Carrick to Calgary

Monday night here in Calgary and some news from League Division Roy! Here are the standings of the four White/Robson/Bennett teams before the matches on Monday night:

19th Rocky Mountain Rovers, 98 pts (up 6 places, now =18th!)

21st Polish Plums, 86pts (up 6 places too!)

22nd The Calgary Visitors, 85pts (up 6 places!)

28th Robbo's Robbers, 60 pts (down 2 places, boo)

So we're starting our ascent up the table after a pretty dismal start. Let's hope we can keep up the pace and that the Robbers can kick it into a higher gear!

Just looking over this week's exploits of my wee Fantasy Football side, and it seems that they've been playing a stormer!

GOALIE
30 Cudicini Chelsea 4.5m: remains polishing the subs bench while Cech plays

DEFENDERS
105 Lauren (Arsenal, 3.5m) 4-1 vs Norwich, but picked up a booking
121 Mellberg Aston Villa 3.5m: scored in the 4th minute, 4-2 vs Newcastle
249 Yobo Everton 2.5m: 2-1 vs West Brom, no points
298 Sun Jihai Man City 2.5m: kept the goals out vs Charlton 4-0

MIDFIELD
553 Campo Bolton 2.5m: clean sheet against Liverpool (1-0, Davies)
554 Djorkaeff Bolton 3.5m: CORRECTION: NO LONGER PLAYING
675 P Neville Man Utd 3.5m 1-1 vs Blackburn, no points

STRIKERS
823 Dickov Blackburn 3.0m: scored against Man Utd in 1-1 draw - you boy!
885 Anelka Man City 6.0m: scored 2 in 4-0 scorcher over Charlton - you boy!
902 Viduka Middlesborough 5.0m: 2-1 vs Crystal Palace, but didn't score himself -better luck next week


You Boy!

So keep it up our 3 scorers Mellberg, Dickov and Anelka, cool it down Lauren and points for effort to Campo and Sun Jihai. Better luck next week for Viduka, Yobo and Neville and get off the bench Cudicini! And Djorkaeff, you tosser! Official update from League Official RoyBoy tomorrow!

CORRECTION: Djorkaeff is now longer playing for Bolton, as his contract was not renewed. Disaster! Down to 10 men! When's the first transfer window again? (Picked up on this point by checking the Sun's list of 'Duds' on the Golden Gamble Page)

Wednesday night here, and we've passed the 'two month' milestone here. Some odd news from Russia tonight about 2 planes out of Moscow crashing at the same time - could be a Chechen '9-11 attempt'. The BBC says they've just found the wreckage of the second plane, which sent out a message that it had been hijacked before it went off the radar screens. Apparently it crashed close to where Putin is on holiday - maybe they wanted to crash it into his dacha... If the Chechnya link is true, it'll only make the situation there worse, after all the bombs in Moscow and the theatre siege, and all the atrocities in Grosny. The rebels have nothing left to lose, and Vladimir Putin seems willing to do anything to win... Check out this UU site for more details on the background.

Anyway, it's been a miserable week here so far, gloomy cold weather, dense fog in the morning and little sunshine all day. The temps have been sitting at 10-11oC all day, not where they should be for mid-August (up in the mid-20s). Apparently this is the wettest summer for years - we must have brought the rain with us! We had the barbecue going strong tonight, though, despite a fine drizzle.

This is my last week in Pathology, and I've been posted to one of Calgary's 2 other hospitals, the Peter Lougheed Centre (PLC). It's a good bit smaller than the Foothills, but is quite nice. Although I'll only be there for 3 days or so, they've given me my own room with a much nicer microscope than at the Foothills and insisted on taking me for lunch. Very nice people! It's a longer drive to get there (apparently PLC also stands for Pretty Long Car-ride!) but it's a welcome break from the Foothills for a few days, and I appreciate the small-hospital atmosphere. I'm only there Tue-Wed-Thur this week, as I was seconded to go to the OR (operating room) on Monday for a 'Big Case', and I'm doing some cytopathology (cell work) at the University on Friday. It was nice to get into an OR again for a change, but I wasn't on top form as I'd been on call all day Sunday and was up to 0430 on Monday morning with a sick patient in the ER. I lasted from 0800-1430 on Monday and stayed in for all the interesting bits of the Big Case before I went home to snooze.

Today (Tuesday) was spent at the PLC studying slides and reading up a case I'm hoping to write up with the pathologists there. Then back to the FMC (Foothills Medical Centre) for a 'core curriculum' teaching session on melanomas and a quick chat with my preceptor, WT. We've gone over the research proposals that I'm going to get involved with in my time here, and the things I can write up. We've also defined my financial position a lot better - it's clear that I'm going to have to keep going with the on-call 3 nights a month for at least the next 6 months, until the position is resolved on whether we can bill (i.e. charge) for surgical assists (i.e. helping with operations). I'm working 3 nights a month, which makes 60 hours or so, at 80$ an hour, making 4800 a month or almost 60K $ a year. It's much less than I'd get at home, but I knew this when I applied and it's also much cheaper to live here than in the UK (check out the International Salary Calculator for more details. Anyway, although my financial position hasn't changed, at least it's now an explicit arrangement and I could be much worse off - one of my colleagues works every 3rd night for 3,000 a month - that's only 300 dollars a night! And if I had a fixed salary they could pay me much less (30-40K) and demand I do more nights for no extra pay. As they say over here, 'A Fellow gets what a Fellow gets'. I think the local guys put up with a very low salary for a couple of years because after that their salary goes through the roof (400K+) once they get a staff position. If I can bill for operating and if I can bring some of my own salary from home, I might eventually end up dropping the nights on call, but for now I'll just keep going - I suppose it keeps me off the streets!

Whenever we told people at home we were coming here, a lot of them said 'You must be very brave' or 'Aren't you afraid?' At the time we thought they were daft, but this week we've both started to realise that in our jobs at home we were both very much in our 'comfort zones', deeply lodged in 'the system' at home after many years doing the same thing. We knew where everything was and exactly how it worked and precisely what was expected of us. We we accustomed to using a network of contacts built up over years to find the quickest way to get things done. After a few years you can get things done easier just because of who you are, and because you know who to talk to. Of course, by coming to Canada, we've managed to lose all of those advantages and go back to Square One again. We don't really know anyone at work, and crucially we don't know how to use 'normal channels' to get things done. These are things which will come with time, of course, but at the moment it's easy to feel off-balance as we have to ask the most basic questions until we have 'The System' sussed out. At least it's only 6 more days until I'm back to a surgical rotation, but that will bring its own challenges, as most of the instruments have different names ("hand me that long thing with the sticky-out bit on it... no the longer one, with the prongs and the twirly bit!")


Which one is the right one? Duh....

I'm also going to be operating out of my 'comfort zone' doing a bit of breast, sarcoma and soft tissue work along with the abdominal work that I'm mainly here for. It's all a learning experience, and it's experience that I would never get at home (and it will get better with time) but at the moment it's just a little uncomfortable. No pain, no gain, I suppose...

Better get to bed for now, I suppose, but before I go here's a couple of websites (hope you liked the I AM CANADIAN) one...

After failing to get our home DVD player to work, we've been unable to watch any of the Region 2 DVDs we brought from home, as they are PAL format and US TVs are NTSC format (it's to do with different screen refresh rates, apparently). We have now found (and ordered) a dual-voltage US/UK NTSC/PAL multi-region DVD player which is guaranteed to play any disc from anywhere on any TV! It should work OK here and we should be able to bring it back to the UK with us too!


Trendy machine

We also found a site called Green Scrubs which does some very trendy gear for the operating room. I've ordered some super-looking hats - will send pictures when they arrive!


Would you let these people operate on you?


Or this man?


Pretty cool design, eh?


Slightly weird pattern but fun


Gotta have this one


Support your local Calgary Flames in the OR!


They also sell fluffy toys - this one is a Cow Doctor!


And this one is a Nurse Bear!

They also do 'Squeezy Organs' - I'm taking orders for these now!


Squeezy Eye


Squeezy Stomach - yuk!

And in other news: here are the latest scores in the Fantasy Football League. As you can see, the 4 Robson/White/Bennet teams are languishing in the relegation zone at the moment, but I can take some pride in the fact that my team is Top of the Losers, tied in 24th place with FC Jordanstown, 1 point up on Peter Robson's Robbo's Robbers, 3 points up on Roy Bennett's Plums and a full 12 points up on Dad's Calgary Visitors! Come on Dad, pull your socks up! It's still early in the season, but at the moment we should all be feeling as sick as a parrot!

24 FC Jordanstown 37
25 Rocky Mountain Rovers 37
26 Robbo's Robbers 36
27 Polish Plums 34
28 The Calgary Visitors 25

Upcoming events this week - dinner with Gerry the Swiss Surgeon and his wife Kristine who is visiting this week prior to moving here in October (Thursday). Juan the Mexican Surgeon may also be in attendance, wife permitting.

Off to Kananaskis Country this weekend for a bit of a hike, weather permitting...

Driving tests will be scheduled for the end of this week or the beginning of next... we're looking forward to it (not)

Lastly, here are a couple of great photos from a hot air balloon show I saw on the BBC website recently - aren't they amazing?

See you

J


Churchill Insurance Dog Balloon


Alien Spaceship Balloon

Hi there

Apologies for the lack of blogs from P over the last week or so. I’ve been trying to get back into the routine of going to work full time, as well as doing house management! After a break of 6 weeks away from work, it hasn’t been easy to figure out how I’m supposed to fit everything into the day again. As anyone who has been following the blog knows, I was managing the housewife thing very nicely, and having to go to work just seems like such an imposition!! Seriously though, I think a break of 6 weeks was just long enough and it is nice to get back into a world where people have more on their minds than what they’re going to make for dinner!

I wasn’t sure what to expect from my new work place, but on first impressions, I think it’ll probably work out okay. It gives you a nice feeling when you walk into your new office (yes, an office of my own!!) and the people who work on the project have left you a wee bunch of flowers and a card just to say ‘welcome to the project’.



In contrast to the usual welcoming accommodation that we offer to new members of staff at UU, I also had a desk, a chair, a flatscreen computer running the newest version of Windows (which doesn't seem quite as prone to crashing as my lovely UU computer!), and best of all, a view to the outside world! The outside view is the key thing - Mr White is very jealous as he has to share an inside office (no windows at all) with four other visiting fellows.

Anyway, here's my computer...



And here's the view... this will be updated in the winter.... but as you can (sort of) see, Calgary is uncharacteristically green at the moment...



Apparently, in the last 7 years or so, Calgary has been burnt brown by the time that mid August rolls around. The prairie farmers have been complaining of drought and plagues of grasshoppers (all sounds rather biblical, doesn't it?), but this year, they've had so much rain that the harvest might be difficult to get in. Also, our grass keeps growing...! One other problem is that the berry harvest isn't too good this year. Apparently the blossoms on the saskatoons and the buffalo berries got hammered by a late frost in May, and the result has been that there is very little fruit around. Of course, the wet weather that we've been experiencing lately hasn't been too good for them either, and those that did survive the frost, have got mildew (or some other nasty fungus). The upshot of this is that bears are going hungry in the woods, and are starting to come into towns, picnic areas, recreation areas etc to try to find some food before they hibernate for the winter. We'll keep you posted if any get as far as Tuscarora Way!

Here are a few pics of an uncharacteristic Calgary summer...

Fog in Tuscarora (excuse the flyscreen)...



And the deck (where we had breakfast in blazing sunshine yesterday morning)...



Note the small lake that's developing in the middle of the table! Mind you, we're kind of lucky we're just experiencing rain (and temperatures of 7 degrees C today). The Environment Canada guy who was on the radio this morning reckons that there might be snow on the high roads between Banff and Jasper today, and Fort McMurray (way up in the north of Alberta) is experiencing about 0 degrees C. Again, this is all very unusual - our seasonal average for this time of year should be a very pleasant 22-24 degrees C, and we certainly shouldn't be having the furnace on.

Anyway, I think I must have had an inkling that this was coming because I took myself off to Market Mall on Thursday evening to buy some clothes. It isn't a great time to buy clothes as the shops are still trying to flog off all the summer gear, and they're only starting to get in their 'fall' (aka Autumn) stuff. The women's sale stuff has been well picked over by this stage, and they seem to have only very small, very large or very weird stuff left. I had enough summer stuff to do me anyway, and I was in the market for something a little warmer. I didn't do too badly, and after trying on about a million pairs of trousers (trying to find something to fit around the middle, but not absolutely massive in the rear end!), came home with two cardigans (one bright red, zip up; one black), two pairs of trousers (both Olsen - one brown linen and one black ), a long sleeved black v-neck teeshirt with a collar, a kind of brown top to go with the brown trousers, two pairs of shoes (one black, one brown) and a frivolous pair of pink sandals (my only sale purchase). Dear knows where or when the pink sandals will see the light of day before next June (if the weather keeps going the way it is), but I thought they were nice, AND they were only 10 pounds (can't find the pound sign on this keyboard).

Our other purchase this morning was a lamb. No - not a pet to keep in the garden, but the meat for the freezer. I went up to Bearspaw (in the pouring rain) to collect it this morning, and I have to say that they do a really good job. It has been butchered, packed and frozen exactly the way I wanted it; each package has a label saying exactly what's in it, and the date it was packed.

Here it is, all laid out on the kitchen counter...



And here is what you get for CAD$200
7 packs of lamb mince
3 lamb shoulder stew packs
4 leg of lamb roasts
2 shoulder roasts
1 rack of lamb
26 loin chops
1 liver
1 heart
2 kidneys


I'm not entirely sure what we'll do with the heart!


Anyway, better go. Mr White is working all day today, and I've decided that I'd better do the ironing (there's a shocking lack of clean laundry in the drawers), hoovering and bathroom cleaning chores.

Just before I go though, I'll leave you with some lovely pictures of the Carrickfergus garden (for which I can take no credit whatsoever!!). You might have seen these before, but I think they're pretty cool...






More soon

P

Check out this. Tee hee.

J

Wednesday night here, and just a quick news item from us folks here in Calgary.

We took the plunge tonight and went down to sit our 'Driving Knowledge' Test. We had been studying for it for a long time (at least 24 hours) and we eventually decided to 'Just Do It' without further ado. P did hers on a computer which gave her a running total as she went along, while I did the old-fashioned pen and paper test (as there was only one computer free in the test centre, which is a private-run affair, nothing to do with the government). There were 16 multiple choice questions on the Rules of the Road, and 4 on road signs. You can see a similar test here. You are allowed to get 3 questions wrong in total, so 17 is a 'passing grade'. Our tests featured different questions, but luckily we both got 17! A bare pass, but a pass none the same! We then had to do a vision test and then had our UK licences copied and faxed off to the Provincial government. We have to go back tomorrow to get our permits to do the practical test, which will be sometime next week. It's all downhill from here....


We both passed - honest!

J

Well, it's Monday night here and it's been a hot, muggy day. We'd almost be glad for a thunderstorm at this point!

Mum and Dad went home again last night and now the house is feeling a bit quiet, as there's only the two of us. We've had our tea and settled down for the night. Yesterday was a bit of a to-do...

But first.. We spent Saturday afternoon at Bragg Creek and up the Elbow River Valley and then we were out for dinner at the River Cafe, a fairly posh restaurant downtown.


Us in the Elbow River


Mist at Elbow Falls


Picnickers at Bragg Creek


Relaxing on the deck

Mum and Dad got up early to pack for their long journey home. We had a breakfast barbecue on the deck and headed off for the airport at about 12 o'clock so they'd be in plenty of time to check in for their 15:00 flight. But when we got to the airport the board said: "GLASGOW 1500 REV 0400". At the check-in desk, they explained that the plane which was coming from Glasgow had been delayed as it was coming from the hurricane Charley disaster zone in Florida, and that instead of leaving at 15:00, the flight would be going at 04:00 (am)!! At the earliest! They said they wanted all passengers back at the airport by 01:00 but until then Mum and Dad were stuck in Calgary. We headed off the Farmer's Market and then went shopping before coming home for home-made barbecued Samburgers. Mum sat and did her knitting, Dad watched the PGA and then the Olympics and the night passed rightly. We kept an eye on the departures board at Glasgow to figure out when their plane was taking off and when we could expect it to arrive here. The complimentary taxi to the airport arrived at about 23:30 and we said goodbye in the pouring rain outside number 48. I suppose that it's nicer to say goodbye at home and at least we parted quickly, rather than having a big boo-hoo at the airport.

The latest news from the Travellers is that they finally took off at 05:30 and got into Glasgow at about 9pm UK time, too late to get a flight to Belfast. They're staying in an airport hotel tonight and they'll be home tomorrow lunchtime, probably shattered!

While they're still on the road, here are some of mum & dad's best piccies from their brief sojourn in Banff:


On the Banff Gondola


Sam on the Gondola


Mum on the ski-lift


Mum goes to the Mountain


The Mountain Pair


Mum & Dad


Mum on the Gondola


Dad at the Peak

And some more pictures of their days at Canada Olympic Park, the Buffalo Jump and around and about Calgary:


Time for some ski-ing?


Mum in the Tee-pee


Mum & Dad at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump


Mum & our House


Mum on the front stoop


Dad on Deck

And a few more pictures from our 4-hour round trip to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta. This was a place where the Plains Indians herded the buffalo over a cliff to kill them, which was in use for over 5000 years.


The Claresholm water tower


Alberta Plains horizon


Where are the Rockies?


White Men at the Buffalo Jump


Taking a break from the Buffalos


Wig-Wam Dad


The Buffalo Jump 1


The Buffalo Jump 2

Back to normal today in Pathology, spending a bit more time on microscopic diagnosis. We also had the first round of SSO interviews with 4 candidates from around North America. Lunch at the River Cafe again, as luck would have it. Not really in the mood for work today - too hot.

Oh, we forgot to mention the family of buffalos which I bought about 10 days ago in a sale - 25 dollars (10 quid) for the pair. I think they're great, everyone else thought I was mad, but they seem to have grown on people now. They're made of rusty metal, and they're buffalos, what else do you need to know?


Baby Buffalo


Mummy Buffalo


Mummy Buffalo again


Some more pictures to finish off with:


Blue sky on deck


My newest bit of cowboy gear


Kind of Foggy

And some piccies from home- SPOT THE DIFFERENCE:


Carrick


Calgary


And some pics from the garden (thanks Neez)


SunFlower


SunFlowers


The Tallest One

And lastly, an appeal from CrimeWatch-


HAVE YOU SEEN THESE MEN?

Love from Calgary,

J