Monday, August 02, 2004
Buffalo Heads and Clarinets (A Week in The Life)
OK, OK... it's time for a new blog! And it's not even midnight! Actually, you're getting 2 for the price of one at this very moment, as P and I are lying in bed doing our first simultaneous blog session! She won't tell me what she's blogging about, and I haven't told here what's on my blog-agenda, so it should be an interesting experience! And we'll both be using pictures, but different ones! The sound of contented laptops typing fills the bedroom, with Alison Krauss ('Live') on the wee stereo.
It's about 10:15pm, so that makes it 5:15am back home and the sun is probably up with you right now. Don't worry though, you can have another snooze before the alarm clock goes off.
So what have we been up to in the 'hiatus' since Friday 23rd, when we last blogged?
Well, here's our schedule in brief:
Sat 24: day with Michelle and Robin, mostly at home in the NW. Bought and used our cool new barbecue, discovered what lava rocks are. Robin unimpressed with the luge.
Sun 25: Farmer's market followed by trip to the airport to pick up our very first visitors, my mum and dad. Flight very late, spend 2 hours at arrivals wondering if they're coming at all. Drive home by the river. Barbecue dinner. Early bed for the visitors.
Mon 26: back to work for me. Ho hum. Visitors up at 3am, as expected, later head off on Calgary public transport to discover the downtown. Very impressed, it seems.
Tue 27: more work for me, more downtown for the parents. Seem happy to wander the city and use public transport.
Wed 28: more work (yawn), P provides a bit of a spin for the parents to Cochrane for ice cream. More barbecue for tea.
Thur 29: on-call for me from 13:30 - 08:00 Friday. Very busy, not much fun, less sleep. Think of the money. P working at home, parents on the LRT.
Fri 30: last day of radiation oncology, take the day off to celebrate! Home at 09:30, quick bacon brekkie (thanks dad), then sleep for 1.5 hours, then off down the town. Up the Calgary Tower, lunch at the Stephen Avenue Diner, then off to buy a brand new clarinet and a brief stop in the Devonian Gardens. Pop into RONA to debate the differences between UK and Canadian plumbing. Home again for a barbecue dinner - scallops and prawns.
Sat 31: Long, glorious day. Up early (for a Saturday) for a Big Trip. Off to Banff via Highway 1A (the old road, via Cochrane and Canmore), spend a couple of hours there, big river, lovely hotel, great bookstore. Then off the Lake Louise via the Bow Valley Parkway. Stop for a picnic lunch, see two elks sleeping in the long grass. Lots of log cabins and mad cyclists. Lake Louise stunningly beautiful, just breath-taking, but too many (Japanese) tourists, and very long queue for ice cream. Who knew that Japanese ladies wear little white gloves to keep their little hands clean and that it's very important which order their scoops are placed in the ice cream cone?? Go figure. Long drive back with the wonderful Dr Laura on the radio, then home in time to buy lots of drink and get ready for our Big Barbecue Party, with Gerry, Richard, Emma and Hannah. A great time seemingly had by all, with lots of great barbecued food (getting the hang of this now) and quite too much drink. Burgers, Italian sausage, chicken and corn all consumed with great gusto. Great discussions regarding the German Swiss - English - New Zealand languages (Richard reminding us what a shag is down there), and brief but deep political debate. Gerry home in a taxi, bed at 00:45.
Sun 1: Lazy day. Up late, off to the farmer's market in the rain, buy a very fetching gilette for me (see picture later - think a cowboy-style body warmer). Stop in at Richard and Emma's to discuss the standards of Canadian house-building, hole-digging and the ubiquity of IKEA. Then off to Sunnyside Nurseries to buy new pots and seeds, and to marvel at the Christmas displays in August. Home for a barbecued spatchcocked marinaded chicken. Delicious. Bed after Malcolm in the Middle.
Mon 2: Heritage Day here, so no work. Off to the Heritage Park to have another look at life here from 1800-now. Much better weather this time, no thunder and lightning. Finally get a look at the 1900-era exhibits. Gasoline Alley, the Snooker Hall, the Hudson Bay Trading Post, the Anglican Church and the Livingston House the high points. Discover that Sam Livingston was Calgary's very first inhabitant and he came from Ireland. Home via Rona, Co-op and Sobey's. Bright red sockeye salmon for dinner (on the barbecue, of course). Bed now.
Tue 3 (tomorrow): P's first day in new job. Up at 06:30, off to work at 07:30, arrive at 08:00. My first day in Pathology (no patients for the next month - well, just dead ones). And then we'll see...
And now for some photos:
Big Buffalo Head in the saloon
Big Moose Head in the Saloon
Horns and the Sky
Flower garden at the 1900 railroad station
The Prairie Cathedral (Grain Elevator)
On the way to the Fort
White Man and Wig-Wam
Gasoline Alley Girl
The Age of Steam
Us and a log cabin
The Irish-Calgary Connection: Sam Livingston's House
Looking for the Postman
Windmill Girl
Heritage Park Whites
The Great New Zealand(left)-Switzerland(right) Debate
Oh, just a word about the clarinet - I've bought it effectively on HP, so I pay a tenner a month for a lovely, brand new Yamaha clarinet. If I don't like it, I take in back whenever I like, but if I keep it it's mine in 3 years. It's quite beautiful, much neater than my 1919 saxophone which I left at home and seems easy enough to play. I haven't got all the fingering sorted out yet, but I can play a scale and the low notes are easier to master than on the sax. The 'mouth position' (or embouchure) is similar to the sax but you seem to need slightly better breath control and you also need much less of the reed in your mouth. The tone is great and it's lighter to hold than the sax, but there's no strap. I've got a lead for a clarinet teacher at the Uni, and I've got the name of a beginners' band which is looking for new members, so watch this space. Now I just have to get started on the horse-riding...
Isn't it neat in its case? "Smaller than a breadbox"
My new music stand (old one still at home)
Just before I sign off - in other news:
• Denise and Roy (finally) get their broadband up and running - Congratulations! The webcam works fine, and Roy will soon have his Man Utd icon sorted (sorry about the Gunners thing!)
• Roy running an email Fantasy Premier League. Will be making my team shortly.
• No more on-call for another 10 days - whoopee!
Anyway, P's just posted, so I better follow suit. Promise it'll not be so long next time,
J
It's about 10:15pm, so that makes it 5:15am back home and the sun is probably up with you right now. Don't worry though, you can have another snooze before the alarm clock goes off.
So what have we been up to in the 'hiatus' since Friday 23rd, when we last blogged?
Well, here's our schedule in brief:
Sat 24: day with Michelle and Robin, mostly at home in the NW. Bought and used our cool new barbecue, discovered what lava rocks are. Robin unimpressed with the luge.
Sun 25: Farmer's market followed by trip to the airport to pick up our very first visitors, my mum and dad. Flight very late, spend 2 hours at arrivals wondering if they're coming at all. Drive home by the river. Barbecue dinner. Early bed for the visitors.
Mon 26: back to work for me. Ho hum. Visitors up at 3am, as expected, later head off on Calgary public transport to discover the downtown. Very impressed, it seems.
Tue 27: more work for me, more downtown for the parents. Seem happy to wander the city and use public transport.
Wed 28: more work (yawn), P provides a bit of a spin for the parents to Cochrane for ice cream. More barbecue for tea.
Thur 29: on-call for me from 13:30 - 08:00 Friday. Very busy, not much fun, less sleep. Think of the money. P working at home, parents on the LRT.
Fri 30: last day of radiation oncology, take the day off to celebrate! Home at 09:30, quick bacon brekkie (thanks dad), then sleep for 1.5 hours, then off down the town. Up the Calgary Tower, lunch at the Stephen Avenue Diner, then off to buy a brand new clarinet and a brief stop in the Devonian Gardens. Pop into RONA to debate the differences between UK and Canadian plumbing. Home again for a barbecue dinner - scallops and prawns.
Sat 31: Long, glorious day. Up early (for a Saturday) for a Big Trip. Off to Banff via Highway 1A (the old road, via Cochrane and Canmore), spend a couple of hours there, big river, lovely hotel, great bookstore. Then off the Lake Louise via the Bow Valley Parkway. Stop for a picnic lunch, see two elks sleeping in the long grass. Lots of log cabins and mad cyclists. Lake Louise stunningly beautiful, just breath-taking, but too many (Japanese) tourists, and very long queue for ice cream. Who knew that Japanese ladies wear little white gloves to keep their little hands clean and that it's very important which order their scoops are placed in the ice cream cone?? Go figure. Long drive back with the wonderful Dr Laura on the radio, then home in time to buy lots of drink and get ready for our Big Barbecue Party, with Gerry, Richard, Emma and Hannah. A great time seemingly had by all, with lots of great barbecued food (getting the hang of this now) and quite too much drink. Burgers, Italian sausage, chicken and corn all consumed with great gusto. Great discussions regarding the German Swiss - English - New Zealand languages (Richard reminding us what a shag is down there), and brief but deep political debate. Gerry home in a taxi, bed at 00:45.
Sun 1: Lazy day. Up late, off to the farmer's market in the rain, buy a very fetching gilette for me (see picture later - think a cowboy-style body warmer). Stop in at Richard and Emma's to discuss the standards of Canadian house-building, hole-digging and the ubiquity of IKEA. Then off to Sunnyside Nurseries to buy new pots and seeds, and to marvel at the Christmas displays in August. Home for a barbecued spatchcocked marinaded chicken. Delicious. Bed after Malcolm in the Middle.
Mon 2: Heritage Day here, so no work. Off to the Heritage Park to have another look at life here from 1800-now. Much better weather this time, no thunder and lightning. Finally get a look at the 1900-era exhibits. Gasoline Alley, the Snooker Hall, the Hudson Bay Trading Post, the Anglican Church and the Livingston House the high points. Discover that Sam Livingston was Calgary's very first inhabitant and he came from Ireland. Home via Rona, Co-op and Sobey's. Bright red sockeye salmon for dinner (on the barbecue, of course). Bed now.
Tue 3 (tomorrow): P's first day in new job. Up at 06:30, off to work at 07:30, arrive at 08:00. My first day in Pathology (no patients for the next month - well, just dead ones). And then we'll see...
And now for some photos:
Big Buffalo Head in the saloon
Big Moose Head in the Saloon
Horns and the Sky
Flower garden at the 1900 railroad station
The Prairie Cathedral (Grain Elevator)
On the way to the Fort
White Man and Wig-Wam
Gasoline Alley Girl
The Age of Steam
Us and a log cabin
The Irish-Calgary Connection: Sam Livingston's House
Looking for the Postman
Windmill Girl
Heritage Park Whites
The Great New Zealand(left)-Switzerland(right) Debate
Oh, just a word about the clarinet - I've bought it effectively on HP, so I pay a tenner a month for a lovely, brand new Yamaha clarinet. If I don't like it, I take in back whenever I like, but if I keep it it's mine in 3 years. It's quite beautiful, much neater than my 1919 saxophone which I left at home and seems easy enough to play. I haven't got all the fingering sorted out yet, but I can play a scale and the low notes are easier to master than on the sax. The 'mouth position' (or embouchure) is similar to the sax but you seem to need slightly better breath control and you also need much less of the reed in your mouth. The tone is great and it's lighter to hold than the sax, but there's no strap. I've got a lead for a clarinet teacher at the Uni, and I've got the name of a beginners' band which is looking for new members, so watch this space. Now I just have to get started on the horse-riding...
Isn't it neat in its case? "Smaller than a breadbox"
My new music stand (old one still at home)
Just before I sign off - in other news:
• Denise and Roy (finally) get their broadband up and running - Congratulations! The webcam works fine, and Roy will soon have his Man Utd icon sorted (sorry about the Gunners thing!)
• Roy running an email Fantasy Premier League. Will be making my team shortly.
• No more on-call for another 10 days - whoopee!
Anyway, P's just posted, so I better follow suit. Promise it'll not be so long next time,
J
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