At both my mother and my mother-in-law’s insistence, I saw the much-ballyhooed film The King’s Speech tonight, with my entire immediate family – mom, dad, and sister, as well as my 10 year old niece, Paige.

I think it may have been the first film all four of my family members had seen together since… The Man From Snowy River…? Crocodile Dundee…? The Gods Must Be Crazy… Yup, two Australian and one South African movie for whatever reason, and who knew an Australian would hold such influence in The King’s Speech? In fact, who would ever think to turn to an Australian to learn how to speak properly?

That’s exactly what happens in The King’s Speech, a true story set in 1930s England, as the crown is passed from George to Edward to… another George, the one who can’t speak properly. He stammers, yet because of the advent of radio, monarchs are expected to speak loudly and proudly into the microphone… to unite and inspire the entire British Empire.

The pain, embarrassment, and frustration King George VI goes through just to hammer out a few stilted words in public was both cringeworthy and enlightening. As a radio broadcaster, a singer, and a public speaker, I count on my voice for a living. Many times, on some fancy occasion when I have to step up to the microphone, I have wondered if anything will come out. Sometimes, when hosting on Radio 1 current affairs, I have come close to “freezing up”, and have had to “King George” my way through an endless moment to get my “flow” back… but most of the time my voice does just that… the words and sounds flow… and I realized, watching The King’s Speech, how much I’ve taken that for granted.

What I tell NO ONE  is that I have a stutter. Luckily, it only comes out when I am forced to speak when extremely frightened, in a very serious situation, or shocked to my core. Luckily, that doesn’t happen that often. Luckily, while hosting live events and radio shows can be nerve wracking, I don’t find them extremely frightening.

Back to The King’s Speech: I tend to avoid monarchy movies (yawn), but found this one riveting on many levels, in such that it exposed the Royals’ bizarre fishbowl living situation, and their snobbery and lording over the common people. Colin Firth plays the frustrated George VI with fractured humility, Geoffrey Rush plays the Australian speech therapist, and is a hilarious and intelligent character, who while very confident, is hiding his own secret. Guy Pearce plays the gadfly King Edward VIII (called David in the film, which confused me… George VI is referred to as Albert, or Bertie), and Helena Bonham Carter plays the very entitled but devoted Queen.

For the most part, my family loved it. Except for my 10 year old niece Paige. Not enough shirtless vampires for her taste.

Have you seen The King’s Speech? What did you think of the film?

This is just want Russell looked like when we first met him in Desolation Sound.

One of the most common questions I get asked at the Adventures in Solitude book events is “whatever happened to Russell?” (if you haven’t read the book, “Russell” is one of the primary characters, a hermit we found living in a musty canvas tent beside our Desolation Sound cabin many years ago, who eventually became a good friend).

My answer is always the same: Russell is getting older, but doing well, driving his taxicab around Powell River, living the life he wants to lead, up at the end of the road, spending as much time as he can around his little home, with his beloved dog Lucy. On Tuesday nights he can be found at the Lund Hotel Pub playing euchre and sipping on a pint of Guinness.

Just the other day, I called Russell on the phone to see if he needed any copies of the book for Christmas presents. He almost never answers the phone, so I was surprised when after just a couple of rings I heard a cheery, creaky old “hello!” at the other end of the line. We chatted for awhile, and I asked him repeatedly how he was doing, and each time he answered “oh, fine, just fine”. I asked him if he had been receiving much feedback on the book, to which he answered “oh yes, everyone is coming up and talking to me about it, everyone seems to really like it”. I asked him how he felt about that, to which he answered “it’s ok, but you know me, I’m a pretty private person, I don’t want too much attention”.

Then shortly after he told me he was driving a couple of people around in his cab and they said “hey, are you the ‘Russell’ from that new book?” Russell then told me with a chuckle “they thought it was pretty cool when I said ‘I sure am!’”

So, if you ever find yourself in the Lund Pub on a Tuesday night, be sure to buy my old friend Russell a pint of Guinness or a glass of red wine. Is there a “Russell” in your life?

Amor fati.

OK. So in this latest video I am pretty much fully dorking out on a gorgeous Thanksgiving Sunday 2010, planting my spring flower garden. And yes, it’s possibly a stretch that it will be “cool” to check in on the results in the spring, but hey, I was in the moment, and yes I do intend to follow up in March 2011. Huh!

Thanks to everyone who packed out my hometown West Vancouver Memorial Library yesterday for my last book event of 2010. It was great to see old friends, parents of old friends, Nardwuar, members of The Smugglers, my grade one teacher (who taught me how to read and write) and my parents and sister.

It’s been an absolute whirlwind ride since Adventures In Solitude came out in September, to Halifax and back again, and I thank everyone who has been a part of one of the most exciting times of my life. You know who you are!