It was the loveliest shitty time ever.

It rained and rained - and cold? Jesus, there weren't enough fleece pants in the world to keep us warm.

But we laughed and yelled and made like crazy amazons on the Churchill river for 5 days, and there was no way to repress our delight. That's the honest-to-god truth.

I was sent on this all-women canoe trip with my guitar as a campfire song catalyst. It worked - you couldn't shut these ladies up. From goddamn 'one tin soldier' to kumbaya (I shit you not) to all their favourite Simon and Garfunkle tunes, they just wanted to sing and sing. We sang while we paddled, we sang while we made supper in the rain, huddled around a woefully inadequate cooking fire.

Day by day, the bullshit ebbed away until just the essentials were left - humour, hard work and curiosity.

But how in the name of Artemis do I get that here, under my mask of makeup and civility?