... I have learned to love open skies and rivers as I travel through life. I am on this beautiful beach because it was fate .... (and human kindness)
I am peace with so much sky and sea.
... and so it is in Denmark ...
North Denmark coast provides the space and a feeling of expansion ... forever.....
In fact this trip was about space - and movement - lots of it. I left Mostar early in the morning by bus, and ended up in Copenhagen at midnight after a stopover in London. A brief overnight (4 hrs) found me hurling myself through airports to get to Aalborg by 7:30 am the next morning. I spent the next 4 days attending research seminars. On the last day, Ellen Bonde brilliantly suggested a picnic on the north coast. We both chilled out on this magnificent beach that meets the north sea and looks beyond to England, Scotland and Norway. 
Everywhere in the world, the sun rises in the east and falls in the west. 
Everywhere in the world, rivers find their way to the oceans.
and people are just people ! ... laughing, loving, drinking.... here - we are pretty much doing all of the above at the Bonde's house party after the seminars are over. Back in Copenhagen with Helle Ziba, aka Tango Girl. We spend much time talking.... we are in her home in Copenhagen telling many stories... and here she is telling me a story with her left hand, but I cant remember who she was talking about!
... goodbyes are simply opportunities for saying hello another time... SO much life ... helle girl.
Then it was back to London.
While in London I met John MacAusland, a kind and generous man who taught me the true meaning of philanthropy. I briefly saw my niece Monica and her husband Sunil and jumped on a train (the one after the one that was cancelled) for a quick trip to Dorset to catch up with Nigel Osborne's latest incarnation of his Sevda Opera. There are some very nice memories of the cast, musicians from the Mostar Symphonette and of Dorset itself. - I have the dubious reputation of being a Mostar Symphonette chaser/groupee/mascot - having turned up in Utrecht, Zenica, Sarajevo - and now Dorset, UK to see them and their guest musicians perform. Guests such as Mirima - an inspired accordianist - are well worth the travel. But there are other rewards too. I also enjoyed the warm hospitality of Tina, the Director of Opera Circus and her husband Robert, a film-maker in their country home in Dorset.
Another dodgy train ride (it broke down), a frantic taxi ride and another looooong flight and I am on my way home!
and here are the beloved canadian rockies. One more hour....Finally, I am in my own back yard. One arm of the Fraser River runs past my home ....
.... and a short walk from my place brings me to a river trail....
which is flooded and impassable at the moment... but some leaves are still clinging to the branches - gradually abandoning their hold on the season, I brought some back with me carefully wrapped by Jeremy.
and this is taken from the my former stomping grounds, Granville Island. Vancouver in its everyday neatness. Of course, what is a trip home without visiting friends, sharing stories and telling lies.... Phil and Lei came to Mostar in the summer of 2005 so there are some shared memories... which no one else 'got' of course; like the 'glass of water story' .... well, I guess you just had to be here!
Yes, people are people everywhere, doing the same things... was this Leilani consficating the booze? No - happily delivering.
meeting old acquaintances - and each thinking the other one is fit to drive - yeah, right.
And it is an amazing gift to have family and friends who just drop everything to see you off again..... au revoir et a bientot.
