What happens in Vegas...

I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. ~ George S. Patton (died 21 December 1945)

Christmas is coming,

Rob is getting fat,

We're going skiing,

Then Vegas is where it's AT!

We're all booked in. We'll be skiing in Panorama over in BC for 3 days till the 25th. It will be nice to have a white Christmas up in the mountains. This will also be a foray into British Columbia. I'm told BC really stands for Bring Cash. Albertans find the rest of Canada expensive because of the Tax. Here's how tax works here: when you see something for sale in the shops, say at $10, it will ring up at the till as $10.60. That's because some years ago Canadians voted to have their GST and PST (Government Sales Tax and Provincial Sales Tax) made explicit. It can be a pain in the bum remembering that the price you see is not actually the price you pay, but you soon get used to it. Anyway, here in Alberta the Provincial government makes so much money from oil and mining operations they don't charge PST, but everywhere else does, so once we're in BC a $10 item costs $11.30 (6% GST + 7% PST) on top.

~

For all that stuff will be 7% more expensive I am really looking forward to skiing some new slopes now that I feel I have found my feet on the snow. The snow In BC is reputed to be bigger and fluffier, making it nicer to fall in and slower to ski on, both good things in my book.

~

Once we're back from Skiing we'll have a few days at home and skiing local hills before heading off to Las Vegas, Nevada on the 1st. We're staying at the Luxor, a giant 2500 room hotel built like a huge glass pyramid. It is truly a word famous hotel icon and somewhere I've seen in films like Oceans 11 and various Bond films, so it's going to be a treat to stay there. We hope to explore the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam while we're there, as well as strike it rich. I'm putting it all on red! (All $10!!)

~

Finally, it was nice to say 'Happy Christmas' to my TA this morning. We all had waffles and chocolate milk while they all told me how much better waffle day was with their regular teacher who they insist on as addressing as just 'Vandelaak' (said with no breaks). We get along well, but they do miss you Alison.

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it for himself.

Galileo Galilei

Two get ups left, almost the end of the longest stretch of work I've ever done. So, what have I learned on the far side of the world?



- Minus 10 is not as cold as I thought



- I enjoy working with older students. Will I miss it when I get home?



- I have really enjoyed the challenging subject matter. Maths at this level is just harder than I've been used to and it's refreshing to give those mental muscles a work out and find that they still function pretty well.



- In general, young people respond well to being given more responsibility for their own learning. I believe that you can lead a class to learning, but you cannot make them think. The more we do to make it easy and interesting for people to learn stuff they don't inherently care about, the more we will have to do to keep their interest. At some point you have to say "work or don't work, but choose what is important to you and live by that choice." At what age do we begin trusting people to make their own choices? How do we train them to choose well? Thoughts please.



- Ofsted culture and the perpetual cycle of observation in the UK; good thing bad thing? It's been nice and a bit odd to go through half a school year without being observed once. I believe British schools do a good job holding themselves accountable for high standards in teaching and learning. I believe you can judge a teacher by their results to some extent. I believe good management of a school, a staff and an individual teacher must start from an honest and informed position arrived at through detailed data analysis and lesson observation. The constant drive for improvement in standards has worked; things are getting better and young people are learning more. That being said, there is none of that here and it all seems to work fine. Teachers here are professionals who can be relied upon to do their job well and do not need micromanaging. Has the UK gone too far? Has Canada gone far enough? Is it simply the case that both systems work well within their own culture and there is no universal model of 'best practice'?

- The whole road system works best if we are all generous drivers. If we all let each other on and off roads everything flows smoothly and driving would be stress free and much more effective.

- Spending time with my wife is a joy, and she is so relaxed not being at work. It's nice to have dinner cooked for me and a smile to welcome me home.

- Working with older students: most of them are lovely, some of them get on my nerves. Pretty much in the same ratio as younger pupils at home. And grown ups in the real world. Most people are lovely, a minority are gits. I guess this starts early.

- Skiing is fun, and perseverance is well worth it.

- Chuck Norris facts are fun, and almost certainly true. Check out www.chucknorrisfacts.com My favorites:

Chuck Norris once kicked a horse in the head. That horse's descendants are now known as Giraffes

Chuck Norris CAN divide by zero

Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter

- Chocolate milk and root beer should be available in British restaurants, and there should be o shame in adults ordering them.

- Canadians think Aussies, Kiwis and all British people (including Geordie, Scots, Welsh etc) all sound the same.

-Canadians sound like Americans to me. Sorry, I still can't tell. Unless someone says "Moose" a lot or ends all of their sentences with "Eh?" Or they have a giant Canadian flag on their backpack.

- Alberta AAA beef is the best I have ever had. Period. They really care about their beef here. They have names for parts of a cow I had never heard of before.The pinnacle of Medium-Rare meaty goodness is a New York cut striploin. Which part of a cow this is I do not know, and how they all get butchered in New York is beyond me, but it is so good. Tasty, tender and still dark pink in the middle. I am moving towards the conclusion that when Ol' Blue Eyes sand with such passion about New York New York he meant the steak. Come fry with me...

I feel I maybe on the verge of descending into waffle, so I'll post this and wish you all a happy Christmas; who knows when I will get chance to post again. Fingers crossed we'll be skiing and going to Vegas over the hols. Be well, and God Bless, wherever you are.

liquid truth

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it, seems to me the deepest root of all that is evil in the world. ~ Max Born

Question for today: if you could only drink 3 things the rest of your life, what would they be? (everyone can have water for free)

This evening here in Calgary: Cam said White wine, Red wine, Juice (orange if specification required); Jack said Coffee, White wine, Orange&Mango Juice; Vic said Baileys, Orange&Grapefruit Juice, Chocolate Fudge Brownie Frijj ;Rob said Coffee, Beer, White wine.

What are your three? Tell us and feel free to judge our choices...

(Cam and Jack are two Australians travelling the world on Summer Holiday over Christmas we met in Banff through a friend who are staying with us for a few days.)


BTW, skidooing was AWESOME and I finally think I have cracked the skiing. I got comfortably down tricky blues on Sunday. Then we said goodbye to some of our Australian friends who are finishing their year in Alberta and heading home at Christmas. Bye bye all, and we've really enjoyed meeting you. We'll see you in sunny Oz sometime soon...

Brief one

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. ~ Jane Austen (born December 16, 1775)

Off skidooing this weekend in Golden on Saturday, soaking in the Hot Springs at Banff Friday night and skiing on Sunday. We are truly lucky to have the time, money and opportunity to do all these fabulous things, and good friends to do them with too. Have a good weekend out there all of you.

R

Other people's lists...

For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else. ~ Winston Churchill

Way to go Winnie, that's my philosophy too, in a nutshell.

6 get-ups to go until Christmas hols, 77 get-ups done. That's 15 & a 1/2 weeks in a row. One small step for all you non-teachers, one giant leap for teacher-kind. Not only is it the longest I have worked in a row, it's the longest consecutive run without a sick day. Something in the air must agree with me, be it the lack of humidity, the altitude or the snow.

I hope you noticed the addition of my life's to-do list to the right. It's there to prompt though and invite suggestions. It got me thinking what my list would have looked like at school age; I never troubled myself to write it down. That got me asking the students in mt T.A. group and staff over the hall for one thing from their list, not necessarily the top thing. Here's what they said.

My T.A.

Will: become a Chemical Engineer

John: Play guitar in front of thousands of people

ChelseaB: Go on a roller coaster till she pukes

Jasmine: Go to the Bahamas

Nick: Play a superhero in a movie

DanielT: visit Africa

Kevin: Go skydiving

Cat: work a season as a lifeguard

Kathleen: go to the Olympics (preferably competing as a fencer, spectating will do)

Brittany: travel in Africa (preferably Egypt)

Matt: learn to play the drums

Khloe: Become a brain surgeon

Jack: revisit Japan where he was born so he can have some memories of the place

CheseaW: go back to South Africa where she was born

Zesty: become a psychologist and start a practice with Monica

Monica: become a psychologist and start a practice with Zesty

Natasha: own a yacht

DanielD: learn to surf

TonyC: Bungee jumping

Andrew: drive a Lamborghini

the staff

Mr Chen: Go to Brazil at Carnival time

Mr Chiachia: volunteer for a week or so in South America

DierdreP: Go to Egypt

CorinneA: Curl in the provincial finals

MarcoF: Visit Majegorie in Croatia, site of a vision of the Virgin Mary

RichardO: See Pink Floyd in Concert at Earl's Court including Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour

Roberta: Buy a property in BC to go to as an escape with family and friends

TriciaS: Have a family

BernieD: Build his own home

MarissaDS: Buy a red convertible Corvette, drive to the Shushwap and cruise down the lake to a friends house for beers

JohnW: See Monument valley at sunrise

Cheryl: Own a Dodge Ram, and a biggun too (a 2500 or 3500)

Megan: Own an old Violin, maybe even a Stradivarius

Frances: Kiss the Blarney Stone and meet Sean Connery

Peter: Kilimanjaro. Nuff said.

Mike: Paint a recognisable self-portrait

Some pupils:

Caitlin: win a soccer scholarship to University

Karlen: Play Basketball for the University of Calgary

Caitlain: Squirrell suit jumping in Japan

Fran: Start her own record label

Jeremy: Run his own Architecture firm

Kate: be a vet

Matt: be a cop

Kamil: visit New Zealand

A short paragraph in the hand is worth 2 in the bush

A paragraph should be like a lady's skirt: long enough to cover the essentials but short enough to keep it interesting.

Today's quote comes from a web-page of English proverbs. This one was new to me but I loved it. Seeing as I have little to report today this paragraph will be so short as to be virtually obscene.

Calgary's fabled Chinooks have yet to make an appearance since the snow first fell. I was reliably informed that every week or so the Blackfoot Snow-Eater would come and clear the roads and paths, but we are still sliding around. That prediction that this would be the coldest winter in 15 years in holding true. That said, today it would be no blessing as Vic has trekked off to Sunshine Village near Banff to go skiing with Marg and her sons. It'll be good to spend a last bit of time with some new friends before they disappear, good to go with someone a little more gung-ho than myself on the piste (although my confidence grows with steady steps) and good to just be out there enjoying herself. I get to spend the day watching grade 10s (15-16 years old) doing a trigonometry test and then tonight marking it. Oh, to be a Lady of Leisure...

Lists II

Not much to report today, just bits and bats. Only about -5 the last few days so not too cold, although 3 inches of snow once again brought native Calgarians to a standstill. Skiing was good, plenty of snow at Sunshine Village although I'm a little unsure skiing in too much powder, it's a whole new ballgame. Next weekend we're going ski-dooing, which should be nice. High speeds, little braking and vague steering. praise be for crash helmets. Also, Vicky's choir performance was well received in church this weekend. Well done V.

This last Sunday saw us burning DVDs of our last couple of months ready to post home for Christmas. See them soon at at theatre/lounge near you...

Secret Santa is in full swing here at school. I haven't done this for years and I am pleasantly surprised to find that I am more focused on the giving than the receiving. Maybe I am growing up. That said, my butter candy was a brilliant surprise treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it walking home. Thanks a lot, SS, whoever you are.

I am very excited to discover that the fabulous Counting Crows are releasing a new album soon called "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings." Hurrah! Look forward to me boring many of you with how great it is just as soon as it comes out!

I'm working on a list of things I still want to do before I die. Not that I'm feeling morbid, I just saw someone else's list and it intrigued me. Suggestions please either as comments or emails to pobham@yahhoo.com.

I am also trying to post an interesting/amusing quote on each blog. Any ideas for those, please comment or email pobham@yahoo.com. Here's today's from W H Auden, who I am really enjoying at the mo...

Base words are uttered only by the base

And can for such at once be understood;

But noble platitudes — ah, there's a case

Where the most careful scrutiny is needed

To tell a voice that's genuinely good

From one that's base but merely has succeeded.

TGIF

Tonight sees St Francis host its annual Brown's Ball, so called because the school nickname is "The Browns." Letterheads read "St Francis; Home of the Browns" and the various sporting teams are all known as "The Browns." Of our 1600 students nearly 1000 will be in attendance tonight, on their very best behaviour and dressed up to the nines in all their finest regalia. I am assured it is always a grand event much enjoyed by everyone. Unlike the Grad Ball in June the Brown's Ball is open to students of all years, so grades 10, 11 and 12 will all be represented. There will be dancing, food and soft drinks, and I presume, heartache and joy in equal measure. Vic and I will be helping supervise tonight and I look forward to observing the mating rituals of the adolescent human making both tentative and confidant steps towards (hopefully) mature relationships. I wish them all the best of luck. I remember the whole process from my own distant youth and recall it as a tense, melodramatic agonising torment with much effort expended for little reward. If only there had been an effective manual of textbook a geek like me could have read up on to help. I guess we all learn by trial and error eventually.

Let the trials begin...


Tonight also sees Vic and I head off for our Friday pint. While not coming close to the homeliness and camra-approved beer quality of the Abbey Inn, Bramley, we have found a certain pubby-goodness at the Wild Rose brewery in Calgary, by the Farmers Market, so whenever we are in town on a Friday afternoon ( a rare event as we are off touring Alberta most weekends, it seems) we head down there for a swift beer and a relaxed start to the weekend. It puts a nice bookend to the working week and gets that weekend feeling started for real. They also wheel out a cask of real ale at four O'clock every Friday, a welcome break from the carbonated fizz I am grudgingly coming to like over here. After that we'll be Brown's Balling and then off to Canmore to go skiing at Sunshine Village this Saturday where they have had almost a meter of snow this week. Sunday morning sees Vic performing with the choir at church, so I'll be sure to blog again on Sunday to let you all know how it went.

Ciao for now,

R

Quote of the day:

If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance.
(Derek Bok)

How Gaye is that?

My TAs came in this morning while the music on the ipod was stil going. It happened to be 'Mercy Mercy Me' by Marvin Gaye, surely a classic of our times and from 'What's Going On,' a seminal album, still as fresh sounding as when I first heard it and regularly listed on things like '100 Albums you should own.' A was not expecting my TAs to all be huge Marvin Gaye fans, but I was surprised that NONE of them had ever heard of him. We spent 10 minutes checking out some hits and they seemed to like it, but they may of course have been tolerating their fuddy-duddy middle-of-the-road duffer of a teacher. What amused me was when I told them Marvin Gaye was shot by his father, one of them (no names here to protect the guilty) asked if his Dad shot him because he was Homophobic.

Then someone pointed out that his Dad was Gaye too, so that wouldn't make sense.

The original questioner couldn't work out how this could be true. Bless.


Quote of the week, on a t-shirt worn by one of my students:

School is there to prepare you for life,

which also sucks.

Frostbite, and how much my friends love my balls

These big negative temperatures confuse me. We rarely see the cold in the UK, in fact, the lowest temperature on the car thermometer last year was -3 degrees, so when I see numbers like -16 and -22 they are all the same to me: bloody cold. It makes it hard to tell when it's too cold to ski. Last weekend the went out and it was -16 Celsius. We were chilly, but it was entirely bearable. This weekend just gone we went back to Sunshine Village and after just one short green run of Strawberry lift both Vicky and Marg (another Aussie exchange chum) had got frostbite on the ends of their noses! It was bitter out and the snow was too compact. They hadn't had a big dump all week and I know how crabby that would make me. The slopes were not in good shape; rocky, icy and hard. I found it difficult to make the skis do everything I had learned from Terry the previous week. I'm looking forward to more snow later in the season, and we're limiting ourselves to skiing above -20 degrees. That might be tough as the papers are all saying we're set for the worst Canadian winter for 15 years. Bugger.

On a lighter note we had a lovely time on Sunday. Brent, Wendy and baby Natalie came to visit as well as Terrie and Wendell with their 2 rather older babies Jesse and Madeline (both in there teens now). It was nice to get a family atmosphere going and quite a challenge to cook enough pork meatballs for 9 adults. Still, they went down very well so I'll add that to the recipe book.

Off to catch the 20 bus home in the cold now. I'm glad of my moleskin trousers in weather like this, courtesy of Eddie Bauer. Shopping there I am now quite firmly in the middle of the road were I belong. Nice.

Jurisprudence

I missed the bus this morning. I watched it go past the end of the cul-de-sac and it disappeared into the morning haze as i rounded the corner and approached the meagre shelter of the bus stop. Usually I don't mind waiting 7 minutes for the next one; two more tunes on the ipod, a moment to savour my Colombian fair trade coffee in it's thermos mug, a read of the free paper from the roadside dispenser. A pleasant 7 minutes, no? Tickety-boo. This morning it was -23 degrees. That means it's so cold little icicles form on all the hairs in your nose when you breathe in. 'Why not breathe through your mouth then?' I hear you ask. Think about it; if the cold air is doing that to you nose, do you really want it going straight to your warm moist lungs? Hell no! Not sure how we'll fare skiing in cold like this tomorrow. I'd cross my fingers if I could; my giant padded gloves prevent it.





Anyway, onto the run in with the legal system of this eponymous post. Yesterday I went to pay my speeding ticket (see previous post "the longest day"). If you turn up in person and plead guilty they generally cut the fine in half. The Justice of the peace I dealt with also reduced my points penalty from 3 to 2. It all worked smoothly. I turned up, queued, sat, waited, talked to a lady, paid and left. The whole process took about an hour, and short of having to be up at 6.00 am to be at the front of the queue and paying a $178 fine it was fairly painless. The poor chap ahead of me in the line was not enjoying his litigious process as much. I guess he didn't know the maxim 'you can't fight City Hall.' (We were in City Hall at the time. Big Clue!) . He seemed to be labouring under the misapprehension that the Justice of the Peace (JP) had super legal powers and could wave her magic wand and the whole incident would go away. The conversation went something like this...

(FYI, it is legal to turn right at a red light here in Canada if you have stopped to check no cars are coming and no pedestrian wishes to cross. Pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way, which is silly but a whole other story.)

-JP: Well sir, the officer says you failed to come to a complete stop before turning right on a red light, so he issued you with a ticket for $179 and 2 points. If you plead guilty I can can cut that in half.

-Mr Man: But I came to a stop. He is wrong.

-JP: OK sir. I you wish to contest the ticket I can set a court date for you.

-MM: But I don't wish to go to court, I did nothing wrong.

-JP: If you don't wish to contest the ticket you can accept the offer now. I can only offer to cut the fine in half. Will you accept that offer.

-MM: No, I do not wish to pay. I DID stop.

_I hear that sir, but the officer claims you did not. He is not here now. If you wish to contest it you will have to go to court. Would you like to go to Court?

-MM: No

-JP: Would you like to pay the fine?

-MM: No.

-Everyone else in the ever increasing line up who can hear everything that's going on: (under their breath): Would you like to grow up and get a grip on how the REAL world works so we can all get on with our days?

-MM(in my head): No, I expect the whole world to revolve around me. I do not accept that I am not in control here. I do not care that all these people could be disadvantaged if the JP is in a foul mood after dealing with a self-centred oaf like me.

Everyone else: Bugger off then.

As it turns out the JP had plenty of experience dealing with situations like this and was still in fine spirits when I met her, but I did feel sympathy for her having to deal with people like this pleading their irrelevant sob stories every day. Those of you in the court system, we salute you, and the next time somebody wastes your time whining about how its not their fault, take heart and pity the poor schmoe next in line.

Sorry for the rant. Lets all move on...

Off to the Mall now. Comfy ski socks are worth their weight in gold, but I hope the pricing policy is more reasonable that his. Be well. R

Short term memory loss

Welcome to the Great Canadian Winter! Inches of snow all over today, traffic chaos and and an empty school. You have to wonder. If I can work out that the roads will be slow and manage to get here on time, where are all the students? Surely the snow didn't come as a surprise? They must remember that traffic slows down when braking and steering are compromised. It happens every year! Apparently it happens every Chinook. The snow melts, everyone gets back to normal and when it snows again 2 days later everyone is late or busy crashing. Doh!

Papa, you're right, I was a Red runner with QM. They don't have reds over here, so it's either tricky blues or soft blacks to be at the same level. I have forgotten some skills, the new shape parabolic skis work a lot differently that the old straight ones and I was young and fearless then, so I am playing catch up. I am now starting to get back to where I was in skill terms, not quite in confidence. Such is the passage of time. Vicky and I went to France one Christmas a few years ago but I took boarding lessons then. I've reverted to skiing for now.

Heads, Shoulders Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes (all hurt!!)

Weather update: -15 degrees this morning, snow on the ground, some windchill. Bloody bitter at bus stop, I'll be glad to get picked up tonight by my beautiful and accomodating wife. And so to the blog...



This last weekend saw another first; skiing in November. What a blast. Friday saw me and Vic heading up to Banff with Katherine and Drew to hit the slopes (Ozzie and Kiwi respectively, another couple over on exchange just about to head back to Sydney). We found a cheap hotel, sorted our lift passes and we were good to go! Only an hour and a half's drive from the doorstep to the glorious Rocky Mountains.

Saturday we went to Lake Louise because we had some two-fers ( 2 for one passes), so two people could get a day's skiing (or boarding) for the reduced November early season rate of $56. Bargain. There was a great atmosphere there in the lodge and the lower slopes brought by the carnival that is the world downhill ski championships going on all weekend and being won by a Canadian on Saturday.

I couldn't get a lesson that day as they were all booked up, but being super-geeky I had spent the last few weeks reading every website going on how to learn to ski. I don't recommend teaching yourself as the best way to make progress on the slopes, but as a refresher course to get back on my feet after 12 years away from skiing it was good to remember all that basic stuff about snow-plough turns and whatnot. By the end of the day I was paralleling with some limited confidence and control but without much grace down a long easy green/blue run called Wiwaxy. This started getting trickier towards the end of the day as the run got icier. Apparently man-made snow has a binding agent to make it stick but it also tends to ice up as it gets ski-ed on. Someone told me Lake Louise has the largest man-made snow-making operation in North America with a huge number of machines covering the entire front face of the mountain. There must be hundreds of them, and each one costs $250 an hour to run. My $56 ski-pass covers one machine for 12 minutes. That place needs to get seriously busy to cover costs like that. Once the natural snow starts falling it'll be much nicer there; it's softer, easier to ski on and much nicer to fall over on.

Vicky couldn't get a group snowboarding lesson, so she had a 2 hour private lesson to iron out some kinks in her boarding and Kastherine and I joined her in the afternoon while Drew was mastering the fine art of falling over strapped to a plank (day-one snowboarding lessons look much like this; Drew defied the odds be being actually quite good quite soon). Victoria is now riding with the style and grace of one born to it.

We got back to the hotel stiff and sore but triumphant, all having made progress in leaps and bounds (sometimes literally). First stop at the hotel was the hot-tub. With stiff sore legs nothing is quite as good for one's soul as a cold beer in a jacuzzi. Once dry we dined out at a 'pub' round the corner, The St James Gate. It was quire pubby, and the beer was fine, but the food was fab. Vicky swears they had the best seafood chowder she's ever had, and that girl knows a thing or two about cooking fish. The liver and onions was well up to scratch.

That evening Vic and I went shopping for warm headgear. We initially thought we'd get a good toque (pronounced toook) but ended up with helmets. Sadly the only ones that fitted us, despite being completely different helmets, each only came in white. All the other colours were too large or too small, so we ended up with matching helmets. This would be fine if we hadn't also bought matching red ski-pants and matching black North face parkas. We tried not to, we really did, especially me, but we look like Mr and Mrs His-n-hers.

The following day we headed off to Sunshine village, whee they rely on natural snow fall being considerably higher up. It was a pleasant change to get somewhere with 55 runs open and soft natural snow all over. Locals were saying that with only half it's runs open and 70cm of snow it was not as great as it will be, but it was still the best skiing I've ever had.

I left the others at the bottom of the hill, catching the Gondola up to meet my class. I had booked a group lesson to improve my technique and build confidence. I was expecting to meet 5 more improvers and an instructor. As it turns out, no-one else of my meagre ability signed up that day, so I had instructor Terry all to myself for some intense private coaching all day. An astonishing piece of luck and I really feel Ive got to grips with the basics now. I am pole planting usefully and coming down tricky blue runs even including moguls. There's not yet much style, but it's working and I'm having a ball.

I met Vic at the end of the day and we skied together for a bit, soaking in the last of the sun and taking in a few more spectacular views, but by now I was tired and cold. It had been between -10 and -16 degrees all day and the wind had been whipping snow in our faces at the top of the mountain. When the sun is in front of you and the snow comes in the very fine champagne-powder the Rockies are known for it looks like your skiing through fairy dust. It can be quite mesmerising, not always a good thing when you're concentrating on not falling down the bloody great hill you're stood on.

The day done we headed home in our Caravan and were back in Calgary by 6.30. A great weekend all round.

Pop quiz: SKIING, how many other words in the English language can you think of with a double i? Please comment. I can only get 2.

Also, why is every 'lifty' (chap or chapess working a ski lift) in the whole country seemingly Australian?

FW: State of the Union (or Assosciation)

Seems like a poor day to be an England fan. Poor old Steve Maclaren had the shortest tenure ever as England coach. Makes the rest of us seem like we have job security aplenty.

Also seems to be a worse day to be a Luton fan. Talk about licked when you're down, getting docked points because you've gone into administration. Sorry James.

Makes me glad I'm largely indifferent to the world of Association Football.

Saw Beowulf last night at the movies. Made me wish I could have a CGI'd body.

First of the season

It seems odd that the good Burghers of Walsall should experience snow before we here in Calgary, but that's how it played out this year. I wonder if there were the same casualties as we had here last night on our first proper snow-fall of winter? People here in Canada are pretty good at driving in snow, but seem to forget all this right at the start of every winter.

Last night there were 60 collisions reported to Calgary Police caused by a half-inch of snow. People were driving to fast (anything more than 15mph is TOO FAST on narrow inner city streets, it seems), braking to late, cornering too hard and generally driving in denial of the conditions. It happens every year. Poor Trish in the Math dept got driven into for the second time in two weeks!

What doesn't help is the lack of Grit. Rock salt just doesn't work below -5 degrees, so they don't bother. Bum. Better get used to sliding around, eh?

Ciao for now,

R

Ain't that the truth...

The pastor at our church is starting a series on marriage at the moment. He likes to start with an amusing anecdote and this one really tickled Vicky and I...

It seems a group of men and a group of women were asked to work out if computers were male or female.

The men though that computers were like women because:

1)They talk to each other in a language only other computers can understand.

2)Once you've made a mistake it gets stored in long-term memory for ever.

3) They have an internal logic only their creator understands.

4)Once you've made a commitment to one you find yourself spending half your salary on accessories.

On the other hand, the womens' group all agreed that computers were like men because:

1) You find it much easier to work with them once you've turned them on.

2) For something that's supposed to help solve the problem, often it is the problem.

3) Once you make a commitment to one you notice a new, faster, better slimmer one comes along six month later.

4) They store a lot of data but no evidence has yet been found that they can think for themselves.

I thought the women fared rather better than the men.

I also thought it was a little too cynical. Maybe it's because I'm a Mac user. I thought my wife was like my Apple because:

1) She does what I need or want her to do over 99% of the time.

2) She's pretty, efficient, reliable and thoroughly entertaining.

3) She responds well to a single touch.

4) She is totally different to most of my friends.

5) Once you've gone Mac, you'll never go back.

Longest day

A Mammoth day trip!!



Early November saw us visit Drumheller, home of the Royal Tyrell Museum and the Hoodoos. The Tyrell is a world renowned dinosaur museum and is sited in the badlands of Alberta where many fossils are found. For all that it's a small town kind of in the middle of nowhere it is prime real estate on the top of any paleontologists dream list of places to live and work.

They call it the Royal Tyrell Museum, which we wondered at. Surely Her Maj never made it this far west? Well she did, on the same trip she went up the QE II highway linking Edmonton and Calgary (one of the straightest, dullest most God-forsaken bits of 'pavement' I've ever had to roll along). Apparently she liked the Museum SOOO much she let them append the Royal prefix to it, and one can quite see why. It was very impressive, and not just to and uber-geek like me; even Victoria was kept interested for several hours.

Pictures you see here are of a Woolly Mammoth, Albertosaurus, Triceratops with T-Rex and some other local ceratopian, all found locally. It was nice that a museum of this world renowned would let us take pictures free of charge.

(Albertosaurus above was a ferocious carnivore. Modern Albertans are still vicious predators when chasing down meat. They'll do anything for prime Alberta AAA beef; it's really that good.)

There is a statue as you walk in of the fabulously mustachioed Joseph Burr Tyrell. Apparently he liked the museum so much that in 1907 he named himself after it.

That's about it for the museum. Lots of bones, lots of models, all cool for boy and geeks. I thought I'd put in some of the ordinary touches of life as a tourist too.

We left Calgary on the Deerfoot heading North. The Deerfoot is the local name for the No 2 highway (the QE II), a 2/3/4 lane highway running from Edmonton 3hrs North of Calgary all the way to Montana in the South. It picks up the name 'Deerfoot trail' as it goes though Calgary City for about 50 km. All the major highways running though Calgary are called the Something Trail; there's Bow (after the river), Memorial, Crowchild, Sarcee, Shagganappi (say it, it's fun!), MacLeod and probably others. Most of the snarl ups in Calgary happen when one meets the other at either lights or a clover leaf. This is the name for a junction where traffic has to Merge. Calgarians are notoriously bad at this, often cutting each other up and with a selfish tendency to drive right on the back bumper of the car in front so no one can squeeze in and looking dead straight ahead in their 3 or 4 tonne over-sized Dodge Ram truck so they couldn't POSSIBLY have noticed you. Come on guys; one in, one along, one in, one along etc. That way everyone actually gets home faster, soother, safer and without any stress caused by near-collisions/unnecessary horn tooting/finger-waving etc.

So there we were, merrily heading North on the Deerfoot at 108 km/h, listening to Billy Joel on the i-trip. We were being careful to not break the 110 km/h speed limit (67 mph). Sadly we missed the 80 km/h signs at the start of the construction work cones. (I rush to point out that there were no workers present.We'd TOTALLY have noticed them and slowed down. Sadly we were at the front of a run of cars so there was no one in front of us to prompt us to slow down. We did that kind favour to the cars/trucks behind us.) Anyway, we missed the signs, but the mounties didn't miss us. They radar gunned us and pulled us over. Sadly they were in winter uniform. I wouldn't have minded the fine so much from a pair of red coated picture-postcards. They said that seeing as it was a construction zone the fines were doubled, so even though we were trying to do 2 kn/h less that the speed limit, they fined us for going 56 km\h over it! Bugger! $333 fine. No excuses here, we should have seen it, but that REALLY put a crimp in our journey.

Nothing could improve our mood. Until we got to Drumheller and drove past a series of Gay-ly and gaily painted dinosaurs, mammoths and sabre-toothedtigers. That helped. Then we went to Boston Pizza and I had Chicken Tandoori Pizza. Not as good as Croma in Leeds, but pretty special.

After our pleasant trip around the museum we headed out to the Hoodoos where we watched the sun go down, something I always try to do on the day when the clocks go back. It's a nice way to spend the extra hour. As the long rays of sunset hit the sandstone of the Hoodoos the ruddy rocks came alive. These fabulous eerie formations left behind when the soft rocks wear away under the firm cap (see your local geologist for details) are a regular postcard feature in Alberta, and I hope you can see why.

City of ''Champions"

This weekend we paid a visit to the Capital of Alberta, Edmonton. Home to Ben Wiggins (benwigginsincanada.blogspot.com), Dr Gavin Searle and Mrs Dr Niki Webster, the Edmonton Oilers and the Edmonton Eskimos (Hockey and Football respectively) and the world' 2nd largest shopping centre, the West Edmonton Mall.
It picks up the moniker 'City of Champions' because way back when in the era of Gretzky (early 80's I think) both the Oilers and the Eskies won their respective leagues (NHL and CFL) in the same year several times. That hasn't happened for a while now so some non-Edmontonians are a little skeptical of the board at the city limits proclaiming the City's victorious status.
It was winning the unofficial 'Who's Got The Most Shops In One Place' award for a while, the giant West Edmonton Mall having been built by chums of the Shah Of Persia (or modern Iran) who fled the revolution of the Ayatollahs in the 70's and wanted somewhere in Canada they could feel at home, surrounded by a giant beach and lots of everyone else's money. Sadly the World's Biggest Mall is now in Phoenix (Arizona, not Lancashire), but there are plans to add a wing and reclaim the prize for the frozen North.

The mall was surprisingly impressive. It contains the beach; a large indoor pool with water slides and waves big enough to surf on (I've seen footage, it's true) that is comfortably as big as the aqualand I saw in the South of France on the French exchange last year; the Santa Maria, a full size replica of Columbus' ship; a theme park with a dozen or so roller coasters and rides and an aquarium with a shark, fish, penguins and a pair of Sea Lions. I believe these are the Sea Lions furthest from the Sea in the world. They are, in fact, so very far from any kind of Ocean that it would be more accurate to call them Lions, although admittedly rather wet and smelling-of-fish Lions.
We had to ride a roller-coaster. We avoided the giant super-scary one which killed a few people back in the 80s. The mind bender was just too much for us, being the longest indoor roller-coaster in the world. We opted for the Galaxy Orbiter as it looked much tamer. You can see from Victoria's face that it was not. I loved it, but I finished with a deaf ear and a sore hand from Vic's white-knuckle grip. Thank God we went before we had lunch...



We'll be back at the mall in January sometime to lie on the beach, swim, play and drink cocktails and generally give ourselves a summery feel when it's -30 or below.
Speaking of negative temperatures, I finally bought a winter coat. Sadly it's almost identical to Victoria's, so we look rather cheesily his-n-hers when the temperature drops.Trying to find something warm enough for -30 and below days with enough room to maneuver for skiing and waterproof so I can still use it in rainy blighty has been quite a challenge. Only the Giantest Mall ever was up to the challenge. I am almost totally confident my new parka and new winter boots will do just the job. I'm already finding them useful for waiting at the bus-stop on the way to and from work. So far it's only got down to about -5 or -6 in the morning, so quite how I'll cope with the extremes of January and February I don't know.
We had a fab time with Ben. You must check out his blog (benwigginsincanada.blogspot.com) for some original comments on Canadian driving and teaching. It was refreshing to hang out with Brits all weekend and relax about our sense of humour. Canadians are amongst the friendliest, most welcoming people on Earth (up there with Malawians and the Irish), but it can sometimes be a strain to hold in the sarcasm so as not to cause offense. Thankfully the cut-and-thrust and day to day banter in the math department is very British in feel; Irony-a-go-go.
We also stayed with Gavin and Nickie. Dr Searle (as he is now) was a housemate at university and a long-time friend, but as he moved to Edmonton 3 years ago we've barely seem them since. It was great to catch up and discover that we haven't changed all that much. Boys are like that I think; we're pretty rubbish at staying in touch but as soon as we get back together it's like no time had passed. We sat up till past midnight comparing a 18 year-old with 2 twelve year olds... scotch of course! Gavin and I bantered merrily about hints of honey and how 'round' was the 'peatiness' while Nickie and Vicky looked on with amusement as we described 3 drinks which they though all tasted the same; like petrol. The following morning we went to the sugar-bowl, an enormously popular Edmonton eaterie and bar where we queued outside for a seat. The food was great, but I was surprised to find a North American breakfast place not offering my favourite Eggs Benedict. Even better than to food was making plans to go skiing. Snow is falling on the pistes of Sunshine Village and Lake Louise down the road. Bring on the winter!



Final quibble. I have noticed a tendency over here to use "bunny ears" in random places. I'll try to point out the funniest ones. Noting them on here is safer than correcting everyone's grammar. Favourite this week was a meeting for "Married" couples at a church. BYO mistress I guess...

Weekly treats and the Piano Man

Wednesday has always been a day to look forward to.



Normally Wednesday is hump-day. You know that by lunchtime on Wednesday you are over halfway through the week, and it's all downhill form there. I like the feeling of momentum as the weekend approaches. By Thursday I always feel like Friday is just around the corner and Friday is virtually the weekend. That heady headlong dash to the freedom of Saturday begins on Wednesday, and God bless the Weekend! As much as I love my job, and I do, I love the bits in between a little more.



Anyway, this year, I have another reason to look forward to Wednesday. Wednesday is Treat Day! The various members of the TA ( Teacher Advisor group; home room, tutor group, form group etc) take it in turns to bring in sweet and lovely snacks. Several times we have had Doughnuts for Mr Tim Horton, Dairy Queen Ice-cream Sandwiches (kudos to you, zesty), home made brownies, oreos and other wonderful snacks. I particularly love that the group has quickly worked out the way to Mr D's heart: chocolate! Whenever doughnuts are provided, I tend to receive a personal chocolate glazed chocolate doughnut. Mmmm. Who said money can't buy love? It can, but only if you spend it on doughnuts or brownies. Thanks guys, you're making it a ton of fun every Wednesday!




Monday was a rare day too. Vicky and I treated ourselves to tickets to see Mr Billy Joel at the Saddledome, a huge arena here in Calgary built for the '88 Olympics and usually home to the Calgary Flames, the much beloved local Hockey Team in the NHL. We ended up with pretty good seats as well; one of my new friends has contacts who works at the 'dome. Nice!
Anyway, the man is a towering giant amongst entertainers. He was on stage for over 2 hours with no break and left 12000 fans wanting more. He played pretty much all the hits and some other stuff too, he was funny and charming between songs and managed to make it feel like a much more intimate gig than the numbers would suggest. I particularly liked when he told us the original lines to "She's Always a Woman" were
"She can kill with a smile, she can would with her eyes,
"She can ruin your face with her powerful thighs."
Try it, it fits perfectly. I'm not sure if he's spoiled it forever for me or made it even better.

He opened with a long piano introduction and it looked, to all intents and purposes, like he was just hitting the piano furiously for several minutes, but somehow this glorious music came out.

He rocks. Go see him if you can.

Last Wednesday, Oct 31st

Just another day in the Math department here at St Francis High. I just stopped by my colleague's room to chat with her. Generally Princess Tricia of Tuscany comes in mufti but had an official engagement after school and so came in her full regalia. Lookin' good, your highness...

...not really! Just another part of that most North American of festivals, Halloween! Not just the students, but the teachers too dressed up. I found it odd that a Catholic school would get behind what I had always considered to be a slightly Satanic holiday, but it seems, just like Christmas, the spiritual aspect of Halloween has been glossed over. Rather than appeasing evil spirits so they'll leave you alone, Halloween is about Fun, Fancy-dress and Farm-loads of Candy (sorry to stretch the alliteration there). I can't help but wonder, as fun as it was to get myself dressed up as the Grim Reaper, does glossing over the history take it away?... What do you think? Halloween; Evil or not? Just good old-fashioned fun?

Weather or not to ski

Yes. This definitely the weather to ski! -2 degrees this morning with a high of 5 today. I keep trying to explain to Canadians that that's about as cold as it gets back home, but they just laugh."That's not even cold," they say "and besides, it's a dry cold. Not like that nasty English wetness that gets into your bones." They can only know about our damp and grismal conditions from Coronation Street and Eastenders. I'd like to tell them they're wrong, but they aren't. Scraping off the snow and ice this morning I was quite warm enough in my sleeveless down 'vest.' (They mean bodywarmer.) Rather than deathly freezing it feels more brisk and nippy. Quite refreshing, which is good, because we have another 40 degrees to go till we really hit winter temperatures.

When we get a glimpse of the Rockies from time to time on clear days they seem to be covered in snow. Hurrah. Having now acquired skis (me) and a snowboard (Vic) we are waiting for the hills at Lake Louise to open in less than 2 weeks. Bring it on!

Next posting: Halloween! We have to enjoy it to compensate for not getting a bonfire night.
R

The agony of defeat

We lost. 1-0. An unlucky bounce got past our goalie on a uneven pitch coming right out of the low winter sun. The girls were in bits.
I have had an absolute riot this season, and have come to understand the game of football and the passion fans have for it much more. I have never been as involved as a spectator as I have been watching these 16 girls in orange conquer and triumph, win lose and draw. I have never felt my heart in my throat with every poor call from the ref, every injured player, every break-away that looks certain to score. It has been, above all things, so very very real. Thanks girls, for bringing me along on your gloroius rollercoaster.



R

Just a small one

Last night, after eating some cracking meatballs on our weekly date night, Vic and I tried our hands (or should that be feet) at ice skating. We went to the Oval on the University of Calgary campus, the speed skating rink built for the '88 Olympics. It's a truly awesome venue and felt quite special to be bumbling round this world class facility like new-born giraffes. We weren't very good, but we'll persevere as an ability to move around on frozen water with a pair of knives glued to ski-boots seems to be a national requirement.
While we were there we watched the Chines women's team play an exhibition game of ice-hockey against a local 'midgets' girls team. It's the term used for the 14-15 year old league, not a cruel international form of dwarf Baiting the Chinese were touring. The Chinese were over here getting coaching and training from Canadian experts prior to hosting next year's world cup and were kind enough to only beat the girls 3-0. Even watching young women play it still looked like a fast and aggressive game, but very entertaining. I can almost see why weekend tickets to see the Flames (Calgary's NHL team) play a big rival from the States or Canada go for $300 or more. We will content ourselves with watching the Hitmen, the top amateur team in Calgary, many of whom have been signed to the Flames for next season.

The downside of all this wintriness is that the girls soccer final was cancelled yesterday due there being 2 inches of snow on the pitch. Not being able to see either the white balls or any of the white lines on the pitch is bound to hinder play somewhat, so I guess it was a fair call, so the girls have to get back in game spirit to day. Go Browns!

Off to class for me now. Hope all you teachers back home are enjoying half term. No such break here. This my 9th consecutive week of class and I have 8 more to go. This is now the longest I have ever worked in a stint. I still feel perky, but Christmas seems a long way off. I'll keep you updated and i promise not to moan about holidays for all you non teachers. I understand that we have a sweet deal. Over here the average holiday is 2 weeks per year. Total. I don't know how they do it.

Ciao for now, and please comment. it's always uplifting to know someone really reads this.

R

Morning musings; 's no joke!

My first proper snowy morning occurred today. I walked to the bus-stop through a couple of inches of snow. Delightful! I didn't half get some funny looks when I got off the bus one stop early to walk the last part to school in the dark and snap some pics of the pristine urban scene. Those glorious Autumn moments of golden hues in the warm light of sunrise only seem like last week... hang on; they WERE only last week. How quickly winter comes here.
It quite got me in the mood for a lush Canadian winter; brim-filled with skiing a-plenty. We'll be at the ski sale this weekend in Calgary looking for some bargain skis to go on my new second-hand ski-boots.

Today my girls will play in the Final of the Calgary High School Soccer Championship (weather permitting). I have no doubt they will be crowned champions, they are just that good. Next year they'll be ready to go on to glory in Division 1. It has been a real treat to help coach the team, although I have been more involved with moral support and cheering than anything else. It's always a joy to get involved with kids outside the classroom and get to know them as individuals, and a as a real bonus I have come to understand the Magnificent Game a lot better; not just the off-side rule, but the shape of play and so on. I've also kind of enjoyed being put to use as a linesman. Having made one or two iffy calls and taken a fair amount of abuse for both good and bad calls alike I have a lot more sympathy with the plight of the humble referee and will in future try to moderate any abuse.
Any-hoo; good luck girls. Play hard!

Any Browns in the house?-Right Here! Right Here!

Alrighty then, time for class. Another test is returned to my treasures today; simplifying radicals. Some will be overjoyed, some disappointed. The concepts are hard, recently we have been simplifying and working with surds (radicals over here). I have never had to deal with kids failing who are working so hard. My heart goes out to them. Lets see what we can do to help today...

R


PS, please checkout this blog: http://mustachesofthenineteenthcentury.blogspot.com/
I assure you it's quite delightful.

Red Sea

Mrs. Annette Loykowski worked in our textbook rental here at school. I met her very early on in my sojourn at St Francis, taking my classes down to pick up their text books for the year. She was very stern with the students, telling them to make sure their names went in the books and don't lose them; they're $80 each! As soon as the students were on the way back up she left her gruff exterior and started chatting with me. Sh loved my accent and wanted to bring in a Harry Potter book for me to read from. We were laughing and joking in no time at all, this woman I had just met. She was very open and welcoming with this new boy and really helped me settle in.

She had a picture of a young man in uniform on her desk. I asked if it was her son. It was, she said, and he is in Kandahar, Southern Afghanistan at the moment. Not an easy place to be for a son or a parent; every week it seems we hear of Canadian boys making the long trip home in a coffin. As stressful as it must have been for her, she had nothing but pride for the handsome man in the picture and was glad he was doing his bit. She told me about the new tradition of wearing red on Fridays to show support for the troops serving abroad. Not as a support of the war or a blessing on the politics and politicians involved, but an acknowledgement that these young men are over their on our behalf and deserve this small show of public support.

Annette always wore red on Fridays, and some of the rest of us here did too.

Annette died last Friday night, very suddenly from a massive heart attack. Most likely the stress of dealing with her son being in Combat was a factor, but we'll never know.
The school grieves for a lost colleague. Annette was a good friend to many and had been here eight years. I can only imagine the impact she must have had, but in the small glimpse I had of her I can see why she will be missed.

The school has been asked to wear red today, as a sign of respect and support and it is pleasing to see so many of our students have done so. I think Annette would have been proud to be part of so caring a community, and not at all surprised.

Farewell, Annette.

Salvation and voting

I have found the English Pantry, a shop down the road from school.

They have Yorkshire Tea, Vimto, Fry's Chocolate Cream, Hartley's Jam and Lemoncurd, Pot Noodle, Bisto, Marmite and a veritable host of Good Olde Englishe Foodstuffs. Hurrah.

Vicky is very happy with her Branston Pickle.
Carmen is confused by Vicky's delight at this seemingly wierd/nasty savoury treat.
Only the Brits witll really get it, I suppose.

Each to their own. I just wish the place had a licence to inport kegs of good beer.


This week saw the Calgary Municipal elections. They were blessed with good weather (19 degrees and blue skis, no wind). This lead to a massive voter turnout improvement over last time 3 years ago.





30% of the eligible folk of Calgary bothered to get to a polling station before 8pm.

A significant but lamentable step up from last time's 20%.

At 9PM our ward was being dominated by one aldermanic candidate with 100% of the vote.


That's the Vote.Singular.

I know the basic principle of democracy is "One man, one vote" but this is probably not what the Athenians had in mind.

Poor show Calgary. Poor show indeed.

We are each other...

Vicky and I bough identical cards for our anniversay last week. From a large selection.

This is what happens after 5 years together.

What will be the effects of 10, or even 30 years together?

Will I finally give in and love 'Dirty Dancing'?
Will Vicky go on and on about cars she can't afford?
Will I start eating fruit?
Will Vicky start drinking beer?
Will Vicky catch me looking wistfully at Andy Roddick?
Will I wake in the night to find Vicky has snuck downstairs for a cup of tea and a good read when she can't sleep?

No, no, no, no, no and no.

Phew.

I think, on balance, that there are still plenty of fundamental differences.




Still, nobody puts baby in the corner.

Digestibles part 2

Food we miss from home and don't see here...

Good Beer.

Curry.

Fish n Chips.

Tea. Not Iced or Fruity.

Pasatta. I just can't find it.

Squash (eg Robinsons etc). None here at all.

Vimto. It gets a mention all to itself cos its ace.

Cottage cheese (so says V)

Marmite.

Bovril.

Fry's Chocolate creme.

Cadbury's Twirl.

Fairtrade anything. And we thought Canadians cared.

Digestibles part 1

Food we've enjoyed so far that we don't get at home...

Root beer

Chocolate milk. No one thinks it odd for grown-ups to drink it!

Fruit bars (3 portions of compressed fruit in one bar, and I love em!)

Gelato. Like ice-cream SHOULD be.

Beef jerky. At the gas station. great road snack.

Pumpkin pie.

Frozen Yogurt (sic). Low fat too!!

AAA Alberta beef. Literally the best meat I have ever put in me.

Bacon, on a farm. Cooked by the guy who butchered the pig who killed the pig who raised the pig. Nice work Jim.

Cinnamon Gum

Maple Syrup.

Ice cream sandwiches

High quality smokies. (they're like hot dogs, but with meat)

Corn dogs.

Sushi.

Pink Lemonade. From Frozen. In the fridge. With bits.


Good coffee everywhere

Eggs Benedict.

Waffles n Pancakes.

Timbits. President Tim Horton's fave.

Bran Muffins.

hobo horn help

I have the horn. Specifically, a bright red one Carmen bought for me at my first Stampeders game (football, with the pointy ball, the armour and the frequent breaks). On the way out from the game on Thanksgiving Monday (at which we SUCKED! Poor d-fence.) a busking hobo was playing his sax. He heard my pathetic attemps to blow the horn, which have been likened to a dying, mating moose- both at the same time!- and gave me tips which improved my blowing no end. If you're interested; git yer lips good n tight and don't blow so hard.

Thanksgiving

We just spent a lovely weekend with the whole Van De Laak family for thanksgiving, a very traditional affair consisting of turkey, Cranberry Jelly, mashed potatoes, cheesy leeks, ham and even pumpkin pie! We stayed with Katie, Russel, Noah(1 ish) and Caden (3 ish). It was a real eye opener to see a married couple with young kids at close quarters for the first time, and made us realise how much we'll be missing of Becca and Steve's adventures with Baby Besford over this year. The boys seemed to be a real blessing to the whole family and lit up the house around them, but they sure are hard work. They demand total attention and become your number one
priority (or they should if you're doing it right). I always knew this, but seeing in action just how happy and complete they make a family, as well as how much sacrifice they need has given me a fresh point of view on parenthood. Overall, I think I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait to be a part of little BB's life.

Beer night was fun on Friday night at the Tin Palace AKA Lance and Paula's House. Lance is a man on a mission to convert the heathen. To Beer! We gathered for a blind tasting of different local and imported beer, rendering judgment on taste free of the shackles of brand image or expectation. An interesting exercise in which we dismissed Coors Light and Kokanee as weak, thin, fizzy pop (no surprise there) and also Dos Equis, which we suspected of being alcohol free! I always order this in Mexican Restaurants and I thought I liked it. Turns out to be gnats p***. SHOCKER! Corona for me next time. I found some Black Sheep to take and was unsurprised to see Yorkshires finest streaks ahead of the competition even in an international field including Hoegarden and Innis and Gunn. Well done those fine boys in Masham!

School continues well. Students here still seem to be polite and friendly, hardworking and responsible. They are trusted to work hard and succeed on their own merits and tend to rise to the challenge. Most take part in extra curricular activities, many in more than one. The sports teams practice for an hour or two every day. The serious commitment the pupils, their parents and the staff bring to this has impressed me no end. Still, the fact that I have the same lessons everyday is a little wearing. I used to look forward to Thursday as much as I disliked Wednesday, but now I barely know what day it is! Just part of school culture for me to adapt to.


Oh, and I sank a 70 foot putt on the golf course this Saturday! If only I could play off the fairway! Thanks for the game, Roger and Leyton. We'll do it again when the course reopens in Spring.

Calgary weather- ooooh; forboding...

We had drinks up the Calgary Tower today with Dave, a new Calgary friend. It's like the CN tower in Toronto, but smaller. Several of the new oil money skyscrapers have overtaken it. Still, it was nice, and the glass floor is definitely scary. Dave showed us the many flat sights of Calgary.

Afterwards in the cool revolving restaurant we ate buffalo, venison and such as part of a meaty platter (just a starter, we were in a rush, but it was good so we'll definitely go back) and I had a Manhattan, continuing the tradition when on top of large Canadian towers.

We left the observation deck on a chilly bu bright sunny fall (autumn)
day. 5 minutes later the car was covered in what you'd either call soft hail or huge lumpy snow, and it was sticking.

On October 3rd!!


We think UK weather is changeable, boy do we have it easy! Vicky is starting to get a little worried about the winter; she's already wearing her Down filled parka. Thank God for Chinooks . They are the warm dry wind that comes down off the Rockies and melts the snow every few days in winter. Hence the name, which is Blackfoot for 'snow-eater.'

Late now- early where you are. Off to bed. Looking forward to tomorrow; it's treat day in my TA (home room / form group) and CB is bringing homemade cup-cakes. YAY!

Ciao for now,
R

By the way, hair change colour

Attention; thought required -rsvp!

It has been 16 days since my last blog. Forgive me, readers, for I have not blogged.

I am sat in tutorial at the mo. Three times a week I have to turn up early for pupils to come and get help if they are stuck on their homework or have any questions about the math(s). This is just like what we started to offer at Horbury last year. In the UK, I had one or two pupils show up about five times, mostly top set year 11s for homework. Here I have 5-10 pupils (or even more) every day it's available and they come knocking on days when it's not scheduled too! Just one more piece in the puzzle building a picture of responsibility. I'll pick up this thread in a minute...

We had a great weekend last week hanging out in Pincher Creek with the Australian Exchangees. There are loads of them. Both Canada and Oz seem to take much wider advantage of the exchange program. Lots of schools are supportive of it and many teachers have done 2 or 3 exchanges. I have met 2 principals who have done it and lots of families who take their kids. I am in awe of anyone manging this with little ones on tow, but if you can manage it it gives them such a rounded global experience early in life they seem bound to benefit, judging from the ones I have met. We visited the Frank Slide, where a whole town was buried under a billion tonne rock fall from an unstable limestone mountain in 1903 (google it, it's eerie), Waterton Park (where the mountains really do meet the prairie), an All-Canadian-Barn-Dance (Cowboy-a-go-go, linedanceapolooza!) and the world heritage site at Head-Smash-In Buffalo Jump (does what it says on the tin). This last was amazing; a real site where for over 5000 years the Blackfoot Indians would band together to stampede Buffalo off a cliff to slaughter them and use the meat and by-products to survive.

While on the trip one Ozzie related a story of how an Albertan teacher on exchange down under got in trouble with her blog. She made the subjective (but probably true) claim that Alberta AAA beef is the best in the world and, as good as the Oz reared local stuff was it couldn't quite compete with the medium-rare juicy delight from the wide open spaces of her home and native land. Several people complained to her for making sweeping generalisations in a public forum. I suppose I see their point, even though the Alberta beef is SOOOOOOO good, if Carlsberg made beef they'd do it here, not in Denmark. (for non-brit readers, Carlsberg claim to make 'probably the best lager in the world). I disagree however. The blog is EXACTLY the right forum for personal opinion and subjective points of view, as everyone has right-of-reply. So here's my disclaimer...


I will write whatever I think on a given subject. I promise 100% grade A truth in terms of that.
If you disagree with me, so much the better. Please post a comment and we'll debate! We can all move forwards together that way.

In fact, please post a comment either way. It's hard to write stuff and send it out into cyberworld and not know if anyone's reading it.

Anyway, back to education.
It strikes me that somehow the pupils here take more responsibility for their own learning than our students on the UK. I don't know why but I have my suspicions. I have worked in 7 schools back in Blighty and only one here, so take this in the speculative manner in which it is meant, but I think we spoon feed to much, we have low expectations of parental involvement, make our lessons too interesting (did I really say that?!) and other stuff too. I really want to get to the bottom of this during the year so we can implement changes, because this responsible attitude is refreshing. These kids are managing their own learning and are well on the way to being successful adults. What can we do to get there? Post, and let me know...

Morning Glory

This morning I was running early for work, so I decided to treat myself. I fancied a Starbucks, so I decided to just keep driving on Northmount Drive past school untill I hit a Starbucks. That took about 5 glorious minutes. (We're not quite at MSD in the uk yet- Maximum Starbucks Density. You might have to go 15 or even 20 minutes in Blighty for a Grande Cappuccino, whole milk, fair trade).
The drive was awesome. Literally, not in a Bill & Ted kind of way. Autumn is short here as the trees get their winter mind set on in preparation for days that could be -30 C, +10C or both within an hour. This means all the silver birches lining the Streets and Avenues of Northern Calgary are turning bronze and gold at the same time. Last week all was green, by October I am assured everything will be bare and sparse. This will have a stark majesty of it's own, i know, but for now, for one or two brief weeks, the roads are decked with God's great autumnal palette and it is a joy to behold.

So, if you see the trees resplendent in their finest coat of the year, take time to enjoy it. Not everyone can. The tropics have their beauties, but never see the like of this. The deserts too, I suppose. Some folks are colour-blind, or even blind. Be thankful, and count your blessings, not your cliches;-)

School n weather

Settling in at St Francis


So, I've been at St Francis for a couple of weeks now, and so far everything is going well. The students iin my class are keen and relatively biddable. I have found that I remember the math(s) quite well, but the lingo is a little different. One chapter of the text book is devoted to radicals. I was worried I had forgotten an entire branch or mathematics until i discovered that was just Canadaian for Surds. Phew! There have been lots of little bits like that. We have HCF, they have GCF (Greatest Common Factor, not Highest), we 'factorise' expressions, they 'factor' them. Minor stuff, but I have to try to stay on top of it so as not to confuse the kids.

Classes are large; I have 2 groups of 38 and one of 32. We hear rumours of colleagues at other schools with classes over 40 or even 50! We are definitely ahead in that department. We're also up in the technology stakes. Far from smartboards, I’m still teaching on a blackboard here! The last time I saw one of those was in Rwanda.Despite those negatives (and the relatively poor teacher's pay which might see me on strike this year) the school is great in so many respects. There is no uniform here, but all the pupils generally stay within the limits of acceptable dress. My classes, despite their size, are not a problem to teach at all. Maybe it's just that they kindly gave the new guy nice kids, but the students are keen to learn, successfully manage their own workload and see their learning as their own responsibility to a much greater extent than I've seen in the UK. Perhaps because they aren't spoon-fed and constantly entertained with 15 learning styles per lesson. They rise to meet the expectations upon them, as do people everywhere, and here that means stepping up to the plate (baseball metaphor!) and getting it done for themselves.

Another odd thing is how very Catholic the school is. There's a little dead Jesus on a cross over every door amd the kids all stand and pray to St Francis every Monday morning, and we had mass as a staff twice in the first week. When we got there, all the teachers knew the word and actions and I felt like a proper fish out of water, I can tell you. On the one hand I'm glad we don't make pupils and teachers do things as religious as that, but that said, a workplace full of Christians is one of the friendliest and most supportive and encouraging schools I have ever worked at. What an excellent advert for Faith they are.


The department have all been super helpful and it was a huge bonus that we had a whole week at school before the kids arrived. It meant I had asked most of my questions before standing in front of a class, otherwise it would have looked like Amateur Hour as I repeated "uhhh, I don't know." I only hope Alison was as well inducted at Horbury.

Speaking of Horbury, I got the results of the GCSEs. Way to go, Y11, and well done my maths class. You all did so well, and some of you must be very proud to have beaten your targets. You know who you are. And thanks for those A*s, you guys make me look good;-)On the flip side, I don't want to hear any more reports of detentions coming over the pond. BEHAVE!

I'll be sending DVDs home to friends, colleagues and family, so you'll be able to see just what school is like there.

And how about that Calgary weather! Hot enough for yer? Cold enough for yer?Last week it snowed at lunchtime on Wednesday, and then I was in sorts for coaching The girl's Soccer team (Another story...). Apparently this is quite usual. As they say here in Calgary, if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes!Yesterday I was scraping frost off the Dodge at 7.30 AM, by the time I returned at 3.00 Vic was sunbathing on the deck.
I'm perpetually confused here, and we haven't seen the snows and Chinooks of winter yet. I can hardly wait...

Anyway, more soon.Cheers for now,R

Our first trip to Banff.

We paddled on this, the Bow river , Banff. Isn't it lovely? We're looking forward to getting up to the mountains a lot this year. I've posted a few pictures of the things we saw on our 1st trip up her last weekend. It's tricky to put lots here so there's more on facebook.






This is Lake Louise, fabled for it's milky water caused by 'Rock Flour.' Bits of ground up rock trapped in the Victoria Glacier and released into the icy meltwater river that feeds the lake.








This is Victoria and me at Lake Agnes, a short but steep walk up from lake Louise. At the top, other than posing tourists like ourselves...













(that's me...)










you'll find a quiant tearoom buikt by Swiss guides over 100 yrs ago and plenty of
not-so-wild life like these chipmunks...








this Columbia Ground Squirrel in it's tree-hole










and this Hoary Marmot.











This is the BnB we stayed at (with our Dodge Caravan parked out front). Even the Suburbs are lovely in Banff, and kept so that only local residents can buy them. No second home owners here.







At the end of the weekend we went to Oh Canada Eh? dinner theatre, where the music and drama is interspersed between courses and served by the cast. A thoroughly entertaining evening, if a little different to the theatre experience I am used to.

I'll put another post up with local piccies on, this is a bit full.