the universe works in strange and amazing ways

so here i am
a few days ago i blog about making friends during my trip to thailand
and
in an absolutely unbelievable moment of chance
i ran into chaiya and lua
the subjects of my previous blog
i ran into them at the airport and they were arriving in ontario to bring lua to chaiya's hometown for lua's 1st birthday
it is funny because here we are after becoming fast friends in thailand
and meet again at an airport in ottawa
bizarre and fantastic
i could only surmise that the universe was loudly proclaiming
that we are meant to be friends!

Friends made in thailand

and somehow i always find the other canadian in the room
chaiya is in the middle with her gorgeous girl lua
and after much time in different places
is moving back to canada
just heard from her this week so guess this photo is a shout out

sawadee ka!

neuralgia neuritis or one of those electrical things

yep
been overdoing it
woke up this week with the tell-tale nerve compression, muscle tension caca
shooting electrical pain up into the base of the occiput and travelling inferomedially along the scapula with intermittent paresthesia travelling along the lateral aspect of my arm and to the tips of my fingers
and i thought wow
some nerve compression
and some nasty trigger points in traps and scalenes
pain is easing but it really sucked to have pain with movement
enough of the self diagnosis
and doing orthopaedic tests on myself
i need a massage!

The Picasso of the First Nations

...is often the way that Norval Morrisseau is mentioned and described
as a child, my parents infused me with a love of native Canadian art which I know I've talked about before
I have a silk screen on burlap circa late 50's early 60's of this master's work
all of the other art are products of the current generation of Native Ojibwa, Blood and Salish artists
If you happen to make it
there is an incredible exhibition of Norval Morrisseau's work until the end of April at the National Art Gallery of Canada

It is hard to ignore the work of someone who paints this...



The exhibit

oh the caca continues

well let's see
i have devoted too many weekends to prepping a house to sell it
and i remember the pitfalls of moving
it is unbelievably time consuming
and tiring and caca
and am feeling caged in!

sue had a lovely baby shower yesterday
the baby was bumping around and showing up for the event in waves
it was a nice break from the painting and cleaning
yuck