This one is for you ANWAR!

I would like to dedicate this one to a good friend Anwar -- a sad little class 1 mutant who has the power to call me at any time and convince me to go and see the latest movie with him! ;-P Anwar is a movie critic for the NEW STRAITS TIMES and we have been film buddies and fanatical X-MEN fans for a while now. He emailed me today to say how much he liked my blog and tell me he missed me.

He also asked me to make a list of things that warm my heart. This is for you Anwar:

THINGS THAT WARMED MY HEART RECENTLY:
1. Getting an email from Anwar
2. Reading Anwar say he missed me and wanted to call me to see a movie before he realised I was in Canada
3. Getting an email from Terri who said that she couldn't wait to read my new entries
4. Something that Devon said to me last weekend (Can't really write it here)
5. Finding an old mask I had made a few years ago (and if you want to see it someone will have to ask me to post it ....because, ah!,...I am lazy to do, ah! So TIRED honh!)

Today was a fun day, mostly dealing with my student loans and getting that sorted out. I am looking at getting them paid off in totality within a few months -- Yippee!

I did my interview today with BC Morocco for the two month contract in January and February. It went well I think and they will let all applicants know who will be offered the positions by next Wednesday.

I washed a lot of machinery to get it ready for the auction sale and completely cleaned up a boat that my grandfather built from scratch back in 1954. Grandpa was amazing in that he could do and build anything. He was really an engineering genius. He built tractors and vehicles from scratch, including the boat, he taught himself to play the violin by ear, and he could do the most complex algebra equations with ease.



Just for Terri, here is a picture of the farm -- the WHOLE farm: house, barn, sheds, silo, etc.

Perhaps to spice up this entry, I'll have to share a little something special, a piece of family history that will leave with me (if no one else). Years ago, after both my grandparents died, we found a love letter, a valentine actually. My grandmother had written it to my grandfather...

It reads as though the poem itself is talking to him telling him that it will be a reminder of her love throughout the coming year. It is really quite cute and also very romantic--not at all what we thought of them (on a good day they fought like two tasmanian devils who hadn't slept -- the WB kind). But what is miraculous is that I can't find this poem online and I wonder if my grandmother didn't come up with this on her own. Not sure when it was written but it was at a time when a stamp was 3 canadian cents!

So here's the deal, I'll post the first line of the poem here and if anyone can find the rest of it and the author I will send them a bottle of real canadian maple syrup -- don't worry, it's halal! The payoff for me in all this is to learn whether or not this is an original work by my grandmother!

Here's the first line:

"Your talisman and guiding star I'll prove thoughout the coming year"



hope to hear from people soon:

email me at markallanaugustine@yahoo.ca