Category Archives: Multicultural events

Gung Haggis Fat Choy parade dragon and paddles on flickr

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Happy St. Patrick's Day.  It's the day after Celtic Fest and the Vancouver St. Patrick's Day parade.  I am still  wearing my green Gung Haggis Fat Choy t-shirt.

Being in a parade doesn't allow you to take pictures of your group, so it's always interesting to find pictures on flickr. 

Steven Duncan took some pictures of us setting up.  Check out his flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/9057324@N08/sets/72157604144696435/

IMG_6604 Michael Brophy gets in touch with his “inner dragon” – photo Steve Duncan (by permission)

  IMG_6563Julie and Hilary help Todd assemble the new parade dragon – photo Steve Duncan (by permission).

Check out these pictures by Click Kashmera's Buddy Icon to see more photos
By Kashmera

Stuart MacKinnon and I sat on the front of my car with our kilts on… and paddled.  We tried to get a dragon boat named “Fraser” into the parade, but it ran into trailer problems.  So we improvised.  It was quite funny, because a few people yelled out “Where's your boat?”  And Stuart insisted on paddling with my Chinese dragon hand puppet stuck on his hand.  I don't think I ever saw it come off, until there was a glass of Guinness in his hand after the parade.

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Our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team carried our new Chinese parade dragon.
Below Raphael and Leanne lead the dragon, while Michael wears a Chinese lion head
and terrorizes the volunteers!

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Gung Haggis Fat Choy puts a dragon (not a snake) in the 5th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

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Gung Haggis Fat Choy puts a dragon (not a snake) in the 5th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.


Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon team: Stuart holds the paddles, while Joy, Deb, Hillary, Richard, Michael and Leanne (out of picture) hold up our new parade dragon! – photo Julie

The 15 foot long Chinese dragon undulated up and down in the air above the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Vancouver’s Granville Street.   A mini version of the larger 10 or 20 person dragons used in Chinatown Chinese New Year parades, it jerked hesitantly. Five Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team members carried short poles sporting a yellow body with red scales and blue and yellow ridge.

It flowed unsure of itself, as the leader lowered and raised the head and the body followed.  It ran from one side of the road to the other, slowing down to flap its mouth and pay attention to the children.

A Chinese dragon in a St. Patrick’s Day Parade?  Didn’t St. Patrick drive the snakes out of Ireland?  

Ahh… but this is multi-inter-cultural Vancouver.  Dragon boaters paddle in kilts, and bagpipers perform in the Chinese New Year Parade.  And the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner serves up deep-fried haggis won tons.  Welcome to Vancouver!

Yesterday I was in Chinatown looking for some kind of dragon to use for our parade entry.  I had only learned the day before that the trailer used for Fraser Valley dragon boats had some safety issues.  Damn!  

It would have been very cool to put a “Fraser” dragon boat into the Celtic Fest St. Patrick’s Day parade, and have our dragon boat team members wearing the Hunting Fraser tartans (okay we call them “sport tartans”).

I checked around to try to find a Vancouver area dragon boat and trailer to use as a replacement.  But no luck.

For the first three years of the festival, I had featured a Taiwanese dragon boat, that we pulled on a trailer.  Very colourful.  Very ornate.  Very good audience reaction, as we “paddled” on the boat and banged the drum.

But this year… Sorry – no dragon boat… so we improvised…

I looked in Chinatown stores at seven foot long plastic expandable dragon decorations.  They looked cheap.  Some looked pretty cool, with bright jewel cellophane coloured assembled pieces for its head.  $49.

But then I saw a larger cloth covered dragon for $148, like the kind used in the Chinatown parades, but with only two poles.

Then I saw a large dragon face staring at me, with a large pink tongue sticking out.  A large round body, stretching 16 feet long alongside the staircase leading to the second floor.  Wow!  It’s  yellow head was about the same size as the large Chinese Lion head mask that I have.  I wanted it!

A big commitment buying a parade dragon like that.  As I was looking at it, a woman said to me, “ Are you Todd Wong?”  My daughter Shane did a lion dance at Gung Haggis Fat Choy!”

“Hi… uh… that’s great!  Nice to see you… was that at SFU?” I answered  (I didn’t remember ever having a Lion Dance at a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner).

“No… it was about a month ago, in Seattle!” She said, “My name is Sam.”

In Seattle Bill McFadden had organized a grand Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner with 5 Lion Dancers.  The mother and daughter had popped up to Vancouver from Seattle for the day, just to see a martial arts demonstration earlier that day on Saturday.  We had a wonderful conversation about Lion dancing, and what a beautiful dragon we were looking at.

“We don’t have a dragon at our school,” they said.  “This dragon is gorgeous!  It would be great to have.”

I bought the dragon.

The weather was chilly today for the March 16 parade this morning, high overcast.  But 5 Years…. and NO RAIN!!!  Incredible! 

 

Our dragon boat team members started assembling about 10:15am.  It took awhile for some of us to find us, because our car had been “temporarily” ushered into the “walkers” area instead of the “motorized” area, so that we could unload the car and decorate it.

Our paddlers marveled at the new dragon making its’ public debut.  We struggled trying to screw in the poles to the dragon.  We put green Gung Haggis Fat Choy shirts on our participants.  We put kilts on the people who didn’t show up in them.  We put green plastic bowler hats on the men or tiaras on the women, and we gave everybody mardi-gras style green, purple and blue beads.

We were festive.  We were fun.  We were happening!

People seemed to like the Chinese dragon we had on 5 poles…
and the Chinese lion head character….  Michael lead the dragon first.  He is 1/2 Chinese, 1/8 Irish and 1/8 Scottish.  Following and supporting the dragon were Leanne, Richard, Hillary and Joy.  

Lots of interaction with the audience, playing to the cameras… giving attention to the children.  Raphael and Stuart carried dragon boat paddles.  I wore the large Lion Head mask.

Todd Wong and Lion Head mask – photo Michael Brophy

We got lots of crowd reaction, when Raphael and I started sitting over the front fenders on the car hood, paddling dragon boat style.

In the parade we saw lots of great pipe bands, Irish dancers, Scottish highland dancers and even horses and Irish Wolf Hounds.

It was nice to see a Korean parade entry, and a Chinese Falun Dufa entry.  Apparently for the Chinatown parade – they wouldn't let Falun Dufa participate, because it is a “hot issue” for the Chinese embassy.  And I even found two Chinese bagpipers.  Xi “Jonsey” is in the J.P. Fell pipe band and Fu Cheong is in the Irish Pipes and Drums.

Jonesy Wu and Todd Wong – Celtic loving Chinese-Canadians in kilts – photo Michael Brophy

After the parade, we visited the Celtic village set up on Granville St., then dipped into Ceili's Irish Bar for some food and well-deserved Guinness beer.  It was great to be back at the very site where Thursday night, I had won the inaugural “Battle of the Bards” playing Robbie Burns!

But I couldn't stay long, as we still had a dragon boat team practice, and I was coaching!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the Celtic Fest organizers for having us in the parade.  We are glad to add  a multicultural aspect to the festival, and hope to organize an event for “Celtic-Asian-Canadians” next year – celebrating Celtic-Asian-Canadian literature, music and arts!

The rain started about 4:30pm in Vancouver after the most successful St. Patrick’s Day Parade ever.

Rhonda Larrabee, chief of Qayqayt First Nations, in CTV's One Women Tribe

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This is the CTV documentary about my cousin Rhonda Larrabee's struggle to resurrect Canada's smallest First Nations band the Qayqayt. 

Once upon a time the band flourished on the banks of the Fraser River.  Then White settlers moved into their territories and renamed it New Westminster.  The Qayqayt were put on a Reserve, but that was taken away from them too. 

Rhonda's mother fled her homeland territories due to racism and shame.  She came to Vancouver's Chinatown, where she met Rhonda's father.  Rhonda grew up into her teenage years thinking she was Chinese.  Then she discovered she was First Nations.

Now Rhonda Larrabee is resurrecting the Qayqayt Nation.

Tribes & Treaties

This show originally aired on January 26

Tribes & Treaties


Updated: Tue Feb. 05 2008 18:04:25

ctvbc.ca

One Women Tribe:

Rhonda Larrabee discovered the startling truth about her family
origins. She was not of Chinese and French descent as she was told
while growing up in Vancouver's Chinatown. Rhonda's mother was First
Nations. Then an even bigger shock – Rhonda discovered that she is the
last surviving member of the Qayqayt Tribe (New Westminster Band). She
is now striving to preserve the cultural legacy that her mother felt
forced to reject.

see the pod cast:
http://www.ctvbc.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080127/bc_firststory_women_tribe_080127/20080127/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

Courier: Wong celebrates Celtic Fest's kilty pleasures

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A Chinese Canadian Robert Burns?  Go figure!  But for some people it makes sense… at least in multicultural intercultural Vancouver. 

Last week the Vancouver Courier interviewed me for a Celtic Fest story about tonight's Battle of the Bards.  Photographer Dan Toulgoet met me at the Robert Burns statue in Stanley Park, which had been erected 80 years ago.

It's always interesting to find out how other people perceive Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and what they think about my persona as “Toddish McWong.”

Come check out the Battle of the Bards literary pub crawl:
5:30 Doolin's Irish Pub
6:05 Atlantic Trap & Gill
6:45 Johnny Fox's Irish Snug

8:00 Finale (cost $5)
Caile's Irish Pub Dublin Bar 2nd floor
poets “perform” with DJ + celtic fiddler
dancing afterwards

Read Fiona Hughes article:

Wong enjoys CelticFest's kilty pleasures

Fiona Hughes,
Vancouver Courier

Todd Wong aka 'Toddish McWong' rocks the mic in the Battle of the Bards pub crawl March 13.View Larger Image View Larger Image

Todd Wong aka 'Toddish McWong' rocks the mic in the Battle of the Bards pub crawl March 13.

Photo by Dan Toulgoet

Published: Wednesday, March 12, 2008

O'Braonain, McManus, MacIsaac, Wong. Which one is not like the other?

In
any other city, finding a Wong performing among all the fiddling and
whiskey-swilling Macs and Mcs at a celtic festival might be as
impossible as discovering a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But
in cross-culture pollinating Vancouver the inclusion of Todd Wong in
the Edgewater Casino CelticFest Vancouver is a no-brainer. (The
festival runs March 12 to 16 with the fifth annual St. Patrick's Day
parade scheduled for Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Granville Street
downtown.)

Wong, as many Vancouverites know, is the man behind
the now legendary Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, an event that combines
Chinese New Year celebrations with Robbie Burns Day at the end of each
January. The 2008 dinner marked the event's 10th anniversary.

So
when festival organizers went looking for a local to play Robbie Burns
in a new event at CelticFest, they looked no further than Toddish
McWong. He's featured in the Battle of the Bards pub crawl Thursday
night (March 13). The event is inspired by the renowned Dublin Literary
Pub Crawl, in which three actors act out famous works by Irish scribes.
In Battle of the Bards, three men will take on the roles of Scotland's
Robbie Burns (Wong), Wales's Dylan Thomas (Damon Calderwood) and the
Emerald Isle's William Butler Yeats (Mark Downey). They'll recite
famous works from the triple threat of Celtic literati while touring
local Celtic-flavoured pubs (Doolin's, Atlantic Trap and Gill, Johnnie
Fox's Irish Snug). At the end of the pub crawl, the three “literary
giants” will face off against each other in a spoken word poetry slam
at Ceili's Irish Pub and Restaurant. But Wong, who earns his paycheque
as a part-time library assistant and dragon boat coach, isn't an actor
and he's up against trained thespians.

Wayson Choy gives “spirited” reading for Vancouver Cultural Olympiad

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Not Yet

Wayson Choy came back to Vancouver to read from his upcoming book, “Not Yet a memoir of living and almost dying,”  Wayson is famous for his first novel “Jade Peony” and its' subsequent prequel “All That Matters“which was nominated for a Giller Prize.

Recently Wayson received the Order of Canada, and Jade Peony made the Literary Review of Canada's Most Most Important Books.

His books describe growing up in Chinatown, whether fictional or his memoir Paper Shadows.  He says that his books are also about secrets, and secrets reveals.  Paper Shadows addressed the unknown secret that Wayson had been adopted, which he didn't learn until he was 57 years old.  Not Yet, reveals secrets about near death, and not being ready to die, and coming to terms with death.

When Wayson came to Vancouver in 2002 to celebrate Jade Peony being selected as the inaugural choice for the One Book One Vancouver program at the Vancouver Public Library, few people knew then that Wayson had recently been in a coma due to a heart attack.

On Tuesday night, Wayson talked about his second heart attack, and his conversations with ghosts.

“Gracious” is always the word I use to describe Wayson, and he certainly embodied the word during his talk.  It's important to recognize what we have in our lives, because when we almost lose what we take for granted, we value it so much more.  This is what Wayson and I both know, as he has now survived two heart attacks and I survived a near fatal cancer tumor.  How we deal with our challenges is important to how we live our lives.

Wayson described how after each heart attack, he had moments of clarity and meaningfullness – what I asked he might describe as “satori” in zen buddhism or what Abraham Maslow called “self-actualization.”  Wayson answered by talking about having a “knowingness that what you do matters.”

Oh… about the ghosts.

He described meeting ghosts after one of the heart attacks.  When he talked to a friend who was familiar with ghosts and spiritual matters, they confirmed the tell-tale signs and signatures.  But I will let you read the book to find out what went on.

It was great to see so many familiar faces attending the reading at the UBC Robson Square event.  I sat down beside friends Elwin Yuen and Fanna Yee.  Elwin had been on the ACWW board with me, when we honoured Wayson at the 2002 ACWW Community Dinner.  Sitting in front of us were Steven Wong with his parents Zoe and Bill Wong – subject of the CBC documentary Tailor Made.

After the book signings, I joined my cousin Janice Wong, author of Chow: From China to Canada, to help celebrate Dr. Henry Yu's birthday eve with his wife, Brandy Lien-Worrall.  Brandy edited the anthology Eating Stories which was produced in the writing workshops she led for the Chinese Canadian Historical Society.  Joining us for drinks and nachos was Leanne Riding, my co-president for Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop. 

Great stories… Great people… and inspired by Wayson.

Celtic Fest opens in Vancouver: Robert Burns (Toddish McWong) is guest poet on Co-op Radio's Wax Poetic

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Robert Burns aka Toddish McWong was interviewed today on Co-Op Radio's Wax Poetic – hosted by Steve Duncan and Diane Laloge.

http://poetryradio.blogspot.com/

Wax Poetic recognized the first day of Celtic Fest by highlighting the “Battle of the Bards” event featuring celtic poets Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats and Robert Burns, played by Todd Wong.

Diane and Steve asked Todd about the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com
and how he became interested in Robert Burns.

Todd described the first meeting of the Battle of the Bards for a CBC Radio interview with Paul Grant.

Todd also read poems “My Luv Is Like a Red Red Rose” and “A Man's a Man For A' That and A' That”. 

Burns poetry is full of love, social justice, equality, and love of life.  The issues he wrote about are still relevant today.

Todd then closed with a rap version of “Address to a Haggis.”

Steve describes The Battle of the Bards as a fun event inspired by the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl:

With CelticFest and St. Paddy's day fast upon us, we decided a tribute
to the Scotch and Irish would be appropriate, so we are raising the
dead for this show and bringing in Robbie Burns to help celebrate.

Yeats and Burns (really two great performers, Mark Downey and Todd Wong) will be going head-to-head, along with Dylan Thomas (Damon Calderwood) in a unique literary event this year on Thursday, March 13: The Battle of the Bards Literary Pub Crawl, a
combination pub crawl/poetry slam where the legendary poets go from pub
to pub downtown performing their works and being judged by members of
the audience armed with scorecards. The event culminates in a Jack Karaoke-style match at Ceili's Pub, where they must do their pieces accompanied by a DJ (All Purpose's Michael Louw) and fiddler Elise Boeur. Once the contest is over much drinking and dancing is done into the wee hours. Click on the image below for more details.

The secret is out: Fortune Cookies aren't really Chinese…

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I never thought Fortune Cookies were Chinese. 

They were always written in English, never in Chinese.  Our friends had their own Fortune Cookie factory near Chinatown. I even toured in it.

Jennifer 8 Lee has now written a book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.  She writes how so-called North American “Chinese food” is really not Chinese at all – but Mainstream American.

Lee exposes all the myths about North American Chinese food, myths that Chinese-Canadians and Chinese-Americans have known for generations – but White Americans are just learning about.  Geez… first the Easter Bunny, then Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, and now Fortune Cookies!

Check out this article “How the fortune cookie crumbles” by Nina Lalli.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_drink/2008/03/11/fortune_cookie_chronicles/index.html?source=rss&aim=/mwt/food/eat_drink

Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC honours Brandy Lien-Worrall

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The Chinese Canadian Historical Society has contributed a lot to helping recognize and develop stories about the Chinese pioneers in Canada.  I participated in the second set of writing workshops led by author/editor Brandy Lien Worrall.  These stories became the book Eating Stories:

The CCHS likes to hold events at Foo's Ho Ho restaurant because it cooks the old style Cantonese dishes that the pioneer Chinese brought with them to Canada in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  I remember many family dinners at the Ho Ho Restaurant during the 1960's and 1970's.

On Saturday Night, CCHS honoured Brandy Lien-Worrall for leading the CCHS writing workshops, which singlehandedly helped fund and make a reality the Edgar Wickberg scholarships for students studying Chinese-Canadian history.  Brandy really is an amazing and inspiring person.  Not only did she succeed in editing the Eating Stories anthology over the summer and seeing it through to publication in November, but she did it while fighting a serious bout with breast cancer.  On January 1st, I named Brandy to a list of Chinese Canadians that inspired me for 2007.

It was a wonderful community dinner.  CCHS president Hayne
Wai was emcee.  Malispina University professor Imogene Lim and film
maker Karin Lee took tickets at the door.  Dr. Jan Walls made a
wonderful clapper tale tribute to Brandy.  Author Wayson Choy was in
attendance.

The dinner also featured performances from sketch comedy troupe Assaulted Fish, performing their hilarious Jackie Chan skits.

After the skits, some of the members of the writers workshops gave tributes or roasts in speeches about Brandy.  I chose the former, sharing that many of the people taking the workshops never before saw themselves as writers.  They just wanted to learn how to document stories about their families with a food theme.  But along the way, they all became writers.  And I saw their confidence and their self-esteem as writers blossom.

“If there was one gift I could give to Brandy,” I said,  “it would be as my new role as co-president of the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop to continue creating workshops like these to continue to tell the stories of Chinese Canadians and share them with our communities.”

And I forgot to say that way back in the late 1980's, ACWW founding
member Jim Wong-Chu started collecting stories for an anthology
published as Many Mouthed Birds
(1991).  It included writings by Paul Yee, Denise Chong, Evelyn Lau.
SKY Lee, and a short story by Wayson Choy titled Jade Peony.  Douglas
McIntyre saw the short story, and asked for it to be expanded into a
novel.  The rest is history.  Paul Yee won the inaugural Vancouver Book
Prize for Saltwater City (1989), followed by SKY Lee's Disappearing Moon Cafe (1990) Denise Chong's The Concubine's Children (1994), Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony (1996).

So…
you just never know where an anthology can go….

Congratulations to all you now-published writers…
and another round of thank yous and applause to our dear editor, teacher, mentor and visionary task master – Brandy!

Recommended Robert Burns poems for Celtic Fest “Battle of the Bards”

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image

Modeled after the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, but with a “Vancouver Twist”… Battle of the Bards is a unique Steve Duncan creation for the Vancouver Celtic Fest.  Three actors will play poets W.B. Yeats, Dylan Thomas and Robert Burns (with me – Toddish McWong as Burns). 

We will go on a pub crawl reciting poetry to (un)suspecting patrons starting at Doolin's Irish Pub at 5:30pm.  Then we will go to Atlantic Trap and Gill for 6:05.  Johnny Fox's Irish Snug at 6:45.  Then the finale at Ceili's Irish Pub and Restaurant for 8pm, where we will be accompanied by a DJ and a celtic fiddler.

The judging will be done by Audience members holding up numbers, and I hope an applause meter.

Robert Burns
Last week on Wednesday, I went to visit the Robert Burns statue in Stanley Park.  It was my first visit since visiting as a child, when my father used to take me and my younger brother for regular outings to Stanley Park.  This stature is located near the park entrance, across from the Vancouver Rowing Club.

Not being a complete expert or scholar on Robert Burns, I asked my friends in the Burns Club of Vancouver, as well as Ron MacLeod, Chair of the Scottish Cultural Studies program at Simon Fraser University for advice.  They readily obliged:

The mind boggles at the thought of this event. Celtic poets could cause
a fight on the moon. Watch out for Celtic passions. Burns had many
poems of a nature pertinent to this event . If you wish to concentrate
on wine and women, then  give consideration to “Ae fond kiss”, “The
Belles of Mauchline”, “O’ a’ the airts the wind can blaw” “Mary
Morrison”, “Willie Wastle”( completely NPC), “Scotch drink”



Good Crawlin”



Bob. 

From Dr. Ian Mason

“Willie
brewed a peck of maut” would be one of the more famous of his drinking songs but
it so replete with Lalland words (i.e. the old language of the Scottish borders)
that it might be nigh near impenetrable to your average
Canuck.

 “John Barleycorn. A Ballad” a fifteen
verse parable of the invention of Scotch would be much more accessible but
might be a bit long.

As a compromise I have attached the peroration from
his cantata “Love and Liberty” as being both brief, stirring and to your
point.  'Budgets, Bags and Wallets' are all alternate
names for purses or cases. “Brats' are offspring while 'Callets' and
'doxies' can both be read as wenches.  Those, I think, are the only
unusual words

From Ron MacLeod:

Todd, my hope and expectation is that you will be in good 
singing voice, well lubricated with the precious dew.
Here are three songs that you might consider:
The Deil's Awa' W' Th' Excise Man (first choice)
Rantin' Rovin' Robin
Guide Ale Keeps the Heart Aboon
or perhaps, 

There’s cauld kail in Aberdeen

An’ custocks in Stra’bogie

Where ilka lad main hae his lass,

But I main hae my coggie.

For I main hae my coggie, sirs,

I canna want my coggie;

I wadna gie my three-girred cog

For a’ the wives in Bogie.

Todd Wong getting ready for “Battle of the Bards”

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Somehow this 5th generation Chinese-Canadian who has never set foot in Scotland is becoming a  go-to guy for Gaelic and Celtic culture in Vancouver? 

It took me by complete surprise when Steve Duncan initially asked me to play Robert Burns in a literary poetry slam for Celtic Fest Vancouver, based on the “Battle of the Bards” originally done in Dublin.

Steve wrote on his blog Commerical Drive – Live!,

Every year I put on some type of literary event for the festival. This year it's The Battle of the Bards Pub Crawl. A cross between Dublin's world-famous literary Pub Crawl, and the phenomenally popular Poetry Slam (which makes it's home right here on the Drive at Cafe Deux Soliels every Monday and produces consistently top spoken word artists.

For this event, hosted by the lovely Ravishing Rhonda, Dylan Thomas, W.B Yeats and Robbie Burns (played masterfully by Damon Calderwood, Mark Downey and Todd Wong – of Gung Haggis Fat Choy fame)
go head-to-head in a poetry face-off at 3 different venues and are
judged by members of the audience the grand finale is a karaoke battle
at Ceili's Pub, with a live DJ (local spinmaster Michael Louw) and celtic fiddler Elise Bloer.

Och!  And explorer Simon Fraser was born in Vernont to Loyalist parents, and he never set foot in Scotland either!

The “Battle of The Bards” event is catching a buzz in Vancouver poetry and performance circles now.  Professional actors are playing poets Dylan Thomas and William Butler Yeats.  But Robbie Burns is being played by cultural activist Todd Wong aka “Toddish McWong.” 

Todd Wong (me) is not a professional actor, despite taking some acting classes at Capilano College.  I think I am at a disadvantage by being culturally challenged not having grown up with an Ayreshire accent, as well as being alcohol absorption challenged because of the Chinese DNA.  How will I survive this literary pub crawl?  But I hope to have a few surprises in store.

I can't reveal details of these surprises or upcoming articles in the media… so please stay tuned.  They are each different in subject matter and direction… both each were fascinating chats, and both wanted new pictures of Toddish McWong in action around Vancouver….  more details later.