So I was at the Equinox (as usual) and talking to Hottie (as usual). I told him of this occurrence involving an umbrella and he said: “Serendipity!” To all of you with vocabulary difficulties the meaning of serendipity is: “ the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way, for example, a fortunate stroke of serendipity”.
This was the umbrella event which had occurred the day earlier also at the Equinox.
Me: Will you please get my umbrella. Hottie hid it on me.
Drawer: Oh, he put it away with your name on it.
Me: But I don’t really like that umbrella. Could you switch it for another?
Drawer: Of course! We have lost and found umbrellas and I could just give you one of those instead.
Me: Oh, thank you! You can pick it out for me please.
Drawer: I will be happy to.
So off he goes and he brings me back a white umbrella that proudly asserts that it is from the Rosewood Hotel. I am a bit nonplussed but happy and off I go. But this is what made that serendipity. Nestled on the first floor of the Rosewood Hotel on West Georgia Street is Hawksworth Restaurant, where Joo Kim Tiah and I had lunch twice, the first on July 6, 2017 and the last on August 14, 2017. I paid for lunch on July 6 even though everyone said that he would not allow it. But he did, and in the meantime, we had a fight and I wrote to him: “Sometimes a man will do anything to get out of paying for lunch when it is their turn.” He graciously had his personal assistant give me dates for the August lunch. Is that serendipity? Well, yes because it is always best to remember the good times when a relationship goes belly up. I have no desire to go back tp the Hawksworth but I have the umbrella and it shelters me.
Here is another strange occasion with an umbrella. Yesterday I was walking on Richards Street and a woman had her umbrella up.
Me: (in a friendly fashion) I don’t think it is raining at the moment
She: (very grouchy) Yes, it is!
Me: (wordless, but she was wrong, it was NOY raining, but nobody but me would have a strange encounter with a stranger like that).
So I went to the gym, cam home briefly, stopped at Kingston Taphouse o see when they served lunch but first went to the library. Thank goodness and another example of serendipity as I signed up for Introduction to Inspiration Lab, and it was the last available slot. Phew! I am going for many reasons but the chief one is that I am going to learn about making pod casts as someone (in fact many) suggested that I do pod cast as well as the blog. I am funnier in real life they say. I also got a great book, The Summer Guest and I will end the blog with a quote.
It was back to the Kingston Taphouse which is right across the street from Cafe Medina whose praises I have sung in my blog. But that place is ridiculous with waits of two hours for a table. Vancouver people can be such sheep. One can blame the tourists during the summer as the concierges steer them to the Medina. (Are there kickbacks? I do wonder in this city which is, at its core, corrupt). But this is not tourist season and the endless waits continue. I took a picture of me in front of the Kingston fireplace and posted it on Instagram (alexismctwit). I was reassured by the staff at the Kingston that if lines were to form as a result of my favorable review that I would ALWAYS be put at the head of the line, no matter what. I think I should get that in writing, come to think of it.
I met the most interesting man at the bar whose name was Chris as we talked and talked and talked and then his girl friend came and they left. He gave me some inside information but also asked me what my plans for the future entailed. It set me to thinking and remembering the lecture by Dr. Alan Bernstein featured in the December 7, 2017 post. He cautioned people not to overthink and plan because who knows where technology is going? He also said that the fastest growing segment of the population is people over 100. He is a scientist, this was not opinion. My parents were/are long lived and I am in excellent health. I may have many years ahead of me. Sorry world! hahahaha.
Then serendipity but it went bad. There was a junior hockey championship playing on the televisions which relates directly to Uncle Dave Dryburgh, the subject of my biography. But I will write about that another time and in another place.
Here is the promised quote from the book. One of the heroines of the book has been newly divorced and is on her own for the first time. “She tried now …..to take each unpredictable day as it came—but that didn’t exclude the occasional daydream of a perfectible future.” That is so profound. But the accompanying picture is not as profound. It is the bratwurst at the Kington Pubhouse. It was yum!
