It’s that time again, time to decorate the hallway of my apartment building, this year with Dollar store stuffed animals. Time to be stuffed to the gills, but no longer ever hung over. I remember the parties, now. Time to count my blessings, and be stressed out by too much to do, which is just the way I like it. Time to mourn: This year we lost Leona Biddle, who fell off a ladder, Chris Wendlandt, Ernie Scalberg, with whom I’ll never be able to travel enough nor drink enough wine, my cousin, Bobby Megan, Pam’s mother Maggie Ip, and Dave Godwin, friend since 1965, when I joined IBM. Too many.
I finally had the kind of year I had envisioned when I moved back to Montreal. It started in May, after I got off the Queen Mary 2, where I spent the winter. I made some great new friends and it wasn’t a bad way to spend the winter, but I was glad to get back home to a Montreal summer.
If you missed my blogs, you can read all the back issues on http://www.helenmegan.com I am not going to repeat myself. This applies to the September trip, too.
That meant a lot of dinners with friends, outdoors as much as possible, the R.St.L.Y.C. on Friday nights, the downtown terrasses, and some friends’ back yards. The nights are long and balmy and just magic. Susan and Jenny Sidorchuk finally came to share some of it, and I found an Opera at Place des Arts to take her to. The summer was full of Fringe Festival, Jazz Festival, Circus Festival, outdoor plays and operas. You name it, we did it and most of it was very, very good. I’ve made a bunch of lovely new friends playing Bridge at McGill’s Faculty Club and we kept it going with one table at my apartment all summer.
Andrea Fairchild and I made a girls’ trip to see friends in P.E.I. and Halifax, and some fossils at Joggins. We were well received and had a wonderful time. I got back just in time to finally host Val and Dave Lasker in Montreal. I needed to get some hosting in before I went to impose on them again in October. We did the restaurant terrasses, too, and saw Cirque du Soleil, under the big top, in the Port of Montreal, which is their home base.
The next cruise was Vancouver to Tokyo, on SilverSea, no less. Andrea Terni came along as my co-host and to have a little tour of Japan at the end. We got to sail with Serge and Barbara Rand, and it was about time. They have been great clients.
Our tour of Japan was pretty good, but the last time I want to do an itinerary that involves a new hotel most nights, and not enough planned meals. I just don’t have it in me to run around all day and then sit down with a hotel concierge to plan dinner every night.
We parted company in Narita, with Andrea flying back to Montreal, and yours truly to San Francisco to spend three weeks with my good American friends. Despite coming down with a little COVID cold on my 80th birthday, it was a very good trip. I managed to see almost everyone and only infected one dear, dear friend. She forgave me. Thank God, and her.
Air Canada did me no favors on the trip home. I was to be back in Montreal in the early afternoon of October 23, in time for some McGill Homecoming events. United finally delivered me at 9:00am the next morning. I had a bath and a nap and made it to my luncheon. Then I had another nap and went to see Sugar Sammy in a special homecoming production that night. Woof.
In a couple of days, I had recovered and was back at work, and a very busy fall it has been on all fronts. When Carolyn Bloom decided she wanted to do my Mumbai to Singapore Distinctive Voyage next November, and Celebrity had its Black Friday sale on, the price she got was so good, I just had to share it. So I sent out an email to all my clients, and the next thing I knew, I had sold 7 cabins. This was in the space of three days. I was working like I did back in my 40s. I’’s nice to know I can still do it, but I wouldn’t want to sustain that pace. I am working with an Indian tour supplier, that I met in San Francisco in 2018, and we are very close to having a fabulous pre-cruise for the group. All meals are being organized and, even though I am going to have to put up with some vegetarian ones, they look fabulous. It’s going to be the ultimate old farts, tour, because we might as well admit it and celebrate it. Yes, you can still add yourselves to the group. You know where to find me.
I’m off to Singapore on January 1, to co-host a Singapore to Hong Kong, by way, of Australia, cruise, on Holland America’s Noordam. We have more than 100 guests to host. When we land in HK on February 16, I plan to stay a couple of weeks, coming home February 27. Then, on March 13, I’ll be joining my three cabins on the Volendam. They are on a 133-day Pole-to-Pole, and I am joining for Buenos Aires to Barcelona. I want to sail the Amazon and I want to play with my best cruise buddies, again. I’ll be back in Montreal mid-May for the summer again. Come play with me.

And this is a typical Quebec “Buche de Noel” that I got to share in last night.
With best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year
Love and Purrs,

Helen and Robbie