An Occasion That Is Best Ignored

Today is my birthday and I would first like to thank all those facebook friends who sent me their best wishes.

August 31, 2012

Of all the good wishes my favourite came from my former St. Edward’s High School classmate, James G. Kulleck who said it best in an email that came with the subject happy end of month:

Alex,
Just a greeting for an occasion that is best ignored. Hope all is well otherwise.
Jim

I think Jim indeed has it right.

Today my eldest daughter Alexandra Elizabeth Waterhouse-Hayward (44 on August 27th) and I went to the Vancouver Dance Centre to deliver a chair designed by Arthur Erickson and Francisco Kripacz. The chair was much too big for my car so Ale who was in town to celebrate our joint birthdays helped me as she has a Rav4 SUV. The chair is going to be a prop in some pictures I am taking for the fall arts preview for an upcoming Georgia Straight.

While there I told Ale, “Let’s go to the fifth floor and see what we can see. We went in a very large studio (the studio and the building designed by Arthur Erickson) and found the complete Ballet BC Company rehearsing under the watchful eye of its artistic director Emily Molnar and Rehearsal Director Sylvain Senez. We were there watching what Malcolm Parry calls the privilege view (what few people are able to normally see). At one point Molnar stopped to introduce me to her company. I felt most special on my birthday and my Ale realized that our day was unusual in a delightful way.

August 31, 1951

I was 55 when I met my good friend Abraham Rogatnick who was an old man and walked with a cane. He was 70 at the time. Rogatnick died a couple of years ago. A few weeks before he died we both agreed that after us there was nothing so we had to enjoy life while we were still alive. He gave me a papier-mâché skeleton (almost full-size) made in Mexico as a parting gift, “I want you to have it, Alex. I will be dead soon and I will not need him.” It is sobering to realize that today I am that old man even if I don’t yet walk with a cane.

I thought it right to take a self-portrait that would include my daughter. I chose a spot in our living room that has a portrait of my granddaughter (and Ale’s niece) Rebecca who was 15 on August 17. I used my latest craze film Fuji b+w Instant 3000 ISO film.




August 31, 2012

 This is Ale and her father exactly as they look today. Ale persuaded my Rosemary to also pose so here she is too. Both photographs and our evening at Hilary’s with a meal cooked by her husband Bruce Stewart and the presence of Rebecca and Lauren almost made up for what for me is always a melancholy day. It became even less so when I indulged in not one but two of Hilary’s home-made pies, a lemon meringue and a fresh cherry one. The lattice work on the pie was Rebecca’s .

After dinner and after Ale opened her presents (I don’t get any because I insist on not wanting any) Rebecca played a string of songs on the computer which began with Nick Lowe’s Cruel to be Kind and the Beatles’s Help. “Why,” I asked Rebecca are you playing these?” “Because these are your faves,” she answered.

Birth

Born on Monday, fair in the face;
Born on Tuesday, full of God's grace;
Born on Wednesday, sour and sad;
Born on Thursday, merry and glad;
Born on Friday, worthily given;
Born on Saturday, work hard for you living;
Born on Sunday, you will never know want.

Anonymous
Best Quotations for All Occasions - New and Revised Edition
Arranged and Edited by Lewis C. Henry
Doubleday& Company 1961

Ale was born on a Tuesday, Rebecca on a  Sunday and  I on a Monday. A very serious Rosemary stated, "I was born on Good Friday."

Three birthdays
My birthday but nobody called