Pepsi he bought off the snack trolley. He spilled his drinks no less than 5 times and threw all his garbage on the floor. Then when a Celine Dion video came on he yelled loudly "No, God, stop, where is the off switch, please, help..." until a stewardess asked him to pipe down. Then the movie "Love Actually" came on and everytime Martine McCutcheon came on the screen he again would shout and tell a complicated story several times over that began, "Now that bitch there, that bitch there..." but the story never went anywhere beyond him saying that she was on Eastenders.

The Chris Chambers Effect

When I was 14 I loved Chris Chambers. He is my friends' brother. He was really cute and smart and had the best record collection ever. He had every 80's record that was ever stamped out and spun. I used to ask his sisters if I could come over and tape his records, and they would hem and haw because mostly Chris' records just resided at his parents house. But I did it anyway and ended up having quite a good mixed tape collection. He was usually shacked up with one girlfriend or another. And how I wished I was one of those girls, if only for the record collection.

Working With A Bad, Annoying Person Whom No One Likes

There is this really awful person at my work named X. In job interviews when they ask you to describe working with a challenging person or situation and how you "overcame it", I always tell a story about X. Like, how she constantly interrupts you when you're speaking and cuts you off in order to override your message with her condensed version of what she thinks you're trying to say. She must think it's some sort of cut-to-the-chase business go-go communication technique, but it's rude. She'll do it on the phone or in a meeting with other people. She just loves to shut you down and hurry things along.

She also has the habit of telling lies in emails. Last Friday she wrote: "I will give you the copy by Friday in both English and French. [Go Betty] will have to do the [webpage] as usual. I will supply her with the copy." By Friday at 4pm I had still not received any copy so I called her. She laughed and say "Oh yeah..." and then she said she'd send it to me in a minute. I did indeed receive it in about 5 minutes, complete with typos and factual errors. Sally is a very senior person in the organization but still doesn't know the difference between "our" and "are". Also, she hadn't bothered to think through the logistics what she was asking me to publish. That took some time to figure out. And it goes without saying that she did not get the copy translated. She left that up to me, to find a translator last thing on a Friday. Sweet.

I know of a vendor that has a "X" clause in their contracts with us. In other words, our business partners are going to legal lengths not to have to work with this person.

I don't work with X directly (report to, or in the same dept.) but she does tick me off so much I often mentally cite her as one of the reasons I would leave this job.