September 5, 2019

"The Hell with the Bell" breakfast, sponsored by ARM - a yearly traditional, held in a golf course community room in Nepean - for retirees to celebrate retirement, and not going back to work!  I was invited as a guest of  Margaret Bryan, whom I sort of remembered from a workshop I went to years ago featuring Connie Cheung. [Margaret phoned me (ironically) when I was on the ferry to Fogo Island, in Newfoundland.  I couldn't much of anything she said, and phoned her  back later on, when I was back in Ottawa.] Amanda was also Margaret's guest, and we all sat at one of the round table, with about six other retired teachers.  I looked around the room and thought how much I actually don't like teachers in general!  Sounds crazy, but I've  never been particularly fond of teachers, especially on the Ottawa Board.  At Laurentian, there was a group of very cool teachers in the English Dept., but Woodroffe was a different story: some interesting people in the English Dept., but otherwise - well, I was also one of the oldest teachers on staff, and any social events were always geared to the younger population - seldom any attempts to bring the different age groups together. Anyway, the breakfast could have been one of those events from which I left early - but Amanda and I sat beside each other and talked the whole time - it was awesome!! Afterwards, we got our pictures taken outside in the gardens