Busy bee

It's been a little while since I managed to get on here to post something. Things have been a whirlwind of late.

Last week Chad and I were in Toronto briefly for the Canadian Journalism Foundation gala awards. Morley Safter and Joe Schlessinger were both honoured with lifetime achievement awards. And the Free Press was named the news organization of the year. It's a pretty big honour, voted on by the biggest players in this industry in the country.

It was a fun evening and nice to be a part of it.

Wednesday was back to Ottawa for the Michener Awards. I have never been nominated for anything before in my life so this was a first and it was so much fun. They were held at Rideau Hall, hosted by the Governor General and it was a black tie event.
It really didn't matter that we didn't win, as all the nominees were exceptional and anyone would have been a deserving winner. We had anticipated ahead of time the CBC/Canadian Press Taser investigation would win so it was not a surprise to us to hear their name called.
But it really was an event where throughout most of the ceremony all the nominees were lauded the same and then at the very end it was "oh yeah, and this one won."

After the awards we had our photo taken with the Michaelle Jean.


Of course leave it to the all-ladies entry to confound the photo taking period by sneaking out to grab a glass of wine. In our defence half of our group was taken to the bar room instead of the photo room at first and we had already imbibed when they came to find us for the photo. Then the other half of our group wanted wine as well.

But the delay didn't seem to matter much.

They also had a fabulous dinner reception with various food stations with oysters, sushi, and a ton of other food that was all delicious, and a dessert bar to make anyone swoon.

And we got a tour of the house, parts most often not open to the public, like the parlour where the Queen is taken when she visits, the formal and small dining rooms, and a magnificent greenhouse. The art on the walls was all Canadian modern art and absolutely fabulous.

After the event the group of us went back to the Chateau Laurier for a glass of champagne and a toast. The waitress, seeing us all dressed up, inquired what event we had been at and we explained the awards. So she got the kitchen to make each of us a plate that said Congratulations in chocolate and had two homemade chocolate truffles on it. yum!

Even getting stopped by the RIDE program on the way home didn't ruin the night.





































Since then I have been entertaining my mother and Amy in Ottawa. It was a good visit, and we got a lot packed in, including a trip to Montreal to visit Lawrie and Kendra, a tour of parliament, and Amy's favourite I'm sure, a visit to IKEA.


Then last night I made it out onto the water for wakeboarding for the first time. It was a beautiful night, the water had warmed up to a balmy 18.1 degrees and I got up on my first try. I stayed up on my second try!


Now it's on to a hopefully restful weekend before I head to Toronto for a friend's baby shower, come home to have a visit from my dear friend Reese, and then prepare to head to Winnipeg and Kenora with Chad for our summer holiday. (Cheers to the politicos for not making me cover an election and ruining my summer holiday for the second year in a row.)