The February 16, 2017 post pictured the book cover of the Uncle Dave biography. But it is one of the prior titles. The latest revision was made upon the suggestion of the woman that owns Atlantis Bookstore, near the British Museum. i used to live on Coptic Street and we would see one another occasionally. She has been a real help with certain aspects of the book and she knows a great deal about publishing, quite unlike the school referred to in the 2/16/21017 post. The Atlantis book store owner thought the prior title did not cut it instead she suggested that I use his name and then describe the main thrust of the book. So I thought and thought and consulted the Niece’s Nexus(my female Dryburgh cousins). Cousin Pat suggested: ‘ A Family Born’. I think I cried when I got her email and then took her suggestion. But look back at the cover, Is not my uncle a handsome man? Somebody looked at the cover and remarked that I looked like him. Guess what I did? I am sure you correctly said to yourself: Cry. I was very touched. I would like to think that I look like him. You see I decided that my Dryburghness comes from being my uncle’s niece, not because I am my father’s daughter. My father is quite evil, if you knew the details you would agree. But I look at life in positive terms. I am my uncle’s niece and in researching and writing this book I have been able to lay claim to that title. But onto the promised fun times. On Valentine’s Day I tricked my personal trainer. I hate gyms so my personal training sessions often consist of walks and stretches. A couple of months ago during our walking and stretching sessions this is what happened. He was was stretching me in a park and a bystander yelled: some guy yelled: “Fire him. I want to be your personal trainer!” Then a few minutes later another guy yelled: “ How do you get to be a personal trainer. I want that job.” It is the truth, just ask Brian. But back to Valentine’s Day and how I tricked the trainer. I induced him to walk with a load of books destined for donation at the Oxfam store. I am giving away some books because I cannot take them all with me…obviously. Then after we di that I have a surprise idea. He said OK and off we went. We left the books off and I said: “Now we are going to Locos Mexicano for margueritas. He just laughed and said that I had tricked him because if if I would have told him about Loco’s to begin with he would have forced me to do the stationery bicycle for ten minutes first. We both justified the pitcher of booze because it was Valentine’s Day, after all.
Brian left and I lingered meeting this fantastically interesting Nigerian family. A man and his two adult children. I will write about them later but the experience was so curative. The embezzler mentioned in a prior post told me he was from Nigeria but his name, Carl Hart, is not Nigerian. But what did I know? It did not leave me with a good impression of Nigeria and several other women told me that Nigerian young men specialize in scamming older women. So So to meet this wonderful family of such fine and upstanding ways, educated, smart, contributing to their country and this country was exactly what I needed to correct my impressions of that huge country. I now look at Nigeria with different and more accurate eyes. Carl was just a bad example of being himself not anything else. Most women who are scammed do not admit it and hide in shame. I was really stupid to trust that thirty year old, who says he will repay me. I will believe it when I see it and Lloyd’s Bank was utterly useless. Have you seen that stupid ad that shows two men and some dumb caption about him saying yes? Utter drivel. They should do what they said they would do about recovering thievery.
But back to positiveness. I love Locos Mexicano on Wilton Road; their food, their booze, the ambiance and the staff are the nicest, sweetest people and they spoil me rotten. It is a slightly different version of Mexican food than I am used to but it is yummy. Locos has plans to open a new place somewhere by the sea and the manager is going there to open the new place. I did not write down the location of the new place but I guess it doesn’t matter because it isn’t open yet.
Another great thing I did is go shopping at Browns on Sloane Street. I stopped there after the drop off at my doctor’s office. I was attracted to the store because the windows contained some Instagram posting on their windows. I do not understand Instagram even though Valentine is setting up an account for me. So I went in to ask them about Instagram and then sort of accidentally looked at clothes and shoes. Looking back on it now I am thinking that Instagram was a trick. But once in the store I VERY rashly bought a beautiful coat to take with me to Canada. It is so very stylish but was rather expensive. But it did remind me of earlier times. When I was an adolescent my parents gave me a clothing allowance. (So they were not all bad. No one is that, all good or all bad.) I saved up my allowance and bought this really nice winter coat that was reversible, different patterns of blue. It was a perfect purchase because in Edmonton one wears their winter coats for months and months and months. So I was smart way back when. Now this is eerie. Guess what color the Brown’s coat is? It is blue. And because I have such a big mouth and tell people about my life the wonderful sales clerk whose name is Laila gave me a VAT thing and I will get money back when I go to the airport to travel to Canada. Score! I might take a picture of the coat when I pick it up next week and post the picture on this very blog. The coat is now being altered which is why I will be picking it up next week.
When I was at Dr. Sandberg’s office I got some help translating the letter mentioned in the 2/13/2017 post. Doctors are known for their illegible handwriting so I thought that help could be found at a doctor’s office and I was right. Now I know what the letter said, it is very sweet. It is like a love letter. All of that is well and good but I am leaving and living almost like a hobo for six months, It will be impossible to correspond. I guess I could give him my Canadian cousin’s address. Such a quandary!
