A hurried "catch you up"

"Paper or plastic?"
Checkout boy at our first Stateside supermarket, Seattle, WA

Wowzer! We're already two weeks into our grand adventure and I haven't once set finger to keyboard to keep you all (or should that be 'both') up to speed. Sorry about that, but we have been just terrifically busy. I'll start with a run down of some of the adventures we've had and try for some added colour later.

As you see at the top of the page, the good old US of A announced itself to us in a small but distinctive way. I had wondered how different it would be here South of the 49th parallel; was all of North America the same bland TV world we had come to know? No. In both countries it is not the done thing to pack your own shopping at the supermarket; either the checkout person does it for you and hold up the entire line while she packs and scans at the same time (a level of multi-tasking at which I have noticed women checkout assistants are vastly superior to their male counterparts) or there is an assigned packer per till. Still, in Canada I was never offered a choice, just a barely adequate plastic bag. Down here in the land of the free, choice is king. Paper or plastic? We chose paper as it would double up as kindling for our many expected campfires.


Portland wowed us. There are more brew-pubs per-capita than anywhere else in North America, hundreds of drinking fountains, free and fast public transport within the city centre, the world's largest independent new/used book store, a retired submarine which we toured and it's pretty to boot; lots of parks, trees and bridges. It had a very liberal bohemian feel, much like I had always imagined San Francisco would feel (we'll see...) but was smallish too. We also discovered there the supermarket chain whole foods; fabulous in every way! If there was one place in America we would move to it would absolutely be Portland. (Top event; free pizza from a place called Pizza-Schmizza that also sold local micro-brew beer! I'd live there)

We've decided in recent days that we're ready for a dog when we get home as the first new addition to family Denton. I was dead set on a retired racing greyhound but having swotted up from my find in Portland "Retired Racing Greyhounds For Dummies" (this series knows no bounds, and hurrah for that!) we've decided that might be too much work for a first dog and not ideal when little ones turn up, hopefully soon. So we'll get feelers out for an older mutt looking to slot into a loving home.

We've been up the space needle in Seattle and I had another Manhattan, a new tradition for the top of any major tower. We were also on the beach in Seattle for the 4th of July fireworks. I think the show was marginally better than the Canada day display we saw in Kelowna on the 1st July a few days before, what with Seattle being huge and Kelowna tiny, but few events will ever touch the memory we made watching the Kelowna show on a speed boat in the middle of Lake Okanagon with such good friends as Donna, Bernie and Jake, Blossom and David. We plated the phantom of the opera music through the boat's speakers as the skies erupted above us in what felt like a private show. Magic!

In Kelowna we also spent time Tubing (lying on a rubber ring behind a speed boat while the driver tries to throw you off. Enormous fun!), wake-boarding (Hard) and sea-dooing (brilliant, but I did scare the wife a bit).

We met a princess of Norway at last night's campground and spent 3 evening hanging out around the campfire with hr very ordinary family. Apart from the throne and tiara you would never have known! That's a story we'll tell you in person!

Surfing for two days in Cannon Beach was great, we were both getting up and riding well on day one when we were 'inside' the break surfing white water, but on day two we couldn't quite get in any unbroken waves 'outside.' Progress still to make when we get to Hawaii.

There has been kite-flying, beer drinking, book reading, beach walking, fruit eating, wood chopping, Volcano viewing (mt St Helens), island hopping, sea kayaking, church going, pool and cribbage and crazy-golf playing (Vic's kicking my bum), Oyster sampling, fire lighting, bike-riding and mucho mucho driving.

Please comment and let us know what you're ll (...both...) up to!

R n V

Pause for thought

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy

Benjamin Franklin.

One week to go now until our giant trip down the west coast. I am gently filling my days at work with tidying up and paperwork tasks, Internet research on San Francisco, Napa Valley wine tours or surfing techniques (as I could learn anything useful at all sat behind a Cow Town desk). It's been 5 or six weeks since I ran anywhere due to continued pain in my IT band but it seems to be slightly better after lots of stretching, so, all covered in well engineered tape by Chantal at school I am prepared to go for a trial run this afternoon. I have yet to make any decisions about the half marathon, but I am relentlessly optimistic

On the long weekend at the start of May Victoria and I returned from camping in Jasper via the Columbia Icefield and we took a tour ON A GLACIER! We were driven out on a kind of hand-built bus with balloon tyres on a hot sunny day and stood in awe on a sheet of ice 30m thick. Our guide was something of a Glacial expert (doctorate in it etc) and told us about Glacial retreat. Apparently the glaciers in the Rocky mountains have been in gradual and constant retreat since about 1850. It is currently retreating at about 2 metres per year OHMIGOD!!! GLOBAL WARMING, AARGH!!!

Nope.

It has retreated 1600m in the last 100m years, an average rate of 16m per year.


It's currently melting MUCH MUCH SLOWER than it has done for last 160 years.

Now, I'm not denying global warming; heaven forbid. All of my left leaning friends would have me stoned in the street, but this doesn't seem to chime with the alarmist figures I hear again and again. Yes, the earth is getting warmer, but more than normal?

So, drive fewer miles in a smaller-engined car, recycle, turn off lights etc etc, but also, for Socrates' sake, keep an open mind...

BTW, after a year of three, four or even five litre V6, V8 and V10 car engines it will be nice to get back to a place where our 1.8 litre Ford is considered excessive by some.


Many friends are saying goodbye this weekend. We have both felt so very welcomed here in Calgary and we will miss all of you. Please, come find us in Leeds. I'll show you what the Good Lord meant when he said 'Let there be beer.'

Graduation and wedding

Last Friday saw 95% of our 18 year old grade 12 students graduate from high school and walk the stage in the auditorium at Calgary University. It was a significant ritual in their young lives and one they have worked hard to achieve. They were genuinely proud and nervous as they stepped onto the stage beside me and walked off to collect their graduation certificate from Mr MacFarland, the Principal. I was on stage announcing names, a task generally performed by teachers who are retiring that year. It was a real honour to be asked as I am just going home, but I didn't realise how big a deal the whole shebang was until it began. I've been trying to explain to folks over here that we don't so much graduate from High School as simply stop going, any celebrations being a more personal affair as one picks up the insignificant looking envelope containing results of A-levels or GCSEs. Seeing as our graduands had yet to finish their exams and therefore didn't know for sure that they would actually graduate I was expecting this to be all pomp and circumstance, a sop to a North American tradition, so it was a treat to be proved wrong and a privilege to be a part of an afternoon these young people will remember for the rest of their lives. Well done all of you, may your lives continue to be filled with the hope and promise we all see in you.

As soon as I left grad we were off to witness the start of another great adventure: the marriage of Jen Van de Laak to her farming beau Jim in the small prairie town of Leader, Saskatchewan. It was a truly beautiful day and the weather could not have been better. We spent much of the day surrounded by country music, cowboy hats, pick-up trucks, wide-open spaces and the friendly welcoming atmosphere of a small town where everybody knows everybody else's business and cares about them. All 235 guests ate well and enjoyed themselves and the happy couple were genuinely happy all day, surrounded by people who loved them. It made Vic and I remember our wedding day fondly, as weddings always do. The only other time in your life all your friends and relatives will get together to celebrate you is likely to be your funeral and I am not hoping to have that party for a good while yet! Vic and I finished our day as the wedding photographers with 849 photos to edit and touch up. I can't even imagine how much it would have cost to do a wedding back in the days of film.
Jim and Jen tied the knot at 3.37 pm. God bless every minute you guys spend together, and thanks for having us there.

I am putting the finishing touches to this on Friday morning, the 6th June. I have 3 more teaching days left between now and September and I am both excited about the upcoming adventure as well as sad to be leaving what has been an excellent year all round; great school, nice kids, friendly dept, the most welcoming church I have ever come across. awesome skiing and a whole heap of fabulous friends. That said, it's going to be great to get home and see all our friends there who we have missed so much.

I promise to write again soon,,

R

Bare Naked Ladies

Sorry it's been so long, I've been terribly busy. A swollen ITB is keeping me from running, but otherwise life is fab.

What with it being Vic's b'day party lately we have had several cocktails and I have cracked the art of Manhatten making: mostly whiskey, a dash of vermouth (I prefer Rosso) and a dribble of the juice from the jar you spooned your maraschineo cherry from. It's the only fruit I get most days ;-)>

Anyway, Carmen and I were sat on the sofa drinking away our rough days with a pair of these creations when I considered the name. A Manhattan is the name of this divine creation when one employs American sour mash bourbon. Such a concoction built on Scotch (and I haven't yet brought myself to lavish my Bowmore on one!) is called a Rob Roy. We are using a bottle of Canadian whiskey, so we thought we needed a suitable Canadian name. Having rapidly dismissed 'the Celine Dion' and 'the Bryan Adams' we settled on the sublime, the delightful 'Bare Naked Lady.' Fun, frolicsome and a guaranteed good time! Perfect. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Brian Wilson wouldn't have enjoyed a few, lying in bed...


I promise I'll post more soon about V's Birthday adventures; our trip to the Hutterite (modern Ahmish-ish), a day at the water park inside the world's second largest mall and my visit to a rural primary school, not to mention our wonderful James Bond themed murder mystery party at which V was Dr Yes and I was Hugh Onlee-Livtwice! Many a martini sunk there, shaken , not stirred. It's much easier to blog now that I've set up the wireless system and can do it like this with a tipple on the sofa.

Ciao for now,

R

Rob Runs Frisco!

I am heartily sick of winter here. Two weekends ago it was utterly and delightfully springlike. Vic and I spent Sunday hanging out in the park playing frisby golf (some call it frolf! coolest blended word ever?) with Bea and Royce. Top fun. I was beginning to look forward to getting back in shape.

Then it snowed. Then it snowed some more. it's about -5 now and still snowing, but I refuse to let this get me down. To get me running anyway I have signed up for the San Francisco half marathon in August. 13.2 miles over the Golden Gate Bridge! To make matters worse it kicks off at 5.30 AM, although this gives the twin benefits of running before the heat rolls in and allowing one to run into the sunrise as it appears behind one of he wonders of the modern world.

So, the training starts here. 10k last Sunday on an indoor track (59 mins), 5k yesterday on a tedious treadmill and some unspecified distance in the snow today (26 mins) accompanied by the sublime mutterings of Laurie Taylor on my Thinking Allowed podcast. I'll keep you all posted as to my progress, and please pass the word and get me sponsored. All funds going towards Watoto Childrens Villages for orphans in Uganda, a new home and a fresh start for children with literally nothing, and building a generation of leaders with integrity in Uganda too.

Thanks,

Rob

Odd weather precipitates confusion, frustration

Scene: Weds PM. Glorious weather outside at home after long day at work.

*much joy!!* Now is the end of our winter of discontent. Spring has sprung! As much as I have enjoyed this year's winter for it's skiing and other forms of Mountain frolics, it has been too cold to run outside and I rebel against the hamsterwheel nature of treadmill running. Rather than force myself through an arduous regime of icy tolerance or a tedious routine of indoor jogging, I accepted this winter as a one off experience and temporarily resigned from the ranks of runners. This would be a fat winter.

I am aware that last winter had the same effect on me but I hope this will cease to be the case upon returning to blighty. I have always classed myself as a fair weather runner, but I hope having struggled through snow drifts and 40 below days I will have revised my opinion of 'fair-weather' to include virtually anything an English winter has to offer, provided I can get some water proof running shoes (Eughh; wet feet!).

Anyway, I had accepted my fatness for the duration of the season, but I was starting to get a little tired of expanding. True, being off beer for lent had helped, but Lent was over so I was looking forward to starting up running again. Whenever I have run I feel like I have earned the right to a big dinner and a couple of beers, but not running hasn't stopped me, I just feel a tiny bit guilty and self indulgent and I was looking forward to going back to feeling a little bit smug instead. Wednesday marked my return to running, and after a half hour run that evening I was looking forward to another short one on Thursday.

I awoke to find that it was snowing on Thursday morning and by 8.00 am there was the best part of a foot already fallen and it was still coming. Big, wet heavy flakes that made the roads deadly due to both slipping and sliding as well as the poor visibility. It looked like there was as much snow in the air as on the ground. It took two and a half hours to get to work. We started driving, but we soon turned back because not only was our minivan with "all -season" tyres blatantly not equipped for wading through this stuff, but plenty of other people seemed to be having similar trouble. We saw a number of fender-benders and decided to retreat back home and bus our ways to our respective schools, discretion being the better part of valour where surprise blizzards are concerned. At the bust stop it transpired that many other good burghers of our neighbourhood had reached similar conclusions and the first few buses to arrive were full. I walked most of the way to school before a bus with some empty spaces picked my up at 10.00.

By that evening it was well into positive temperatures and the melt had begun in earnest but a foot of snow just doesn't melt that quickly so no running for Mr D on Thursday. Bugger.

Still, they do say that if you don't like the weather in Calgary, wait 5 minutes it's bound to change. I was back out running again on Friday and Saturday followed by frisbee-golf (I like the term 'frolf'!) on Sunday with temperatures well into the twenties. Surely NOW it was spring!

As I write this on Monday morning, it's snowing again.

Just a quickie...

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.