On the trains, mostly

This part of the world is covered in sticky, wet snow on a grey day. I'd never before seen snowflakes the size of those that fell yesterday afternoon; they looked like flying saucers.

A few minutes ago we pulled out of Ottawa's Via Rail station, Don having driven us there in luxurious comfort in his new car, an Audi e-tron: thanks, Don! This is going to be another multi-destination trip which I enjoyed planning, an enjoyment my husband can't understand at all. He's glad I do it, though. The train gets us to Montreal's airport for a Lufthansa flight, and once we're across the Atlantic, we'll be using trains again, all the way from Munich to London (with numerous detours). I'm going to count the train rides. The announcer on this first one will let us know when we'll "be detraining" at Dorval.

After all those weeks, months even, since my last post, I shall finally have the time to blog again. Since the summer it feels as if I have been spending most of my time on the volunteer work I do for the CFUW, editing the newsletter for its Ottawa branch being my main job these days. There's a certain satisfaction in seeing the finished result each time it's issued, although the professional layout editor with whom I work is probably the one who puts in the most intense effort, and the ladies who contribute the articles, notices, reports and photos, or help me check for mistakes in the content are also indispensable. I have found it fun enough to volunteer to carry on being Editor-of-the-Carillon till May 2021, after which it will be time for me to hand over to someone else. CFUW activities could keep me occupied all week, if I'm not careful; some of its members are a lot more dedicated than I am. Since I've been attending the Board Meetings I've become more aware of that. It's a serious business as far as the Club's leaders are concerned. Their dedication can be traced back to 1910!

I still run the Diplomatic Hospitality Group's weekly German conversations on Thursdays, this year, I'm supposed to be participating in a group advocating for eco-friendly behaviour (but have missed a few of their meetings) and am presently also co-convening a group that calls itself Saturday At The Movies. That one doesn't entail much work at all; I merely need to book a table at a restaurant for a supper before or after the film from time to time, send out a few emails and turn up. Karen and I take it in turns to choose which film to see and make the arrangements. There are nearly 50 people in this group; so only a dozen or fewer are able to participate on each occasion. We've seen some well made films and dined in some interesting locations since we created the group this last September, and I may finally have the time to write another blog post about this. Another thing I recently got involved with, also with Karen, is  helping with arrangements for the CFUW's national AGM next June, that's going to take place in Ottawa. We have to take responsibility for the Displays and Exhibits; most of that will be last minute work, we suspect.

Anyway, to my delight, I can stop thinking about all that for a while, now, and make the most of the break. Nor do I mind switching off from the housework. Chris decided this month not to retire from work at the end of the trip after all, and will be at business meetings for some of it, so it's not quite the same for him. I relish the prospect of European towns to explore that I haven't seen before: Ulm, Radofzell-am-Bodensee, Konstanz (or maybe Schaffhausen), Brussels.

Best of all, we have a reunion with some of our British family and friends to look forward to.