WALK, Bike, Swim In Budapest

We really filled up Friday! The hotel Jason found for us had amazing breakfast brought to our room each morning, so we enjoyed that in bed. (brie and bacon on a bagel, which ended up having cream cheese, fig jam, and micro greens to, plus macaroons, croissants, lattes, freshly squeezed orange juice and more - you pick from a menu the day before.)

A small group of us went to the large church near by to catch a free walking tour. Now that I think of it, since I am writing this a few days later while in Romania, I had wanted to return to the church to see inside but never got to. Oh well, next time I am in Budapest I will need to remember to visit  St. Stephen's Basilica and check out the thousand-year-old mummified hand they have on display (supposed to have belonged to Saint Stephen I of Hungary and is an important religious relic.)

The walking tour was great, I love those free ones where you tip at the end. Though Teri accidentally told them when we went to check in that we had more people added into our group and they charged us in advance instead. However, the 'cost' was still less then we probably would have tipped.

Our guide took us through the Jewish Quarter, main square, to the river, over The Chain Bridge to the Castle District, then up the hill passed the Royal Palace and President's House, over to the Matthias Church. So the tour was book-ended but the cities two famous churches. Matthias Church, or Church of Our Lady of Buda is very impressive and very old. It is hard to wrap my head around the age of things hear - it is an issue every time I visit Europe but things seem even older here than usual.

After the tour we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, Jason tried Goulash soup and I got Foie Gras:
Hungary is the world's second-largest foie gras producer and the largest exporter. France is the principal market for Hungarian foie gras – mainly exported raw. Approximately 30,000 Hungarian goose farmers are dependent on the foie gras industry. French food companies spice, process, and cook the foie gras so it may be sold as a French product in its domestic and export markets. - Wikipedia
I did find the Hungarian version to be different than the French, they don't add spices, it is much smoother, creamier, and apparently cooked in it's own fat (instead of in a dish or pan). The Hungarian cuisine is, according to our walking tour guide, "not friendly to vegetarians, very heavy with many meats." I have been loving it!!

The group split apart soon after lunch, as Jason and I went to the Buda Castle Labyrinth to walk through the complex of caves and cellars underneath Castle Hill. Apparently there is over 10km of pathways, though only about 1.5km is open to the public. It is a really strange attraction, a combination or incredible history, urban legends, tacky exhibits, and confusing maze. It was dark (scary) and cool (nice in this heat). The caves themselves are obviously millions of years old and over the centuries parts have been reinforced with stone, brick and concrete. In the Middle Ages as a shelter, a prison and even as Turkish harem in the 16th century. The underground tunnel system also served as a hospital during the WWII. And despite some claims, while it was a prison at some points, it never housed Vlad the Impaler.

Trying to make our way south from the Castle District to visit the Gellert baths, on the far side of Gellert hill, led us to explore some of the castle walls and grounds. Lots of walking, lots of beautiful buildings and interesting history.

Salem In October

Yesterday we went to Salem, which is just north of Boston. (It is actually on their commuter rail system it is so close, but we drove.) The town is really busy in October and was so beautiful. I definitely want to go back. The historic homes are incredible, they have houses dating back to the 1600s. There was a lot that we didn't get to see, just being there for a day. It is a harbor town and we didn't even make it down to the waterfront area. We were mainly there to learn more about The Salem Witch Trials.

If you don't know about this strange point in American history, I really suggest you look it up. The Wikipedia entry linked above gives a decent overview but I am sure there are other sites as well. Both Kristen and I consider this a common knowledge point but there are so many historic events in the USA it seems it isn't as known about as I had assumed. There is also a lot of miss information, and the Salem Trials get confused with facts from those that occurred in Europe.

Here are some things I was surprised about:
- Not as many deaths as I had thought, they 'only' executed twenty people
- Trials are well documented, there are surviving transcripts from witness interviews
- They relied on spectral evidence, which was a thing
- It all ended when the Governor's wife got accused
- They didn't 'test' the women in water, might have been a European thing
- Starts with accusations from afflicted children
- Along with sexism issues, racism was a factor too

New Look Too!

For the past two and a half years, Always Standing has looked like this:

Before making the design change to the basic burgundy appearance above, the blog was purple and had a pretty filigree-ish pattern.  I think this new one has humming birds in the background - I am almost always using a split screen on my computer so the window for the blog is too small to see much of the edges. What do you think of the new peach-coloured look?

Doctor Numbers

Flying home today and I still keep thinking about the intercom call for a doctor that happened on our flight down. It seems like such a strange policy. And for sure it is some type of policy because airlines have procedures for everything. I decided I wanted to look at the numbers:

Cooling My Feminist Jets
So, I had been very happy/surprised that it was a female doctor answering the call. Turns out, not that rare. There is probably still a wage gap, and possibly still a 'senior position' gap, but the gender gap for Canadian doctors has shrunk considerably. 41% are female; 59% are male. Two thirds (64%) of family physicians under age 35 are female.

What About Specialists
Almost half of the over 83,000 Canadian doctors are specialists of other disciples, instead of Family Medicine. Students in medical school in Canada will experience many fields of medicine and decide on their specialty during 3rd or 4th year. After that choice, residency training can be anywhere from 2 years (Family Medicine) to 6 years (Neurosurgery). Most specialties are a 5 year program. So they have the medical base, but a specialist can really be pretty specialized, and there are 37 specialties available in Canada. Would a urologist be that much help to someone who fainted in a plane?

Seems Like A Long Shot
Based on the total population of Canada there is only about 1 doctor for every 500 people. The plane we were in seats 100. That is a 0.2% chance there would be a doctor on board. When looking at people who fly, mainly those who can afford to fly, than doctors would be more likely to be on board a plane while the general population less so - this increases the chance. Often planes would be larger than the jet we were one, increasing the passengers to maybe 200. Huge planes can have more than 600 seats (in a two-tiered class configuration. Actually 800 in single-class, but I have never seen that.) I still don't like the odds, or many I don't like the fact that they are relying on odds.

Improve Your Odds
If they had asked "Is there a doctor or nurse on board" that would really improve the chances of a generally trained health care professional. There are lots of different types of nurses, including those in advance nursing practice, like nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists. There are 4 times as many nurses as doctors in Canada.

Source information:
Look at me citing things like a good girl who went to university and grad school!
- Canadian Institute For Health Information
- The Canadian Medical Association
- University of British Columbia Medical School
- AirBus Corporate Site, Aviation Blogs

Further Reading:
I am like my own Wikipedia article here. If you found this as fascinating as me, the likelihood of that might be small, then these are some interesting international articles on the same topic:
- July 2017 - ABC News (Australia) - Is there a doctor on board? What happens during a mid-air medical emergency
- March 2017 - The Telegraph (UK) - What really happens during a medical emergency at 35,000 feet
- January 2017 - Singapore Medical Journal - What to do during inflight medical emergencies? Practice pointers from a medical ethicist and an aviation medicine specialist
- April 2013 - Quartz (USA) - What it’s like to be the “doctor on board”, and why airlines shouldn’t be relying on them

More Rhymes For March

I am really into this whole March - In like a lion, out like a lamb thing! I keep going back to it. Have to say, it is a much better than my usual internet wormholes that normally end up with me reading long, detailed Wikipedia articles about serial killers.

Here are some other proverbs related to this month:

A dry March and a wet May? 
Fill barns and bays with corn and hay.

As it rains in March, so it rains in June.

So many mists in March you see
So many frosts in May will be.

A Peck of March-Dust, and a Shower in May
Makes the Corn green, and the Fields gay.

March many-Weathers rain’d and blow’d
But March grass never did good.

I can't really get that last one to rhyme. How are they pronouncing blow'd so that it matches good? Also, it isn't a word, the past tense is blew. Really that one is just terrible. Lastly, there is an expansion on the well known one, that includes March:

March winds and April showers? Bring forth May flowers.

One of my favourite jokes as a kid was, "If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims." Oh, so clever. (And distinctly American.)

History In A Dot

I was shown a really cool website at work. It has won a lot of design awards and I can see why! Pulling articles from wikipedia the designer has created an interactive timeline that spans across 14 billion years of history. It is a beautiful way to represent data and allows you to scroll though based on time or subject.

View the website here: Histography.

It was made by a designer/developer Matan Stauber.

Dad's Cactus

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A Sunday post about my Dad, named after a song that he loved.

My dad really loved cacti. He was always looking for the most photogenic one on trips. He also grew some at home. Mom is less fond of them so just over a year ago she let me take home the biggest one in his collection. She also moved most of the rest of them outside, under the guise of protecting the cat, but really I think that if they died a 'natural' death from the Canadian cold she would feel better about getting rid of them.

I am doing really well with Dad's cactus, it is was big already but has pushed over two feet tall since I brought it to Toronto. I have re-potted it, which is super challenging and involves multiple people, tongs, thick gloves, and lots of towels. It is also a pain to move since you can't hold it against your chest and the new pot is quite heavy. On the most recent move I got cut by one of the spikes and it bled forever.

Besides knowing that the spikes can be dangerous, there isn't much I really understood about the plant. I asked one of Jason's friends who is exceptionally knowledgeable about succulents (which cacti are.) I sent him some photos and he has said that it is for sure a Cereus cactus, which I want to pronounce as Serious Cactus, but that isn't the correct pronunciation unfortunately.

He also guesses that more specifically it is a cereus monstrose, which is an Apple Cactus. This is mainly in Peru and gets really great flowers, though mine never has. It can grow super tall so I am hoping to keep tending it well (even though it is a challenge to have in the house because of the spikes) so that it can get really big.

Cadence At The Equinox

Happy Spring

Cadence on Sunday March 20, 2016

Photo by Taylor

I didn't know that yesterday was the first day of spring, I am really bad about following the Spring and Fall equinox. And there is so much to learn about the first day of spring and equinoxes (equinoxi?) Also it turns out that in the Summer and Winter it is a Solstice and not an Equinox, I thought the words were interchangeable.

Pantherday

------- from The Internet

Taylor sent this to me a while back. I always used to say that Binx looked like a panther. Also, I hate that I now know that "panthers" aren't even really a thing! It is just the darkest colour variant in Leopards and Jaguars. So Binx was a mini-panther and Two is a tiny-tiger.

Good Old Paper Map

I like GPS in its simple definition:
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The system provides critical capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver. (from Wikipedia)

The term GPS used normally, usually means a GPS receiver or navigation device like Tomtom or Garmin. So while I like the system in general, I don't like the devices very much. As Teri knows from our recent road trip, I don't like having a GPS receiver determine a route and following its verbal/basic visual direction. I don't trust them, especially now that things like Google Traffic are using GPS data to first analysis traffic flow/issues and then providing route suggestions. That seems better than just GPS. In general I want more information than a computer generated route . I also want to understand the bigger picture and review my options.

Some people just turn them on and go. For example, my mom spent the last week at a rug hooking school in West Virginia with a friend. They drove back to the Brantford area yesterday. She sent me the following email:

Got home from an exciting and exhausting week "hooking" in West Virginia. Getting back took longer than anticipated. Never blindly trust a GPS! Luckily we were looking for a rest stop and saw a sign that indicated a Maryland rest stop. At that point we both said "We didnt come down here through Maryland". Turns out Jennifer had turned on the "no toll roads" button and it considered the Peace Bridge a toll road so was sending us home via the bridge near Kingston.

I need way more data sources than just a GPS, I also want to reference Google Maps, various tourist maps found in brochures, and even an old fashion printed road map. I like maps.

A Western Collective

Teri: "Wow, there are a lot of Best Western's out here. I wonder if this is where they started? I wonder if that is why the word 'western' is in the name?!?"

So she looked it up....

According to Wikipedia....

YES! Best Western began in the years following World War II. At the time, most hotels were either large urban properties or smaller family owned roadside hotels. In California, a network of independent hotel operators began making referrals of each other to travelers. This small and informal network eventually grew into the modern Best Western hotel chain founded by M.K. Guertin in 1946.

But what we were even more excited about was the fact that it isn't really a franchise thing, but instead is a Marketing Cooperative! It is always great to hear about businesses that work together.

It's What's Inside That Counts

We took a tour in the Mission District of San Francisco today. (This is where Foreign Cinema is located as well, the place we went for brunch yesterday.) We had booked into an early evening tour of the historic San Francisco Armory.

San Francisco Armory

Photos taken by ME with my phone

According to Wikipedia (as well as what we heard on the tour): The building was constructed as an armory and arsenal for the United States National Guard between 1912 and 1914. It was built to replace the old San Francisco Armory that had been elsewhere, which had been destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. In addition to its role as an armory and arsenal, during the 1920s, it served as a venue for sporting events, mainly boxing prizefights.  The Armory was a stronghold and rallying point for the National Guard in their suppression of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, also known as "Bloody Thursday." The building closed as an armory in 1976, when the National Guard moved its facilities. After 1976, the building was largely unused for the next 30 years, though in 1978 the building was registered as a historical landmark.

Then, in 2006, it was bought by a production company. The SF Armory is now home to the elaborate and cinematic sets that have since been constructed for use as production studios. So, while we learnt about the building's history, we also toured the sets. Check out this dungeon one:

Dungeon Set - SF Armory

Taken by ME with my Phone

Between 1978 and 2006, when the SF Armory was empty, George Lucus had the buiding zoned for 'Arts Production' and filmed some of the interior space ship scenes for the first Star Wars movie inside. So, when the current company purchased the property in the mid-2000s it could start production quickly. Not just any production company, this one focused on elaborate and high-quality BDSM porn. The company's name is Kink.com, (that is a link to the Wikipedia article about the company, you can actually look up the website on your own.) So, yeah, Teri, Greg, Jason, and I toured a porn studio. They shoot during a standard work day so there was no filming, but we got to see the sets, including a wet room, shock room, and catfighting ring.

Regrieve

This weekend was difficult and I chose to stay home from work yesterday because I hadn't fully regained control over my emotions. I spent most of the time alternating between depression and anger. It is almost like I went through the 'stages of grief" again, but on a micro level.

I see the value in the Kubler-Ross model that details the different emotions experienced in periods of grief. The theory is well known and covers: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. The concept has been pushed beyond the initial situation of a loved one dying to include other types of traumatic situations -  rejection, divorce, illness diagnosis, addiction, infertility, job loss, break-ups, etc.

It has also been suggested that, "the stages of grief exemplify the basic process of integrating new information that conflicts with previous beliefs." I totally get it - change has always been really hard for me, but I am finding that my dad's death is even harder.

Hungover

After celebrating

Cinco De Mayo

the next day feels more like

Sicko De Mayo

I am sure I am not the first person to come up with the concept above, nor am I the first person to be feeling these effects.

Real Love

I never liked the dichotomy that seemed to exist between 'passionate love' and 'companion love' and am happy to have found a concept that moves passed that and pushes the concept further - Triangular Theory of Love. The psychologist who developed it suggests that love progresses and develops in predictable ways. I can see Jason and my relationship history having the patterns he suggests. I can also see Jason and I in these pictures from the series Love is by Puuung. (Originally found on Facebook.)

Good Friday

The capacity of people to be good, during the worst times, always astounds me.

-------------- from Facebook, and Wikipedia

An Inspirational Woman - Gisella Perl

Gisella Perl was forced to work as a doctor in Auschwitz concentration camp during the holocaust. She was ordered to report ever pregnant women do the physician Dr. Josef Mengele, who would then use the women for cruel experiments (e.g. vivisection) before killing them. 

"I decided that never again would there be a pregnant woman in Auschwitz." She saved hundreds of women by performing abortions on them before their pregnancy was discovered, without having access to basic medical supplies. She became known as the 'Angel of Auschwitz'. 

 After being rescued from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp she tried to commit suicide, but survived, recovered and kept working as a gynecologist, delivering more than 3000 babies.

Slipped My Mind

I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I was fixated on the fact that I had forgotten a word for something. Even though I kept telling myself, "Go to sleep, the word will come to you in the morning," I could not let it go. Not because I didn't think that I would be able to figure it out easier in the morning - but because in the morning I might forget I was even searching for it.

A big piece of very stiff paper. Usually around 2' x 3' or so. It comes in a variety of colours. I buy it at the dollar store. Often used to create large posters or presentations, you can stick things to it (like pictures) and/or write on it (usually with markers.)

There was absolutely no reason why I need to figure out the name of this large stationary item at 10:30pm last night. I have no intentions of buying some any time soon. No one was talking about it. It just came into my mind and I could not remember the word. I went through a ton of options, some of them I knew were names for other/similar things, some I am pretty sure were not things at all, but everything I could think of was wrong: big paper, hard paper, hard board, card board, poster board, poster paper...

Then, as soon as I sat down at my desk this morning it popped into my head! (Just as I had been telling myself last night that it would.) It is called Bristol Board. When it first came to me I wondered if that was the brand name, like Bic, or when people say Kleenex but really mean facial tissue. I looked it up and it isn't a stationary brand, it is named after a city in England.

I wonder why it bothered me so much that I could not remember the name. I did just finish the book Still Alice by Lisa Genova so maybe it was a subconscious fear of early-onset Alzheimer's. Though I think this type of 'forgetting' is common at all ages, with healthy people. Just with aging I might be more worried about the capabilities of my mind. Or, I am just bugged by things like that, driven by the desire to know things - and know them instantly.

Ironically, at the start of writing this post I thought to myself, "Okay, so I figured out the thing from last night, but what is that smaller, slightly stiff, paper that comes in lots of colours. You use it for cutting and pasting." Of course it wasn't quickly coming to me, so I tried the technique of just writing out the post and hoping it would come to me later. It did - construction paper.

Aging In Place

I always say that my parents "designed The Cottage to die in," for example it has these features:

- There is a bedroom on the main floor

- All main floor doors are extra wide

- Main floor bathroom has a walk-in shower

- Laundry is on the main floor

- The main floor toilet is extra tall and in a configuration that it has walls on both sides to that, if needed, could have have safety bars installed

I mentioned this at work and was informed that it is usually called Aging In Place, which sounds much better. In Canada, it is actually called Aging At Home, and means, "the ability to live in one's own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level."

Slow On The Joke

I ran across the following joke (though I gather it is actually considered a fable) while reading a business article:

Pig and a Chicken are walking down the road.
Chicken: Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant! 
Pig: Hm, maybe, what would we call it?
Chicken: How about 'Ham-N-Eggs' ? 
Pig: No thanks. I'd be committed, but you'd only be involved!

It took me a second to actually get the punch line, but I definitely chuckled when I did. As a fable, the joke is used to discuss two types of project managers: those who are accountable and those who consult.

I Can See It

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A post about my Dad each Sunday, named after a song that he loved.

Today I took the Buzzfeed quiz:
Who Would Play Your Dad In The Movie Version Of Your Life?

I already know the answer, in order of preference:
- Michael Keaton
- Greg Kinnear
- Larry Miller

But, Buzzfeed thought otherwise. After the quiz, they suggested Ty Burrell. This is mainly based on his portrayal of Phil Dunphy on Modern Family. It isn't a perfect description but they aren't far off: "Your dad means so, so well. He is also just the most awkward human to have ever graced the earth. Your dad cries and take pictures more than most people breathe and eat."