dopo, après

Today is an odd day for me, the 25 march marks the date my paternal grandfather died in 1955 at 48 years old. He was a police detective and had been involved in all the big organized crime investigations in the 1940's. He died on a cold very windy winter night not so unusual back then as he walked to the Police Station just a few steps away from his home, he apparently had a serious heart condition but never mentioned it to anyone. The sad part for him was that he ended up at the City Morgue a place he dreaded. He left a widow and 5 boys.

Those were the days before social programs and pensions etc.... in Canada.

I was born a year later so I got his name Laurent in his memory.
One day is my birthday and the next his my grandfather's anniversary of his death. My mother always thought it strange that I was born so close to that anniversary. I was also baptized in my mother's family church in Ville Saint-Laurent, so I was destined to carry that name.


Here are pictures of my birthday cake from Thimblecakes in Ottawa. A wonderful place for cakes such talent.  thimblecakes.ca

Moka cake my favourite!

Auguri di Compleanno, Bon Anniversaire

Another year, a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer water down your pants. (Quote from the Mary Tyler Moore show). Birthdays are a funny thing for me, each year is different, different cities or continent, in all kinds of places. This year in Ottawa, though we are suppose to be in Spring now it is still cold and full of snow, however all this is set to change dramatically by Thursday when temperatures soar to 10C over night and a massive melt will start quickly, meaning floods, ah Spring in Ottawa.

I have many things to be thankful for on this Birthday, good health, good teeth, my dentist told me this week that for a man my age having all my teeth is remarkable. It seems that like 300 years ago most people in their fifties today have lost a large amount of teeth or are looking at dentures.

We have a nice home, friends, our dogs and each other. We still travel a lot, I have taken in my lifetime more trips to exotic, strange and foreign lands than anyone I know. I have seen 45% of the planet and have lived in many countries for extended part of my life. Going abroad for a few days does not appear on my chart. I have studied and learned foreign languages. I understand quite a few others and am not lost or put off by foreign cultures or mores when I travel.

I now work as a volunteer in two National Museums in Ottawa and I enjoy it immensely. Spending easily upwards of 50 hours a month doing volunteer work, it is like a second career and it is fun, something I always wanted to do and can now do. Not a bad life Maggie Muggins.

Here are some pictures of little me through the ages.

In Ville Saint-Laurent in our backyard in the little pool, I am about 5 yrs old with my little brother.

My first morning going to school, grade 1, on my own in Quebec City

On the train in Poland going from Warsaw to Krakow, 1998.

Italian Cooking School near Rome 2009

In Rome in 2013 at dinner at our friends house

With our Reesie in Rome in 2008 our first apartment on Via Asmara

 In Assisi in 2010

At dinner in Salzburg at the Sketch Bar, Hotel Bristol

With Nicky in Rome on Via dei Villini

On the old Via Latina, with one of the many old aqueducts, Rome

At the monastery of Pedralbes in Barcelona

 At Cap Sounion near Athens at sun down 2010

In the Silk Merchant Guild Hall in Valencia, Spain

Breakfast Italian style at the Hotel in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily  

On the Island of Capri

At the Festival in Salzburg the Karl Bohm Hall 

Infamous photo abroad the Azamara where I was mistaken for Karl Lagerfeld 

Café Bazar, Salzburg, my favourite café at Festival time.

The little wood house in which Mozart wrote his music, beautifully preserved in the garden of the Mozarteum in Salzburg

This for me is the most beautiful fountain in Rome, the Turtles fountain in the area of the Portico Ottavia and the old Ghetto

With Professor A. Testa on Easter Sunday in Rome 2010 

On Via Appia looking for Spartacus 

On board Air Transat going to Italy, a good airline 

Official song of this Blog.

Thanks to Ella Fitzgerald and this 1941 song, The Muffin Man, Larry Muffin at Home now has an official theme song.

A happy little song which I am glad to associate with my blog. Heard it on the radio the other day on one of those international Jazz radio stations, I think was broadcasting from France.

The Muffin Man lives in Drury Lane, that would be the Covent Garden neighbourhood in the West End of London.

regalo e passeggiata

It has been a busy weekend, a reflective one and an enjoyable one. Birthday Dinner on Thursday night with our friends Walter, Vincenzo and Larry at a Spanish Tapas bar at 79 Via Nomentana, Toros y Tapas. Then Friday night another dinner party this time at the Anatra Grassa (the fat duck), wonderful food with great wines to match every dish an elaborate menu of seafood and fish dishes prepared by Chef Giovanni Scomazzon.

Temple of Augustus, Ostia Antica, March 26, 2011

On Saturday we toured Ostia Antica the old port of Rome only 35 minutes by train from our home, never been there in 4 years but well worth seeing, in the evening we went to the Disco Volante on Via Alessandria with Brigitte and Collette. Today, Sunday it was lunch at the Antica Taverna Kosher del Ghetto at the Portico d'Ottavia, with all the wonderful Roman-Jewish specialties developed over 3000 years in Rome, no smoke meat or bagels here. We then walk across the old Fabricio Bridge to Trastevere for ice cream, the weather has been sunny and so Spring like in the last few days and now with the time change suddenly the days are longer. I have been spoiled by my friends with wonderful gifts.

Toros y Tapas, Via Nomentana, one of many wonderful gifts I received.

I am also reflective, I am at a junction and unsure about the future, I suppose we can never be sure of the future, the uncertainty, the anxiety, has to do more with returning to Canada and getting re-acquainted with life in North America.  Maybe I imagine it to be more difficult than it will really be. Walking today in Trastevere, looking at the Tiber river, I took a long look at it all, we visited the Church of Santa Cecilia built by Cardinal Aquaviva and Santa Maria in Trastevere. You need good walking shoes for the uneven cobbled streets, there is so much to look at, to appreciate. In the last few months this is what I want to do.

In Ostia Antica on the Cardo

At 55 in Rome

Well another birthday in another great setting. I am really fortunate, to be able to celebrate major birthday in great cities of the world, Mexico City, Cairo, Istanbul, Warsaw, Beijing, Rome.  It certainly makes up for not having a Betty Crocker Chocolate cake my Mom use to make, the icing was so sweet you felt your teeth growing cavities. Had wonderful parties through the years with good friends. This year is the same, lunch today at the Enoteca on Via Alessandria with Linda, Gail and Jolka. Tonite it will be Spanish Tapas at a nice restaurant on Via Nomentana. Tomorrow night we are going to the Anatra Grassa and chef Giovanni Scomazzon is preparing a special menu. This is what I enjoy the most and of course Will who always comes up with a special surprise. Even Nicky and Nora our little hounds came up with a bouquet of flowers, clever dogs. Apparently I can start getting some senior discounts as of today, amazing.

  1959, in front of our old black and white television at home, 52 yrs separate this photo from the top one. My hair is a little whiter.