That was the start of what was to become a very important friendship to our family. Eventually, this child-less couple would became Aunt Mary and Uncle Peter. They were another set of grandparents to us kids (eventually 8 of us). I am so grateful that she decided to cross the street that day. Our lives were much richer for knowing them.

I am reminded of them every Thanksgiving and Christmas because of Tomorrow Salad. It's a version of Ambrosia Salad, no doubt from the jelly-filled fifties or sixties. We had it every Thanksgiving and Christmas meal, courtesy of Aunt Mary. And we have carried on that tradition. It's become my contribution to the family dinner. It wasn't until my son was doing a family heritage month at his pre-school that I realized that this recipe is one of our family traditions. It's called a salad, but is really barely nutritious. I'm sure the fruit is cancelled out by the whipped cream and marshmallows. Still, it's yummy, makes me think of my childhood, and of course Aunt Mary and Uncle Peter.

 Note my newly re-finished (by me) dining room table. Nice eh?

Tomorrow Salad

“Dressing”

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar

1. Beat ingredients together in saucepan.
2. Boil until thick stirring constantly.
3. Set aside to cool

Salad

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sugar

1. Beat whipping cream and sugar until stiff

• 2 cups pineapple chunks (I find a 540 ml can does nicely, don’t forget to drain the juice)
• 2 cups small marshmallows (or chop up some large marshmallows)
• 2 large oranges (I use 2 small cans of mandarin oranges with the juice drained)

1. Fold dressing into the whipped cream
2. Mix fruit in last
3. Adorn top with dried cranberries (optional)
4. Refrigerate until ready to serve

If you'd like, a printable .pdf for your recipe books: tomorrow-salad

And now, I'll have a place I know I'll be able to find it.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Tell me someone you're grateful for in the comments.

Dear Friend,

I write to you from Heaven.
A  Heaven accorded excusively for me.
For being the Best Villian of all times.
An award for Evil - you might wonder!

I just played a role given to me.
I acted with the best of my abilities.
How can the Hero exist without me?
An opponent like me was needed.

This is the norm of the Universe.
The Good, and the Evil exist in all of us.
Yes, even within you.
And of course within me.

Let me also share the Good within me.
I am an ardent Shiva devotee.
I am the son of a Brahmin.
I am a poet par excellence.

I do not deny my follies.
I fought with Kubera.
I abducted Sita.
I did not see the divinity in Rama.

It is okay that i was killed for that.
Why burn my effigy again and again?
You get fun and pleasure from it.
But i burn within seeing this.

Today, i see the glimpse of Evil in everyone.
Don't you fight with your neighbours?
Don't you lust after someone else's woman?
Don't you use Rama's name to hurt others?

All of you deserve to be burnt.
Prepare a bonfire of faith and love.
Throw yourself in that.
You will come out Golden.

Do you still want to burn my effigy?
Then see yourself in my body.
Thank me now for waking you up.
Your Ramayana is still to be lived.

Happy Dussehra,
Ravana

I have a well-known secret to share. Corinda gets very hypo when she has too much sugar. Not only does she get very hypo, but things start warp, such as my boyfriend face. Yes, thats right.. my boyfriends face warped when she had a large amount of lollies one day and ate them all at once.

The moral of this story, is to either not eat lollies at all, or don't eat lollies at all.. got it?

So, Corinda is... highly entertaining, energetic and quite bubbly. She likes getting her hair done at Isis quite a bit, as well as seeing her friends on a daily basis. Her arch nemisis changes week to week but her best friend doesn't. I'm 100% sure who it is though. There could be more than one... or two.

Well, enough of Corinda, who thinks everything is about her, but matter-a-factly, its all about me =]

When i was walking to school this morning, i saw my life flash between my eyes! There is 2 butcher birds and magpie and each morning that i wallk to school, they swoop me! Yesterday, a magpie actually flew into my head, luckily i'm ok. But, anyway, i think it's safe to say that you should use an umbrella when walking past there, like the old lady in front of me did, or pick up a stick and wave it around for a while, like a little girl did on the other side of the road.

Now, this afternoon, another scarey incident occured. I was walking home with my friend Nick and a girl that lived in my street was on the other side of the road, so i looked at her to see who she was and then i kept walking with Nick. Further down the road, she became in close range to me and she was talking to herself, so i looked at her, then kept walking while she spoke to herself a bit more.. probably about me.. I know, i'm famous. Everyone wants to talk about me these days. Anyway, she crossed the road to go to her house and she was standing there watching me. When i 'glanced' at her, she said "Why the fuck are you looking at me? I'll come over there and smash your face in." Ofcourse, i didn't say anything but Nick went on to tell me that i just got 'told'.

Later on near my house, my neighbour came out to tell me about his formal tonight and the girl came out with her sister. The sister went around the corner, away from my house and tipped herself over the handle bars! I tried not to laugh, cos i probably wouldn't be alive right now. So i looked at my neighbour, covered my mouth and walked away with him nattering on about his suit still. The girls went back to their house and i went to mine. Safe inside the house, i grabbed the carton of eggs and placed them on a table near the door in case they came. To my disappoint, they didn't. But it's a relief too, i guess.

Well, that was my day.

Oh my god! I forgot to tell you!! I got an A+ on my Art essay! It was 3 pages long though.. but i'm so happy! I'm so going to get into interior decorating! Oh and i got 10 out of 10 on my spelling!

Oh yeh, and there probably won't be any blogs for the weekend - i'm going camping at the gold coast =] Actually, that could be the smiley face of death because its raining, and it better not be raining at the Goldie! I'll be ina tent for god sake!

Well, i'm off to have a nice warm shower now..

XX

Our potential suspects for starting the fire were Donna, because she has a few screws loose, Paul, because he has form, and Callum, because he was a brat who had access and a lighter. But they're all harmless really. As Toadie finds out, when he starts suspecting secret option (d) or should I say (J), because he looked at the paper suspiciously without his top. His fake girlfriend Nicola, helps him unearth Jay's suspicious past. Paul and Elle are onto him as well. But Steph's not buying any of it.

We have to suffer through Carmella grieving for Marco. His parents blame her for Marco's death. Huh, I didn't realise she was a possible suspect. Oliver inappropriately kisses her as well, so he moves out. Oh, and she prays because she used to be a nun for a week.

Bridget and Declan r twu wuv 4EVAH! And there's a whole pile of crap about Declan making a thoughtful gesture to Steve and blah.

Libby thinks Donna is going to start stalking Dan now, and he's going to cousel Donna. It's kind of like a re-hash of the Ty/Rachel/Donna storyline. Libby and Rachel are really more or less the same person, aren't they?

Oh, and Lou and Harold have wacky dating hijinks!

Ritu opened the drawer fifth time since morning and sighed again. A long, big sigh!! She remembered her neighbour’s comments and she backed off. Her eyes glistened. She knew she was over reacting but she couldn’t help but feel down.

She was the most beautiful girl of her batch when she was in college. And her beauty was even more endearing for she was totally oblivious to the fact that she stole a lot many hearts on the campus when she smiled and jerked her head back to keep her hair in place. Not surprisingly, she was the most sought after girl!

When she got “attached” to Kartik a lot of alcohol flowed in the boy’s hostel...

After 5 years of marriage to Kartik and a baby later now when she looked at in the mirror she couldn’t recognize herself. Well, almost!! She has put on at least 15 Kgs post delivery! She still looked charming and beautiful with that sweet smile and cherubic face. It was just that she had filled up a bit on her curves.

She had become a woman!

But every now and then somebody would comment on how she used to look in her college days and how she has changed now. Most of the time she would just smile but sometimes she felt bad, sometimes she felt enraged and sometimes she went into depression.

Kartik was always on her side. If he was around he would shoot his favourite dialogue,

“If you want a wife, your children’s mother, a best friend, a professional, a girl-friend, a cook; all wrapped into one and still expect her to be toothpick thin then probably you are asking for too much from a human being!”

But it was not always possible to make others understand how one feels when they talk without thinking.

Today was one such day. Ritu loved chocolates and she was gifted one by her best friend today. As she was about to open it, her nosy neighbour came and commented on how much weight she has put on and how it is not good for her to have chocolates and other high calorie food! She pushed the chocolate in the drawer but couldn’t push the thoughts which were rummaging through her mind!

“Was it her fault that she was genetically prone to put on weight?

Was it her fault that she was suffering from Hypothyroidism?

Was it her fault that even after taking regular treatment she was unable to shed weight?

Was it her fault that she hardly got time to exercise on a regular basis from her multiple duties of being a wife, a mother and a working professional?

Was it her fault that she could not diet as she needed those calories to keep her going?

Was it her fault that Indian females were made to be a bit voluptuous compared to their western and eastern counterparts?

Was it her fault that media was wrongly portraying toothpick thin models and showing that was the way Indian ladies are suppose to look?”

As she stood in front of her drawer, looking at her bar of chocolate longingly, warmth enveloped her from behind. Kartik had come home early with a gift for her – a beautiful skirt and a T-shirt from the “All size” store... He knew she would look beautiful, as always, in those floral clothes!

And - get this - right in front of our house gate not once, not twice but THREE friggin' times.

When my mom went outside after the third time to politely tell the car owner that they had to move the car immediately (my dad was about to come home from work), they not only did not apologise, they glared at her and said that it's ok to park mana-mana pun.

!!! right :( Some people are born nuts.

Which rule book says that it is okay to simply park cars all over the bloody place? I mean, we understand you want to pay your last respects to the recently deceased, but not to this extent.

And we're not the only ones who've complained either. They're double parking along an already narrow road, leaving only minimal space for other cars to pass through.

There are idiots, and there are idiots!! Really, really *mou-ngan-tai* (literally translated: no eye see aka in a sense, speechless)

So much for Loving Thy Neighbour.

* * *

At the time of writing, some other fellow has been persistently honking his horn. The writer can only guess that the driver is trying to manouvre his car to the other side and is failing miserably, thereby resorting to noise pollution to get the message across.

I Ought To Be In Pictures Dir. Bob Clampett  USA  1939   7 min.

- WB Looney tunes with Porky Pig on opening still
- real life people walking into the film studio - shows animator drawing porky pig
- LUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! animators run to the mess hall
- Daffy Duck starts talking to Porky and tells him to quit his contract
- they walk through the real life studio and knock on the studio head's door
- Hello, Porky - cmon in - hello Leon Sclesinger
- get out of cartoon contract - get into feature films - they shake hands
- "He'll be back!"
- Daffy was conspiring to take his place all along
- security guard at the feature film studio tosses porky pig into the street
- he comes onto a live set - QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- porky sneezes and gets caught - thrown out again - security guard sees him - chase begins again
- "don't like feature business - wonder if i can get my job back?"
- daffy tries to sell studio head about his acting/singing skills
- studio head ain't interested - FIGARO!!!!!!!!!!!!
- camera on a rolling car with porky drawn into the scene
- porky comes in to see daffy talking to leon and calls him outside - beats the crap out of him - papers go flying
- porky says april fools - I knew you'd come back - get back to work!
- he jumps back into the paper - daffy is in bandages now
- THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Duck Amuck  Dir. Chuck Jones   USA  1953   7 min.

- MERRY MELODIES
- Daffy Duck as a musketeer
- he talks to the animator / audience as the scenery disapears and he keeps changing
- farm to igloos - daffy keeps changing characters - now its a beach in hawaii
- white screen - giant pencil starts erasing daffy
- SOUND PLEASE! - guitar sounds like rifle / horn / donkey
- daffy opens his mouth and sounds like a rooster, ape...gets really pissed
- painted daffy as an alien - painted in mirror and he freaks
- THIS IS A CLOSE UP?!?!?!
- DAffy fights the black screen closing and falling on him
- The End...NO NO NO!!!
- it turns out it was Bugs Bunny all along as the animator
- "Ain't I a stinker?"

Begone Dull Care  Dir. Norman McClaren   CANADA  1949  8 min.

- abstract drawings / patterns / layouts / cutouts
- many different cuts set to the tempo of the music
- many different layers scrolling at different speeds
- different musical tempos differentiate different graphic symbols
- line drawings represent softer tempos

- first song ends - now second one comes on - much slower tempo
- focus on 2 dancing lines across the screen to the sound of a solitary piano
- it feels like a piano playing visually
- rising and dropping cymbals in the background

- new musical piece - much heavier tempo - back to abstract and loud visual graphics
- scrolling upwards - feels like we're on a train going somewhere
- scrolls through many different END / SALUT...to end the piece

Blinkity Blank Dir. Norman McClaren   CANADA  1952   7 min.

- similar to last piece - with abstract shapes
- he cut and manipulated the individual film strips to create the shapes and text
- very time intensive and consuming process to do
- he also manipulated the sound strips on the film as well
- use of colours and scratches in the film to create shapes

The Street  Dir. Caroline Leaf CANADA  1976  10 min.

- credit text - with sounds of kids playing overtop
- breathing - hands - face - snoring
- watercolour painting - maybe charcoal?
- grandmother dying - her last summer
- narrator telling the story - it's a man reminiscing about his childhood
- boys peak up the nurse's dress everytime she  she came
- boy tries to peak in and enter his old room - to give her a kiss every morning
- the sounds and voices are so rich in texture, yet the drawings are not
- mother brings the grandmother back to the house after her illness
- interesting segueway sequence from scene to scene - smoke/cloud like effect

Neighbours  Dir. Norman McClaren   CANADA  1952   7 min.

- frame by frame action - to show movement
- two men sitting on lawn chairs lighting pipes
- electronic music soundscape
- a flower grows in the middle of the lawn between their properties
- man smells flower and falls backwards - frame by frame movement again - shows them jumping - caught in mid air
- they both want the flower so now they are trying to build a fence between them
- back and forth the fence goes between properties
- now they start fencing with one another
- face painting to show them slowly degenerate to their primitive selves
- kicks their wives and babies - kills them
- in the process they kill themselves and the flower dies
- the fences are built around their graves and the flower splits into 2 and grows on their tombs
- LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR
The Hand   Dir. Jiri Trnka.  CZECHOSLOVAKIA. 1965.  18 Min.

- stop motion animation - like aardman/chicken run - uses puppets and real objects
- in comes a giant gloved hand through the window and breaks a potted plant
- plays with the pottery wheel and creates a hand out of the bowl the puppet had made
- knock knock knock - he moves the plant  and grabs his broom to swat at the hand
- ring ring ring - puppet looks for the phone
- has receiver to his ear but we see visual representation of the conversation over puppet's head
- hand brings a tv out of a box on the floor
- standoff between the puppet and the scene on the tv with a hand and shows various close ups of different hands (images...)
- puppet tries to smash fingers of the hand with a mace
- newspaper comes under the door - has a hand inside of it and the giant hand appears out of it
- burlesque hand now appears and dances for the puppet - beckoning him to come forward
- nooses appear from the fingers - they are actually strings to control the puppet
- he is now in a cage and is chiseling a hand out of stone at the direction of the giant hand
- burning the midnight oil in order to finish off the hand statue
- puppet is awarded with medals for completing the hand
- he topples over the hand statue to break out of the cage and escape - begins chase sequence with giant hand trying to catch him
- puppet makes it back to his home and slams door shut behind him / barricades himself inside
- glove on the giant hand is now black as the puppet had killed himself trying to close the closet and the potted plant fell on his head
- funeral scene ow as the puppet is laid to rest inside the closet

The Man Who Planted Trees  Dir. Frederick Back   CANADA  1987   30 min

part 1/4
- narrator Christopher Plummer
- beautifully drawn scenes and animations
- abstract yet engaging at the same time
- animated scrolling scenes showcase the houses and windows
- barren landscapes - sound of howling winds overheard - sets the tone/scene of the piece
- flowing cloak of the shepherd - bahhhhhhhhhhh bahhhhhhh
- flowing line drawing to show the tide coming in at the ocean shore
- the flowing/howling winds are represented within the flowing drawings
- always the ever present wind
- illumination from the candle was shown effectively in the lighting of the drawing
- 10,000 oak trees in this desolate land where before there was...nothing
- the land was dying from lack of trees
- WWI starts and scene changes to the trenches of France - explosions - bayonets - desolation
- once the war was over - the narrator went back to the barren lands to smell fresh air
- now the old man is a bee keeper - given up his sheep because they threatened his trees
- oaks of 1910 were now 10 years old and taller then the narrator - 3 sections 10 km x 11km
- one man with no mechanization had done this
- as for providence, she would need a cyclone to destroy this stretch of trees
- creation had just followed in a natural sequence - streams flowing with water where before they had been dry
- delegation came to observe the "natural growing forest" - was placed under government protection
- he knows more about this than anyone in the world
- WWII - shows warplanes in the sky - sounds of them as well
- complete a task worthy of God

MONDAY

FIRE! Paul leaves Kirsten lying on the ground as he escapes the blaze. That's so Paul. Nicola kisses Steve when he rescues her. Marco, Oliver and Ned act like manly men who are real men with penises, when they leave the shelter to help others. But Marco gets locked out looking for Chloe's bag, because he is SENSITIVE, and I think they're trying to maintain that he's better than Oliver. I'm not sure, I tend to zone out during most of his scenes because he is wooden and boring.

TUESDAY

Marco, Kirsten and Ned still remain missing at the start of the eppy. But then they get found and are rushed to hospital, where Marco is told he only has hours to live. These hours cannot come quick enough for me as you may recall my dislike of Marc-bore. Kirsten's heart literally stops when Ned says he loves her. CHEESY! The other Neighbours learn the fire was started deliberately.

WEDNESDAY

This episode is pretty much all about Marc-bore and Carmella. Marc-bore's internal organs are have been irreplacably damaged by smoke, so he's going to die. His dying wish is to marry Carmella. So Rebecca gets Carmella a dress really quickly, Marco realises he's no friends so Oliver will have to do as his best man. Oh, and they manage to find a priest some how, and a dickie-bow for Marco. They exchange vows and then he dies with her lying by his side. She says something cheesy about always being his, and you either cry, or celbrate like me because MARC-BORE'S DEAD!

THURSDAY

Donna is questioned by the police about the bushfire. She says that she didn't start it, but seen who did. It was a man. Elle thinks said man is Paul. Elle visits Kirsten in hospital and Kirsten flashes back to when she was in the blaze, how she did see a man leave her for dead and drive off. It fits Paul's description, but we all know Paul's reformed from the last time he burned down Ramsay Street. He doesn't even have anything to gain. I love you Elle, but that's dumb. Elsewhere, Carmella acts like a loony toon over Marco's death and tells Bridget and Declan they should not waste a minute apart because they can be as epic as herself and Marco.

FRIDAY

Paul admits to Elle he left Kirsten for dead in the fire, but would never start it. Toadie decides to help Donna on Ringo's orders, and Lou texts Garold's mystery woman. So apparently are main suspects for starting the fire are, a) Donna, b) Paul and c) Callum, except, I'm going to say the firestarter is actually secret option, d) Jay, another newbie. But he's not as "likeable", used in the loosest possible tems as the other two newbies.

Today it seems I need one HUGE piece of paper and right now I'm going to break the cardinal rule of this blog in that I'm going to blog about some people in close proximity to me and I actually don't care if they read it because if they read this - JUST BE GLAD I'M BLOGGING ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE ALTERNATIVE IS VISITING YOUR HOUSE WITH A TOW TRUCK.

It's the bloody neighbours. They drive us to distraction and they haven't got a clue because they are the kind of people that have tunnel vision. Nothing seems to matter to them unless it happens within a 3" space just at the end of their nose. There are 5 of them that live there. Mr and Mrs,  Mrs's 2 girls and Mr's boy. Mr also has another boy who lives elsewhere and Mrs also has another girl and a boy and other kids seem to keep crawling out of the woodwork. The kids are all 17 years old +. Add to the equation one of the girls boyfriend who stays over most nights.

The house is a 4 bedroom with a one car drive and one car garage and at the end of the cul-de-sac we live in there are spaces for about 4 cars (visitors) to park.

The problem is Mrs has 3 cars, Mr has 2, the boy has 1, one girl has 1, the boyfriend has 1 and the other girl is learning to drive.

When we moved here we'd park one car on our driveway and the other in the spare spaces at the end of the road. With next door repeatedly adding to their crap car collection it peaked out at 9 cars between the 4 drivers that lived there (not including the boyfriend). It soon became a spot of bother for myself or Wil to find a spare space at the end of the road for our second car because next door would have one car on their drive, two outside their house and the other six would take up the four spare spaces, plus the last two would have to double park behind two that were in the spaces. This problem would always become a bigger problem late on Thursday evenings when Wil had just driven half the width of the country to get home from work. As you can imagine, it didn't go down well. And in the mornings you'd open the curtains to look out upon a beautiful large open green area with large mature chestnut trees and a heaving carpark of cars randomly dumped one behind another making the end of the road less a turning space and more a bloody maze to pull into and back out of with great intrepidation.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse the boyfriend who was turning up each evening and having trouble finding a place to park decided that the joint driveway that leads to ours and their garages would be the best place for him to park. The joint driveway is an access only and provides access to and from our back garden and both ours and their garages. The driveway is only a single car wide only getting wider at the garage doors. My point being, if there is a car parked on it - no one gets access. Again this is another problem considering Wil and I both have bikes and motorbikes stored in the garage. The bigger problem with this is that the car the boyfriend drives is a boyracer'd up VW with tinted windows, blingin wheels and the loudest fucking exhaust pipe you've ever heard.

Think tractor exhaust...

With the baffles taken out....

And a large hole at the manifold...

Double it....

Draw a picture of Gordon Browns face on it...

Now you're close to how annoying it is.

Add to this the fact that boyfriend had only just learned to drive and hasn't perfected smooth transition between clutch and accelerator so any maneouvre he makes has to be done using repeated little blips on the pedal utilising the entire rev range.

And the joint driveway backs up past a floor to ceiling window in our front room.

And the exhaust pipe of that car is on that window side.

And 200 decibels of shitty loud basey noise reverberates through the entire house causing your heart to start misfiring in an off kilter beat pattern.

The worst part? It's been a year on and boyfriend never did get the hang of smooth clutch/accelerator transition.. neither has he taken the repeated hints to CHANGE THAT BASTARD EXHAUST PIPE TO SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T SEND WHALES OFF COURSE IN THE NORTH SEA.

So with next door owning a grand total of 9 cars, plus the boyfriends car = 10 we then learned that the other daughter is taking driving lessons. At a point when it would have been totally acceptable for us to go over to their house and machetty them all down, feed them into the fuel tanks of their cars and then set the whole lot on fire we decided it would be a lot worse if we fell out with them.

The fact that these people saw fit to take up every single available space, meant to be shared by all 12 houses on the street for themselves clearly showed that they were not going to be the kind to take hints. And neither did they appear to be interested that other people were being treated rather rudely and selfishly.

We could have said something to them and at a point where Wil and I were starting to get at eachothers throats on a regular basis about it we really needed to take action but neither of us thought words would do any good. If they couldnt see the problem already and didn't possess any kind of consideration for others, spelling it out wasn't going to help.

So instead, we decided to take down the fence at the side of our house and build ourselves another parking bay accessed by the joint drive! Therefore they wouldn't be able to park on the joint drive because we'd be moving our car in and out of it all the time. Problem solved!

Or so you'd think!.... You know that saying 'actions speak louder than words'? In this case I think I could have hired a Hi-Ab and picked boyfriends car up off the joint driveway and dumped it in a shattering heap of glass and metal in the middle of the green and he wouldn't have got the jist that 'NOW THAT WE HAVE A CAR PARKING SPACE THERE WE KIND OF NEED TO GET IN AND OUT OF IT'. I finally had to walk outside and say - You see your car there on that shared driveway? You see ours stuck behind it with no way to get out? Yeah, that THAT IS A PROBLEM. And then he (begrudgingly) stopped parking there.

FInally in the spring Mr got rid of one of his cars. Only because it ran out of tax and he had no where else to park it off road. By summer they had dwindled down to a total of just seven cars. Two for her, two for him, one for daughter, one for son and of course the boyfriend is still on the scene. The joint driveway had been left open and free for all to access and we are sure to park in it whenever the second car is here. Meaning that when Wil gets home on a Thursday night he puts his car there. And the rest of the week I only park mine in there if one of my friends is coming round so they can park at the front of the house.

All hunkydory and we didn't have to fall out with them over it all.

However last night a mystery car was parked on the joint drive. My friend Anna was coming round and when I went to move my car to the other space so that Anna could park on the front I wasn't able to because the car was in the way.

It was still there this morning so this afternoon when I arrived home I spoke to the son and he confirmed Mrs has bought another car without selling either of the other two she's still got.

What pisses me off most about this is that this morning I was unable to pull straight back out of my drive like I normally do because the son has now taken to parking adjacent to their car which is directly outside their house which places it a car's length directly behind my car parked in my drive. So he leaves me enough room to get out but I still have to take care not to turn too sharply and catch the front of my car on his. So it's a pest. To top it off as I was fanagling my car out taking care not to bash into the sons, there was her new car sat on the shared driveway blocking my other parking space and garage!? She could only have parked there making the assumption that I wouldn't be going anywhere or needing access to my garage any time soon. And what pisses me off more than people having a personal fleet of shit cars and parking them all around my house? Someone making assumptions about what I do and where I go and at what time.

Yep ok I think it's fair to say any one of my neighbours can see a pattern in my movements every day but I don't leave at the same time every day and I almost never choose the same method of transport two days in a row.  I use my bike, on good days between biking I use my scooter and if I'm feeling lazy or if it's pouring rain I drive. So why park there? Needless to say when I arrived home today I put my car around the side of the house and this evening my mother in law is going to be putting her car on the front driveway while I go to running club - for which I will take my car and then need to put it back in again when I return.

You need somewhere to park? Get rid of one of the 3 other shitboxes that are cluttering up the view and park there for christs sake.

I PITY THE FOOL WHO BLOCKS THAT DRIVE AGAIN.

]]> http://troutpoutt.wordpress.com/?p=11 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:22:02 +0000 troutpoutt http://troutpoutt.nl.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/trampolines/ I'm not a fan of children. I live in the suburbs, amongst the elderly and the couples with young children, so my interaction with them is inevitable. However, as long as they don't hurl things at me (a small boy recently threw a new potato into my friends face at very close range with definite intent), if their parents are not morons and if they are generally not too annoying/noisy/take up instruments, then I have no beef.

On one side of my house, the neighbours are lovely. They're a really nice family who I'm happy to chat to whenever we meet, I even used to babysit their two daughters (who incidentally, are getting really tall, I'm sure that it won't be long before they over take me dammit).  A few months ago they got a huge trampoline and put it near the back of their garden. It looks like a lot of fun but they don't use it much. Or if they do I haven't noticed; I don't exactly sit at the window spying on people.

The neighbours on the other side are a little less pleasant. In fact I rather dislike them for a number of reasons. When they first moved in they replaced very weird and rude people so we had thought that they'd be an improvement; not so.

Their children have always been noisy, irritating and stare-y. (One summer, the girl started learning a brass instrument and took to practising in the garden. It was annoying as you can imagine. We hit back by blaring out Deftones and NIN with our speakers facing their garden.  I should probably point out that the oldest one is about 11 and the youngest is now around 6). The father is extremely odd and often goes down to the end of his garden late at night with bright lights. I remember a while back there was a mix up with some post. I got his; a rather small envelope about an inch thick. When I went round to exchange them (mine was a box about the size of a football), he told me he'd opened it because he wanted to see what it was! I scowled at him, shocked and weirded out, took my parcel and left. I don't know the woman, but she seems equally odd and often frowns disapprovingly.

So you see, my dislike isn't entirely unreasonable. And considering that I'm not often forced to endure these people, I can pretend they're not there and feign smiles whenever the sons run behind my car as I'm trying to back out of the drive. However I didn't just come on here to write about how neighbours are pot-luck. Earlier I mentioned that the nice neighbours had a rather sizable trampoline, I don't know whether there's some kind of sale on but lots of people seem to be buying them recently. Like I said, I'm not a spy but I have noticed the equally large trampoline that appeared in weirdo-neighbours garden not so long ago.

It was summer; summer means that children are going to be outside and usually making noise. But this trampoline was like an instant noise creator. Don't get me wrong; I'm used to loud noise, I work with musicians and the two go hand-in-hand. But this giant trampoline, well, it seemed to have quite the effect on both the neighbouring children's summer and mine.

I would wake up at 6am every morning to hear shrieks and general trampoline-induced-enthusiasm. Not a pleasurable experience I can assure you, especially on the days they would miraculously have friends over. Seriously, who drops their child off at someone elses house before 7am in the summer?! Just as I was getting used to their early morning trampoline sessions something terrible happened; the neighbours on the other side of the nice ones bought an out-sized trampoline! And how did I find this out? Their children also decided to host early morning trampoline-time and would shout two gardens over to let weirdo neighbours' children know that they too were on their great new trampoline. This became a frequent ritual that began to affect me in strange ways. I believe it was a night or two after the first shouty transaction that I had a horrific dream; it was about shouting children on trampolines. They had some how broken the fences between the gardens and were running freely between the trampolines shouting to each other and staring at my desperation as I tried to shoo them away to no avail. I woke, rather unpleasantly and somewhat shaken to more trampoline-time shouting.

I had hoped that when they went back to school they would have to stop but clearly I underestimated their disruptive abilities as their reign of trampoline terror has still not ended. They will stop at nothing to go on the trampoline before AND after school, even when they are on the phone. I find it to be mildly disturbing and sort of wish that they still had the giant paddling pool which occupied their garden for the previous few summers. I wonder what they will get next year, a baby elephant perhaps?

This may seem a little sadistic but I can only hope that some day, when these children are grown up and working full time that some irritating noisy brats move next door to them.

Eastenders: Paedophille storyline, crap father storyline, why do people bother.

The only reason i'm talking about this is cause its on TV just now.

So fuck it i'm going to Asda to buy some food. Starving.

2. Make sure you check out the legalities of anything you do - ask the charity you are fundraising for, or check google (I love Google!).

3. Publicity is important - send a press release to local papers and free papers telling them what you are doing, when and why.

4. Be safe. Always make sure that what you are doing is safe - its no good raising money for a good cause if the end result is you in hospital, or worse.

5. Don't forget Gift Aid - if the sponsor is a UK tax payer, the government gives the charity an extra 28% on top of the donation.

6. Ask your boss about Matched Giving, whereby they will match whatever you raise, pound for pound.

7. Don't be daunted by a large sponsorship total, break it down into manageable chunks and work to those targets. It soon adds up.

8. Every no leads to a yes - when it seems like you aren't getting anywhere and everyone is saying no, keep a huge smile on your face and keep going!!

9. Create a page on Justgiving (www.justgiving.com) and email the url to everyone you know.

10. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have fun with it!!

Tess

xx

Some of you might know that during this Ramadhan I started a sort of "Rewards Competition" with my neighbour mash'Allah! Well, maybe she doesn't know it but for me that's it! May Allah rewards her insh'Allah!!

It's obviously based on "Food exchanges" around Iftar time mash'Allah! We never had the chance to meet each other subhan'Allah, as we have our families' members bringing the food from door to door but insh'Allah I hope to meet her to thank her!

The first time she sent us some food was a tray with meatballs in a light tomato sauce, rice and samosa tabarakAllah! And so far I thought: "Must be Pakistani or Indian food! Wow! Mash'Allah!" then the second time I started to have my doubts.... as we had some Okra with tomato sauce, beans soup, and here what made me think: some rice cooked with carrots, raisins and pieces of lamb... with a fennel taste mash'Allah! Also something very similar to the Algerian M'hadjeb but instead of the semolina was used normal flour..I guess. My husband suggested "Afghani Food"... well, I don't have a clue about that kind of food! Nice to learn mash'Allah!

I've done a research earlier on internet and I've found some of the dishes, the rice I've told you about is called Qaubili Pilau

Then yesterday she sent over some shourba (soup) very similar to the algerian one with vermicelli (very thick one compared to the one I use), some spinaches with meatball and then a "pasta" dish! What? I was thinking...never tried pasta cooked like this in my life subhan'Allah! It was stuffed pasta with onion and meat, covered with some lentils and I think cream or yogurt (not sure about that). And I've found the picture of it, apparently the pasta is called "khameerbob"

.. to be honest, compared to this picture, the presentation of my neighbour was much much better mash'Allah! And she didn't put meat in the sauce, much lighter! :D

Well, this is my adventure through the "Afghani food world" so far. Please, if you know any good website or blog about this food link it here insh'Allah!  It's a pity that this kind of food is not so popular... unless it's not so and I am the only one who doesn't know about it :)

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (sallAllahu alaihy wa sallam) as saying: "O Muslim women, none of you should consider even a sheep's trotter too insignificant to give to her neighbour" [Bukhari 2402; Muslim 2247]

]]> http://youthopportunity.wordpress.com/?p=36 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:31:39 +0000 Sleepy Joe http://youthopportunity.nl.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/neighbors-close-down-syracuse-crack-house/ This is an article from an American community news website called Associated Content (hence the American spelling). A group of neighbours started to blog about a crack house where they lived eventually leading to it being busted.

Neighbors Close Down Syracuse Crack House
With so many communities being held hostage by low level street drug dealers, Friday's Syracuse Post -Standard newspaper tells a story of one community where neighbors banned together to put a crack house out of business.
View more »

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"AFTER three years of hectic full-time work on Neighbours, Caitlin Stasey is to be a "normal 18-year-old" again.

The Ramsay St darling has made the life-changing decision to finish her contract early so she can return to school and complete year 12.

She will film her last scene as Rachel Kinski next month, after three years on the show."

It's not gonna be the same without her in the show, I'm glad I went to Melbourne when I did, and got a wee wave from her...

The police are coming over in an hour or so - I can't believe they've not been here sooner! This is the second time I've chased it up, but hopefully now it'll be resolved. Ooh, speaking of which, I'd better hand-write the statement I wrote out before they get here.

Decorating upstairs while Niamh's at school. Should really get on with that assignment for uni, too - it's getting far too close to the deadline. In fact I'll get that done this afternoon.

Tired (not surprising, really!), but settled, excited, happy... it's hard to explain, but it's positive. I'll write more in my private journal - some things need to be kept that way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[12pm]
Police just left... she was lovely. All shaken up again now, worried what the repercussions might be (she's talking to the boy later). Meh - we'll see. Stupid shakiness.
*c*

I seem to have met and chatted to a lot more neighbours than usual in the last two weeks. I guess people who have lived on the street for many years see gardening as a sign that I care about my home/street/area and as a result they seem keener to make conversation or maybe I am being more extrovert as I hunt for free stuff!

I have got a wooden trellis, a garden bench, bagged garden cuttings and soon some wood chippings all as a result of people on my street. I also got half a bag of posh compost from freecycle. All for free. This is good.

My landlord is delighted - the house was his family home where he grew up and his mum was a keen gardener, which shows as the soil is in great condition.  We have already found one of her grapevines which looks good to give us a crop next year with suitable amounts of love and attention.

Finally, my friends all seem enthused about getting involved and indeed have already mucked in admirably. I hope that once we have set up my garden we can continue this momentum and go and find some other spaces to transform. It seems pretty easy so far and not a penny spent yet.

Next up after mulching is working out how to recycle grey water - this looks like being a big challenge but that is okay cos I like big challenges.

1. கனடாவிலும் புதிய தலைவர் வரப்போகிறார் போலிருக்கிறதே... பக்கத்து பக்கத்து நாடுகளின் உறவு எப்படி மாறும்? அமெரிக்க கோலகலத்தோடு ஒப்பிடுங்களேன்.

கனடாவில் புதிய தலைவர் வரப்போகிறாரா இல்லையா என்று தெரியவில்லை. இப்பொழுதிருக்கும் நிலவரத்தில் வலதுசாரி கன்ஸர்வேட்டிவ் பிரதமர் ஸ்டீவன் ஹார்ப்பரே திரும்ப வரக்கூடும். அமெரிக்கா கனடா விவகாரத்தைப் பார்க்குமுன் கனடாவின் அரசியல் அமைப்பைக் கொஞ்சம் தெரிந்துகொள்ளலாம்.

• வலதுசாரி - கன்ஸர்வேட்டிவ் - தற்பொழுதைய பிரதமர் ஸ்டீவன் ஹார்ப்பர் (Stephen Harper) - ஜார்ஜ் புஷ்ஷின் நண்பர், (கொச்சையாக அமெரிக்க அடிவருடி என்று இங்கே சொல்லப்படுபவர்). அல்பெர்ட்டா எண்ணைய் முதலாளிகளின் நண்பர்

• இடதுசாரி - லிபரல் - கிட்டத்தட்ட பதினைந்து வருட ஆட்சிக்குப் பின் இரண்டு வருடங்களாக முக்கிய எதிர்க்கட்சி - தலைவர் ஸ்டெஃபான் டியான் (Stéphane Dion) - பசுமை விரும்பி.
• அதி இடதுசாரி - நியு டெமாக்ரடிக் - நிரந்த மூன்றாமிடம் - தொழிற்சங்க ஆதரவு; தலைவர் ஜாக் லெய்ட்டன் (Jack Layton)
• க்யெபெக் பிரிவினைவாதி கட்சி - ப்ளாக் க்யெபெக்வா (Bloc Québécois) - தலைவர் கில் ட்யூஸெப் (Gilles Duceppe) - தற்பொழுது பல் பிடுங்கப்பட்ட பாம்பு; சித்தாந்தத்தில் லிபர்ல்களையொத்த இடதுசாரிகள்.

(இன்னும் கொஞ்சம் விபரம் என்னுடைய பழைய தேர்தல் பதிவிலிருக்கிறது)

1. கனேடியத் தேர்தல் பிரச்சாரம் - முதல் வாரப் போக்கு
2. கனேடிய அரசு நம்பிக்கையில்லாத் தீர்மானத்தில் தோல்வி
3. இந்திய பிராண்ட் அரசியல் கனடாவில் பரபரப்பாக விற்பனை

இதைத் தவிர புதிதாகப் பலம்பெற்று வரும் பசுமைக் கட்சி. ஆனால் இவர்களுக்கு ஒரூ இடம் கிடைத்தாலே பெரிய வெற்றியாகக் கருதப்படும். கடந்த இரண்டு ஆண்டுகளாக சிறுபான்மையாக அரசு நடத்திவரும் ஹார்ப்பர் தன் அரசாங்கம் செயலிழந்த நிலையிலிருப்பதாகச் சொல்லி அரசைக் கலைத்திருக்கிறார். இதற்கு முக்கிய காரணம் புதிய லிபரல் தலைவர் ஸ்டெஃபான் டியான் கொள்கைப் பிடிப்பு இருக்குமளவுக்கு ஜனரஞ்சக அரசியல் நடத்தத் தெரியாதவர். பேச்சுத் திறனற்றவர். (வரவிருக்கும் பிரதமர் விவாதங்களில் ஸ்டீவன் ஹார்ப்பரும் ஜாக் லெய்ட்டனும் இவரைக் கடித்துக் குதறப்போவது உறுதி).

அதி-இடதான புதிய ஜனநாயகத்தின் இருப்பு லிபரல்களை விட நாங்கள் லிபரல்களானவர்கள் என்று காட்டுவதில் இருப்பதால் அவர்களுக்கு கன்ஸர்வேட்டிவ்களைவிட டியான்-தான் முக்கிய எதிரி. என் கணிப்பில் மீண்டும் சிறுபான்மை ஆட்சியாக, ஆனால் முன்னைவிட சற்று அதிக இடங்களைப் பெற்று கன்ஸர்வேட்டிவ்கள் திரும்ப வரக்கூடும். ஆனால் இவர்களுக்கு கனடாவின் பொருளாதார இதயமான ஒண்டாரியோ மாநிலத்தில் சொல்லிக் கொள்ளத்தக்க எந்த வெற்றியும் கிடைக்காது.

படிப்பறிவு குறைந்த, எண்ணெய்வளம் மிக்க அல்பெர்ட்டா மற்றும் மேற்கு மாநிலங்களில்தான் ஆதரவு கிட்டும். க்யெபெக்கில் பிரிவினை கட்சி பலமிழந்து காணப்படுவதால் அங்கு வலதுசாரியினர் ஒன்றிரண்டு புது இடங்களைப் பெருவார்கள். மொத்தத்தில் இந்தத் தேர்தல் முற்றிலும் தேவையற்றது. லிபரல்களை இன்னொரு தோல்விக்குள்ளாக்கி (தான் முழு வெற்றி பெறாவிட்டாலும்) உட்கட்சிப் பூசலை வளர்த்து பலவீனப்படுத்துவது ஒன்றே இதன் நோக்கம். இந்தப் பம்மாத்தை மக்களிடம் பரிய வைக்கச் செய்யும் பேச்சுத்திறன் ஸ்டெஃபான் டியானுக்குச் சற்றும் கிடையாது.

இனி அமெரிக்க ஒப்பீடு:

அமெரிக்காவைப் பார்க்க இங்கே தேர்தல் அவ்வளவு கோலாகலம் கிடையாது. அதிகபட்சம் யாராவது ஒருவர் வீட்டில் மூன்று தட்டிகள் புல்பரப்பில் குத்தியிருப்பார்கள் (அவர் போட்டியாளர் அல்லது அவரின் மச்சானாக இருக்கக்கூடும்). மொத்தம் ஐந்து வாரங்களில் எல்லாம் முடிந்துவிடும்.

ஒருவரை ஒருவர் அதிகம் திட்டிக்கொள்ளமாட்டார்கள். (நீ முட்டாள் என்றுகூடச் சொல்லமாட்டார்கள், "ஏனுங்க நீங்க முட்டாளமாதிரி பேசுறீங்க" என்றுதான் சொல்வார்கள்). இங்கே பிட்புல், ஹாக்கி அம்மாக்கள், ராணுவத்தில் குண்டடிபட்டவர்கள், கீழே வேலைசெய்யும் பெண்ணிடம் தவறாக நடந்து கொள்பவர்கள், என்றெல்லாம் தலைவர்கள் பீற்றிக் கொள்ளமாட்டார்கள். குடும்பங்கள் பெரும்பாலும் அரசியலில் இழுக்கப்படாது. தொலைக்காட்சி விவாதத்தில் பணவீக்கம், படைக்குறைப்பு, பசுமையாக்கம் என்றுதான் பேசுவார்கள். (அதனால் எந்த சுவாரசியமும் இருக்காது, மறுநாள் பேப்பரில் படித்தால் போதும்).

ஒரு விஷயத்தைச் சொல்லியாக வேண்டும்; சராசரி கனேடியரின் விழுமியக்களெல்லாம் இடதுசாரிதான். கனேடிய வலதுசாரி கன்ஸர்வேட்டிவ்கள் அமெரிக்க டெமாக்ரடிக்களைவிட அதிகமாகவே லிபரல்கள். 40 மில்லியன் ஸ்பானிஷ் பேசும் ஹிஸ்பானிய அமெரிக்கர்களுக்கு அமெரிக்காவில் எந்தத் தனியுரிமையும் கிடையாது. ஆனால் க்யெபெக்கில் மாத்திரமே இருக்கும் ப்ரெஞ்சுக் குடிமகன் இரண்டுநாள் கார் பயணம் செய்து சென்றாக வேண்டிய அல்பெர்ட்டாவிலும்கூட ப்ரெஞ்சு உரிமைகளைப் பெறுவார். இதை எந்தக் கட்சி ஆட்சிக்கு வந்தாலும் மாற்றமுடியாது.

அதே போலே

• அடிப்படைக் கல்வி,
• இலவசக மருத்துவ உதவி,
• ஓய்வுக்காலப் பாதுகாப்பு,
• சிறுபான்மை (இந்தியர், சீனர்) குடிவரவு,
• தற்பாலர் உரிமைகள்,
• கருக்கலைப்பில் பெண்களுக்கான உரிமை,

போன்றவற்றை கனேடியர்கள் பொதுவாக ஏற்றுக்கொள்கிறார்கள். அதில் பெருமிதமடைகிறார்கள். இதில் தீவிர வலதுசாரிகளும் அடக்கம், நான் சம்பாதிக்கிறேன், நான்தான் பலனடைய வேண்டும் என்ற வலதுசாரி இங்கே எடுபடாது.

ஹார்ப்பர் வந்தால், கூடவே மெக்கெய்னும் வந்தால் அமெரிக்க அராஜகங்களுக்கு அடுத்த நொடியிலேயே துணைநிற்பார். ஸேரா பேலின் ஜார்ஜியாவைக் காப்பாற்ற என்று சொல்லி ரஷ்யா மீது படையெடுத்தால் ஹார்ப்பர் அவர்களுக்கு பூட்ஸ் பாலீஷ் போடுக்கொடுப்பார். அமெரிக்கா எண்ணைக்காகத் துளையிட்டால் ஹார்ப்பர் அதைவிட ஆழமாக அல்பெர்ட்டாவில் துளையிட்டு அந்த எண்ணையை டெக்ஸாஸ்க்கு அனுப்புவார். அமெரிக்காவை உதாரணம்காட்டி இங்கும் மாசுக்கட்டுப்பாடு தேவையில்லை என்று சொல்வார்.

பொதுவில் இழந்துபோன ஆஸ்திரேலிய, ஸ்பெயின் நட்புகளை அமெரிக்கா கனடாவின் தோழமையால் சரிகட்டிக் கொள்ளலாம். அல்பெர்ட்டாவில் மெக்கெய்-பேலினுக்குக் கோவில்கட்டி அங்கும் கருக்கலைப்புக்குத் தடைவிதிக்க முயல்வார்கள். பொதுவில் லிபரல்களான பிற கனேடியர்களால் இது தீவிரமாக எதிர்க்கப்படும். ஆனால் உருப்படியாக அமெரிக்க-கனேடிய பரஸ்பர ஒப்பந்தம் எதுவும் வரும் என்ற நம்பிக்கை எனக்கில்லை. ஏனென்றால் அந்த நிலையில் பயனடையப்போவது ஒண்டாரியோ மாநிலமாகத்தான் இருக்கும், சக்திவாய்ந்த ஒண்டாரியோ ஹார்ப்பருக்கு எப்பொழுதுமே தலைவலிதான். எனவே கனடாவுக்கு அமெரிக்காவிலிருந்து எந்த நன்மையும் வராமல் பார்த்துக்கொள்வார்.

ஹார்ப்பர் வந்து ஒபாமா வந்தால் அடுத்த நொடியிலேயே ஹார்ப்பர் அவரிடமும் நட்பு பாராட்டுவார். ஆனால் ஒபாமா தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்படாமல் இருக்க ஹார்ப்பர் ரிபப்ளிக்கன் கட்சிக்கு உதவ முயன்றதை ஒபாமா எளிதில் மன்னிப்பார் என்று தோன்றவில்லை. (ஜனநாயக் கட்சி ஆரம்ப கட்டத் தேர்தல் சமயத்தில், கனேடிய அரசு அதிகாரி ஒருவரிடம் தான் ஆட்சிக்கு வந்தால் கனேடிய நலன்கள் எந்த வகையிலும் மாற்றமடையாது என்று சொன்னார், உடனே கன்ஸர்வேட்டிவ் ஆட்கள் அதை அமெரிக்க ஊடகத்தில் பரப்ப ஒபாமா அமெரிக்க நலனுக்கு எதிரானவர் என்று ஹில்லரி முழங்கினார். கனேடிய பொதுநலனைவிட அமெரிக்க ரிபப்ளிக்கன்களின் நலன் முக்கியமா என்று எதிர்க்கட்சிகள் இங்கே வெடிக்க, அரசு அதிகாரி ஒருவரை பதவிநீக்கி ஹார்ப்பர் தன்னைக் காத்துக்கொண்டார்). ஒபாமா வருவது ஹார்ப்பருக்கு உவந்ததாக இருக்காது.

ஏதாவது அசம்பாவிதம் நடந்து லிபரல்கள் ஆட்சிக்கு வந்து மறுபுறத்த்தில் மெக்கெய்ன் ஆட்சிக்கு வந்தால் புஷ்ஷின் முதல் நான்காண்டுகளைப் போல கனடாவின் இருப்பை அமெரிக்க அரசு முற்றிலும் மறக்கும். வீராங்கனை பேலினுக்கு பஸ்மண்டை (nerd) டியோனை சீண்டி அழவிடுவது பொழுதுபோக்காக அமையும். அவரது அழுகையை மீண்டும் மீண்டும் ஒலிபரப்பி ரிபப்ளிக்கன் ஊடகங்கள் மாத்திரமல்லாமல் முழு அமெரிகாவுமே பொழுதுபோக்கு பெறும். குடியரசுக்கட்சியனர் எப்பாடுபட்டாவது கனடிய லிபரல் ஆட்சியை ஒழித்து கண்ஸர்வேட்டிவ்களைக் கொண்டுவர நன்றிக்கடனாக உதவுவார்கள்.

அந்த அசம்பாவிதம் இங்கே நடக்கும்பொழுது ஒபாமா ஆட்சிக்கு வந்தால் அமெரிக்க நலன்களுக்கு எதிராகக் கனடாவுக்கு உதவுவதாக ஒபாமாவை ரிபப்ளிக்கன்கள் சீண்டிக்கொண்டிருப்பார்கள். ஆனால் சில நீண்டகால ஒப்பந்தங்கள் உருவாகும். அதிகக் கூச்சல்கள் இல்லாமல் சில திட்டங்கள் நடக்கக்கூடும்.

ஆனால் எது எப்படியோ கிளிண்டன் போகும்பொழுது அமெரிக்காவும், க்ரெய்ட்ச்யென் போகும்பொழுது கனடாவும் பொருளாதாரத்தில் ஏறுமுகமாக இருந்தன. புஷ்ஷுக்குப் பிறகான அமெரிக்காவும் தற்பொழதைய வலதுசாரி அரசியலில் கனடாவும் பொருளாதாரச் சரிவில் இருக்கின்றன. இந்த நிலையில் அமெரிக்காவின் வேலைவாய்ப்புகளைக் கனடா பறித்துக்கொள்கிறது என்று அமெரிக்கார்கள் கூச்சலிடுவதையும் (இது அமெரிக்காவே முன்னின்று நடத்தும் உலகமயமாக்கலின் பின்விளைவுதான் என்பதை அமெரிக்கர்கள் உணர்வதாகத் தெரியவில்லை), கனடாவின் நீர், உலோகங்கள், பெட்ரோலியம், மரம் போன்ற இயற்கை வளங்களை அமெரிக்கா சூறையாடுகிறது என்று முனகும் கனேடியர்களும் பொருளாதாரச் சரிவு நிலையில் பரஸ்பர வெறுப்பைத்தான் உமிழப்போகிறார்கள் என்று தோன்றுகிறது. எல்லாம் நன்றாக இருக்கும் நிலையில் நட்பும் நன்றாகவே இருக்கும், கஷ்டகாலத்தில் நட்புகள் விரிசலடைவது இயற்கைததான்.

நான் இங்கே பொதுவான பார்வையைத்தான் வைத்திருக்கிறேன்.

பொருளாதாரம், பாதுகாப்பு, எல்லைப் பாதுகாவல், இயற்கை வளப் பகிர்வு, என்று பல விஷயங்களை விரிவாக அலச இங்கே இடமில்லை.

2. அமெரிக்காவுடன் ஒப்பிட்டால் கனடா அரசியலில் தெற்காசியர்கள் பெருமளவில் ஈடுபடுவதாக உணர்கிறேன். உண்மையா? இதனால் தமிழர்களின் நலன் முன்னெடுத்துச் செல்லப்படுகிறதா? அமெரிக்காவில் இந்திய வம்சாவழியினரின் தேர்தல் பங்களிப்பு குறித்த உங்கள் எண்ணங்கள் ப்ளீஸ்...

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