02152015 - My Father Jim McHugh, on his 98th Date of Birth

It's Sunday, Feb 15, 2015. Dennis and I heard fireworks last night in Cotacachi; Carnival is going on, to climax on Monday and Tuesday, before Christians begin Lent. So far, all I've seen are little kids with spray cans, running around squirting adults with a white foam ... and a few school kids throwing water balloons and balloons of a white powder. We'll see what happens on Monday and "Fat Tuesday" before Ash Wednesday!

Today's my father's 98th anniversary of birth. I really didn't know my father; we had very different temperaments, I was gay, and I "left home" at 16 really when I went to university, and then left to live for the next 47 years in the USA. I saw him perhaps once a year until he died in 1996. Anyway, I remember and honour him on this birthday. I think he was a handsome young man.

Here is my Dad, age 24, in the uniform of the Royal Duke of York 17th Hussars

and here with my mother in Verdun, I think before they were married, c. 1940

At my brother Allan & Sheila's wedding, 1972

here, about 1997, with my brother Allan, in Markham ON

I am now a Permanent Resident of Ecuador; I got that 2 weeks ago, and last week got my Cédula, the National Identity Card that every citizen and resident has. Dennis is still getting some documents, so hopefully he will have his visa and Cédula in the next month. 

In late June, we are planning to travel. If all works out, we will go to Santorini for about 10 days; and I hope to visit the island on which the poet Rupert Brooke was buried. Then a week on the Italian coast. And then a train trip from Athens, dropping in Germany whence came Dennis's family, and on to the English Lake District and the Scotland. 

I'm reading Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage". Ever read it?  Depressing!! 

In my opinion, the "protagonist", Philip Carey, is one of the most stupid, self-abusive characters I've ever come across. If I were reading it in a book and not on my iPad , I'd have thrown it across the room!