Remembrance Day is always an interesting experience in centretown Ottawa.

The obvious ceremony at the National War Memorial is one thing (although I’ve only ever been once, myself).  As part of that ceremony the snowbirds do a flyover in the Missing Man Formation.  For me, 11:11a.m. is virtually impossible to miss because of this, at least for the last 3 years.  My apartment is directly in the flyover path.  Mere seconds after they fly over the National War Memorial, the jets are flying directly over my apartment building.  You can see them, still in formation, from my balcony.  And let me tell you, they are LOUD, loud planes.

So there’s that, the ceremony and the planes.  You walk around downtown and there are men and women in uniform everywhere.  And every year, like so many others, I walk to the memorial to read the wearths, see the personal memorials and flowers citizens have left.  I mentally catalogue all the flags at half-mast, including the one on the Peace Tower.  I remember and think of my grandfather, a veteran tail-gunner from the RAF in WWII.  I leave my poppy on the Tomb of the Unknown.

It feels lucky to be able to be here for Remembrance Day, to pass the day in our nation’s capital.

Today, is also another day of Remembrance.  My stepfather passed away this spring.  Today is his birthday.  It’s ironic that I mentally mark it this year with a dream about him last night (I saw his ghost on the front porch of our house in Guelph.  I asked him how the afterlife was — apparently all is well) and a call to my mother today.  Kenny was a Jehovah’s Witness — he didn’t celebrate his birthday.  But I thought of him today, and I thought of my mother who is still grieving.

Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day 2007

Remembrance Day 2007

Remembrance Day 2007

I just had some of the best soup ever.  A friend and I just ran out for a bite to eat, and ended up at (the new) Pho Bo Ga La on Somerset West (north side — the original restaurant is apparently a block or two away on the South side).

Pho is my absolute favourite bit of asian cuisine.   And quite possibly my favourite food ever.  But, oddly enough I had never been to a restaurant that specialized in it — and there are tons in Ottawa.

Anyway, this place was brilliant.  I had the S6 special, which was rare beef with noodles in a spicy Thai tomato broth.  I think I fell in love.  Between two of us we had 2 pops, 2 sets of spring rolls (one pork, one pork/crab/shrimp) and two soups and the bill after taxes was $26.  It’s pretty hard to beat that.

I came away with a bit of a headache though, and I wasn’t sure why, until I spotted a review on another blog where they referred to the “inevitable MSG headache” so I’m guessing that was it.

YUM.

Ottawa to run its buses on green fuel

That’s really cool, and I think it’s great that the city is doing this. Now if only they could get their recycling program in shape.