SAY CHEESE

My daughter comes home from school about a month ago and says one of her classes wants them to do a career day with someone. She goes on to say that she really isn't into spending that day in her dads career, although a fine one as a carpenter , it's not an interest for her.

A shy smile appears on her face as she tells me she already has another idea. I assume she may want to spend the day in the lab with my partner Chris who is a chemist but before I voice my thought she adds..."Do you think aunt Brigitte would let me spend the day with her?"...I thought OMG what a great idea!!! Let me call my sister!!!

Anyone who knows me even just a little has heard me talk and/or brag about my sister. I am proud of her, what can I say. She has a pretty cool job. The one before this was right up there aswell, she was a freelance photographer for the Ottawa Citizen , National Post, Globe n Mail papers among others I can't remember. NOW though, my sister is one of 2 official photographers for the office of the PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA..(for the Americans out there it is the equivalent to your PRESIDENT)............ in other words, she and another are Paul Martins photographers so she gets to travel all over Canada and the world with him at any given time or just be anywhere he is including the parliament buildings. Let me just add that she didn't even apply for this job. She was called by the senior photogragher who had worked with her before , and asked by him if she was interested in doing the job. She will admit to having to think about it though, freelance is higher paying then a steady commitment but the experience and people of this job was something attractive indeed. A perfect example of a once in a lifetime meeting came this year when the Dalai-Lama came to Canada. Brigitte and another photographer were lucky enough to each shoot the other while shaking his holynesses hand. She sent us all a copy of the photo, herself with the Dalai_Lama. Pretty cool if you ask me.

So , I call my sister and tell her of my daughters school project. She is all for it, thinks it's a terrific idea. She has to ask permission ofcourse and get a security clearance for my daughter etc. Oh and did I mention my sister barely speakes french and my daughter doesn't speak english? My sister and daughter have met ofcourse but sis is from out west with the rest of my family. I transplanted myself to Quebec 20 years ago so I am perfectly bilingual now. My ex never spoke a word of english. Although both parents can speak french and had us speaking a somewhat baby french as toddlers. Being in english Canada and our parents divorsing, we stopped speaking french in the home after that. By the time I left home I pretty much forgot all the french I knew untill I had to relearn it in Quebec.

To get back to my sister, she isn't overly concerned about the language barrier. Everyone she works with is bilingual and she and Cléo are also pretty good at using hand signals and the few words they do know to be understood ..........hopefully.

We have a date. It has the all clear so my daughter Cléo gets to go for sure now. My sister chose a day that had some action in parliment . My daughter will be able to actually take her own picture of the PRIME MINISTER in parliment as he goes into the QUESTION PERIOD , she will be right next to the Press Core.. who are basically the media that normally covers all those things. That in itself will be pretty cool. It has already been arranged for my daughter to have her own official parlimentary pass with photo clipped to her like my sister has. Brigitte also chose oct because parliment reopens sessions so there will be ministers all over . She really hopes to show my daughter as much as she can and also give her lots of chances to take her own photos with a spare camera she has. I think my sister is as excited about it as Cléo is not to mention me lol. I am so thankful that my daughter has this opertunity all because her aunt has this cool job.

Cléo has to look like a professional on this day so we had to go shopping. We were very lucky to find a rather nice tailored suit at Walmart no less. Looks fab on her , black with fine satin black pinstripe in it. A black pair of leather loafers with a short heel that looks great with pants. She already had a nice crisp white blouse so all cost aproximately 100$ not bad considering. She also agreed to wearing the suit to school on the day of her career day presentation. When we got home and tryed the whole kit on I couldn't believe how grown up she looked. I think all moms get those OMG THATS MY LITTLE GIRL?(or BOY) flashes , those overwhelming feelings of pride combined with a fist to the abdomin kinda way? ....

The big day is in 2 weeks, OCT 18th. We have a 3 hr drive to my sister and her hubby's house on the sunday before . Cléo's first briefing of the next days scedule will be summarized that afternoon by the official translater (that would be me hehe) to be followed by a leizurely visit with Brigitte and Glen . Next morning early will be a rebriefing and hair consultation with hairdresser (that would be me again) then final inspection before heading out to her government appointed career day begins .......during which time I will biting all my nails off lol

I know it will be a great day for her and my sister. Regardless of the language barrier those 2 are so alike it's not funny. I will be giving you all an update when its all done and maybe have a few pics to share from that day aswell..........it will be called SAY CHEESE UPDATE..simple enough lol