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01:31 - 11.08.06
In-ten-cities
Well the cat came back, he did. A sadder but wiser boy I think. Mr Mel arrived home yesterday, creeping in through my son's window. All he's wanted to do since then is crawl in our laps and cuddle. He's about the size of a toddler and snuggles up in the crook of one's arm in about the same way. He chose one of the hottest days of the year at about 32 C/90+ F to take off and he came back quite a bit thinner, even in so short a time. Between his long black fur and the running I'm guessing he did, it just melted off. Since then there have been several more cats coming to the front door. "Can Mel come out to play?" Not any time soon.

Swahili was the theme of the evening. You see in my office, during the election, quite a large number of my staff had it as a second or third language. Like English and French, there are many dialects all claiming to be the "right" one. I first recall hearing it spoken when I was training in the Survivors of Torture Program offered through the Calgary Red Cross. One of my fellow classmates had been born in East Africa and spoke 9 languages; most of which were in common use there. One lunch break he gave our class a lesson in some of the finer aspects of the language. What was fascinating was the way the language was adapted to indicate time and distance. No definitive words or measurements such as we are wont to use, but the length and intonation of the same word was the determiner for the people exchanging information. So for example, if someone said it was this "far"; far could sound like "fr" or "far" or "faar" or "faaaar" or Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar". By some conventions intrinsic to the community, there was an understanding of the relative difference in that one word. I was searching through youtube trying to find some different Swahili videos so I can actually develop an ear for it's usage around me. It isn't likely I'll ever understand the words, but each language and dialect has it's own unique signature after all. Think of the movie My Fair Lady that was adapted from the play Pygmalion. I have friends brought up in Britain and they insist that the more subtle among them can determine the neighbourhood or even the street where someone was raised by their "accent".

As I was digging around I came across some really interesting bits. This video appears to include John Lennon when on one of his sojourns in India. There was no way I could determine a date, so it could also be one of the wonderful parodies that the East Indians seem to delight in playing out. One of the really interesting things that arose as I was surfing was seeing the way cross cultural exchanges took place. One common denominator was the railroads that criss cross both Africa and India. One thing I would love to do - among many others - is travel around the world just travelling by trains in each country. One sees more than when flying over. When I was small our family travelled to our grandparents in Manitoba that way and it is still one of my happiest memories.

The surfing today was my reward for getting that last block of paperwork finished before starting on that new pre-writ assignment. I started working on that after dinner on Wednesday and finished up about 12 hours later. No breaks - just writing and editing. The thing that was different about that process is that the writing was a single piece. I often do spend that much time writing but it is usually several short reports interspersed with supporting documents like spreadsheets. Ended up with about 100 pages Times New Roman font 10, no double spacing, thank you very much. As you might have guessed I had portions of the text already started, but most of the work was done in those 12 hours. It was a catharsis in a major way, so I didn't even feel fatigued or hungry. All I wanted to do was have a seamless document at the end of the exercise. Called a cab around 9 this morning so that I could get it in the post as soon as possible. Part of that was because I was afraid that if I hesitated I might not follow through in submitting it, and the other part was that I wasn't certain how much more my body would allow after nearly two days without sleep. My lungs are not happy with the amount of smoke in the air and I had a pretty good migraine going on by the time I left the house. Turned out when I arrived at the post office I had brought the wrong paperwork so I had to buy new materials on the spot. Freudian slip I guess. It could have been the distractions on the news as well I suppose. When I turned that on at about 6 in the it was to be greeted by local weather warnings, a story of a major rush accident that occurred directly across from the local provincial legislature building added into that news from Britain - way to go Scotland Yard. All in all a very intense day for perceptions. My yongest and I also engaged in a discussion about near death experiences after we met my last tech and his family while out shopping for groceries. That story about the ghost in the election office being the trigger you see.

Right now I think I've finally unwound enough to actually sleep if I lie down. Good night dear diary.

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