Rob and Justin

"Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

 It's been a bad week for fans of Rob Ford and Justin Bieber.  The latest videotapes of our mayor behaving badly surfaced on YouTube in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.  The mayor was in The Steak Queen Restaurant engaged in a mostly undecipherable rant using a Jamaican accent and cursing in both English and Patois.  I could understand little of it though I was pretty disgusted by the parts I did understand.  Apparently, our sworn to stay sober mayor, fell off the wagon.  While that in and of itself is unremarkable, that he continues to behave the way he does in a public space and with "friends" that somehow think it's acceptable to videotape and then publicly reveal his behavior is nothing less than astounding.  By the time the second tape from that same late night visit to a local hangout surfaced, I wasn't even one bit surprised to see that he was there with his old friend Sandro Lisi.  Perhaps the most intriguing part of it all is how little outrage his behavior seemed to cultivate in the population of our city.  By the time a day had passed, people had moved on, the common consensus being that everyone is entitled to a private life and this is his.

I'm sure the mayor was happy to step out of the spotlight today when the news shifted to the arrest of Justin Bieber for street racing and driving under the influence.  Poor Justin.  Like so many who have gone before him, we are watching another young star implode.  I listened with interest to the comments made by some of the residents of his hometown Stratford.  While they could empathize with his youth, they believed he must be held to a higher standard than other people his age.  He is after all, a role model.  I didn't hear a single person suggest Justin is entitled to a private life.

So there is the disconnect.  Our mayor, a fully grown man, elected official, creator and keeper of the law is entitled to his private life.  Never mind that he smokes crack and marijuana, drinks to excess and then gets in his car and drives.  So what if he associates with gangsters, drug dealers and even murderers.  He's not as bad as Justin Bieber, nineteen year old singer, wannabe actor and teen heartthrob.  Justin drove under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.  He's associating with the wrong crowd.  I guess I'm crazy to think the higher standard that Justin is being held to, should apply to real public figures like our mayor.  My bad.

Back to the Land of the Living

“My dear doctor, I’m surprised to hear you say that I am coughing very badly, because I have been practicing all night.” John Philpot Curran 

In spite of getting my annual flu shot, once again this year, I managed to get the flu.  I was living on the river in Egypt on Friday night but by Saturday morning I realized that denial wasn't a good strategy for fighting this bug.  It started as fatigue and chest congestion.  Within a day, it was muscle aches and a relentless cough that made sleep all but impossible.

Merv is spending the week working in The Bahamas and I had the week earmarked for some messy projects that I wanted to work on without the need for tidying up in between.  But the closets are still uncleaned and the two tables I desperately wanted to refinish are in their original condition.  I did manage to make a few pieces of jewellery though a couple of the necklaces still need clasping and I did not have the necessary materials.  I didn't make them for anyone in particular though, so they will keep until I can get downtown to the bead store.

Fortunately I've improved considerably in the last couple of days.  That allowed me to host dinner for my old work friends.  I do love these dinners that we have two or three times a year.  They give me a chance to remember who I used to be and what I used to dream of for my life.  Because I'm still tired, I didn't go to the same lengths I usually do to make a gourmet meal but I don't think anyone minded.  I made a simple dinner of chicken breasts stuffed with goats cheese, pesto and sun dried tomatoes and a medley of roasted root vegetables with yellow beets, carrots, parsnips and onions.  It was yummy.  To cap off the meal, Julie treated us to an amazing hazelnut, raspberry torte. 

It's been a long day but a good day.  I'm tired now.  The dishes are mostly done thanks to the efforts of Julie and Colleen and for that I'm grateful.  The rest of the clean up won't take more than a half hour tomorrow morning.  My darling big sister Nancy will celebrate her 67th birthday tomorrow.  Cath and I will take her out for lunch and then some shoe shopping.  It will be another full day but a happy day, no doubt.  Even flu can't keep me down for long.

Frozen

"Let the storm rage on! The cold never bothered me, anyway." - Elsa from the movie Frozen

I'm trying hard to cope uncomplainingly about the deep freeze we're in.  I know Toronto isn't as bad as some other places but still it's awfully cold.  Monday was so icy I made the decision early in the day that I wouldn't even venture out.  But in the early evening Sara called and asked if I would drive her to a friend's house.  Crawling along the frozen streets I was reminded of why I wanted to stay home.  Yesterday wasn't a whole lot better but I couldn't bear another day stuck in the house.  Courtney is still with us for the week.  We did a little shopping at Bayview Village where the parking lot was empty and then headed home to watch a few episodes of Downton Abbey on DVD.  Courtney has become hooked.  Last evening Court, Sara and I headed to Fairview to see the new Disney movie, Frozen.  I couldn't quite believe that I was going to a Disney movie with two grown women but it is the film they wanted to see.  I was surprised to find the theatre filled with adults.  There were a few ill behaved children to spoil the quieter moments but it was mainly adults, men and women.

Frozen was my first Disney movie since taking Jacob as a little boy.  It is a girlie movie and in that regard, it was my first.  I don't even recall watching girlie Disney movies when I was a girl.  As much as I hate to admit it, Frozen was a good choice.  It was sweet and funny, spirited and moving.  The plot was a detour from the usual princess in love story to a story about the love between sisters.

Today I gave in to the deep freeze all the way and drove downtown to shop for beads on Queen Street.  My concerns about having to park far away and walk in the bitter cold were unwarranted.  The street was virtually empty and we parked at a meter in front of the store.  The $2.45 cufflink backs I went to buy, morphed into $200 worth of beads.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet but I'm sure over the course of the next few days, they will tell me what they would like to become.  When I got home from the bead store, I found that I received a shipment from Karibu beads today of the African clay beads I order from time to time.  I had rather forgotten about the order but was pleased to note that some of those beads will work nicely with what I bought today.

Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to rise a little and a little more on Friday.  It's only January.  Something tells me it's going to be a long, cold winter.