but confirm that impression I get at this time of year. Such moments are ripe for coincidence and happy convergence. And, at a great party I went to (but hadn’t planned to attend) at about 2am I’d made my way to the kitchen past a steamy dance floor and was chatting with a guy I don’t know too well, but who’s among the very first people I met when I first moved to Montreal for college. And who should appear, completely out of the blue, but one of my oldest friends – you might really say a sister, in a way – who lives in Vancouver. When you’re in your early thirties there aren’t many people in the world that you’ve known for over 25 years, but there she was at this party on Park Avenue. And more than that – her background and experience fits very closely with part of this odd plan I’ve been cooking up over the past couple of months. Hmmm.