Macy, the 8 month old puppy of Carly & Mark, is staying with us for a week while they are in California visiting Carly's older brother. Macy still likes her old bed even though she clearly has outgrown it by now. Here is the new big bed, at the moment unused....
Shayd & Hilary were visiting friends in Vancouver last weekend where - among other activities - they attended baby-shower. Hilary send us the above photo of the father-to-be. Funny....
Kind of funny to see my brother-in-law Bert in Holland on a hometrainer. He was one of the toughest outside cyclists I have know, going on long solo trips on the bike from the south of France back to their home in Holland (with only a mini little tent and just a bit of clean underwear, I believe). But he is now 84 and had a couple of difficult years with his health (at the moment worries about his heart). That is not so funny of course, but the photo my niece Monique sent me of her parents did make me smile....
Going through old photos last week, I found two snapshots of 1991 taken during the years I was tasked to get the Canadian branch of Doctors without Borders (MSF) off the ground. I was asked to do this by my colleagues of MSF Holland with a nice group of Canadian enthusiastic volunteers. The one sitting on the ground in between Mary and me (yes, she participated in a variety of meetings those days) is James Orbinski. He was then a recently graduated medical doctor who had done an internship in Rwanda and had a sincere interest in international medicine. Long story short, years later (1999-2000) he held the position of International President of the MSF council of operational MSF sections, and gave in Oslo the acceptance speech when MSF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. Funny how things go in one's life and experiences. During those years we held most of our volunteer team meetings in a bar below our small office in Toronto.....
