Deana J. Driver's Blog, page 17

Never Leave Your Wingman book visits Amsterdam - Blog Part 10

Hello there. It's been almost four months since I came home from my wonderful European vacation and I still can't believe I WAS IN EUROPE THIS SUMMER! Oh my gosh, it was incredible! But then again, you may be having a little trouble believing that I am writing a blog about my adventures there, too. I am a book, after all - the Never Leave Your Wingman book - about a seven-time cancer survivor who dresses in costume and dances into her chemo treatments, to be exact. What can I say about my going to Europe and writing about it - my author and her husband (Publisher Al) have fun imaginations and thought it would be fun to take me along on their first-ever European vacation. Read my first blog.

So here we are in Holland, near the end of our vacation in which we have already seen parts of seven countries. We are leaving the beautiful town of Groesbeek, Netherlands, heading for the big city - Amsterdam, to be exact. But first, we visited a friend in another Dutch town and enjoyed a popular Dutch meal which they call pancakes. In Canada, we would call them crepes. No matter what they're called, these were pretty darn tasty.
You can get Dutch pancakes with bacon and egg toppings, pizza-like toppings, omelette-style... pretty much any kind you can imagine... but my publishers had fruit with their pancakes. Whipped cream, too - 'cause there wasn't enough sugar on the pancakes. Good thing they spent most of our vacation walking to work off all those calories. Sheesh! 
And as we were walking back to our car, we saw this wonderful sight...  ...a bicycle built for two, riding along this bike path through a splendid forest.I could live in Holland. For sure. So beautiful. And the green of the trees would nicely complement the beauty of my pink cover, don't you think? Ahem.... Sorry about that. I don't usually get so full of myself. Must be the sugar buzz from the pancakes.
So let's get back to our trip. It's on to Amsterdam.  Here's Publisher Al - turning this sign into 'Al'msterdam.Silly Al.
Amsterdam is a beautiful, unique, fascinating city. We saw many interesting sights, so hold on to your hat or whatever else is close by as we take you on a photo journey with us. 
This is the strangest, most unique hotel we've ever seen. Yes, that's it - the thing on the right that looks like a giant pop can. It's called the Fletcher Hotel, and it is designed in a circular pattern. The building and windows are circular,
...the hallways are circular - which is a little disorienting for we who are used to Canada's flat prairies - but the most unusual feature of this hotel is the circular shower...  ...in the MIDDLE of the hotel room! Yes, there I am, balancing on the shower door handle while Publisher Al sits at a chair by the window, just watching and wondering what on earth we will see next in Amsterdam.
Well, he didn't have to wait long before we saw...   ...our first outdoor urinal. On the street. In front of God and everyone! The man inside this urinal is actually a maintenance employee who was cleaning the urinal. Good thing, too. Some of the outdoor urinals we passed were downright nasty. Later on, we did see another man entering another street urinal in the Red Light District. We just kept walking. Enough said about that.
So on to Amsterdam's beauty.  The main train station downtown (on the right) is a gorgeous old building. As we wandered toward it, we heard a commotion behind us.
We turned around and saw...    - a bridal party making its way to the train station! Just another neat experience for us in Europe.
We enjoyed a canal tour and learned that Amsterdam was built like an onion - one layer at a time - and has become a model for all other cities, including New York - which used to be called New Amsterdam.  I did not know that, so there you go - you can learn something new every day. But then again, I am a book and someone has to read me and read to me.
Anyway, we saw some beautiful canals, amazing old buildings, interesting architecture and fascinating sights as we floated down the river and walked through the streets of this wonderful city.


Bicycles are everywhere, including on the sidewalks...
..and parked under the canal bridges. "It's important to remember where you parked yours," said our tour guide. There are 600,000 bikes in Amsterdam at any one time - in a city with about 725,000 people and another two million in the area. 
We watched the water traffic as we sipped our tea and juice at a small café. We found that drinks are often served only partially filled in the Netherlands. Our Dutch friend told us that when that happens, the locals often ask for a ladder - so they can use it to get the drink to the top of the cup! We didn't want to be rude, so we didn't ask for a ladder, but we sure thought about it when this cup of tea was delivered!

We loved seeing the variety of shapes and sizes of buildings here.
This is how you get around in Amsterdam -  - by bike, on foot, by boat, motorcycle and car - all within a few metres of each other.
'Gable stones' like this one tell people something about those who lived in these buildings at one time.

Rembrandt Corner includes a café and the museum in the house where the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt lived.  

On the Canadian Prairies, we don't have subways and train stations, and we certainly don't have rails like this to help us get our bicycles down the stairs and onto the street to ride the rest of the way home. Cool.

We have beer, but not a Heineken brewery in our hometown.
Nor do we have the incredible Van Gogh Museum, where we saw so many of his amazing paintings ... 
...including the yellow house where he lived and worked on his art in 1888.
So with these final images of Amsterdam... - the cheese vendors,
- the stores and the flower markets,

my author found that Amsterdam left some very large shoes for other European cities to fill.Silly author.As for me, I'm tired from all that walking, so I'm going to sleep.
I'll see you again soon.

Books, Gifts, Awards & Kids' Questions

Happy December, everyone! We at DriverWorks Ink (that would be Al and I) want to make your holiday gift-giving as easy as possible, so we recommend a number of our books that might be of interest to specific people on your gift list … Oh, wait, we did that last year (see my blog).Okay, let’s try that again.We want to give you a special gift when you buy our books as gifts for the people you love (or the people you like and want to buy gifts for etc. etc.). If you purchase $30 worth of DriverWorks Ink books from us (either from our website, by mail order or in person), you’ll receive a free key chain flashlight – which is excellent for finding your way down a hallway in the dark (just ask our grandchildren – who turned out the hall lights and proved this to be true). There are a multitude of other uses for these handy little items, such as holding your keys – but that’s for you to discover on your own.

And… If you buy $50 worth of DriverWorks Ink books from us (same ways as above), we’ll give you one of our new fancy dancy DriverWorks Ink tote bags. They’re just downright useful. And pretty. (See photo below). So place your orders today. We’re pretty efficient at filling orders, so any order placed between now and December 18 should ensure receipt of the books within Canada before Christmas (if Santa’s helpers are working up to speed, that is).



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In other news, we are happily back in our office and not on the road, for the first time in the last four months. First, there was that wonderful once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe (which our Never Leave Your Wingman book has blogged about as a fun way to share our travels (See the first blog or skip straight to this one, where we met the amazing Sue Elliott, the ‘little Dutch girl’ who is the subject of Alan Buick’s book The Little Coat ).Then we spent most of the last three months travelling in the three Prairie Provinces of Western Canada. From September 5 to November 30, we participated in nine craft/trade shows and made a total of 62 author/publisher presentations in 27 communities. We spoke to 3,200 students and 159 adults at schools, libraries, seniors' residences, bookstores and museums. And we had a blast! Thank you, Saskatchewan Arts Board, for the Creative Industries Transition Fund which allowed us to do this important work! Thank you to everyone who welcomed us into their communities. We'd do it all again in a flash... but maybe not until we've rested up a bit.
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While we were on the road, we learned that two of our books won awards at book award contests in the United States. Pretty cool news to receive while on a Saskatchewan highway – or anywhere, for that matter. The inspiring  Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner’s Story of Hope  book by Regina author Deana J. Driver (that’s me) was awarded Honourable Mention in the Biography/Autobiography category of the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival. The touching, yet humourous  Letters to Jennifer From Maudie & Oliver  book by Winnipeg author Sharon Gray won an Honourable Mention as well, in the Cats category of the 2013 Animals, Animals, Animals Book Festival! (See all of our books on our website – www.driverworks.ca.)

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Here are some other bits of news we’d like to share with you, our readers:-        Since October, we have been very pleased with the response to Regina author Shae Therrien’s memoir Interrupted With Bipolar . A man told us that he was sitting at a local swimming pool, reading Shae's book while waiting for his daughter to finish her swim. A woman beside him began chatting with him and then shared her history of mental illness with him, because she saw the courage that Shae must have to share his personal story through his book. Another woman at a trade show commented to us about Shae: “He is no doubt one of the ‘unsung Canadian heroes’ you talk about in your pamphlet.” Yes, he is.



-        We are pleased that we now have copies of Called By The Spirit: Calling Lakes Centre Celebrates 60 Years by Holly L. Schick for sale. We helped this United Church of Canada educational facility, once known as Prairie Christian Training Centre, self-publish their history and are pleased to provide another way for folks to purchase this great book. More than 50 contributors complement the writing of author Holly Schick by sharing their stories and memories of spending time enjoying the Centre's programs – and there are great photos, too!-        We realized this fall that two of our books revolve around events that happened on the same day – December 25, 1944, during the Second World War. The Little Coat by Alan J. Buick and The Sailor and the Christmas Trees by Deana Driver are touching war stories with a timeless message of the importance of giving. We invite you to check them out this Christmas season.-        And we can’t let you go without telling you about the great responses we've been having to Dave Driver’s funny children’s book SuperMom and the Big Baby . We've read parts of the book and shown it to hundreds of school children these past months and have enjoyed hearing their giggles. Parents of children from ages 2 to 9 have told us how much their children love the book. Recently, some Grade 2 students sent their grandma to Regina to buy the book after we read it to them in Vibank, Saskatchewan. Oops, I hope we didn't spoil someone's Christmas gift!-        And finally, here are some of the unique questions asked and some conversations we've had with Kindergarten to Grade 4 students on our tour:o   “How many books have you written?” Five.o   “Which of the books you wrote do you like the best?” I don’t have a favourite book. They’re all like my babies, and you shouldn't choose a favourite baby. Any other questions?o     “How many books did you write?” Uh… I've written five books.o   “When did you start to write?” When I was in Grade 2, and I've been writing ever since.o   Does anyone have a question? “My name is John .” (relating to John Hanlon of The Sailor and the Christmas Trees book.) Oh, that’s great… but that’s not a question. Remember, questions start with ‘who, what, when, where and how’.o   Yes, what is your question? “My dad’s name is Al.” (relating to publisher Al Driver.)o   (In a Saskatchewan school) “Where were you born in Alberta?” Athabasca. Were you born in Alberta? “Yes.” Nice.o   “How do you write your books?” I ask a lot of questions, because I’m curious. I gather all the information and I put it all together.o   “Have you ever been to Port Coquitlam, B.C.?” Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. Did you come here from Port Coquitlam? Nod.Welcome to Saskatchewan! Smile.o   “Are you Ukrainian?” (Inside my head – wha??? But we were in the Canora, SK area.) As a matter of fact, I am. My dad was Ukrainian. Do I look like your Baba? Nod. o   And our favourite of them all…. “When did you start growing?” (Deflect the question and ask Al to show them how tall he is.) “ Whoa!”
Happy Holidays, everyone!

Belgium, Netherlands & a Special Lady - Europe Adventure Blog Part 9

Have you ever been to Belgium? It's beautiful.

I'm the Never Leave Your Wingman book. (Yes, you read that correctly - I'm a book.) My author/publisher Deana Driver and I, plus Deana's husband/publisher partner Publisher Al, were in Bruges in August as part of our wonderful European adventure (see my first blog). We only spent a day in Belgium because we had so many other wonderful places to visit on our agenda ... but what we saw was beautiful and enough to make us want to go back again.. Allow me to share some of the great sights and sites from this beautiful city.

Oh, hello, Publisher Al! Are you going to lead us on our tour of Bruges?No? Good thing. I don't think you'd fit in this little tourist vehicle.
Bruges - or Brugge, as the locals refer to it - is one of several European communities that calls itself 'Venice of the North'. We were impressed by its canals, which are tranquil and lovely. These swans and other various birds thought so, too.
Picture-perfect.
Here are some common sights in downtown Bruges: Horse and buggy rides past quaint little shops... ...which sell Belgian chocolates...
...and Belgian waffles, of course. (Psst... the bananas topping that my author ordered contained grand marnier. Yummmm!)
Bruges is famous for its lace. Many shops sell it and many homes and businesses have lace curtains and/or needlework pieces that show the richness of the local culture...
...these items are all handmade. Gorgeous.
Oh, Publisher Al. Now those are super-sized fries!
After Bruges, we were anxious to get to Holland. 
We had some special plans for the Netherlands. Several special plans, in fact.
First, we wanted to get to the town of Groesbeek in eastern Netherlands before 5 o'clock that day.
This involved driving across a tiny one-way bridge (the crossings were controlled by traffic signs showing who must yield the right-of-way)... ...through a forest which had a sign warning of wild boars crossing the road. Now that's not a sign I've seen in western Canada. I've been told we do have wild boars in some areas of southeast Saskatchewan, but I've never seen a sign for them.Then again, I am a book... so enough said about that.
We saw this windmill as we arrived in Groesbeek, Netherlands. We were disappointed that it was the only windmill we saw in all our time in the Netherlands, but we did see a lot of wind turbines in the Netherlands and several other European countries. Between those and many fields full of solar panels, we determined that Europe is far ahead of Canada in alternative energy sources.

So we made it to this - the National Liberation Museum in Groesbeek - before it closed for the day. The man at the desk was reluctant to take the entry fee from my publishers because the museum was closing in an hour, but they convinced him to 'just take the money' and then point them in the direction of this important exhibit.... ...a series of paintings by Calgary, Alberta artist Bev Tosh, called  Canadian War Brides: A one-way passage to love . My publishers - who also published my friend  The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story  by Alan J. Buick - were so happy to see the exhibit that my author was like a little kid, smiling and jumping up and down with excitement. 


 And this was the panel that my publishers came to see.

Everdina (Sussie) Cretier was 10 years old when she received a little coat, made from a Canadian army blanket, as a gift from Canadian tank commander Bob Elliott and his crew on Christmas Day 1944. Decades later, Sussie/Sue and Bob reconnected and fell in love.Sue still had her little coat. She brought it with her to Canada and married Bob, her hero.

Although Sue is not technically a 'war bride', her story (as told by Alan Buick in my book friend  The Little Coat ) inspired Bev Tosh to create a portrait of Sue for her wonderful exhibit of Canadian war brides. (My author blogged about Bev's exhibit a few months ago, explaining that Bev used Bob and Sue's wedding photograph as the model for her painting.) Each painting also has an accompanying  description of the war bride, and Sue's painting was at the end of the row, and the first one my publishers saw when they entered the exhibit room. My publishers quickly pulled out the three  The Little Coat  books they brought with them (hiding them from me until just a couple days earlier, I might add), and they asked another museum visitor to take this photo of them with the exhibit.  
These are some of the other paintings and displays in Bev Tosh's exhibit, but Sue Elliott was the most important to my publishers, of course.
So we all went to bed very excited that night, and the next day, we were in for a very special visit. 
We drove to the nearby town of Rossum, going through the lock that Sussie Cretier-Elliott's family had crossed in 1944 to escape from the German soldiers to the safety of the Allied forces.


We drove into town and went to a seniors' complex - where we met this wonderful woman...  ...Sue Elliott, the woman who received that wartime gift of a coat from Alberta soldier Bob Elliott and his crew in 1944!It was no surprise to us that Sue is just as feisty as ever. When we arrived, she apologized for her apartment being a bit untidy. (It wasn't, actually, but she thought it was.) She had just finished washing the bathroom floor, you see, because she can do it better than the people who are employed by the residence to do the cleaning, she said! What a character.
My publishers loved every minute they spent with Sue....   ...from the visiting and sharing of stories to the long walk we took around the neighbourhood.
Sue showed us where her late husband, Bob Elliott (the soldier in the story, who passed away in February 2013) used to go every day to sit and watch the ships and boats sailing down the canal. 
It is beautifully peaceful.
She took my publishers through town and showed them the shop where her father had his garage. The family's house used to be where the large window is on the first building on the right. Sue's brother Gerard runs the business now. 
Here, my friend The Little Coat looks back on the scene that author Alan Buick captures so well with his writing.
On our walk, Sue showed us some local vegetation. This was the first time my publishers had seen a walnut tree...

...and the first time they'd eaten blackberries off a bush. What's the matter, Publisher Al? Was that berry a little sour? If you look closely, it almost seems like Sue knew that when she handed it to him. Hee hee.

We had a lovely visit with the amazing Sue Elliott... ...but we had to say goodbye to her, leaving her with one of the three copies of  The Little Coat book that my publishers had brought to Europe and set on the sand at Juno Beach. When we arrived home, my publishers put one of the two remaining copies (signed by Sue Elliott) on their bookshelf and gave one to author Alan Buick, along with some photos of their visit with Sue. Just as they surprised me with this vacation, they did not tell Alan ahead of time that they might be meeting Sue. Only her daughter Trudy knew of the possibility. (Thank you, Trudy, says my author.) Alan was pleased as punch with his gifts.
Anyway, back in Holland....
...we also drove to the nearby town of Alphen, to see the landscape of the area where Sue's family had sought safety from the Canadian soldiers. 
It was hard to imagine this beautiful land as it would have been during wartime.
Then we went to the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, which honours so many who fought and died in that area during the Second World War.  


Row after row of headstones.


So we leave you with this thought... as Sue said in the book - "This must not happen again."
We will not forget.
Take care.

Our European Adventure Pauses To Remember - Blog Part 8

This is the Never Leave Your Wingman book speaking. As you may know, I am a true story about Dionne Warner, a seven-time cancer survivor in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada who dresses in costume and dances into her chemotherapy treatments, alongside her fun-loving husband/wingman Graham (who has also dressed in some pretty funny costumes, I must say). I've been blogging about the adventures I had in Europe this summer, after my author/publisher and her publisher husband took me along on their once-in-a-lifetime European vacation (read my first blog ).

As Remembrance Day 2013 approaches, I'd like to use a good part of this blog to introduce you to a friend of mine, The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story book. My friend tells the amazing true war story/love story about a Canadian soldier, a little Dutch girl, and the coat that has linked them together forever.

In case you haven't guessed by now, my publishers are pretty sneaky at times... and unknown to me, they brought three copies (I'll tell you about all three later) of my friend  The Little Coat  along on our journey to Europe this summer. I didn't know about this sneaky move... and I didn't see my friend until we arrived here...
...at the Juno Beach Centre, in Courselles-sur-Mer of the Normandy region of France.

My publishers all of a sudden pulled my friend  The Little Coat  out of their backpacks. And I was so pleased. It was the perfect place for him. The Centre houses the Juno Beach museum, which contains artifacts and films and tells some of the incredible stories and details of the Second World War. I was honoured to go into this building and onto the actual Juno Beach with my friend The Little Coat .
Before I move on in this blog, please allow me to tell you more about The Little Coat:  The Bob and Sue Elliott Story. This award-winning, bestselling book is written by Saskatchewan author Alan J. Buick. It tells the true story of Alberta soldier Bob Elliott, who was 15 years old when he enlisted in the Second World War. Almost four years later, on June 6, 1944, Bob landed on Juno Beach as a member of the 19th Field Regiment. That day would later become known as D-Day. 
Bob survived that horrid battle and advanced further into France and then into the Netherlands. At age 19, in November 1944, he was a tank commander fighting the German troops in the Netherlands when he met 10-year-old Sussie Cretier. Sussie's family had just escaped to the safety of the Allied forces, and this feisty little girl soon became a good-luck charm and adopted little sister to many of the men in Bob's troop. The soldiers wanted to give Sussie a Christmas gift, so they took a Canadian Army blanket and gave it to a seamstress in that Dutch village, asking her to make it into a coat for Sussie. The buttons for the coat came off the Canadian soldiers' tunics. On Christmas Day, 1944, Bob gave Sussie the coat on behalf of his crew, and teh Canadians soon left Holland to continue with the advance against the German forces. More than 35 years later, Bob and Sussie (Sue) reconnected and fell in love. She still had the little coat. She brought it with her to Canada and married her hero.
As my publishers and I and our friend,  The Little Coat book, looked around the grounds of Juno Beach, we could only think of Bob Elliott and the thousands of others who fought and sacrificed so much for our freedom.

 We were overwhelmed by their strength, their courage, and their sacrifices.


The Juno Beach Centre grounds and museum share stories of those who fought that historic battle.


Walking down the path toward the beach, we wondered how many men had died in this spot. How many lost their lives here in the service of their country? My publishers set The Little Coat  on the sand at Juno Beach, in an homage to those who fought... and to honour the late Bob Elliott, our hero, who passed away earlier this year - on February 15, 2013.
We miss you, Bob. Thank you for your service.



From Juno Beach, we drove further up the coast to the French port of Dieppe. We wanted to see this significant spot at which 907 Canadians lost their lives in a failed raid in August 1942, which later informed more successful attacks for the Allied forces.


These Canadians are not forgotten, though. The beautiful Dieppe Square honours the Canadians who died in that raid. 



This plaque commemorates the more than 1,200 men, most of whom were Canadian, who died at Dieppe during that failed attempt at liberating France.


Each year since the end of the war, on August 19, ceremonies are held in Dieppe to commemorate that battle and the loss of life. Unaware of this annual event, we arrived in Dieppe and saw the displays set up in preparation for these ceremonies. Fascinating.



From Dieppe, we drove inland, towards Vimy, France, where we were anxious to see the great Vimy Ridge Memorial site.
About 30 kilometres southwest of Vimy, we began seeing cemeteries in the Pas de Calais region. These are the final resting places of soldiers killed in the First World War.


It was quite moving, driving through small towns surrounded by farmland and seeing these beautifully kept markers of soldiers known and unknown who died in the service of their country. We saw grave markers for Irish, Welsh, English, Australian, and Canadian soldiers. There was even one German soldier's grave marker.... and that was only in the first couple of rows of this cemetery.

There were many, many cemeteries in this region, all well-kept and providing an everlasting tribute to those who fell in the First World War. We were particularly moved by this often-seen grave marker:'Soldier of the Great War. Known to God.'


The above statue, in the village of Puisieux, France, also commemorates the fatalities of war, as does the statue below. It stands in the village of Ayette and remembers the children who died from 1914 to 1918.


Arriving at Vimy, France, we walked through the museum and along the paths on the grounds, which still show the crevices caused by bombs and mines from the First World War.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917 was not one of Canada's most successful military achievements, but was significant for bringing Canadian forces together as a unified fighting force for the first time..
The Vimy Memorial site includes a piece of the trench from the war and memorials to those who served.

Signs warn visitors to not step over the electric fence because parts of the land, which has been donated to Canada by France for the memorial, contain undetonated explosives. 
The memorial is spectacular... from far away...  ...and up close. Soldiers are honoured here by their names engraved on the memorial. Publisher Al touches the name of a J.A. Driver. He is not related to Al, but Al's grandfather did serve at Vimy.
Soldiers are also remembered here with gifts left by their loved ones.  We will never forget.
One final comment in this blog commemorating those who fought for our freedom...
When we were at Juno Beach, my publishers set three copies of The Little Coat  book down on the sand of Juno Beach., and they sprinkled a few grains of sand from that significant beach inside the pages of each of the books. Days later, they gave one of those special books to this amazing woman....
... Sussie (Cretier) Elliott - the 'little girl' who received 'the little coat' from Bob Elliott and crew in December 1944. 
But that's a wonderful story for my next blog.
In the meantime, please pause on November 11th to remember those who served and those who continue to serve today.

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 7

It was a little difficult for me to leave France (see my last blog) after having such a great time in Nice and then in Monaco, but I felt better once my author told me that we wouldn't be out of France for too many days. We were leaving just long enough to go check out Spain.

I know! Spain! Can you believe it!
Sangria, spicy foods, exotic flamenco dancers, running of the bulls and all that. Well, I didn't actually see or eat or do any of those things… but I did see this –
... a sign that warns of deer rappelling.Really? Spanish deer are smart enough to know how to rappel off a cliff? Nah, it couldn't be. My author Deana and her husband (Publisher Al) thought this was so funny, but surely, they thought, there must be a Spanish word for ‘rappel’ that means something other than ‘haphazardly jump off the edge of something and throw yourself into the air.’ So they looked it up when we all got home … and they didn't find any other definition... so rappel off a cliff it is. Crazy Spanish deer.
And we saw far too much of this on our travels:
...Road signs that allow you to go 130 kilometres per hour on the highway. In parts of Europe – Germany in particular – we discovered that the speed limit signs were merely suggestions. At one point, a fellow in a little sports car zipped by us so fast that all we heard was the vrooom of his vehicle. He scared the bejeebers out of Publisher Al! The guy – or maybe it was a girl -  was going so fast that we didn't even see the car coming up behind us. Yikes!
We saw these beautiful hills/mountains on our way to Barcelona and we couldn't resist sharing this pretty picture.

Also… We found Nemo!!
Ha ha. Well, maybe not that Nemo. Cute, though.


We also saw this lion. He is very handsome and quite manly, I think. I actually developed kind of a crush on him. My author set me very close to him. I could feel his strong, hard paw. Oooh.

He is one of four lions that guard a very important statue of Columbus near the harbour in beautiful Barcelona - which marks the spot where Columbus returned after discovering America.

Yes, my lion does have three friends who are also fairly handsome and guard the other sides of the statue, but I like my lion the best. With those deep-set eyes, strong jawline and majestic pose... he’s totally in command of his domain. Aaaahhhhh….

Ahem… Perhaps we should move on…


There are tour buses all over Europe, especially in the bigger centres. We didn't ride on this one, but we loved its colours and I loved how my beautiful pink showed off so well against the blue-and-white bus.
And turning our attention back to the Barcelona Harbour, and the statue of Columbus...

...We couldn't resist a few photos of me with some angel friends...
It really felt at times as though we were meant to be in that spot – so we could see and enjoy the beautiful architecture and statues around us, all lined up with pretty angel wings. 
My beautiful Dionne would smile. Except she’d probably strike a funny pose alongside these statues. I did my best, given that I’m just a book.

We saw so many interesting sights in Barcelona.

   

The fruits and flowers along the main downtown street, Las Ramblas.
Plus these sights that we would have expected to see in Las Vegas, but not as much in Barcelona - people dressed in costumes and asking for tips from passersby. It felt kind of strange and out of place for us.    

 We also saw the typical touristy stuff...
... and we took this fun photo...  ...of some pasta boxes that reminded us of one of my editors, Dani. It made us smile, and that's always a good thing. 
 The most remarkable, astounding, spectacular site we saw on all of our travels through Europe was this incredible structure:

Construction of the Basilica de La Sagrada Familia (Church of The Sacred Family) began in 1882 (no, that's not a typo) and construction continues to this day. (Note the crane on the right side of the structure.) The building may not be finished until 2013, but some believe it may never be finished, as it is one of Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions and may not draw the crowds if work was ever completed.
As we walked up the subway stairs to ground level, we saw people standing at the top of the stairs, facing toward us and taking photos. We wondered what they were looking at... and then we saw the building! Our jaws dropped open. Above is our photos of just a small section of the outside of the building. You can see a bit more of the building in this video.
Inside, the church is awe-inspiringly beautiful. Huge, bright, colourful and beautiful. 
This is a small section of the ceiling. Photos do not do it justice. It has to be experienced to be believed.
Antoni Gaudi spent 10 years working on just the design of the cupola. Creating an inverted version of his proposed design, he hung bags of sand on strings to figure out the perfect configuration that would support his design. Details are shown of this process below, in one of many displays of the building's downstairs museum. Remarkable.
Antoni Gaudi definitely left his mark on our souls during our visit to Barcelona, as did others. After two beautiful all-too-short days in Barcelona, we headed north towards Paris.
I know! Paris!!!!
But first, a pit stop along the side of the highway to have a little lunch – French-style…
...with a baguette, some sandwich meat, a few pickles.
And oh, look at those legs on Publisher Al! Ooh La La! It was still above 30 degrees Celsius, so the shorts were definitely the comfy way to travel.
My author (and co-publisher) Deana loves sunflowers. So do I (and so does my subject Dionne, but she wasn't with us, of course)… so we asked Publisher Al to pull over along the highway so we could carefully walk into this field to take some photos of me with these beautiful flowers.
I love the spirit of these flowers. They make me want to smile and smile and smile.

Paris!!! What can I say about Paris except that it is perhaps the most beautiful city on earth. Or at least the most beautiful city I’d seen in Europe to that point. There were so many wonderful sights and places to explore and enjoy that a dozen photos wouldn't even begin to explain it all to you. So my author and I have chosen a few of our favourites. We hope you love them as much as we did.
Notre Dame Cathedral is one of those jaw-dropping, amazing sites that has to be seen to be believed. It is so huge and so overwhelming that one could sit for hours and just stare at the front façade and soak in the splendour.


The Paris Opera House is another 'Oh-Wow' kind of building. And that’s just seeing it from the outside! The golden angel on the top caught my eye, of course, but there is so much rich history and beauty to the actual building that we were all astounded. You can see why someone  would use it as the setting for a novel like Phantom of the Opera. Magnificent!

And the Arc de Triomphe. We saw it first from a few blocks away, while on a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus.
The closer we got to it, the more majestic and glorious and spellbinding and incredible the site became. Very, very cool.
You can’t be in Paris without recognizing its history of being a shopping and fashion mecca. We knew that if our Dionne would have been with us on this trip, at this point, she would have shouted for the bus driver to “Stop the Bus!” so she could get off and check out this shop… and quite a few of its friends along Paris’ famed shopping district.

There are several bridges in Europe on which passersby put locks - in celebration of an event, in honour of someone they love, or just because others are doing it. One such bridge is in Paris, and my publishers decided to buy a tiny lock from a street vendor and join the crowd in leaving their hearts and lock in Paris. Romantic, huh?


We spent an entire afternoon walking around the outside and through many of the exhibits at The Louvre, one of the most famous art galleries in the world. It was quite the experience.


 The Louvre, of course, is home to this special lady, the Mona Lisa.
A lot of people are disappointed after seeing Mona Lisa, because they thought she would be bigger or something else. We thought she was beautiful, and we were pleased to get so close to her serious expression.
Then we saw hundreds of other beautiful pieces of art while on our way to see this lady... Venus de Milo. She is quite exquisite. I loved Venus de Milo. Maybe it`s because of her colour and shape, but it's probably because she looks so content with her lot in life. She's quite magnificent in her pose... looking at the world as if to say, "That's right - I'm awesome!"

You go, girl! You are awesome.
While enjoying the yards of the Louvre, we happened upon this talented musician in one of the archways.

He was tucked away under the pillars, playing his cello and accepting tips. His beautiful music was echoing across the grounds of a beautiful place. A mesmerizing experience.
This of course, was the pièce de résistance… the Eiffel Tower.

Publisher Al couldn't believe that his acrophobic wife (not keen on heights) joined him in riding to the top of the Eiffel Tower and looking out over Paris. But she did it in Florence… and she had to climb those steps herself! Yes, that was an accidental climbing, but still. This was a once-in-a-lifetime (so far, anyway) opportunity to see Paris from atop this phenomenal metal structure, so up they went.

The Arc de Triomphe looked like a Lego piece from this height. A beautiful Lego piece, but still small.
Did you know that Gustave Eiffel had a small office/living quarters atop the tower from which he worked and entertained visitors? This is the replica of that office, as seen through the strong glass windows. Fascinating tower. Fascinating man.
Four days in Paris ended far too soon. We could have walked the Champs Elysee and explored the city for days… but we had to move on.

Further north and into the Normandy region of France, we made our way to a Unesco World Heritage site – the island of Mont Saint-Michel.



It’s a unique monastery which sits on an island. The waterways around it are being restored to prevent erosion and to maintain the status of island..

After checking out the site, we stopped at a local store back on the mainland, and who did we meet there but an author!



Vincent M. is a photographer, actually, who spent several years taking photos of the beautiful Mont Saint-Michel and area at all hours of the day and all year-round. His photos and thoughts about his photos are published in this beautiful coffee-table book, written in both English and French.

My author had a nice visit with him and, as authors should always do. She supported him by buying a copy of his book and asking him to sign it. He was intrigued by me, the Never Leave Your Wingman book, of course, but since there was only one of me on this journey, he could only look but not keep – which is opposite of the advice we give others who meet me.

So that`s it for this part of our journey, folks. Have a good day and I look forward to talking to you again soon.

The next time you hear from me, I will have a very special guest. So stay tuned.
Take care.

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 6

Hi, again. It's me, the Never Leave Your Wingman book. I haven't written to you for a long time because... well, because I'm a book for starters, but mostly because my author (who is actually helping me type this blog post) has been very busy this last while doing some travelling and speaking in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. She and her husband, whom I like to call Publisher Al, barely unpacked me from her backpack in early September when we returned from our fabulous vacation in Europe (see my first blog) ... and they were immediately on the road again to a trade show in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, quickly followed by trips to Weyburn, Estevan, Carlyle, Estevan again (a different trade show), Regina (where we live but to a trade show there), Swift Current, Brandon, Winnipeg, Vibank, Avonlea, Moose Jaw, Herbert, Saskatoon, Hague and Prince Albert. Whew! I'm dizzy just thinking about it. And they're not done yet.

You see, my publishers received a wonderful grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board (thank you, Saskatchewan Arts Board!) to help them market and distribute their books this fall - including me, of course. I'm their 'pink book'... and I just became even more wonderful (if I do say so myself). I am now a National Bestseller in Canada, and I have been recognized with an Honorable Mention award in the Biography/Autobiography category of the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival. Nice, huh? My friend Letters to Jennifer From Maudie & Oliver won an award this week, too - an Honorable Mention in the Cats category of the 2013 Animals, Animals, Animals Book Festival. Yay!

Anyway, my publishers are marketing and distributing their books this fall through extensive book tours that include trade shows and a pile of author/publisher presentations and events at schools, libraries, book stores, seniors' homes and more. My author Deana told me she has 22 presentations to make this week alone in east central Saskatchewan. They have the Agribition trade show and one in Saskatoon still plus some promotion planned in Alberta still. Pretty exciting, huh?

So before I get back to talking about my wonderful trip to Europe this summer, I want to show you what my author/publisher Deana and Publisher Al have been up to this past month and a half.

Here's Deana, ready to speak at the Weyburn Public Library.
She's talking to students at an elementary school in Estevan, Saskatchewan here.
Here's Deana and Al with a customer at an Estevan trade show.
The older students at Avonlea School were an interested bunch, listening to Deana talk about her writing career, the writing process, the books that she has written and the books that DriverWorks Ink has published and helped other authors self-publish.

Deana and Al travelled to Brandon, Manitoba in October and happily reconnected with Audrey Hanlon (on the right) and Elaine Rounds during Deana's presentation at the Daly House Museum. Audrey's late husband John Hanlon is the subject of Deana's book The Sailor and the Christmas Trees . You should really put this book in someone's Christmas stocking this year. It's a wonderful true story that will bring tears to your eyes.
And last but not least.... they've spent some time with our beautiful Dionne Warner - our favourite eight-time cancer survivor. (She was fighting her fifth, sixth and seventh cancer diagnoses when I was written. She's a walking miracle, for sure.)
Here, Dionne joined Al and Deana to sign and sell books at the Moose Jaw Whistlestop craft show.
The Riders lost that day, but that didn't stop them from having fun with Dionne's head gear (she had soft balls, I was told).

Here they are in Saskatoon, where they promoted me, the Never Leave Your Wingman book. They're having a little fun before their CTV Noon News interview (above)...
... and with host Jeff Rogstad, who enjoyed their pink get-ups in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, of course. 
They signed books at Coles Midtown Plaza and then ...
... Deana and Dionne talked with the audience after Dionne spoke at an event at the Alice Turner Library.
And finally, Deana spoke to elementary students in Hague, Saskatchewan one morning. She says she is looking forward to the many other presentations yet to come this fall.
But now it's time to put the focus back on me and my Excellent European Adventure...
When I last left off, we were in Nice, France and I was loving the water and sand. From there, a day trip to the municipality of Monaco was one of the best days we'd had to that point. 
Some of the world's wealthiest people own yachts that they dock in Monaco's harbour. The fees can be ridiculously expensive, but Monaco is home to more millionaires per capita than any other place on Earth.


 
 I was so excited when the tour guide on our Hop-On-Hop-Off bus told us that we were travelling the same route that the Formula One race cars drive for the Monaco Grand Prix! I know that our friend Graham Warner (the Wingman of my story) loves NASCAR, so I could only think of him and how much he would have enjoyed being with us as we turned corners, went up and down the hills of Monaco... albeit quite a lot slower than the actual Grand Prix cars.




 It was pretty darn awesome!

And speaking of AWESOME... Publisher Al could hardly believe his eyes when he saw this red Rolls Royce convertible just sitting out there on the street in Monaco.
He asked my author to take a photo of me and the angel hood ornament so we could show our angel Dionne and her wingman Graham the cool car we saw. Imagine Al's surprise when he lifted his head up after this photo was taken, only to see two more Rolls Royce convertibles within a few seconds. You don't see that on the streets of Regina... or too many other places really. Wow.
Well, that's enough for this post. I'll get back to you soon with the next adventure in this series. Take care, everyone.

Happy Birthday, Dionne Warner!

A little more than three years ago, I met an astonishing woman. A seven-time cancer survivor who was in the battle of her life, fighting Stage IV liver, lung and bone cancer. Her name is Dionne Warner.


 Yes, this is the Dionne I met in June 2010 and this is who she continues to be today - a fighter.

Dionne had already overcome breast cancer, brain cancer and two bouts of liver cancer before I met her. To help her get through her liver cancers, she had an amazing wingman - her fiance-turned husband Graham - at her side. Graham had just wooed Dionne from Toronto, Ontario to Saskatchewan when she was diagnosed with her first liver cancer in 2001. She and Graham were engaged and Dionne told him he did not have to marry her - she would return to Ontario to her family and her doctors. Graham is a Regina businessman and an avid pilot. He quickly replied: "You never leave your wingman." Dionne happily stayed in Saskatchewan with Graham and they have since battled her cancers together. And the rest, as they say, is wonderful, happy history.
Dionne went on to volunteer at the Allan Blair Cancer Centre in Regina for seven years, sharing with patients and staff her own personal story of hope, courage and joy. She raised more than $50,000 for cancer research by selling bracelets, rings, and other cancer awareness items. She also raised thousands of spirits in the process. Dionne will tell you that talking with other cancer patients helps keep her strong and how, when she meets a 25-year cancer survivor, it gives her a goal in her own journey with this disease.
The photo above was taken just after Dionne was diagnosed in December 2009 with Stage IV liver, lung and bone cancer. Because she had spent so many years spreading her infectious laughter and hope with other patients of the Allan Blair Cancer Centre, Dionne decided she could not go into her own chemotherapy treatments as a 'normal' patient. She put on a pink 'CANCER SUCKS' T-shirt and a bit of war paint and went in as the Warner Warrior, ready to do battle with this evil disease.
That costume led to more than 75 different themes over the next two years, with Dionne and Graham both dressing in costume and often dancing into the chemo unit, bringing hope and laughter to patients and staff alike. These are a few of my favourite themes:
The Banjo Bowl theme - where they made their own banjo.
The Saskatchewan Pirate theme - complete with necklace, earrings, and an oncologist willing to cut that nasty cancer out of the patient.
The Spring theme - with Dionne's typical silly sense of humour.
And Relay For Life, for which the theme that year was 'Fight Back'.
Oh - I should mention that Dionne's husband Graham also has a healthy sense of humour. He is quick to tell jokes, tease and make fun of himself and others - all in the course of a normal day. Dionne has a contagious laugh and Graham loves to spark and share in that laughter. They're a match made in heaven.
In June 2010, I met Dionne after my daughter Lisa introduced me to Dionne's story. Lisa was a volunteer with the Relay For Life committee in Regina and was excited that Dionne was to be the guest speaker at that year's Relay. (Lisa is above in the orange Relay Committee T-shirt.) Lisa told me about how Dionne was fighting cancer by dressing in costume and dancing her way into chemo and how Graham was writing My Beautiful Dionne Update emails after each treatment to inform friends and family about Dionne's cancer treatments, her ongoing health and other events in their lives.
So, to make a long story short, Lisa told Dionne I'd like to talk to her about writing a book on her incredible story, so Dionne phoned me a few days later. I met her and Graham, we became instant friends and that was that. I began following them to different places... like chemo...

...where they dressed up and danced in to the song Save A Horse - Ride A Cowboy. I borrowed some of Dionne's extra props - a hat and a horse - to take part in this fun theme.

 I visited with Dionne at the CIBC Run for the Cure in October 2010, where my family walked the course after we listened to Dionne address the crowd and share her story of hope.

I'll never forget the sad faces in the audience and how they cheered for her a little too early - after she said she'd been in remission for seven years, but just before she told them of her Stage IV diagnosis. I felt bad for her listeners, but happy that Dionne could share her message and give all the Run participants a sense of her courageous spirit and endless zest for life.

I was invited to Dionne’s birthday supper - her birthday is October 7th - a couple months after I met the Warners, so I could meet some of their friends and take this photo of these two awesome people. (Do you like the Foxy Roxy wig? It’s one of Dionne's favourites.)
And this is one of the funniest themes I attended. So much so that I devoted an entire page of the 32 pages of colour photographs in the book to it. While Dionne was getting her own chemo treatment that day, Graham (with his wife's permission) wheeled this cart up and down the chemo unit, offering this ‘free service’ to everyone. Happily for all (except maybe Graham), there were no takers for his offer, but there were lots of laughs!
In June 2010, I promised Dionne and Graham that I would have a book completed and ready a year later, for launch at the 2011 Relay For Life in Regina. I accomplished that self-imposed deadline and could hardly wait to see their response to the book. Here, Dionne and Graham are looking at the Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner’s Story of Hope book for the first time.
  Dionne was overwhelmed by it all, but a happy overwhelmed. 
My husband Al and I (partners in DriverWorks Ink publishing) were and are happy to have published this inspiring love story about this strong, beautiful, fun-loving warrior and her strong, handsome, fun-loving wingman.
Since the book was released in 2011 and reprinted in 2012, Dionne and I have been together numerous times (with or without our wingmen)... ...at our book launch...



...at various signings...



...at numerous speaking events and fundraisers...




...at Dionne's chemo treatments...


...and more...

This was Dionne’s birthday party in 2012 - a huge surprise that her wingman pulled off successfully. And we all had a blast dressing to the Roaring 20's theme.
At that party, Dionne said she didn't know if she would be around for her next birthday, on October 7, 2013 ... But who does know their future, really?
We are beyond pleased that she is still here, alive and dancing, and still showing cancer who's boss! She's still inspiring everyone she meets - and everyone who reads our book - and she's still making me laugh every single time we get together or talk.
So here’s to you - vibrant, charismatic, caring, beautiful Dionne Warner.
A more wonderful, inspiring, fun-loving, incredibly strong person I've never met. 
Here’s to many more years of happy, inspiring, fun-filled life for you with your wingman by your side.
Have the happiest birthday ever!
And, as only you can say with real feeling... 

"Woo Hoo!!!!"

Love,                          Deana (and Al) 

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 5

Hi, everyone! Thanks for joining me on my adventurous trip to Europe this summer. I had a ton of fun... and I didn't even plan to go to Europe! It was all my author's idea (see my first blog), but am I ever glad she decided to take me along. Man, oh man, I had a blast!
When we last spoke...er... when I last wrote, my publishers Deana and Al and I were in the town of Rio Maggiore, Italy and we saw the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. We headed further west after that and saw a number of interesting sights the next day - still in Italy.
A helicopter was dousing a forest fire by filling the bucket with sea water.
It was neat to see this and be reminded of those who fight forest fires at home. My publishers said they saw this same process used in northern Saskatchewan, with the cold northern lake water being used to fill the bucket. 
 That night, we stayed at a beautiful little hotel in the community of San Bartolomeo, Italy. This was the view from our room's balcony. Pretty nice, huh? That's the Mediterranean in the distance.
We got a chuckle out of the size of their room key fobs. They don't want anyone to walk away with a key in their pocket, I guess. Our key was attached to one of the heavy bells above, so we gladly left it behind when we went for a walk.And this is what we saw on our walk in town:
Pretty flowers.
A plum tree.
A grapefruit tree.
And a baffling collection of signs. How does anyone know which way they're supposed to go? You'd have to stop your vehicle, get out, walk up to the signs and then spend 10 minutes reading them all to figure out where you're supposed to go. We saw this type of signage a few times in Europe. There must be a trick to it that we don't know about.
Um.... we saw a table with a wine bottle on it ... sitting in the street. It is supposed to draw attention to the restaurant, I guess... And it apparently worked - my author and I stopped and looked, didn't we? She even took its picture. What a unique and effective marketing ploy.I wonder if I would attract attention in Canada if I just sat on a table in the street in downtown Regina. Hmmm...
So that's it for our time in Italy.
Next stop - Nice, France!
I know !
This was one of my favouritest  days so far. Sun,
sand,
and sea.What could be better? I know my subject, seven-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner, loves the beach, and I thought of her the whole time I was basking in the sun and sand and sea in Nice. Ahhh... it was so good.

Yes, I loved it. There were people parasailing, swimming and sunbathing... 

...and going to the bathroom. Uh huh, this is a public toilet. Interesting design, I thought. Beats the heck out of our boring blue Porta-potties at home. 

And all this action was being overseen by this handsome young lifeguard. While he was watching them, I was watching him.What? I'm a book! I can look if I want. Sheesh.
And these are police officers - assigned to beach duty obviously.I wonder who he's calling... his beach baby, maybe.Come on - that's funny. It isn't? Oh, alright.Moving on...
Here's an interesting method of transportation for tourists. Just hop in the back and have the driver take you for a ride. 
And speaking of riding... the people of Nice are crazy when it comes to their driving and parking. We had some trouble figuring out if people were coming or going, and there was barely any room for cars to go down some streets. We often wondered how drivers were going to get out of their parking spots if they wanted to leave before the cars on either side of them. And how did they get in there in the first place? Maybe it's better not to know sometimes. Here's one of the tiny walking-only streets between buildings.
And we enjoyed seeing the sidewalk cafe chairs facing the street for better people-watching. Here's Publisher Al pretending to pose for a serious photo when we were actually taking a photo of the cafe seats. And check out the skateboarder - with grey hair. That was a surprise...as were these things:
A super-busy butcher shop.
Prickly pears in a street market.
This happy dude and his saxophone. (The one on the right, silly.) Don't ask me who he is. Publisher Al thought he'd be friendly, though, and give the guy a High Five.
Little ornaments called 'French Kiss'. Come to your own conclusion on that one...
And this little ducky.The European hotels we were in did not have facecloths and my publishers and I missed those handy little cloths, so we went looking to buy one. The closest we could find in the places we shopped was this little ducky. He worked okay but he scared me a couple times in the middle of the night. Those little eyes are kind of beady ... and those lips... Don't get me started on those lips.

My most favourite surprise was this. though... ANGEL WINGS! On the shirt of a woman who was sitting on a Nice sidewalk. The wings, of course, reminded me of my Dionne, so I was super glad when Publisher Al saw them and showed them to me and Author Deana.  Here's beautiful Dionne in 2001 after making a snow angel in Saskatchewan...
...and here she is in 2010, enjoying the sun, sand and sea of Turks and Caicos - with a sunscreen angel on her back. Ah, yes. She loves angels and we love her.
Until next time, friends. We hope you have a wonderful day and that angels are indeed with you on your journey.Take care. We'll see you soon!

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 4

You're back! Great! Thank you for following along with me, the Never Leave Your Wingman book , as I share my photos from my wonderful summer adventure in Europe!
(If you didn't read Part 1 , Part 2, or Part 3, these are the links for those posts.)

This kind of feels like you and I are in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Book club together. Pretty neat, huh? And speaking of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movie - the parts of it that were filmed in Greece, anyway - well... hang on for a few minutes. I'll come back to that.

So the last time I blogged, my publishers and I were in Pisa, Italy and I was holding up the Leaning Tower, remember? Well, there was one other interesting place that we discovered in Pisa. And you'll probably be surprised to see what it was.


That's right - a McDonalds restaurant!  'And Here's The Party!' says the sign.
The folks at this restaurant had a hilarious sense of humour, and we had quite a few chuckles while eating our nutritious fast-food lunch. (Oh come on, somebody had a salad there some day.) Anyway, here are some of the signs we saw inside this McDonalds restaurant:


In case you can't quite make out this sign leading to the washrooms, here it is close up:
Hilarious, right? I wanted to cut that part of the door out and bring it home to share with my friends... but it wouldn't have fit in my travel bag and the airline would have charged me for extra baggage, so this photo will have to do.
While we were driving from Pisa to our next stop on our trip, we saw some really pretty fields. While Saskatchewan and Canada's other Prairie provinces often have bright yellow fields of canola in the late summer, here in Italy and other parts of Europe, we enjoyed this scene of bright yellow sunflowers.
My author Deana snapped a whole pile of photos of these fields. This is one of my favourites.
Did you know that in Europe, the semi trucks don't have solid side panels like our trucks do here in Canada? We found it strange to watch the canvas sides of the big trucks flapping with the wind. That can't be too aerodynamic, can it?



Here's Publisher Al driving us (himself, me and my author Deana, of course) to our next destination. Psst... that's the Mediterranean Sea in the background.OH MY GOSH! I am SOOOO excited that we can see it!!
But wait. Before we could get into our next accommodation that afternoon, we had to park our rental vehicle... at the top of the huge hill leading into that town that you saw in the above photo. So this was the home for our VW vehicle - in a tiny (by Canadian standards) parking stall with its own pull-down door in a parking garage. Let's just say we've had more fun parking in other places.
Then we began the walk downhill....
...and further downhill....
...and still further downhilll....
...for about 20 minutes - not including the rests to catch our breath .... 

...to get to our room (up on the right-hand middle level of those buildings), at the seaside edge of the village of Riomaggiore. This is a working fishing village and is one of five towns close together in the Cinque Terre region of Italy which are popular with young tourists - "because young tourists still have good, strong legs that can handle the 45-degree hills," my publishers said. (Can you tell that my publishers are old and were a little cranky after going up and down this main-street hill that goes from one end of town to the other a couple times? Plus, it was only the day after they had climbed the 395,000 steps (or something like that) up to the top of the Duomo in Florence, too - so maybe they had a tiny reason to be a little tired and unhappy about more climbing. Anyway, my publishers and I took it fairly easy in Riomaggiore fo the rest of the day. We just relaxed and enjoyed the views. Here are some photos of what we saw...
The view from our front walkway.
This village really reminded me of the rocky Greek village in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movie - except we didn't have a donkey to take us up the hills. Oh, wait. I hear my author calling out to me. "A donkey! That would have been perfect!" (As if she just thought of this herself. Silly author. Where would they have parked the donkeys?) 
These pretty flowers were blooming from a vine growing on the rock wall in front of our room. Cool, huh?

In front and below our room, a bunch of Italian men noisily worked together to build this.... this... I don't even know what it was. A pier perhaps? Anyway, they had a little trouble deciding who would give the orders and who would follow them, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching this process. We also giggled a little when the group took a break to share some bubbly. Only in Europe. 
This very secure (not) closure on the gas cupboard was a little unsettling for us. Our room was just behind this wall. Yeah, a little unsettling.
Now this photo... this is a different story. What? Were you actually looking at the big red boaty thing. Pshaw. The legs. Check out the legs under the red thing! Well worth watching as they rounded the corner and wandered up the stairs. Wooeeee! I LIKE ITALY!!! (And don't get me started on his teeny tiny swimsuit...)
This cracked me up. When you gotta go, the Mediterranean Sea is as good a place as any, I guess.
The sea offers many pretty sights... In daylight...
...And the early evening.

So goodnight for now ... from the northwest corner of Italy. I'll see you soon for my next update. It's going to be awesome... just you wait!

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 3

Hello there! Are you ready for another adventure? I sure was this summer when my publishers took me to Europe with them. After visiting Austria (read my blog - Part 1), then Venice and Rome (here's my blog - Part 2), I couldn't imagine what my publishers had in store for me next.

Well, it was pretty neat. Come along... you'll see.

Florence, Italy was the next destination during our European adventure of a lifetime. 

This was some of the furniture in our room in Florence. Talk about old-school. Actually, it was probably 100 years old or more. (Oh, not the TV. That is definitely newer than 100 years, silly.) 
Florence is where we first started seeing a lot of bicycles during our European adventure. I am having a little rest here on a window ledge as we walked toward the main downtown area. See that light-coloured dome way back there in the centre of photo? I'll tell you about that in a minute.
So I looked to my left and this is what I saw... a Canadian flag. In Florence, Italy! Cool. The building is a Four Seasons Hotel. Who would have guessed that? Certainly not me.
So here it is... the biggest deal in the historic centre of Florence.
The Duomo of Florence (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore) is the main church of Florence. This impressive Gothic-style church with the red brick dome was built starting in the 13th century and the dome was added in the 15th century. The Duomo offers a stunning view of the entire city... if you're brave enough to climb the 463 steps up to the top of the dome.
Yes, I said 463 steps. Uphill. All the way.
Well, my publishers are not exactly what I'd call 'brave' all the time, and they weren't planning on climbing the 463 steps up to the top of the dome. They tell me they aren't particularly fond of closed-in stairwells that have very little air flow and even less head room (my publisher Al is tall) ... But my publishers aren't very bright sometimes. 
On this particular day in Florence, they went ahead and bought a ticket for the 'cupola' of the Duomo without realizing that the word 'cupola' actually means 'dome'. Duh. I repeat - Not very bright.So you should have seen their faces when they rounded the corner going into the church and were told to keep on moving... and they found themselves having to immediately climb stairs instead of just walking around to look at the interior of the church from the ground floor. Yikes!
They climbed and climbed... and stopped for a few seconds about a third of the way up to catch their breath at a small landing. Then they climbed some more. At what felt like 3,000 steps already (it was only about halfway up, but no one was actually counting) they arrived at a walkway along the interior of the dome and saw this...

...the incredible artwork inside the dome, painted in 1572-1579.Absolutely beautiful.
Then some more climbing, and they finally arrived at what's called the 'lantern' that wraps around on the outside of the top of the dome.

This was the view when they reached the top outside of the dome. Worth the climb. In every way. 
Going down the stairs was way easier than climbing up...  ...but still creepy in tight quarters, and Al still had to watch his head. He's much taller than this guy who was ahead of my publishers as they went down the steps - all 463 of them - or did I say that already?
So that was an adventure that made us laugh and laugh....

Oh, I almost forgot... 
LOOK AT THIS BUG!
Outside the Duomo, this young man picked up a ginormous bug. A locust, we're guessing, 'cause that's what hangs around those parts of the world. And we thought our Saskatchewan grasshoppers were big. Ha! Not even close.

This little angel was just too cute to ignore. We love angels because... well, we do. And they remind us of all the Earth Angels who pray for, love and support our special eight-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner. We love those wings.

This was the first and best gelato we had in Europe. Homemade and super tasty. The servings were awesomely huge, too.

Europe isn't all fun and tourism, you know. These were some of the sights we enjoyed on our walk back to our room one evening. Interesting statues in a garden and beautiful flowers.


So how do you like this statue of Michelangelo's David? We were pretty excited to see it. We couldn't show you all of David ... because I'm a family book, you know. Gotta keep it PG.
This isn't the real statue of David. It's a beautiful replica, in the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence. The real statue is in a museum in Florence, but this one is sitting where the real statue originally sat, and we were impressed. 
This isn't the real Mona Lisa painting either, but it's also pretty cool. Created by this artist right in front of our eyes... with chalk... on the sidewalk. I wonder how long his artwork lasts before it gets wiped away. I'm glad I'm made of something more long-lasting than chalk. So people can read me for years and years to come.  
Now here's a sight we don't see every day (or any day) in Saskatchewan. A wild boar's head hanging on a hook in a downtown restaurant. We kind of had to cover our eyes while we ate this European-style pizza...

This public telephone was not only a sight we haven't seen for years in Saskatchewan but the design was cool, too. We had to take a photo and show you.
We really liked Florence, but it was time to move on, so we travelled west to this place... ...Pisa, Italy!Oh my gosh! It was so cool to hold up this Leaning Tower.I am just a little book, so it was hard work to do all that holding - with a little help from Publisher Al, of course.
Oh, there you go. That's more like it. And if you look way into the background at the base of the tower, you'll see how tall this eight-storey leaning tower really is. It's quite the engineering marvel.
So that's it for this part of our journey. Stay tuned for our next stop...Hint: It involves some beautiful blue water.