To my surprise it’s been over three weeks since I last added anything to this blog.  It isn’t that nothing has happened; it’s just that I really can’t believe that readers are interested in the details of my everyday life.  Frankly, I think they would find it boring.  Since I am less than three weeks away from embarking on my next adventure in Europe, my life is starting to get a little busier.  A couple days ago I had a phone call from Berlin.  It was Karsten calling.  My first thought was that he was cancelling, but he wasn’t.  He just wanted to talk about where we are going to meet in Le Puy. (You may recall that he is the young German who walked with me for a couple of weeks on the Camino de Santiago four years ago. He is going to walk with me for a few days.)  I had another call a day later from England.  It was Roger Sage calling to tell me that his most recent attempts to contact me by e-mail had failed.  I am meeting Roger and his wife Jackie in Paris on my first day in Europe. Roger is a favourite cousin, whom I haven’t seen for about 15 years.

On the home front, Carroll and I are busy getting ready for a short trip to Victoria where I have a couple of book events early in April.  I feel very honoured to be the keynote speaker for the Victoria chapter of the Canadian Company of Pilgrims at their event on 2 April at the Salvation Army Citadel in Victoria. The next day from 2 to 4 PM I will be at Cadboro Bay Book Company, where I am invited to speak … and with a little luck, sign some books.

Travelling could be interesting. Carroll had surgery early in March to correct surgery that she had had a year earlier. She has been cautioned by the surgeon to do no exercise other than walking and to not lift any weight greater than five pounds for the next four months. Her purse weighs more than that! That means no carryon for her unless I carry it.

While on Vancouver Island we are also going to meet some friends whom we haven’t seen for years.  Two of them are former helicopter pilots with whom I flew in Germany and several of them are armoured corps folks with whom I served in the distant past.  We also plan to visit Butchart Gardens, which I have only seen in winter and that Carroll has never seen. We fly back from Victoria late on 5 April, so that on the morning of the sixth I can do another book presentation here in Ottawa for the Ottawa Newcomers Alumnae Club.  Then it’s only a week until I leave.  The checklist is complete and the gathering of the contents of the backpack is well underway.