Memoir slam

Yesterday I went to Matthew's Movies and Outings Meetup at Just Desserts near Wellesley Station.  I also saw a documentary about Mary Pickford on Netflix.

This afternoon I went to the memoir slam.  The first subject was "Trouble with customs and immigration officials." I haven't had any real trouble with them, but I wrote about my trouble getting into the Ontario health care system a year after returning from my eight months in London researching my Ph.D. thesis.  In that system applicants wait twenty minutes in a preliminary queue, then after they tell you your papers are in order you get to wait in the main queue for two hours.  

In my case, I thought my papers were in order--I had a passport to prove my citizenship--but when I came to the front of the second queue it turned out I needed more documentation to prove residency. (They were afraid I was a Canadian citizen who'd become a British resident and was now sponging off Canadian health care.) So I got more documentation and returned the next day.  But once again, they let me past the first stage only to tell me it still wasn't good enough.  This time I put up a fuss because I'd wasted so much time in queues, and luckily they relented.

The second subject was "Clocks and watches." I talked about our antique clock from Berlin, Ontario--before it became Kitchener in World War I--and how I missed owning a watch I could wind up because now they only sell battery watches. (Coincidentally, my watch battery died today.) Then I talked about how I had no trouble learning to tell time, but was a long time learning to tie my shoes, leading to a long digression.  But the others didn't mind:  when I was finished, one woman asked if I had any more to say!

I enjoy the memoir slam so much, I think I'll start a second blog of my writings there. (Maybe other members will do the same!)