Tag Archives: Canada

Lessons from a Portuguese Woman

February 1 1:37 pm ,

The View

She was in coveralls, smudged by soot from head to toe.

She had been cleaning the fireplace of one of the apartment she owns.  She did not look the part at that time – but I was looking at one of the more financially savvy immigrant septuagenarian of Vancouver.  Her eyes had confidence as it held mine, and kindness too, perceptible and palpable, the trait of ladies who have aged gently.  I could tell life has been good to her, because maybe she has been good to it.

I was a prospective renter and I engaged her in conversation because her story – which I knew from people who knew her for some time – greatly interested me.  She owned several apartments but she arrived in Canada without money, or possessions.  I wondered how that could be, what’s her story, and can it be duplicated?

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Posted in: Canada, Financial Education, Life Stories, Mentors , Tagged: , ,

The Journey is the Message

January 21 6:48 pm ,

The Color of Happiness

We were late.

We were going to beautiful Victoria in Vancouver Island and we overslept.  There was a forecast of sun and I peeked to the window, apprehensive, because we have not seen the sun in days.  It was out!  And the world was beautiful! At once, I was filled with panic.  It might disappear all too soon, as it is wont to do during these cold and dreary winter months (as we found out).  Slivers of sunshine are all we get, and I was determined to get my sliver.  I woke up everyone and hustled and bustled.

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Posted in: Canada, Random Thoughts, Travel , Tagged: ,

Life Summed Up in Boxes

January 8 3:49 pm ,

Looking Out Into the Great Beyond

How could we accumulate so much in just a few years? I asked myself this as I was surrounded by boxes, and choices.

What should I give up?  I wore this during our anniversary, and this during that party, and this was given to me by a favorite friend, and that by a favorite boss.  And the baby?  What does baby need?  Hubby… I wonder how many shoes he will bring (my Imelda man)…? And C’s violin, C must absolutely have her violin.  And her lyre! I must not forget her lyre.

But what does one do when she has to pack her family’s life in just 6 boxes?

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Posted in: Canada, Life Stories , Tagged: , ,

Of Antiques and Thrift Shops

January 5 7:02 pm ,

Giddy for Antiques

You love them.

You love the history of the thing, or the imagined history.  Which could be what you make of it, since history is written by the victorious anyway (those who lived to tell the tale), and it might be that the actual truth could be less rosy, or rosier, or be in the in-between (yeah, maybe not much there).

(fact could be fiction and fiction could be fact – but what is reality anyway?)

Well, I love them.

I have been fascinated by antiques since, well, I don’t really know.  I have not been exposed to them since houses in our family were demolished with abandon and new ones constructed and the old stuff (furniture, clothes, bric-a-brac, pictures, vinyl records) were stashed away some place or thrown or burned even before I had the consciousness for antiques.

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Posted in: Canada, Travel , Tagged: , , , ,

New Year, New Life

January 4 2:56 pm ,

Enjoying winter

 

Literally.  Because we took it a notch.  Er, notches.

Family and I – we just moved to Canada.  A country an ocean away, separated from us by 13 hours of flight time. A country of rugged beauty, incessant rains, warm winters (8 degrees is warm for them), trees with breadth longer than an arm span, quaint waterfalls and villages, deer that crosses roads at its peril, snow-capped mountains and seas in one sweep of the eye.  A country we have only begun to know.

But before I move on, please allow me to look back.

Because there are some things that I will be missing in my home country, the Philippines.

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Posted in: Canada, Life Stories, The Beginning, The Philippines , Tagged: ,