Last July, Friday the 13th (not too ominous!) I walked out the gates for the last time.  You see, I was fortunate to have received a buyout.  There weren’t too many of us junior employees to leave, maybe 300 or so.  It all seemed so surreal and the almost 12 years I spent there seemed to flash before my eyes.  It felt as though it were only yesterday that I walked through that Center Gate for the first time.

In 1993 I graduated with a B.A. in English Literature.  I never really thought about what I’d do for work.  I went to my classes, read my books, wrote my papers and my exams.  Before I knew it, I was graduating!  I applied to Teacher’s College but in those days they only looked at grades.  I had a B+/A- average but it wasn’t enough.  What to do?  I applied to the City of Windsor and got into the clerical pool on a temp basis, hoping to one day get in full-time.  Easier said than done!  I didn’t really care for working in an office so when I got the call from Chrysler asking if I was interested in doing the test I said yes. 

I had no clue as to what would be expected of me.  I never knew anyone that worked there apart from my father but, he was an electrician–a different echelon in the pecking order of Local 444 of the CAW.  I had no clue that people would give their left arm or there firstborn for the opportunity to work at the plant.  I would soon learn why working for Chrysler was a close second to winning the lottery.

The testing was spread over several days and consisted of several components.  There was a written test (grammar, math, spelling–to work on the line?), spatial tests and hand/eye coordination tests, and finally a group exercise to see how you related with others.  It took less than a month for me to be called in for my physical.  I passed that and was told to report to the offices on a Monday in September, 2005.  My number was 89899 and I was to go to the supervisor in Final Car.  Oh, that sounded like it would be a nice place to work. 

WOW!  This place was enormous!  What had I gotten myself into?  Do you know that to this day I still can’t believe I actually took the job?  I don’t think I spent much time thinking about it at all if you must know.  I really should have run screaming from it.  There was the line, stretching and curving for miles, loaded with shiny new minivans for the North American market.  In 1995 when I started, they were running 6 days a week with the occasional Sunday.  3 shifts, each shift producing approximately 450 vans.  Incredible!  What was really amazing was how little I knew of how this place ran.  Well, I would learn soon enough and boy, was there a lot to learn.  A bizarre microcosm of the world outside with its own language, its own set of rules, its own reality.

My first supervisor’s name was Kevin.  He was nice and I was told I’d be doing door fits.  Okay (huh?)  “Don’t worry, it’s easy”.  You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that sentence and it would soon enough fill me with dread most of the times I’d hear it uttered.  But, it was all a new adventure for me so hey, I was ready to learn all about door fits. 

Let the games begin!

I’m going to aim for my 2-3 chapters a night, leaving the day free for errands. I did manage to go see Iron Man and really enjoyed it. Robert Downey Jr. was great in the role and I’m looking forward to seeing a movies about The Avengers (if you go see it, stick around for the end of the credits where there is a little teaser about what’s coming next).

I don’t want it to seem as though I’m reading JUST to get it out of the way. I enjoy it. It just seems a bit harder now to stay with more than one chapter!

Death of a Stranger was decent as far as the William Monk series goes. Perry has a style of writing that can be a bit irritating at times (she can be repetitive and tends to state the overstate the obvious) but she always describes Victorian London very well. This wasn’t so much of a whodunit as it was a whydunit and Monk gets his memory back.

Happy reading to all!

First up is Death of a Stranger by Anne Perry. It’s part of a mystery series featuring the character of Inspector Monk. The series takes place in Victorian London and I truly enjoyed it. For whatever reason, I hadn’t read any for some time. Which is probably a good thing because I’ve got several to catch up with and don’t have to wait for the “next one”.

The second is A Dead Man in Trieste. It is the first book of a mystery series also. It intrigued me because of the setting (I’m a history nut!) and I hope that it will be as good as the title makes me think it will.

The third book is In the Name of God. The main character is a young Syrian girl and the story is aimed at her struggle with Fundamentalist Islam. Of course, very topical but written by a Westerner who lived in the Middle East for many years. I am hoping that this too will be interesting.

Happy reading to everyone out there in Blogger land. I’ve also added Calvin and Hobbes to my blog. Along with The Farside and Herman it is one of the all-time brilliant comic strips (in my humble opinion of course).

I also placed The Book Thief, a piece of young adult fiction that was recommended to me by MB, a fellow blogger. I have not given up on The White Castle just yet but I have found it incredibly dull. That could be because it’s a translation but I think it is just not that interesting (and I’m half finished). I’ll give it another go and try to get in 1/2 an hour of reading per day–very doable!

In my defense, The Closing of the Western Mind was a tough read. Charles Freeman packed a lot of information into 340 pages and I admit to taking the time to read the notes at the book for many of his citations. I would recommend the book if you are someone who is interested in the history of Christianity. I think that a lot of people accept things as always having been a certain way but it all had a start somewhere. I especially found the concept of the Trinity fascinating and the struggle early church leaders had in finding a role, if you can believe it, for Jesus in Christianity. Of course, there is a lot in here about philosophy and the Greek tradition. It is interesting to see how much of it was incorporated into this new religion!

To close my rather brief review, I’ll just include what the author claims the central theme of his book is: “that the Greek intellectual tradition was suppressed rather than simply faded away. My own feeling is that this is an important moment in European cultural history which has for all too long been neglected. Whether the explanations put forward in this book for the suppression are accepted or not, the reasons for the extinction of serious mathematical and scientific thinking in Europe for a thousand years surely deserve more atention than they have received.”

I walk amongst the ruins of the Roman Forum
And wonder that they have stood the test of time;
I turn to share this with you but I’m alone.
The Colosseum is across the way, standing in its glory;
Hundreds of years have passed and yet the tourists still walk beneath
Those arches, picturing in the mind’s eye the events that took place there.
I want to ask you how you feel, standing there, breathing in the history,
Wanting to share this feeling of awe that washes over me but I’m alone.
Those romantic moonlit nights along the Amalfi Coast;
Lovers walking hand in hand passing through groves of lemon trees.
I’m alone but buried deep within my heart, my mind, my soul
You are there.

His assistant searches for beautiful young women in the streets of Paris to replace his daughter’s face with. Yes, rather macabre. The daughter has to wear a mask because she can’t bear her reflection. Her father is a renowned surgeon and has conducted experiments on grafting. There is a rather gruesome scene where we see the doctor removing the “face” from a second victim. I won’t tell too much more for fear of spoiling the story for anyone who may want to watch it.

It’s a great little movie, especially since it’s from 1959. I enjoyed the music score by Maurice Jarre (Dr. Zhivago). It set the mood for the film. The look of it was also tres cool! Movies from this era beat the blood and guts movies that we get now. Who doesn’t remember Saturday afternoon matinees? In the Windsor/Detroit area, kids in my era grew up watching Sir Graves Ghastly on Channel 4. This movie reminded me of those Saturday afternoons.

I’ve only gone once without family and friends and while it was a fantastic experience, there is nothing like sharing a new place with family or friends. The memories are there and when we get together we enjoy nothing more than sharing some of the experiences we had while abroad.

I’ve decided that along with the other topics I’d like to write about on this blog, I would add that of travels–past and those I’d like to have in the future. I don’t know yet if they will follow a chronological order. I’m fortunate to have parents who are from Europe and especially a father who loved to roam the world. They instilled that wanderlust in me and a thirst to learn more about exotic and historic locations.

So, tune in to my travel stories and share any of your own if you happen to drop by. My first entries will deal with France. Adieu until then.

I did a little bit of research when I got home. I know the “story” pretty well but can get mixed up with a lot of the names, details, etc. Two sites that are quite good are Tudor History and Elizabeth 1 . Take some time to look at the galleries and read a bit about what life was like for the women of these times. My next task will be to check out some biographies–if anybody out there reads this, I’d love some suggestions.