Where Are We?

Okay, I guess the first place to start is where we are.

I'm sitting at an old mahogany table under a gaudy glass chandelier in a heavily mirrored two-bedroom flat in Palermo. It's a little old lady's haven complete with a crystal decanter of sweet sherry. I know cause I tried it. It has cheap brown replica antique furniture from the 70s and wooden crosses everywhere.

I like it.

There are fake plants adorning the gazebo outside that blasts in sunshine. The windows have heavy white plastic shutters to keep out the nuclear explosion of sunbeams too. I wrenched those suckers wide open. We're on the top floor and the light wants to crawl up the walls and dance on the furniture of this damp, cramped space, and I'm all for it. Everything is exposed. Maximum sunlight. I like it.

Right now it's 4 degrees and rainy and dark and grey in Vancouver. People are huddling in the gloom and mould and wet and thinking about how they want to kill their neighbours. And their neighbours are thinking the same. I hate that city this time of year.

That's why we wanted to leave in February. It's the worst.

It's summer here. I like summer. And I like this neighbourhood.

The best part of Palermo is the parks. Five parks in five blocks. That's why we chose this place and the cheesy old lady furniture and the cramped quarters and the crazy blinds. We wanted location and that location meant we are two blocks to the zoo, the botanical gardens, a great big park called Las Heras, and the Japanese gardens.

We are in the middle of park-land. It's great for the kids.