Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Goodbye to Zero (Into the Minuses)
Well, it looks like the winter is getting hunkered down and is about to start in earnest. An inch of snow on Monday morning, flurries all day, minus 14 on Monday night, minus 11 on the way to work yesterday, minus 7 last night. It's a bit warmer today (only minus 4), as we're expecting a mini-Chinook to come over and drag us up to zero (and maybe into the pluses) for the rest of the day and maybe tomorrow. But checking out the forecast on Wunderground and The Weather Network, it looks like these are the last few positive temperatures we'll be seeing. Our little, late Indian summer in November is coming to an end, and we'll be saying goodbye to the freezing point and sliding further and further into the minuses in the next week or two. There will be a little snow on and off in December, but the major white stuff will only be coming in Jan/Feb when it's -30, and then we're expecting March to be a little rougher, with blizzards.
Snowman cartoon
Two of the local ski resorts have opened recently, Lake Louise and Sunshine, with the rest expected to follow suit in mid-December according to Ski Report.com. Richard and Emma have Richard's mum visiting from New Zealand at the moment, and she's offered to babysit for them so the 4 of us can go ski-ing in the next week or two, so we'll keep you posted on this. Sunshine (close to Banff) is probably our best bet at the moment, as it has 50 runs open and 7 ski-lifts compared to 2 runs and 2 lifts at Lake Louise. You can check out the latest snow state at Lake Louise here. We're also heading off to the Silver Dragon in Chinatown on Saturday for 'Chunch', (which is what Melissa calls our Chinese dim sum lunch) with HERB and Rich's mum. They've got over 200 different dim sums to try out and the selection is always different each time you go. Then we're off to the theatre on Saturday night, and we'll probably try to go out for dinner too, as it's out EIGHTH (!) wedding anniversary on the 30th. Where does the time go? (PS - thanks for the card, mum and dad!)
Hope Mum is enjoying her new video camera by the way - we're expecting a DVD containing full coverage of the Christmas festivities in Island Park this year (no pressure, take your time with the editing, you can send it to us in the first week of January!).
This week we also registered at the Kinesiology Department at the University of Calgary - i.e the Sports and Fitness Centre. As I'm a student, I pay 60 dollars (about 25 quid) for a year's membership and P gets in for about double that. Membership allows you to do lots of stuff like swimming in the Olympic pool, work out in the gym, play raquetball (yes) and squash (no), go ice-skating and play ice hockey at the Olympic Oval and also enrol for a variety of courses, as well as get stuck into activities in the Outdoor Department, like cross-country ski-ing, Nordic/Telemark ski-ing, backcountry ski-ing, snowboarding and snow-shoeing. P has her eye on a Yoga course starting in January, while I'll be going for Adult Skating lessons and am hoping to work my way up to playing Shinny, which is the ice-hockey version of five-a-side football, if I can just learn how to skate backwards... Combining these with swimming, the odd bit of raquetball, and regular ski-ing at the weekends, we should have enough going on to avoid cabin fever during the long, hard winter that's ahead. You can check out the webcam of people skating at the Olympic Oval here. Lots of speed skaters on the ice at most hours of the day and night - it should bring back memories someone in the Robson family!
Looks like a little good news from home on the funding front, by the way - I have been given the nod that the Powers That Be are going to give me a little money from my normal salary to use while I'm in Canada. The final amount has not been confirmed yet, but it'll probably cover the sum I get for 5-6 months' worth of nights on call, which will mean I can reduce the number of nights I'm working for some or all of the second year here.
Thanks for Uncle Jim for his comment on the 'Happy Anniversary' post. Please feel free to leave a comment after any of our posts - just click on where it says "(0) comments", write what you want to say, and submit it. The link will then change to "(1) comment" and your words will be linked to the post you read. Go on, give it a try - anyone can blog! Mum & Dad and Mel & Stevie have already done it here, here and here
And another thing... what's going on at home with the whole on-again-off-again Good Friday-decomissioning-peace-in-our-time thing? I read on the BBC that Ian Paisley had been in London talking to the government and Bertie Ahern (shock horror!) about a deal which may be about to go ahead with Sinn Fein/IRA.
The Beeb says:
"The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein have been involved in intensive - though indirect - talks as the main unionist and republican parties in Northern Ireland. "
"Both the DUP and Sinn Fein are backing the creation of a £1bn peace fund as the price tag for any deal - about one ninth of Northern Ireland's annual budget."
(Finally they agree about something - must be a first!)
"Party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said: "I have always argued that if you take the long view, then you can see that clearly we are making progress towards the achievement of a durable peace. We are a long way from never, never, never."
"DUP leader Ian Paisley has admitted he was surprised at how much progress has been made in negotiations aimed at restoring devolution to Northern Ireland"
"(Paisley was)... also due to hold separate meetings in London with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to discuss the proposals, then with Defence Minister Geoff Hoon to demand the retention of the Royal Irish Regiment"
"The IRA has agreed to allow a Protestant and a Catholic churchman to witness any future decommissioning of its weapons, the BBC has learned. "
Looks like a lot of the circles have been squared and it might even work this time... And both the DUP and the Shinners want a 'Peace Dividend' of a BILLION pounds for the Province as the cost of doing a deal. Now we're talking! Maybe they can build me a nice new hospital to come home to - Martyrs Memorial District Hospital anyone? Or what about the Bobby Sands Regional Cancer Centre. Seems like we're finally starting to think outside the box at home, maybe thinking the unthinkable at last.
Big Ian
Whatever happened to ULSTER SAYS NO, or refusing to talk to the Brits, or the Evil Empire of the Republic etc. etc. Who would have thought it... And isn't Paisley looking OLD? Maybe he wants to do a deal before the Big Man Upstairs blows the whistle for him... I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that the DUP and Sinn Fein did so well in the last elections after the more moderate parties (UUP and SDLP) had started the ball rolling on the peace process, but maybe it was what was needed to get them more fully into the process, give them the reins of power, bang their heads together and say "right, we voted for you, now get on with it". Of course, it'll probably all fall apart again (like every other time), but you never know... think of the money...
Anyway, I'd better go soon - it's Wednesday so it must my Cancer Biology course this morning - at least I have the afternoon free, so I must be grateful for small mercies. Must get the Jeep washed on the way home - the windows have so much grime on them it's hard to see out!
See you later - J
Snowman cartoon
Two of the local ski resorts have opened recently, Lake Louise and Sunshine, with the rest expected to follow suit in mid-December according to Ski Report.com. Richard and Emma have Richard's mum visiting from New Zealand at the moment, and she's offered to babysit for them so the 4 of us can go ski-ing in the next week or two, so we'll keep you posted on this. Sunshine (close to Banff) is probably our best bet at the moment, as it has 50 runs open and 7 ski-lifts compared to 2 runs and 2 lifts at Lake Louise. You can check out the latest snow state at Lake Louise here. We're also heading off to the Silver Dragon in Chinatown on Saturday for 'Chunch', (which is what Melissa calls our Chinese dim sum lunch) with HERB and Rich's mum. They've got over 200 different dim sums to try out and the selection is always different each time you go. Then we're off to the theatre on Saturday night, and we'll probably try to go out for dinner too, as it's out EIGHTH (!) wedding anniversary on the 30th. Where does the time go? (PS - thanks for the card, mum and dad!)
Hope Mum is enjoying her new video camera by the way - we're expecting a DVD containing full coverage of the Christmas festivities in Island Park this year (no pressure, take your time with the editing, you can send it to us in the first week of January!).
This week we also registered at the Kinesiology Department at the University of Calgary - i.e the Sports and Fitness Centre. As I'm a student, I pay 60 dollars (about 25 quid) for a year's membership and P gets in for about double that. Membership allows you to do lots of stuff like swimming in the Olympic pool, work out in the gym, play raquetball (yes) and squash (no), go ice-skating and play ice hockey at the Olympic Oval and also enrol for a variety of courses, as well as get stuck into activities in the Outdoor Department, like cross-country ski-ing, Nordic/Telemark ski-ing, backcountry ski-ing, snowboarding and snow-shoeing. P has her eye on a Yoga course starting in January, while I'll be going for Adult Skating lessons and am hoping to work my way up to playing Shinny, which is the ice-hockey version of five-a-side football, if I can just learn how to skate backwards... Combining these with swimming, the odd bit of raquetball, and regular ski-ing at the weekends, we should have enough going on to avoid cabin fever during the long, hard winter that's ahead. You can check out the webcam of people skating at the Olympic Oval here. Lots of speed skaters on the ice at most hours of the day and night - it should bring back memories someone in the Robson family!
Looks like a little good news from home on the funding front, by the way - I have been given the nod that the Powers That Be are going to give me a little money from my normal salary to use while I'm in Canada. The final amount has not been confirmed yet, but it'll probably cover the sum I get for 5-6 months' worth of nights on call, which will mean I can reduce the number of nights I'm working for some or all of the second year here.
Thanks for Uncle Jim for his comment on the 'Happy Anniversary' post. Please feel free to leave a comment after any of our posts - just click on where it says "(0) comments", write what you want to say, and submit it. The link will then change to "(1) comment" and your words will be linked to the post you read. Go on, give it a try - anyone can blog! Mum & Dad and Mel & Stevie have already done it here, here and here
And another thing... what's going on at home with the whole on-again-off-again Good Friday-decomissioning-peace-in-our-time thing? I read on the BBC that Ian Paisley had been in London talking to the government and Bertie Ahern (shock horror!) about a deal which may be about to go ahead with Sinn Fein/IRA.
The Beeb says:
"The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein have been involved in intensive - though indirect - talks as the main unionist and republican parties in Northern Ireland. "
"Both the DUP and Sinn Fein are backing the creation of a £1bn peace fund as the price tag for any deal - about one ninth of Northern Ireland's annual budget."
(Finally they agree about something - must be a first!)
"Party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said: "I have always argued that if you take the long view, then you can see that clearly we are making progress towards the achievement of a durable peace. We are a long way from never, never, never."
"DUP leader Ian Paisley has admitted he was surprised at how much progress has been made in negotiations aimed at restoring devolution to Northern Ireland"
"(Paisley was)... also due to hold separate meetings in London with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to discuss the proposals, then with Defence Minister Geoff Hoon to demand the retention of the Royal Irish Regiment"
"The IRA has agreed to allow a Protestant and a Catholic churchman to witness any future decommissioning of its weapons, the BBC has learned. "
Looks like a lot of the circles have been squared and it might even work this time... And both the DUP and the Shinners want a 'Peace Dividend' of a BILLION pounds for the Province as the cost of doing a deal. Now we're talking! Maybe they can build me a nice new hospital to come home to - Martyrs Memorial District Hospital anyone? Or what about the Bobby Sands Regional Cancer Centre. Seems like we're finally starting to think outside the box at home, maybe thinking the unthinkable at last.
Big Ian
Whatever happened to ULSTER SAYS NO, or refusing to talk to the Brits, or the Evil Empire of the Republic etc. etc. Who would have thought it... And isn't Paisley looking OLD? Maybe he wants to do a deal before the Big Man Upstairs blows the whistle for him... I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that the DUP and Sinn Fein did so well in the last elections after the more moderate parties (UUP and SDLP) had started the ball rolling on the peace process, but maybe it was what was needed to get them more fully into the process, give them the reins of power, bang their heads together and say "right, we voted for you, now get on with it". Of course, it'll probably all fall apart again (like every other time), but you never know... think of the money...
Anyway, I'd better go soon - it's Wednesday so it must my Cancer Biology course this morning - at least I have the afternoon free, so I must be grateful for small mercies. Must get the Jeep washed on the way home - the windows have so much grime on them it's hard to see out!
See you later - J
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