Sliding

16 Friday Jan 2026

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This week was a great week for Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney had a huge successful trip to China. More than $1 trillion dollar agreement in trade has been signed. The tariffs China had imposed on Canada on seafood, lobster and agricultural project are lifted. We are dropping the 100% tariff on Chinese EV and we will allow 49,000 EV to enter Canada this year, this represents 3% of the total cars sold in Canada annually. It clearly appears that Prime Minister Carney is pursuing the agenda of shifting all our trade away from the USA. By 2030 Canada hopes to raise our trade by 50% with China. Currently China is our no. 2 trading partner. Canadians will also be able to travel to China visa free, which is a big plus. There are many more details, overall this was a very good week for our trade. In the last year PM Carney has signed many other trade deals with several other countries worth trillions of dollars.

The press in Canada were hoping the news of this trade deal would make Trump mad, it turns out he spent the week telling everyone how he needs nor want nothing from Canada. He also said he no longer wants the free trade deal which is 40 years old USMCA or CUSMA. Well then bye bye, Trump, we will go look elsewhere.

I love listening to the PBS Newshour and tonight Brooks and Capehart who present comments on the weeks news on Friday night, looked dejected with the news that Trump may invoke the Insurrectionist Act against Minnesota, something that has never happened in modern times. Both the Governor of Minnesota and the Mayor of Minneapolis are under criminal indictment because Trump does not like them, they have resisted ICE and with what is happening, this is becoming frightening. My impression is that the USA is sliding into a new Civil War. Trump is also insisting that he will invade Greenland. As Jonathan Capehart pointed out, Trump does not care what happens, it is all about him and what makes him happy. This looks more and more like a train wreck is slow motion.

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some photos

16 Friday Jan 2026

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Today a scene in Rome I witnessed when I was accredited to the Italian Republic. The Pope made his first official visit to the Quirinal Palace, a former Papal Summer Residence on the Quirinal Hill and today the Official Residence of the Italian President. The Palace was seize by Garibaldi and his troops in 1870.

This visit starts at the Vatican, the President sends the mounted escort of his personal guard the Cuirassiers Regiment (Reggimento corazzieri). This elite, mounted, and heavily armed unit is a specialist formation of the Arma dei Carabinieri, Italy’s national gendarmerie. They escort the Pope through the streets of Rome up to the Quirinal Hill. It is a short distance but it does snarl traffic, however the Romans take it in stride since it is the visit of one Head of State to another and Romans are used to this kind of thing for the last 2777 years.

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President Sergio Mattarella and Pope Leo XIV wearing the insignia of Supreme Pontiff. The Pope is accompanied by the Ambassador of the Holy See to the Italian Republic. Canada has 2 Ambassadors and 2 Embassy, one to the Italian Republic and one to the Holy See. This is a rule imposed with the 1927 Treaty of the Lateran. Some 184 countries have full diplomatic relations with the Holy See, plus the European Union and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. It makes for a lot of diplomats in town and much ceremonial and protocol.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Beijing this week for formal trade talks with the Government of China. He is making the first visit by a Canadian Prime Minister in 9 years. President Xi had a strong dislike for Justin Trudeau who had made some diplomatic errors and our relations with our no.2 trade partner were in the deep freeze. Carney who is well known in China due to his past role in business and has Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England has been given the royal treatment and the Chinese are delighted with his sensitivity and the way he speaks. Carney made a point today at this meeting with President Xi to speak about how the world has changed in the last 10 years and how we are now facing a New World Order. It is clear that we have nothing to expect from Trump and Carney is orienting our trade policy towards Europe and Asia. Many Canadians hope that this visit will result in possibly seeing Chinese EV built in Canada given their low price compared to US-Canada made EV. But that is only one element of the trade visit. In 2025 our trade with the USA has dropped 7% due to tariffs and trade with Europe and other nations has jumped significantly.

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This photo taken today, shows the arms of the cross on the Jesus tower of the Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelone. The top portion is missing and will be installed in the coming weeks. In October we hope to see the church completed while in Barcelona. The tower stands at 173 metres making it the tallest church tower in the World.

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Finally this photo taken from a tower in Berlin looking East and the identifiable buildings, on the left the green dome of the Lutheran Cathedral and next to it the copper red dome of the Royal Palace. Behind them stands the TV tower or Fernsehturm, built in 1965 by the East German Government DDR with a height of 368 metres. Lots of brand new towers in East Berlin, the building boom started around reunification in 1990.



Societies

13 Tuesday Jan 2026

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I read a subtract in Canada by well known journalist and commentator Paul Wells. He wrote a column recently about Canadian reactions to the Minneapolis shooting of Renee Good by a trigger happy ICE agent. Again I like many Canadians, was shock by how the police just shoots people or brutalize them in the USA. I am just happy that in Canada such things rarely happen. Yes we do have shootings by police of people but when it does happen, all manner of investigation and litigation takes place. The Officer is immediately put on leave from duty. It is not normal to shoot someone, negotiation is the much preferred approach police take. I saw the video several times and cannot understand why Good was shot, in front of family and with her dog in the back seat. I am sure she had no idea that the officers would shoot. I also could not understand how the White House and Kristi Noem jumping to defend ICE and their deadly action, accusing Good of being a violent terrorist. Again this would never ever happen in Canada. Government usually would automatically refer any questions to the Court or say let’s wait for more info, investigation results and details. You would also hear the Government say that in Canada people have the right to protest, it’s in our Constitution.

Because we get a lot of news from the USA, what happened in Minnesota, this State is a lot like Canada, horrified most Canadians and you hear this common refrain now, ” this is one more reason never to go to the USA”.

A former Governor General of Canada, H.E. Adrienne Clarkson said in 1999 the following;

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I wish the USA was a forgiving society, but I know that this is not in the nature of the country. In a punishing society, it matters very much who gets to do the punishing, and we see the kind of jockeying for position that has characterized the Trump gang’s attempts to establish that it alone gets to punish.

A few minutes ago, I read that 3 members of Congress were prevented from exercising their duty by ICE who blocked the entrance to the Federal facility where ICE works and detains people, weapons drawn and waving pepper spray, is this normal? Rep. Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig, Kelly Morrison wanted to do an oversight visit of the facility. In a Republic where elected officials are treated in this manner this should be a grave cause for concern. To me this is a tactic used to terrorize a population and enforce compliance. Again I cannot imagine such a thing happening to a Member of Parliament in Canada, totally impossible. But then again we are a Kingdom and our system is based on the Westminster Parliamentary tradition, politicians do not give orders to the Police, only the Court of Law can. I have serious doubt that the US mid-term election will take place at the rate things are going.

More funny weather

12 Monday Jan 2026

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So far this new year and also in November and December, the weather has been awful, few days of sunshine, lots of freezing rain and mix snow and rain, from Spring like to deep freeze in a few hours. It seems that we have weather similar to New York. I asked my little sister who live in Queens and we compare the weather and it is similar.

Finally all the Christmas decorations have been put away for another year. It took 5 days to what should have taken 2 days. We did have a wonderful time and a great season all together, lots of fun parties. Though we had no plans for New Year’s Eve, we were invited to neighbours down the hall and had lots of good food and great cocktails.

This past Friday at the Club we had a soup night, this in Canada is an old tradition during the first months of the New Year. So 9 members presented their home made soups, we also had a very nice lemon cake. The soups were rich and very good and this evening was so popular with members that we have another one scheduled for the end of January. There is also a Greek cuisine night coming up.

I discovered today that the author of Peter Pan, J.M.Barrie was Scottish, born in Kirremuir in 1860. He gave all the royalties to the book Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. It is one of the best known and important children hospital. Barrie requested that the amount raised for the hospital should never be revealed, and GOSH has honoured his wishes. In 1988, the House of Lords voted in favour of a special clause in the UK’s Copyright Designs & Patents Act. This amendment gives the hospital the right to a royalty from “Peter Pan” in perpetuity. Will and I on a visit to London saw the 1912 statue of Peter Pan, by Sir George Frampton in Kensington Gardens near the Italian Gardens. A 14 foot monument, quite fanciful and full of the personage of the story.

As I write this note I am listening to WFMT Chicago and the weather at the moment in the Windy City is 31 F. or -1 C in potato town, Charlottetown.

Not having any photos for today’s post, I will entertain you with one from our Teeter.

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Pundits

09 Friday Jan 2026

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It seems that more and more news shows are now basically panels with public figures who give opinions on any subject. Here in Canada, we have more and more of such shows. In many cases the people invited are former politicians, now retired or former political party staff who at one point had a job as senior political operative. To me this type of shows is the equivalent of gossip on the street, anyone’s aunt or crazy uncle could give just as good an opinion as those so called experts.

Today a new poll shows that 75% of people in the province of Quebec believe that Donald Trump will send the USA army to invade Canada. How many feel that way in the rest of Canada, I am not sure. Though what happened in Venezuela spooked a lot of people and the continuing rhetoric about taking Greenland by force is scaring Canadians. All manner of scenarios are being developed on this topic and I believe it is part of general speculation. The USA does have one military base in Greenland with a few soldiers. Prior to 1989 it was a very big base but now it is a post. Canada in a few weeks is opening a Consulate in Nuuk, which will be mostly political officers of the foreign ministry reporting on what they see and hear.

Today the riots and revolution in Iran continue throughout the country. Some 80% of the population want change and an end to the Islamic regime. Nothing like economic woes to stir up people, in this case there is a severe water shortage due to mismanagement and drought, scarcity of basic food staples like rice, dairy products, and medicine. The currency the Rial is worthless and the inflation daily is through the roof. So people have nothing to loose and they are tired after 45 years of this rigid Islamic regime run by a bunch of Mullahs and their police the Basiji. Tonight the Internet and phone service is down all around Iran. Will Trump intervene has promised to overthrow the regime of 85 years old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The demonstrations continue and the crowds are gigantic. The current flag of the Islamic Republic has been taken down by protesters and burned. The flag now seen on the streets is that of the Empire of Iran, a symbol that rallies protestors everywhere. The eldest son of the late Shah, lives in the USA, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has spoken and encouraged protesters, he is seen as a rallying point amongst the Iranian diaspora around the world and some protesters in Iran. All this to say that we are not even in mid-January and many hot spots and disputes around the world are flaring up with no signs of abetting.

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Polishing silver

09 Friday Jan 2026

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Today I read on a site I have been following for years about the opening of the Metro station Colosseo of Line C in Rome. This new station replaces and expands the old station of 1945. It took 13 years to build, it is only one station but given its location a few meters from the Colosseum and the Fori Imperiali, with the construction came a lot of archeological digs and the station is also a museum to all that was discovered.

Line C connects with Line A and the next station to open around 2035 will be Piazza Venezia, which is also a very large archeological site in the heart of imperial Rome. It appears that the Italian Government has no actual budget for this metro extension project, in total some 22 stations are now open and in the end 30 stations will take people from the Eastern Suburbs to just beyond the Vatican. The stations are beautiful architecturally.

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First week of 2026

05 Monday Jan 2026

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This is a quiet week at home with a Dachshund who only wants to be cuddled. Yes it has been cold outside and the wind, well it is the wind coming to a flat island on the ocean, just sweeping over us, making everything 10 degrees colder than what it really is. Lots of bright sunshine but too cold to walk around.

In the coming days, I will start putting the holiday decorations away, it will take a day or two. I also have to seriously put myself to work to prepare new notes for my guided tours. The Season usually starts by end April but we are not called in before mid-May.

So the elephant in the room, the USA government decided in its infinite wisdom to launch a military attack on Venezuela under the pretext of arresting its corrupt Head of State, when in fact Trump wants the oil. Then later on he started to speak about taking over Greenland and not hesitating to use brute armed force. This would require an invasion of sovereign territory and a war with Denmark and NATO. Trump has also attacked the President of Mexico, this would be a very messy affair given the history of Mexico and the USA in past centuries. Canada is not far off the Trump list, we have oil, we sell the majority of daily fossil fuel needs to the USA, amounting to 60% of annual consumption, so Canada is by far the biggest supplier of fossil fuel, Mexico is next at 10% and then Venezuela, Saudia, etc… We also have rare earth minerals and vast amounts of water, other resources and the North West passage. So yes we are a tempting target for Trump and Co. A lot of commentator talk about the imperialistic Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Needless to say that the Government of Canada and many of our politicians are very worried about this turn of events and what it could mean for us. I have my own scenario of what may happen by June, I see signs already, I just hope I am wrong. I prefer to think of a similar policy of the Nazi Government in 1933, built on the same principals of national security and vital space, Lebensraum. We all know where that led the world. Good grief, what a complicated time we live in. This is a case of wait and see, stay tune folks.

Prosit Neues Jahr!

01 Thursday Jan 2026

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Just finished listening to the New Year Concert from Vienna on WFMT Chicago, the Canadian maestro Yannick Nezet-Seguin, a native of Montreal, was conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. I am now listening to a piece by Clara Schumann – March in E flat on the piano, just beautiful. For breakfast this morning, eggs, apple sauce and toast with an espresso, with our little Teeter next to me. Tonight for dinner a beautiful ham with the bone in accompanied by a potato dish and vegetables.

It may snow or rain today, I am not sure, little wind and grey skies.

Victoria Park next to the Lieutenant governor’s Mansion.

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As for those famous resolutions we all make at the beginning of the year, I decided that since I will be 70 in March, I will make a conscious effort to forget all the unpleasantness of the past and relegate them to the past, a sort of dustbin, there is no need to carry unpleasant memories of past events until the end of life.

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With a last picture of the Musikverein, golden hall in Vienna, decorated with thousands of flowers from the City of Vienna green houses. The Blue Danube was first performed by the Vienna Philharmonic in 1871 with its composer Johann Strauss II conducting.

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Quiet day on 31 December

31 Wednesday Dec 2025

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Today has been quiet and tonight we are going to the neighbours for a little soiree. I went down the street to the florist for a gift bouquet for our hostess. I pick out the flowers, they had lost of fresh flowers, I wanted something festive.

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Mr Teeter was taking a nap has he always do during the day, he leads an exciting life and needs to rest. Will says, no he is just lazy.

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During my career we often had to attend social events after 6pm and sometimes 2 in a row, so you had to really get organized and know when to arrive and when to go. Say all the right things and sometimes pass a message to the host. Remember to smile and always have a compliment ready. Drink is usually a club soda with a slice of lemon, stay away from the amuse-bouche or sweets, they are fattening. Nonetheless thank the hostess for all her work. So at the end of the year Patricia Tremble who has a blog on the Royals gives out the statistics on who is the most hard working. This includes events attended but not trips abroad with the events connected to them. This chart does not include the Visit to Canada by the King and Queen or Princess Anne. The king at 533 events attended is a real work horse despite being in somewhat poor health. The Prince of Wales at 202 and Princess of Wales at 68 may have to up their game. Every single day they have a pretty busy schedule on top of all the other routine duties daily.

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Tomorrow is 1 January 2026 and once again the New Year’s Day concert from the Musikverein in Vienna. This year the guest conductor is 50 yr old Canadian Maestro and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a native of Montreal with an international career. It is always fun to listen on the radio or YouTube to this concert.

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The end of the year

31 Wednesday Dec 2025

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Can’t say I am sorry to see 2025 go, our personal lives are quiet, so no complaints. On the other hand, the state of the world is in turmoil. After the meeting between President Zelenskyy and Trump in Florida, it was pretty obvious that Trump has sided now with Russia and told Zelenskyy to give up at the press conference. The only card left now to save Ukraine is for the other NATO countries to send their military into Ukraine, which will provoke a severe crisis, but on the other hand Russia must not win. For the USA this is a very bad situation, it will push the USA to the margin, losing any influence it may have left. But there is nothing I can do about it and as Peggy Lee use to sing: If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is.

On the other hand, I just discovered that a lost work by J.S. Bach has been discovered. The discovery was a surprise, an unknown work by Johann Sebastian Bach it is a rare find. The Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1178 was discovered in the Royal Library of Belgium among two anonymous works. It was performed in November in Saint-Thomas Church in Leipzig, where Bach is buried and where he worked for decades. You can find the work on YouTube. The Chaconne is early work by Bach, showcasing is early talent at the age of 18.

Bach’s organ in St-Thomas Church, still in use today, we heard the organist play while we visited the church. It was magical, standing just a few feet from his tomb.

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We received an invitation for a New Year’s Eve party from our neighbours. Easy it is just down the corridor about 100 feet away. The weather is still very uncertain and the wind is icy cold, the snow is mostly gone due to the icy rain last night. So it is better to stay indoors and not drive anywhere.

To all my readers and the dear ones who comment, Thank you. I wish you all, happiness, health and peace in the New Year.

BONNE ANNEE!

Early dawn on the Gulf of St-Lawrence

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