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Oct. 20th, 2016 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljNext year is the country of Canada's 150th birthday and apparently there will be grand celebrations throughout the year, the grandest likely to be on Canada Day in Ottawa, the capitol city. But for New Year's Eve, there was funding granted to a number of cities to hold special celebrations leading into the new year and I believe Halifax was one of them. That means extra money for the New Year's Eve show apparently and they're advertising the biggest fireworks in Atlantic Canada. I don't know why that is. Any time I go to see fireworks here they last about 10 minutes tops. Never mind. I still like them. We got talking and decided to book a hotel and go to the outdoor free show at City Hall where there will be entertainment and the fireworks at both 11:30 (smaller, just to help the province of Newfoundland see in the New Year, they're in a time zone 30 minutes later so New year's comes there first. I dont' think it's broadcast in Newfoundland but there certainly are a lot of Newfoundlanders living here) and then the one for Halifax. Since the show doesn't start until 10:30, we'll have a nice dinner somewhere first. Nothing too fancy because I don't want to get all dressed up. It'll be cold outside. It almost always is quite cold that night. If the weather is bad, the show will be cancelled but otherwise, it'll be fun. Then we just half to walk a few blocks to the hotel afterwards. We could take the bus home. The transit system is free after 6 on NYE and hours are extended until about 2 a.m. so people don't have to drink and drive. But why not? Our first proper NYE together here in Canada.
We did get to spend it together once, back in 2004 into 2005. I flew to the UK though it was delayed a couple of days due to a big storm here. I got there in time for it, though and we had a nice evening. We went to London for a couple of days before I came home as well.
Anyway. The hotel I booked is in a heritage building with lots of antiques. I got a government rate so saved a bit of money. You know what it's like on New Year's, a lot of places jack up the prices and the restaurants will all have "special" New Year's menus at double the price but I figure if we're going to splash out on a nice meal, we could try to save money on the hotel to balance it out. Will have to keep an eye on the advertisements in December when the restaurants start advertising their New Year's menus and prices. I know most of the hotels do something and perhaps the one we're staying at will as well. They are supposed to have a nice dining room. We could then dress up a little for that, then change and head to the parade square. We'll see.
More books read:
The Secret World of Og - Pierre Berton
A children's book, illustrated by his daughter. Berton is a well known Canadian journalist who wrote quite a few non-fiction books both history and politics. This was the only children's book he wrote and he wrote it for his own kids, writing each of their names in as the characters. A teacher read this to our class back in school and I always wanted to read it again. I found a copy on Amazon and bought it. I'll save the book for when my niece has a baby and give it to her. Siblings find a nether world beneath their play house and have to descend to find their baby brother who was "kidnapped" by the little green Ogs. Grand adventure!
The Birth House - Ami McKay
About a young woman that works with an older woman who is a midwife in the pre-WWI days in a small village in Nova Scotia. The doctor in a nearby town is opening a home for pregnant women and trying to abolish midwifery. Very much enjoyed this
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien
This one is up for a lot of awards including the Man Booker and the Giller (the top Canadian fiction prize). I haven't read any of the others on either shortlist but this one is very good. the main characters are three musicians and the environment is communist China in the 60s to 90s including the major social and political changes, the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the aftermath as the daughter of one of the three tries to find out what happened to the daughter of one of the others, a young woman who was involved in the protest in 89. Music is a strong theme throughout the book and the writing is very good.
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Another book I had read in high school and wanted to revisit. Most of the ones I've reread were books where I remembered the basic plot and whether I liked it or not, then when I read it again, discovered I remembered very little about it after all so it was like reading for the first time. Some of the ones I've re-read I enjoyed more than I thought I would or more than I did back then. One or two I disliked more now than then but I did like this one though he did ramble on tangents at times. The translation was pretty good, easy to read, not so stiff and dry like some can be. A poor student decides to kill an old woman, a pawnbroker to verify his theory that superior people do not have to obey the law, it's not for people like them. He believes he is one of them but of course he is not and by the end, he is ready to atone for it.
The Virgin Cure - Ami McKay
McKay's second book takes place in New York in the 1870s following a 12 year old girl, Moth, who is sold by her mother to a wealthy woman to be a housemaide. The woman abuses her and she runs away. She ends up in a house of ill-repute being trained to be a prostitute but not the raggedy kind that walk the streets. She is a virgin and this madame makes good money selling off virigins to the highest bidder, many of whom are probably suffering syphillis, thinking that deflowering a virgin can cure them. There is intervention by a woman doctor who tries to help Moth who has ambitions of her own. Pretty good story. It was inspired by McKay's discovery that she had a female anscestor that was a doctor working with the downtrodden of New York. There are period ads and newspaper articles but unfortunately my ebook reader couldn't enlarge them so I couldn't read them. I'm sure it would have added to the story. Other than that, I would recommend it, in paperformat if you can get it.
We did get to spend it together once, back in 2004 into 2005. I flew to the UK though it was delayed a couple of days due to a big storm here. I got there in time for it, though and we had a nice evening. We went to London for a couple of days before I came home as well.
Anyway. The hotel I booked is in a heritage building with lots of antiques. I got a government rate so saved a bit of money. You know what it's like on New Year's, a lot of places jack up the prices and the restaurants will all have "special" New Year's menus at double the price but I figure if we're going to splash out on a nice meal, we could try to save money on the hotel to balance it out. Will have to keep an eye on the advertisements in December when the restaurants start advertising their New Year's menus and prices. I know most of the hotels do something and perhaps the one we're staying at will as well. They are supposed to have a nice dining room. We could then dress up a little for that, then change and head to the parade square. We'll see.
More books read:
The Secret World of Og - Pierre Berton
A children's book, illustrated by his daughter. Berton is a well known Canadian journalist who wrote quite a few non-fiction books both history and politics. This was the only children's book he wrote and he wrote it for his own kids, writing each of their names in as the characters. A teacher read this to our class back in school and I always wanted to read it again. I found a copy on Amazon and bought it. I'll save the book for when my niece has a baby and give it to her. Siblings find a nether world beneath their play house and have to descend to find their baby brother who was "kidnapped" by the little green Ogs. Grand adventure!
The Birth House - Ami McKay
About a young woman that works with an older woman who is a midwife in the pre-WWI days in a small village in Nova Scotia. The doctor in a nearby town is opening a home for pregnant women and trying to abolish midwifery. Very much enjoyed this
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien
This one is up for a lot of awards including the Man Booker and the Giller (the top Canadian fiction prize). I haven't read any of the others on either shortlist but this one is very good. the main characters are three musicians and the environment is communist China in the 60s to 90s including the major social and political changes, the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the aftermath as the daughter of one of the three tries to find out what happened to the daughter of one of the others, a young woman who was involved in the protest in 89. Music is a strong theme throughout the book and the writing is very good.
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Another book I had read in high school and wanted to revisit. Most of the ones I've reread were books where I remembered the basic plot and whether I liked it or not, then when I read it again, discovered I remembered very little about it after all so it was like reading for the first time. Some of the ones I've re-read I enjoyed more than I thought I would or more than I did back then. One or two I disliked more now than then but I did like this one though he did ramble on tangents at times. The translation was pretty good, easy to read, not so stiff and dry like some can be. A poor student decides to kill an old woman, a pawnbroker to verify his theory that superior people do not have to obey the law, it's not for people like them. He believes he is one of them but of course he is not and by the end, he is ready to atone for it.
The Virgin Cure - Ami McKay
McKay's second book takes place in New York in the 1870s following a 12 year old girl, Moth, who is sold by her mother to a wealthy woman to be a housemaide. The woman abuses her and she runs away. She ends up in a house of ill-repute being trained to be a prostitute but not the raggedy kind that walk the streets. She is a virgin and this madame makes good money selling off virigins to the highest bidder, many of whom are probably suffering syphillis, thinking that deflowering a virgin can cure them. There is intervention by a woman doctor who tries to help Moth who has ambitions of her own. Pretty good story. It was inspired by McKay's discovery that she had a female anscestor that was a doctor working with the downtrodden of New York. There are period ads and newspaper articles but unfortunately my ebook reader couldn't enlarge them so I couldn't read them. I'm sure it would have added to the story. Other than that, I would recommend it, in paperformat if you can get it.
