At one time, I fondly deluded myself that once I retired, I would have all kinds of time to pursue hobbies and other interests. I guess I'm very lucky not to have any major, life-threatening diseases or conditions that would be likely to lead me to an untimely end. On the other hand, the older I get, the more my waking hours are consumed with routine health maintenance appointments and ancillary tasks associated with them (getting there, getting back, getting prescriptions filled and non-prescription drugs and health aids acquired, getting regular blood tests and vaccines... well, I'm sure you get the idea.

In September and October alone, I've had two appointments with a family doctor, screenings for breast and cervical cancer, some of the aforementioned blood tests, a dental appointment... then I have an appointment with an eye doctor later this month. In November, I'll be due for more blood tests (the regular bimonthly ones requested by my rheumatologist plus some additional ones that the GP wants me to get. In December it's back to the GP for a complete physical exam. And somewhere in there, I guess I'll probably get a flu shot and likely some other shots as well.

I think I should probably get a hearing test too - although I'm rather leery of these "Listen up!" clinics that seem to litter the city like so many payday loan shops and seem to have a vested interest in flogging specific brands of hearing aids! I do think there are a few issues with my hearing, however... something which is rather distressing since I used to pride myself on having especially acute hearing!

I could say much the same thing about my memory. I used to feel I had an excellent memory (others told me so as well) and now I know it's not as good as it used to be. Of course, there are more decades of life to remember than there used to be, too! Additionally, memory is such a slithery, elusive and notoriously subjective and unreliable thing. I don't think I particularly have memory problems at the moment, but it's sobering to think that one can't just avoid developing dementia through sheer force of will!

Anyway, watch this space for further updates!

I remember in grade school how the school nurse would periodically go through our hair with an orange stick in search of head lice (or at least nits). At a girls' summer camp my daughter went to when she was around eleven or twelve, there was an outbreak too, although she emerged unscathed. But this past spring, in my sixties, I had to do The Treatments for the first (and hopefully last) time in my life - they're rather nasty tenacious creatures, though apparently not a major health hazard. I was blown away by the sheer range of products available at your friendly local pharmacy!

For the record, the product recommended by a tiny little pharmacy on Wellington Street, and which we found effective, was something called NYDA, manufactured in Germany. It comes as a pump-spray and is quite easy to use; it does, however, have to be left on for a full 8 hours (perhaps overnight), before being rinsed out with regular shampoo and water. The whole process then has to be repeated after 8 to 10 days.

Of course, I'm a bit paranoid (or maybe obsessive-compulsive) about such things and while the whole thing was going on I was thinking to myself, "What if it doesn't work after all that?" So I combed the drugstore shelves looking at other potential remedies - the Robicomb (a battery-operated comb that promises to detect lice and kill them on contact - no fuss, no muss!). Or the Shield 2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioner with natural aromatherapy oils, gentle enough to use every day!! (Perish the thought - were these things actually going to stalk me for the rest of my life??)

Anyway, it didn't come to that. When I went to my hairdresser after applying the NYDA treatments, I warned her about what she might be facing ... and after doing her usual thing with my hair, she assured me that she hadn't seen any sign of lice or nits. But just in case, I've got another NYDA kit tucked away in the medicine cabinet!

So on to the next potential hazard... apparently Ottawa (especially the west end) is considered to be an at-risk region this year for lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. I'm taking precautions whenever I happen to be out in the countryside or somewhere in cottage country. So far, so good.

Of course, with mosquitoes (rather abundant due to all the rain we've been having) there's also West Nile virus to worry about. And for women in their child-bearing years (not me, but certainly my daughter's generation if they're traveling to exotic locales) there's also the nasty Zika virus.

I guess it could all drive you crazy if you let it...

Food security. Food deserts. The hundred kilometre or hundred metre diet. Eating disorders. Comfort food. Discomfort food. Fast food. Slow food. Vegetarianism. Veganism. Maybe we are what we eat, but our relationship with food can certainly be conflicted and complicated!

These days we tend pretty much to go with the flow food-wise. Today, for example, we went up to the Shouldice Farms stand on Prince of Wales, bought strawberries and tomatoes, and proceeded on to Parkdale Market where we got some of the first local corn of the season, some blueberries, some broccoli, some more tomatoes (little one this time) and some green peppers. We cooked up the corn for lunch and then went to Purple Cow and had ice cream cones for dessert.

In the summer and the fall, when good fresh food is in season, life's good. I can eat strawberries every day throughout the local growing season and never get tired of them. Add a dash of Grand Marnier (which we've come to refer to as "joy juice") and some whipped cream and angel food cake, and that's even better. And I think for sure there's a blueberry pie and maybe a few blueberry muffins in our not-too-distant future! We did give Haskap berries a try this year too - not bad but not as good as blueberries (though they're apparently much hardier and can survive lower temperatures.

Strawberries are something I liked as a child too. I may or may not have related in this blog the story of how, at the age of about seven or eight, I broke out in hives all over my body. Alarmed, my mother took me to the paediatrician and the only thing she could think of that could have caused them was the strawberries I'd eaten the evening before. She said that moving forward I should generally avoid strawberries but after I recovered, perhaps occasionally risk "literally one strawberry" and see what happened.

I probably didn't eat too many more strawberries for the rest of that summer, but of course once they literally became forbidden fruit, I craved them all the more. When they were subsequently reintegrated into my diet, I had no further recurrences of hives and strawberries and strawberry shortcake once again took their place as one of my favoured desserts.

When my daughter was going to day care (between the ages of five and eight), there used to be field trips to pick berries every summer. In those days, she wasn't too crazy about the berries themselves but liked the cream and cake! That changed as she got older and her kids are fond of berries too, especially blueberries!

Corn is a bit of a different story. I rarely ate corn when I was growing up and from my mother's perspective, corn was something you fed to the chickens! My dad was a little more open-minded about food, I think - in fact, he often used to polish off the food that no one else wanted. My mother had various comments about the matter, one of her commonest being that he was "digging his grave with his teeth". He was, however, very thin and frail during his last days and weeks, so I seriously doubt that it was anything he ate that ultimately finished him off!

Anyway, corn on the cob is another of those foods that I rarely get tired of - though it's certainly helpful to have the dental floss close at hand afterwards!

Looking back at the title I chose for this post, I realize I haven't really said much about UNEASY relationships with food. I think I was planning to comment on things like the recent Netflix video about eating disorders in which Lily Collins (who herself battled an eating disorder) starred, or the recent evidence about the dangers of artificial sweeteners and wire barbecue brushes, or the requirement for restaurant chains to post calorie counts for their offerings... but that'll have to wait for another day.

Regular readers of my posts will be aware that I read a lot of crime fiction, especially by local authors, and that has continued to be on my reading menu of late - but I do read other things too!

The book I just finished reading is a memoir by Alan Doyle (of Great Big Sea fame) about growing up in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland. It was one of a rack of sale books I perused (and ended up buying) outside of Perfect Books on Elgin Street, either just before or just after a recent dental appointment. A fascinating read by someone who's as entertaining a writer as he is a musician. He vividly captured the culture of the place - the way of life in Petty Harbour, some of its eccentric characters, the sharp Catholic/Protestant divide, the attitude of residents towards "townies" and towards Canada and Confederation. It definitely reinforced my determination to visit Newfoundland at least once before I die!

Another book outside of the crime fiction category that I recently read and greatly enjoyed was Hope Has Two Daughters, by Monia Mazigh. Now, I knew that Monia Mazigh was a Muslim, that she once ran for the NDP in an Ottawa riding and that she is the wife of Maher Arar, but I didn't know much about her background. Apparently she was born and raised in Tunisia and moved to Canada in 1991. Hope Has Two Daughters is a novel set in Tunisia, weaving together the stories of a mother and daughter and centring around two key events: The Bread Riots of 1984 (which the mother, Nadia, lived through) and the Arab Spring in 2010, which Lila, her daughter, becomes involved in when she visits her mother's childhood friends in Tunisia at the age of 18, having grown up in Canada. The story moves back and forth in time, told largely in the form of letters or diary entries - and like in all good stories, everything pulls together nicely at the end. I think I'm going to have to get hold of Monia Mazigh's memoir, Hope and Despair, and perhaps her other works too.

Getting back to crime fiction, I (fairly) recently read The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax, by Andrew Cartmel. The detective in this book buys up old records, some of which he keeps for himself, some which he re-sells at a profit at all the various flea markets; he also accepts requests from individual clients to track down particular rare recordings on their behalf. it was an interesting and quirky sort of a book, apparently the first in a series. The second one, The Run-Out Groove, was supposed to be coming out in May (though I haven't tried yet to get hold of it, with all the other books awaiting my attention), and the third, Victory Disc, is due out in May 2018.

I also read a book called The Question of the Felonious Friend: An Asperger's Mystery by E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen (who rather than being co-authors may be one and the same person). I'm not sure I would have bought this book, but it was one of the freebies in my goody-bag when I attended Left Coast Crime in Hawaii back in March. The sleuth in this book, Samuel Hoenig, owns a business called Questions Answered, and he himself has Asperger's Syndrome (sometimes referred to as high-functioning autism). A client who is
also autistic (but not so high-functioning) comes into Samuel's agency with the question "Is Richard Handy really my friend?" When the evidence he gathers seems to suggest a negative answer to that question, and when Richard Handy is subsequently murdered, suspicion inevitably falls upon the autistic client - but of course, things are rarely that cut and dried in the world of crime fiction! Anyway, this book is also part of a series, and while it was an interesting read, I'm not so sure I would seek out other books in the series.

I've also been reading the most recent output of some of my favourite local authors: the latest Stonechild and Rouleau mystery by Brenda Chapman; the latest Linda Wiken book, Roux the Day; the first instalment of Vicki Delany's new series, Elementary She Wrote; the latest Barbara Fradkin. And I read a book by a local author I hadn't previously heard of, Jeremy Hanson-Finger, entitled Death and the Intern, which takes place at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Well, how could I resist that one, as a life-long Ottawa resident who was born at the Civic, had my own child there, and was hospitalized there for a couple of weeks at the age of sixteen? And that's before counting the handful of times I've gone there as an outpatient. It's described in the blurb as "set in a vivid and compelling world of anesthesiologists gone bad" - and that's a pretty good description! It's got Hells' Angels, drug traffickers, dog-walkers and more. Hard-boiled but with some dry black humour in there too. The author has a website, hanson-finger.com. Still not sure it was quite my thing, but I'm glad I bought and read it as I like to see what's new out there and think it's important to support these small not-for-profit publishing companies.

Now I'm concurrently reading two books - one a 1999 thriller by Aline Templeton, Night & Silence; and the other by Gwen Cooper, Homer's Odyssey, a nonfiction book about how she adopted a blind kitten. This last one I just picked up second-hand at last weekend's Friends of the Farm annual booksale. I'm enjoying it so far, although I found the sale itself rather disappointing (a less wide-ranging selection compared to previous years). But never mind - it's not as if I'll be running out of reading material any time soon!

... defined benefit pension plans have gotta stay! Why, you ask?

Well, partly because the career decisions that today's pensioners made thirty or fifty or seventy years ago were made on the basis that they were entering employment that was at least SECURE, if not in many cases as well-paid as the work they might find by working for themselves or in another field. In the words of the National Association of Federal Retirees, the government should Honour its Promise.

Also, young (and maybe not-so-young) adults now entering a complex and more precarious workforce for the first time need to plan for their future - a future which, given current and forthcoming scientific and technical advances, may be a fair bit longer than ours! How are they going to gather the information they need to make their plans in the face of so much change and uncertainty? What kind of a future can we expect for our children, grandchildren and future generations?

On Friday, I attended a rally outside Trudeau's office in the Langevin Block organized by the Ottawa Committee for Pension Security. In the rain. PIPSC people handed out blue rain ponchos. PSAC people handed out orange rain ponchos. NAFR people handed out red placards bearing the "Honour your Promise" slogan. Various other people handed out buttons with "Stop Bill C-27". There were speakers from the aforementioned committee, from unions and from a couple of federally regulated corporations, including Canada Post. People chanted "Trudeau! Morneau! Bill C-27 has got to go!" I was impressed by the large turnout, despite the miserable weather. I saw a CBC cameraman, but sadly any coverage that might have been on the 6PM news was pre-empted by flood news. What did disappoint me was that no politicians, either from the government or opposition benches, came out to address us. Now that was a missed opportunity for sure, especially given that seniors are some of the most likely people to show up at the polls on election day. We are, after all, the student protesters of yesteryear. And baby boomers, whether they vote or not, make up a significant portion of the eligible electorate!

Do demonstrations like this make a difference these days? I guess we'll have to see.

Just over a week ago, I got back from the Left Coast Crime convention, held this year in Honolulu, Hawaii. It took me several days to fully recover from the six-hour time difference (in the opposite direction from the 6-hour time difference between here and Iceland) but now I feel in reasonably good-enough shape to offer at least a short travelogue.

I've always been drawn to islands, for some reason. If there's another language and culture to learn a little about, that adds to the mystique for me. A more idyllic setting (right on the beach in Waikiki) could scarcely be imagined - or a starker contrast in climate with the one we have in Ottawa! Though I have to say, perhaps for that very reason, that I didn't quite feel the affinity with Hawaii that I did for Iceland or Scotland or some of the other places I've visited. A great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there - I'd miss the shifts in seasons that we have here: snowmen and skating in the winter, sugaring off in the spring, harvest time and colour-changing leaves in autumn. I honestly wouldn't really want the summers to be much longer than they are here as I can't take the heat and especially the humidity.

A key problem was not having a thing to wear - or, more to the point, suitable gear to wear in transit. The day before I left for the trip, it was snowstorms and -10 degree temperatures in Ottawa. In Hawaii it was shorts and tank-top weather (though not so much with the air conditioning going full blast indoors). I settled on a pair of shoes with portable overshoes and an all-weather coat with zip-out lining. Under it, I dressed in layers (a turtleneck under a long-sleeved T-shirt) and a pair of tights under my jeans. I packed sandals and my bathing suit and some lighter-weight tops and bottoms.

Amazingly, there were no flight delays. I had direct flights between Vancouver and Honolulu, so my itinerary didn't pose some of the climate challenges it might have if I'd been travelling a different route. Customs and Security clearances also went smoothly. I'd been a little nervous about travelling to the U.S. under the Trump regime's travel restrictions but there was no problem. And even though I was going there during the Ontario March break week, and coming back just as the kids in Hawaii were starting theirs, officials seemed to be well prepared for it all and I didn't have to deal with long line-ups or delays.

But about the conference itself: I had a wonderful time. International guest of honour was Colin Cotterill, who lives in Thailand but writes a series about a 70-something coroner, Dr. Siri, set in 1970s-era Laos. I read the first book in the series, The Coroner's Lunch, just before I went, and I look forward to reading more. Faye and Jonathan Kellerman were also guests of honour, getting Lifetime Achievement awards. I read a recent Jonathan Kellerman book, Breakdown, while travelling there, and I left it on the Exchange Table for someone else to enjoy prior to going back home (which also freed up a bit of space in my luggage for the books I acquired there). I had borrowed and read a Faye Kellerman book of short stories and memoirs from the library just before leaving Ottawa and while I'm not sure I'm likely to read more of either Kellerman's work, it was good to get an idea of the kind of thing they write. I made it to the New Authors breakfast, something I always enjoy as it enables me to learn about authors I enjoy but might otherwise never discover. And when I signed up for an author-hosted table at the Saturday dinner, I opted for one hosted by authors based in Hawaii (none of which I was familiar with). I'm long overdue to write another "What has Blogcutter been reading?" instalment, so I'll tackle that soon!

There wasn't a lot of time for sightseeing away from the resort, but I did make it to an interesting Art Museum which had a special exhibition on of young Hawaiian artists. I also went to their zoo, which was a bit of a disappointment as several of the animal areas were temporarily closed. I found that the "hop-on, hop-off" Waikiki Trolley tours were a good way to see the area when you have limited time. I saw the Iolani Palace as well as some spectacular scenery at Diamond Head. Didn't make it to Pear Harbour, though - maybe next time, if there is one!

There's something crazy and just plain WRONG about having to bus five- and six-year-olds for miles and miles, just so they can be educated in the majority language of their own community. Yet that's precisely what's happening in Ontario in the publicly funded schools of the Ottawa-Carleton region.

Early French Immersion has become so wildly popular that 70% of families are now opting to place their children in those programmes. And so many neighbourhood schools are now half-empty (or half-full, depending on your viewpoint) as it is that they can't sustain both an English stream and French-immersion stream class at every grade level. As a result, it's the often far-away "collector" schools that are grouping together the English-stream children from several neighbourhoods.

Now, I'm prepared to admit that Early French Immersion may be a good option for some children, but certainly not for ALL, and probably not even for the majority of anglophone children. Parents want to give their kids the best possible start in life - I get that! They know that fluency in both official languages can be an asset, if not an actual requirement, for many jobs. I get that too. But education begins at home, and begins with giving the kids a good grounding in the language and culture of the family. If the parents speak more than one language, then that's great! If not, starting school - already a big step for many children - may prove quite traumatic indeed.

Late immersion is a different matter - by the intermediate school level, most kids are fluent in their native language at least, and have the linguistic and cognitive apparatus they need for more sophisticated thought and other developmental processes. Mastering another language (or two or three) at this stage will if anything serve to enrich and enhance those processes. Teens and adults probably do not learn language quite the way that babies and toddlers do, but that doesn't have to make the process more laborious, as so many people assume. In fact, I would argue that in many ways adult learners tend to learn more efficiently and economically precisely because they can learn and reason deductively rather than inductively. They have the "competence" or "langue", not just the dozens of instances of "performance" or "parole".

I think part of the reason French immersion has become so wildly popular is that "core French", at least as it was taught in my day, was such a dismal failure. But surely it would have made more sense, both logically and fiscally, to enhance and improve the core French curriculum rather than insisting that most children go into early French immersion, sometimes to the detriment of achieving a good grasp of their native tongue? And sometimes only to end up switching to the English system anyway, away from all their friends and feeling like failures? Isn't a bit more French or a bit better French instruction better than virtually none? Consider that we do still have a French-language school board in the Ottawa area that could easily serve children wanting to focus more on learning in French at certain points in their school careers.

There are many issues here, of course, and I've barely scratched the surface. Having a whole parallel system for the Roman Catholics is another ongoing annoyance. And, of course, there's also the urban/rural divide. But that will have to wait for another day.

Another year has come and gone. I'm a year older than I was this time in 2016 - that's the good news and also the bad news! Good news in that I'm still here; bad news in that I don't really feel I've evolved much as a person. Of course, lots of people don't think people of my age SHOULD still be evolving ... it's freeing in a way: there's not the same pressure to "make something of myself" and the older generation (as far as my family is concerned) is gone and with them their expectations of me, be they real or just in my imagination. On the other hand, I'm increasingly aware that my time here is more limited than it used to be, and I've got to make each year count! So with all that in mind, I've decided to once again tackle the review questions, at least the ones I see as relevant to my life.

1. What did you do in 2016 that you'd never done before?

Went to Iceland. Had cataract surgery.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions and will you make more?

Last year, I mentioned two goals. I wanted to learn more about Muslims, especially Muslim women, and I did do a bit of reading on the subject. I also said I wanted to explore art therapy and journalling therapy. I really didn't make any headway on that at all, though it wasn't entirely for lack of trying. I signed up for two Ottawa Board of Education workshops, both of which were cancelled at the last minute. I think I'm done with OBE courses now, but I do plan to keep that goal on my list for 2017. Among other things, I want to start keeping a hand-written journal again. I do plan to keep on with this blog, but there are some thoughts and feelings that I really don't want to commit in perpetuity to the internet or the blogosphere! But writing them down can, I think, help me to deal with what's on my mind in a relatively safe way. And speaking of the internet, I want to get a bit better at making technology work for me. Well, wouldn't we all, you might well ask? Specifically, a lot of people are on social media these days - I'd even venture to say it's more the rule than the exception. Are there some social media that are relatively benign in terms of maintaining a reasonable measure of privacy? I'm dubious, and yet there are now so many forums that I just can't participate in without a social media presence so there's definitely that feeling of being left behind. There's also that annoying "one-way door" type of phenomenon when it comes to the on-line world. Very often, you can't really just try something out to see if you like it and then go back to older methods if you find you DON'T like it. For example, with receiving monthly bills electronically, or with writing cheques, or whatever. I don't believe in burning my bridges behind me but I'm really worried for the younger and coming generations. After all, what younger person (or older person, for that matter) DOESN'T occasionally do something rash that s/he later regrets? But in the online world, it seems there may simply be no way to just move on and get a second chance to make good.

But back to the resolutions thing... I do want to make more of an effort to be kind to others and to nurture friendships and other relationships.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

I guess no one who was that close to me directly, although my grandchildren are acquiring new cousins on their father's side of the family. I generally consider it a hopeful sign when younger generations still want to have kids.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

While I'm not aware of any (human) family members who died (my daughter's family lost one of their two cats to kidney disease), I think loss certainly becomes a permanent feature of life as you get older. In September, I went to the funeral of a former boss and Ex Libris colleague who had had a major impact on my choice of career. And just this past week, I went to a memorial service for a longstanding member of Apaplexy who died in December.

5. What countries did you visit?

Iceland - I think that was probably the highlight of my year. Other than that, I stayed in Canada, with visits to relatively nearby cities - Montreal, Kingston, Toronto and Niagara Falls.

6. What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016?

I think perhaps a new cell phone. I don't want ever to be practically glued to my mobile like some folk are; however, I know it's past time I learned how to use my voice-mail and how to send and receive an occasional text. But at the same time, it's got to be user-friendly and ironically, that might mean something resembling the ones from 20+ years ago- the size of a brick, with big enough keys, and with a flip-cover so it doesn't keep turning itself on when I'm not using it.

7. What dates from 2016 will remain etched on your memory and why?

Probably the date of the U.S. election; I sort of feel like the main character in that short story about someone going back in time and accidentally stepping on a butterfly; once back in the present, said character learns that the other guy won the election. At least I don't have to live in the U.S., but what happens south of the 49th inevitably affects our lives to some extent.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Maybe just managing to sustain a fairly healthy lifestyle in terms of diet, physical exercise and the like. If we're talking specific projects, I did manage to complete the file of Canadian Expeditionary Force members I was working on for the Friends of the Library & Archives. It was quite interesting in terms of learning about little towns, villages and hamlets I hadn't know about, as well as occupations that we no longer see these days. A little window into what life might have been like 100 years ago. Even so, the work was rather time-consuming and occasionally tedious for the extra access it gives people, so I don't plan to do any more files in the foreseeable future.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I'd say something in terms of setting priorities...

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing out of the ordinary.

11. What was the best thing that someone bought you?

Do I have to pick one best thing? Everything people bought me was great!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

I've been meaning for some time to give out some service awards, because good service can be pretty thin on the ground these days! In terms of great service, I'd give the nod to our roofers, our snow-clearing service and the staff at the Riverside Hospital. And I forgot last year to mention the good folks at Handi-House, who set me up with the rental equipment I needed for the days following my vitrectomy in 2015.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

Donald Trump's and Pat Phelan's. Well, the second one is a fictional character. As for the first, I only wish he were fictional.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Home maintenance, a new roof and a trip to Iceland.

15. What did you get really excited about?

Cats, grandchildren and Iceland (in no particular order)

16. What song will always remind you of 2016?

The trumpet exercise that always gets one of our cats out of her hiding place (I think it's Clark(e)'s study no. 2)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

Sadder but more content with life as a whole, if that makes any sense.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Having real conversations with people I care about.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Relying on technological devices that constantly need recharging.

20. What was the best book you read?

I read a lot in the crime fiction genre so there were a lot there that I enjoyed, including Michael Ridpath's Where the Shadows Lie, the latest Ragnar Jonasson book in his Dark Iceland series, and Louise Penny's latest, Great Reckoning. Then there was He's Gone, by Alex Clare, a police procedural about Detective Robyn (formerly Roger) Bailey, who returns to work following The Operation and has a hard time dealing with the macho police culture, amongst other things - looks to be first in a series, and I look forward to any subsequent books. I also took a course (Learning in Retirement) on 20th century mystery and detective fiction, where we discussed 6 books considered to be landmark books or classics in their time. Of those, the three I enjoyed most were E. C. Bentley's Trent's Last Case; Eric Ambler's Epitaph for a Spy; and Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow.

In non-fiction, one that springs to mind is Lindy West's Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. Interestingly enough, she is going to be giving a keynote speech at the Ontario Library Association conference next month. I'm not sure I could pinpoint just one "best" out of all those.

21. What did you want and get?

A new dishwasher, that actually works well. A new kitchen faucet that doesn't drip and has a fully functional spray-hose attachment. A new roof. Better eyesight and a new pair of glasses.

22. What did you want and not get?

Various other improvements to the house.

23. What kept you sane?

Independent time spent on errands and personal projects.

24. What political issue stirred you the most?

Probably the November U.S. election. In scientific and medical news, the idea of a head transplant continues to creep me out. Closer to home, the rash of stabbings in the Ottawa area. On a more positive note, various other local issues - the new library, rapid transit and a new site for the Civic Hospital.

25. Who do you miss?

All the people (and cats) that are no longer with us.

In November I went to Iceland to attend a Nordic Noir crime fiction conference. It was my first visit there and I really enjoyed it. The only real disappointment was that a tentatively scheduled trip to Siglufjordur in the north did not go ahead, although we did get out of the city on a day trip, exploring some of the southern peninsula.

Not all of the featured authors were Icelandic, but the author who was to lead this tour, Ragnar Jonasson, is, and is the author of the "Dark Iceland" series of books, which take place up there in the northern reaches of Iceland, and which I've been reading as they get translated into English (by Quentin Bates, who was also at the conference and who also writes his own series set in that part of the world). Other featured authors at the conference included Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Michael Ridpath, Val McDermid, Ann Cleeves and Leena Lehtolainen.

As interesting as the conference itself was absorbing some of the national culture as well as the natural landscape in and around Reykjavik.

There seemed to be a museum for virtually everything, including a phallological museum (a.k.a. The Museum of the Penis), which I walked past but didn't actually visit. Those I DID visit included the "Art Museum" (modern art, including an exhibit by Yoko Ono and some comic book art), Volcano House, the Punk Museum, a photography museum, and a very interesting historical exhibit of Scandinavian design relating to children (toys, clothing, furniture, etc.) which was on at Nordic House, where the majority of conference sessions were also held. One interesting thing I noticed was that the cut-off age for a "senior" was usually 67 and sometimes even 70. Is that good or bad, I wondered? On balance, I decided it was probably a good sign of the healthy Icelandic climate and lifestyle, even though it meant I didn't qualify for the cheaper rate. Perhaps along the lines of the old Participaction ads that maintained the average 30-year-old Canadian was less fit than a 60-year-old Swede?

I never did make it to the Icelandic National Gallery, nor their National Museum. As is often the case here, they seemed to be closed on Mondays. So on the Monday which was my last full day in Reykjavik, I decided to go up the spire in the Hallgrimmskirkja, where I was treated to a panoramic view of the city. Afterwards, I went to a nearby indoor swimming pool with high outdoor decks and hot tubs, where I again enjoyed wonderful views of the city. I nearly chickened out when I got to the women's changing room and realized that before entering the pool area or even donning my swimsuit, I would first be required to take a shower sans swim-attire. Luckily it was not a particularly busy day there and the few others who were there seemed to be going about things quite matter-of-factly and unselfconsciously. After doing a lot of touristy things in the preceding days, it was actually quite nice to be taking part in something which seemed to be mainly a pastime of the inhabitants!

Christmas, or at least the festive season - Yule, Solstice, or whatever - seems to be quite a big thing in Iceland. Well, if you've only got a couple of hours of daylight each day, I guess you want to make the most of it! I will say that when the sun did appear, it could be fairly intense and I was glad of my sunglasses. Anyway, in Reykjavik The Season seemed to arrive in full force on Saturday, November 19. When I went downstairs on Saturday morning, there was a big tree in the lobby and lots of seasonal decorations. Major personalities of the season are the 13 Yule Lads, the first of which arrives December 12 and leaves December 25, with each subsequent one arriving and leaving a day later. They're all pretty naughty and mischievous and have names like Door-Slammer and Sausage-Swiper. There's also Gryla and her Yule-Cat, and I think one or two other characters who come into play. I'd been worried that November might be a rather miserable time to travel but it turned out to be a fairly good time - not peak tourist season, yet before the severe winter weather really kicks in.

In terms of time zones and TV stations and such, Iceland is on Greenwich Standard Time year-round, which for me meant a 5-hour time difference. In my hotel room, I mainly watched UK TV stations - BBC and ITV. I heard all about severe flooding in Bristol due to storm Angus, and pensioners having their benefits cut. But I did get to jump ahead on my Coronation Street viewing - they're about 10 days ahead of what we're seeing in Canada!

What are you proud of? Are you proud of your sexual orientation or your gender identity?

My mother used to say that the notion of gay pride was just plain wrong-headed. She thought it was like being proud of having blue eyes or red hair - something you were born with but basically had no say over. And frankly I think she had a point. Doesn't it make more sense to be proud of something you've actually achieved through hard work, self-discipline and perseverance, all while staying true to your core values and ideals? The GLBTQ activists are constantly reminding us that being gay or transgendered is NOT a choice. If it's just destiny, then how is it something to be proud of?

The best explanation I can offer is that those in the community want to make it known that they're not ASHAMED of who they are or whom they're attracted to. And then, exaggerating somewhat for the sake of emphasis, they say they're actually PROUD of these aspects of themselves. I certainly agree that it's legitimate for them to be proud of having stood up for and struggled for, and in many cases won the battle for basic human rights and anti-discrimination laws, and for having fought the battles in the courts of public opinion, whether in their own country or on the international front. And I hasten to add that the struggle is not yet over, although some significant battles have been won.

Do events like pride marches actually make a difference?

Yes, in that they're very visible. Yes, in that some high-profile people often take part: our Prime Minister, our Premier, various other politicians and entertainers, regardless of whether they themselves are gay or gender-variant. But for those who are still in the closet, or who have emerged from the closet but don't particularly want to draw attention to themselves, who just want to blend in and go about their day-to-day activities free of constant staring and regular or occasional harassment of themselves and their families... well, I'd say not so much. Things are changing, at least in our part of the world, but changes in social and personal attitudes can take a generation or two. And the changes aren't really linear; I don't even think the pendulum analogy is all that accurate.

I think the main thing is to foster free and open debate and discussion and exchange of ideas, moving beyond the bland and often the politically correct as well. Can this be done with respect and integrity and without censorship or will the indignant accusations of cultural misappropriation and harassment and libel and slander be constantly rearing their ugly heads? The thought police, I think, are still very much with us.