Christmas Missive

Hard to believe that Christmas is almost upon us and as I look out of the window the first major snowstorm of the year has just dumped almost 20cm of snow on my back yard!  Needless to say both of these events have forced me to put finger to keypad and reflect on the last few months as I realized it's been quite a while since my last blog update.

I seem to have clocked up a fair few air miles since my last missive in August having hardly been in Toronto until the past month.

My first stop was Brazil, where I once again was promoting the University on a three-city tour organized by the Canadian embassy.  This time, however, due to the fact the University of Toronto is now the world's biggest receiver of Science without Borders scholars, I was no longer doing this alone and was accompanied by three other colleagues.  It was great to have company for a change although, to be honest, I know many of the other reps from the other institutions so am rarely short of company on these trips these days!  Somewhat dramatically, however, one of my fellow U of T colleagues had to be admitted to hospital and undergo an appendectomy due a burst appendix.  Fortunately, he was OK and received top notch care at one of Brazil's English-speaking hospitals, where the president gets treated no less.  Thankfully, he's now almost fully recovered having been flown home.

I came back without hospitalization but with a rather nasty respiratory illness and it was a bit touch and go as to whether my boss would allow me to go on the next business trip a few days later but I eventually did having got the all clear from the doctors back here in Toronto.  I flew on to Istanbul for a few days and stayed close to Taksim Square and Gezi Park, scene of the recent protests in Turkey.  All was peaceful during my stay but there was a heavy police presence and noticeable removal of Ataturk's image having been replaced by the Turkish flag.  I was literally only there a couple of days so hardly got chance to go beyond the hotel, where our meetings were being held, before we flew on to Almaty in Kazakhstan.

I've been to Almaty a couple of times before and although this was a very short trip of only a couple of days, I managed to spend one evening exploring the city a bit.  A small group of us ventured up the mountain to check out the view and try on a few crazy hats!

After a few weeks of non-stop work, it was great to be able to spend a few days with my family and friends in Leeds on my way back through to Toronto.  I always feel the time is too short but it was lovely to see former colleagues, some of my friends, the Yorkshire Dales and also squeeze in a trip to the Scottish borders to visit my Granny and aunts.

No sooner had I returned to Toronto than I was off again but in the opposite direction.  This time heading West to Asia and a new country on my checklist; Mongolia.  I arrived at night at Genghis Khan International Airport and so didn't see much on my way in to Ulaan Bataar other than the odd pile of snow and one yurt tent by the side of the road.  The city itself looked like many of the Chinese or Russian cities I've been to.  That's to say, quite plain and currently undergoing construction.  It was also very cold so my few short wanderings around town only scratched the surface.  The people I came across, however, were delightful.  Very warm, friendly and stunningly beautiful.  Sadly, though, my stay in Mongolia was somewhat marred by a very bad case of food poisoning that I contracted from something I ate in the hotel.  I experienced "the night from hell" that left me rather wiped out and totally off my food for the next few days prior to leaving the country.  I will just have to go back and see Mongolia another time!

I moved on to Thailand and a city I've visited many times; Bangkok.  It was a case of going from one extreme to the other in terms of the weather and here it was sweltering hot with high humidity.  I spent my first few days working but then took a few days off to enjoy the city and its sights.  I moved from my business hotel to a boutique hotel.  It was lovely to hang out, enjoy a Thai massage, sample some great cuisine, catch up with a friend (Kim), and check out some old haunts.  All too soon, work beckoned again and I jumped back on my flight home, narrowly avoiding Typhoon Haiyan as it passed through the region.

Since being back in Toronto, I've been trying to catch up with friends here that I haven't seen for a while and also get my feet back on the ground as I feel they've hardly been here for much of the past few months.  I had a fun night out the other week seeing Eddie Izzard, the British comedian planning to be Mayor of London.  Many of us here feel he could also apply for the job here in Toronto...he'd certainly do a better job than the current incumbent!

Anyway, I shall sign off here and wish you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year!  I'm looking forward to having my parents here over Christmas and then, hopefully, a bit of sunshine and relaxation in Mexico for New Year!

Summery Antics

I seem to have been very busy since April with one thing another...mostly enjoyable!

One of my annual favourite festivals in Toronto, HotDocs kicked off in the spring celebrating its 25th anniversary.  I always find the documentaries screened to be interesting and engaging.  This year was no exception and I appeared to chose well with many of selections making it into the Top 10 audience picks.  One of my favourites was called "Good Ol' Freda" and told the hitherto unpublished story of Freda Kelly, who was plucked from the many screaming Beatles fans that used to hang out in The Cavern nightclub in Liverpool to become their fan club secretary.  I was lucky enough to be sitting next to Freda herself at the screening and her story was really delightful as she stayed with The Beatles throughout the band's lifespan and has remained loyal ever since.

The start of summer in Canada is traditionally what's known as the May Two-Four weekend.  Named because its a long weekend close to May 24th and also becuase a two-four is a crate of beer, often taken on a trip and drunk to celebrate the start of summer!

This year the sun came out to play on time and along with two friends, Darlene and Giulia, we embarked on something of a watery adventure along the Trent-Severn waterways here in Ontario.  We rented a houseboat for the weekend and had great fun sailing through the lakes, rivers, canals and locks of the water system.  I was appointed captain as I had some sailing background.  To be honest, being in charge of a boat full of fuel plus crew and knowing the hazards yet not feeling the most confident about my navigational techniques was quite stressful!  Still, we managed to avoid any major incidents and it was a lovely weekend full of sun, sailing and barbecues.

Not long after I headed south across the border to attend the NAFSA Conference in St.Louis.  This is the third time I've been to this conference and although St.Louis didn't grab me that much I was very impressed by the key-note speaker they chose this year, Kofi Annan.  He spoke about the importance of education globally and reflected on his time as Head of the UN.  I found him to be as inspirational in the flesh as I have always considered him to be and it was a real privilege to be in the same room as one of The Elders, an organization that I admire greatly for the work they do.

I had quite an interesting journey home from St.Louis, in the US mid-west.  This region, particularly Oklahoma, was hit quite badly by tornadoes this year and I narrowly escaped one as well.  I flew out of St.Louis Airport just twenty minutes before the airport was hit.  As we took off, we skirted around the incoming storm and you could see it was going to be bad.  Business associates I know who were still at the airport awaiting departure had to go into the tornado shelters and were stuck for a few days until the airport re-opened.

Not long after, Mother Nature decided to again show her full force and, just two days before my friend and I were due to depart for Alberta, inflicted the ravaging floods that caused such havoc on the region.  Darlene and I debated whether we should still attempt to go on our vacation amid the state of emergency but, in the end, having weighed up the risks we decided to go as a) we wanted our holiday but b) we didn't want the businesses we had made bookings with to suffer and they all seemed to be in areas that were not affected.  Luckily, as we landed in Calgary the roads we needed to travel on re-opened.  We drove around the centre of Calgary itself but still saw the raging river that had burst its banks and was flooding the zoo and numerous homes.  What was even scarier was, as we drove down the earily empty Highway 2, seeing the town of High River that had been completely inundated and where lives were lost.  Access to the town was blocked by military tanks  and as we drove past we saw TV crews llined up along the hard-shoulder.  You could see the devastation with water up to the second floor of homes and trucks submerged completely apart from their roofs.

Eventually, however, we arrived at our destination near the US border close to a place called Cardston, one of the original Mormon settlements outside the US.  We spent two wonderful days pretending to be cowgirls at Rangeview Ranch.  The ranch is a real working red angus cattle ranch and also manages land for the Nature Conservancy Council here in Canada.  I loved getting back in the saddle and we rode out twice with Roger, the ranch owner, to check up on the cattle and the many newly-born calves.  We got involved rounding the cattle up and driving them to new pasture, and watched as Roger lassoed and treated a sickly calf and mother.  A truly wonderful experience and a great introduction to Alberta.



Next, we headed to Waterton Lakes National Park, also part of the joint US-Canada International Peace Park.  We thoroughly enjoyed hiking in the mountains here, seeing the views from the lakes and observing the wildlife, including catching a glimpse of a mother bear and her cubs.

We followed the Mormon Trail and ended up in an area called the Badlands, where we got to see some great geological features called Hoodoos and checked out the Royal Tyrrell Museum and its amazing collection of dinosaur fossils in Drumheller.  Perhaps my favourite stop in this area, however, was in a tiny place called Torrington, which has set up a wonderful little museum called the Gopher Hole Museum featuring dioramas of taxidermied gophers.  This made a very quirky and entertaining pit-stop on our journey north-west towards the Rockies.

In a moment of madness, I had declared that I wanted to camp out in a teepee.  Unfortunately, the floods had washed the teepee we'd booked away pretty much so instead we opted to spend the night sleeping on a rather manky buffalo-skin mat in a trapper's tent at Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site.   Given the amount of stagnant water lying around, this was perhaps not one of my better ideas.  Put it this way, not much sleep was had as we spent most of the night fighting off mosquitoes before eventually retreating to the nearest Tim Horton's coffee shop at 6am!  Our campfire was fun though and we impressed ourselves with our ability to cook hot dogs, corn and s'mores in true Canadian-style.

We headed on to Jasper, which I loved, and stayed in the same cabins that Marilynn Monroe and Joe Di'maggio had frequented during her filming of River of No Return.  We had a super time driving through the mountains and past lakes as well as climbing to the top of one only to be beaten back by a hailstorm but then getting to see a spectacular rainbow in the Athabasca Valley below.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the drive along the spectacular Icefields Parkway past the glaciers to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.  We ended up in Banff and had a wonderful few days staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel over the Canada Day national holiday period.

Our journey ended back in Calgary and we'd timed our visit to coincide with the Calgary Stampede.  After an enormous clean-up effort, the organizers had decided to go ahead with the Stampede despite the damage caused by the floods, which had totally inundated the Stampede grounds.  We had a fantastic few days in the city watching the parade, attending free Stampede Breakfasts, flirting with the cowboys and checking out the rodeo action.  I threw myself into the whole 'western' thing with my cowboy hat, checked shirt, jeans and cowboy boots - I even became a fan of country music!



Not long after returning back to Toronto, it seemed as if the Alberta floods followed us as on my first day back in the office, the heavens opened and Toronto was also submerged in floodwater with the biggest downpour in 50 years taking place in just a few short hours.  The valley close to my house flooded with commuters trapped on a train and needing the marine rescue service to help them get to safety, and all the classrooms in my department were flooded as pipes burst due to the sheer volume of water.  Being forced to shutdown due to flooding was not quite what we expected on the second  day of our busiest term!

Nevertheless, the sun eventually came out again and I've had a few very enjoyable weekends away since.  I headed up to Lake Simcoe in July for a very relaxing and fun yoga retreat and last weekend I spent a super few days in Montreal watching the Rogers Cup Men's Tennis Championship and exploring the city.

I came back to Toronto this week to attend and present a paper on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) at the International Hybrid Learning Conference.  My colleague Min and I were delighted to have our first paper published in the conference proceedings book this week - it's a great feeling to have something you've written published in a real book!

On that note, I shall finish as I look forward to a busy autumn with many more travels and adventures to be had.

Winter Wanderings

Everyone asked when I first moved to Canada, "Ooh, how will you cope with the Canadian winters?" and, to be honest, up until this past year they've actually been pretty much the same as those experienced in Europe apart from the occasional sub-zero blast.  This year, however, was perhaps a taste of what Canada really can offer in terms of her full-force of winter harshness.

It started around Boxing Day with a full-on snow dump and so I hunkered down for much of the Christmas break catching up on past episodes of Downton Abbey and enjoying the cosy warmth of my sofa.  I also invited a bunch of friends over to finish off our matryoshka (Russian) dolls and we had a lovely afternoon painting outfits for "our gals".

Compared to last year when we had temperatures hitting the high 20s from March onwards, spring has felt very late coming this year and as I write this in late April I'm still seeing flutterings of snowflakes outside my window in what is, I hope, winter's last wave goodbye.  We had a couple of huge snowstorms making for a lot of 'fun', as a pedestrian cutting through six-foot high 'snowbanks' at the side of the road, and entertainment, as you see the odd cyclist nosedive straight into them.

My philosophy is, as much as possible, to embrace winter and just layer on the right clothing and get out there although I must admit there are days when the biting wind and cold does get to you and all you want to do is bury yourself under the covers!  My friends and I bit the bullet this year with a 'winter activity weekend' adventure to Arrowhead Provincial Park close to the town of Huntsville.  We had a great time learning how to cross-country ski in the beautiful forest and, although some of us may have ended up on our bums a few times, having a bit of difficulty switching downhill technique to cross-country skis it was a huge amount of fun and kept us very warm amid the -20 degree temperatures.

Inspired by some of the local creativity we saw, we also decided to have a bit of a snowlady building competition but sadly, our creations, Elizabeth and Frida, were destroyed overnight.  We were devastated and spent the next day hunting down 'Jack the Frost, snowlady murderer of Hunstville".

My friend Darlene and I enjoyed our cross-country skiing taster so much that we decided to head out again and joined up with the Trakkers ski club and had another superb day up at the Wasaga Nordic Centre skiing through the trails around the lakeside beach area a few weeks later.

Not long after, however, I was given a bit of a break from the winter cold when I headed over to Europe.  I was able to enjoy a long weekend in England en route to do some business in the Ukraine and Turkey.  This time I focused my visit in the south of England and stayed with my dear friend Annie and her family, including my godson Alex, in Windsor.  It was lovely to see the Bedford family and meet their latest addition, little Georgina.  We also enjoyed a delicious traditional pub meal of fish and chips at the rather delightful Belgian Arms pub in Holyport owned by Nick Parkinson, son of the celebrity TV chat show host, Michael Parkinson.

I also ventured to Brighton to catch up with another dear friend, Jo, and her family.  We had a fun 24 hours enjoying the sunshine, seaside and all things British!

I went back to Windsor and my parents then came down to join me for a couple of days.  We had a lovely time doing the tourist thing and exploring Windsor Castle, watching the changing of the guard, checking out the Queen's own farm shop, enjoying the sunset across the playing fields of Eton and spending a bit of quality time together.

We also went to the Cotswolds area to see my granny just before she moved out of her house in the village of Bishop's Cleeve into a residential home in the north of England close to my aunt in Alnwick.  She will be celebrating her 92nd birthday this coming week and was in remarkably good form all things considered.


I headed on to the Ukraine, which was a new country for me to check off on my list of countries visited, and started a hectic schedule of meetings and education fairs for the next few weeks.  I started off in Kiev where I was thrilled to sample real Chicken Kiev although, I have to say, we were actually very impressed by all the food offered up in Ukraine and I now understand why it was known as the former USSR's bread-basket.

We had a somewhat hilarious Saturday night train journey travelling on the new high-speed trains brought from Korea for the Euro 2012 soccer championships to Kharkiv.  It all started after a long day doing a fair in Kiev and then trundling 100 heavy bags up and down various flights of stairs at Kiev's railway station.  Having packed 30 Canadian recruiters and 20 diplomats and support staff into a first-class carriage the waiter came through with the beer trolley.  That's when things started to go downhill!  A number of the male members of the party decided to hit the Baltika beer quite hard and eventually were asked to move into the restaurant car for being a tad 'light-hearted'.  What ensued was a most entertaining evening of friendly inter-continental competitive arm-wrestling in the restaurant car between the Canucks and the Ukrainians.  The Ukrainians won.  And there were a lot of sore heads and arms among the male members of the Canadian party the next morning!  After Kharkiv, we moved on to Dnipropetrovsk where we stayed and held the education fair in the world's largest Jewish centre, at the Menorah Centre. Built in the shape of a menorah candelabrum, the centre was huge and had recently opened.

After a few days back in Kiev running between meetings on the world's deepest underground system, I then flew onto Turkey and joined a second tour, also organized by the Canadian government.  This five city tour took in Ankara, Izmir, Adana (near the Syrian border), Bursa and Istanbul.  It really was a bit of a whistle-stop tour and again I hardly had time to see much other than the inside of the hotels as I was attending meetings and the education fairs most of the time but I did manage to go for a bit of a wander in Bursa, where I was also staying in the rather lovely Celik Palas Spa Hotel that had been built on the orders of Kemal Ataturk and has been recently renovated.

Bursa is really the heart of the Ottoman Empire and although it was only very brief I was fascinated to wander around the old 'hans' or caravansaries, specialist markets where traders would come to exchange goods.  Possibly my favourite was Koza Han, the silk han.  Of course, I couldn't resist making some purchases of the local silk scarves and sampling a cup of traditional Turkish tea in the courtyard.  I also loved the nearby mosque, which had some amazing caligraphy samples decorating its interior.

I didn't have much time to explore my old haunts in Istanbul this time but I did manage to enjoy a cup
of tea in the famed Pera Palace Hotel, where Agatha Christie stayed when she wrote Murder on the Orient Express.  It, too, has been recently renovated and is really rather splendid compared to the dusty old relic I recall from the days when I lived in Istanbul.

As mentioned, this trip to Europe was really very busy with little time for sightseeing and, on top of that, I had a few disasters.  I managed to lose one of my credit cards and drop my smartphone down the loo, wiping out its functionality along with all my stored data (calendar and many of my contacts) so if you haven't updated me with your contact details, please do.

Unfortunately, on top of my mishaps (or perhaps it should be factoring towards them?), just before I set off for the UK, I had contracted a rather nasty ear infection that stayed with me throughout my European travels and meant that I actually lost my hearing completely in my right ear.  It was very frustrating but also quite worrying as well as uncomfortable and exhausting.  I was obviously anxious about flying but was deemed OK to fly by the doctors and dosed up on antibiotics but it turned out that this did not really sort the problem out.  It wasn't until after I got back to Toronto and had the medication adjusted after almost five weeks since the onset of the problem that it finally got resolved and my hearing returned.  Fortunately, everything seems to be OK now but I am still awaiting some test results to check that there has been no permanent damage.

So, all in all, although this trip was productive and enjoyable in many ways, it was also a bit of a trying one at times!

Since getting back, I have put my energies into recovering and sorting things out as well as working on my first ever academic conference paper, which has now been submitted.  Produced jointly with my colleague, we have looked into the topic of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and how they are impacting continuing education.  I undertook my first ever MOOC in February via Coursera so used this experience as a basis for my research.  It's been interesting and whether or not the paper is accepted and published, I've found the whole process a great 'brain stretch'.

Coming up soon, I will again be stretching myself but in a physical way by tackling the Toronto Sporting Life 10k in aid of Camp Ooch.  Along with my colleagues at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies we shall be raising funds to send kids suffering from cancer to camp this summer.  Last year, we were able to send two kids.  If we could top that this year, it would be amazing.  If you would like to help us in whatever way you can, we would love your support.  Please see: https://www.ooch.org/utorontoscs. Many thanks!

Fall Round Up

The last few months have been busy and you know when "Fall' starts in Toronto as the celebs all roll into town for the Toronto International Film Festival.  This year I wasn't as wowed by TIFF as I have been in the past.  I feel the divide between the audience and the industry may be widening, but that's just my opinion.  I still saw a few good movies although, to be honest, some of them left me wanting to crawl out from under the seat as well.  There were no major star sightings this year...George Clooney let me down...but I heard some good Q&A sessions with directors, which I always enjoy.

The Fall also signals the start of the travel season for those of us who work in international student recruitment so it was time to pack my bags again and hit the road.  My first stop was Brazil in September and I visited a few different cities this time.  We began our tour in Brasilia, which I had studied in A-level geography and was desperately trying to spot from the plane as I flew in over the jungle to see if it really was still in the shape of an aeroplane.  The recently-deceased architect Oscar Niemeyer designed most of the city and although it's not really my taste, I spent what little free time I had, trying to see some of the sights, such as the cathedral.  It's a strange city, as I often find planned cities are, that is not really built for pedestrians and I found it quite soulless compare to other Brazilian cities.

We went on to Recife for another education exhibition.  I was very disappointed not to be able to swim in the sea, which was just over the road from our hotel, as the beach was gorgeous but there were huge signs everywhere warning of shark attacks.  Apparently, they've recently built a new port in the city and, in so doing, the reef has been damaged causing the sharks to have easier access to shore and to human snacks!  I didn't fancy being one of them so decided not to tempt fate.

I spent a few days in Sao Paulo and then headed into the countryside to visit a university I was hoping to work with.  I had an interesting time there being shown their prize-winning cows worth over ten million dollars each (!) and a number of cloned calves who, to my surprise, all looked slightly different.  Although they were genetically the same, because they had been bred in the wombs of different mothers they had each developed slightly differently.  It's amazing what I learn on these trips!

I came back to Canada for a few weeks and then was off again.  This time to Europe.

I started in Berlin, attending a big industry conference.  It was also a nice opportunity for me to connect with my cousin, Fran, who lives there. We had a lovely evening out and I also managed to spend a few hours exploring the German capital, which I hadn't seen since reunification.  It felt slightly strange but at the same time wonderful to attend an event in the Canadian Embassy that now stands on what had been when I was previously there no man's land.



From Berlin, I flew on to Istanbul, where I used to live, for a week of meetings and visits.  It was great to be back in the city I know so well and to see it looking so vibrant in the sunshine.    I was part of a group of Canadian language education institutions that were there.  It was a great crowd and I enjoyed being able to share the joys of Turkish cuisine with others.  Whilst there I was also sent on a rescue mission for my friend, Giulia, who had lost a ring in a hostel she had been staying a few weeks previously.  I am pleased to report the ring was found and has now been returned to her owner.  The whole process meant I got to enjoy a great night out in Isty on the way so I was quite happy!



Prior to my European trip, my friend Diana and I went on a one-day Russian art workshop in Toronto to learn all about matryoshka dolls.  These little Russian dolls are something of a favourite of mine, probably ever since my grandparents used to bring me a traditionally-dressed dolls back from their various world travels when I was a child.  Anyway, it was lovely to find out more and hear that they are actually a Japanese import upon which traditional Russian folklore art was transposed.  We heard about the different art styles and then were let loose and given a couple of hours to decorate our own matryoshka doll.  I chose to follow a very traditional style and my little doll, Olga, was born.  However, I felt Olga would never be truly a Russian doll until she had been taken to her homeland so on my recent visit to Moscow, immediately after Istanbul, she came with me in my suitcase.



I had another busy week in Moscow with various meetings, university visits and embassy functions but then was able to take Olga out on the Saturday and show her the main city sights.  She is now truly a Russian doll!

The other highlight of my most recent trip to Moscow was that I booked myself a ticket to see the Bolshoi Ballet perform Ivan the Terrible set to Prokofiev's music.  The Bolshoi Theatre has recently been reopened following a complete renovation.  The ticket was not exactly cheap but was well worth it for the experience.  I was told off by the ushers at first for not having been to hang my coat in the cloakroom but once that was sorted and they showed me to my seat, I was almost moved to tears again and again.  The auditorium was simply breathtaking with its chandeliers and gold decoration, the dancing was amazing and the music was just beautiful...and I'm not a huge ballet or classical music fan...so that's saying something!

As I was in Europe, I felt it would be wrong not to pop by my own homeland on my way back to Canada so I stopped by Leeds for a week on my way back to Toronto.  It was great to spend some quality time with my parents and catch up with friends and family as well as a spot of Christmas shopping.  My folks even used me as an excuse to throw an early festive party.  It was a lovely way to see so many people although it's never long enough!

On that note, I shall take this opportunity to wish you and yours all the very best for the festive season. As the Canadians say, Happy Holidays. I hope to see you in 2013 and remember, guests are always welcome here in Toronto.  Here's to a wonderful year ahead full of adventures in whatever form they take!

Summer Lovin'

Today, Labour Day in Canada, marks the official end of summer and what an enjoyable summer it's been!

The beautiful weather arrived in June and summer was kicked off in style on a very hot and humid afternoon at the University of Toronto President's Garden Party, which I was invited to attend by my friend, Richard.  The hats and canapes were all on display as we sweltered in the evening sun and it was fun to nose around the big boss's house as well as check out the tennis court!

July was quite a big month for me as I reached something of a milestone in the age department...hitting the big four oh!  Being me, I couldn't just make do with a small celebration on my actual birthday but had to stretch the occasion out for over a month with various different and highly enjoyable celebratory events.

My colleagues joined me on my actual birthday for post-work drinks at our local pub and the next evening I had a wonderful meal at my favourite Toronto restaurant, Terroni, with friends.  All the fun and cocktails certainly helped to ease the pain of entering my fifth decade and I have to say that so far my forties and proving to be fab!

That weekend, my friend Peter drove me across the border to Buffalo and we had a lovely weekend checking out Buffalo's excellent Albright-Knox Gallery and some of the houses designed by one of my favourite architects, Frank Lloyd Wright.  We also visited East Aurora, home of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The following week, I was delighted to welcome a very special couple, who have known me since birth, Rose and Chris, to stay.  I had a super time showing them Toronto in the sunshine before setting them free to explore the city and wider country for the next few weeks.

Also in July, my dear friend Rachel returned for her third visit to spend a month digging deeper below Toronto's upper surface.  It was great to have Rach around for a bit longer and be able to take in the various sights and experiences together.  Among others, we enjoyed the Dusk Dances, Shakespeare in High Park, Beaches Jazz Fest, the Toronto Zoo and Canadian National Exhibition, where we sampled deep-fried Mars Bars and Oreos!

At the beginning of August, amid hosting all my visitors, I moved house.  Despite my rather crazy planning, it actually went quite smoothly and I have now moved out of the heart of the downtown core to an area in the east of the city known as The Beaches.  I'm no longer in a condo building but have rented a ground-floor apartment in a house which gives me access to a garden, which I've really missed.  It's a lovely place and, after a month,  I'm starting to feel sorted and settled.  It's a nice area and although I enjoyed my downtown pad very much as it had a lot of energy and was very convenient, it's nice to be away from some of the traffic and noise that comes with living in the heart of the city centre.  I also love being able to get to the beach in fifteen minutes and enjoy walking along the boardwalk.

Just after my move, my parents arrived to start their three and a half week visit.  It was great to see them.  My dad and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon on Lake Ontario pootling about the harbour in a mini speedboat.  I wasn't allowed to go as fast as I'd have liked!  We also took advantage of having a rental car to explore a bit beyond the city limits.  For example, we had a lovely day with Rachel at the McMichael Art Gallery, which showcases the art of Canada's 'Group of Seven'.

My aunt, Christine, was due to arrive that day, but was delayed so instead flew in the next day.  We were due to be watching the tennis at the Rogers Cup tournament along with my friends Janet, Jude, Bibian and Monica, but, unfortunately, due to torrential rain, no matches were played.  It was a bit of a damp squib and I was gutted not see some of my tennis heroes but, hopefully, we can get a refund and see some of the matches next year.

The rain continued and although it did not spoil things, meant the special '40th birthday' weekend I'd planned to get together with everyone and spend at the Voyageur Quest log cabin near Algonquin Park was a bit damper than anticipated.  Nevertheless, it was a lovely weekend and we had fun enjoying a Canadian afternoon tea, walks, an art competition, jigsaw-making, chilling on the dock, canoeing, fishing, swimming, cooking, star-gazing and singing beside the campfire.  A real taste of Canadian nature for my Brit visitors!




The following week, after my family returned from their adventures in Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal and I'd said good by to the rest of my visitors, my parents and I flew south to Las Vegas.  Again, we were greeted by torrential rain but, despite our initial fears, the rain did stop eventually and we had a wonderful week of sunshine exploring Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

Our first stop was the Hoover Dam, a giant construction project built in the Great Depression to harness the power of Lake Mead and now supply light to the rather excessively-lit city of Las Vegas, among other places.

After exploring the dam's construction, we drove north to the small village of Springdale, where we stayed in the lovely Cliffrose Lodge, and used it as our base to explore the magnificent Zion National Park.  The national parks in the US are very well set up and we enjoyed our day travelling by shuttle bus and walking through the spectacular high-sided canyon.  The rock colours and formations were amazing.

Later, we drove east across the plains and through a myriad of landscapes from desert to meadows to reach the Grand Canyon itself.  Wow! No matter how many times you've seen photographs of the canyon, nothing compares to the first time you set your own eyes on this, as one of the US immigration officers my mum spoke to called it, "hole in the ground".  We stayed in a cabin at the North Rim Lodge and saw the sun set over the canyon, which was an amazing sight.  The next morning, my dad and I ventured out along the side of the rim to see the early morning light shift and change how the canyon appears.



We moved on and drove around the eastern side of the Grand Canyon via the Vermillion Cliffs Highway across the lands belonging to the Navajo Nation.  The journey to the South Rim Lodge took five hours and was about 212 miles all in.  It seemed kind of crazy as the lodge is just 12 miles south  of where we'd stayed the night before as the crow flies across the canyon.  Nevertheless, the views en route were spectacular and, once at the South Rim, we were treated to yet another superb sunset along with the sights of a rare Californian Condor, which, in my opinion, has to be one of the ugliest birds there is, as well as a foraging stag on the hotel lawn.

Having taken in one of nature's greatest sights we headed west towards the man-made pleasure ground of Las Vegas.  I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the place in terms of all the glitz, glam, casino hubbub and sheer over-the-top fakery but was delighted to see the smile on my mum's face as she watched the gondoliers float past in our grandiose hotel, The Venetian.  Vegas is fun in an insane kind of way and I was blown away by the scale of the hotels as well as the attractions.  We enjoyed watching the volcano erupt at The Mirage and I insisted on watching the fountain show at The Bellagio three times to see the different displays.  We all really enjoyed the water-based Cirque du Soleil show "O" and our evening bus tour of the Strip and Fremont Street.  I also enjoyed a visit to the Neon Boneyard, where we learnt about the history of Vegas through its, now redundant, neon signage.



We returned to Toronto and my more-than-a-month birthday celebrations drew to a close as I said farewell to my folks and sent them on their way back to England.  It has been truly wonderful seeing all my visitors over the past few weeks and we've shared some wonderful times, which in turn have created fantastic memories.  Thank you all for making it so special.  I very much hope the next decade will continue to be as fun-filled and enjoyable as it has been so far.

On the Go

Well,  it's been a couple of months since I last wrote and they've certainly been busy ones!

At the start of April, I had a great week zipping between Toronto's various cinemas to see a variety of documentary movies.  HotDocs is now officially my favourite film festival here in Toronto, even knocking the Toronto International Film Festival out of the water.  I really enjoy the snapshots I see into different lives and alternative ways of thinking.  This year my favourites were Radioman about a formerly homeless guy who wears a radio around his neck and crashes movie sets in the US.  He's been in over 100 films as an extra and has befriended many of the top movie stars.  I also enjoyed Ping Pong, about a group of pensioners taking part in the over-80s world table-tennis championships.  Dreams of a Life about a young woman who died alone and whose skeleton was discovered in her flat still watching TV made me cry and Meet the Fokkens, about seventy-year old Dutch twin sisters, Louise and Martine Fokken, who had worked as prostitutes for 50 years, was hilarious.

Shortly thereafter I was off on my travels again for work.  A rather fleeting, spur of the moment and  busy trip to South America to attend some education exhibitions and meet with various government and university contacts.  First stop was Quito in Ecuador.  A new country for me and although I only had a couple of days there, I really liked what I saw.  I hope to go back for a holiday at some point.  A deeper exploration and trip to the Galapagos Islands is calling!

Quito is high up in the Andes and you certainly feel the altitude for the first few days.  I stayed in a really traditional and reasonably-priced bed and breakfast called Hotel Boutique Portal de Cantuna in the old town, which was a nice change from the standard Hilton-type business hotels.  It also meant I actually saw some of the charms Quito has to offer in its squares, churches and steep streets as I meandered back and forth between meetings and events.  The views were amazing and food delicious!



After Quito, I headed even further south to yet another new country for me, Chile.  The view from the plane as we flew down the length of the Andes mountain chain was amazing but I have to be honest and say I wasn't bowled over by Santiago itself.  Again, I was only there a couple of days and just scratched the surface but it didn't grab me as a city I have a strong desire to return to.  There were a lot of wild dogs roaming the streets, non-artistic graffiti everywhere and it felt as if many years of muck had been left to build up everywhere.  I found a couple of nice restaurants, one in an old barber shop and a Peruvian one that my former student, Juan-Carlos, took me to.  The Chilean wine, of course, was delicious!  The trip was, however, productive work-wise and it was interesting to check out the city in the spare time I had.

It was heading into Autumn in South America so coming back to a full blast of summer heat in the North was quite welcome, especially as we had a long weekend here.

I spent a lovely, hot, sunny day out in the wine region of Niagara at Peller Estates with my friend Leslie.  The estate was hosting a Food Truck event and we spent the day lining up to try various dishes, drink the wine and bask in the sun - not a bad way to spend a Sunday!

The next day, I was able to kick summer off in another of my favourite ways by taking to the water on Victoria Day itself.  I joined some friends for an evening sail out to Ashbridge's Bay on Lake Ontario to watch the fireworks.  It was a lovely evening and on the way we were taken aback by the sight of boatloads of marines and harbour police racing towards us as they escorted a coastguard boat out.  We were a bit miffed to be pushed out of the way by them so as they past gave our best two-fingered 'royal' wave only to discover later that Prince Charles and Camilla were actually on board - ooops!

The following week, I headed south of the border again to attend the NAFSA conference in Houston, Texas.  A busy week and it was incredibly hot and humid when wandering outside.  I found Houston to be quite a strange place with very few people to be seen in the downtown area.  It's definitely a car city.  However, I enjoyed the many receptions that took place and, in particular, the one at the Houston Space Center, where I got to see various bits of space mission memorabilia, real rockets and even touched a piece of the moon!



Following the conference, I decided to take advantage of being in the US deep south and headed east to New Orleans for the weekend.  I had a fantastic weekend and thoroughly enjoyed exploring this fascinating city.  I stayed in a gorgeous mansion house B&B, the Avenue Inn,  on St Charles Avenue so took the rickety old streetcar (named Desire?) downtown each day.  I enjoyed exploring the French Quarter, learnt about Louisiana's history, tried southern-style cuisine and listened to some amazing jazz at the Preservation Hall.  I saw Brad Pitt's house and also heard about and saw the results of his foundation that is building new homes for the people who lost everything in Ward 6 when the levee wall broke during Hurricane Katrina.  He's building 150 homes and is half way there having hired many different architects to create homes that suit each family's demographics, are eco-friendly and built to withstand the forces of nature as much as possible.  Each home must also have an escape hatch in the roof in case the flooding happens again as this is where many of those who died were found as they were unable to break through their roofs.  The legacy of the flooding remains and many houses still bear the Katrina tattoo used by rescuers to search for survivors but there was an overwhelming feeling from people in New Orleans that the city is now well on its way to recovery and is, in many ways, more vibrant than it was before.

I also spent a very hot and humid day out in the countryside visiting two plantations, Laura and Oak Alley.  Two contrasting but fascinating plantations.  It was really interesting to see where Louisiana's sorrow, the slave trade, had existed and learn about the lives of the people at the time.  It certainly wasn't all mint juleps and hoop skirts!

I came back to Toronto and am looking forward to a few months of being in one place although I thoroughly enjoyed all my travels.  Unfortunately, due to my South American trip, I'd missed taking part in the Sporting Life 10K alongside my teammates so was delighted when last weekend, a couple of them joined me so that I could complete my challenge in memory of my dear friend Helen.  I'm proud to say I did it and would like to thank everyone who supported me in raising over $950 for children with cancer to enjoy some fun time at Camp Oochigeas.  My team raised over $8,000 in total and I'm hugely proud of our overall achievement.  Next year, we're all planning to do it again and beat our times!  Thank you so much for your support.  Here's me with my lovely U of T English Language Program colleagues, Bibian and Barb (who did the 10k route for a second time!), at our finishing point: