On our way back from Skiing at Kicking Horse in Golden these last few days Victoria and I had a singular experience. We looked everywhere for a haircut for me in Banff and then passing through Calgary and finally found one near my school run by an Iraqi gentleman, the first Iraqi I have knowingly met (lovely fellow, can't see how a nation like that could be any bother, assuming they're all exactly the same, of course). Anyhoo, following a very reasonable priced wash and cut I was just admiring my newly and fashionably coiffured visage in the mirror when the Gentleman with my hair all over his shirt sleeves brandished 2 feet of white cotton and asked if I wanted the hair in my ears and on my cheeks removing, and perhaps between the eyebrows? No? Well, having had these follicular outcroppings pointed out by a professional I could hardly refuse, so he set about 'threading' my face.
It was an odd and uncomfortable sensation as a roll of cotton plucked all the tiny hairs from the sensitive skin on the outside of my ears, escalating to actual pain when he laid into my cheeks just below my eyes, a level of pain easily comparable with a 45 minute tattoo. This is the same procedure with which I am assured some Muslim women depilate themselves, top to toe! Head and eyebrows are often the only hairs remaining on a devout Muslim lady. Bare (sic) that in mind the next time you see someone in a Burqa!
Tomorrow we're off to Leader Saskatchewan to Jim's farm for an authentic Canadian Farm experience. We'll be helping out in the meat shop on Thursday, helping to turn two cow carcasses and two pigs into beef, pork, steak, burgers and sausages and on Friday we'll be helping Jim slaughter two cows. Being a city-boy I am fascinated by the whole farming life and this will be a wonderful opportunity to educate myself on where the meat on the little styrofoam trays in the supermarket really comes from. We'll be videoing as much as we can so that we can share with you all the story of your staek.
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Monday, 24 March 2008
Cars and holidays
It's the holidays at last! Hoorah! Now that Victoria is working as a classroom assistant in a school in the South of Calgary we have the same holidays, so we are both free this week, and what a packed week we have planned! Currently Vic is round at Donna and Bernie's house having her hair dyed so she'll look ultra-glamorous for the rest of our week's activities, as skiing and cow slaughtering should only be done when one looks one's best. More on both of those in a moment...
First, I must confess that two weeks ago on Thursday night I was unfaithful. I went out on a date with another woman and I didn't even have the common decency to feel guilty! Marco, another math teacher at St Francis had got hold of two tickets to the Calgary Car show but he couldn't go; did I want them? Did I ever! I came home all excited and told Vic what I had planned for date night that week, could we go? Now, Victoria is tolerant and kind and puts up with my passing obsession with cars with good grace, but she absolutely did not want to spend a whole evening looking at metal. After all, if they all get you from A to B, what is all the fuss about? She sent me on my way with all good blessings and planned a welcome early night and some catching up on housework for herself. I now needed a temporary partner in crime, so I asked Trish from school, a fellow math-bod if she fancied coming with me and she said yes, tempted more by the opportunity to meet swathes of men than the cars, I think, albeit petrolheads the lot. We also planned to have sushi for dinner as Victoria's not really a fan so I don't have it very often. Turns out Trish isn't really that big a fan of the delights of raw fish and wasabi either, but she does like yam tempura (deep fried battered sweet potato).
So, Thursday rolled around and we headed off straight from work to get Sushi and tempura, killing a bit of time en-route looking in Lululemon, a yoga oriented athletic wear company here in Canada. They make these black pants (or trousers, if you prefer) that are simply magic. I looked at them in detail in that shop and I couldn't fathom any special tricks or trapdoors so I don't know how they do it, but these wonderful pants do special things to any buttocks nestled within them. Most bottoms look simply fabulous in them, poor ones look good and the odd spectacular backside looks so jaw droppingly awesome as to leave grown men crying in the street in droves behind any well bummed woman who moves herself around the world in these wonder-pants. I am endeavoring to persuade my slender and beautiful wife to acquire a pair soon. They also do menswear but it doesn't seem to have the same anatomy enhancing nature.
Anyway, I left Lululemon none the wiser and chowed down on salmon, yellow-tail, scallops, tuna and soft clam in their wonderful raw states, washed down with a glass of cold tea (odd, and not recommended) as it was still lent and I was off the beer, and then we hit the car show. Allow me to summarise this geek-fest in as few words as possible while still imparting a few thoughts to those fellow car nuts out there.
Trish thought the Bentleys looked good, so did the Aston Vantage and the MX-5. Possible because they were all shown in what can best be described as 'baby-blue.'
The Audi R8 looks mean. I had lustful thoughts. If ever I have $160,000 to spend on a car it will be fight to the death between Audi and their Stuttgart compatriots' Porsche 911.
The new VW Passat Coupe was possibly the best looking car there, and coming with a V6 engine and 4WD should satisfy the drivers market it's pitched at. Prepare to be surprised by how much you want one.
I still want that MX-5. We sat in a new on and everything about it felt right. At 14,000 pounds its a realistic dream too.
American truck are too big. They are. Anything that makes a Hummer look like a reasonably sized car has no place as a personal vehicle. I swear the Ford F350 Trish and I sat in had an intercom so the driver could talk to the passenger it was so wide. Of course this may have been just to compensate to the noise coming from a) the giant six litre engine and b) the hordes of ordinary people laughing at the man with the tiny willy in the giant comedy car!
Overall American cars did not compare well with Asian or European cars. I can see why GM and Ford are losing money. Their cars were uninspiring and poorly built. The designs didn't catch the eye ,with the notable exception of the Dodge Challenger which nearly caused me to swallow my tongue. That car is a visual kick in the crotch. They just didn't have those little finishing touches and finesses: I sat in a top of the line Buick saloon with some forgettable name, the Buick Anachronism perhaps, and found that the mock wood finish looked like it had been stripped from a 70s music centre, the brown carpet was a colour Datsun abandoned years ago and the steering wheel, which was of a size more suited to a bus, or possibly a container ship adjusted for rake but not reach and left it entirely impossible to find a comfortable driving position. That this car was priced along VW, AUDIs, Hondas and such was a joke. An American would have to be very nearsighted in his patriotism to continue to 'buy-American' when the products are so substandard. Even Albertans who insist on driving their giant trucks are beginning to be drawn to Toyota and Nissan for their oversized vehicle needs, whose giant offering are just as silly as GM, Dodge and Ford but far less likely to rust, break or fail to start and give slightly better mileage to boot.
Rant over, and those of you skimming over the car bits can come back now, I'm done.
We're going back to Golden today, a 3 hour drive West of here and home to Kicking Horse resort. We went there last weekend with Gavin and Nickie and were blessed with fresh snow. We got up on Saturday morning to discover that they had had nearly a foot of fresh powder overnight at Revelstoke down the road so we headed off there to make the most of it. I skied so hard and pulled so many jumps I pulled some muscle in my back and so on Sunday I had to sit out and watch the others ski. Still, I did get to do it at the Eagles Eye restaurant 8000 feet in the air right at the top of Kicking Horse mountain, one of the most truly beautiful places I have ever seen. Sat in the cedar framed lodge enjoying a medicinal high-altitude beer (it WAS a Sunday; it's allowed) looking at the majestic peaks of the Rocky mountains the view compared favorably with sights like sunset from a hammock under palm trees on a beach ion the Sesse Isles in Lake Victoria, afternoon drinks from a bar in the middle of a pool overlooked by the Pyramids at Giza or a long slow drive though the myriad colours of Autumn in New York State. If you have to spend a day not skiing, I can't think of anywhere finer. Still, it was a little frustrating so I am very glad that my back is ticketty-boo now and Victoria is going to show me the wonders of Kicking Horse resort tomorrow. 13cm of snow yesterday and more forecast for today and tomorrow! We're going to stop along the way at Canmore for a bit more cross country skiing to replace todays jog, Calgary's weather having switched from 13 degrees yesterday to snow today. Getting fit again after a fat winter is a long slow process.
First, I must confess that two weeks ago on Thursday night I was unfaithful. I went out on a date with another woman and I didn't even have the common decency to feel guilty! Marco, another math teacher at St Francis had got hold of two tickets to the Calgary Car show but he couldn't go; did I want them? Did I ever! I came home all excited and told Vic what I had planned for date night that week, could we go? Now, Victoria is tolerant and kind and puts up with my passing obsession with cars with good grace, but she absolutely did not want to spend a whole evening looking at metal. After all, if they all get you from A to B, what is all the fuss about? She sent me on my way with all good blessings and planned a welcome early night and some catching up on housework for herself. I now needed a temporary partner in crime, so I asked Trish from school, a fellow math-bod if she fancied coming with me and she said yes, tempted more by the opportunity to meet swathes of men than the cars, I think, albeit petrolheads the lot. We also planned to have sushi for dinner as Victoria's not really a fan so I don't have it very often. Turns out Trish isn't really that big a fan of the delights of raw fish and wasabi either, but she does like yam tempura (deep fried battered sweet potato).
So, Thursday rolled around and we headed off straight from work to get Sushi and tempura, killing a bit of time en-route looking in Lululemon, a yoga oriented athletic wear company here in Canada. They make these black pants (or trousers, if you prefer) that are simply magic. I looked at them in detail in that shop and I couldn't fathom any special tricks or trapdoors so I don't know how they do it, but these wonderful pants do special things to any buttocks nestled within them. Most bottoms look simply fabulous in them, poor ones look good and the odd spectacular backside looks so jaw droppingly awesome as to leave grown men crying in the street in droves behind any well bummed woman who moves herself around the world in these wonder-pants. I am endeavoring to persuade my slender and beautiful wife to acquire a pair soon. They also do menswear but it doesn't seem to have the same anatomy enhancing nature.
Anyway, I left Lululemon none the wiser and chowed down on salmon, yellow-tail, scallops, tuna and soft clam in their wonderful raw states, washed down with a glass of cold tea (odd, and not recommended) as it was still lent and I was off the beer, and then we hit the car show. Allow me to summarise this geek-fest in as few words as possible while still imparting a few thoughts to those fellow car nuts out there.
Trish thought the Bentleys looked good, so did the Aston Vantage and the MX-5. Possible because they were all shown in what can best be described as 'baby-blue.'
The Audi R8 looks mean. I had lustful thoughts. If ever I have $160,000 to spend on a car it will be fight to the death between Audi and their Stuttgart compatriots' Porsche 911.
The new VW Passat Coupe was possibly the best looking car there, and coming with a V6 engine and 4WD should satisfy the drivers market it's pitched at. Prepare to be surprised by how much you want one.
I still want that MX-5. We sat in a new on and everything about it felt right. At 14,000 pounds its a realistic dream too.
American truck are too big. They are. Anything that makes a Hummer look like a reasonably sized car has no place as a personal vehicle. I swear the Ford F350 Trish and I sat in had an intercom so the driver could talk to the passenger it was so wide. Of course this may have been just to compensate to the noise coming from a) the giant six litre engine and b) the hordes of ordinary people laughing at the man with the tiny willy in the giant comedy car!
Overall American cars did not compare well with Asian or European cars. I can see why GM and Ford are losing money. Their cars were uninspiring and poorly built. The designs didn't catch the eye ,with the notable exception of the Dodge Challenger which nearly caused me to swallow my tongue. That car is a visual kick in the crotch. They just didn't have those little finishing touches and finesses: I sat in a top of the line Buick saloon with some forgettable name, the Buick Anachronism perhaps, and found that the mock wood finish looked like it had been stripped from a 70s music centre, the brown carpet was a colour Datsun abandoned years ago and the steering wheel, which was of a size more suited to a bus, or possibly a container ship adjusted for rake but not reach and left it entirely impossible to find a comfortable driving position. That this car was priced along VW, AUDIs, Hondas and such was a joke. An American would have to be very nearsighted in his patriotism to continue to 'buy-American' when the products are so substandard. Even Albertans who insist on driving their giant trucks are beginning to be drawn to Toyota and Nissan for their oversized vehicle needs, whose giant offering are just as silly as GM, Dodge and Ford but far less likely to rust, break or fail to start and give slightly better mileage to boot.
Rant over, and those of you skimming over the car bits can come back now, I'm done.
We're going back to Golden today, a 3 hour drive West of here and home to Kicking Horse resort. We went there last weekend with Gavin and Nickie and were blessed with fresh snow. We got up on Saturday morning to discover that they had had nearly a foot of fresh powder overnight at Revelstoke down the road so we headed off there to make the most of it. I skied so hard and pulled so many jumps I pulled some muscle in my back and so on Sunday I had to sit out and watch the others ski. Still, I did get to do it at the Eagles Eye restaurant 8000 feet in the air right at the top of Kicking Horse mountain, one of the most truly beautiful places I have ever seen. Sat in the cedar framed lodge enjoying a medicinal high-altitude beer (it WAS a Sunday; it's allowed) looking at the majestic peaks of the Rocky mountains the view compared favorably with sights like sunset from a hammock under palm trees on a beach ion the Sesse Isles in Lake Victoria, afternoon drinks from a bar in the middle of a pool overlooked by the Pyramids at Giza or a long slow drive though the myriad colours of Autumn in New York State. If you have to spend a day not skiing, I can't think of anywhere finer. Still, it was a little frustrating so I am very glad that my back is ticketty-boo now and Victoria is going to show me the wonders of Kicking Horse resort tomorrow. 13cm of snow yesterday and more forecast for today and tomorrow! We're going to stop along the way at Canmore for a bit more cross country skiing to replace todays jog, Calgary's weather having switched from 13 degrees yesterday to snow today. Getting fit again after a fat winter is a long slow process.
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
The advantages of terrible teaching...
A couple of weekends ago we decided to investigate Nakiska; Calgary's closest skiing and home of the Olympic downhill runs 20 years ago. The previous weekend we has cross country ski-ed at the location of the Olympic track so it was nice to complete the symmetry at Nakiska. Whenever we are at a new hill we like to hook up with the local volunteer on-hill tour guides, normally called "mountain friends" or "mountain hosts." These sessions had been outstanding at Fernie and Panorama so we were optimistic of having an enjoyable afternoon finding new parts of the mountain in good company. I suppose you could say that Nakiska was the exception. It took us a while to work out when and where to meet as there were none of the usual signs saying "mountain friends meet here at 1.00" but we eventually tracked down an administrator who found someone to take us out. It transpired that there were no hosts available that day so we went out with an instructor. At this point I was very happy, thinking that I might get a few tips from an expert. In the end it was an inspiring afternoon but for all the wrong reasons. I have never been taught anything so badly as I was that afternoon. Partly it was the language barrier (after 30 years in Canada the aging Italian's English was still heavily accented and not very clear) but mainly this chap had no idea what good teaching was. He kept showing me what he wanted me to do in terms of body position, skis and poles, and then say "see, like this!" and then be off, skiing away down the mountain with nary a look back. Meanwhile I'm stood at the top of the mountain fuming. It's all well and good to see it done, but I kept trying to do what he showed me and I didn't know how to do it! Then he would shout at me, tell me to do it better and bugger off again. Very frustrating indeed! I finished the afternoon in a terrible mood and skiing worse than when I had started, but it did make me stop and think about teaching. Some conclusions:
There are times when no teacher is better than a bad teacher. Bad teachers make students begin to dislike the subject. If I can get anxious and angry when I am trying to improve at an enjoyable hobby I have volunteered for, then how much more easily will immature pupils in a classroom taking a subject they are made to do be discouraged by bad teaching!
Good teaching is not just about how much you know. This guy was clearly an expert skier, but all the skiing knowledge in the world wouldn't make him a good teacher.
Good teachers have empathy, confidence, communicate well, encourage their students and are patient and kind. These are hard things to teach someone. When new trainee teachers turn up at school these are the qualities I look for. If they have this, they can learn the rest of the skills needed to teach well. If they don't, it's an uphill struggle for them to change who they are before they can learn what to do.
Good teaching is knowing where you want someone to get to, helping them to understand where they are and equipping and motivating them to make the journey.
I never would have thought that a bad lesson could be so inspiring. It really made me want to have an impact on raising standards of teaching more widely than I can do in one classroom. I'll keep pondering where this might lead me.
There are times when no teacher is better than a bad teacher. Bad teachers make students begin to dislike the subject. If I can get anxious and angry when I am trying to improve at an enjoyable hobby I have volunteered for, then how much more easily will immature pupils in a classroom taking a subject they are made to do be discouraged by bad teaching!
Good teaching is not just about how much you know. This guy was clearly an expert skier, but all the skiing knowledge in the world wouldn't make him a good teacher.
Good teachers have empathy, confidence, communicate well, encourage their students and are patient and kind. These are hard things to teach someone. When new trainee teachers turn up at school these are the qualities I look for. If they have this, they can learn the rest of the skills needed to teach well. If they don't, it's an uphill struggle for them to change who they are before they can learn what to do.
Good teaching is knowing where you want someone to get to, helping them to understand where they are and equipping and motivating them to make the journey.
I never would have thought that a bad lesson could be so inspiring. It really made me want to have an impact on raising standards of teaching more widely than I can do in one classroom. I'll keep pondering where this might lead me.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Alberta (barely) Votes!
It's been a while since I updated you all, so sorry for that. We've been engaged in the usual stuff, plenty of weekend skiing, an awesome day's snowshoeing with the new Aussie exchangees and beavering away at school. My skiing is really coming on. Last weekend I went to Sunshine, our favourite local mountain, with Peter, Roger and Chantal from school as well as Kylie and Iain from Oz. I found some new black runs I hadn't explored before and found myself comfortably getting down a run I had had to walk off just 3 weeks previously. It was very satisfying to see such tangible evidence of my progress because it's hard to be objective. Whenever we go out I push myself to ski better on harder runs, so I generally feel like I'm out of my depth until I can compare my skiing to previous experiences on the same run.
Alberta voted yesterday, or at least 40% of them did. A very poor show and representative of the general apathy about provincial politics here. Whether that apathy is the cause or effect of the fact that the Conservatives won their 11th straight victory and after 37 consecutive years in power now hold about 80% of the parliamentary seats I don't know, but I am stunned. That kind of track record doesn't help keep politicians honest, doesn't make them motivated to make any changes and the poor turnout doesn't give much of a mandate. That said, anyone suggesting putting up taxes to pay for schools and hospitals would not get much of a hearing over here. Canadians are amongst the nicest people I have met, but Albertans persist in driving over-sized trucks everywhere which precludes the economy of scale necessary for a good, green public transport system. There is very little fair trade anything available and many people are utterly unfamiliar with the concept. There is very little courtesy shown on the road. All of these point to a selfishness in Albertans when considered 'en-masse' which I don't be live is present in the individuals I meet. How it is possible I don't know, but I'm disappointed.
So; Vote! Drive sensible cars! Buy Fair trade coffee! Drive nicer! Canada expects...
Alberta voted yesterday, or at least 40% of them did. A very poor show and representative of the general apathy about provincial politics here. Whether that apathy is the cause or effect of the fact that the Conservatives won their 11th straight victory and after 37 consecutive years in power now hold about 80% of the parliamentary seats I don't know, but I am stunned. That kind of track record doesn't help keep politicians honest, doesn't make them motivated to make any changes and the poor turnout doesn't give much of a mandate. That said, anyone suggesting putting up taxes to pay for schools and hospitals would not get much of a hearing over here. Canadians are amongst the nicest people I have met, but Albertans persist in driving over-sized trucks everywhere which precludes the economy of scale necessary for a good, green public transport system. There is very little fair trade anything available and many people are utterly unfamiliar with the concept. There is very little courtesy shown on the road. All of these point to a selfishness in Albertans when considered 'en-masse' which I don't be live is present in the individuals I meet. How it is possible I don't know, but I'm disappointed.
So; Vote! Drive sensible cars! Buy Fair trade coffee! Drive nicer! Canada expects...
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